Saturday-9:30am

Good Morning!

We had a bit of a ground blizzard on Thursday.  Not much new snow, but wicked winds that blew the existing snow till the visibility was pretty poor even in town here.  Could barely see past the garages.  Schools were closed again.

Karma asked to go out the next day several times.  She came darting inside so I could close the door quickly... 

because it was just warm enough for the snow to stick to her feet again...

...so she could do some delicious footprint eating.  Must be like a cat snow cone--LOL!  

Dagan and Leah were over Wednesday night before the storm... 

...and worked on putting together the drying rack. 

Karma was trying to relax nearby. 

Hey!  This is an improvement.  A couple years ago she would have been hiding under the bed while they were here.  She still hisses at them when they walk by, but she is out a lot more than she used to be.  She was even wanting foot pets from Dagan?  Altzheimers?  Or slowly mellowing out in her old age?

Well, let's just say that this is not the good quality, expensive rack like they have in schools...  

...but they got it together for now. 

First the shelves wouldn't lower to a 90 degree angle, so they raised everything up one hole--but then the shelves slanted downward.  We left it to deal with later. 

They couldn't get the porch door to lock with the rack on the door, so we hung it on the bedroom door. 

Then--an much easier project.  Leah put up my pencil sharpener for me.

I should have done this when I moved in!  Duh!  Have you ever tried to sharpen pencils holding one of these between your knees?   

I didn't want to put screw holes in the walls.  But in the almost nine years I've been here (Feb) we have drilled all kinds of holes in the wall for the punch racks, my art wall shelves, and the hanging shelves in the pantry...so time for the pencil sharpener to go up, too, right?  Long overdue, actually--LOL!  I might even have to get out my colored pencils now, eh?  ;)

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Yesterday I moved the rack on to the porch door.  It has been tricky to lock for the past year or two.  You have to kind of shut the door and turn the lock at the same time or the lock won't catch right.  My apartment door is starting to do that now, too.   

(Karma wasn't the least interested in the rack when it was hanging on the bedroom door, but she really noticed it on the porch door.)

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You can't even hook both sides up to the base at the same time.  If you get one side on... 

...the other side won't fit--but you can catch it on the bottom wire shelf. 

I'm wondering if maybe they got that back side base on upside-down?  Going to have them look at it when they come back on Wednesday.  Just look.  No messing with it...because we decided to have a Sacred Circle!!  Since we haven't gotten together for one in such a long time, we are doing an extra Wednesday night.  Then the following Wednesday we can start on the Christmas cards and mess with the drying rack.  :)

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Oh, and Leah ordered white cardstock from Costco and they brought that over Wednesday, too.  We are all stocked up for years--whoohoo!!  It's Neenah paper, too!  We got four packages of 90# and four packages of 110#!  So, I will start cutting some 110# in half for the card bases.  Then scoring them comes next...and then folding them.  Great project to do while I watch TV or a movie.  ;)

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Those of you in my blog family may have noticed that I have been quite the one-way blogger for weeks...like I fell off the face of the earth.  I have just been busy around here doing other things and just haven't been able to spend all the hours at the McLap that I had been.  I keep thinking that I am going to catch up, but I don't really think I am anymore.  I'm like over 300 blog posts behind now.  So, I guess I will start with the most current posts and go from here.  Please let me know if I have missed anything exciting or important, okay?  

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I feel like a crummy friend, you know?  Not being able to keep up has been happening more and more often, as you know.  This last year--as my body has become even more limiting with the sciatica--well, when I am feeling better I have so much I want to do--physically, you know?  Cleaning, organizing, cooking, baking, letters, reading...and that's not even counting getting back to my art table...and my bookbinding plans for the winter.  ;)  So, I am hoping we are good enough friends that if I don't chat face-to-face for stretches of time that we can pick up right where we left off, you know?  And you can always send me a personal email...or if any of you are letter writers...just reach out!  I may be slow sometimes, but I always answer emails and letters--many of you already know that.  ;)  And I value my connections I've made online more than you will ever know.  

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I will keep blogging away...and this year I hope to get to making more videos, too.  I was talking about doing that a year ago and then so many things happened last year...one right after the other.  I guess I hate to see my relationship change with my dear blog family.  But the blog family has grown over the years and I am spread pretty thin.  Never thought I would end up a mostly one-way blogger...but that is actually how I started, I guess--LOL!  I will come around and read and keep in touch as much as I can.  You know I will.  And I will still try to get back to my commenters--you all mean so much to me.  :):) 

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I always think I can do more than I actually can, I guess.  Well, those of you who know me or have been following me for any length of time are probably not the least bit surprised to hear that--LOL!  I'm an incurable optimist...chatty and love people...so it is hard to face the fact I just can't keep up--reciprocally--online anymore no matter how hard I try.  But I can keep blogging...and maybe even get into videos again (which I would post on my blog)...so I'm not going anywhere.  And I know I have quite a few followers who never comment and some don't have blogs, so they won't notice anything different at all--LOL!  In fact, I may even have more to share because I will be able to do more things TO share--LOL!

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 Anyways, it's a beautiful sunny morning.  I just handed off a bag full of polymer clay magazines (finally posted the free magazines yesterday) to a smiling young lady.  I'm off to get a loaf of bread going in the machine (love that bread machine!) and do some chatting on two of the letters I am working on.  I think this is going to be a year of change...in many ways...on many levels.

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Have a wonderful, bright weekend.  :):)

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"The inner struggle is extremely difficult for all of us, because we all have faults, severe ones, that we will struggle with forever.... It’s wise to accept that faults are inevitable. Factor that in and keep going."

Alice Walker