Doing Nothing

 I hope Monday starts off as a good week with all the snow melted and above-freezing temperatures.  I'm so ready to catch up on my outside stuff.  I haven't been to the mailbox in a week but not expecting anything.  It will be exciting to see my new Social Security raise, but that's direct deposit later on this month.  

I have an Amazon package that's late but is promised by 9:30 tonight.  Nothing very exciting, just household things I need but not enough to go sliding all over the place to drive to get them.  Emily offers to pick up things, but I have a hard time asking for anything that's not extremely important.  

Since I'm trapped here, I have done nothing but a few housekeeping things, a little cooking, and did finish that Ishiguru book.  It gave me a lot to think about but wasn't wonderful.

My next book on the audio shelf was Where You Left Off by Katie Couric.  I wasn't absolutely certain I wanted to read another autobiography, or tell-all book.  I had read she really wrote some insulting things about people, but after all these behind-the-scenes White House horrors I've read, I was ready for a little change of pace.  At first, it was kind of boring.  I don't remember watching her much on TV.  I get what news I hear by reading and watching the occasional video.  I'm enjoying seeing how things work on a news set and how the politics of the broadcast industry work.  Couric seems a little too smug about how easily things come for her, but I know it took a lot of hard work to get where she is now in the book.  

As of this morning, I've reached the point where her husband has been diagnosed with cancer, and that's sad to read about.  She loves the notoriety of her job and having people recognize her in public, but then she has to fight the awful invasion of privacy that brings.  I'm hooked now and am interested in seeing how her career goes.  I've forgotten and won't Google it.  I do hate to hear how she tosses out embarrassing and/or private things about people just to get a laugh or to sell a book.  No excuse for that.  I guess the part about Matt Lauer will be interesting.

I might see the girls today.  I haven't heard what they're doing.  They've all been sick and at home for a week, but Emily got a negative Covid test, so that's reassuring.  

I didn't take many Christmas pictures, but I'll see what I can find on my camera just to remember.  I found way too many, but it's fine.  I probably have some duplicates too.  These don't even include the trip to Leavenworth and New Year's Eve.

This is a typical Christmas picture around here.  Ryan brought in a poinsettia that I'm trying to keep alive without repotting.  Some little houses and trees that have fascinated the girls.  And multiplication flashcards!

They are also obsessed with filling little candy or clay molds with whatever liquid we have in the house.  Here, they are using pineapple Capri Sun and vanilla soy milk to make little frozen treats.  So much better than just drinking them - and way more messy.

Christmas Eve when the snow was just a forecast.

Noreen brought over some homemade biscotti.  So good.

These cats survived over a week of snow with absolutely no problem.  I did see where one of them, probably Bowie, ventured out on the front porch briefly.  There were maybe 20 paw prints ending up on the mat coming back in.

All dressed up and enjoying the Nutcracker.  Such big girls now.

Setting up the manger and all the people and animals.  They collected angels from the tree and other places and put them in the background, calling that Heaven.

Opening Carol's (CeCe's) ornaments with money inside!

And it begins!

Santa Claus' gift this year was a Gizmo watch that makes phone calls.  I feel honored to be on the contact list.  Now we can talk any time we want to.  Mom and Dad don't need to know everything!

They loved their fairy-catching bottle.  All the fairies have names, and you can keep up to 30 in the bottle. 

I got to catch one too, a little boy fairy.

We always have a picture of Emily and Ryan slaving away in the kitchen while the rest of us play with our new toys.

 

Beautiful dinner - almost vegan, I think.  All the boxes are appliances and equipment having to do with the remodeling.  I think that's the kitchen sink behind them.

The fireplace is not in yet, so there was a little DIY going on.  Emily made the beautiful garlands, and Katherine drew a fireplace and mantel.

This is a shirt, believe it or not.  Graysen demonstrates how this little fox turns into a warm hoodie.

Christmas night fun for Layla and Bowie.  

First day of the snowstorm.

Sleepover dropoff.  No coat but great boots and a bag of homemade sourdough bread.

Letting Mama go home is hard. 

It helps a little bit when you can call and text her for a while.

It also helps to fill up more molds with Capri Sun.

Emily drove me around town to see how other places looked.  So beautiful.  My apartment doesn't look very festive with the wreath down.  I'll have to do something about that.

Driving down my street towards town.

Mount Si showing off the seahorse and Santa boot.

I'm not playing this!

It's a really old game from the 60s that Ryan found for sale.  They don't make it any more.  Still not playing it.

