August 16, 2026 Sunday

Greetings!

Been another week much like last week as far as my health.  But Dagan ended up in the hospital emergency room again last Monday.  He thought it was his appendix and they'd be driving to Minneapolis but it turned out it was colitis giving him stomach pain.  More antibiotics and he's feeling okay again.  Whew!  Never thought we'd be glad to hear colitis--lol!

Leah has been sick for 4 days with a sore throat, stuffed up head, cough, and exhaustion.  Liam started coughing Friday night.  Not sure if she got it from me.  Seems unlikely since I've been sick for three weeks now, but who knows?  We both wore masks when I went to the eye clinic on Friday to be on the safe side to not infect anybody.

My eye was a little improved!  I'm still on the "how many fingers do I have up" kind of testing, but I could answer faster and guess correctly from farther away.  I am having surgery to remove the silicone oil on Monday, September 14th.  Then I go back the next day for a followup and again in a week.  The oil is keepig the retina in place while it heals, but you can't keep it in too long or it can cause problems.  One out of four people's retinas detach again but he is hopeful mine won't.  It has been looking pretty stable he said.  I think then they fill my eye with a gas that will dissipate over time...or saline...not sure.  I don't hear well, as you know, and a nurse also talked to me about saline.  Whatever.  Now--just got to try and get well before the surgery.  

Last Sunday Dagan was down and Leah came down after a while, too.  I had gotten the new colorful "tree of life" knobs one day.  The others came a couple days later.

I did manage to change the shower curtain.  Wildflowers this time.

Allie was right there to supervise.

Anyways, Dagan put the new knobs on the hutches and it was easy as pie because he could even use the screws that were in there.  The tree of life ones went on the living room hutches.

The mexican art ones went on the studio hutches.  Hard to see but it does make a difference on all the hutches!  :)

Leah hung up the plastic shelves I ordered to hold the chalk and erasers.  She even added all the magnets, too.  As you can see the boys got into the colored chalks, of course.

Liam made the concentric circles with smilely faces and people on them.  Ian made a rainbow with a person on top.

They wanted me to draw something.  Not too original--lol!  Hey--I've been sick forever and Rita is shorter than Gramma.

The boys spent quite a bit of time at my place a couple different days.  Liam takes breaks from Leave It To Beaver to color mandalas.  He added another one to the frig. 

 This time used my click-it marker pens.

Laim was more interested in Beaver this week.  Ian and I love the show and can focus on it for a long time--with a lot of laughing--lol!

Allie is much more used to the boys being around now.  She knows they aren't going to step on her or be rough or anything.  They are good with animals.

I opened an email in my old Yahoo account and got locked out of my laptop.  I have been unsubscribing to a whole lot of companies and I thought it was a place I may have ordered seeds.  Was going to unsubscribe and bam!  Had a male voice repeating how you must not shut down your device and call that number.  Yah!  Like Microsoft was patiently waiting to take over my laptop just in case I got any spam--lol!  

I didn't touch it all day till Dagan could come down and deal with it.  My cursor wouldn't even work.  Apparently Dagan knew how to get the cursor to work without the mousepad by using the keyboard.  It was just fine and the email had disappeared.  They had just wanted me to call that flashing number.  I know better.  I know not to touch anything.  (Years ago I tried to "fix" things and made them so very much worse--LOL!)  What would I do without my techie crew!?

So that's how it went.  I slept during the night but then also most of the day into the early evening on both Tuesday and Wednesday.  I think I am better for a day or two and then go back to the exhaustion and coughing jags.  I told Leah to take the weekend off to rest and get well.  The one thing I wanted done was to remove the tops for the bookcases that didn't fit from this corner. 

