December 18, 2023 Monday--5am

 Good morning!

Another good, productive week!  (Do you hear me knocking emphatically on wood--lol!)  Been getting Christmas cards but I have never seen ones like this one I got from Janie, have you?  Like an accordion card.  Really pretty!  

I even got a Christmas card made from a real hand-painted piece of artwork, too, from Linda.  She makes a different painting every year for over 30 years, I believe, and then gets her Christmas cards made with copies of the original painting.  

Christmas cards are not dead yet!  Long live snail mail!  Thank you for each and every one I joyfully discover in my mailbox. :)

Monday I colored another birthday card just so I knew I would be covered through the first half of January.  That way I knew I was covered for some 2024 birthday cards for a while so I could work on the pantry without stress.  ;)

Tuesday Keanna came to clean.  She said for insurance reasons she was not allowed to climb up on a stepstool with more than two steps.  So she handed me down what she could reach...which was most of it.

I worked on clearing away and wiping down as much as I could on the table and countertop.

It was still cold enough that we had snow on the patio for a couple of days.

When Dagan dropped off Costco groceries later Tuesday evening he used the taller stool and got down the rest of the really high stuff for me.

Then I had all the lower shelves and wall racks to work on after that.  (Still working on them.)

Wednesday I did laundry, made soup in the crock pot again, and ran the dishwasher a couple of times.  Allie just wanted me to sit down so she could snuggle up on the chair with me--lol!

I got started on the jars.  I had discovered the colorful plastic jar lids a while back on Amazon and it was time to switch the jars over to their new pretty lids.  I started on the wall wire shelves where I keep the majority of them.

Even some of my rice on the bottom shelf got their new lids.

I am parting with boxes of jars!  Already had sent at least one big one (might have been two) off for donations many months ago.

Let's just say I have a lot of jars and I do love my jars.  Been using them for storage since I left home and got bugs in boxes in my cupboard in the second place I rented.  It was jars and Tupperware for me after that--lol!  Most of the Tupperware went by the wayside after a few decades, but the jars remained.

That stack to the left are the bins for my new studio wall unit for the new place.  They just never got moved to the garage.  Next to that is another box of donations topped by my old blue speckled roasting pan.

I am slowly saying farewell to so many things that have been with me for decades.  The jars, though...seem to be harder.  I spent days running jars through the dishwasher and sorting and deciding which ones to keep and which ones to let go of.  I'm mainly keeping a lot of the really old ones and some newer practical ones for storing coffees.  

Allie knew I would work for a while and then rest for a while.  Baby steps.  She'd wait for me sometimes by my chair--lol!  If she didn't give up on me and head for bedroom table crash-time bed...

...or go snooze under her spa lamp--lol!

Thursday Leah picked Liam up from school for a dentist appointment.  It was the day all the kids in his class were making gingerbread houses.  They sent his home with him, though, so he worked on it that night.

He was very proud of it and did quite a good job.  Gramma got sent pictures.

Friday I did laundry again to get to the bath towels and such.  (It is so nice to be able to do the laundry and get it all put away the same day...I know I have said that before but it is those little things I am soooo grateful for...even if I don't do more than one load a day--lol!)  

I swept the patio.  It wasn't a windy day for once so I could put out another scoop of mealworms from this big bag I got with the bird seed from Fleet Farm.  They blow away easily and I wanted to double check because it didn't look like the birds had been eating them--at all!  Highly unusual.  A different brand, extra stinky, and the bag was open when Dagan picked up the order, he said.  No, I wasn't mistaken.  They won't touch them. :(

Saturday I kind of took the day off.  Made some rice, finished off cleaning all the jars, but didn't do too much else on the pantry.

Sunday Leah came over.  She needed to make some gift certificate envelopes for the boys' teachers.  We had talked about it early in the week and I decided to order a plain die from Scrapbook.com.

Also--I have had this grip mat or sticky mat in my cart for months...so I made an order and they arrived by Friday!  Perfect!

Leah came over in the afternoon to work on her four envelopes.  She even cut my two I wanted for Ian and Liam's gift cards (toward a game) for Christmas.  I asked what their favorite colors were at the moment.  Ian's is purple and Liam's is yellow.  (That could change before Christmas--lol!)

