November 13, 2023 Monday--5am

 Good morning!

I've basically got one covey of eight partridges so far this fall.

The two crippled ones are still with the covey.  :)

I got a lot done this week, too!  

Monday--before I even started on the Christmas cards I was digging out stacks of papers and journals from the studio and piling them on the kitchen counter.

Why? Well, because I have had these four half-filled boxes around in my living room for such a long time that I did not want to look at them anymore.  I needed some more studio stuff to finish off the boxes and all these stacks were something that would take time to sort through.  Thought it would be a good next project after the Christmas cards.

Meanwhile--I get a notice in the mail from good old Goldmark telling me that my lease was up in January, my rent is going up $90.00 a month January 1st, and I should sign a lease soon to keep it at that amount for the next year.  I dug out files--the yellow ones you can see under the letter from Goldmark--and I just signed a lease in July, if you recall.

Meanwhile, I got the notice letter from Federal Housing that my share of the rent won't go up in January.  (They do a revaluation in July--and it will probably jump up then.)  BUT--how can they raise my rent if I just signed a lease six months ago?  They drive me just crazy!  I plan to call Federal Housing this coming week to find out if that is legal for them to do that.  I think that is what they did the year before, too.  They raise the rent in January and then I get the hike in July--just weird.  I have not understood how I can be signing leases twice a year for the past few years.  I was too sick to deal with it--but now I am not.  I want this explained to me.  Aren't they cheating the government for six months of the year then?  And how can they be increasing rent by leaps and bounds recently?

I had always heard that Federal Housing has a cap as to how much they will cover so that if your rent goes over that cap then you pay the difference.  I want to ask them if that is still true, too.  I am so glad I will be out of here eventually.  I'm glad I won't have my share go up in January--but there will probably be a big jump in July--and why am I signing leases that mean nothing whatsoever?  Gives me a headache.  But I will call this week.  Will not be fun as I do not have a worker assigned to me anymore since covid.  I think they lost a lot of employees.  :(  

I filled one of the boxes from the living room, sealed, labeled, and moved it into the bedroom wall of boxes.

Tuesday I scrubbed down the patio door...so Allie and I can see the critters more clearly--lol!

Wednesday I added more to the kitchen counter piles.

Do you get the impression that I was procrastinating on the Christmas cards?  ROFL!  I was.  Why?  Well, Leah and I were talking and she said I should use up the other tape runners I don't want to use or ever buy again.  True.  And the biggest--literally--is my old Scotch tape runner.  Neither Leah or I ever liked using it.  It is hard to get the hang of, inaccurate, you have to press really hard, and it is truly unwieldly!  

Thursday I did finally get down to it and used the pink monster for the rest of the inside panels.  Leah suggested I label the ones I used the big old tape runner on.

Because I remember also that they didn't stick as well.  This will be the test since I have enough cards for two years since Leah isn't sending these handmade ones anymore.  So this is the last batch of about 100 that I had already started for both of us.  Now I will have some of them saved for a few years and labeled as using the runner tape inside of part of them instead of the double-sided tape.  We'll see if they are falling off in a couple of years--lol!

I finished applying all the fronts with the double-sided tape I had prepared--and about a third of the inside panels, too, had double-sided tape on them already.  That pile to the right is peeled paper off the double-sided tape.  (Does hurt under your fingernails after while from peeling them off.)

So this year all the inside panels will be from the tape runner.  If any of you get cards where the inside piece is already coming loose--that is why--LOL!

I was more than happy to put that gigantic pink tape runner and an extra couple tape rolls into a bag and then into a donation box.  ;)  I finished the Christmas cards!!  For all that time and effort they are still pretty simple cards.  Whenever I mass produce cards they have to be pretty simple--lol!  :)

Friday I started on the piles on the counter.  I even went in and searched for more from the studio.  I got pretty far on the three boxes I had left...

...and even had to pull out another larger box to hold some things too big for the smallest boxes.

The partridges seem to be thrown off by DST, too, this week.  They often come so late that it is almost dark out instead of early dusk--lol!

Saturday I switched the shower curtain again and the towels from teal to tan.

This is one of my two old original shower curtains.  Still love this one so I kept it.

This is Allie's favorite way to spend the afternoon in the bedroom when I am busy and making too much noise for her.

I did laundry and Allie didn't even move as I hung and folded clothes right on the table in front of her--lol!  I spent the day scouring the studio to find items to fit into the tops of the boxes.  Afternoon visit from the partridges.  They are usually here a few times a day.  You can tell it's been warmer as they are half the size--lol!  They puff their feathers all out when it is cold and they look like fluffy round balls.

The box wall is growing!  I got three more boxes sealed, labeled, and moved to the bedroom.  One box left that is almost full.  

I know I said I was putting the P&P on hold but turns out the very idea of staring at those half-full boxes for however much longer just was too much for me to take--lol!  I thought I could just fill the four I had going...but then needed another larger one...and now that I have been really digging around in the bookcases and closet in there...I think I would have several really easy to fill boxes I could do this coming week.  

Since I am no longer going to try to empty the bookcases to sell before the snow flies...I can keep them all winter.  So I can just have those full of the things I know I will use for cards and art for the next year or so and pack away the rest (and purging is going on, too, as I have been going along).  I have filled a box with donations and two bags of trash!  

Remember I had originally thought I'd be moving before the snow flies?  Well, I packed up my bedroom dressers long ago--and only kept out a couple handfuls of envelopes.  I am not going to dig through boxes to find envelopes...so I ordered smaller boxes (100 & 120) of the two sizes I use all the time (A2 and A6) so I have plenty to last me for the winter--and for Christmas cards.  (I usually buy like 500-1000 at a time of each.)  So when the envelopes arrive, then I can begin addressing them--and be ready to mail my Christmas cards early!!  Whoohoo!!  

