This is my baby, Fred.
I always wanted an orange cat. I love this chonky boy, but... He is seriously brain damaged. I really think it has to do with the severely dehydrated and near death state we found him and his litter mates in. Not a single one of those cats are normal...
I mean, I know orange cats are special, but Fred is a special kind of special...
Behave!
I take care of the supplies for the day job. While doing my weekly inventory to see what we need, I came across this in the store room... I have no idea!
I used to do Tall Tale Tuesday when I had a lot of weird and funny things going on at the Homestead.
Not so much of that happens anymore, though I might be able to come up with one a month. I'll have to think about that... And pay attention in other places.
Like the day job. Because someone taking the center of a donut is definitely a Tall Tale moment.
Stay Tuned...
Behave!
Heading fast for Monday morning... Oy!
The weekend has been pretty good. Little B was a riot and wore us out with his constant-ness and hunger. Ha!
We got a lot done but are completely wore out now. I have showered and now we just need to figure out dinner.
And that is all...
Behave!
Yay for Friday!
(I hate that I feel like I'm wishing my life away waiting for the weekend!)
Here's the list:
1. Sleeping in a bit tomorrow. It's much needed.
2. B's soccer game tomorrow.
3. Looking forward to keeping little B overnight. He very rarely gets exclusive Nana & Pappy time. He's a riot so this should be fun.
4. The rain in the forecast.
5. Gardening plans...providing it doesn't rain all weekend.
6. Getting quite a bit of writing time in this week and hoping for some this weekend.
7. Ordering dinner.
That's about it.
Behave!
Obviously I'm trying to do better with posting. But it's hard. I find I don't have a lot to say. I mean, I do have a lot to say, but this isn't the place for it. If that makes sense. Anyway. Here's a list of stuff & things...
1. Spam messages. I am so tired of them. I'm going to guess that out of all of the emails I get, only about 2% are actual good emails. The rest are spam. I hate them. On Sunday (for some reason) I must have deleted over 100 spam emails.
2. In the same vein... junk mail. Well, a lot of mail whether it's junk or not. What a waste of resources. Please don't send me your catalog unless I ask for it. Political mail is the absolute worst. The day job is a place where I see a ton of wasteful mailings. One company sends their ginormous catalog to everyone who has ever purchased from them, even if they don't work there anymore. I'll get a mail bin full of these monster catalogs. I do my best to distribute them, but most of them get recycled. It's such a shame.
3. To balance out the negative stuff... The glorious weather we've been having. My flowers and plants are all coming up nicely.
4. That Man and I have a trip coming up. Just the two of us. I cannot wait.
5. Grandboy time this weekend.
6. We have two weddings to attend in May. I'm looking forward to both of them. We have another one in July. And I think that's it.
That's about it.
Behave!
Here's the list:
1. Short days.
2. Sleeping in.
3. Lists.
4. Getting stuff done.
5. Warmer temps.
That is all...
Behave!
This week, man. It's a weird one. The days pass by quickly. And slowly. I don't even know what to think. Today is Thursday. Part of me wonders how that's possible and the other part wonders why it took so long to get here.
Tonight is errand running. (Again) We have no plan for dinner yet, though we have chicken in the fridge to cook. We have to go to the mega mart. I have a list. We only go there maybe 3 or 4 times a year because we both dislike it. I've been sending him meme's all day...you know the ones I'm talking about. Ha!
Tiny progress on the Old Lady story.
We get out of the day job a little early tomorrow, which is nice. Hopefully we'll have all of the running around done before then and can focus on our chore list. We'll see... Ha!
Obviously I decided against posting my social media rant. Well, maybe just decided against for now. And again, I don't say anything mean, call anyone out, or say anything even remotely controversial. I think it's just that there's already so much negativity going on...maybe I just don't feel like adding to it? That's probably it.
And that's all for now.
Behave!
Did y'all get your taxes done?
We did ours old school and on paper. I refuse to pay for "extra forms" for one line on each of the forms, especially when we typically owe. I can do them just as efficiently without paying so much more.
The face is healing but still hideous. I don't want to talk about it.
