Blather & Whatnot

Good Morning, You Beautiful People!

I've been taking stock of how I've been eating, as I've been having more issues with acid reflux lately. It appears to be the amount of fat in my diet. Not that I've been eating a crazy amount of high fat meals, more that I am now more sensitive to high fat foods, probably due to the Wegovy. Okay...somewhere around I thought I had a Low-Fat Living book. Turns out I didn't, but I found one on Thrift Books and ordered it last week. It came in yesterday.

I was trying to find the "day at a glance" page that I thought was in the book. Haven't found it yet. But...I did go digging in some old journals I had, and I found this:

Second Wind:

1. end housework between 3 and 4
   
   1. clean desk
   2. prep to do list for next day
2. take a short walk
3. stretch out the tight spots
4. find something beautiful
5. enjoy a low fat appetizer while preparing dinner

Good Morning, you Beautiful People!

It was a restful weekend, so I'm refreshed and ready to go for the upcoming week. It's Monday, and that means grocery shopping. It also means two medical appointments for my husband, for which I am coming along as both medical advocate and backup driver. He has been in pain since his last injection, and that's not how this usually works, so I am concerned for him. I am going to be completely honest here and say that I also wonder if his pain is as bad as he presents it to be. I know that his pain and how it affects him is outside of my hula hoop, and I know that pain is complex, but I also know his history and how stressed out he is. I think that a lot of the pain he is dealing with right now is a manifestation of the weight he is carrying regarding his work and his hesitation to submit his retirement papers. Okay. There. I said it. I've suggested the same thoughts to him, but he tossed them aside. He is looking for a medical fix to his back pain. I'm not saying that his pain doesn't have physical causes...I just think it is magnified by his mental and emotional health. Thank you for letting me get that off my chest.

So back to today, and feeling refreshed (on a physical level, anyway!). Two doctor's appointments, and grocery shopping. The house has already had its light daily cleaning, and I didn't leave any laundry in any places where it doesn't belong, so I think I'm going to read in between the doctors' appointments and errands. But first, I need a grocery list! When I'm done with this check-in, preparing a grocery list is first up in the parade of daily events.

I hope that all of you find a pocket of beauty in your day, and as always, thank you for being here!

Good Morning (barely!), you Beautiful People!

Today is about the laundry I didn't do yesterday. And I won't be getting to those dishes until my son comes back from Pittsburgh, because I never asked him to get the china down for me. Old-Me would have been grumpy at him about that, thinking "he knew I wanted it done, so why didn't he step up?" But expecting him to step up and take care of something in my hula hoop, even if he has been informed of it, is ridiculous if I don't specifically ask him for help. So yeah, all undone things from yesterday are on me, but that's okay, because I always have today.

My husband had an appointment with his pain specialist this morning, so he is working from home. Maybe. For some reason, he is feeling a bit wobbly since the injection, so he might just call it a day. He already let his boss know what's going on, and his boss is cool with my husband making his own decision. So, in addition to laundry, I'll probably hang out with my husband in the sunroom. Because that's what I usually do in this scenario.

I got caught up on my poetry journal yesterday, so I'll start reading my library book (House of Leaves, by Mark Z. Danielewski) once I'm done with this check-in. I already penned my poem for the day, plus a spare, and posted them to Bluesky. I'll let both bake a bit to see if I want to do an editing to them before I add them to my journal.

That's everything rolling around in my head today. I hope each of you finds the pocket of beauty that is waiting for you, and as always, thank you for being here!

Good Morning, you Beautiful People!

It's Wednesday, and Wednesday means laundry. And cleaning the lower level of the house (most of which is my son's space, so those parts are his business, not mine!). And mopping anything that needs mopping while I have the mop out. I hate mopping. Even with the Swiffer mop. Why do I hate mopping so much? No clue...but when Roe-bit (what we call our robo-vac) retires, I might consider upgrading to the type that also mops. Time will tell.

I'm probably going to read during the downtime between laundry loads, though I might listen to a 12-Step study. And I really should call my sponsor, because I still haven't done that, and I really do want to go down for a visit.

Okay, that's all that's rolling around my head this morning. I hope you find a pocket of beauty in your day, something small like something green growing through cracks in the pavement or something monumental, like a breathtaking sunset. There are always pockets of beauty, both tiny and expansive, scattered throughout our days -- we just have to let ourselves see them. As always, thank you for being here.

