IT’S BACK TO SCHOOL TIME. Except most people aren’t going back. Still, school supplies. A new year. Two months to the election. Forget I said that last one. This week, I’m going to get my living room turned into an office and throw out most of the stuff in the kitchen. (Last week I watched the room spin and failed to recharge my laptop.)
What’s on your to-do/already-did list?
I’ve managed to run without a lot of hip pain twice this week, so that’s a win. Getting younger child settled into an online school schedule mostly successfully.
Trying to come up with a plan for older child on the spectrum, b/c what the school has for him “as is” is not going to work. At all. I mean, I’m home so I can sit there and do the work for him, but I already went to 6th grade. I don’t need to go again.
Oh yes, and working on my patience. See above š
I have been hauling boxes of books out of the shed, most are fine, some are chewed. Most libraries are not taking donations right now, so they are going to the book bin. Anyone want to wartime diaries of Harold Nicolson? Anyone need a very large suitcase? Also, more paper to shred.
So today I’m resting my back and planning the errands to dispose of what I’ve got out. I’ve got a chiropractic appointment in the afternoon, which will be good.
I’ve decided that I’m going to get a job in October, so I need to get this stuff done while it’s cool enough and I have time. I really hope that is true.
WELCOME TO TEMPTATION is on sale for $2.99 on Kindle today. Don’t know about matching.
My first Crusie and one of my personal favorites. . .
This I did not know. Thank you!
It’s on sale all month. I bought it, even though I have my autographed hardback that made the Portugal cut. Because sometimes you just want to read it NOW.
I reread it again the other week because I was depressed. I think it’s one of my top romances EVER.
Smooch.
Ditto.
Yay! I’ve got it in hardcover, but not on the Kindle. I might read it on my vacation.
I got rid of more stuff. The unit is small and I had too much clutter. Bought gray storage bins that fit perfectly inside the bookshelf that holds the flat screen tv. Non fiction books in one, my own books and CDās in another, fiction in another, office equipment and laptop, gym equipment in last one, and in the center of top shelf is the record player.
Then I switched out the old gold and black toned rug for one in gray and blue and cream tones. Gray cushions on kitchen chairs and multi toned gray and black table mats. I reframed several pictures in white (I have gray walls and white trim and shutters) and got rid of the ancient gold toned frames. Little touches of blue and burgundy here and there. Itās lighter, brighter, seems bigger, and it makes me smile every time I enter.
That sounds wonderful, gray and blue are so calm.
I am taking a four-day weekend and finishing the art project for our son. Even if I have to skip the dusting *again*.
We are almost finished our massive summer to-do list, just in the nick of time as fall is thundering down the mountain at us – or up the mountain more accurately.
Paul has a few small things left on his list and I’m going to help him with a couple of those today. Some jobs just need 4 hands and not 2. He’s itching to get back to his wood working/turning and has even come up with a few projects that he wants to work on over the winter, which is good.
My list for the week includes working on the laundry room clean up/reno/whatever and some berry picking. And the day job, always the day job.
I’m excited because aquafit starts on Tuesday and I’m going to try for 2 classes a week, every other day. I’ve already told myself and Paul that I’m letting my knee guide me and if I only make 1 class per week, that’s good enough.
I designed a gaiter-style mask (but made out of flannel, and yes, I know about the infamous study, but a later one showed it flawed methodology for the gaiters, and on top of that, the original study used just one layer of a weird fabric, and mine are two layers of reliable flannel) and got a bunch of materials (on sale!) to make them for friends/family for the winter when it will be nice to have a flannel cowl around the neck, and then it can be pulled up when going places that require face coverings. I’ll share on Instagram when I have more than the prototype complete, probably this weekend, because now that I have the design, I’m planning to make a bunch of them over the long holiday weekend.
Other than that, I’ve got a bunch of irons in assorted fires, but I’m still waiting for them to heat up, so for at least the rest of this month, I’m in limbo, which makes it hard to figure out what to work on.
