How I'm keeping my sanity during the fires & smoke....

A couple weekends ago we got a new to us nifty file cabinet. It has 3 drawers on the left & a door on the right. Open the door & it has a small safe & 2 shelves. We snatched this up for $15 from a yard sale. It needed to have the safe combo picked. Well, to have that done by someone would have cost around $50 & done some damage to the door. We figured out how to get the door off, losing only the 2 hinge pins. We took apart the door/combo lock & got the combo to the safe. 

Put it all back together & now all we need is new pins to use that part. The drawer side had a stuck slider & no key for the lock. No biggie, as we just disengaged the slider & lock. The door also had a lock with no key. That one was easy to repair with a new lock for $4.

It now sits comfortably in the closet of the spare room.

not filled yet but working on it.

Having this new place to put files of course leads to going thru our files … which led to finding old papers from when the girls were in school. So before just re-filing them, again, I asked if they would like to have them so I don’t have to keep them anymore. My oldest responded with a yes. No word from my younger one yet. Now, as I pulled the papers out I knew there were more somewhere. So this led to me pulling containers of keep it stuff down from the top of the closet in the spare room. 

Holy cow what did I get into? What I got into was the past … lots of cards exchanged between me & hubby, cards & letters from my Omi to me & the girls, letters from my older daughter when she had to spend summers with her dad, and so much more. This was on top of all the school papers, report cards, award ribbons & certificates & old pictures & a couple year booklets. So there I sat, going thru it all just enough to make 2 piles, one for each of my daughters. I could sit & go thru them again enjoying some of the memories … but I think the girls are old enough now to maybe appreciate some of this too.

kids stuff - 2 piles & 2 big folders w/artwork

It’s funny how attempting to organize one new thing leads to re-organizing several other things. I now have one file box under my desk area that has paper, labels & all the extra file folders I have left over stored neatly away, within reach. One drawer of the cabinet has all our personal file stuff while the middle drawer has all my business stuff. The bottom drawer will house all misc stuff. Feels kinda good to once again be a bit more organized in this area. While going thru the kids stuff & several containers from the closet I managed to repack some things into fewer containers. So that was a plus as well.

misc files let to sort

I have a small stack of misc stuff to go thru & file into some sort of organized system. I know I have plenty of folders for the task!

Next I really need to organize some of my misc business *stuff* better. I have several containers full of … stuff. Stuff to mount & mat some images but I want to use these things in a different way now. Stuff for packaging product. Stuff for … making things (parts) and just more … stuff. Of course its also the time o year where I really need to get moving on making new 2013 calendars for the upcoming holiday show as well as anything else new for the holidays. I think being a bit more organized might help me focus better on the next things. We’ll see. Here’s hoping the organizing of the biz containers goes quick!

Catching up after a vacation

So, another week ends. This one was kind of nice tho. For the last 9 days, hubby has been on an actual paid vacation. Not that we had funds to really go away, but it was nice to have the time together even at home. We totally did not do several things we talked about doing. Figures. We did go back to a place we had not been since 2008. That was nice. We visited Deception Falls which is located just on the west side of Stevens Pass, in the North Cascade Mountains.

The first Saturday we went & bit the bullet of getting new tires put on our Escape. This alone would have not been bad. But, as it often goes once you begin to have something done, more things make themselves known. That was the case with the car. Wasn’t bad enough we had to spend just over $800 on 4 new tires. Nope. Now we have to spend another over $900 on tie rods, struts, brakes & ball joints. Tho we can’t really complain too much since the car is paid off & we have not done much to it in the years we have had it … it just hurts when it all comes at once. At least we’re safe again when we drive.

clear coated & stenciled. big hit!

We also took a trip down to visit with my dad & his wife. They live down in the Tri Cities, as its known. It’s about 2.5 hours south of us, along the Columbia. There are 3 cities that all kind of run into each other. Was a nice visit. It’s really strange too … for the first time, there was no feeling of anxiety or stress or anything. It was calm & fun. We talked about it on the way home. How if it had felt that way a couple years ago, we probably would have more eagerly looked to move there. Will we now? I don’t think so… not right now anyways. Aside from the freaky landlady we like it here, and the way things are. But anyway … I shared my new venture of making wrap pants with them & Neva now wants me to make her a pair. Nice. We got to go fabric shopping too! And, hubby brought the wine box we made for my dad. He loved it. And, asked us to make one for his brother in law. Cool. Nice visit & not one but 2 paid orders for stuff. We both have a deadline of the 25^th for these.

gotta love peanut butter in a kong bone!