I guess Easter is coming? There's nothing going on for us this year, which is fine. Easter is my least favorite holiday. The mere thought of it makes me groan and I'm not a fan of ham. We're staying home to finish up some projects we've been working on and we'll probably make something on the grill for dinner. I imagine we'll see the grandkids at some point over the weekend, but likely not until B has a soccer game.
This week is a lot of running around. I hope to get back to the Old Lady story tonight, but we'll see how long it takes us to get the choring done. Ha!
I think that's it for now.
Behave!
I'm not going to show you the picture, but I screwed up my face. I tripped over a brick, hit a metal flower pot, and then got tangled with another big flower pot. And I went down. On my face. Hard. I have scrapes from my forehead to my chin. My glasses dug into the bridge of my nose and my eye is super swollen. So is my lip. It hurts. I also have a giant bruise on my surgical leg. Everything else seems fine with my leg though. It happened so fast!
We got so much done before that. We made a potting area beside the house in an area that usually gets forgotten. We laid cute little rocks, a solar light, and an antique sink. We worked our butts off and it looks so awesome. I love it. I repotted a bunch of plants and we split some of the big hostas and moved them. Today was a trip to the big hardware store -- yeah, I went looking like I did sixty rounds with a heavyweight. That man has been working on his driveway project and I've been bopping around here and there. I helped stack some bricks, made some soup, did laundry, among other things, and so far I have taken two naps.
My face hurts.
The soup is for our dinner and some will go to our friends. He's been given less than two months to live and soup is one of the things he can keep down. She asked that we not bring too much because she doesn't want it to go to waste. It's so sad.
I got a tiny bit of writing done, but concentration is difficult. And I'm going to have to explain why my face looks like this over and over tomorrow at work.
I think that's it for now.
Behave!
Happy Friday!
The weather is yucky and I do not like, but other than that...
Let's just get to the list...
1. There's 100% chance I'll be sleeping in tomorrow.
2. And Sunday.
3. Weekend plans - they are light and home related, but need to be done and are not unpleasant.
4. The plans revolving around food for the weekend. We're trying out some new recipes on ourselves before we think about exposing others. Ha!
5. There's also 100% chance of writing time this weekend. I've done pretty well throughout the week, but had to take a break to do an emergency read-through for a friend.
I can't think of anything else worth sharing here. I'm still working on my social media post. I'm just not sure if it's worth posting.
That is all...
Behave!
It's cold.
My plants all had to come back inside. Instead of the impossible task of dragging them all back upstairs, we sequestered them in the dining room -- closing the doors and hanging plastic over the smaller door. That has made the feline population insane. They are currently working on a plan to get into the dining room. You can see it on their faces.
This weather is making me crazy. I'm so tired of being teased with a warm day only for it to turn arctic overnight. Yeah, I know it's spring. I know it's like this every year. I'm just over it more this year, probably because of the way this year has gone so far.
I'm working on a ranty post. I don't know if I'll actually post or not. Suffice it to say I'm fed up with social media as a whole.
In an effort to balance the negativity of above with some positives... I have been a machine of productivity today, which feels awesome. I hit my step count by like ten am, which is also awesome. I have texted with many of my beloved family over the last twenty four hours, which is always awesome. Those things make me smile. Well, I'm smiling on the inside at least. Ha!
Behave!
We're at the dread time of day. Dreading tomorrow being Monday and dreading the week ahead. Oy. I hate it. There used to be a time when I looked forward to Monday because it meant my family went back to their obligations and I got to write all day. But what are you going to do except what you have to?
The weekend was busy. We got a lot done, but there's still so much to do. Managed to get my huge plants outside with the help of K3, but now I hear we're supposed to have super cold temps Monday and Tuesday nights. Oy. We'll have to see if we can get them inside ourselves, or have one of the boys come back over. When I say they're huge, I mean, they're huge.
The grandboys were here for chaos and snacking last night. Mom dropped them off on her way out for the evening and Dad picked them up after work. We painted suncatchers, made popcorn, and smoothies. B had his first game of the new season, too. We couldn't make it, but I wish we had. They won by a landslide, with B scoring a solid third of the goals.
We also got to see K5 for a few minutes yesterday. And K3 & A came over for dinner today and to help with plants. It was a good time. It's always a good time. We made burgers and macaroni salad.