My son was given an arm linking monkey from a Barrel of Monkeys game by one of his company’s customers. The arm links to the elastic so he can hook it behind his head instead of over his ears. He says it is more comfortable.
The * has gone on my keyboard. While not the most popular letter, it does seem to crop up surprisingly o*ten when you don’t have one.
Alt-42 = *
There are alt-number combos for every key on the keyboard.
https://fsymbols.com/keyboard/windows/alt-codes/list/
My E popped off first month into quarantine on my work computer. Frequent wedging finally got it stuck in place.
CTRL fell off next month, and no amount of wedging will fix it. Superglue didn’t last a day. I gave up and just smooth the little plastic circle that lives under the key.
Figure if that’s the worst, I can deal.
I got out my home project list today. I looked at it, thought “that would all be nice” and put it back in my calendar. On the other hand, I did sweep the dining room floor last Sunday, so anything is possible.
I finished the edit on racism, which has depressed me. Felt more racist after doing it, which is upsetting. Iāve also finished my accounts, and filed my tax return online yesterday, which was just as stressful as I feared it would be. Partly because, as I realized when I got upset over having to pay Ā£28 extra in National Insurance (really not a big deal, they just sprang it on me with no explanation), I really really need a holiday.
So Iāve decided Iām taking September off. Probably not going anywhere, but Iām going to just play – go exploring with my camera, write if I fancy it, maybe do some collaging. Avoid the news and not worry about money or anything else if I can help it.
This week is pre-holiday jobs: doing my filing, cleaning the house, planning my holiday, making five batches of jam (I bought Victoria plums and apricots this morning, and then a friend turned up with three lots of damsons), and weeding & mulching the rest of the allotment – I spent the weekend digging bindweed out of the big bed I grew potatoes in.
PS. Just posted a snapshot of the allotment on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/p/CEpHgBFHbfj/
I garden vicariously through you.
Thatās a lot less tiring!
I’m glad you’re taking a break. As a freelancer with steady work, I know it’s important to rest the mind and be bored. My client has a break in the schedule that comes every fall, so I’ll have a month or two without that income, but it’s worth it mentally. Enjoy!
Bindweed. Ugh.
But it was such a tragic romance!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6uCOM2hf3d8
Said the right-handed honeysuckle to the left-handed bindweed
Oh, let us get married, if our parents don’t mind, we’d
Be loving and inseparable, inextricably entwined, we’d
Live happily ever after, said the honeysuckle to the bindweed.
To the honeysuckle parents it came as a shock.
The bindweeds, they cried, are inferior stock!
They’re uncultivated, of breeding bereft
We twine to the right and they twine to the left.
(From Misalliance by Flanders and Swann)
Fortunately, no honeysuckle on the allotment – though I was thinking of moving one there. Youāve given me pause!
Heh, we’ve got both but they seem to have split the garden between them. They’re neighbors, not lovers.
I planted honeysuckle and it died. I have the Black Thumb of Doom.
Wow, the allotment looks amazing
I’ve taken temporary reins over the kitchen while my husband is unwell. He retired before me and that’s when it started. Today because it is cool and rainy I’m making Shepherd’s Pie. Can’t believe I had to look it up to make sure I’m doing it right. All my cooking skills have gone down the tubes.
They’ve only gone into remote storage. Once you start using them more often, the memories will come forward to be more accessible. I stopped baking a few years ago and then had to make some cookies for a birthday present. The first batch was murder, but as I got going, the things that I knew but never wrote down started coming back to me.
I realized a long time ago that the only way I will consistently exercise is if I make myself get up and go first thing in the morning. You’d think that working from home would free me up to go for a walk whenever, but given the summer heat and humidity here, I stayed inside too much.
So this week I have gone for a walk every morning. Later in the fall I will consider getting up earlier so I have more morning time before I have to sit down in front of the computer, but that will entail going to bed at a reasonable hour, which is not something I find easy to do. I am 100% a night owl.