We got back from the visit Friday afternoon. Left the dog at the local Club Pet … its affiliated with & connected to the local Humane Society, which is where we got her to begin with. Anyway… it was her first time being away from us since we got her. When we dropped her off on Wednesday afternoon, the one gal was pretty nice & understanding. The one at the desk tho, left much to be desired. Not sure if she was new or what … but her people skills, need serious work. Then when hubby went to pick her up, the same girl was at the desk & another gal was the one to bring Caeli back out. No notes on how she did or anything. Again, no people skills from the front desk gal either. Very disappointing. In the past we have had nothing but good service & communication with them. It makes me sad to think we might want to find elsewhere to board her when we need to. I think I’ll email someone in charge tho & voice my concerns …

Sometime earlier in the week I did something to my left knee. Not sure what but it hurts. It’s not really swollen tho. First night in the hot tub at dads was alright ... second night tho, kinda made it hurt more. Then Saturday while chatting with our upstairs neighbor, I put my right foot down to get from the upper drive to our main driveway & messed up my ankle. Lovely huh? So here I am with a bum right knee & left ankle. The ankle is a bit swollen but not bad. Walking with a normal gait hurts, but if I walk on the ball & toe of that foot I can hobble along nicely. LOL It’ll get better & meanwhile I’ll work to not be on it so much if possible.

I’m hearing again of my stepfather’s father being in the hospital. Not cool. He’s always been Papa to me. The only grandfather I’ve had. He had gone in several weeks ago for something & came out with knowledge that he not only has several medical issues, but a bone cancer. Funny how you never think of a man who has always been such a strong family leader as being able to be sick. He is old too, born in 1928. I always just thought they both would die of old age. I guess we all just hope that for our elders.

I am really not liking this whole phase of life where a woman goes thru menopause. Nope, not at all. And of course I can’t be one of those women who just have their cycle come to an abrupt halt. Nope … mine has to become a bit erratic & give me even more of an emotional roller coaster. And I’ve read that this whole process can take over 10 years to completely pass… that, is way too long. I am so very thankful to have such an understanding husband. Tho I think he’d be more understanding if I could be in the mood a bit more often … I do not like this decrease in the libido thing. Not that it’s gone, just more erratic.

So here I sit, on another Monday, trying to figure out what to do first. I should be hearing from the landlady sometime today. I need a shower, to do a load of laundry, wash a few dishes, vacuum, plan at least dinner for tonight & I’m sure several other things involving the computer. Oh yeah … & I need to figure out how to get the slick fabric to cooperate so I can get another pair of wrap pants sewn for one of the girls who works with my hairdresser… then I can start on my step mom’s pair.

I know I need to get my business back into high gear too. The holidays are coming & I want to get some stuff made & lots of stuff sold. Gotta make time to get a few new calendars designed for next year too. Wow. Lots to do & what am I doing? Sitting here farting around with my thoughts. LOL Guess I should get this posted & get a move on….

Allowing the body to recharge

We had a great visit with hubby’s dad & step mom over the weekend. Sunday we ended up going on an awesome hike. It was also the day the hubby began to feel better from the crud stuff he had, & I began to feel the crud coming on. Lovely. So I spent the past few days doing not much of anything, knowing I was getting behind on everything. But when you have sinus pressure, can’t breathe all too well & feel drained, what else can you do?

I drank lots of herbal teas. I really loved the Traditional Medicinal’s Breathe Easy tea. Awesome flavor & it seemed to help. I also sucked on many Vitamin C chews I had picked up from the clearance bin at Wal-Mart not long ago. So combine all that with plenty of rest & working up a sweat on food bank day… & I finally feel almost all better. Still have a bit of the sniffles & a slight cough but otherwise feel very renewed.

Get moving

There is a topic going on in the Zibbet Community talking about getting healthy. We all know how tough it is. I also know, doing it on your own can be even tougher. If you are anything like me, you read all kinds of stuff, from everywhere, about everything health related.

I try to eat right. Well, okay, I try to eat … better. I have my weaknesses. But, we all do. Whether or not we admit it, is another thing. For me, eating better seems to come in waves. There are times when it’s so easy to eat good & not snack on junk. Other times, it’s all I can do to not fill my day with junk. Part of this is the hormone fluctuation I still have on a monthly basis. The other part is just … lack of motivation. And I think a lot of that stems from the fact I’m home alone all day, every day. My day out is spent at the local food bank, volunteering. That day I do pretty good. I get exercise, I’m away from snacking & have something to occupy my mind.

