4-20-2020 Monday-noon

Good afternoon!

Tons of pictures today--from McFamily and of my own.  So grab a cuppa and here we go!

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Easter McFamily pic.

The boys worked on coloring Easter eggs.

I love these little videos.

The finished eggs.

The boys after the hunt.

Liam peeling an Easter egg.

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You can see from the sidewalk what they did to the window in Daddy's office.

Covered it with hearts!

Ian loved it!

I hear of people putting up hearts and rainbows and putting teddy bears in the windows.  All good, if you ask me.  :)
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They did their planting a little before I did.  All their seeds have sprouted now.

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Voles have been just destroying their beautiful yard!

One fell into the window well.

Annie would have been going nuts, but Blink took it more like all my other indoor cats always have.

The vole wars have been going on for a few years.  They've been infesting the area.  As you may recall I had one living under one of the bushes next to my patio last year.  Haven't seen it yet this year, but I have no doubt it is still there and may have had a family by now--who knows!  *sigh*
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Okay, I promised you I would tell you all about how I am dealing with the toilet paper shortage.  I knew Leah would be able to help me with how to take care of cloth toilet wipes because it is much like dealing with cloth diapers.
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First of all I needed to order some soap nuts.  Or you can also get various kinds of diaper soaps.  Using them keeps the fabric more absorbent.

My soap nuts came with a little cotton pouch.  It said use 5-7 nuts...so I put in six.

They last for several loads.  I'll have to remember to ask Leah how many times she uses hers.
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Lastly, this is what I was waiting for!  A hundred handmade toilet wipes from a lady on Etsy.  Came all the way from England.  There's my little pouch of soap nuts on top of one pile waiting to be washed for the first time.

Leah suggested I wash them like three times first off, but I only did once and could have listened to her, of course--LOL!
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  Lots of measuring was done.  I found a set of collapsible cloth square boxes on Amazon I hoped would hold the wipes.

And a set of wet bags that I prayed would fit... 

...my little silver trash can I already had in my bathroom.  It has a black plastic insert and a foot pedal that I thought was perfect for this purpose.

All my measuring and guesswork paid off!!

The wet bag worked like a charm!

Don't worry.  I have another garbage in-between the washer and dryer right in the bathroom, too, so this one won't be missed.

Half the clean wipes are waiting up on the shelf over the washer and dryer.

The other half are on the counter next to the toilet.  They fit perfectly in the cubes!

The lady also included a little freebie of a couple of makeup cloths.

Not that I wear makeup anymore, but it was nice of her.

Anyways, this is now what I use for peeing only.  Sorry--not up to using them for pooping--LOL!  But us ladies use more TP for urine than we do for pooping.  At least I do...even with my IBS issues--LOL!  So, I am delighted with how long a single roll of toilet paper is lasting now!!  Wow!  And I have to admit these are really nice and soft.
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Okay...what else...?
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Oh, it was snowing on Monday and I saw a killdeer running down the sidewalk!!  They have this funny way of running and stopping...running and stopping...like the little birds I remember seeing on the ocean beach.  Killdeer are most distinctive. (pic off web)

I just LOVE them!  I was so excited to see one!  I haven't seen one since I was a kid in the fields near our house.  I recognized its call, but I didn't get my cell phone ready for a picture of my own fast enough.  If you have ever wandered too close to a killdeer nest you will always remember the broken wing act that they perform to draw you away from their eggs.
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For those of you who have never seen it, I found this video on YouTube.
Just seeing one after all these years!!  A sheer delight!!  What it was doing lost in town, though, I can't imagine.
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Other than the killdeer sighting...there's been the usual Critter Cafe patrons.