The psychological benefit of getting myself out the door every morning is that it somehow makes it more likely that I will also go for a walk in the evening if weather, time, and schedule permit. Plus I’ve started the day achieving something.
This week has been exhausting.
With the radiation, my DH had to sleep in the guestroom and use the guest bath. So, we found out there was a problem with the shower. And previous homeowner replaced the handle on the shower and stripped the screw, so a simple fix job became a big replace job. It necessitated moving everything away from the wall that backed the bathtub – which happens to be in my sewing room. So big hutch and assorted stuff are now in the middle of that room. DH moved the hutch, but in order to get it back, I have to empty it and there is no place. . . it’s almost overwhelming. I’m trying to go in there and work a little every so often during the day.
With the sewing room out of action, I was glad to have my little sewing machine on the dining room table. (I’ve seen a meme with a very attractive man saying “Hey Babe, it’s cool that I stepped on one of your pins in the dining room” – and while I laughed, it’s a little sad too.) I started a NEW paper piecing project using fabric from my collection. I didn’t accomplish as much as I thought I would, but perhaps that was just being lethargic from the radiation. Yeah, I’ll say that is what is is.
Had my post-rad scan today. Waiting on pins and needles for the results. Who knows when I’ll get those.
Time to get back to my mess.
Scanxiety is real. Be well and don’t push yourself unduly, please.
I’ve got freelance work to be finished within the next 10 days; it’s begun, but I’m losing interest. Mostly I watch the kittens, now four weeks old, though today is also laundry and dishes, and I’ve already cleaned the bathroom, sorta, which is how I do it. The most exciting thing in my life is booking my first massage [since February] for next week.
after refusing a doctors offer to inject something into muscle connections behind my ear, Idealt with my vertigo with exercises (google vertigo exercises at home). The exercises done while lying flat on your back are the ones I’ve used to get rid of the vertigo. it came back twice in 15 years, did the exercises and it went away each time within 4 days of exercise. And stayed away (last episode was 3 years ago just to help me celebrate my 60th lol)ā¦ take care, stay safe
For me, the work is getting myself to do things. Over the years, I’ve come to do less and less, which makes it harder to do anything. I have a new therapist and she suggested I start small so I can build up a habit of achievement: get dressed, brush teeth, etc. When I think of how I used to be self-motivated and active and always following through, it feels like I have just developed layers and layers of this smothering, oppressive, heavy Stuff. I can almost feel it. So, along with visualizing getting work (please, something useful that pays decent, preferably as an editor!), I am visualizing ridding myself of those layers of Stuff: raking it, scooping it, whatever works mentally. Because it’s gotten so bad I barely do anything. So, along with the things on my to-do list that I haven’t yet done, I have to fight my way past all the junk into functionality. Because life is so very conducive to mental health right now.
Today, I am tackling the paint cans in the garage. Lots of old paint cans. The latex paint, if it’s dried out, can just go into the regular trash (hurrah!), while any oil base will have to go to hazardous waste, which means figuring out what/where that is these days. So yeah, paint.
Then I can knit.
Just got back from ten days of camping in Northern Vermont yesterday. Breaking camp and 6 plus hours of driving (with break half way through at BIL’s for hot-dogs, etc) have left both of us completely wasted.
We “glamp” so we bring a LOT of stuff. We managed to get everything off of the (open) utility trailer and into the garage last night, which was good as we woke up to pouring rain this morning. Today we unloaded the car and I have started laundry and running all of the camping cookware through the dishwasher to get rid of that fine layer of grease that never seems to come off when you are doing limited-water dishpan washing up. I’m sure that it is going to take the rest of the week to get everything laundered/washed/rinsed down and packed away for the season.