The rest of the week, I’m home. I spend (admittedly) probably too much time in front of this computer. I have things I can do away from here, but again, it’s the motivation that hinders me.

Today hubby’s dad & step mom are in town for a short visit (from FL). We’ll be playing tour guide & generally visiting until Sunday night. This should help out in the snacking & eating dept. I hope. Well, maybe the snack part at least. We’ll see about the eating thing which will depend on where we eat while they are here.

So once they are on their way back home I will look into all of the eating better & exercising thing again. I will also be talking to our landlady (hopefully) about letting us have a dog. She should be alright with it since she said we could talk about it when we first moved in. We’ve proven to be good tenants over the past year so…

I really feel having a doggie again will help to motivate me to at least get out & walk more. So until then … keep thinking positive ….

Marriage

Today … I give you something to read & truly ponder. Life can be taken from us at any time. I know I value my marriage. I love my husband with all my heart & soul. I know we both strive to not take each other for granted, ever. I know that we are connected not just physically, but spiritually …

I know it is a bit lengthy, but please, read … to the end.

MARRIAGE

2005

When I got home that night as my wife served dinner, I held her hand and said, I've got something to tell you. She sat down and ate quietly. Again I observed the hurt in her eyes.

Suddenly I didn't know how to open my mouth. But I had to let her know what I was thinking. I want a divorce. I raised the topic calmly.

She didn't seem to be annoyed by my words, instead she asked me softly, why?

I avoided her question. This made her angry. She threw away the chopsticks and shouted at me, you are not a man! That night, we didn't talk to each other. She was weeping. I knew she wanted to find out what had happened to our marriage. But I could hardly give her a satisfactory answer; she had lost my heart to Jane. I didn't love her anymore. I just pitied her!

With a deep sense of guilt, I drafted a divorce agreement which stated that she could own our house, our car, and 30% stake of my company.

She glanced at it and then tore it into pieces. The woman who had spent ten years of her life with me had become a stranger. I felt sorry for her wasted time, resources and energy but I could not take back what I had said for I loved Jane so dearly. Finally she cried loudly in front of me, which was what I had expected to see. To me her cry was actually a kind of release. The idea of divorce which had obsessed me for several weeks seemed to be firmer and clearer now.

2006

The next day, I came back home very late and found her writing something at the table. I didn't have supper but went straight to sleep and fell asleep very fast because I was tired after an eventful day with Jane.

When I woke up, she was still there at the table writing. I just did not care so I turned over and was asleep again.

In the morning she presented her divorce conditions: she didn't want anything from me, but needed a month's notice before the divorce. She requested that in that one month we both struggle to live as normal a life as possible. Her reasons were simple: our son had his exams in a month's time and she didn't want to disrupt him with our broken marriage.

This was agreeable to me. But she had something more, she asked me to recall how I had carried her into out bridal room on our wedding day.

She requested that every day for the month's duration I carry her out of our bedroom to the front door ever morning. I thought she was going crazy. Just to make our last days together bearable I accepted her odd request.

I told Jane about my wife's divorce conditions. . She laughed loudly and thought it was absurd. No matter what tricks she applies, she has to face the divorce, she said scornfully.

2007

My wife and I hadn't had any body contact since my divorce intention was explicitly expressed. So when I carried her out on the first day, we both appeared clumsy. Our son clapped behind us, daddy is holding mommy in his arms. His words brought me a sense of pain. From the bedroom to the sitting room, then to the door, I walked over ten meters with her in my arms. She closed her eyes and said softly; don't tell our son about the divorce. I nodded, feeling somewhat upset. I put her down outside the door. She went to wait for the bus to work. I drove alone to the office.

On the second day, both of us acted much more easily. She leaned on my chest. I could smell the fragrance of her blouse. I realized that I hadn't looked at this woman carefully for a long time. I realized she was not young any more. There were fine wrinkles on her face, her hair was graying! Our marriage had taken its toll on her. For a minute I wondered what I had done to her.

On the fourth day, when I lifted her up, I felt a sense of intimacy returning. This was the woman who had given ten years of her life to me.

On the fifth and sixth day, I realized that our sense of intimacy was growing again. I didn't tell Jane about this. It became easier to carry her as the month slipped by. Perhaps the everyday workout made me stronger.