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I had my Thursday night video chat with Leah.  And on Saturday I had THREE video chats with the boys.  Had a chat while they ate lunch, Gramma time with Ian while Liam napped, and then a quick bedtime story at night!  Extra Gramma time that day.  :)
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But I do have potentially sad news.  It was a week ago yesterday since I planted my seeds and...absolutely nothing whatsoever.  And I soaked them when they were potted and mist them every morning.  :(

Yes, Annie did step on and crunch a couple of the pots--knocking them over trying to get to the windowsill.  (The third from the right in the two rows closest to the window--the ones needing somebody to lean on.)  So there might not even be seeds in those, for all I know.  (Confession--there's dirt behind the cabinet I haven't cleaned up yet.)

 I shut her out of the bedroom and she spent the rest of the day crying outside the door.  Awk!!  So I moved away a box that was nearby (helping her to leap up there, I blatantly believe), moved the trays closer to the edge of the cabinet, and put the spray bottle where she'd like to land...to discourage her.  She got a second chance.  So far, so good on keeping Annie off the pots...but not so good on germination.  Fingers crossed.
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Oh, but one more mishap with Annie and she's permanently shut out of there whether she cries all day or not.  Gentle Annie doesn't really possess the height and depth of true cat howling.  Miss Karma knew the song of her people.  She could make the hair on the back of your neck stand up, drown out a car radio, and likely had a distance range of a good block or two.  ;)
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Anyways, I guess that's it for this week.  Partridges are here pecking away.  We're supposed to get up to possibly even 60 degrees this week!  Wow!  Right now it is a cloudy 49 degrees...and the tiny snow piles are melting away.

 

Won't be long now and I will quit feeding the birds, clean all the poop off the patio, and be able to sit outside to read with my new pillow.  May or may not have flowers, but I will be out there, regardless.  :)
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Stay safe and well, everybody!!
Till next week. :) :)
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From someone who knew more about isolation than we will ever know...
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"I don't think of all the misery, but of the beauty that still remains."
Anne Frank

4-13-2020 Monday-11am

Good Morning!

Was a very busy week.  I cleaned the two tabletop humidifiers over a couple of days and let them dry in the pantry by the stack of quarantined packages from Amazon.

Funny--I thought I ordered 2 lbs of starting soil and it was .2 lbs!  Tiny package!  My fault for not reading closely enough.  No wonder it was such a deal--LOL! 

I finished the humidifier parts and left them to dry. 

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Got mail from Ian!!  When I pulled out the card all these individually colored and cut out red hearts fell everywhere!  Which was just what he wanted.  :) 

First he had dictated a letter to Mama that she hand printed out for him and then he sat and copied the entire letter.  He told me it took him two days!  Inside... 

...and more on the backside. 

My very first all handwritten letter from Ian!  Told me all about this Slime Rancher video game he and Daddy play at night before bed if he's been good all day.  :)

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We had a video chat after I got his letter.  I told him I will keep it forever!!  Right now it is on the top of the frig stuff with all the pics, birthday and Easter cards.

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On Tuesday Leah and I had our evening video chat/craft nite call.  Turns out Leah forgot she had some masks she had gotten for various things: when the kids had influenza a few years ago and for woodworking.  So she didn't think I needed to make any masks since she also bought a few black ones when the whole thing began in the US and she mailed me some.  

So, for now--we do have masks.  But I might still make some just to have around since this whole thing might come back in waves before we have a vaccine...and just to have for the next pandemic, you know?  That feeling that if you are prepared it won't happen.  Kind of like Murphy's Law in reverse.  ;)  But for now I am still making calligraphy class and Friday blog posts optional.  In the mood to do other projects like I did this last week.  :) 

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 Anyways, I got this far in the pantry on Wednesday.  Finally got everything out of the quarantine boxes put away and the boxes broken down.  All the seed potting supplies had arrived!

We had snow again during the night...I think this was Thursday morning. 

I forgot to get a picture in the morning when everything was layered white again. 

By the afternoon, as you can see, a lot of it was melted away already.

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Somebody in the building put up this curved trail of hearts down our front door! 

I just love seeing it.  Always makes me smile.

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I made Annie some raw chicken liver cat soup and some fish cat soup this week and she liked them both.  