I have been practicing for starting the CAL mosaic “crochet along” that starts mid-month and am mentally trying to figure out were I can create a good yarn stash for the yarn that I ordered and the other yarn that I might order…My knitting yarn stash was basically ends from sock and sweater projects and not particularly useful for crocheting….hmm…eyes the “office” closet full of old work notebooks, diaries and tech manuals that I will never reference again now that I’m retired…
Now if I can just find the energy to go to the food store and find something to eat for dinner.
Which CAL are you thinking of?
Tinna Thorudottir Thorvaldarās Queen CAL. Pattern available on Ravelry. Facebook group is āTinnaās crochet clubā. It starts Sept 18th
That’s really nice. I’m sorely tempted!
Cleaned the kitchen and finished a beet-farro-feta salad (most of the prep was done yesterday). Coming up are back-to-back online meetings, election board and League of Women Voters.
I’m keeping to my must-do cleaning schedule but just can’t seem to motivate myself into doing anything extra. I take that back, tomorrow I’ll be making a batch of garlic/dill pickles. I hit the farm stand yesterday for the beets and cucumbers.
Right now it’s time for some iced decaf green/mnit tea.One of the board members suggested a glass of wine; but, I’ll stick to the tea.
So, when I went to visit my sister in Southport NC (just in time for the hurricane) I made the trip in 2 legs. This was the first week of August.
First from PA to Fredericksburg VA (somehow I got lost in Washington DC) and they have sent me a $100 speeding ticket.
We never made it to the beach, we had no power/internet for 2 days.
Then the other day when I was out for a walk, a yappy little dog bit me.
I welcome September- nothing but good times ahead !!!
I scheduled and accomplished two doctor appointments! These are the first medical outings since the start of Covid. Saw my primary doctor, who kicked my butt about my Covid weight gain, and we worked out food and exercise strategies. So far, the new food habits are working fine. Still need to implement the exercise strategy; plan to walk tomorrow.
I also splurged on a new recliner, one of those electrical ones that will stand me up. (I have both knee and hip replacement within the next couple years, planning ahead.) On the advice of the nice young tech doing my mammogram this morning (ugh, but at least it is done now!) I went to a medical supply center rather than a furniture store, and found a great range of chairs, at lower prices than the furniture store! It’s being delivered tomorrow.
Finally, my son and I have a Task list we’re working thru, to finish setting up and decluttering the condo before he starts his senior year, end of September. We’ll see how that goes.
I got my big work project that has been taking months to do done on Monday at 5. Whew.
Now I am working on all the stuff I couldn’t get done because I had the big project to work on….
laundry
focus the laser
groceries
clean sheets
(one of these things is not like others)
Today I celebrated my wedding anniversary by baking cinnamon star bread. There’s 1/4th of it left. We snarfed it down. Delicious! He bought flowers and wrote me a lovely note.
I stressed out over an upcoming meeting with my grandboss about the future of my job combined with the pressure I’m putting on myself to study for a certification test that I’m aiming to take before Sept. 26th (my birthday). So, this morning I was a basket case. Luckily, a friend listened and prayed for me and I’m doing a lot better.
As for accomplishments, that was last week. This week it’s all about catching up on email and working 10 hour days to make up for my vacation. š
I hope Jenny that you figure out a way to rid yourself of the vertigo!
Everyone is dealing with vertigo and cancer and chemo or relatives who are. I’m being a whiny l’il bitch because my internet was out overnight, Comcast at its finest. I need to get some perspective. Heck, my solution above was to switch to one of my other computers, the one with eBooks and solitaire.
All y’all be well, or get well.
School starts Tuesday and I’m drowning in work. It’s worse because “working from Home” means running into town to get something from the building at least once a day because I can’t do my job without it. It doesn’t help that I’m constantly being asked to do new things so I can’t anticipate.
Hmm. I seem to be grouchy. Ha! What’s new?
I’ve been working. Aside from Day Job, I’ve been working on the Structured Novel Project, which is now about 90% done in alpha draft. It has been a very interesting challenge!