She was choosing what to wear one morning. She tried on quite a few dresses but could not find a suitable one. Then she sighed, all my dresses have grown bigger. I suddenly realized that she had grown so thin, that was the reason why I could carry her more easily.

Suddenly it hit me... she had buried so much pain and bitterness in her heart. Subconsciously I reached out and touched her head.

2008

Our son came in at the moment and said, Dad, it's time to carry mom out. To him, seeing his father carrying his mother out had become an essential part of his life. My wife gestured to our son to come closer and hugged him tightly. I turned my face away because I was afraid I might change my mind at this last minute. I then held her in my arms, walking from the bedroom, through the sitting room, to the hallway. Her hand surrounded my neck softly and naturally. I held her body tightly; it was just like our wedding day.

But her much lighter weight made me sad. On the last day, when I held her in my arms I could hardly move a step. Our son had gone to school. I held her tightly and said, I hadn't noticed that our life lacked intimacy.

I drove to office.... jumped out of the car swiftly without locking the door. I was afraid any delay would make me change my mind...I walked upstairs. Jane opened the door and I said to her, Sorry, Jane, I do not want the divorce anymore.

She looked at me, astonished, and then touched my forehead. Do you have a fever? She said. I moved her hand off my head. Sorry, Jane, I said, I won't divorce. My marriage life was boring probably because she and I didn't value the details of our lives, not because we didn't love each other anymore. Now I realize that since I carried her into my home on our wedding day I am supposed to hold her until death do us apart.

Jane seemed to suddenly wake up. She gave me a loud slap and then slammed the door and burst into tears. I walked downstairs and drove away.

At the floral shop on the way, I ordered a bouquet of flowers for my wife. The salesgirl asked me what to write on the card. I smiled and wrote, I'll carry you out every morning until death do us apart.

That evening I arrived home, flowers in my hands, a smile on my face, I run up stairs, only to find my wife in the bed - dead.

2009

My wife had been fighting CANCER for months and I was so busy with Jane to even notice. She knew that she would die soon and she wanted to save me from the whatever negative reaction from our son, in case we push thru with the divorce.-- At least, in the eyes of our son--- I'm a loving husband....

The small details of your lives are what really matter in a relationship. It is not the mansion, the car, property, the money in the bank. These create an environment conducive for happiness but cannot give happiness in themselves. So find time to be your spouse's friend and do those little things for each other that build intimacy. Do have a real happy marriage!

If you don't share this, nothing will happen to you.

If you do, you just might save a marriage.

Many of life's failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.

one year later

This post was from my personal blog when I had them separated...
I noticed yesterday that it has been one whole year since I put anything in here. a whole year. Wow. And so much has changed in this last year. We moved to Florida in March. We moved back in August. Hubby worked from September to December 3rd. And he''s been laid off since. While we were in Florida my spiritual side seemed to almost vanish. I spent more time being sad, lonely & depressed than I did enjoying being near family & friends. I learned there are fewer real friends than I thought. I learned you can't ever really go home. I learned you can't step back into a world you left because time changes you.

The spiritual side of me seriously went dormant while we were away form here. Is it back? Not quite to my liking yet, but I can say I feel so much better, even with the current circumstances, being back up here. That has to mean something.

So one of the main reasons we went was to be there for my husbands father. He has made pretty much a total recovery. My mom is doing alright, but she put things in a way that made me love her even more. When we told everyone we were leaving & coming back here my mom was sad. But she understood because we told her how miserable we were, trying to live there. She told me how she wished all her family could be right there but she knows we all have to live our lives. I love her for that.

In my last post I talked about how this Valley seems to be a stopover for many. I know now that our time here was not finished. I'm not sure what exactly we have to do here, but I vow to try & enjoy every minute of it. I have noticed that since we've been back, I have felt a pull to be more ... in tune with Nature & learn more. Now I just need to find the discipline to accomplish that.

I also mentioned that I saw us not staying in Florida forever. Seems that was true, & even much shorter than I thought. Do I still see us going to the southwest? I'm not sure. I have been so wrapped up in being back 'here' I have not given it much thought.

I also said I had made peace with moving. I think I lied. I tried to convince myself that I had made peace with it. I tried to convince everyone else too, that it was what we needed to do. We did it & we can't undo it. All we can do now is learn from it.

I hope this year brings lots of learning for me.

thoughts about a big move.

