8 more work Mondays in 2017

10/16/17
8 more Mondays in 2017

Praying for our neighbors and my friend.  My neighbors' daughter (J) is my age and has stage four colon cancer.  She moved to another state to marry and raise her 2 children (both young adults).  It is about a 6 or 8 hour drive from here to her city.  My neighbors are my parents' (if they were both still alive) age.  For the last year, I have seen my neighbors run themselves ragged coming and going on this trip trying to help their daughter.  I really empathise with them.

My friend (R) is someone I have known since I was 4 years old.  She is suffering from mental illness and has left the home twice to go for stays in psychiatric hospital.  She is suffering and so is her family.  I have told her that I love her unconditionally and that I am here.  I have attempted to support her husband, at least in spirit.  I don't know what else to do.  Her 2 children are also young adults.  One just graduated, the other is a junior in high school. 

I feel helpless faced with such situations.  I just try to let the people know I care.  There is nothing else really I can do.  I did deliver a jar of home canned apple butter to my neighbors yesterday.  I got a text this morning saying they were enjoying it with toast and it was a nice start to their day.  I have been processing 2/3 of those apples I picked 2 weeks ago since Thursday night.  Wooooo weeeee, my back is sore!  I canned 18 quarts of applesauce and made 3 pies yesterday.  I delivered a quart of the apple butter and a pie to my work friend (B) whose farm we pick apples from.  He said next year we are welcomed to come back and pick more.  As far as I am concerned, it will be worth the 5 hour drive annually to do this.  We can visit with him and get apples, stay in touch.  More about him later, he is an interesting person!

I sold a jacket over the weekend and got ride of a couple bags of clothes/shoes.  But I also bought a new pair of walking shoes for myself and my husband, so I actually brought more in!  Plus, i must confess the store i found my walking shoes at had buy one get one half off, so i also bought a winter pair of casual walking-around sneakers.  They were not impulse buy, so that helps me keep in check.  At any rate, that is the wrong thing - bringing more in, but I got rid of my old pair and 2 pair of boots. My husband broke his in with a walk with me Sunday- worth the price!  One donated, one to sell.  I also washed sheets and towels and got a pie (froze) ready for this upcoming girls weekend.  Too busy for projects with all the apples!  But I have given out 13 jars already and have fun all winter giving and enjoying the apple butter! 

I went to see my Dear Grandmother (DG) Sat and took her and my aunt (PA) a jar.  My DG exclaimed "it is still warm!" and I barely had walked in the door when she was trying to open it and give it a sample.  I ran an errand at the store for her and so that made me feel good to help her feel good.  I won't get to see her for 2 weeks.  I have celebrated a couple of meaningful meetings with a couple of special women friends in my life and my gratitude cup is full.  I am happy for the present moment.  And then I come up with a title like today's post. Progress, not perfection.  Have a great week!

Week Day Grind

Week day grind
Still doing overtime, which is good for pocket book but making me feel a bit stretched.  I was able to sell couple items on ebay so that is good, more clearing out.  Took a couple things to thrift store donation.  Last night I cut up approx. 1/3 to 1/4 of the apples I got from my friend's farm couple weekends ago.  Wooo weeeee, my hand and back were tired when I went to bed at 9:30!  These are totally organic, so lots of holes to cut out.  I have 3 crockpots of apples cooking apple butter overnight and today.  I will prob buy another crockpot and get another one going tonight.  I picked out some of the best prospects for apple pie filling which I will do while the apple butter is cooking.  I will can apple pie filling Sat. I will can the applebutter Sunday.  It is a big job, but is nice to get it finished.  Makes great gifts!

I went on a nice walk after work Thursday and am almost finished with my latest audiobook.  It is about a woman who lost her husband and her life as she is dealing with that and deciding whether to date again in her 70's.  I did not even know what it was about when I checked it out of the library and downloaded it.  I just happenstance chose it.  But, I am enjoying her intellect and candid honesty.  She writes simply and effectively.  The subject matter just happens to resonate with me.  There was a passage I heard last night that made me stop on my walk and make note of it.  It was about how as the months have gone by and she is dealing with her loss, there are moments that she feels are almost intolerable, but just fleeting moments and then she is back from the floating feeling.  It was moving and beautiful.  I will write more on this later.  Another story for another day.  Maybe a rainy cold Sunday, writing from my office at home instead of a quick break at work, where I must be functional.  Have a great weekend!