I got a decent amount of writing done while That Man worked on the driveway project. All in all, a pretty good weekend. I just wish there were a few more days of it.
And that is all.
Behave!
Woot for Friday!
Let's just get to the list...
1. Sleeping in tomorrow. Though I probably won't sleep in too long. We have a crazy couple of days ahead of us, but not having to get up at the buttcrack of dawn will be lovely.
2. Hopefully checking some stuff off of list. Our list is big.
3. Potentially seeing K3 and A this weekend. And the grandboys, and maybe even K5. It just depends on how things work out.
4. Maybe getting some writing done this weekend. I've been progressing, just not fast enough for myself. Not to mention the discouragement I talked about yesterday.
...and that's all I really have. The rest is sad - a friend passed away, another friend was given two months. I'm struggling to wrap my head around it all.
Behave!
It's raining right now, but it's supposed to clear up and make it to over 70* today! Whoop! Things are already turning green. It's going to be awesome with the higher temp.
I brought two plants outside already. Yes, I'll watch the weather and bring them back in if needed, but they were looking pretty sickly. They always do in spring and they are pretty hearty so I don't worry a ton about them if the temps drop after they're outside. They had also grown enough over the winter that they assaulted you while you were doing anything in the bathroom--tickling the back of your neck, tangling with hair, generally getting involved in areas they had no business. Anyway. They are happier already.
It's Thursday. I hate wishing the week away to get to the weekend. But that's what I've been doing. I need to stop and find the fun and joy in the weekdays too. We're not quite in crazy busy mode yet. Which is good because there's a lot we need to get done before that happens. It's coming though...
Writing is going slow. I'm in a discouraged place. It's not the book at all. It's my own emotions and frustration. But I'll soldier through it and hopefully have this book out for critique soon.
And that's it for now...
Behave!
Well, it's Monday again.
The weekend, as usual, went too fast.
The book signing was a lot of fun. I didn't do so hot as far as sales. My content isn't something the folks there were into and that's fine. One woman asked what kind of books, with a book in hand, and when I said "the one you're holding is paranormal"...well, she couldn't put it down fast enough. And she wasn't the only one. It's okay. I still had fun.
Tomorrow starts April already! What the heck?
Our poor old pup is declining pretty rapidly these days. She's 11 1/2 and a large breed. She's such a good dog. Her hips are not good and she's prone to falling. And accidentally urinating when she's super tired. She's also far less tolerant of chaos and loud noises and she's sun downing in the evening. K4 came in late on Friday and she didn't recognize her at first. It was pretty heartbreaking. We have to make sure to tell her to "go potty" on the last potty break of the day or she'll just stand there. She has a vet appointment soon, so we're hopeful that we can at least manage her pain and symptoms and give her the best quality of life possible. I don't want to talk about the rest.
That is all...
Behave!
And it's the first day of spring!
We've been doing little bits of yard stuff all week. It's been so nice outside! We transplanted a few of the heartier plants and cut down the dried ornamental grasses. And, since the parts finally came in, starting to dismantle the wreckage from my Jeep so we can repair her. It's going to take a minute so I don't know if it'll be back on the road this summer or not. We'll see...
We have a huge list of things to get done this summer. Last summer ended up being a wash for health reasons and it sucks. But we'll get there.
I'm managing pretty good these days. Still some muscular pain, but it's not constant. Some stiffness, which is normal. I'm still pretty weak with that leg, so I'm working on it. And trying really hard to give myself grace when I get tired sooner than I used to or forget something. This healing is a process on many levels.
That's about it. We have a crazy weekend coming up with grandboys, soccer games, and house stuff. The weather isn't supposed to be as awesome as it's been the last few days, but I'm hoping it's better than they say.
Behave!
I'm cold! I thought it was going to be a nice day today, but while it's not freezing and snowing, it's still chilly and raining.
Anyway. Here's the list:
1. Sleeping in a little this morning.
2. Cozy evenings with That Man.
3. Backyard plans.
4. Living through the work week.
5. Getting writing done this week.
6. Getting my mess of a pantry cleaned out.
That's about it. I need a nap.