Good Morning, you Beautiful People!

The weekend went well. My niece's baby shower was on Saturday--at a brewery of course, because everything is happening at breweries now. They served both beer and cider, so I was hoping that I would have some regular old non-alcoholic cider, since the place is leaning heavy into their history as a farm. Alas, they did not. But my sister (one of the team of hosts) did have one of those big dispenser jars of raspberry lemonade, so I still got to enjoy a festive beverage. I really like having festive beverages on special occasions. I think I'm going to pick up some sparkling or regular apple cider when I go grocery shopping. I think Hopkins' Farm Brewery missed the mark on that one -- they really should have had good, old-fashioned, non-alcoholic cider available for fall festivities, no?

Sunday was an impromptu football pizza party with friends. I sat on the side of the couch that doesn't face the TV, since I don't give a damn diddly about football. My friend C brought brownies, we provided pizza, and the guys had beer. I sat in the corner and did Sudoku puzzles while they watched football but still took part in the banter. It was a super casual get-together. We should do stuff like that more often.

And today is Monday, and Monday is about running errands. I have a huge credit coming to me from my grocery store as a "we are so sorry" gift from when their ordering system was hacked. The system has been fixed, and to get people back into the habit of using it, they are offering $40 off. I'll place my grocery order through them. While their system was down, I went back to doing my own shopping in the store, and I liked that, as it meant I could use cash, and when it comes to money, my ADHD brain works much better with cash than it does with electronic transactions. I think I'm going to go back to old school on the groceries after I take advantage of the $40 credit. Since I redeem my shopper's points as cash back grocery dollars (not actually cash back, they must be applied to a grocery purchase), I'll probably do an online order once a month to claim that bonus.

I have a few other errands that I was going to do at Walmart as a one-and-done trip, but I really hate shopping at Walmart. At our Walmart (relatively new -- it was built right before Covid), the entire building thrums from their HVAC system. It's not too bad on the housewares side of the building (where most of my purchases can be found), but it's so strong on the grocery side that it literally makes me feel ill. My chest tightens, my stomach turns, and I get a wicked headache. I'm going to review those errands, decide what really is necessary, and see which errands I can manage without entering Walmart.

Okay, that's everything rolling around in my head! I hope each of you find some beauty in your day, and as always, thank you for being here!

Good Morning, you Beautiful People!

Today is Thursday, and instead of yardwork, I've decided to make it planning day. When yardwork was on Thursday, the bin of yard waste would hang out in the backyard and regularly be forgotten. As such, it was nearly always overfull, as it wasn't being curbed. The yard waste gets picked up on Mondays, so moving yard work to Sunday makes more sense. I didn't want to do yard work and planning on Sunday, so I swapped tasks.

I've already done my morning routine (light cleaning, exercise, breakfast) and even cleaned the nose prints from the windows before they could become a disgusting film of doggie nasal drips. Most of my weekly planning is done, but I do have some systems notes that I want to reprint and add to my planner. When I'm done checking in, it will be time to shower, and then I have a shopping trip to make to Walmart. Not my favorite place, but it's the place that has all the things I need to pick up in one place, and I just don't feel like gallivanting.

I also want to check in with my AA sponsor. It's been a long time since I've spoken with her, and even longer since I've seen her. I want to find a good time to go down and visit her this fall.

Okay, that's everything rolling around in my head this morning. I hope you find some beauty in your day, and as always, thank you for being here!

Good Morning, you Beautiful People!

I'm trying out a new morning routine, and I'm hoping it fits as well as this morning felt. I woke up at 7am, immediately turned on the bedside lamp, folded back the bed linens, and cracked the window in my bedroom. Just like those old-timey "how to housewife like it's 1950-something" lists. Then I let out the dog, and emptied the dishwasher, per the usual. After that, I did a quick tidy and dust, and then (and this is the big one, I think) I exercised for 10 minutes. Just ten minutes. Some pushups, some sit ups, some PT moves. I'm not sure if Jack Lalanne would be proud or not. ;~)

And now I'm eating breakfast, checking in with you guys, and seeing what's on the docket for me today. All before 9am. It's the ten minutes of exercising, I think. And the lights on right off the bat. I think I used to do this before...I wonder why I stopped?