Anyways, Leah was die cutting away--snowflakes for the fronts of the teacher's envelopes and some other parts for some cards she needs for the future--birthdays.  So now she has her own red tray for ongoing projects waiting for her in the studio. :)

Then I had her help me with the wire wall racks.  I couldn't get all the rest of the jars up there because the racks were too close together--especially on the left side.  TaDa!  This is really purged for me!!

She was asking me what I was going to use all the empty ones for.  I don't know yet--lol!  But I have always loved my jars.  I loved looking at them before and now with their new colorful lids they make me as happy as when I gaze upon my colorful wall shelves in the studio.  You can easily see the old blue jars.  I also have old Ball, Mason, and Atlas jars.  I suppose you'd have to be a jar person to understand the joy that wall gives me--lol! ;)  

But now that I've been basically on Keto for several years--I don't need all those boxes of jars I have donated and am donating.  I no longer have flours, pastas, lentils, beans, and all the rest to store.  The only thing I have left is all the various rice.  I had to decide if I was actually going to get rid of the rice, too.  When my good cooker died, the cheapie rice cooker replacement used to burn my rice on the bottom of the pan so I had tossed it.  This was a big decision...but I decided to not toss the rice out.  I'll keep rice in my life for now.

I did some research to find an affordable rice cooker early in the week.  America's Test Kitchen and the like.  There were some fancy ones for closer to $200--uffda!  But the highest rated lower cost one was this Aroma for $39.99.  My Black and Decker that drove me crazy was $29.99.

I made rice yesterday and it worked like a charm!  Whoohoo!  So far so good.  I just have to make sure I don't eat a lot of it.  Really full of carbs...but so good!  Rice is staying with me.  At least until I have used up all that rice in the pantry.  Then I can decide if I want to buy more rice--lol! 

Oh, and Leah is returning the big bag of mealworms to Fleet Farm for me.  Bless her!  :) 

After everything had pretty much melted outside, we had a little bit of snow again.  Can't remember if that was Thursday or Friday during the night.

Oh, also--since my square glass folding table was more or less confiscated by the new humidifier...because the instructions said it had to be two feet off the ground on a flat surface...and I found I was using that folding table almost every day...I ordered another one.  It has ended up holding the birthday cards for me--maybe until I'm done in the pantry.

The humidifier.  Well, since it heats up the water and has a mist spraying out the top--it is yet another humidifier that is leaving white dust on stuff.  Not as badly as the sonic one I bought once that I had to return, but it will be annoying.  At least it is just for this winter.  Dagan and Leah have a humidifier built into their HVAC system, I believe.  Nice!

Can you see the accumulating white stuff on the side of the new file cabinet? 

Overnight it covered this wastebasket liner.  It is definitely attracted to certain types of metal and plastic.  Do any of you have humidifier dust accumulate at your place?

I forgot to show you the photos that came with the McFamily Christmas card this year. 

Leah wanted to order new Christmas stockings this year and she asked if I would like one for myself, too.  They're getting one for Blink so Allie will get one, too!  We'll have all of us for next year!  Sweet!

I didn't tell her, but I've never had a Christmas stocking.  We never did that at my house growing up.  No Christmas morning routine.  On Christmas Eve Day we used to drive from Fridley to Cokato (Minnesota) to spend the day with my dad's parents...where we usually got new pajamas. After an early dinner we left for home.  That night we opened presents and us kids stayed up as late as we could playing with new toys.  Christmas Day we all slept in.  Just a quiet day is all I remember.  Christmas Eve was the big day at our house growing up.  Was only different the years Grandma and Grandpa had moved to Denver, Colorado and we drove over there to stay over Christmas.  But I still do not remember that we had stockings there, either.

Now I will have a stocking that says Gramma on it.  I need to wrap my head around that--lol!