They didn't fit because the ceiling ended up being a good inch or more lower than we estimated.  Not the fault of IKEA.  But they won't take them back because I bought them about four years ago.  Well, you know how long it took to get this apartment done enough for me to move.  There's a place you can bring larger items in town.  Dagan said they might even let the boys take a hammer to them to break them up for the heck of it...just because that is something young boys would love to do--lol!  Doesn't matter to me.  They'd probably fit in the car easier broken down.  Leah tried to sell them or even give them away on Facebook marketplace, but it's just too specific.  Plus the nearest IKEA to anyone up here is down in Minneapolis over 250 miles away so there probably aren't that many Billy bookcase owners up here in town--lol!  And it would have to be the blackish color, too.  Oh well.  Things don't always go as planned, eh?

Anyways, I want them out of there so I can use that spot for the art rollie carts.  Now that the boys are down here fairly often...they share the red chair a lot and want to put the back of the chair down...which hits the rollie carts...and they seldom notice...grind...grind!  Awk!  And Gramma can't hear worth a dang.

I'm afriad they are going to damage the chair or the rollie carts.  So hopefully Dagan will do that today.  Right now they are definitely in the way since I started unpacking and organizing.  (Not that I've been able to do much of anything in there for a couple of weeks...sadly...but soon again, I hope.)

I just got up to take the picture of the rollie carts and Allie decided to beg for ice cubes.  She is absolutely thrilled with the new frig where I can get ice in the door.  I made the mistake one day of putting some ice cubes in her dish to see what she'd do.  SHE LOVED THEM!!  Sits there and licks and licks and licks them.  Since she has never forgotten how much she loves ice cubes, whenever I go to put ice in my water mug she comes running and cries for ice for herself--lol!  Cats.  I thought it was elephants who were never supposed to forget?  LOL!

Well, this week it's the lab and a virtual visit with my rheumatologist.  Leah brought down a headset for me to use because it is hard for me to hear the doctor.  That will be interesting.  I am more than happy to stay at home and talk to her on my laptop.  What a world, eh?  I will rest and try to get better.

Well folks...I hope you have something in your life you love as much as Miss Allie loves ice cubes--lol!  Till next week, my friends.  My best to you and yours!  :) :)

August 9, 2026 Sunday

Greetings!

This will be super short...for me--lol!  I decided to quit that internal fighting being sick and pushing myself when I have felt so cruddy.  Just kind of gave in to resting and kind of being on vacation, so to speak.  I was a bit better by the time McFamily came home on Wednesday.  (Dagan said "all fine" on the check-up.)  I am still sick and not feeling great but am coughing less than I was.  Ian was down Friday for hours.  I found Leave It To Beaver on Peacock!  He really enjoyed it.  We watched 11 episodes!  Liam came down for the last two, I think.  (He's not as much one to watch TV.)  Ian made the three of us a pizza in my new oven.  We totally lost track of time watching Beaver and got a text from Dagan and Leah to send the boys up to go to bed.  It was 10:30!  LOL!

After they left I looked to see how many more episodes we had in season one.  I knew they made many more episodes every season all those years ago when I was a kid but I almost fell over!  39 episodes in the first season and there are six seasons!  They were only half an hour but that is a LOT of episodes.  Hurray!  We will have fun watching Beaver for quite some time--lol!

I remember being so excited to hear that music come on at the start of the show.  Were any of you Beaver fans?  Later one of my favorite shows was The Andy Griffith Show.  I'll have to see if I can find that one day for us to watch after we are done with Beaver.  Must be a strange world for kids today to see.  Phones on a table, girls wearing dresses to school, kids wandering around town or the neighborhood, and eating meals around the table every night.  I would tell Ian what I remembered and what wasn't like that at my house.  I think it is weird for him to think I watched this show when I was his age maybe younger...Liam's age, maybe?  

I just asked Google.  1957 it came out.  I was six.  Yup--younger than either of the boys.  Younger than Beaver was!  LOL!

Anyways...Wild Card...seemed coincidental--lol!

Unreachable?  This past week it has felt unreachable that I will get back to feeling decent and ever getting my home put together.  But eventually things should work out.  They always do.    

