Monday and an Outing for Me!

My big adventure was to go to the clinic and have my blood work done. My dear friend, L came by in her station wagon and I managed to get into it and out again with no problem! It was a little trickier coming back but I think that was because I was tired.

The area is so pretty right now with green, green hills and blue sky. The clinic is an attractive building and someone in the laboratory had brought in gorgeous white orchids. I, of course, wished that I had brought my camera! Having never met a flower that I didn't fall in love with and want to photograph.

On the way, home, L offered to give me the neighborhood tour. It was kind of neat to see all the streets with the remodels that have gone on and especially the pretty flowers and yards. Several houses have been sold lately by a neighbor who is a Realtor and they are particularly nicely done.

Coming into my front gate I saw it from a very different perspective than what I usually do and it is one that says there are some rather large and overgrown bushes here. My friend K has been restraining herself valiantly from demolishing several and I think the time has come to tell her she has a license to wack.

Just a few minutes ago I found the email from the clinic that the tests were back. Sure enough, there they all are in my "e-chart". Everything is normal and that is good to see. My thyroid will go on being treated by the same medicine for a while longer--probably another year. The tune-up will be complete with another outing next month to see my doctor, whom I really like and admire. Getting out more is a need and a goal. I joked that there was no way to send my blood over the Internet, but in fact, I enjoyed going out. So it has been a very good and beautiful day. Cold though.

Sunshine Monday

We are having a "clearing weather" day and the sun is trying to shine! It is beautiful but too cold. My amaryllis is opening even more and growing on the kitchen counter.
Only three more days of January and then February will fly by and hopefully Spring will show signs of arriving.

Last night I seriously edited the first half of the first major section of the novel I spoke about several weeks ago. This section has been edited so many times, that it would be really great if I could just leave it alone. Even now I am tweaking and what is far worse, finding typos. Oh if I could only type! I see what should be there and what is and so am a rotten proofreader.

Finding the next section, which is much bigger and which exists in both the physical, printed listing mode and the files on computer mode and will have to be recovered in both will be the next task after I re-read the rest of part one tonight. So tomorrow's work is well cut out for me as is the next week or more.

Finding a writing coach, finding an agent and finding a publisher are all tasks I have been putting off for a decade. This seems like the year to finally reach out and try. (I can always just give up and pdf file the whole thing and share it with those who want to read it the most.) (She thinks in her less confident moments.)

It has been a long time since I worked on this project, long enough so that I am almost reading it as though it were written by someone else. That is good. On the other hand, I don't think I could do the research now, even with the Internet. I just tire too quickly and too easily. So more progress reports lie ahead.

In the meantime, the Valentines are so pretty and colorful. I do hope I sell a few.

Monday morning again

Time to face a new week again. The last one went by so fast, I wish that I could pull the reins on this one and slow it down a bit. Five full days to write five blog posts, work on my other writing projects, continue decluttering in my house, fulfill Mary Kay orders and see what else I can do.

Tomorrow is marked by one friend's departure for college and another's return from vacation. Wednesday has two appointments and Thursday is full as well. One of these days I will sew for the first time at my new sewing station in my newly arranged studio.

I am grateful that I have no commute and that I can take breaks when I need to. There are pitfalls to working at home. The dishes call; the laundry would like to be done; the birds and squirrels invite me to watch them play in my yard. There are always more domestic projects that could claim my attention and at this time of the year it is also nice to be outdoors. With the days becoming shorter there is the reality that being outdoors will be curtailed in a few months time when rain (we hope) and cold supersede sunshine and perfect dryness.

I will make more yogurt cheese today and sort my yarn stash which has become a jumble over too many boxes and plastic tubs. Before it can take its place in the studio it needs to be organized and labeled.

Labeling is so important to the process of organizing. I will try to put the boxes labels in my inventory notebook, too--if I remember, if I can find the inventory notebook.

I am using one of my Fred is Peace journals as my household inventory notebook. It is a nice size and has a good feel in my hand. Cafepress has chosen a quality product here, as they have throughout their product line. I recommend it. (Beginning and end of shameless plug for the day!)

Have a great Monday. Before we know it Friday will be here again!

Monday, Moving On

It is Monday morning, July 30. Another month is about to end and I am facing a blank blog box in much the same way that I face a blank page. Do I have something to say today? Last night as I was falling asleep I could think of a number of things, now they seem to have fled with sleep. Maybe they weren't worth saying.

One wall of my master bedroom is now the most delicate, delightful green thanks to my young friend, M who has been painting for me. This color, chosen to complement a poster of Our Lady of Guadalupe, given to me years ago by another friend, is so clean and clear. It replaces a blue that had turned dingy after forty years of being on the wall. The wall took two washings--residual tobacco smoke from thirty to forty years ago is not nice to walls. It took two coats of primer-sealer, slurping it up as though it were a thirsty child on a hot summer day and then it received two coats of paint, lovingly applied. We are excited by this project, M and I.

It is good to have something new and fresh in my life. The room, once my parents bedroom, has a new future as a sewing and crafts room for me. My knitting and yarn stash will quit overflowing the living-room and be neatly categorized in the new "big room" as M has christened it. My sewing machine will be on a table of its own that I can comfortably wheel up to. My parents dressers will still be in the room and I plan to place photos and treasures on each. The dressers themselves are too valuable as accessible storage space to move them on. Other furniture will finally move on.

Leviticus says there is a time for every season under heaven. An old pop song from the 80's, I believe, says "don't hang on". I was reflecting on both as I sat in the room with the beautiful new wall last night and thought about how much this should alleviate my depression. "Decluttering and the cost of paint, with the kindness of a friend to apply it costs less than psychiatry and anti-depressants." We will see if the approach works. Purposefulness helps too, I think, although medicine certainly has its place too.

I look forward to what I will make in this room and to selling it on Etsy and even through this blog.