Merry Christmas!

Lila, changes are always hard, and changes around major holidays and traditions are harder. And I am sad for you about Teen. I hope you are having a blast with your grands this morning though.

My son sent pictures of Birdy celebrating his birthday last night - they stopped at a National park with a hotel and he got to eat a fancy dinner in the lodge and swim in the pool (Birdy loves water). This morning they will continue to spend the day with Ddil's Birdy's great grandmother (mom of ddil's mother's husband. - who has only been in the family for 4 years, but she is all in on Birdy and his cousin and my people take family wherever love sends us). Then they will continue on to ddil's mom's house to see Ddil's birth family - especially her grandfather, and come here on the 27th.

This morning we are opening presents with Bean's family (whenever they get here) and baking and hanging out with them.

I didn't quite get done with the house - the decorations are up - except the lights I want Dh to put on the front porch, and the nativity scene with the cowsheep some of you may remember (I am setting that up with Bean) and the dining porch looks lovely, but yesterday Dh decided to do a home improvement project I have been wanting finished for seven years.

There is an air return in a corner of my house that is just a big black plastic and insulation covered column. It was installed during work on the addition OUTSIDE of the wall. Yesterday Dh finally framed it in (he did not clad it, so it is just in a 2x4 frame) to make space for this, I had to take away the shelf of toys that was partly hiding it. All the toys are now piled on my scullery counter. Along with yesterday's dishes and recycling. Hopefully Bean and I will find places for the toys today.

Merry Christmas eve, friends.

Breakups are hard. And I'm sorry about the burn, the work stuff, all the hard things... Tatoulia, that is why I always, all my adult life, had either a husband or a boyfriend. Call me shallow (I probably used to be) but I wanted a guy around to fix stuff when needed. This is really the very first time in my life I have gone without a partner of some sort for more than 2 or 3 months. I don't like it, but I also don't want to go back to being a person who is casual about boyfriends. Not intimacy, I was pretty 'nope' about that unless I loved someone, but I think there were times in my life I thought of someone I was dating as just a friend I like to hang out with and who would fix my stuff when things broke, and help with projects, when in fact they were thinking about marriage and such. I can't be like that anymore. I do ask my sons to help, but they are very busy so it is few and far between.

Turns out the fan not working was because there are two different breaker boxes and that one was on a different circuit. When he flipped the right switch, it worked. So now I have light in my bedroom, and a working fan, so even though it is not as pretty as the first one and is a bit crooked, I'm just not going to look at it. It will be good to have light to wrap some presents tonight.

Christmas is hard for me this year. I am sick, for one thing. I am sitting here alone for Christmas Eve for the first time in my adult life, as TotsFam all went to the other grandparents' house. And you remember Teen, who is still gone, and this is the first Christmas of her life we have not been together. The first Christmas my childrens' stockings are not hung on the fireplace... my grandkids are instead. I dunno, there is something very sad about having no kids to celebrate with. But tomorrow morning 3 of my kids will be here with 4 of my grandkids and it will be nice.

I am just too sick to enjoy much of anything right now. I want to go to bed but it's not even 7:30 yet and I have presents to wrap. I am excited to see the grandkids wake up and have presents from Santa, though... that will be great!

Apparently no one is very hurt or angry about the break up except his partner's parents. They think my extra son is the devil. Meanwhile, his Mom just doesn't want to lose her "daughter" and is continuing to nurture that relationship. She says they both say they just grew apart and lost touch with each other. He kept the house, his mom helped her find an apartment, and they split up their stuff and the pets. They've been together for ten years, but neither wanted kids.

Everything that still needs to be cleaned off the dining porch is on the table. That is progress. Tomorrow I will clean the floor and focus on other things. I can come back and pick at it later.

I recycled some things that were not easy. And I put a couple bits and pieces in the trash can. I feel like I have made a lot of progress this year.

That is upsetting news about your ddil. Nothing is as painful as a burn. Im also sorry to hear about your extra son. Breakups are so hard and painful.

Thanks for saying that about my work. I definitely work hard and enjoy what I do. The redundancies caught me off guard no real surprises as most of them made sense.