Funny.  I made sure Dagan had one, though, and it got filled with small toys and treats on Christmas morning.  One year I forgot!  Dagan was about eight.  He woke up, was shocked his stocking was flat and empty, so began to quietly search and search and search throughout the entire apartment to find where I had hidden the stocking stuffers.  He just could not find them.  Finally he gingerly woke me up--more concerned that Santa might actually be real than anything else--ROFL!  I said--"Oh no!  I'm so sorry!  I fell asleep and forgot!"  "I knew it!  I knew it!"  He was hopping about--absolutely delighted to find out for sure it was me and not Santa.  (I had hidden them inside a crock pot in the back of a kitchen cupboard.)  We laughed and laughed that Christmas Day about his empty stocking.  We still laugh about it to this day if the subject comes up.

Isn't it funny how we clearly remember the Christmas morning the stocking was empty and barely remember all the other mornings when it was full.  Isn't that how it goes--lol!  I just remember his favorite toy was to get a matchbox car in his stocking.  I always tried to get him more than one if I could.  We always had good times together.

Well, when I next talk to you it will be Christmas Day!!  I hope you have a wonderful time with friends and or family.  Some of you will be like me...on your own over the holidays.  I have been for many years.  

That will be changing when I move, too, to some extent.  McFamily goes every other year to spend Christmas with Dagan's Dad's side of the family.  So they won't be home this year regardless.  I don't know exactly how things will go when I live there...for holidays and birthdays...with my ex and his wife being there.  It will be quite interesting and uncomfortable, I'm sure.  At least at first.  Maybe it will get better over time?  One can hope, right?  

But for this year--same as usual.  A me and the cat Christmas.  The cat has changed over the years.  This year it is Me and Allie.  But I will watch It's a Wonderful Life and A Christmas Story over Christmas Eve and Christmas Day...as I have done for decades.  Only difference these days is I don't have to find my VHS copies or my DVDs...they are both on streaming now.  Nice!  It's just such a happy time for me.  A time for love and kindness--peace and joy--all the best we humans can be, I pray for. :)

I am curious...do you open presents on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day or both?  Or do you have none to actually open?  I've had many Christmases as an adult without any presents to open on Christmas Eve.  But I was just as happy and love the season just as much.  (Harder without snow, though--so I hope we get some soon!)  To those of you who celebrate it--Merry Christmas! :)

December 11, 2023 Monday--5am

 Good morning!

Monday I had great news!  Minor bacteria--not enough to be considered an infection even!  NO ANTIBIOTICS--Whoohoo!!  I was absolutely giddy!  The past couple years every time I was a little better or even on an even keel--some setback occurred to knock me backwards.  I was fully expecting that to happen again with antibiotics doing a real number on me.  Not this time!!  Which also means that the oil of oregano worked!  Surprise!  The week started out on that high note!  That night I started back working on Christmas cards.  :)

Tuesday I was cleaning fountain pens and writing Christmas cards.  Dagan dropped off a few groceries.

Wednesday I did laundry, filled the clean fountain pens, and worked on the Christmas cards.  Leah dropped off a few things from Cashwise and Target.  The drop offs are quick these days and later in the day.  But it is still good to see them, even briefly.

Thursday I finished ALL the Christmas cards and got the last of them out for the mail!  TaDa!!  Finished before the first full week in December was over with.  

Friday I went through the card projects that had been sorted onto trays ages ago--but those sets of birthday cards (had Christmas, too) were too complicated and/or time consuming to possibly finish by the end of the year.  So, I picked out a very, very simple birthday card to make--50 times--lol!  Started stamping.  (With the wonderful Misti that was worth every penny.)  

Meanwhile, the inexpensive humidifier I ordered from Amazon arrived and I could hardly get it set up fast enough!

Has been so dry in here I have gotten bloody noses, Allie has dandruff, and I have had electric hair that sticks to my face.

It's not the greatest humidifier, but it is keeping it more like 35-40% humidity in the living room--ahh!  (vs. 20%)  It is kind of a pain as you can't just turn it on and let it go till it runs low on water.  You can only schedule it to run 8 hours, but at least it does have automatic shutoff if the water gets low.  I am learning to fill it as soon as I wake up and before I go to sleep--and to glance at it regularly during the day to see if it is still working.  Doesn't put out a lot of water for all it appears to when running at full blast on high--lol!  But it will get me through the winter.  My old one had bit the dust, so to speak, and gone to the dumpster last spring.  They never seem to last very long, regardless.  I am thrilled to have it!

I worked all day off and on stamping the birthday cards.

