March 22, 2026 Sunday

Greetings!

After blogging last Sunday I started on a project that took me till Thursday to finish.  Was sooooo sick of nothing to do.  If I could do laundry I could move some things, right?  Warning--more pictures again this time.  :)

But first, Leah was with me to see Dr. Kessler on Wednesday.  She ordered more bloodwork and x-rays of my hands.  So happy we could have both done right in the same building.  Dr. Kessler was also concerned there might be some other underlying reason for all the inflammation.  Don't have rheumatoid arthritis.  Have regular inflammatory arthritis.  She suggested I try giving up dairy.  This has been a challenge for me, but I am trying it.  Aso trying--limited diet and only adding any new food once every week or so to see if anything obviously adds to my flares.  No real results yet, but it's an ongoing process.  :)

Okay--the project for last week.  Only have a lot of pictures because I do everything in baby steps a little at a time...and then I get so excited about any progress I am snapping pictures as I go--lol!  I did forget to get a before picture, but the two folding tables were piled high and were also packed full underneath all this time.  I was thinking Dagan and Leah were going to be working on the studio and wanted to keep as much stuff out of their way in there as I could.  Been seven months.  Things keep delaying finishing down here.  Like where they work has decided that the people who work from home (like Dagan) have to come in to the office Tuesday through Thursday now.  This has thrown their routine totally off the rails.  Dagan and some other people have put in requests to be excluded from this new rule and are waiting to hear...but if they won't make exceptions to the new rule (a new hire's new rule) Leah may have to look for another job where she can work from home.  School is going to be out soon.  Always something, right?

Sadly, I am not currently in healthy enough shape to watch the boys all day...which makes me feel terrible, to be honest.  They never expected me to...but still.  I really wish I could.  Makes me have to face the truth of how frail and weak I have become.  It is more obvious since the move.

Anyways, living in chaos and clutter drives me nuts, as you know.  Therefore, I decided that since there is no endgame yet on the studio and all the rest...I am not going to worry about clutter in the unfinished studio.  I just started moving something off the tables every time I was up. 

Just piling stuff on the floor in the studio.

Took four days to empty those two folding tables.

And underneath, too!

One of the things that was underneath was a big donation box.  I drug it outside the door and Leah took care of it.

All those empty pots are for a bunch of fake plants for my bookcases or wherever that were purchased from IKEA years ago.  Not a lot of light down here for plants but I do love some greenery around.  :)

Eventually I moved the tables end to end and cleared off the glass table with the red legs and folded up the small glass table I had been using, too.   
Looks funny because I pulled the tables forward really far.  The old desk chair I have won't roll over the rug.  Plus the new kitchen table I got is large and will probably be that far forward anyways.  :)

Allie was following me about when I was moving things.  I had to reassure her we were not moving again--lol!

More things got put in the studio over the week...paint brushes shoved on a shelf...

...and piles on the floor.

Was getting clearer and clearer in my main room!  Felt wonderful!  Not so much body-wise, but lifted my spirits considerably.

My hand hurt too much to unscrew the red legs off so I drug that table into the studio.

So much space back there now.  I did later decide to move Allie's big orange pillow under the far table again.

Even moved the two rust-colored rolly carts... 

...that were in front of the hutches into the studio where they will end up anyways once it is done in there.

Keeping them close to the door because they hold the art supplies I do have available.

My birthday present to myself came, too!  Funny how the front pen looks so much bigger but they are the same size--lol!  The bottles have ultramarine, turquoise, brown, and pine green.  The pens are navy and turquoise with a matt finish.  

I am just now trying to get back to actually jounaling daily again.  I can finally wear the eye patch without pain.  Even touching my eyelid was too panful to keep it on before.  I still get eye pain from eye strain, but the worst hurdle to writing and typing is my swollen hand.

It is still funny that I regularly miss when I try to cap a pen and get ink on my left hand.  My depth perception hasn't improved.  Still miss my cup when pouring coffee sometimes.  Shouldn't that have improved over these months my eye hasn't worked?  lol!

The water softener has quit working.  So I also wanted all the stuff on the floor in there moved for when a repair person comes.

Bad enough there's a wall of bins they would have to contend with back there.

I was WAY too sore to deal with that, so the boys came down and moved everything off the floor for me.  Took them like 20 minutes.  [Yes, I could have asked them to help me with emptying the folding tables but I was feeling rather useless and my stubborn-Swede side wanted to do it on my own so I wouldn't feel that way.]

The studio is a mighty mess...but now the laundry/maintenance room feels better, too. 

Then things settled down.  Allie was glad, I think.

When I can get to where I can write more than one paragraph in my journal without setting my hand off...I have so many letters I owe that I am chomping at the bit to finally get to!  Haven't sent a letter since Christmas!!!  I do have ice packs Leah brought down for me back when my hand first swelled up and I do try Aleve every now and then, but nothing seems to make much of a dent, you know?  Maybe giving up dairy completely will do something?  Never know.  It's something I have never tried.  

How's my eye?  Well, the film is less foggy-gray and maybe more foggy-clear than it was, but I still can't actually see through it.  Might be progress.  I don't like to guess anymore.  When I thought it was getting better they found it to be worse--so, unless I can actually suddenly see through it, I will wait and hear what they say on the first. 

Excuse blogger for messing with my picture and paragraph--lol!  Too sore to try to fix it. Time to close and get the ice pack--lol!  Till next week.  And I will be a year older (28th).  75 years!  Man!  That happened quickly!  :)