I'm tired and so I'm going to bed. One of my coworkers came by tonight and picked up my luggage to store for me. Pretty nice!

Good evening!

Lila, I am sorry about the fan. Good job on the high chair though!

Tatoulia, I'm sorry you are stressed. I can't believe you have to worry about being caught in redundancies, your work always sounds really happy with you.

I hope you get your house squared away!

I finished cleaning up the play side of the basement. I even found some more things to part with (I will post them in the tally thread) but I didn't make progress on the dining porch. Dh pointed out that I don't have to do it until Boxing Day, but it is still hanging over me.

It has been a full day here with less than great updates. Buddy is fine, but ddil scalded herself and had to go to the hospital with 2nd and 3rd degree burns on her hand. Mostly 2nd. They had to cut into one of her fingers because of swelling and she is very bandaged and medicated. The hospital said she can still travel as long as she doesn't drive, so they are still coming, and of course I will be delighted to help with Birdy, but I feel awful for her. My extra son is a nurse, so we will have help available if there are concerns about bandages or healing.

He is the second sad update though, as he and his partner have split up. Apparently back at thanksgiving, but he didn't want to tell us. He was waiting for my actual son to come home and break the news. But his mom told on him when we took her Christmas treats over tonight.

The last year has been a roller coaster.

I've been having a frustrating few days, too, Lila. So aggravated. Things in my house keep breaking and it's only getting worse. I need a handyman and an electrician and a plumber. Yes that's where everything is right now. So many problems. I've tried to fix some on my own with no luck.

Example. One of the doors on the kitchen cabinet was coming off, so I took it off. Screw fell into the disposal, now the disposal doesn't work. I cannot find the screw. I bought one of those magnet things and cannot locate it. So now I have a cupboard without a door and a disposal that isn't working. Oh and the sprayer on my kitchen sink fell apart and the new one I put on leaks. And a few of my outlets need replacing. BF's friend/handyman has not gotten back to me. I texted before my vacation (at that point, it was just the sprayer and the outlets) and I just tried him again. I don't want to let just any handyman in my home so I did contact an expensive plumbing place since they have worked here before and are decent folk. I had a local plumber during the pandemic and not only did he not fix my sink, but he came on to me and I discovered after he left that he had gone into my bedroom. I found a hallway lamp, not just inside the bedroom door, but all the way in my bedroom. Disgusting.

So I've been really aggravated and frustrated. I need to put some money into my house. I just took a very expensive trip and there are redundancies at my work. I'm a wreck.

Okay a friend from work is coming over now. She offered to to store my luggage for me! Yay!

So I'll try to be positive and not be too upset. I just need to get things working properly.

Good job on the scullery counter, SubC! That's an accomplishment and you are holding ground!

The high chair is clean! It is one of those solid wood ones they used to have in restaurants. It was caked with food. I set it outside in the rain for a half hour, then poured hot water with Dawn in it over it, let it soak 10 min, scrubbed with a brush, poured hot water over it, rubbed with a cloth, then used cleaner, then wood polish. So nice looking!

I have come down with their cold and feel miserable. However my one task today was the bedroom fan.

Imagine having a long bedroom and only one side has a light. The other side, with most of the piles, has a ceiling fan/light. Months ago the light stopped working. Finally I got bulbs, but it still did not work. Then the fan wouldnt work. Months of no light... finally the other day I bought a new ceiling fan. And finally today, TotsDad took down the old fan and put up the new one. The new one was bent and looked not as nice but I was like whatever. And then... it doesn't work. TotsDad thinks maybe it was just needed a new switch all along.

So that is frustrating, and I have a new, bent, non-working, cheaper-looking fan light on my ceiling, and parts of all the old fan all over my bed, tools and screws on the nightstands, and still no light.

Hoping TotsDad will try to replace the switch very soon. In the meantime I have to find room among the piles for all this fan stuff.

How are you all? Any plans for Christmas Eve?

The scullery counter is cleared off. There is stuff in a box. It is a smaller box with less stuff than what was stashed to clear the counter in October (I think it was October?) anyway, last time. That box was still there. I pulled it out and REMOVED SOME THINGS. I did not add to it. At all.