Dagan and the boys came by for a visit after Dagan picked them up from school.  Dagan had done a Fleet Farm pickup of wild bird seed for me and brought it to the garage.  The boys showed me a Bluey cartoon show they watch...about a dog family.  They wanted to show me that the cartoon dogs ate chocolate!  They know real dogs aren't supposed to eat chocolate.  The cartoon dogs eat it regularly, I could see.  Smart of them to catch how wrong that is. :)

Not only did I stamp the birthday cards, but I used up some very old cardstock I had from many years ago that I had bought a ream of from Target.  Was already pre-cut and pre-folded--the last of it has just been around for years because it is super thin so I don't actually like using it for a card base at all.  But I had already cut and folded them--some folded from the top and some from the side.  They've just been shuffled about for years.  Anyways, it is now finally all used up!   They will be flimsy cards, but they will be new handmade ones for 2024. 

Stamped the insides, too.  Finished stamping them!!

Needed to do a sample card to try out the markers just to make sure they wouldn't bleed through the thin cardstock.

Well, I decided not enough to be terrible.  

I could always use some lighter colors, too--so I decided to go for it.  Markers are faster and easier for me than colored pencils...and bolder in color.  But that meant that on Saturday I needed to go through and test that entire big bin of the Tombow dual brush pens because one of the first ones I picked out was all dried out.  

Considering how many years ago I bought the full set of Tombows (maybe a year or two after I moved to West Winds when I had to drop out of college--so around 2006 or 2007?), I was absolutely shocked that I only needed to replace 13 of them and all the rest seemed really good!  Whoohoo!  So I made an order to my trusty JetPens for replacements. :)

Sunday.  We had snow and high winds during the night Saturday night.  Not much snow, but Allie was in seventh heaven...

...because the 45-50mph winds had plastered the snow against the patio door...

...and she had a good-sized spy spot at the bottom.  She can rarely get up that close to do her bird spying.  Made her day.  Well, her morning...for several hours.  Not much interrupts her naptime...all afternoon!  

Due to the high winds there was still grass peeking through the snow beyond my patio.  There was mostly drifting, but not much snow.  Enough that the plows were out in the parking lots, though.

They've been waiting for an excuse to plow.  Those companies live off of mowing and plowing, so they must have been raring to go.

My patio captures snow and makes pretty drifts, of course, so there was a good bit out there.  

I have an alarm on my phone to put out more seed at 3pm so that they can all come eat before dark.  Since I'd put out some extra mid-morning (can't resist putting out some extra food when it is 20 degrees and snow on the ground), there was still some left.  Tossed out some more and within minutes...

...there was a crowd at the Critter Cafe!  I swear they listen for the sound of me opening and closing the patio door--lol!  I wondered where Allie was.

Well, I figured.  Her usual spot.  

Dagan asked me why I don't open the blinds open for her...but this is why.  She loves sleeping in here in the quiet, darkened room.  Once in a while I will open the blinds--but only a few inches so she can spy.  Then she is happy.  But if I do open them and leave them open she gets all disgruntled because she can't sleep well then--lol!  Too much to keep her awake.  Cats!  Gotta love 'em.

So, another productive week--do you believe it?!  Got my Christmas cards all in the mail and have a new set of birthday cards stamped and ready for coloring.  On Tuesday Kenna comes and we will tear apart the pantry.  I don't have to go back for CTscans till the end of May!  No antibiotics!!  I already have presents for the boys--just need to wrap them.  We have a little bit of snow!  I am stocked up on wild bird seed that was on sale!  I have a fairly functional humidifier for the winter.  The boys are happy with school.  Leah really likes her job.  Everyone is getting into the new routine.  We're all healthy.  Life is good!!  What more could one ask for?   I wish you all a stupendous week filled with the holiday spirit!  :) :)

December 3, 2023 Sunday--8pm

 Good evening!

Okay--you're going to laugh, but I never got to those final Christmas cards.  Because I have been feeling so much better by comparison to the past couple of years...well, I mainly just kept working away on the apartment all week.  Couldn't help myself--lol!  Do you know how long it has been since I have had the energy to even be antsy!?  ROFL!  So, I still have several cards to finish up and mail off--BUT--I think I can still meet my own personal deadline of the first week in December, so that would still be a win in my book. :)

There are different numbers of partridges this past week that come to the Critter Cafe.  Definitely more than one covey out there now.