Behave!
My day started with me dropping my clean socks into the toilet. The toilet that was not clean. (well, it wasn't utterly disgusting, just not flushed)
Then, I went to pay a parking ticket for work and paid the wrong municipality. Though in my defense, I googled the correct one, but I clicked on the wrong link. It got worked out quickly, but I feel like a noob. The names were very very close.
I've been submitting a lot of queries for the old man story. Got a rejection today, so that sucks. To be honest, I've probably gotten a rejection each day this week.
I'm kind of afraid to see what else happens.
But on the upside, I've written a bunch this week. Monday I did some on the old lady story, and yesterday and today have been a different project that I'm not 100% sure of yet. I like it so far. But yay... that's something!
Tomorrow is Friday, which is also upside.
The weather has been pretty decent and it's lighter longer, which barely begins to make up for the missing hour.
That is all...
Behave!
Well, it's Monday again. Sigh.
And we moved the clocks ahead. Sigh.
I'm tired this morning. It took everything I had to crawl out of bed. Why is it that Monday ends up being the morning you could really sleep in?
So in reality, there's isn't much to report from the weekend. I didn't get any writing done.
I did get to see K3 and A, which was awesome.
I did sleep in a tiny bit on Saturday. We did a lot of chores.
That's all I have to report.
The promise of beautiful weather is out there. The only upside of the time change is that it's lighter later, which is good. Soon it will be time for plants.
That's all I have...
Behave!
Yay Friday! It's been a long week!
Here's the list:
1. Monday's very positive surgeon visit. I'm still having pains, but they are muscular and related to new shoes and things healing.
2. Visits from nephews and friends. We had a wonderful dinner with them on their road trip journey.
3. Making progress with the writing. I'm still not sure I've started in the right place, but I'm getting there.
4. Summer retreat house is booked! Whoot!
5. Light, but not light, weekend plans.
6. The forecast next week! Seventy by Tuesday? Yes, please!
7. Sleeping in tomorrow. At least for a little.
8. New shoes.
That's about it.
Behave!
Yeah, I know March actually started on Saturday. I was busy! Ha!
I got tricked, too. It was so lovely Saturday morning and I am so sick of cold weather, that I let myself get lulled into "false spring". I planted flowers. Outside. The pansies are okay. It's the other "hearty spring flower" that are dead. Yeah, I know. I'm an idiot and should know better. But my porch looked really cute for a few hours. All of the snowmen/snow themed items were removed and spring showed up. Now it's dead spring.
Saturday was hella busy. We ran errands, did house stuff, ran more errands, went to dinner, and then to B's soccer game. What an amazing game. It was intense. B's team won 3-2, with B making two of the three goals. But talk about a good game and awesome sportsmanship. We won't talk about the uncomfortable metal bleachers. I sat on my puffy coat (because by then, the wind was so cold it would cut you in two and I needed a puffy coat to survive), and it still wasn't enough. Lesson learned. I'll take a chair next time. Also, on this day, I hit the highest step count I've had since my hip started hurting in December of 2023. And with only a little muscle soreness.
I don't have to go back to my surgeon for six months! He said everything looks awesome and I have no restrictions. Just do what I think I can do and work up to the rest. My xray's looked great and he was pleased with how I'm walking.
And that is all.
Behave!
Good Riddance!
February seemed long. I don't think I'm the only one who feels that way! We have about three weeks until it's finally Spring! And I don't care what you say, March is a horribly long and awful month too. It's warm one day, cold the next, there's mud everywhere, flowers start to come up and then die. Our thoughts turn to gardens and planting, and then...it snows. So yeah...
Let's do the Feel Good.
1. Healing coming along. I can put my own socks on now! Still sore at the end of the day, but it's a "muscles getting back to normal" sore. I'm not doing steps like a normal person all of the time, but I'm getting there. I have driven an automatic, but not our manual shift yet. That's coming. I'm ready. Doc appointment on Monday.
2. Writing. Well, I'm hoping to get back into things this weekend. I figured out that I started in the wrong place, so that's a help to me feeling stuck. I also know the surgery/healing has a lot to do with everything and I had already promised myself I would take the time I needed to not feel like I'm forcing myself. I know I've had successful days over the past six weeks, but not so much lately. I do feel like I'm ready though. So there's that.