The bench where I park things is cleared off. The couch is cleared off. My bedroom is surface clean.

The two main remaining areas are the dining porch (better than it was yesterday) and the play side of the basement. Also better, but both are still really big jobs. I am hoping to work a little tonight and then finish them both tomorrow. We'll see. There still isn't room for everything in this house to be put away neatly. But I am getting closer.

Hi Lila!

How is the high chair?

I have made really good progress on the scullery counter and plan to make one more run at it before I go to bed.

Tomorrow I will finish it off (still reserving the option to keep one box in the cupboard below like I did in October - if that box can just keep getting smaller I will get there.) and work on the dining porch some more. It would be lovely if I could actually finish the dining porch tomorrow as well, but we will see. Progress is happening. that is enough.

It helps me so much when Dh helps me clean. We used to clean up together every weekend, and then he got a real job, and I stopped working for a while, and the kids got bigger, and labor got divided, and the house got too cluttered for him to be willing to deal with it..

I'm glad I'm finally getting things back to the point where he feels like helping. The bedroom looks pretty good. There are some "catchall" containers on my dresser, but they are pretty.

Hello again. I have been having a very nice, relaxing day at home mostly alone, so I am enjoying the quiet and watching some tv.

I probably live in the northernmost area of our group, tho if anyone else here has a day length right now of less than mine, 8 hours 36 minutes, then you are more north than I. The sun is setting by 4:15pm, which feels awfully early.

Today I sorted by to-do paperwork, opened mail, consolidated some like paperwork and threw out a big stack, found a check and deposited it, and cut the dog's nails. I also vacuumed the couches.

I will work on my room some more when they TotsFam comes home from their Santa trip. I tend to go in my room when they are all in my vicinity for long, because they are sick so often, coughing everywhere etc. I need to work on my room for sure.

I finished up some online shopping for January birthdays as well, and purchased myself a new purse for about $25. The one I am using has a broken zipper, one of the main zippers, but I kept using it with it hanging open. Time for it to go bye bye.

I would also like to clean the high chair, which is disgusting with crusted on food and spit. I think TotsMom is a bit overwhelmed with all the babies. She is a great mom but it is hard to keep up with wiping things down etc. I may just set it out in the rain for a half hour to soften things up before I scrub it with disinfectant.

Back later.

I miss tillie too.

Being more south, you should have longer daylight hours at winter solstice, but slower increases and decreases.

How is your day going?

Dh cleaned the upstairs (dusting and vacuuming.)

He made me clean up my dresser. (Well, he asked me to so that he could have the whole upstairs clean, and then he stayed near me encouraging me not to stop)

After opening my teacher gifts and cleaning off my dresser, I am net zero for stuff (I am not counting in consumable stuff like lip balm and candy)

Yep! Gonna take a bunch of things off the couch. Don't know where else I'll put them all but I'll figure it out, I guess. Some of them are not that difficult, I've just had "stuff blindness" to them which is easy to get when busy and distracted. I found one thing that can be donated. The coffee table is already noticeably better. I may clear it and use it as temporary staging for the sofa - I know, must be sure and follow through and not just mess up the coffee table again, lol.

Working on a plan with the bunny rescue to pass along some of the craft paints to the lady who does painting parties as a business and did one for us in the fall. I have been aware for some time that I am tired of storing those items here; at one time we'd thought we'd have our own building but it's become pretty apparent that barring a miracle we never will. So I need to continue to downsize those craft items to only what we may use (and use up) for kids' crafting at two or three annual events, store it compactly, and don't let it become overstocked. In the spring is when one can find paintable wooden bunny ornaments so I do buy a few packages then, but I'll try to judge what is not too much for the storage space I have and the rate at which we will use them up.

I have a few old journals I'm going to type excerpts from and then shred the originals. That like scanning old photos is one of those longer projects, but will be satisfying and a good thing to do when indoors in the winter.

Today I have another digital art class at the library which I'm looking forward to. I think I'm beginning to surmount the learning curve on Inkscape, which gives me a feeling of accomplishment.