You can tell they are a little more jittery because of the other partridges who also are here off and on all day.  Truly feels like winter now--season of the partridge food battles--ROFL!  

They will settle down for the majority of the time as they figure out when to arrive and who should wait patiently across the way by the tree (or later in the snowbanks).  They do learn to take turns most of the time so there is less chasing and chest flapping at each other--lol!

Anyways, Monday Leah took me for my CT scans.  And I got my results on the labwork from the Friday before.  Not great.  My creatinine (blood test to check your kidney function) was a little above normal and I had bacteria in my urine sample.  So even though I have been feeling a lot better, I am still being dogged by that darn bladder infection.  They wanted me to have another round of labwork before I see Dr. Failing tomorrow.

Tuesday Keanna came to clean.  Later in the early evening Dagan dropped off groceries from Costco while Leah and the boys waited in the car...the new routine.  I did laundry and started working on the tables in the bedroom.  Moving letter writing stuff to the tables in the living room...

...sorting through bins and stacks and boxes...off and on all week.

Wednesday I baked fish, chicken, brownies and made some turkey burgers, too.  Leah dropped off what I had for the drive-up pickups at Target and Cashwise...also a new routine.

Thursday--end of the month stuff.  Got my bullet journal ready for December, banking, and rent check to the office drop box.  Got basically done with the bedroom folding tables.  

Now that it is colder, I notice Allie sleeps almost all afternoon on the table in the bedroom...almost every single day.  And quite deeply, too.  :)

Friday Dagan brought me again to the clinic for labwork.  I worked a lot of that day to finish off the mess I had left to sort from the bedroom folding tables that I had drug out all over the kitchen--because McFamily was coming over Saturday afternoon to work on the "Leah List".  

For years Leah and I have called it the "Leah List" because she was the one I saw almost all the time.  Now it is really just a "Help List" for both Dagan and Leah.  I see them all together more now with all the changes lately...so that is really nice.  

Saturday...

There are some things on the list that are always going to be for Leah only, though.  Like she cut my hair for me!  I went from shoulder length thin-straggly to chin length thin-straggly hair--lol!  Thank you, Leah!  And she printed off the extra sheets for the way I am doing my bullet journal now.  Buying a pre-made planner refill and just adding the extra page really worked great for me this year.  

You may recall Leah had set up my own printed bullet journal for me several years ago which I used for years.  But it was blank and I had to fill in everything.  The worse I felt the more of an overwhelming project that came to be having an undated journal to fill in for the entire year.  Sometimes took me days to set it up for the year--and that was before I set up each month's goals, tracker, etc.  So I wanted to try something new this past year.  We just put together one insert page for a binder journal.

Printed on both sides is other essential stuff I used all the time in my bullet that are not included in regular planner refills so that I could add it into the binder.

For my 2023 experiment I have been using this Jumping Fox binder...

...and this refill I found that fit the bill for what I used to make for myself.  Close enough.

A decent sized monthly calendar...

...with a weekly two page spread.  I wasn't sure I could get used to my extra insert page being stuck into the first week of the month like this...

...but I have gotten used to it after an entire year of using it.  I also wanted a refill that had full sized sections for every day of the week and not smaller ones for Saturday and Sunday.

This year I found a new mini-binder that was right up my alley, eh?  A rainbow of colors!

Trying to find a refill for a three ring mini-binder wasn't easy.  (Couldn't find the one I used this year.)  But a seven hole refill fit perfectly.  I found a colorful one!

It looks like it is made by the same company as far as the layout goes.  Perfect!

These days I only have to fill out all the information on my insert page every month.  Used to take me so much time and effort (Leah, too) that I got to dreading it.  I am loving the premade refills, I tell you.  

As long as this works for me, I am one happy camper!  Whoohoo!

Anyways, Dagan and Leah did a lot of things for me while the boys watched Walking With Dinosaurs (old one from 1999) and The Secret Life of Pets (Netflix).  Leah cut my hair and made the binder pages.  She and Dagan moved the other big box I had finished packing in the bedroom up on to the U-Haul wall.  