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Thursday night Leah and I had another video craft night.  We mostly discussed groceries (pretty soon Leah will be venturing out after 5-6 weeks) and being more stressed than we think we are.  I worry about them and they worry about me...and we all have other people we worry about getting it.  We've been watching less news and that helps.  :)

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On Friday, a warmer day of 48 degrees, I made trips with my little collapsible cart.  Brought out the trash and boxes to the dumpster.  When I got back I added the collapsible blue and black box that I velcro to the handle and loaded up the cart for a trip to the garage...

...with the humidifiers, little brown table one of them sits on all winter, the heavy half circle rug I keep under the snow shovel, the snow shovel, and a bag of donation clothes. 

Once it got to the garage and unloaded that lot...then I loaded the cart up again for a precarious trip back to the apartment. I managed to get the last 40# bag of bird seed on to the bottom (no easy feat--LOL!).  Then I collapsed the black and blue box to set on top of the bird seed, put the two small tables upside down on top of that, figured out how to lay the high back chair across the stack so it didn't fall off, and put the old kitty litter plastic container filled with potting soil on there, too.

I had to push and hang on to the chair--LOL!  Was a slow process, but where there's a will there's a way, right?  I even stopped and picked up mail on the way back inside.   

Maneuvering the doorways was the hardest part, but it felt wonderful once I was inside and got the door closed behind me!  I got the chair and tables this far...and just collapsed in my chair for a good long break.  :)

I did move them out on to the patio later on. 

Really will be nice to sit outside and read this year. 
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Because of my bum arm with the muscle damage I can't grip (hold, push, pull, or press) for very long to hold a book ...so I ordered this reading pillow.

 I can't remember now for sure what it was called...pillow pal?  Got it on Amazon.  Came squished down in a smaller box and slowly went back into its shape over 20-30 minutes (which confused Annie a bit). 
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Every time you flip it your tablet, phone, or kindle will be at a different angle.  I haven't even tried it out yet, but it looks pretty inviting.

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I don't know about you but my alcohol wipes, hydrogen peroxide and cotton balls have become a permanent fixture somewhere in my kitchen for this past 33 days of isolation.

Since I live in a senior building I regularly wipe down the things I touch before I can wash my hands after I have been out of the apartment--door handles, light switches, etc. 
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Called my mom on Friday.  The staff brought her a glass of wine with her afternoon snack for Good Friday!  She got a kick out of that.  She's doing okay.  They still will not allow anyone in the building but Mom gets quite a few phone calls.
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On Saturday I had a video Gramma Day with Ian in the afternoon.  Read some more of the Moomin comet book.  :)
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Saturday night I read a bedtime story to the boys in their bedroom--from Frog and Toad.
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Then on Easter Sunday I had a video chat with Ian and Liam while they ate lunch so they could tell me about their in-house Easter egg hunt they had in the morning.
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Then, in the afternoon, I rather pushed myself to get my seeds potted.  

Marigold and Coleus variety packs.

All are settled into my little nursery under my bedroom window.

So far, Annie has left them alone.  I hope she continues to ignore them because she will be quite miffed if she gets shut out of the bedroom--LOL!
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Then Sunday night we had another story time with a couple of Frog and Toad stories.  Had a lot of Gramma time this Easter weekend.  This new technology is such a blessing!!  :)
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Well, finally have the pantry floor more organized.  I even opened the 40# bag of bird seed this weekend and scooped and scooped it into the bin until I could lift to dump the rest.

 

I buy a variety of dry cat foods that I give to Annie occasionally with her regular dry food.  Just add a tablespoon or so here and there for a treat.  Those are all the bags clipped shut on top of the two boxes of kitty litter.  Her extra canned food is on top there, too...kind of a big Annie pile--LOL!  I'm glad to be stocked up because there seemed to be a run on pet supplies on Amazon...along with so many other items.

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Speaking of--I caught a few minutes of Annie dreaming.  Had to be silent so as to not wake her.