On to today. It's Tuesday, and that means desk work and bills. Blech. It wasn’t fitting well in my Monday's anymore, so I bumped it a day to Tuesday. I also have an appointment with my vein specialist at 10. This should just be follow-up imaging. One the appointment is over, and the bills are paid, I'm going to scan through my notebook of systems. Yeah, I've been doing a lot of adjusting to things lately, but as I have mentioned in several check-ins, ADHD has really been kicking me in the butt lately. Not in a "my world had gone crazy and everything is fucked" sort of way, though. So that's good. It's more of a "dang it...I keep forgetting shit, and why the hell haven't I taken care of that yet sort of way. I don't know if I'm really going to change anything, but I want to look at what I'm doing now, making sure I'm not missing anything important. I know that I don't have as many alarms on my phone as I used to have, so that's probably part of the equation. I think I mentioned that the last time I talked about my organizational systems. Part of my ADHD is time blindness, so I need reminders of all sorts. The problem is that if I use too many alarms, start feeling like my phone is a micro-managing boss, and my inner child rebels. I'll figure it out.

Okay...that's what's rolling around in my brain this morning. I hope that all of you find some beauty in your day, and as always, thank you for being here!

Good Morning, you Beautiful People!

Today is Friday, and my first priority is getting my mammogram. After that, some light cleaning (I did a lot more "clean as I go cleaning" than I realized, so it's really just dusting, vacuuming my bedroom, and mopping the kitchen floor -- my Roe-bit does my main floor vacuuming on a daily basis, at night, once I'm pretty sure that I'll be asleep enough to sleep through it). That leaves plenty of time for personal pursuits -- I'm thinking that will probably be updating my poetry journal and watching a spooky movie on this rainy day. I have a list of other personal things that I have been neglecting, like updating my StoryGraph and Letterboxd accounts, so I might end up doing that stuff instead.

I guess that's it for now. I hope you find something beautiful in your day, and as always, thank you for being here!

Good Morning, you Beautiful People!

I'm moving slow this morning (as I have often mentioned, I truly am a master procrastinator), but it still morning, at least! I need to hop in the shower, do a couple of loads of laundry, and go to the grocery store. I'll check and see if their website and ordering app are still down. If not, I'll place an order for pick up later today. Otherwise, it's shopping in the old-fashioned way, with list in hand. I wrote the list last night.

While I do have other things turning in my brain right now, I don't think that any of them are ready to share yet, so this will be brief. I hope that you find the pop of beauty that Universe put in your life today, and as always, thank you for being here.

Good Morning, you Beautiful People!

Today is Friday, and that is usually all about cleaning. Which I have already finished. Including those nose prints. So now I'm left deciding whether I also want to mow the lawn. Okay, I know the answer to that: I do not want to mow the lawn. The real question is: can mowing the lawn wait? I just don't feel like pushing a lawn mower around. What I want to do is take a shower and get dressed, take care of the other things that need to be done today, walk with Ted, work on updating my journals, and just generally enjoy having a fall day that feels like autumn with open windows and maybe wear my knee length boots. The other things that need to be done today involve medical bills (isn't that always on my list of things to do?) and to deposit the reimbursement check from the insurance company (for a medical bill that the insurance underpaid, but we already paid the provider, thus the reimbursement -- see why I hate medical billing so much?).

That's where my brain is right now. Do I be a responsible adult and mow the lawn? Or do I push it until this weekend? If life were perfect, I would do it on Sunday. I want to move yardwork to Sunday because when I do it on Thursday, I forget about the yard waste bin, and it never gets curbed on Sunday. That yard waste bin is majorly overflowing; I need to pick up some of those paper yard waste bags. The problem with Sunday is that it’s supposed to rain. There is always tomorrow, and then I could make Sunday be my lazy day instead of Saturday. Decisions are hard.

Neither here nor there, but we might have a chicken in the neighborhood again. At least I think that's a chicken I'm hearing in the background. It definitely has a barnyard fowl vibe, anyway.

Okay, and that's where the rest of my brain went this morning. I hope you all find a pocket of beauty in your day, and as always, thank you for being here!