I don't know if it makes a lot of difference re solstice and lengthening of days, but I think I'm at the southernmost latitude of any of us here in this little internet space, a title previously held by our dear Tillie whom we miss a lot. I still think of her.

Happy Solstice!
Happy new (solar) year!

It's good to see you all! Lila, I too wonder where our short timers go and if the will ever come back. I always wish them well on their journey when I think of them.

I have turned the tree on, made coffee, and rekindled the fire from last night's coals (staying up all night to tend it is too much for me these days.) it would have been nice to do it at 4, but I slept until I woke on my own, so I missed that window. It's supposed to be cloudy, but I'll go outside to great the sun anyway.

This morning I am also thinking of the blessings that have joined us in the past year and meditating on Carl Sandburg's line "A baby is God's opinion that the world should go on." Hope.

Meanwhile I have some journaling to do and some things to write on bits of paper and add to the flames. I plan to spend my New Year's Day getting my house in order. I don't know how far I'll get, but that's the whole plan.

Tatoulia, I hope you continue to feel better. Why are you panicking?

Lila, it sounds like you made a good start yesterday! I hope your vacation renews you however you spend it.

CM, I will hope 😉 we both find the time and space to sew this year. Poco a poco, one thing at a time, take something off the couch. 🙂

Happy Solstice

Hope is a good word, SubC. My BFF and I each have a spiritual word - hers has been Peace and mine has been Hope, for awhile now.

I understand about attachments to sewing machines! My mom even went through that a little, I think, with the one my grandpa gave her for a wedding gift. When I had my first job I bought her a nice one. My current workhorse one I'm semi-attached to but I could probably be open to a new one at some point - it all depends on money availability and quality of the prospective new one, etc. For now, I'm thankful that cleaning my current one fixed my own tension problem and the dust cover I purchased should help prevent other issues for now. More time and organization to be more productive on sewing would be awesome. I hope your new one is amazing and a joy to use.

Yes - counting items dealt with rather than time seems to be the way to go.

Hi Tatoulia - I hope you get all your goals done - I believe you will. You've been getting pretty efficient these days from what I can tell. 🙂 Momentum takes awhile to build but less effort to sustain, usually. My momentum got generally better this year, with some ups and downs. Like I said awhile back, certain projects were outdoor at least in part, and that weather pattern that brought less wind was very helpful; unfortunately it came with a side order of severe drought, so... we'll see what the new year brings. And plenty of indoor things to work on too. Starting to pick away at those.

Lila, it sounds like you are having a good balance there between chill time and productive time. Hope it continues to be at a pace that feels calm for you.

hello SubC, CM, Tatoulia,
I do wonder what happened to Road, and others, sometimes.
I'm sorry you've been sick Tatoulia. And SubC, I will be praying for Buddy and his surgery. CM, I am thankful for solstice as well.

I finally have my two weeks off and am sooo glad. I just need to be home, get things done, relax, etc.

My bedroom has been appalling, and the rest of the house not much better. But now I have time to fix it.

This morning I slept in, then when I got up, everyone was gone shopping. So I got to chill. I also:
Loaded the dishwasher and ran it
Put in a load of clothes to wash
Put all the things that are not mine and don't belong on counters on the kitchen table and mentioned to DIL that we could have it cleaned today (she has things to put away)
Sorted boxes, saved 3 to wrap presents in, and took 5 or 6 out to the bin
Walked around the whole upstairs picking things up off the floors and putting them away
Walked around my bedroom and filled a grocery bag with trash and took it out to the bin
Went through each thing on my nightstand and tv tray - I still need to dust them and put things away, but I threw out quite a bit

The clothing situation is still very overwhelming to me in my bedroom. I am sitting on my bed right now, and there are piles of clothes on my desk, computer chair, a bin, a small chair, a rocking chair, and on a pile of blankets on the floor. There is also a basket of towels. I will start by folding the towels. Then, I will make my bed and sort clothes and blankets onto the bed - some probably need to be washed, some put away. I may have to donate some things to make room.

I hope to be on here each day while I am on vacation to get encouragement and report in!

Thinking of you all.

Good work donating the sewing machine. I can hear how hard it was and yet you are being practical. These are tough decisions.