A lot has been happening in my life these days. Sometimes I wonder about the spiritual side of it all. We are facing another cross country move here very shortly.

We began this year with news of hubby's father being in the hospital with congestive heart failure. For awhile there it did not look like he was going to pull thru. Hubby spent the first 3 weeks of the year down in Florida with his dad & family. During that time, near the beginning he felt maybe we should move back to be there to help his father out in the road to recovery which at the time appeared to be a long one.

Later in his time there hubby changed his mind. He had time to let the emotions stabilize as his father began to get better & stabilize too. During the time between those two decisions, I had to find it within me to make some decisions too.

So I spent a lot of time here thinking. Talking things out every evening with my man helped. Talking with a few friends here who are not connected in any way to things, helped even more. It got me to see things from a more neutral point of view.

By the time my man finally got home, I had made peace with the thought of moving back down to a place I never thought I would go back to. I spent so much time thinking about all the different aspects of it.

This is where the spiritual stuff comes in I guess. I began to think about what I have learned here. Maybe it was time for me to take what I had learned & share it. I talked more with people. Several are in agreement that this place, this Valley here, is just a stopping point in the big plan. It is not a place to stay. It is a place to come, learn & move on. And I feel this is something you learn as you live here. We have now been here for 4 years and 7 months. We've learned.

As much as we love it here for the nature reasons, it seems it is time to move on. It is time for us to take our new selves & see what else is in store for us. I do not see us staying back in the Panhandle of Florida forever. I see us there for a few years. I see us going to the Southwest after that. I don't know when exactly, but I see it.

Just wanted to get this out there. More later.

Catching up again

The weekend has come & gone. It’s already Tuesday. Hubby & I were talking about going down to see Dad this weekend. So I called the Club Pet place today. They’re full for this weekend. So I made tentative arrangements for next weekend. We could just leave her here with the daughter, but hubby figured it would be good for her to have more play time with other doggies. So, we’ll see what he says when he gets home.

So I bought the Smooth Away that’s advertised on TV. Got it at our Bed Bath & Beyond store tho, with a coupon. So I saved shipping & an extra 1.50. I tried the smaller pad today on my facial hair that’s on my chin & neck. It only kinda works. Takes a lot more effort than advertised. Your hair has to be less than a quarter inch long. You have to go in a circular motion 3 times in each direction, repeating until hair is gone. You have to pull your skin taut which for me was really hard & awkward on my face & neck. I’ll give it a few more tries tho so we’ll see how it ends up working in the long run.

I also grabbed a box of the ShamWow towels. Again, with a coupon from the same store. The bigger ones worked well as a dish rack mat last night. The smaller one hubby tried using to dry dishes. Didn’t work as fast as the regular dish towel he said. We’ll put them thru their paces tho & see how they do.

I keep meaning to write about something. Commercials for cleaning products. Specifically disposable cleaning products. Those stupid commercials make it seem like the cleaning products we use don’t work worth a darn. Like those swiffer commercials. The way they compare the mop to a swiffer wetjet. Who the hell cleans that way? Or dusting … who in their right mind takes one of those feather dusters & flips the dust everywhere when they dust? OMG people. They make us look so incompetent. And who lets their floors get as dirty as the commercials make it seem? Or their bathrooms? I guess the more I see those commercials the more irritated I get. There is no need to depend on all those disposable products. The ones we use are fine. Even the ShamWow commercial talks like we use paper towels like nothing. The average family spends 30 a month on paper towels. What? OMG …. That’s insane!!! I know we aren’t average in our usage, but we use maybe one roll in 2 months or more. We use rags & old towels all the time. For all sorts of things. Toss them in the wash with whites & they’re ready to be used again. How hard is that? Ok, end of rant for now.

I have so much on my mind. I should go do something productive now.

behind, as always

Well, I was doing good about keeping track of my days. Here it is now almost a week since I wrote last. Oh well right? It just seems some days I don’t have anything of interest to write about. Or, I just forget to stop to jot things down.

Even now, I’ll be interrupted. The daughter has asked for a ride to work tonight. So, I’m here for a few, then I’ll take her, then back here. Once she’s at work, I’ll sit here while listening to 2 of today’s soaps. Yes, I laugh too. I can’t believe I still find myself caught up in the drama of their lives. I love it. It’s an old habit that I most likely won’t break for a long time.

