Good morning!

I can’t tell if I’m feeling better or not yet, as I haven’t tried to do anything too physical, but I’m hoping I’m getting better.

I haven’t exercised this week. There were a couple days I wanted to take a walk, but I’ve been too sick.

Monday was a rotten eating day, but the rest of the week was ok.

I’ve been thinking about starting my annual sugar fast early this year. Usually, I do it between Halloween and Thanksgiving, but I’m frustrated with how I seem to do great for a week or so and then crash into a major junk food indulgence. I think I’d make some good headway if I avoided those. My main concern is the soy milk I use for my protein shakes. It is very sweet, with brown rice syrup or something in it, and I need my shakes. So I don’t know if I should allow the soymilk as an exception, or if I should try to substitute with dairy. I’d really rather not do that. I don’t like the texture as much.

My friend Katie wants to recommit by trying to lose 10 pounds by December. I’d be happy with that, and it should be very doable. December is 12 weeks away. I put a sticky note on my calendar with 10 boxes to check off, 1 for each pound.

Anyone else want to try?

I’m up a pound from last week, but it’s due to female issues. I’ve been extremely regular for myself the past few months, and it’s quite irritating. I don’t like it, though I’m sure it’s a good sign health-wise.

It still sucks.

Being sick and too tired to do anything more with my house, I’ve returned to Abby’s sweater, extremely thankful that I’m not too sick to knit. Really, this is the perfect illness. (Perhaps I should thank you, Hayden). I legitimately have to sit and do nothing, or I break into a sweat and gasp for breath. But if I’m sitting still, I feel pretty decent.

I’m 24 rows away from the cap shaping, so I should be able to finish and block the pieces today. However, I’ve lost one of the fronts. I don’t know where it went, but I’m going to be looking under couches when it comes time for blocking. This cardigan seems to be a floor dweller. There’s always a piece of it somewhere, being walked on. I never see it get up and walk off on its own, but I’m sure it does. It’s just sneaky about it.

As for the curtains… I got well into them before the major fatigue set in the other day. They look awful right now. I feel like a no talent klutz when I sew. All thumbs. I think they’ll end up being ok, but I need to rip a side and re-sew it, because it’s puckering weird. The silky fabric and the rubbery liner behave differently under the foot of my machine. The side that was rubber-up didn’t want to feed through well, so I’m going to have to flip it over and sew it upside down so the feed dogs move the liner through smoothly. And despite my math and accurate measuring, the length is disappearing before my eyes. I don’t know how, but I’m glad I erred on the side of long, because they’re going to end up being just long enough.

Now back to Abby’s sweater and the Beatles. Wailing guitar is announcing the beginning of “Revolution”, and I’m going to go rock out. In my chair of course, so I don’t pass out.

“… we all want to change the world.”

I’m sick. It sucks. It came on suddenly last night, and I’m trying to drink a ton of water to avoid a full blown sinus infection.

Aside from that, I’m going to try to make drapes for our bedroom today.

We bought the fabric and hardware months ago,

and I’m finally getting around to it.

The tree in the photo came from the kitchenette in the basement that I finished painting yesterday. I need to clean out the corner, next to my bedside table, and that’s where the tree is going to go. Then I’m going to move one of my favorite pieces of art from the stairwell and hang it above our bed.

It’ll look groovy all together. With drapes. And trees. And stuff.

I think I’m going to make these drapes. I like the fold-over at the top.

Clark is grumpy. I think he’s a little sick like me, and he’s cutting top molars. That surprised me, as he only has 6 teeth.

It’s hard to believe, though the dreary, misty, wet and gray day helps it feel a little more natural for “back to school”.

There was a thunder storm last night, and Nate said the weather was lamenting the start of school. But the girls were so excited this morning. Their little eyes so bright…

What am I going to do with myself today?

We got some fantastic lamps for the downstairs last night at Kasala’s Labor Day Sale.

It is absolutely amazing, the difference lighting can make in a room.

