July 29, 2024 Monday--5am

Good morning!

Blogger is being more cooperative today but still insists on uploading the pictures centered.  I am done arguing with Blogger about it.  Centered it is.  Sorry for those of you who find it harder to read the blog.  You'll have to be annoyed with Blogger--lol!

I've been feeling better.  Mostly worked on catching up with letters this week.  Had a little rain.

A lot of hotter days in the 80s and low 90s.  The electricians were there to do most of the finishing work.  :)

So funny!  Once in a while I will see a lone bird sitting on the tippy-top branch of the tree across the way.

Looks like a silly robin.  Not sure why this always cracks me up, but it does.  I take joy wherever I can find it--lol!

Keanna came on Tuesday.  I watched the boys over lunch on Thursday so Dagan could do some things at work and go to a work picnic.  (Ended up too hot to have the picnic outdoors--lol!)  Ian worked on building my Minecraft house.  We added on an addition to make a kitchen and made a rainbow colored hallway to get to it.  Put window boxes with flowers and flowers in the ground all the way around the house.  Found out if you plant vines they grow on any wall inside and outside of the house...and over doors and windows--lol!  Liam and Ian got rid of them all finally.  Was a fun day.

Allie is going to be one happy water-cat until we move.  And she does love her new little cat food bowl.

She snoozed in her various favorite spots while I wrote letters.

I made a crazy purchase that already came on Sunday.  No, this isn't the Lego version.  It's a fake...but I had no idea there was such a thing as Lego flower bouquets!!  I never thought I would ever be excited about Legos--ROFL!

When I stumbled across it on Amazon I just could imagine Ian and Laim and I putting these together!  976 pieces--OMG!  The boys are quite adept Lego builders, though.

I made it a housewarming gift to myself, I guess.  Just had to get it so the boys and I can put it together.  Will look good in the studio...along with the colorful puzzles on the walls.  :)  What few vases I kept are packed away someplace, so Leah said I can borrow one of hers.

The plan...I am going over not tomorrow but next Tuesday evening to watch the boys while Dagan, Leah, and Aaron (Leah's brother) go to see the new Deadpool/Wolverine movie.  They were going to go tomorrow night but it was already sold out a week ahead of time!  Very popular movie.  I'll be bringing the fake Lego bouquet with me and the boys and I will work on that all evening. 

I got a few pictures from Leah.  Back to the Fourth of July...strawberry and blueberry drinks... 

...and a flag dessert.

Looks like the boys helped decorate it. :)

The McGregor family vacation looks like it was a fun week!  They spent a lot of time in the lake and on this large float on the hot days.

The boys and their cousins.

Nights around the firepit.

The worst thing about where they stayed was the stairs, Ian said.  

He counted them--91 steps up and down to the lake!

Minnesota lakes usually have these around.

When I see pictures I can almost hear that haunting loon call at dusk.  Love them!

Anyways, they had a great week!

Last Monday Ian went to a pottery class!!

I told Leah to tell him that Gramma was jealous!

I think he did a really good job on his first try!

He won't get them after firing for a couple of weeks or so.  Then they have to be glazed and fired again, don't they?  I only know that is the way it worked for the ceramics classes I took when Dagan was little.

Then Sunday McFamily went to the Fargo Air Show to see the Blue Angels!  I saw--and heard--them flying in formation over my apartment, too!  Looks like they had a great time!

This is the formation of four jets that I saw over my apartment.  The Blue Angels are impressive.  And very loud--lol!

Anyways, another week is gone.  Was a really good week.  An eventful week.  A hopeful week.  I am just about caught up on letters.  Grateful I am starting to feel better and that my AC is still working so well.  Quiet, peaceful days are fabulous!  I will take them gladly.  Have a marvelous week, my friends!  Till next Monday...

July 22, 2024 Monday--5am

Good morning!

It was a very quiet week.  McFamily was gone and I was not feeling well (ongoing fibro flare) so only all the basic stuff was taken care of.  Had a couple of naps even.  It's been warm with occasional rain...which has been kind of been the usual lately.  I mainly was making up food...just something every day for days...so I am set for food and I got the laundry done...that was about all she wrote for me this week.

But it was a good week.  When I ache all over and have the other issues...if I settle into my chair and don't move much...well, I can feel pretty decent actually.  So, I did what I needed to do (in baby steps) during the day and was pretty much very low key in the evenings.  

Oh, I figured that since I had gotten myself things for the new home early...well, Miss Allie deserved something new and special, too. 