Ok, back home for the evening. I think the daughter is tiring of the trek to & from work. She needs to get her bike tire fixed. But even then, with her hand right now, she can’t ride it. She has said that she enjoys the job, just not the hours & the getting there & home part. I certainly don’t mind taking her, but picking her up is another story. Sorry. I’m not up at 6am. I tried going to bed earlier & getting up earlier, but it’s not working.

So on Saturday morning the hubby tried to help me get the place a little picked up, by vacuuming for me. Right. The dang vacuum we have likes to clog. A lot. That morning was no different. Not only did he have to fight with it a couple times, but he stubbed his thumb real good & busted a blood vessel. Lovely. The living room & part of the hall got vacuumed. That’s it. I think the vacuum is on it’s way out as soon as we can afford to replace it.

Saturday afternoon we tried to have a get together of the group from the mall. Only 2 ladies were able to make it. Plus me & the daughter. It was nice, but we were all kind of disappointed. Both ladies brought one of their girls so that made it seem like more, kind of. It was short, since it started later than planned. But, we made the effort. So that was cool.

Sunday afternoon the daughter & I went in search of some sunshine. Sound silly? I imagine it does. Living in a valley, it’s not impossible tho. We’ve had this inversion hanging around here well over a week now. It’s a system with stagnant air. No movement so the clouds hang around. Well, we figured we’d try going higher to see if we could get above the clouds. We headed up to Mission Ridge, the local ski resort. It’s just across the river & 12 miles up into the canyon. The base area up there is at about 4200 feet or so. The top of the mountain is 4500. I think that’s how it goes.

OMG it was beautiful!! The sun was shining & it felt like heaven. Warm heaven. Blue skies as far as the mountains let us see. There were so many people & families up there too. Wow. I could see why tho, it was a bright place above a dreary valley. We stopped up at the lodge wandered around & took a few pictures while enjoying the big beautiful sun in the sky. We then stopped at the first place that had a pull off to take some more view shots. It’s a spot we’ve stopped at many times in the past. I could have stood there for a long time. Just taking it all in. It was just so gorgeous. So perfect. Even in those brief moments we were there, I felt so connected to the Earth.

And back down we drove. In the place between the warm sun & dreary bottom was an equally breath taking place. The place where frost formed. On every living thing. Not snow, but just frost. I had wanted to get some pictures, but with the cold, my battery was dying fast. I love how pine trees especially, look when they are heavy with snow. It’s beautiful. But this coat of frost. Wow . . . it was breath taking to me. To see that Mother Nature had every detail of her creations outlined in frost took my breath away. The hubby is at a higher elevation where he works so he has gotten to see some of it every day as well. This is another side of the inversion. It keeps the cold air here. And the cold is below freezing so the frost stays. I’ll have to get some pix of it before it’s gone.

Our short trip up into the canyon, above the clouds was just what I needed. I felt so light & joyful the rest of the day. It was exactly what was missing from my life over the past week or more. I think I’ll make another trip up in the next day or so. Perhaps with a fresh & full battery in my camera. Perhaps with just my eyes. I haven’t decided yet.

Plans, plans & more plans

So here I am again. It’s after 10 & everyone is in bed but me. My soaps are on & I’m listening. The dog is set for the night. Kitchen is clean, hubby’s lunch is made, & coffee is ready for in the morning. I have a mug of hot spiced cider to enjoy. So what should I ramble on about this evening?

How about I start with the wonderful phone call I got about an hour & a half ago. My younger daughter who is still in Florida is engaged. Yup. And yes, mom is super happy. This is just too cool. They called me right after he asked her & she finally said yes. So, I was officially the very first to know. That was cool. I hope there is a way for me to go back down there if they decide to have any sort of actual wedding. Knowing Jen, it wont be anything lavish, which is cool my me. Yup . . . one happy momma here.

I’ve planned a get together for everyone from the mall for this Saturday afternoon. Granted, we all know there is no perfect time to get everyone together at the same time. I guess I’m just a little disappointed in the turnout so far. Of the 7 I have heard from so far, 2 can make it. Someone pointed out something. Everything happens for a reason. Perhaps there is a reason just the 3 of us are meant to get together. Guess I should look at it that way.

Saturday evening hubby & I went over to hang out with friends Randy & Carey. It was really nice too. Going to their place is the only time we end up staying out late. Before it had been like 1am before we got home. This time? It was 3am!! What the heck? It was really weird. None of us were tired & we all just chatted & talked like it was only early evening or something. We talked about so many different things too. It’s fun to talk with them as we have different views on many things but we can all talk without getting crazy or angry or something stupid.