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Then, as I have been writing this, we got a sudden flurry of snow!  You'll hear me automatically apologize to the grackles for scaring them away.  Dagan and Leah think it is amusing when I do things like that.  I've been known to apologize to inanimate objects, for goodness sakes--LOL!
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Anyways, there you go!  You were right here in the action--LOL!  It's 25 degrees so not a surprise to have a little snow mid-April.  Never fear--as soon as I walked away from the patio door there were grackles, sparrows, and juncos all over that seed...and I'm sure the partridges will be here shortly--LOL!  
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Well, I think that was about it for this last week.  Stay safe everyone!  Virtual hugs!!  :) :)
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"We feel like separate water droplets but we are also ocean."
Jane Hirshfield

4-5-2020 Monday-11:30am

Good morning!

The grackles returned before the snowstorm we had come in Wednesday.

 It is hard to tell but I also saw my first robin.

Both the grackles and the robin liked the suet.

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Mom turned the ringer off on her phone so she had to bring it down to the front desk and go right back home to her apartment.  Then Kathy (SIL) drove over, was handed the phone in the entryway, fixed the phone, handed it back, and the person on duty brought the phone back up to to Mom.  I hope they wiped it down, too.  Likely did as they are being very careful there.

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Mom and I had a nice long chat the next day.  Now that she's gotten used to the brief check-in every morning and food being delivered...she was back to being unhappy she can't see anybody.  I think the shelter-at-home is hardest on the social butterflies.  They do not do well alone and miss company of some kind.  It's a shame she never learned about computers.  But she's fine and her senior building is locked down tight.

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The snowstorm arrived later on Wednesday and lasted through till Friday morning.  It was suddenly winter again here so Rita's Critter Cafe became suddenly very popular once again--LOL!

They were here all day Thursday during the storm, too.  Partridges.. 

...grackles... 

...and a jackrabbit. 

I think I put out food three times, at least.  Maybe this will be our last brush with winter? 

The partridges are very serious diggers.  They seem to be smart enough to know that the snow quickly buries the seed and are determined to find it--LOL! 

Annie likes to watch them digging and kicking up snow, too. 

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In the morning I tossed some seed out and juncos arrived post haste. 

Of course a gang of noisy grackles arrived later on.

Yup--was winter white again for a while.

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Been melting down to a soupy mess right now.  

 

They never cleared the path back here so not many people out walking.  

I went out this morning and swept away a ton of rabbit poop off my patio before I put a little seed out.

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Leah came up with a wonderful idea--that we have Craft Nites again with video calls!!  We haven't actually been doing crafts this year so far, anyways.  Mostly been having gab fests and Leah was bringing me food I could nuke.  So--we had our first Craft Nite again on Thursday night!!  (Lots of talk about how to get groceries eventually and face masks.)

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Then on Saturday I had a virtual Gramma Day with Ian while Liam took a nap...just Ian and I.  We decided to start this longer book I had here.

I read him the first one (The Moomins and The Great Flood) quite a long time ago and sent it home with him.  This is the second book in the series.  So we will have lots of reading we can do on Saturday afternoons on Gramma Days for a while.  :)

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Note: as soon as Liam woke up from his nap Ian wanted to say goodbye...immediately.  I don't think he wanted to share his alone time with Gramma.  ;)

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That night I planned to read bedtime stories to both the boys from Frog and Toad but Liam is not ready for sitting and listening like that yet.  He got very noisy and wasn't paying any attention so I asked Daddy to take him away.  I read to Ian and he enjoyed it.  So bedtime stories might not work--with Liam, anyways.  But it was very nice!

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The idea is to try to make things more "normal" again.  Ian does have "school" every afternoon as Liam naps.  He enjoys it and has Mama all to himself for a couple hours.  Now Leah and I will have Craft Nites and I will have Gramma Days with Ian.  We can do video chats other times, too, of course (like Ian sent me something he made and wants a video call when I get it), but we will have more of our old schedule.  :)

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Myself--I have had noticeably less spoons and I wondered why.  Well, I no longer have Caroline coming to clean every two weeks, for one--so I am doing more dusting and vacuuming and such.  (My bathroom and floors will just have to wait.)  