Dagan got my VHS player unhooked and out of the TV cabinet.  Hard to tell it is empty in this picture, but I had emptied the rest of the cabinet except for the VHS player and a box of random stuff I have always referred to as "the techie box".  

They went thru the techie box to see what was worth keeping and what could be tossed...cords, remotes, plugs, and all kinds of mysterious-to-me stuff--lol!
 

They also got all the wire cube shelves apart from the studio closet.  Then today--Sunday--I moved all the tall flat stuff from the side of the (now totally empty) closet...

...and added it to the stack of big flat art paper boxes under the table in the bedroom.

And this is what the living room tables look like.  Dagan sorted through all the extension cords and such, too.

Almost down to the end of this seemingly endless process.  Whoohoo!  

Oh, funny!  Dagan asked why I had that lamp on the floor (above).  Now he knows it is Allie's heat-spa--lol!  The things I do for my critters.  Of course, Allie doesn't think it is silly.  ;)

You talking about me?

Tomorrow Leah will take me to see Dr. Failing.  My bloodwork results were back to normal (kidneys) but still have bacteria in the urine sample.  :(  So I am pretty sure he will want me on medication.  We will likely need to go pick up antibiotics and also go buy some prebiotics to combat the antibiotics--lol!  Oh well.  Hey--no cancer, that's the main thing.  I hope this bladder infection doesn't interfere with him stretching the checkup to six months.  Shouldn't.

Keanna doesn't come back to clean until Tuesday the 12th.  When she does, she knows the plan is to get down everything up high in the pantry...hand them down to me like we did with the punches and such in the studio.  She said she was okay with that.  Will turn my kitchen back to chaos again...but I really, really want to be done with the pantry before the new year.  I'll be done with the entire apartment!  Purged everything in here and packed everything I could ahead of time.  Whoohoo!

Leah couldn't understand why I drag everything out at once and make such a huge mess.  But I explained it's that very chaos that is my motivation.  My OCD-self hates all the chaos--so then I have to keep plugging away on purging and sorting through it all.  It forces me to keep at it--plugging away with the baby steps until it is all done...no matter how long it takes.  Once I drag it all out--I am forced to deal with it because of who I am or how I am, you know?  There's a method to my madness, as is said.  

Going through everything you own--wow!  It has been quite the process.  Freeing.  The deeper I got into it as I went along the easier it became to let go of things.  I will likely go back through where I first started in the bathroom again this winter.  I am sure I can let go of more in there now than I could back then--lol!  Bags and bags of trash have gone to the dumpster.  So many bags and boxes have gone for donations.  There will be a lot less to move this time than when I moved in here eight years ago.  Feels so good.

In my mind I am totally ignoring even thinking about the garage, though, as you know.  Deal with that in the spring...but that will be gone through, too.  Nice!

What's super nice is--I have been feeling better.  Obviously--lol!  So, I have (hopefully) the whole winter to finally play more and make cards and such.  I realized I hadn't thought I'd be here this winter when I went through the bedroom, so I packed away my New Year's Eve stuff...my angel cards and burning bowl.  But I think I need to think of a word for 2024 if nothing else.  Must be something to do with creativity and play and art and crafts and change and being blessed with new beginnings...something that would include all of that.  Probably not possible to cover all that in one word, but that is what I am trying to think of for 2024.  (And one of the reasons I want to be done with the pantry--have all the P&P in here behind me in 2023--lol!)  If you have any ideas for a word to pick, please toss them my way.

Well, tomorrow I am off to Dr. Failing.  No cancer reported again that I could see in the results online...just the bladder infection.  Now, I really, really, really need to finish Christmas cards up soon if I am going to have them all out by my goal of the first week in December.  Till next week.  Bless you.  I do so appreciate every comment, email, snail mail, and just any good thought in my direction.  Been a rough last few years and it finally feels, since November now, that things have turned around and are moving forward positively.  Hopefully I will keep seeing the gradual improvements.  2024 could be some year!  Truly a new start.  A second chance.  Better than expected, put it that way.  Feeling better and being more functional.  I am soooo grateful.  What more could I ask for!  :)  See you next Monday!