Anyways, Carey & I got to talking about exercise & making changes in your life. She said something to me that I do believe I will try to implement. Make no more than 3 changes at a time. Your mind can’t grasp more than that at once apparently. And do each for 3 weeks. I knew that part . . . the 21 days to make something a habit. I really like this idea. So say I want to start going to the gym. And work on a price book. And work on figuring out what it will take to get a store opened. And work on getting more organized at home. And totally organize my photography stuff. And. . . And . . . the list goes on. What I need to do is pick no more than 3 of those things to start with. Ideally I should start with one thing for a week. Then I could add another. Then after the second week, I can add another. This makes sense to me. And makes things more attainable I think. Of course I have to learn a bit of patience too since I wont be able to do everything at once. That will probably be the hard part. Or, deciding what order to put these things in. At any rate I think I’ll make a list & give this a shot.

I’m tired now & losing focus on what I was gonna write. Guess that means it’s time to stop.

what a dreary day outside

I see I missed a few days. Not much tho. Not much exciting happened either. Last night tho, we went to Joy’s for the group meeting. It was nice. We caught up a bit then got into talking about 2012. The topic provided for much conversation as there are many views on what may happen when the time comes. I put out feelers for the group I want to get going & some seemed interested so that’s cool. I think it’ll be a lot of fun to learn in a group environment.

So hubby got his paycheck that covered his time off. Yuck! I have no idea exactly how we’ll make it until the next check, but somehow we always do.

I mentioned my daughter getting us a gym membership for Christmas. Well, it was purchased before she went on nights. Since then we’ve tried to figure out how we can go together. It’s just not working out. We talked about her seeing if she could get her money back & we’d put it towards home gym stuff instead. She is not one to confront people, so that went nowhere too. She knows that I would love to go to a gym, but hey, I’ll be flexible & do whatever. So the latest mention was for me to see if one of a couple friends would wanna go with me. I had 2 people to choose from. Amy & Cindy. I approached Cindy first because she deals with depression & my thought was maybe something positive like this would help her. And she wants to lose some weight too. She has said yes, so we’ll see if it works out. If something falls thru, I’ll be asking Amy. I was really torn in who to choose. I want to spend more time with Amy. I am really enjoying our friendship. But, I also want to spend more time with Cindy. I miss our friendship as we don’t see each other as much. So, I guess choosing Cindy was the right choice. Especially if we get to move forward with the combining of our households with Amy.

*insert break for breakfast, then some out & about time with the hubby.

Hubby is now over at Joe’s for a bit. I’m just kinda here. Sitting around with one of those ‘eh’ moods. I hate those. I should be doing several things, but don’t feel like doing any of them. I think part of it is the gloomy day outside today. And it could also be the fact I’ve been off my pills for some time now.

Our herb order came the other day, but I have not sat & made more pills yet. I think that is because it seems to be such a daunting task since I’m all out. I’ll have to just make some every 2 weeks or maybe even every week so it’s not so big of a task.

I changed our sheets. Oh yay. I stood looking at the bedroom for a bit. It’s messy because things get piled in there. And I was looking at moving things around again too. Mainly to get the bed off the shared wall with the daughter’s room. That way, if the bed . . . ‘ahem’ . . . moves, it wont be hitting her wall. I opted to just leave things alone for the moment tho, since several things don’t belong in there & I should get those moved to a better place before tackling moving everything.

Well, guess I can see what I can find to occupy my time in front of this thing for a while.

Look at me updating 2 days in a row!!

What an interesting day, weather wise. We’ve gotten quite a bit of snow as of late. And had some cold-ass temps for much longer than usual. Now, we’ve got a storm system moving thru that has our overnight lows, above freezing. And comes with 30-35 mph winds with gusts into the 40+ mph. Oh, and rain. I’ve watched our beautiful snow blanket shrink right before my eyes. How sad. I took the daughter to work tonight & the parking lot was a sheet of ice with puddles of water. Yuck. This weather stuff is gonna bring some crap to various areas too. With rapid melt like this, & mountains & rivers, it’s not a good mix. I already heard one of the mountain passes was closed tonight due to an avalanche.

And to think I was sooo enjoying the beautiful big flakes of snow this morning as I ran a couple errands. Sigh . . . I know it sounds silly, but I want my winter back. This wind crap can stop anytime.