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Then--I no longer have Leah spoiling me by bringing over pre-made foods for me every week that I only had to pop in the microwave.  Since I got so bad in June I haven't been doing all my cooking until now.  

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So, those are two reasons I have less "extra" spoons.  That is why I had been falling behind on my letter writing, not getting to my calligraphy lessons, and--once again--didn't get to the Friday question blog.  Aha!

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Things have changed big time in the world.  That brings up the third (likely biggest) factor that I wasn't thinking about--stress.  Stress runs amok throughout my fibro/arthritic body.  Just a fact...that I seem to have forgotten--LOL!  It effects my sleep, my pain level, my IBS--you name it.  Apparently this whole virus threat and upheaval has been bothering more than I thought it was.  

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So, for now I am giving myself a break on the calligraphy lessons and the Friday blog.  If I can get to them, I will.  But if not--no big deal if they are random.  

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  The new project I want to be working on with any spare spoons is sewing a few face masks for us.  I've been researching patterns online and information.  Before tomorrow night's Craft Nite I plan to dig through my sewing supplies to see what I have that I can use so I can show Leah and get her opinion...which is what we would have been doing had we been able to actually get together.  :)

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I still make this Monday "newsletter" blog my top priority so that I can let people know I am okay.  But my main other spoon use will be going towards Craft Nites, Gramma Days, video calls, cooking, cleaning, and this sewing project.  If I have anything left over it will go to calligraphy practice or a random Friday life questions blog post.  

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I plan to watch less news.  I have been cutting back, but I want to be informed, too--a delicate balance.  Basically when I am exhausted and feel cruddy (a lot of days, sadly)--turn on a good series or movie and not open the laptop--LOL!  That's the plan!  :)

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Anyways, I am so grateful this all didn't happen last year!!  I would have had a difficult time on my own, to be honest.  At least I am doing okay now and can manage to do everything for myself.  Another silver lining!  I can't imagine what this would have been like if it was back when I could hardly walk!  Neither Dagan or Leah could have come to stay with me.  Dagan has to work from home and goes to the offices occasionally.  Leah has two little boys to take care of.  I probably would have ended up in rehab--and could well get infected there...can't imagine it.

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If I do get the virus now I will be on my own, but I am able to function these days so would likely be okay in the long run.  If I did have trouble breathing then I'd call 911.  

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Dagan is high risk with his heart.  Leah has had asthma since she was a child--even if it is better recently.  They are both high risk as far as I'm concerned.  I worry about them.  Leah says she worries about me.

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The saddest thing to me about this very contagious disease is that people are alone.  You can't be with loved ones when they are sick...or even when they are dying.  People can't even go to funerals.  It is such an isolating disease in so many more ways than just having to spend time at home.  

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I wish no one had to get this.  I wish the people who aren't taking this seriously would do so.  We're all in this together--separately.  There are so many heroes--besides the nurses, doctors, nursing assistants, pharmacists, pharmacy clerks...there are all the grocery store workers, people filling online orders, postal workers, delivery people, sanitary workers, police, firemen, the people who keep the electricity, water, heat, traffic lights, food banks, and so many endless jobs that keep society going.  The people who keep the internet working.  Those who entertain us with Netflix, Prime, etc, and keep us informed on TV and all the many news programs.  I think about the maintenance men for our building who will still come into your home and repair the faucet or washer if you need it--from 6 ft away.  All the people who clean off everything--over and over again.  There are so many heroes!!   I feel humbled to be able to just be at home--safe and warm.  Bless them all!!

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Strange times.  

For good and for bad. 

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May you all stay safe and well!!

Chat again next Monday.  :)

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Courage doesn't always roar.  Sometimes courage is the little voice at the end of the day saying "I'll try again tomorrow."

Mary Anne Radmacher