Oh, I did message my rheumatologist on Monday and told her it didn't surprise me my inflammation markers had gone up since I had been sick for two weeks and filled her in on how I was feeling.  Never heard back from her or her nurse. ??  Maybe they interpreted that as a refusal to increase the dosage or make an earlier appointment as she suggested? I didn't say that.  Was even prepared to up the dosage if she wanted me to.  Seems funny they never responded.  Whatever.  If I don't hear anything I will take the same weekly dose and I am already set up go to the lab on the 18th and have a virtual appointment with her on the 21st.  Plus, I go back to the eye specialist on the 14th.  I'm fine keeping it all the same as planned.

I didn't even take any pictures this week.  Totally on R&R.  Nothing done but the usual daily stuff and a load of clothes.  Still sick but definitely better than a week ago.  I did find some colorful cabinet knobs.  Not like the every one different of the hand-painted knobs.  They are all the same, but I bought two different kinds.  One set for the living room and one set for the studio.  I have another list of small projects for Dagan and Leah for today...and she might cut my hair, too.  

My only plans for the coming week are to rest up, get well, and see the eye specialist on Friday.  The following week will be the lab and rheumatologist.  That's enough for me to deal with.  Maybe some more Leave It To Beaver!  LOL!  Have a great week!  :)  :)  

 

August 2, 2026 Sunday

Greetings!

Another week has flown by.  Been still feeling cruddy, but generally maybe a bit better than the week before?  McFamily left for Minneapolis Friday for Dagan's heart/pacemaker checkup this coming week and won't be back till Wednesday.  It is a chance for them to visit with Leah's youngest sister, hubby, and the boys' cousin.  I think they were taking the three boys to the Home Depot Kids Workshop down there.  (Always the first Saturday of the month.)  They usually hit IKEA and the MegaMall.  (If I am worse by the time they get back I will probably go to the walk-in clinic just to make sure I don't have pneumonia or something.)

Anyways, last weekend...found out the hand-painted cupboard knobs I purchased won't work on these IKEA hutches.  Going to sell or give away.  See how they have the two bolts on them?

Well, there is only room for a screwhead.  Totally different way to attach than these.  The bolts stick out so far the doors won't close.

There's no leeway and the bolts will hit the shelves.  

I was bummed out, but maybe I can find something else with just a bare screw attachment.  Been searching and a lot of them have this double nut way and you have to cut off the excess screw part.  But there are some that attach just by a screw...so I will spend some time looking for something colorful.

Last weekend Dagan and Leah cleared out the orange rug, cleaned the floor and taped down the round rug.  We are moving the jug of laundry detergent around the edge to press it down well. 

Leah hung my magnetic chalkboard outside the door...and the mail rack I just bought last month.

Will be adding some shelves to hold the chalk and erasers underneath.  Hadn't ordered them yet, but they're here now, so probably next weekend.  :)

Dagan helped me by moving up books in the corner bookshelves.  Uncovered a bunch more that I want to reach easily so needed the center area free.

He put in that last shelf in the hutch.  

All the brushes are back on the art table, if you can even find them--lol!  Yes, last week was definitely a gets-worse-before-it-gets-better in the cleaning and organizing project--lol!

Dagan and Leah kind of nudged me with the Breville, too--lol!  Leah rolled it in and I set it to heat for 20 minutes.  (Don't all appliances that heat up have that similar awful stink to them when they are new?)  Then Leah actually made me up a pizza.  Dagan brought it down and we figured out how to set the dials.  So, I finally used the new multi-functional contraption!  

And the pizza was delicious!  As leftovers, too.  The Breville finally got broken in!

The week was not nauseous or crampy...but it was still a drowsy, coughing, nose-blowing week.  I did get something done.  Using shelves to unload...

...the two boxes that were at the end of the table.

