Saturday-5:45pm

Good afternoon!

Putter...putter...putter.

I kept working on the pantry. 

Wiping everything down. 

Reorganizing.  

(Leaving lots of space on this side for cat food and supplies for Annie when she comes.) 

 I finally got my bench emptied off--LOL!  First time since I moved in.  

And I finished the pantry!!  All organized!!  Caroline brought my groceries for May on Wednesday, too.  I can find everything easily now.  A big project off my to-do list.  :) 

The top shelf from left to right: breakfast stuff, rices & grains, flours.  Middle shelf: oils & sauces, boxed & canned goods.  Bottom shelf: pastas, canned tomatoes, dried beans & lentils.  About time I got this all organized.  Only been living here a year and eight months--ROFL!  :)

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Finally out of bird seed, but they do get their fresh water every morning.  I was going to take a picture of the two doves who visit every day splashing away--but they caught of glimpse of me and poof!   

Those doves really do like bathing.

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Tuesday Leah came for craft night but we spent the entire night planning my patio--LOL!  (We both figured we would end up doing that because it is such fun for both of us.)  I had to make a final decision on the best planter boxes I could afford:

 They're terra cotta colored plastic from Amazon--and already arrived!

With the wild wind up here we will get some cheap rocks to line the bottoms before we add the soil--to try to hold them down.  So we still need to buy rocks and potting soil this month.  Then I'll get plants in June.  Leah was showing me different plants online to see what I liked.  (Leah used to work in a nursery in town for quite a while and that is where we will go plant shopping).  Oh, this is so exciting!!

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In fact, this morning I took my flat cart out to the garage to haul in the expanding hose & big plastic pot Leah gave me to hide it in (you may recall I sneak and use the faucet on the side of the building next to my patio as of last summer), my container of potting soil (an old kitty litter container with the handle), and the planter I used once in a while to grow Karma her cat grass (but it's too big-too much grass at one time for any one cat) that I plan to use to re-pot the two ivys I was gifted at the two cataract surgeries.  Whew!  That was one long convoluted sentence--LOL!    

We had a bit of a strange storm on Wednesday afternoon.  It thundered a few times, then poured rain that only lasted a few minutes.  At my place we had pea-sized hail bouncing off the grass--but only for about a minute.

Then-poof!  The whole event was over with in like five minutes or so.  Just a little bit of drama to the day. 

A little while later (after Ian's nap--who said he heard the thunder from his room) Leah and Ian came and took me over to the eye doctor's to pick up my new regular glasses.  (They gave Ian a bouncy ball with an eyeball on it and he was thrilled!)   

I took many selfies to try to avoid the glare off the glasses...but it never worked...and I got tired of smiling and trying--LOL! 

Did not get the non-glare coating this time.  Would have cost me $110.00 at Dr. Dye's, so I passed (but I think it might have helped at the computer).  Anyways, wire rims.  A bit darker than what I used to have and larger lenses to help with the trifocals.  I'm getting used to them.  Not sure why it was so much easier to adapt to the sunglasses in the same prescription?  Larger lenses?  They said to give it a couple weeks.

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Saw a lone goose again.  Same one?  Might be. 

I opened the screen and slowly stepped out to get these goose pictures.  The two doves sure gave me the eye from the rock bed--but they didn't fly off.  Too tired from all that bathing?  LOL!  Or did they think they were camouflaged in the rocks? (Which they were at first--so I kindly did not give them eye contact.)

The goose was nibbling on something in the grass... 

...or eating the grass itself?  I noticed that the grackles were following the goose around this time, too.  They seemed quite fascinated by this huge bird. 

Thursday was the first time I was able to go to CCC ("coffee, coloring, and conversation") in the afternoon down at the community room and actually bring something to work on.  I decided that I wanted to get back to working on the zendalas.  This is the one I started.

I didn't think to take a before picture of the template, but I'll try and remember with the next one.