I reserved a car for Sunday. I definitely do not feel like driving anywhere but I need to make some donations. I feel smothered in stuff.

I am finally feeling better and was able to get my garbage out last night. I canceled the cleaners this week because I cannot have them getting sick. I'll change my sheets today.

I'm up super early for me because I've panicking.

Good morning!

The actual solstice will occur at 4:20 a.m. tomorrow, so tonight will be the longest night.

I stayed too long at Bean's house last night and did not make any progress toward cleaning up, and I teach today, but I really want to focus tomorrow on getting things in order for the new year. I have never really gotten into the"word of the year" thing, but I think my word this year is hope.

A very practical, deliberate form of hope.

I got invited to a former student's wedding yesterday. I'm not going, but it was a very sweet gesture. He was a good kid. I hope he will be happy.

If I don't get moving I will elate for this last, chaotic, overwhelming school day of 2024.

Good morning!

We had a late night with friends last night. It was lovely, but I am very tired and slow this morning despite sleeping in. I am going over to watch Bean and Buddy this afternoon so dsil can go to the dentist and prepare for his mother visiting this weekend. Buddy's surgery will be January 16 as long as he passes his health screening on the 15th. They will be keeping Bean home for the first half of January to avoid exposure to colds. Don't know if I will be welcome once classes start, but I plan to go back to school at least the first week. Bean will go back on the 15th and then come home with me.

CM, I know that struggle with little bits of time. I want to plan and sort everything, and then it is partly laid out, but I have to quit and then it gets jumbled again. I'm finding from working on the counter that I need to just grab one thing and put it somewhere better. Not always it's final destination, just better - like my hair elastics keep ending up on the counter. When I see them, I will put them on my wrist. Then when I am in the bathroom, I will usually remember to take them off my wrist and put them in the drawer. Or if I see something that needs to go in the basement, I will move it to the chair by the steps. The mess got there one item at a time. Surely I can make it go away one item at a time.

Yesterday I cleaned more things off the counter than I added.

Tuesday I dropped the donations off at the thrift store. There were some things in the box that were hard and I wanted to second guess, but I didn't.

Here was the hardest thing - I have not done any sewing for a couple of years. The tension on my sewing machine is just too frustrating to me. The model I had became known for difficulties with tension. I've been meaning to take it in and have it serviced to help with the problem, but haven't found the time. Dh has noticed that I am not sewing, and that potential sewing projects have become one of the visible issues as I work on clearing things out and they are less hidden by other things. He bought me a new sewing machine. It's a really nice one. Not fancy computerized stuff, but a top of the line basic workhorse model with really good reviews. But he told me I could only keep it if I got rid of the old machine.

I got the old sewing machine when I was a young teenager. It was very fancy for a beginner. My grandmother - who was an accomplished seamstress - bought herself a new machine and bought the same one for me. The purchase included classes in how to use all the fancy features on the machine, and we took them together. She taught me to sew on that machine. I made clothes and costumes with it for myself and my friends, my ring bearers outfit, and clothes, costumes and quilts for my children. I didn't realize how emotional I was about it. I cried. But I also realized that my grandmother would have replaced hers by now. She would not have put up with that grumpy tension adjustment (it got worse with age) She bought me the machine so I could learn to sew, and she taught me to sew so that I could sew. And I established that if I have to spend twenty minutes fiddling with a tension adjustment every time I want to sew, I won't sew.

So the old machine left on Tuesday. Hopefully someone will get a good deal on it who has the technical skill to work on the tension, or the patience to readjust it all the time, or can afford to have it professionally addressed because the machine was so cheap. I am still in the process of letting go, but now I can unpack my new machine (I did already take it out of the box, read the manual and look it over to be sure I wanted it), set it up, and get to know it. I'm sure there will be some crying and a lot of talking out loud to Gram. But next fall, I hope Bean will go to the renfest fully outfitted. And maybe there will be at least one less bin of fabric in my basement.

I'm here too, counting the days till solstice (spoiler alert - there are 2!). SubC, I will be praying for Buddy, and for everyone who is sick. There are people in my circles facing difficult things too. So I just pray for everybody and I add "and if I forgot anybody, them too, Lord."