I get kind of paralyzed trying to figure out how to organize everything in a new and smaller way.  I follow this lady on YT who is a home organizer--Clutterbug.  She had this new video out where she showed filling a bookcase the four different ways she talks about.  (She has four categories of how people organize).  I followed the link under her video to take the test again.  I took the quiz years ago and thought I was a "Bee".  I am.  I added the link in case you're interested.  If you take the quiz tell me what kind of organizer you are.  I'd love to know.  :)

Anyways, I had been thinking I needed more see-through containers so I could move some of my art supplies out of drawers...that's why I had already ordered a small set of them I got a while ago.  The thing that clicked with me in her video was that you only have so much space and that won't change.  She buys the containers first and then fills them!  I have never done it that way before in my life.  Seems really a$$-backwards, you know?  But I have been so paralyzed and set back with the putting away and then having to move things...I figured I'd give it a go.  

So, the plan is to start moving empty containers into the shelves...which I have started to do but have a long ways to go.

I did start filling up the blank center space in the corner bookshelves this past week.  There will be more.

A lot of what was piled over here on top of these dressers were empty containers!

AND--four sets of empty plastic containers arrived the past two days!  I'm actually kind of excited to try this new system out.  

Now I am searching for more empty containers I already have.--lol!  Allie takes it all in stride.

I told Leah all about this new organizational plan when she brought me to the lab on Thursday.  She said she is a "Cricket".  So she knew about Clutterbug--lol!  

Look what Leah found in the garage and brought down yesterday!  Couldn't be better timing!  All the tubs I ordered almost four years ago for the new wall shelf unit!

This new-to-me method of organizing may work better than I imagine.  Who knows?  But this "Bee" does like things all organized into specific categories and as much where I can actually see it as possible.  You can tell by my lazy susans by my chair--lol!  They are all organized by type and brand...with a small covered wastebasket for recyclables (paper mostly).  And of course--eye drops. 

It's the same as the ones in my studio rollie cart...organized by type and brand.  I love seeing them out there in their cups--all that color and organization--ahh!  Brings me great joy!  Would drive some other people crazy--lol!

BTW--the studio or art rollie carts were moved out here so they weren't in the way while I am organizing in there...but...

...once Dagan and Leah remove all these parts of the bookcases that couldn't be used the rollie carts will live in that spot.

Somebody who is happy for them to be like a blockade behind her chair is Allie.  She' been snuggled up back there in that bed pretty often since I moved them there.  Never really laid back there before that--lol!  Must feel like a little fortress!

Anyways, I got a message from my rheumatologist later on Friday.  My inflammation markers have increased.  (Not surprised at all since been sick for going on two weeks.)  She wants to increase my dosage and to see me earlier than we had planned (August 21).  I haven't written back to her yet...weekend and all.  I'll send her a message on Monday.  I don't know if she meant a virtual or a regular visit...but I may end up going to the walk-in clinic to get a chest x-ray if I am not better by the time McFamily is home.  Meanwhile...at least for this weekend...I am focusing on finding and arranging empty storage containers--lol! 

Wild Card 

Predestined?  I don't think I have ever thought of anything as predestined in my life.  But before I had ever heard of reincarnation or anything about past lives (raised Methodist) I do remember the oddest moment.  I was around 14 years old.  Lying alone out on the grass in the backyard one summer afternoon.  This tiny pale green insect with long translucent sparkly wings landed on my arm.  I was staring at it and thinking about how beautifully fragile it was.  Suddenly I knew I had asked for a lot this time.  No idea where that knowledge came from, but I suddenly knew there were going to be some huge tests for my soul.  The overwhelming recognition of my overconfidence and optimism just washed over me.  So intensely that I whispered to the little bug on my arm...I may have bitten off more than I can chew this time.  

You can do this...said that voice I sometimes heard inside my head.

Probably...maybe...glad you think so, I thought.  Chuckling to myself, I scared away the delicate little bug.    