Mid Week pain

Mid Week Pain
So after such a physical weekend moving rocks, pulling weeds and planting/transplanting bulbs I am still a little sore, but my back is better.  I made it to hot yoga on Monday after work and pushed through it and it was a great workout and I did manage my afternoon walk Sunday afternoon once we drove back to the city, but Tues I went straight home from work, fixed my breakfast/lunch for the next day, kissed my DH and went straight to bed at 7pm!  Thank goodness for crockpot meals!  My tummy was feeling bad too, so I think I need to take my B12 at night instead of with my lunch.  I am going to try it today and see if it helps.  It was perfect night to go to sleep early because it was rainy and gray outside.

I did wake up at 3 (which I don't usu do), so I think next time I will have a melatonin ready by the bed to help me back to sleep.  I did use the 4, 7, 8 breathing technique I read about recently and it seems to help me.  I need at least one day a week like this to get 10 or 11 hours of sleep, esp during overtime.  I have been on overtime since July and I am really tiring of it.  But I am grateful for the income.  I keep finding things for the RH I want to buy!  LIke now that I have a new stainless range/oven I am thinking I need a new hood.  My husband is like, but it doesn't even show, but I think the fan and lights will be a much needed improvement (at least that's my story).

At least it is Wednesday and it is not raining, so I think I will get to walk after work.  I hope.  It really helps me relax and unwind.  I just listen to a book from the library or a podcat I  downloaded via wifi and I LOVE it!  When I need to go to sleep early, I listen to celestial or new age/yoga type music on Spotify and put my eye mask on and zone! 

Sunday Drive Day

This post is from sunday, but i had to delete start over, still cannot do photos

Well, we got 4 of the 6 projects finished at RH this weekend.  I will try to post a photo.  Every trip down we load as much as we can which involves unloading and organizing so we can fit more next trip.  But, its all good. 

Got sheets and towels clean for girls weekend in 2 weeks.  Got an old light taken down.  DH got lawnmower tire fixed.  We have a person we pay now, but never know when that could fall through.  He also patched a hole in porch ceiling and used spray foam master closet where I suspect spider enter (ewww).

I cleaned weeds out of 2 raised planters and rescattered existing flower bulbs, plus transplanted my peonies.  One of the planters was full of rocks, I moved those too.  My sister (D3) came and visited while I worked.  She got some peonie bulbs, some wild onions and some cypress vine seeds.  We told her to watch where you put cypress vibe, cause it will never go away once it starts!

We got to share couple dinners with my dear in laws, but SIL and BIL were away dealing with BIL mom's estate.  She passed this summer with a house so full of stuff, you could barely walk through it.  Literally a path.  Plus, she had barely a spot cleared on her bed large enough for her to sleep.  Between these stories and seeing my Aunt's (PA) place, i vow to give my stuff away while I am alive so I dont leave a mess like that to my loved ones.  We have no children (thats another post).  But I wouldnt want to put that on anyone.  My DGM (grandmother) has been great about this, every step of the way deciding she can no longer drive, downsizing from house to apt, moving from apt to indep living, etc.  She is my role model in aging (and many other things!)

So. I will continue as long ad i am alive to be aware and organized, and hopefully proactive. 

My MIL always cuts out articles on local history.  This time it was about a local lake and how a wealthy businessman from Chicago had arrived and built a resort.  The resort eventually flooded to create a lake.  My DH and I enjoy reading about history.  We enjoy her thought that we might enjoy reading something.  I wonder if hoarding is a newer phenomenon.  I suspect it is.  Maybe because stuff is so much more readily available.  I wonder about this, that is the type of dialoge in my head.  At least when I drive 4 hours home, my mind isnt doing such random thoughts.  If you have to work tomorrow, like me, have a great Monday.  We dont get Columbus Day if thus year at my firm.  But I am mighty grateful for the income.

I Never Do This

I never do this.

 

But I had a really bad dream last night.  The kind that makes you wake up out of a deep sleep crying.  It was so real and took me back to a really dark place. 