We got some more boxes of roommate's books donated to the library. I'm needing to declutter at least the public area, e.g., the sofa where I sit and stuff accumulates. It hasn't gotten too bad, thankfully, but it needs to be done and I'm a bit sluggish and/or not sure when to tackle it because the days get broken up into small pieces and I'm not great at making use of small pieces of time (it takes me most of them to organize my brain but oh well). I'll be with a friend tomorrow and Friday will probably be exercise day, then after that should be the home stretch before Christmas.

So far no Covid. Fingers crossed this will be the year I break that pattern of catching it before Christmas. Hopefully good riddance.

I am here, just miserably sick. Waiting for 5PM so I can rest.

Hi Tatoulia!

We crossed. I'm so glad your trip was good, but sorry for the rough ending. Hopefully you will recover quickly!

Good morning.

Lila, I hope you got some rest. Also hoping Tatoulia is having a lovely time on her trip and CM is enjoying the advent season.

I have been working on the dining porch in preparation for the bounty of visitors we will have in the next weeks. I think I got it about 1/3 done yesterday.

Our first in house activity is this Wednesday, when we are having some dear friends over for dinner and carols.

I am spending the day at Bean's house again today and taking along a bag of trash. I have been more resigned lately to sending things that require too much labor to clean for recycling to the landfill, but it is hard for me. Keep trying to remind myself that my time is better spent creating healthy food from scratch to avoid packaging than cleaning packaging for recycling.

Gotta run, much to do.

Sending love and prayers to all, including Buddy and his surgeon. I am back in the states and have strep throat. Miserable plane ride home. Had a wonderful time and a "surprise celebrity guest" (someone I wasn't expecting to see) and the trip was pure magic. My friend who stayed with the cats decorated my house and cleaned and organized the linen closet. Pretty nice!

Lila! So good to see you!

I hope tot recovers quickly and doesn't infect the rest of the household. And that you are getting a sense of control.

The big pottery studio had its holiday potluck on Thursday and I had a lovely time. Always good food and good people. In the gift exchange I got a lovely raku bottle from someone I have enjoyed classes with in the past who has focused on her work the last year and far surpassed my skill level, so I will be keeping that and not counting the bowl I took as an out. (It went to a teenager who seemed quite happy with it.) Bean came by at the end for some cupcakes and I took him home with me to spend the night because Buddy had a consult with his surgeon early yesterday morning.

We did not get the news we were hoping for from that meeting. Apparently one of the cysts in Buddy's lung has grown appreciably, and it is impinging on both his bronchial tubes and his aorta. The surgery will be more invasive and complicated than we had hoped, and is tentatively scheduled for mid January, when he will be four months old. Dd1 shared the news with the family thread during my first class and I saw it when I took attendance. I was already tired, and it was a long day.

Skipped the hac yesterday and cried last night, but I have slept ten hours and have nothing scheduled until Monday so perhaps I will get a chance to recover and catch my breath. My job in all this is to be Bean's person. I talked to a friend at work about possibly covering some of my classes during the surgery and recovery window, and he apologized that he can only do two. I told him "it's fine. Somebody will cover it. Or, I'll quit, and somebody will cover it." I don't think it would come to that, and my director is very caring and compassionate, but I have reached the point where they cannot make me come to work. - I could work out the economics, and would just be sad about missing the kids. It is a nice place to be!

So, off I go to try to create some base layer of order.

I'll update if anything is accomplished.

I can't believe it has been a month since I had time to look here. I think over the past 3 weeks if you added up my work and volunteer hours it would be over 40 per week (I am at 20). I actually ran out of work hours and had to get approval to finish out my tasks for the month. Even with that, I only have about 10 or 15 hours left, so I will be taking "off" (not paid) Dec 20 through Jan 2, only going in for about 4 volunteer hours a week. It will be so nice to get a break!! I love my job, but I need some down time.

All my big events are done for the year, with the next one in early January. So I can relax. Yesterday was a big event and it went great!

