January 8, 2024 Monday--5am

 2024 Greetings!

Last we chatted it was New Year's Eve.  Feeling motivated, I finally got all the letters and cards sorted for setting up to answer.  Picked out some store bought cards and was ready for the next step--addressing envelopes.  More than usual this Christmas...so many, in fact...

...I decided I had to gather clips to hold them together...

...since I don't even have enough notepads to set them all up--lol!  (29 of them.)

I got that far and figured I had best stop and think about making my list of goals for 2024.  One of my goals is to read four paperback books I have had around for some time.  I had loved Ken Follett's Pillars of the Earth series (not so much the series they made for TV--even though I loved some of the actors)...years ago I bought the three books of his Century Trilogy but have never read them.

Plus I have a book written by a lady who lives on the canals in England on a narrowboat...

...that is almost as fat as the other three--lol!  (I follow some narrowboaters on YouTube and one of them recommended her book.)   While I have been sorting and downsizing I rediscovered a large magnifying glass I have used to read since my eyes have gotten so wonky with the macular puckers.

I also found another magnifier that magnifies one line at a time, I guess--that I haven't actually used before.

So, that is my challenge. Attempt to read these paperback books this year.  If it is too hard on my eyes and gives me the bad headaches--then I should donate them.

My second goal is to get back to being up at the kitchen table every day like I used to.  Well, almost every day.  I have always had some quite bad days, but that's beside the point--lol!  Before this cancer ordeal I used to be up every morning to do my journaling at the table and I would spend most of the day working on things there.  Wrote most of my letters there, too.  So...step one is to get back in the habit of doing my journaling every day at the table again.  I was so miserable for so long I couldn't have done that if I wanted to, but now I am having better days more often and want to gradually get back into that habit.

Every day I am in my bullet journal first.

That is mostly check lists, to-do lists, appointments...that type of thing.  Learned to use a FriXion erasable pen in there--LOL!

Then I get out the fountain pen tray I am currently using...

...and work in the five year journal.

I keep track of the weather and when I have slept and the basics of the day.  (Those are rub-ons on that front cover page.)

Finally my writing journal.

I write about what is going on or whatever I am feeling.  Could be a couple paragraphs or a few pages.

I have a few stickers on the inside cover pages...here's a couple of them.

There have been times over these past couple years where I was so out of it I didn't remember to journal (or have a spoon of energy) for days at a time.  Thankfully that has passed.  But now my goal is to get back to writing in my journals at the table again...a habit I have gotten out of these past two years.  Been writing everything in my chair.

Then--since I didn't sign up for Wanderlust this year--I decided to try out this workbook called 365 Days of Art. 

I had started on the first, of course.  Use color to make a pattern, it said.  Then there were blobs of color on the next page and the first sample on making them into critters.  I didn't get to that second one for a few days...but I had a good reason.

What I like about the book (more than I ever expected) is that there are just all these prompts that are usually easy and even silly by the looks of them.  Things you can usually do quickly.

What's cool is, there a page spread in the front of the book where you can cross off which prompt you have done!

So you don't have to do them in order and can do whatever you feel up to that day.  (Because some do take a little more effort than others.)  You don't have to feel bad if you skip on a bad day.  Or you could do more on a good day.  

I needed something super simple, no pressure, and adaptable.  My goal for 2024 is to get in the habit of spending time at the art table almost every day, too!  

So, spending time at the kitchen and art table almost every day (realistically, I will always have bad days) and to try to read the only TBR books I have left...or donate them.  Not big goals.  Well, big to me--lol!

Why didn't much of anything happen this week with those goals?  I got sick Monday night.  Luckily, I had already done banking and gotten my rent check down to the office, so I was okay to get sick--lol!  This was painful stomach cramping and vomiting bouts for going on for three days...and then just exhaustion, nausea, and feeling cruddy after that for a couple days.  But for the first few days I was definitely keeping this ice cream pail close by!

Allie kept a close eye on me.

So, I kind of lost the week.  Just been watching a lot more shows and YT videos--lol!  Was feeling too cruddy to even work on letters much at all.  Had previously started a letter and managed to finish that--but setting up all those letters I owe?  Well, they are still sitting right there on the table where they were last Monday--lol!  Just getting laundry done and some baking was plenty enough for me.  

I'll catch up now this week.  Gradually feeling better and getting my hours back to being on days.  (I was sleeping at all hours and a whole lot for a while and it has thrown me off kilter, of course.)  It wasn't really bad--although the stomach cramps were pretty bad while they lasted--just tolerably sick and exhausted.  On the mend the past couple days.

On to something fun this week.  This month my exciting purchases were knives--lol!  No lie!  Some of the knives I had were from when I was first married to Dagan's dad--so they were like 50 years old!  Wooden handles that would almost give you splinters.  And I had some hand-me-downs and odds and ends I have picked up over the years.  A mismatched conglomeration of knives...that Dagan and Leah have even sharpened for me a couple of times.  (They didn't like trying to cut with them, either--lol!)  They'd just get dull again in short order.  My set of steak knives had been used for things they shouldn't have and some had the tips broken off. 

Better knives--another thing I had been researching and planning for...got a set of steak knives (note the rounded tips--lol!)...

...a really nice chef's knife...

...and I still have a set of a paring knife and a small utility knife coming.  They're all by Victorinox.  And that is all I am going to have, I think.  Three knives and a set of steak knives.  Downsizing my knives, too.  :)  You can see by my bent plastic utensil holder that I want to buy a new one of some kind after I move and know the exact dimensions.  ;)  

I didn't think I could get this excited about knives.  But when the new chef's knife came I had to try it cutting up some baked chicken breasts--and OMGoodness!  A world of difference!  I didn't have to saw away at it--LOL!  Sooo nice!

Anyways, I am grateful that I am feeling on the mend.  Hope to get more done this coming week.  

The boys made it to Home Depot this Saturday.  So funny!  They made Home Depot semi-trucks!

Daddy was helping Ian with something on his. 

I asked Leah why Ian's truck was white and he didn't paint it the bright Home Depot colors?

She said Ian told her that the "real" semis he sees on the road are usually white and he wanted his to be more realistic.  He's obviously not seen a Home Depot semi--lol!  I like that he wanted his to look realistic, though.  :)

Sadly, Leah told me that Liam got sick and threw up in bed Saturday night and that Ian had a sore throat.  I was worried I had given this to Liam, but she doesn't think I gave it to him because it sounds so different.  My cramping went on and on and on till I finally threw up and felt better in a little while...for a while...but then it started again in a few hours...over and over again for 2 1/2 to 3 days.  Liam's was sudden, but he did feel better after he threw up.  Ian has a sore throat--none of us has a sore throat.  Both the boys have been fine ever since then.  

I think I might have gotten mine when I visited the clinic for so long, but who knows?  Just so much stuff going around everywhere.  That time of year.  And now with the boys in school and Leah working her new job at the office...just going to be more sickness getting picked up.  We figured that.  I'm just glad the boys are doing fine.  I think maybe I should still wear a mask when I go to the clinic.  ;)

Anyways, that was my week.  Feeling from briefly-randomly-terrible to just cruddy-yet-tolerable to finally just sleepy-drained but recovering.  Now, a new week...a new year (feels like 2024 is just starting for me--lol!)...and I will work on incorporating my goals...as soon as I have more spoons--ROFL!  Till next week, my friends!!