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I figure I will work on zendalas on CCC days--doodling on them and then coloring them.  I had left a bunch of extra templates and drawing pens with Bev a couple months ago.  And I spent a while online yesterday to see if you could still get the free templates--yes.  I printed off a bunch of them from another place, too...so I have more templates and can give some away if people are interested.  I got the web address for the tangle patterns, too, and located my binder from years ago.  So, I'm all set for next week.  :)  Oh, and I printed off the web addresses to hand out to anyone who might want them also.

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And in case any of you are interested:

www.thebrightowl.blogspot.com 

for free zendala templates

(she quit doing her weekly zendala dare but there are still over 100 free templates)

www.amarylliscreations.com 

for free zendala templates

(When I was doing these a few years ago this lady only had six templates online--now she has 52 of them!)

www.tanglepatterns.com 

for free zentangle patterns

(All kinds of tangle patterns and how-tos from simple to complex--if you run out of doodling ideas there are a ton there!)

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The other thing I did was finally tend to the stack of old artwork that has been piled on my printer for months--LOL!  I wanted to print off some for cards--and I finally got that done, too. 

Checking things off the list.

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This print was actually from an art class project in college.  We were supposed to make a simple repeating pattern like they use on fabrics.  (Actually from pictures of wildflowers I found online.) 

Let's see...

Oh, I also finished what I needed to do in the bullet.  Whew!  Now this is one disturbingly fat and lopsided bullet journal! 

But it's because I have to use avery stickers and washi tape... 

...to cover up this stupid "Datum/Date:" on the top of every single page! 

"Have to?", you ask.

Well, if things like that bother you (drives my OCD side crazy)...yes, you do have to cover them up.  My experiment with using their squared grid...DONE.  I am going back to the dot grid--which doesn't have that date thing on top of every page.  (BTW-Leuchtturm's lined journals also have that date on every page.)  I ought to be able to see better now to use the dot grid easier than before the cataract surgeries.  Not being able to write a straight line using the dot grid was one reason I bought a squared grid.  ;) 

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Anyways, that is why this one is so fat and goofy looking.  Avery stickers and washi tape on almost every page.  Never again--LOL!  ;)  I'll be starting another bullet (my third) come October.  Dotted--hurray!

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So, things are moving along.  Items are getting checked off my lists.  Plans are being made.  I get quite a bit done for a day or two and then am useless for a day or two.  The usual--LOL!  Weather has been crazy warm!  Was 82 yesterday!  Beginning of May??!!  (We usually don't plant up here till Memorial Day.)  

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Enjoy your change of seasons.  I know many of you are heading into fall.  Have a fabulous week!!  

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"When life feels too big to handle, go outside.  Everything looks smaller when you're standing under the sky."

L. R. Knost

Sunday-11:15am

Woke up to snow on Wednesday!

I do have pictures to show you from Tuesday, but this was the surprise of the week--LOL! 

Was almost a white out for a while there. 

The birds were looking for food and my container was empty so I made a trip to the garage for the last of the bird seed. 

You can see the bin against the wall and the last of the seed there in the container on the trunk of the dead Paseo. 

We need to tow away the Paseo and move all this ValleyCon suite furniture in the middle of the floor over to the left hand side of the garage...and organize all the shelves and various stuff. 

 I need to make room on the shelves for the storage tubs I want to move out here from the apartment.  That's one of the big projects I want done before Annie comes.

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You can see it was drifting more on the other side of the garages.  That's my building at the end of the garage tunnel--LOL!  My apartment is on the backside across from that bottom apartment on the left corner.

My garage is at the far end of this garage line.  The wall of garages off to the left are for the next apartment complex.  Yes--there are a lot of apartment complexes where I live. 

It continued to snow and drift all day long.

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 Meanwhile, I've been slowly working on the pantry.

Cleaning off each bottle, can, or box... 

...and reorgainzing. 

I still have a ways to go.  This is the other bigger project I want done before Annie comes.  Then we can haul all the cat stuff back in from the garage.  :)

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 Oh, Iggy sent me a link to the instruction booklet for the serger!!  Whoohoo!!  So once we get done with the Annie preparations and the current sewing project...then I can work at trying to tackle the serger.  I do have several other sewing projects I want to do this year and Leah has a couple, too.