3. Not so feel good is that my besties are all on a writing retreat this weekend. I so wish I could have joined them. I wasn't sure what kind of shape I would be in when the plans were made and I didn't want to burden them with having to help me so much when it's their retreat. I know they would have gladly helped me, but I just didn't know where I would be physically and mentally. And I didn't want to stick them with my cost portion if I realized I really couldn't go. I know I made the right decision, but it's sooo hard! I think (hope) we're planning one for summer, so that's a definite for me.
That's about it! Life is not that exciting right now. I have a few things on the calendar to look forward to. One is a booksigning at the end of the month, and the other is an alone trip That Man and I have planned. And that's it. Like I said before, I know very soon I'll be lamenting the fullness of our calendar and wishing for the quiet time.
That is all...
Behave!
Sorry for the silence! Though I guess it's only been two weeks! Only. Ha!
I'm healing. It's been almost 5 weeks. Sleep is getting better, but is still an issue. The old pain is gone completely, which is amazing and wonderful. However, I still have weird and random pains. Every day is different. I know it's from the actual surgery and the fact that my muscles were cut, etc. And my knee is figuring out how to support me correctly again. I keep feeling like my foot is turning inward, but it's not. Like I said, every day is different, but it's getting better every day too.
I can almost put my socks on by myself. I have to be careful to not over do physical activity and to react slowly in certain cases. I can get into our vehicle without my step stool, though I still keep it handy just in case. I'm not doing the stairs like a normal person yet, but that's coming. I still have a little swelling, which is normal.
Other than that...This particular long dark of winter is incredibly obnoxious for me. I'm equal parts stir crazy and snuggled in. I'm not quite sure how to explain it, but I'm ready for warmer weather, sun, being more active, and for some of the stressors to go away.
Come on, Spring!
Behave!
Well, not really. It's a work from home day.
We got ice. I'm not sure how much. All I know is that we received an email last night saying we wouldn't open until after 9am today. Then, this morning, there was another that said to work from home. So we did.
And yeah, I'm back at work. Since my job is a desk job, the doc was fine with me returning. My brain was atrophying. Ha!
My healing is going well, but it's a process. Every day is a little better. Sleeping has been an issue, but (knock on wood) that was better last night. I just need that to continue.
Looks like we're supposed to get more bad weather over the weekend, and then again next week. I say bring it.
That is all.
Behave!
It's rainy here. And chilly. But I'm snuggled up in my chair with a blanket. It's quite possibly my last Friday home. I go to the doctor on Monday and we'll see what he says about clearing me for return to work.
Let's do the list...
1. Making a successful trip into the day job yesterday to say "Happy Retirement" to my boss. It's bittersweet. He was a great boss and I'll miss him, but I'm happy for him to get to enjoy his retirement too. He's been talking about it since I started over 5 years ago.
2. Feeling pretty confident in my new boss. He definitely has a different style, but it's good. I think things are going to be just fine.
3. Putting on my very loose comfy socks all by myself. It took a very long time and the help of my grabber thingy, but I did somehow manage to get my left sock on. It's crooked, but my foot is warm.
4. Getting writing done. I have made decent progress this week, and I will continue to make decent progress. I am re-finding my focus and my spark so that's something. And I'm doing my best not to overdo it and burn myself out.
5. Working hard at not overdoing things. It's absolutely amazing to not have the pain level I had before. It's super easy to forget that my body is still healing. And that I do still have pain that shouldn't be ignored. I am mindful though.
6. Starting to look forward to upcoming things. I feel like I haven't been able to do that for a little while. And yeah, I did look forward to the holidays, but not without a huge amount of trepidation and frustration over how I was going to get things done and survive with the amount of pain I was dealing with. Now it's with more of a "I should be able to do that" attitude. If that makes sense.
That's about it.
Behave!
I'm not even close to 100% yet, and that will be a while, but every day is getting better.
