The severe cold weather and ice we had are now over. 
Even safely warm at work, I was stressing over my house, but when I got home on Monday afternoon, all was well. The house was just fine, I was safely off the roads, a martini was shortly going to be in hand, and I burst into tears after setting my things down and locking the door, grateful to be home - the very best place to be.
I spent a whole day putseying around my house and sleeping well. Then on Wednesday I shoveled the sheets of snowy ice off my walkway and managed to get to coffee with a friend, groceries bought, bins to curb. Does it say I am an old lady to need a whole day to recover from the weekend? It wasn't even overly busy! I think it was a delayed stress reaction.
I'm looking forward to sitting on my couch and reading, under this soft blanket made for me by The Girl. Where did she get her mad crochet skillz? Turns out, You Tube. It sure has come in handy.
I joined another book club at a local library branch and I think it will be perfect for me. The list of books is published in advance so you have time to find and read them. I am a fan of holding an actual book, so I ordered mine used (through Amazon) and stacked them in order right where I will be reading. The first one is The Mender by Jennifer Marchman. We will get to meet the author, too!
Last week, when I was moving pictures around, I ordered myself this chrysanthemum poster print for the collage wall in the office. I can't wait to hang it! Mostly I have been very good about not using on-line shopping for therapy. But I did earn some overtime and I have been wanting a print like this for months. The chrysanthemum represents optimism and that motif is the largest element in my tattoo that says "expect the best".
I haven't been publishing menus because I am cooking either mostly the same things, or just eating out or doing very simple things like this egg and sausage skillet with roasted Mediterranean veggies. I am back to learning how to feed just me. One night this week I did a big pot of soup using the leftover turkey broth and meat from Thanksgiving, the rest of above mentioned veggies, and a can of white beans. Nothing exciting, just getting myself fed.
I am still plugging along on the photo album project. All the pages were removed from the albums, then all of the photos removed from the pages, next I will further purge the photos, put all of them in chrono order adding in photos from separate Christmas albums (WHY did we do that), then put them back into new albums (maybe trimming some of them up), then scanning them, then adding them onto flash drives for my peeps. This will take me weeks, 'cause I can only work on it an hour or so at a time. It is unbelievably hard to trip down memory lane like this.
For stress reduction and meditative time, I have been practicing my cursive handwriting which I had abandoned as a teenager. Its like starting from scratch! Writing my whole name, correctly, is very tricky. For years I have been writing a big lowercase G for my first name. Its fun to practice your fine motor skills with fancier handwriting. I think I may like to learn calligraphy some day, who knows. For now, this is a low cost pastime of putting pencil to paper while I listen to music, and doesn't make me cry like the photo project!
Happy almost end of January,
Gina
10 comments:
I'm glad you made it through the storm. You were in my thoughts. I was incredibly emotional working on my photo project as well. Thankfully, now that it was done, I am able to look at the albums with a smile instead of tears. It's a process.
You have terrific handwriting. I still tend to use cursive mostly, but I fear people soon can't read it. I'm glad you got through the stressful weekend and let yourself just recover and rest. I find every situation feels more stressful to me than it used to.
Love the clear moments of contentment and happiness in this post. Nice print - I'll have to think about what I really want to hang in 2 spaces and check out Etsy.
You have been amazingly busy! I don’t know where to begin to comment. I’m glad that your house was OK. As I’ve mentioned on my blog, back in October my son and daughter-in-law‘s house was struck by lightning and it caught fire. Little has been done thus far, so the other day my daughter-in-law decided to drive out to the house and see what was happening. When she walked in, there was water all over the floor. A pipe had burst and their house flooded. So they have that on top of the fire damage. Honestly, I don’t know how much more the two of them can take.
I don’t think it has anything to do with age that you need a day to recover from things. I just think it has a lot to do with a stress level. I am an introvert and have become even more so in my dotage, and I need at least a day after I’ve had some sort of social event, sometimes two. Stay warm!
Your penmanship is fabulous! I'm still recovering from our weekend.. and I didn't do anything. Seriously though this is the laziest week I've had in a long time. The cold just zaps any and all motivation from me and it has been so darn cold. Hopefully it will "warm up" soon... at least into the double digits would be nice!
Gorgeous crocheted blanket and print!
I've always written in cursive for correspondence etc, but have taken to printing address and return address on envelopes to make sure they can be read by the postal employees. :)
The blanket is beautiful and looks so cozy!
I wrote two old-fashioned letters last week and really struggled. I'm so used to typing by now that writing more than a few lines for myself has become difficult as I tend to end words in waves and squiggles which I obviously can't do if someone else has to read it!
That blanket caught my eye right away, she does have so mad skills! I love cursive writing. Of course, so many people can't read it today, which boggles my mind...but it is what it is I guess. I taught myself calligraphy when we got married, to address the invitation envelopes. It was very relaxing. You should try it!!
You managed to deal with the nasty weather! Hopefully February will be a lot less cold and snowy. Love the cozy blanket. And the lovely Chrysanthemum print💗.
I can think of nothing better than being under a blanket and reading a book. Good for you! And good for you for the handwriting. I write my evening journal in pencil trying to write slowly in good penmanship, the one I was told to show off my education as a scholar.
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