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This last week Leah was exhausted on Monday night again.  (I was, too, from working in the pantry.)  Leah asked if we could switch up our craft nights to Tuesdays for the foreseeable future, which was fine with me.  Mondays are her errand days and after running around shopping all day she is pretty beat to come over for crafts.  So we're going to try for Tuesday nights.

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She wanted a break from tracing the sewing patterns and suggested we tackle another project--yes!  And it was one I could help with some even though I couldn't see that well.  :)

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We worked till after midnight making samples and labels for all our embossing powders!

Most of them are in small jars, but we have some larger amounts of our most commonly used powders.  Those were transferred from old containers that were hard to open (and easy to spill) to our new containers with side clips.  And there is now a small plastic spoon clipped inside the cover of each of the bigger containers, too!  We have labels and round samples on both white and black paper on the tops...   

...and on one side of the containers. 

We actually finished them all!  Checked that off the nearly endless to-do list.  :)

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The snow started to melt by the next afternoon.  I fed the confused birds that had just flown up from the south--all day--for two days they ate and ate and I'd put out some more--LOL!  

The last of the seed actually went out yesterday.  Now I plan to have the patio back to myself for the summer!  I'll feed them again come fall, though.  If it snows again they're out of luck from my patio--hehe!

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Went to pick up my new red prescription sunglasses on Thursday!!   

The world may be dark right now, but I can see close up again!!  Whoohoo!  My other regular glasses should maybe come in this week.  Better to see clear distortion than blurry distortion--LOL!  ;)

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Oh, I looked up online what they said I have in my right eye--epiretinal membrane--and it is called seven other names that I found easily.  Preretinal membrane, macular pucker, cellophane maculopathy, retina wrinkle, surface wrinkling retinopathy, premacular fibrosis, and internal limiting membrane disease.  Mine was apparently closer to the back of my eye before the surgery (like it apparently is most likely to be) and has come farther away after.  

Kind of like this:

Which is why I've had issues seeing since the surgery and I will just live a distorted life--LOL!  But--seems like being able to see closer gives me less jumpy-bendy-warpy-distortion .  Far away pictures are good--words are a little more difficult.  But when I get in to that mid-bifocal range there's a lot of print dancing...which seems to be a bit less as I can now get in to that closer-trifocal range.  Hallelujah!!  I am sooooo grateful!  Hey!  I was used to having to get nose close up to see sometimes before cataract surgery so my brain understands that just fine.  ;)  

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Now that I can see better I have been catching up with some detail end-of-the-month work.  Worked on my bullet journal.  (BTW--was I EVER glad I had set it up from January through April before I ever knew about the cataract surgeries!)  Now I set up the skeletal framework from May through September...and filled in May so that's all set to go.   

I need to think of something else to use besides Avery labels--LOL!  They were fun, but this bullet has gotten so fat!!  I left about 10-12 pages at the end for lists, but that will fill this one up.  Come October I'll be starting a new one.

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Also been working on the usual monthly tasks--grocery list and still need to finish balancing of the checkbook and bills.  Who would have thought I'd be looking forward to doing such mundane things--but just so delighted to be able to read and see close up again!  Even if I have to tilt my head this way and that.  (Some days seem "clearer" than others.)  I am just plain grateful...and I can always close one eye.  ;)

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This Canadian goose seemed to be lost.  They rarely travel alone.  It walked over to the sidewalk and waddled all the way down the pathway.  So funny. 

Yesterday Dagan and Ian stopped by for a visit.  Dagan helped me change the bed skirt on my bed...and Ian wanted to help.  When my sheets and towels were done Ian wanted to help me with those, too.  Absolutely reminded me of when Dagan was little.  They are so excited to be helpful...for a while there, anyways--ROFL!  I loved it!    

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Yes--I forgot to take pictures.  I get so wrapped up in the visit that taking pictures goes out of my head.  Ian comes chattering his way in the door and all else is lost for Gramma--hehe!