Today I am staying home except to go out for a haircut. Tot is vomiting all over the downstairs today. I feel sorry for her, but also am disinfection everything possible because I really don't want to catch it. It's in the carpet and everything. TotsDad will bring home the carpet cleaner and some more disinfectant to clean when he gets home after work.

Suffice it to say, I have done zero decluttering and only the most basic of cleaning. My bedroom is the worst it has been in over a year. Piles everywhere, in disarray, stuff all over every flat surface and chair and on the floor. I can't find anything. One goal for today and tomorrow is to try and at least get things put away and organized. It is hard because I don't know where anything is.

Good job on the potty purge, SubC!
Missed you all. Need to put in laundry. Back later.

Good morning.

I wish it wasn't so quiet here, but I know people are busy.

The hac is surprisingly hard to keep up with. Both mom and I are struggling. I've been clearing out file folders (only one folder a day) for the last couple of days. I found documentation that I was homeschooling my kids legally. Since they all graduated from college more than 8 years ago, I recycled it. There was a letter in there documenting a conflict I had with the local school system (i won easily), and I was surprised how much negative emotion it still brought up.

Spent yesterday with my boys. School today and I don't really want to go. I just need a break with some downtime, but my winter break is already fully scheduled.

Can't seem to keep up with everything, and yet, I got up early this morning and have spent an hour just reading online and drinking coffee.

The school year will be 40% over at the end of the week.

Ok. I did it. I got to 100 pieces of pottery removed from my studio in two months.

I need to make a plan for next year that results in continued progress.

Well, I have not been doing any making anything in the studio, but I did get up in the loft where I have been busy with "sort, organize, and purge." I have to find two more pieces I made to get rid of by December 31 to meet my "100 out in November and December" goal.

Since I don't count pieces "in" as I make them, these will not count as "out" in my tally. But my loft is less overwhelming.

I am also making a shelf of "clearance" and "seconds" pieces that need to be gone by the end of 2025. They are worth trying to sell at a discount or donating to a raffle or something though. The "clearance" ones are just pieces I made a long time ago that for whatever reason haven't found an audience. I donated one to our school raffle last year for the flower teacher to put an arrangement in and it brought in a good bid. I figured it was mostly the flowers, but the buyer found me and told me how much she loved the pot. So you never know.

I'm counting!

I like public transportation because I don't like to drive. Although I do a lot of it because I choose to live far from everything.

I had lots of plans for today, but I woke up with a migraine. So far I hav3 done chores and started a load of laundry. The medicine is kicking in though, so I may get moving. Dh has gone to buy ds's Christmas gift and he says then we need to take stock and see if we are done shopping.

So far I have kept up with the hac with mom, but most of what has left has gone in trash or recycling, so it doesn't count for the tally.

Still need to clear out 22 pieces of pottery by the end of the year.

Only 15 more days till solstice, but who's counting? (Lol!)

Trying to keep my head above water - it got colder here, though it doesn't stay consistently cold, thank goodness; it's variable. I helped roommate put some clear vinyl up to make the screen porch more like a greenhouse through the winter. It can be 20 degrees warmer out there than inside.

The Christmas rush and traffic have already increased here. I had hoped to get to the grocery store earlier this morning than I did, hoping to catch the time when it's more sensory friendly (e.g. mainly that the loud obnoxious so-called "music" is not blaring). I'm stocking up on basics and hoping to be in stores very little - I had already done that in October and November, so didn't need much except perishables.

I'm not a public transportation type at all. It triggers my panic and here it's not something that normal people do anyway. So a person would be out in all kinds of weather, and mostly the people who take the bus are those who have no choice, some of whom can be vaguely or overtly creepy. Plus I just like having my van around me like a little home away from home, a protective shell, stocked with things I need, snacks, etc. and my own tunes playing or a radio station I like. It helps me feel more relaxed. Driving is fraught enough but in my own vehicle it's tolerable - I have my routes that take me on less traveled and congested streets whenever possible. Night driving is getting very hard nowadays, though, with all those super bright LED headlights on other vehicles. People are beginning to push back against those, though.

Getting stuff out of here has slowed down some with the extra busyness but it will not be forgotten. I may be able to get some more boxes of books gone tomorrow, provided I can get them loaded today. I probably better go and do that!