December 3, 2023 Sunday--8pm

 Good evening!

Okay--you're going to laugh, but I never got to those final Christmas cards.  Because I have been feeling so much better by comparison to the past couple of years...well, I mainly just kept working away on the apartment all week.  Couldn't help myself--lol!  Do you know how long it has been since I have had the energy to even be antsy!?  ROFL!  So, I still have several cards to finish up and mail off--BUT--I think I can still meet my own personal deadline of the first week in December, so that would still be a win in my book. :)

There are different numbers of partridges this past week that come to the Critter Cafe.  Definitely more than one covey out there now.

You can tell they are a little more jittery because of the other partridges who also are here off and on all day.  Truly feels like winter now--season of the partridge food battles--ROFL!  

They will settle down for the majority of the time as they figure out when to arrive and who should wait patiently across the way by the tree (or later in the snowbanks).  They do learn to take turns most of the time so there is less chasing and chest flapping at each other--lol!

Anyways, Monday Leah took me for my CT scans.  And I got my results on the labwork from the Friday before.  Not great.  My creatinine (blood test to check your kidney function) was a little above normal and I had bacteria in my urine sample.  So even though I have been feeling a lot better, I am still being dogged by that darn bladder infection.  They wanted me to have another round of labwork before I see Dr. Failing tomorrow.

Tuesday Keanna came to clean.  Later in the early evening Dagan dropped off groceries from Costco while Leah and the boys waited in the car...the new routine.  I did laundry and started working on the tables in the bedroom.  Moving letter writing stuff to the tables in the living room...

...sorting through bins and stacks and boxes...off and on all week.

Wednesday I baked fish, chicken, brownies and made some turkey burgers, too.  Leah dropped off what I had for the drive-up pickups at Target and Cashwise...also a new routine.

Thursday--end of the month stuff.  Got my bullet journal ready for December, banking, and rent check to the office drop box.  Got basically done with the bedroom folding tables.  

Now that it is colder, I notice Allie sleeps almost all afternoon on the table in the bedroom...almost every single day.  And quite deeply, too.  :)

Friday Dagan brought me again to the clinic for labwork.  I worked a lot of that day to finish off the mess I had left to sort from the bedroom folding tables that I had drug out all over the kitchen--because McFamily was coming over Saturday afternoon to work on the "Leah List".  

For years Leah and I have called it the "Leah List" because she was the one I saw almost all the time.  Now it is really just a "Help List" for both Dagan and Leah.  I see them all together more now with all the changes lately...so that is really nice.  

Saturday...

There are some things on the list that are always going to be for Leah only, though.  Like she cut my hair for me!  I went from shoulder length thin-straggly to chin length thin-straggly hair--lol!  Thank you, Leah!  And she printed off the extra sheets for the way I am doing my bullet journal now.  Buying a pre-made planner refill and just adding the extra page really worked great for me this year.  

You may recall Leah had set up my own printed bullet journal for me several years ago which I used for years.  But it was blank and I had to fill in everything.  The worse I felt the more of an overwhelming project that came to be having an undated journal to fill in for the entire year.  Sometimes took me days to set it up for the year--and that was before I set up each month's goals, tracker, etc.  So I wanted to try something new this past year.  We just put together one insert page for a binder journal.

Printed on both sides is other essential stuff I used all the time in my bullet that are not included in regular planner refills so that I could add it into the binder.

For my 2023 experiment I have been using this Jumping Fox binder...

...and this refill I found that fit the bill for what I used to make for myself.  Close enough.

A decent sized monthly calendar...

...with a weekly two page spread.  I wasn't sure I could get used to my extra insert page being stuck into the first week of the month like this...

...but I have gotten used to it after an entire year of using it.  I also wanted a refill that had full sized sections for every day of the week and not smaller ones for Saturday and Sunday.

This year I found a new mini-binder that was right up my alley, eh?  A rainbow of colors!

Trying to find a refill for a three ring mini-binder wasn't easy.  (Couldn't find the one I used this year.)  But a seven hole refill fit perfectly.  I found a colorful one!

It looks like it is made by the same company as far as the layout goes.  Perfect!

These days I only have to fill out all the information on my insert page every month.  Used to take me so much time and effort (Leah, too) that I got to dreading it.  I am loving the premade refills, I tell you.  

As long as this works for me, I am one happy camper!  Whoohoo!