New Year's Eve.

Sweet gift from Debbie!  Graysen read it correctly, but Katherine chose to see "Bestest Mimi."

GO.  AWAY.

I think this is my favorite handmade Christmas ornament.  Perfectly dressed that day for being in a snow globe.

Reading

 I'm obsessed again with reading.  Or listening.  I can hardly read in the winter because I get too drowsy and go to sleep.  For some reason, in the spring and summer, I get a lot of pleasure in sitting outside holding a book.  Just my little quirks.

I ended up spending the $3 and rented Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close.  I think it's the first time I've ever read a book and then watched the movie the same or next day.  I loved both of them.  The book was more detailed, of course, and took a completely different path with one of the main characters.  The movie was more forgiving of the mother, who seemed a little distant in the book.  I loved the city scenes described in the book come to life.  While I don't think I would enjoy living in the middle of a big city, I am fascinated by it and love knowing about it.  The book made me sad.  The movie made me cry.  I guess that's a good enough review.

I started Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro.  I'm about a quarter of the way in, and I'm guessing it takes place in the future where these characters are destined to be "donors," and not just blood donors - vital organ donors.  Spooky.  

From the Booker Prize-winning author of The Remains of the Day and When We Were Orphans, comes an unforgettable edge-of-your-seat mystery that is at once heartbreakingly tender and morally courageous about what it means to be human.
Hailsham seems like a pleasant English boarding school, far from the influences of the city. Its students are well tended and supported, trained in art and literature, and become just the sort of people the world wants them to be. But, curiously, they are taught nothing of the outside world and are allowed little contact with it.
Within the grounds of Hailsham, Kathy grows from schoolgirl to young woman, but it's only when she and her friends Ruth and Tommy leave the safe grounds of the school (as they always knew they would) that they realize the full truth of what Hailsham is.
Never Let Me Go breaks through the boundaries of the literary novel. It is a gripping mystery, a beautiful love story, and also a scathing critique of human arrogance and a moral examination of how we treat the vulnerable and different in our society. In exploring the themes of memory and the impact of the past, Ishiguro takes on the idea of a possible future to create his most moving and powerful book to date.

I watched for my planner to arrive all day yesterday and found it's delayed another day.  Usually I have everything all ready for at least January by now.  I also watched and willed all the snow to melt.  It rained all day long and did make a dent in the piles.  The wind was fierce, and it's still raining at 2:40 a.m.  I have hopes of getting out and walking by myself to the mailbox and to get a haircut.  I won't know how to dress with temps in the high 40s.

Since I broke my wrist the day before my last 6-month dental appointment, I had to cancel it and had just not made another one.  Then the holiday, then the snow.  Then came the tooth sensitivity which sent me straight to the phone.  I have to have my hot and cold drinks and hot soup.  It would also be nice to crunch on some solid food too here and there.  I took some Tylenol and went to bed early, not that my tooth hurt so badly but because I was hungry and didn't want to risk bothering it.  I had a lovely 6 hours of sleep and am now awake, as usual, in the middle of the night.  Bowie came over and lay down against my pillow and stared at me awhile, but he's back asleep now.

Elise made me a cup of a really good herbal tea.  I'll have to find out what it was.  I had to laugh at how she "steeped" it.  People do their own things, but this is funny.  

One of my favorite Christmas gifts:

I'm going to read some of my neglected blogs now and try to get some inspiration for organizing my sewing room closet.  What a mess, that whole room.  I'll go in there and stand with a handful of ribbons, some science experiment stuff from the girls' bins, a bunch of old cross-stitch and quilting patterns and just not want to keep them all any more.  I'm trying to see into the future and now what the girls will be interested in and want to have on hand.  We have so little time during the school year, but maybe we can sort out some of their interests in the summer.  I read and sewed when I was younger, but I didn't have their video games and watches for making phone calls and parks and friends all over town, all the arts and crafts things they could ever want, vacation adventures, and thousands of Legos.  In spite of it all, they still seem to get joy in coming to my house and spending time with me.  I'm going to enjoy that while I can!

Another New Beginning

 I can't remember when I've ever skipped posting for a whole month, especially December.  It's not that it was a bad month; it's just the end of a blah year.  I'm one year out from breaking my shoulder and 3 months from breaking my wrist, and for the first time in a year I'm feeling optimistic about that right arm.  I can finally do almost everything the same with just a little weakness and some twinges here and there.  Starting off this January is 1000% better than the way 2021 started.  I asked Emily if we even had a Christmas last year, and no one really remembers.