Oh, & we lost power this evening too. Just long enough to get everything situated. Hubby went & turned things off & grabbed the monster flashlight. I grabbed the 2 oil lamps & lit them, along with a couple well placed jar type candles. Then I went & grabbed the phone with a cord (!) in case the power stayed out or any cell towers got knocked out too. Hubby grabbed the wind up alarm clock in case he needed it in the morning. Yup, we know what to do, where it’s stashed & all that. After all, we lived in FL long enough. Ya get the hang of t after an outage or two. The daughter & I were talking to one of the ladies in the deli at Safeway when we stopped by there to grab the recycle stuff. She was amazed at the thought of a corded phone & wind up clock, with a “oh, I didn’t think of that” kind of comment. When you are without technology, you have to go back. Some forget how to go back. My family doesn’t.

Of course, it all came back on just as we had everything together & got ready to settle in for the evening. Figures.

I spent some time today organizing little things. In the big picture here, it doesn’t look like I did much, yet I was busy all day. You can’t exactly tell by walking thru the door that I worked on organizing pictures on the hard drive, or began to clean out my email. You can see that my desk is looking a lot less cluttered. You can see that I picked up here & there. The place is nowhere near where it should be, but give me another week or so & it’ll be MUCH better.

The hubby started his what sounds like pointless coughing again tonight. The bronchitis. Not again. So I told him to go use the dang inhaler. And he took some of the codeine laced cough syrup before bed too. I don’t hear him coughing. That’s a good thing. Neither of us needs him being sick again.

Christmas Day the hubby, the daughter & I went out tromping in the snow a bit & explored along a river. Of course the camera came along. I had her take a couple pix of me & the man so we could get a holiday card done finally. Well, they are ok but I don’t like them. And what sucks more, is I don’t see a timer option on my Canon 40D. Yes, my costly new upgraded camera. WTF? Totally pissed me off. I’ve “kinda” looked in the past. Never really looked hard for it. I figured it should not be hard to find. But no. I totally don’t see one. So, we had to have someone else take the pictures if we both want to be in them. I think we’ll have to do it again maybe over this weekend if the weather cooperates. Dangit!

So, whenever we get a photo I am happy with of the two of us, I’ll get some Winter / New Year cards out. And with that, I really should get to bed. I could sit here for another hour or more, but I’m trying to slowly shift my sleeping schedule so maybe I can go to bed with & get up with, my hubby.

And so it begins again in a new year

So the hum-drum of daily life is back. Hubby went back to work. Daughter spent most of the day sleeping since she works nights now. I spent most of my day … in front of this thing. I wrote out the final checks for everyone from the mall. I also wrote out nice little thank you notes to go with them. They’ll all get mailed Tuesday. Exciting huh?

We got dumped on big time with snow last night. Probably the biggest one time snowfall so far. No idea how much we technically got. It was about as deep as my hand if not a bit more. With all the snow, I figured the roads & people would be a mess. So, I stayed home. I should have gone to the store & post office. Guess they’ll both wait till morning.

I began going thru some of my digital picture files today too. I know there are tons I can just delete because they are almost identical. So I started. Felt good to clean out more of my life. Really good. Clearing out the various areas of my life of clutter & unneeded things is going slow, but well. I love the feeling of being able to let go of more & more material things. It’s one small step in the bigger quest to simplify my life.

One of my things has been to remove chemicals from my life. Chemicals are bad. Yet we put them into & onto our body’s everyday in so many forms. My big step? I went thru most of my toiletries. Lotions. Makeup. Facial cleansers. They are full of stuff that seeps into our pores, into our skin & blood stream. Well, not so much into mine anymore. I gathered up quite the pile of stuff & posted it on Freecycle last week. Even tho it was money, it felt so good to know I was taking a step towards something that means a lot to me. I didn’t let go of everything, but about 80% or more. I’ll have to find suitable replacements for things like body wash/shower gel. And shampoo. I kept the pencil eyeliners, but let go of the lipsticks. I let go of all the lotions except for 2. I want to make changes in my feminine stuff, but that’s expensive so it’ll have to be in baby steps as things get used.

Can you tell I’m trying to go more natural? Not just in food, but all areas of my life. And as long as you read, you’ll be along for the journey.

For the first time in months I popped back into the natural living community on LJ. Found a post about facial cleansing & using oil to clean your face. Sounds odd, but I’ll be looking into it. I will be enjoying getting into all the fun stuff of going organic & natural. Besides, it’ll give me something to blog about besides boring everyday life.