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So that is how the week went up here.  It's sunny and 54 degrees right now.  I need to get back to working on the checkbook and organizing the pantry.  

Have a great week!!  :) :)

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"Hope is not the conviction that something will turn out well, but the certainty that something makes sense regardless of how it turns out."

Vaclav Havel

Sunday-4:45pm

Good Afternoon!

Yesterday it was almost 70 degrees and today it's 44--LOL!  Spring in the North Country.

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  The birds were happily bathing in the water dish yesterday.

The two mourning doves seem to love a good bath.  Even just sat in the water for a while. 

This big box came late on Friday but I waited to open it till McFamily arrived yesterday. 

My mom had called and asked me if I wanted her serger sewing machine.  Whoohoo!!  She sent it all the way up from Florida.  

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Hope you can see it there with all the piles on the black table in the studio. 

She didn't have the instruction booklet and I have no experience with sergers (also called overlock machines) so will be doing searches online for information.  Be so cool if I can figure out how to use this!!  Leah is excited, too.  They can enclose and cut off the excess fabric in a seam all at the same time--like most clothes are done at factories.  Will be an interesting challenge, eh?

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Ian came with his new "First Bike" that has no pedals.  Teaching him balance when he sits on it.  He does really well.

We took a trip down the walking path to the big cottonwood tree to give it a hug.  (I love the lime green helmet!)  Ian gave the tree a hug and told me the tree said "thank you".  Gramma had to turn off the video so she could give the tree a hug, too.  Ian decided that we also needed to give the tree a kiss.  So we did.  Perfect for Earth Day, eh?

Ian was very interested in seeing his shadow.  He got to bring home a piece of the bark that had fallen off the tree and a bit of small branch.  Tokens of tree hugging.

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I hope everybody had a happy Earth Day!  :) :)

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"Today, more than ever before, life must be characterized by a sense  of Universal responsibility, not only nation to nation and human to human, but also human to other forms of life."

The Dalai Lama

Friday-10:30am

Good news!!

Well, there's a bad part, too, but I was too excited about the good part to focus on that side of it--LOL!  

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Dr. Dye's office called on Monday.  He wanted me to come in so he could talk to me about what he found out about my eyes.  They were pretty booked this week--scheduled an appointment for 11:30 Thursday.  I figured it was likely not going to be good news.  Even asked Leah to come in with me (since my memory isn't what it used to be with the fibro) thinking it might be another complicated explanation and Leah could record the conversation like she did for me with Dr. Grosz, the cataract surgeon.  (Which she did.)

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Well, Dr. Dye consulted with another doctor (probably the retinal specialist?).  The bad news is--I don't actually have fluid or swelling back of my right eye--it's that saran wrap type film that has kind of puffed up and away from the back of my eye.  That is what's causing the visual distortions.  They don't do anything about it until it gets really bad.  (I remember being told that a retinal specialist can go in and remove that film if it becomes necessary.)  They expect it to get worse over time.

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The good news is--there's a slim chance that it might go back down on its own and I don't have to go back for a checkup till January.  So, it is obviously not something that usually changes quickly and he did say there was a slight possibility that it might just smooth back down on its own.  I am a big believer in miracles, as you know.  So I'll take any healing energy, positive thoughts, and prayers in my direction that you can spare.  :):)  I plan to do some regular energy work and visualization on my eyes for the rest of the year, too.  Think positive, right?

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Sooo...that meant I could order new glasses!!  I found a pair of frames (that weren't ugly) in the medicaid drawer and my new trifocals will be here in about two weeks.  Since I hadn't gotten new glasses for like possibly 10-12 years (can't even remember) I was covered!  Awesome!

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But I couldn't get glasses with clip on sunglasses like my old ones (which weren't medicaid frames)--and the light really bothers me since the surgery.  (Could even be refracting off that poofed up saran wrap, I suppose.)  Leah suggested we make a trip to Costco...so off we went.  And guess what?!  I ordered a pair of prescription sunglasses--whoohoo!  Never had that luxury before in my whole life.  My new red sunglasses should be here in about a week!  Yes--I went wild and crazy with the sunglasses--LOL!  Thank you, Dagan and Leah!!!