I still have the lingering anxiety, but I have to admit that it seems to have run its course too.  I've neglected to follow up with my primary doctor, and once I do that and find out what else is wrong with me, I might change my mind!  

I don't really want to take the time to write anything right now but just kind of make a pledge to write down a few of the interesting things I want the girls to remember about our time together.  Their family has had a magic Christmas this year, and I've been caught up in some of it but not all and just sat back and enjoyed the enthusiasm and the joy.  I'm glad they made it special in spite of having the house halfway through the renovation and the what seems like month-long snowfall.  

I'm sitting here in the middle of the night listening to the drip, drip of rain melting all that snow, ice, and slush, and it sounds so good.  It's been beautiful but just soooo cold and dangerous (for me).  Every year, I get a little more confident about getting out and walking on the stuff, but I'm never sure what lies underneath.  I hear Dr. Marshall's last words in November:  You cannot fall again!  

I don't disagree.  

This was how it looked before dark yesterday, and it's rained all night.  

There were rumors of another big snowfall, but so far nothing.  We need a break!  School was closed Monday and Tuesday, and the girls had picked up Emily's sore throat and sniffles and were out today.  Hopefully, they'll get back tomorrow.

I had such a good day yesterday, and it was nothing special, just like I like it.  I got ALL the laundry done - mine and some of Elise's.  I got the clean sheets and ironed pillowcases back on the bed, and it was a good feeling all day to know I wouldn't have to fight that corner of the sheet that kept popping up last week.  After all that, I only slept four hours and am up at 11.

I cleaned and organized slowly, trying to figure out what I'm going to do with the sewing room.  It's become office, sewing, and kids' craft room and a place for Elise to keep her stuff when she is here.

I had a few nice phone calls and emails.  Tom came and put in the new part for my ice maker.  He's coming back tomorrow to check, and I think he's going to find out it doesn't work. I don't see any ice yet.  

My upstairs neighbors, Linda and Wes, are always there to help out, and I let him pull my garbage cans down to the street in hopes the waste management trucks would run.  It's been two weeks!  They didn't show up, but we read about a collection site at the Community Park, so Ryan came and got my five bags of overdue garbage and took it.  So thankful for that!  I still have a big bin of recycling, but that doesn't smell, so I don't mind waiting another week.  

After I took down the Christmas decorations, I'm really feeling good about not having so much "stuff" out on the tables.  I just like the feeling of space and clean!

I'm enjoying so much the little cabinet I put together with Ryan's help.  It takes some of the burden of storage off my little kitchen, and it looks cute, I think!

I'll keep the girls' snacks and dishes here, so they can get to them easily.  Also boxes of coffee and whatever else seems appropriate.

We'll have to see if it becomes a too-convenient place to hang out!

 

There's a little drawer just perfect for straws, trivets, napkins, and things.

This was after it was all dressed up for our little neighbor party.

It was just the best night.  Carly and her parents and baby sister came down and visited a while.  The three girls stood in the kitchen and ate way too much, and the grown-ups enjoyed a little time for getting to know each other.  No other pictures, unfortunately.

One of Carly's gifts to the girls was a little make-it-yourself terrarium, and they had a ball working on it.  It is really cute.

Graysen showing it to me on our Duo call yesterday.

Emily is in the background making pralines and sent me some to sample.  I have NO complaints and asked for her recipe.  They are better than the ones I used to make many years ago.

Katherine's latest obsession is Legos, and she was working on this treehouse when I was there on Christmas Day.

I recognized the almost finished product in the above picture of the terrarium.  It needs leaves.  Way too complicated for me!

  

I've read two books since the beginning of the year.  I kept seeing Gone Girl recommended, and although I read it years ago, I forgot what it's all about.  I downloaded a copy and listened to it and remembered parts of it.  It was good, but I still don't like the ending.  I wanted revenge!

I also just finished Extremely Loud and Excessively Close by Jonathan Foer.  I'm trying to get out of my rut in reading and explore things less familiar. I don't like writing reviews, but this is an excellent review, now that I've realized it's a movie with Tom Hanks and Sandra Bullock.  https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/extremely-loud-and-incredibly-close-2012

I have to decide now whether I want to spend the $2.99 and watch it now rather than waiting for it to be free on Amazon Prime or Netflix.  

The cats have no trouble sleeping, so I'm going to give it another try.