 

And if I do have a dream I never remember them.  Well I remember this one vividly still, even as I arrive at my office this morning and get ready to begin work.  This dream was about some people that I cared about that I had to leave behind because of a break up and I was holding the small one's face talking really soft face to face and we were both crying and I was telling him that I had to leave that it was not my choice, but sometimes we have to do things we don't want to do and it is hard to understand, but someday you will understand when you are older. 

 

Then when I woke up I thought of some other people and my mind was making a connection there and it really made me wonder if there was a connection I had not thought of consciously. 

 

I ended up going back to a light sleep for another 90 minutes before my alarm went off.  But this connection is one I will keep thinking about. 

 

Is there a connection? 

 

Is there something I can now do?  Do I just pray for these people and leave it in God's hands.  What was my part in it?  Do they ever think of me?  What have I learned from it?

One Can Google Anything

I was happy to google this:  "large, vigorous plants can be dug and divided for propagation purposes. September is the best time to transplant established peonies. Begin by cutting the peony stems near ground level. Then carefully dig around and under each plant."

 

Even though it is Oct, it is only the 7th day of Oct that I plan to move my peonies.  We are going to retirement house this weekend.  I have several things I want to get accomplished before we have our family annual craft fair weekend, in 3 weeks.  1)  paint the cubby around the water/ice dispenser on my side by side refridgerator.  It is white but this plastic insert has yellowed.  We just recently bought a new stove (oven died) and dishwasher.  I am not spending the money on a new fridge yet.  It works fine.  2)  I removed the glass shades from the small guest room fan to use on a painted/refurbished guest bathroom light.  I don't want the overhead lights anyway.  I just have to figure out how to take off that middle ring portion of the ceiling fan that houses the light sockets.  At least I hope this can be done.  3)  I am going to clean/paint some outdoor furniture.  4)  disconnect a built in light in the kitchen desk area, below the cabinets.  For 3+ years this has hung there when I unscrewed it from the cabinet so i could paint under it.  5)  move rocks out of outside planter bed and move my peonies to the planter bed. 

 

When we bought our RH it was Labor Day weekend 2014.  There were 2 large raised planters on the Northwest side of the house that had scads of wild onion and weeds in them.  I read that you could basically compost cut grass and leaves and cardboard and not have to till a garden area.  Well, the leaves and grass would not stay put and all around the foundation of the house there were large fist size rocks just laying loose.  Like the ones that matched the foundation rocks, but just laying there.  I did not yet have a garden tractor or wheelbarrow, so I just put a bunch of these large rocks in my planters to help control weeds. 

 

FAIL! 

 

Now I have weeds + rocks! in the planters.  Now that I have both a garden tractor and a place to put these rocks, so time to move them!  The peonies are just scattered near my backdoor making an unsightly trap for leaves and "things", no telling what kind of creepy crawly things are in there.  I prefer a much more tailored landscaping plan near my house, esp near a door.  Ick. 

Goodbye Sept, Hello Oct

Friday worked all day, then went to see my friends son get his 1 year sobreity/clean and sober coin.  It was an amazing night.  This group was started in the inner city neighborhood of my city back in approx 2000 by a woman who faced her addiction issues and has enlisted others who also can use their experience , strength and hope to help others.  It was very uplifting in a world where, if you are not careful, everywhere you look can seem pretty bleak.  Going forward, i am going to be careful about what I choose to focus on the the news and on social media.  Division sells stories, products, clicks, get sponsors.  Not me.  Not  anymore.

Sat i took a giant lamp to my aunt and set it up for her and today i am taking a large plant to my SIL2. My aunt (MA1) took me to breakfast and we had delicious breakfast of avacado toast and veggie omlet with goat cheese.  I havent sold anything, but I have donated to 3 charities I am inspired by.  Then we drove an hour to enjoy the country and pick a ton of apples!  So rejuvenating.  I also got 2 dozen farm eggs from my SIL2.  I am happy today for natures seasons!

Today, i am too lazy for church, but I have managed to clean both of my fireplaces and a broken slat of my vertical blind and did very minor amount of touch up paint.  Part of my problem is that my stomach hurts, but it sort of feels how i usu feel recov from "normal" eating on monday, so maybe I will be spared that tomorrow.

Spending the rest of the day doing food prep.  Zuchinni bread, stuffed peppers, grilled chicken and pork chops.  Leaving time to round out the day for a walk in this gorgeous weather. 

Have a great start to your October!