Well---so far, I have managed.  Sometimes just barely, but I have managed okay, I guess.  But I have never felt events or circumstances were predestined.  Life has always felt more like a choose your own ending story--lol!

What about you?  I am enjoying this deck.  Some weeks life gets overly crowded or overly empty and I forget about them, but I am always glad when I remember.  For me, they often trigger forgotten memories.  :)

With Allie currently on my lap, I'll say bye for now.  Chat with you next week and let you know what's happening in my little corner of the world.  I hope all is going well in yours.  :)

July 26, 2026 Sunday

Greetings!  

Last Sunday Dagan and Leah got a lot done.  Turned out the three biggest boxes under the table were things from the studio closet at my old place.  Those are things I will have to store in the laundry room or the storage room or garage...not sure where.  So those had to be moved back into the storage room for now.  That was heavy work.

They also searched through the boxes to find boxes that had the studio satchels in them.  More heavy lifting for them.  But they found two boxes full!  

Dagan worked on putting shelves into the hutches and bookcases.  No reason not to since I can't be sure where things will go, anyways.

Really makes the room start coming together!  Leah put up a hook for my aprons and smock by the door.

Can begin to visualize this room coming together.  :)

They brought in some more smaller boxes and put them under the table.

Leah put up hooks for all my rulers!

I had big plans for the week--LOL!  But all I got done was to put the satchels away in the bottom of a hutch.

I have been sick all week.  Starting Monday with stomach cramps and running to the bathroom...carrying a small bucket with me because I felt like I was going to throw up (but never did).  That was Monday and Tuesday.  After that it has been a bad sinus head cold and cough and crazy exhaustion.  Slept most of Thursday, Friday, and Saturday.  Dagan and Leah might come down for some little things today.  I'll see how I am feeling--or if I am awake--lol!

I can't even remember which night it was that Dagan and Leah went to see The Odyssey.  The boys came down for a couple hours before they went to bed.  I had ordered a cheap rechargeable electric eraser for Liam to try out with his mandala coloring.  He has been using a regular one and it is pretty large for those small spaces.  I told Ian he had a couple shelves to display his pottery.  That he could pick out all his favorites ad display them any way he wanted.  (All the flatter dishes are in the back.)

Of course, when Ian started to unpack all his pottery then Liam decided he did want to put his down here, too--lol!  So, gave Ian the top shelf and Liam the bottom shelf.  But Liam couldn't find where he put his bags from the pottery classes.  When he locates them he can fill the rest of his shelf.

I found some of my painting pots.  Leah made the three to the left and the one on the right when she took pottery classes years ago.  I have already decided that the paint brushes are going to move, too--lol!  

Then I can have Dagan put that last shelf in.  There are no holes to put in a shelf closer to the one above it.  The holes are spaced out so that your choices are limited.  I hate to waste any storage space.  The tall brushes can sit on my art table or on top of the skinny dressers or something.  Like I said...plans keep changing.

Let's see...the week was a blur.  There were stump removal men here this week to dig out the rest of the willow tree.  I really enjoyed watching Hail Mary.  It kept me awake from start to finish even as tired as I have been.  Have any of you seen it?  Dagan and Leah said they really enjoyed The Odyssey.  I will see that when I can get it on a streaming service I have.  Allie and I have both been sleeping a lot--day and night.  Yup--a nauseous, crampy, drowsy, coughing, nose-blowing blur of a week--lol!

I think I am feeling a little better now (actually late on Saturday).  Not coughing as much today.  Fingers crossed.  I have bloodwork at the lab on Thursday.  I haven't even run the Breville empty to burn off the chemicals so I can use it yet.  Best laid plans, eh?  So let's just say I have no plans for this week except the lab.  Then maybe I will get more done--lol!  I'll let you know, of course.  Till then...I've been reading all your blogs.  Hope to get back to letter writing.  I read every comment and email.  You all keep me going, my friends.  Have a wonderful week!  :)