Yup!  A Laurel Burch cat bowl!  I had been thinking Allie could use a smaller food bowl ever since I had borrowed that small white bowl of Leah's for her when I moved her food and water because of the ants.  I think she actually eats less because her bowl seems full all the time--lol!  There's even a little scooped out spot at the bottom on one side for your fingers so it is super easy to pick up--cool!

All my few spoons every day were taken up by making food and doing laundry and cleaning.  Nothing extra for the studio.  But that's okay.  It is still there waiting for me.  

As you can see, I did get the cheap art boards.  Haven't tried them out yet.  I may start out with something simpler like abstract art or tangles or doodling...doesn't matter, just so I get back in there pretty soon.

If I am busy at the table and I don't stop to pet her...

...Allie will pet herself--lol!

Well, I told you this was one quiet week.  Was a busy household-duties type of week, so that was good.  I got more than I expected to get done on that score with how cruddy I felt off and on.  :)  I just have to adjust my expectations, priorities, and my pace.  Just is a part of my normal life...my old normal life.  Nothing new, thank goodness. ;)  For so very many years my body has been the boss of me.  I have to just go with the flow, slow down even more, and be patient.  The last couple weeks have just been the annoyingly familiar fibro antics--lol!  I have learned how to do well through this stuff, though.  Life is still good.  Very good.

I know McFamily drove home Friday, but I haven't heard more than that.  They did have a great time, Leah said.  I hope to have some pictures next week.  Meanwhile...it's another beautiful, hot day.  No laundry to do or food to make this week...so with any extra spoons I have I hope to play a little in the studio.  :)

So, from this contented (but achy) Fargo lady and her cat...may you have a week filled with blessed moments and simple joys.  Till next week...  

July 15, 2024 Monday--5am

Good morning!

It was a quick week, it seems.  

Tuesday Keanna came to clean.  She has a client nearby and wanted to know if she could come a bit earlier.  Sure.  I'm here...not going anywhere--lol!  So she'll be here about 45 minutes earlier than usual from now on.

Wednesday I watched the boys while Dagan ran errands over lunch.  

Saturday Trump got shot in the ear at a rally.

Sunday Leah and her brother, Aaron, dropped off groceries for me.  She couldn't go earlier in the week last week and this next week they are out of town.  

Today Dagan, Leah, and the boys are leaving for the annual McGregor family vacation at a lake cabin.  Dagan's dad and stepmom, his half brother & his family, and his stepbrother & his family do this every year.  Ian and Liam love getting the chance to spend time with their cousins.  It will be hot, so playing in the lake will be a big hit!

All week I was in quite the busy, putter-y mood.  Catching up on letters, watering the petunias, bringing out stuff to the garage (like an oven out there!), laundry, cooking...couldn't find Allie one day.  

This was the second time I have found her snoozing in the laundry basket I am storing all the shower curtains in--lol!  (Yes, I am still switching them out every couple of weeks.)

She is one of the rare cats who will not set foot inside of any box...but she likes the cool slippery shower curtains, I guess--lol!

We've had rain off and on--usually in the evenings or during the night.  Been really hot...for us.  Upper 80s to low 90s...and pretty humid.  Grateful for this AC unit that is still working well after over nine years.

When I say puttering...do you know how dusty drawing pens, calligraphy pens & highlighters can get when they've been sitting for well over a year?  I literally dusted each and every pen and pen cup on my studio rollie cart.  Now, believe it or not, that's a truly enjoyable time for me--lol!  That's the kind of thing I 've been doing lately. :)

I colored in the ICADs I had drawn.  Just numbering and labeling them now.  I don't care if I keep up or not.  Never figured it was very likely in the first place--lol!  Used four different brush pens to label them.  Man!  Am I out of practice with my calligraphy, too.  Just feels sooo good to be doing these things again, though. :)

Since my back is always an issue (spinal degeneration), I remembered my table easel and wondered if drawing and painting more upright might help me last for longer periods of time?  Found it!  Not packed away...too big--lol!

But the cutting boards I have been using to tape down the ICADs hang over that edge.  They'd never work.

I have a large thinner panel board I have used for taping down larger paintings or drawings.  But I need something thin and flat like that but smaller because I really like to be able to rotate it easily when I need to.

I ordered some really cheap watercolor panel boards on Amazon that are 8" X 10".  They are primed but they should work okay to just tape paper down on, I hope.  If not, I can always paint on them--lol!

Allie is all comfy in her chair and I think I am going to head on over to mine.

There is lots more puttering to do this week...more pens to dust...more letters I owe...more ICADs to play with...and an easel to get used to again. :)  I am trying to keep focused on all the little things I am so very grateful for.  (The world seems to be going crazy.)  Till next week, my friends...