Anyways, Dagan and Leah did a lot of things for me while the boys watched Walking With Dinosaurs (old one from 1999) and The Secret Life of Pets (Netflix).  Leah cut my hair and made the binder pages.  She and Dagan moved the other big box I had finished packing in the bedroom up on to the U-Haul wall.  

Dagan got my VHS player unhooked and out of the TV cabinet.  Hard to tell it is empty in this picture, but I had emptied the rest of the cabinet except for the VHS player and a box of random stuff I have always referred to as "the techie box".  

They went thru the techie box to see what was worth keeping and what could be tossed...cords, remotes, plugs, and all kinds of mysterious-to-me stuff--lol!
 

They also got all the wire cube shelves apart from the studio closet.  Then today--Sunday--I moved all the tall flat stuff from the side of the (now totally empty) closet...

...and added it to the stack of big flat art paper boxes under the table in the bedroom.

And this is what the living room tables look like.  Dagan sorted through all the extension cords and such, too.

Almost down to the end of this seemingly endless process.  Whoohoo!  

Oh, funny!  Dagan asked why I had that lamp on the floor (above).  Now he knows it is Allie's heat-spa--lol!  The things I do for my critters.  Of course, Allie doesn't think it is silly.  ;)

You talking about me?

Tomorrow Leah will take me to see Dr. Failing.  My bloodwork results were back to normal (kidneys) but still have bacteria in the urine sample.  :(  So I am pretty sure he will want me on medication.  We will likely need to go pick up antibiotics and also go buy some prebiotics to combat the antibiotics--lol!  Oh well.  Hey--no cancer, that's the main thing.  I hope this bladder infection doesn't interfere with him stretching the checkup to six months.  Shouldn't.

Keanna doesn't come back to clean until Tuesday the 12th.  When she does, she knows the plan is to get down everything up high in the pantry...hand them down to me like we did with the punches and such in the studio.  She said she was okay with that.  Will turn my kitchen back to chaos again...but I really, really want to be done with the pantry before the new year.  I'll be done with the entire apartment!  Purged everything in here and packed everything I could ahead of time.  Whoohoo!

Leah couldn't understand why I drag everything out at once and make such a huge mess.  But I explained it's that very chaos that is my motivation.  My OCD-self hates all the chaos--so then I have to keep plugging away on purging and sorting through it all.  It forces me to keep at it--plugging away with the baby steps until it is all done...no matter how long it takes.  Once I drag it all out--I am forced to deal with it because of who I am or how I am, you know?  There's a method to my madness, as is said.  

Going through everything you own--wow!  It has been quite the process.  Freeing.  The deeper I got into it as I went along the easier it became to let go of things.  I will likely go back through where I first started in the bathroom again this winter.  I am sure I can let go of more in there now than I could back then--lol!  Bags and bags of trash have gone to the dumpster.  So many bags and boxes have gone for donations.  There will be a lot less to move this time than when I moved in here eight years ago.  Feels so good.

In my mind I am totally ignoring even thinking about the garage, though, as you know.  Deal with that in the spring...but that will be gone through, too.  Nice!

What's super nice is--I have been feeling better.  Obviously--lol!  So, I have (hopefully) the whole winter to finally play more and make cards and such.  I realized I hadn't thought I'd be here this winter when I went through the bedroom, so I packed away my New Year's Eve stuff...my angel cards and burning bowl.  But I think I need to think of a word for 2024 if nothing else.  Must be something to do with creativity and play and art and crafts and change and being blessed with new beginnings...something that would include all of that.  Probably not possible to cover all that in one word, but that is what I am trying to think of for 2024.  (And one of the reasons I want to be done with the pantry--have all the P&P in here behind me in 2023--lol!)  If you have any ideas for a word to pick, please toss them my way.

Well, tomorrow I am off to Dr. Failing.  No cancer reported again that I could see in the results online...just the bladder infection.  Now, I really, really, really need to finish Christmas cards up soon if I am going to have them all out by my goal of the first week in December.  Till next week.  Bless you.  I do so appreciate every comment, email, snail mail, and just any good thought in my direction.  Been a rough last few years and it finally feels, since November now, that things have turned around and are moving forward positively.  Hopefully I will keep seeing the gradual improvements.  2024 could be some year!  Truly a new start.  A second chance.  Better than expected, put it that way.  Feeling better and being more functional.  I am soooo grateful.  What more could I ask for!  :)  See you next Monday!