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I am so happy!!  I should be able to see close up again and no eye surgery in the foreseeable future (maybe ever)--whoohoo!  Clear wavy distortion is much better than blurry wavy distortion.  And my left eye has gotten much better with seeing a straight, unwavy line so I can always close my right eye when I need to.

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Happy dancing in Fargo!!

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And THEN--Leah asked me if I wanted to go look at the cheap storage bins she had found at Costco.  So we also picked up bins!!

There's quite a lot of old banker boxes I have in the hall closet...

...and also already in the garage and even in the studio closet that should go in plastic bins if they are going to be in the garage.  Keeps the mice out...and just in case the roof ever leaks.  Been meaning to do this for years but they were too expensive.  Those big bins are three for $14.99 at Costco!  The smaller ones were six for the same, I believe.  So exciting!!  Well, to organizers it sure is, let me tell you--LOL!

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So what a happy, happy day yesterday!  I even went down late to the Thursday afternoon group for a few minutes to let them know that I should be able to get back to actually being able to craft with them soon.  Told them I could possibly show up with wild red sunglasses first--LOL!  As I left they were teasing me that they might have to start calling me "Big Red"--hehe!

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Being able to see clearly close up--OMG!  I will finally be able to do all the various things I enjoy again--making cards, sewing, crafting, reading, art...you name it.  And I will be able to see more clearly when I write letters and journal!  These visual limitations have been driving me nuts since February 8th!  I will still have to deal with the distortions, but being able to SEE close up...I will adapt.  Oh, and I have no depth perception.  With the 2.5 reading glasses I can't see clearly anything closer than more like 10-12 inches--not the 6-8 inches I thought it was!  Dr. Dye measured--LOL!

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Anyways, things are looking up, eh?  :)

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(Knock on wood!)

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The mourning doves are back now, too.  

And I have seen the ground squirrel again. 

Because of the 13-striped ground squirrel I decided that once I am out of seed (which won't be too long) I am not feeding the critters for the rest of the summer.  I can't remember if I told you that already or not.   

I will put out water for them, but they will be perfectly fine all summer for food.  My main reason is that I do not want to attract the ground squirrels.  Much as I LOVE to watch them, I don't want them noticed, you know!  Don't want them hunted down and killed.  The ground squirrels hibernate all winter, so feeding the birds and jackrabbits in the wintertime (when they really need the help) will be just fine.  I'll start feeding them again in the late fall.

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And honestly...the plus side to that is also that the patio won't be such a mess all summer.  Maybe Ian won't be able to recognize Gramma's patio because of the bird poop--LOL!  I was thinking of maybe getting some planter boxes--if not this year--maybe next summer.  Maybe do some outside reading with my red sunglasses?  LOL!

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 I have some pictures from Dagan and Leah.

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Profile of new baby McGregor safely tucked inside Mama.

And Ian went bowling!  Here he just pushed the ball one handed down the ramp. 

I didn't know they have those plastic ramp thingies for little kids!  Those are so cool!  They can aim them where they hope the ball will go, place the ball on the top, and then push it down the plastic ramp.  Seems better than the bumpers they put in the gutters.

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I don't think you're really supposed to fly in the air like Superman on top of it while you watch your ball go down the alley, though--ROFL!! 

Looks like Ian got a 61!!  Not bad for almost three year old. 

Ian being silly on the floor at the bowling alley. 

 What a fun carpet, though! 

 

They had pancakes that day, too. 

Busy day!

Gramma is excited because McFamily is planning to come for a visit tomorrow afternoon!  So glad to be able to share some happy news.  (The bad parts...just shut one eye--LOL!)

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  Have a great weekend!  :) :)

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"We are never more than one grateful thought away from peace of heart."

Br. David Steindl-Rast