I’m really happy with what we found, even though they no longer carry the wood veneer lamps I mentioned yesterday. The table and floor lamp are very low profile, which works in the space nicely, and they give off a great atmospheric light.

To answer my earlier question, I’m going back to Home Depot to get more paint and light bulbs.

And I’m going to eat well today, dangit.

I seriously love to post. I love to talk to whoever might be reading (I still don’t get why so many of you do) and I love to read your comments. The fact that I’ve been too preoccupied to post has left me feeling…… dissatisfied. Edgy. Mainly because taking the time to write a coherent post about my life and thoughts seems to ground me somehow. And thinking about it, I’ve been too scattered and distracted to compose anything organized and fluid. But the lack has been bugging me, so I’m going to try.

I’ll go chronologically.

A week and a half ago, Hayden and I went to see Stephanie Meyer speak at a local bookstore.

Hayden took a picture of me, too, but she is SO much cuter than I am, I couldn’t stand to see our pictures side by side, so you just get to see her. And Stephanie.

It was way fun.

Next, my friend Carol moved to New York. They’re buying 75 acres with a pond and sugar maples. I’m extremely sad. She had a combination birthday/moving party a week ago, and now she’s gone.

We bought her awesome couch.

but now I’m getting ahead of myself.

As you know, we’ve been painting. (Well, I’ve been painting). As I usually do, I wrote love notes to my family on the walls before rollering over them.

But for some reason, rollering over them didn’t hide the love notes. Color-wise they’re invisible, but no matter how many coats I added, you could still see the sheen. So I had to brush around the letters to fill in the gaps. It sort of worked. (See “Abby” on the left? And to explain the other wall, I call Veronica “Venus”. I really call her V-ness, but Venus looked better in print).

The basement was so lame. It was varying shades of painted and not painted white, wretched dark gray “accents”, and large, chunky patches of spackle everywhere. However, there was still a ton of hardware in the walls that I had to remove and spackle. For some insane reason, the previous owners didn’t believe in nails. Or pre-measuring, apparently. Everything they hung was hung on screws. Really thick ones, leaving enormous holes everywhere, and it isn’t because they were hanging heavy things. And then there were all the holes surrounding the remaining screws, clearly demonstrating that they didn’t like where they drilled the first 5 times.

I so don’t get it.

BUT, it looks significantly better now. Nate and I are extremely pleased. I chose a couple of earthy browns and a parchment color to bring out the brick around the fireplace. It has a richness to it that I love.

Like I said last week. Lame-o pictures.

I still have to finish the kitchenette (need more paint). Then we’re planning to order some wood or faux wood blinds for the two windows and either make or buy some curtains for the slider. (I was planning to curtain all three, but they’re all really close together, and it would have been an entire wall of fabric. I don’t think I’d like that look. Wood blinds will be nice with all the browns).

Then I need three lamps; a floor lamp, table lamp, and a hanging lamp. I saw some groovy lamps with a thin, wood veneer shade at Kasala awhile ago. I’m hoping they still carry them, and that they’ll work. That’s all I can picture downstairs.

And we’ll need to hang some art on the walls.

Painting has been difficult with all the monkeys around, tho’ I let them help some. Clark likes to monopolize my stepping stool. It’s been a very convenient babysitter, except that I really could have used my stool.

The girls go back to school tomorrow, and I still have the last sleeve on Abby’s cardigan to knit. It wouldn’t take that long to finish if I wern’t trying to do a zillion things all at once.

I wish there were 10 of me, so long as I’m the only me that gets Nate privileges :-).

Good morning! This week was pretty bad, health-wise. I’ve been totally absorbed with painting my basement, and I haven’t taken the time to eat well. Plus, Nate bought cookies and ice cream confections this week, and I’ve been eating them.

BUT, I’ve been moving a lot of furniture, climbing, reaching, bending, squatting, etc. and I’ve worn myself out repeatedly, so while not aerobic, I’ve been working my body.

And it’s looking really good down there.

How was your week?