The pain of the bad hip is gone. Whoot! Now I'm left with surgical pain - or you know - someone reaching their hands inside of my body and taking out my bones pain. And there's a lot of that! Ha! The bruising was epic. So are the muscle cramps. Mostly gone now, but there's still a little. My scar is good. Healing nicely. Sleeping is a crapshoot, but it always is. Ha! I'm walking around the neighborhood some and can do steps better than I could before though I still have to take it slow.
I will be venturing out for the first time in two weeks on Thursday. My boss is retiring and I need to go to the shindig. It's at work, so it should be easy and there are plenty of spaces for me to rest if I need to. Then I see my surgeon on Monday and hopefully he'll release me to go back to work.
In the meantime, I'm in my chair watching dumb tv and organizing stuff. I haven't gotten back to writing yet, but that's today. I hope.
That's all I have!
Behave!
I report bright and early tomorrow morning. Well, actually I have to be there before it's even bright and early. Ha! My surgery time is first thing in the morning. I'm the first one of the day.
I received my call with my instructions and I'm good to go.
So I guess I'll catch you on the flip side. I'll post as soon as I can/feel up to it.
And then I can get back to living life! Living life without constant pain!
Let's go!
Behave!
I'm all set... I've been medically cleared for Friday. I'll get a time to report sometime tomorrow.
I have my bag packed. The house is almost clean. Stuff has been organized.
I have to use this super weird smelling body wash. I can't sleep with my dog.
Our bed part came, but it's taking it's time warming up so we're watching it. It will be a pain if we have to send it back.
No writing has happened. My brain is working and I cannot wait until I can put some words on the page again.
And that is all...
Behave!
Well, here we are at Saturday again. I kind of fell down on posting this week, but in my defense, the week was absolute insanity.
To back up, it barely snowed. So we trudged our way into work Monday to inventory data entry and report making. And trying to catch up on everything that didn't happen due to getting ready for inventory day. That continued until Friday. About the only thing I can say is that it was one of "those" work weeks.
And it was one of "those" weeks period. So many stressful things.
Still up in the air about whether or not surgery is really going to happen. I'm told not to worry and to continue as if it is, but there seems to be one thing after another. The "don't worry" is a ridiculous thing to say to someone. And I am continuing like everything is as it should be, but damn, so very much stress.
We're still waiting for the part for our bed. the original place refunded me after I emailed for status (they apologized and said they were out of stock)and I had to do a pretty intense search for another one. Which I did find, and I paid way too much for it, but I had no choice. It's supposed to be here today and we're ready. There's a hose running through the living room in preparation. The hope is that we can be back to normal by Monday night. Fingers crossed.
No writing has happened this week, and we'll see if I get to it this weekend at all. My brain is a little broken, but I might be able to spew some ideas out for later. I also want to go through the old man synopsis and query again, but I'm giving myself grace on that all of it.
That's it for now. Hopefully this coming week will be better than last...
Behave!
Made it through the first few days of the year, but honestly... this year is not starting out so great.
Let's get the crap out of the way first, shall we? You know how they say "crap happens in threes"? Yep. In just four days we've managed to fill the crap-o-meter.
1. Potentially having to delay my surgery due to a missed test scheduling. (Not my fault) For now, we are continuing like things are happening. But I won't know if we're a go until the last minute unless there's a cancellation.
2. Our heater going out on our bed. That happened New Years Eve. We ordered a new one, but it hasn't even shipped yet. I'm in the guest room and he's been sleeping on the couch. It sucks because I have a week until I'm in the guest room full time for a bit.
3. There is a three.
So, let's do our best to side table the crap and focus on some good stuff.
1. Work inventory going well. There's only a bit of entering numbers to do. We were done the earliest we've ever been and so far, things are lining up pretty well! Lunch was awesome and it was a good day even though it was a really long day.
2. Snow in the forecast. Though I just saw an update that has the storm pushed to the south and shows us as not getting anything now. I hope that's wrong. I haven't had time to check it out yet.
3. Since we're in self-imposed lock down, we've been trying new recipes. Next up is sauerbraten. I will let you know how it comes out tomorrow or Monday. The roast has been marinating for a week.
4. Figuring out what the old lady story needs. I'm picking my way through, but it's a slow go right now.
Okay. That's all I have. At least the good was more than the bad? Yeah. I don't think it works that way...
Behave!