After being in such rough shape for the past few years it feels downright wonderful to be getting back to being my old semi-functional!!  I am used to doing things in baby steps--a little at a time--and know I can get things done that way if I am feeling half-ways decent.  Minor to annoying perpetual aches and pains and exhaustion I can deal with.  That's been my life for years...a couple decades.  I don't want to jinx myself, but maybe I am finally getting past all the effects of the cancer treatments.  *knock on wood!*  Been almost a year.  In fact, Leah and I just realized my last treatment was actually in November last year.  The first treatment I missed was in December...they were three weeks apart.  

Maybe I will be able to go visit at McFamily's one day soon on a weekend.  Make it out to the garage once in a while.  Bring my own bird seed in.  I've been bringing out my own trash to the dumpster several times recently.  Who would ever think those things would be such an accomplishment, eh?  Everything in life is relative.  Nothing we can count on but change.  Sometimes negative--but sometimes very positive.  :) :)

Anyways, I've been sleeping so well!  Usually bed between 11pm-1am and up between 7-9am.  Remarkable!  Makes such a difference to sleep well.  I'm sure the melatonin and CBD oil help with that.  I also decided to go back on the oil of oregano for a while longer.  I noticed that for the first time since I got shingles (back last December--got over the worst of it but not the rash) that the residual rash actually got paler and shrank a little while I was on the oil of oregano.  So, I will take it another week or so and see if it does anything.  Can't hurt.

Sunday it rained during the night according to my phone.  It wasn't raining when I woke up at 8am but I do so love to watch the clouds slowly disperse.

By 10 am the sun was out and it got up to 57 degrees!!  Supposed to be up into the 50s all week long.  We used to call this Indian Summer...that last reprieve before winter...but I don't know if we are allowed to call it that anymore.  Does anyone know?  

Anyways, my U-Haul wall in the bedroom has grown this past week.  Might grow even more this coming week.  All my pre-packing.  :)

I'm using ten more small boxes as end tables in the living room, too, don't forget--lol!  

Leah liked the new job and felt comfortable there.  The boys liked school.  Ian did have a "bad day" when he and a few kids didn't finish their work and couldn't go out for recess.  He decided he'd best get his work done really fast.  He obviously doesn't want to miss recess--lol!  But it was a good week.

Ian had a sore throat that first weekend after they started school...then Leah got it this weekend but felt better and went back to work today.  You know when kids are in school they catch everything so this wasn't unexpected. 

Ian didn't say anything that Saturday before they went to Home Depot.  I'm sure he didn't want to miss out because they love going to Home Depot kid's crafts days.  But Ian made his project and wanted to go right to the car with Daddy to wait for Mama and Liam. 

This might be difficult to toss cardboard horse shoes on.  Maybe they are plywood?  Still.  The main thing is the kids enjoy making whatever the project is.

They are both lucky they got sick on the weekend, eh?  

I decided to take pictures of the studio as it is right now--more for myself than anything.  I know you can't tell like I can how much is gone, but I am hoping this will look quite a bit different in the next week or so.  The bookcase to the left is the most obvious one losing content. 

The other two bookcases on the other wall.  All the paper racks will stay--most of the right-hand bookcase holds card making paper.  The small table in the middle of the room was stacked high before.

The closet is getting more spacious--lol!

On top and underneath the die cutting machine has been cleared out a lot.

Three stacks are gone from the art table.

I know.  I said I was done with P&P.  But then once I got into those boxes...just got the bug again.  Mainly because I kept thinking once I got started that I want to play in here and it would be nice to have it as cleared out as possible for that.  You can probably guess by now if you have been following me for a good while that for me to try to sit and play in there when it is half done and a mess like this...well, it would drive my OCD side just crazy--lol!  And right now--recently--it doesn't feel as totally overwhelming to manage to do as it did even a few weeks or a month ago.  I think I am gathering a few spoons...almost daily I have an extra spoon or two.  Whoohoo!!  *knock on wood*  So I truly hope to show you a sparser studio soon...and a bigger U-Haul wall--ROFL!! 

I needed something to cheer me up and lift my spirits.  Imagining myself being able to sit and play in the studio with it being organized all around me...that just makes me smile to think about it.  I don't "settle in" the same way when I am doing crafts or art in the kitchen, if that makes any sense.  This little room is so quiet and peaceful...just feels different in there.  Hard to explain.  It's cozy.  And I love being surrounded by all the colors and creativity...when it is organized--lol!  And it hasn't been organized since before cancer...so it is about time!  You may notice I haven't been spending time in there at all for a long, long time.  But that is how I want to spend my winter.  That is what I want before the snow flies--lol!  ;)   Wish me luck!

I'm almost caught up on letters, too.  The boys are liking school.  Leah really likes the new job.  We have a last week of 50s to look forward to.  I already have the boys' Christmas presents.  I will have Christmas cards ready to go right after Thanksgiving.  I haven't felt this on top of things for like maybe three or four years!!  The couple of years before I got diagnosed, I was going downhill--from way back with the mysterious entire leg swelling up.  I am really hoping to have turned the corner finally.  Time will tell.  But I am feeling pretty darn good the past couple weeks, I tell you.  

So--very best to you all!  I hope you have a marvelous week and life is looking as good as it can be for you, too.  I know a couple of people who have had some very, very sad things happening in their lives right now.  Sending love and hugs and all the comfort I can.  Bless you!  Till next time...