::::yawn:::::

I'm exhausted, but I'm feeling very hopeful. I've had more of that relentless forward progress happening since I last blogged.

Are you ready for this?

The garage and the back porch are.....empty.

Ok. Maybe not entirely, but enough that the builder was 'flabbergasted' that I had gotten as far as I have with it. So now we're finally in the planning stage!!

There are still a couple of things in the garage. The big plywood fireplace that we bring into the house every year to hang stockings on at Christmas is out there, the spare refrigerator that we keep water and eggs from the backyard chickens is in there, and there's a bedroom set that we've got to get into Scooter's bedroom. The grill is still on the porch, as is the porch swing and a table. I'll be selling the table, but we're keeping the swing and the grill, so they'll just need to be moved out of the way when the time comes. Oh. yeah. There's also a barrel on the porch that has camp chairs in it. I'm not sure where I'll be storing those until we use them, but they have to be washed at the car wash before I put them away until we use them again.

Considering that the porch was completely covered and the garage was full top to bottom, side to side, and end to end, I'm feeling pretty good about it. I've sold several things and made a few hundred dollars. Hubster took the bath surround we'd bought a few years ago back to the big box store. Thankfully, it was still in stock, so he was able to return it. We now have a credit to be used toward the renovations we'll be doing, so that will be handy.

I can't even imagine how many hundreds, (thousands?) of pounds of stuff has been thrown away! There's been some stuff donated, as well, but for the most part the stuff has gone to the trash. I've kept some stuff to look through later, because I just couldn't think clearly enough to make any more decisions about it at the time. I think that what I actually kept was only between 10-15% of the total that was out there. That total will go down, as I have the time to sort through it all when I'm thinking more clearly.

I'm having problems deciding whether or not to keep the stuff we'd gotten to redo the bathroom years ago, or if I should sell it and go a different route. The toilet and sink are a matched set, and I love the look of them, but the toilet is just a typical height. We're so used to the taller toilets that I don't know, if we should keep that one...I'm wondering, if it would be a fall risk for Hubster, since it's shorter. We're also wondering, if it would be better to have a small vanity in there instead of the pedestal sink that matches the toilet. We'd be able to put a reverse osmosis machine in a cabinet, which would allow access to purified water without having to go upstairs. Granted, we wouldn't have any storage, but we've gone all these years without it that I don't know, if it would matter, anyway. I could always hang some cute baskets on the walls for storage, so there are options.

Decisions must be made, but the fibro fog is thick, and it is so hard to think clearly.

I think I need sleep.

K Sare Ah. Sare Ah.

Wheezy.

Wheezy and snotty.

Wheezy and snotty and tired. 

Really, really tired. 

I'm trying to keep things together until our insurance kicks in 5 weeks from now. I have been fighting something, but I'm not exactly sure what it is. I think it's likely just allergies, but whatever it is has decided to play games with my asthma. Stupid whatever it is. And it's not that I'd necessarily go to the doctor even, if we did have insurance. It's just that I'm trying to keep things together, so it doesn't get so bad I have no choice but to go in. That's all. It just feels weird to be without insurance for the first time in almost 20 years. I think I just sort of took it for granted when we did have it and assumed it would always be there.

Needless to say, I'll be happy to see the insurance cards come in the mail when the time is right.

I have slowly but surely getting my mental energy back. The physical energy is coming along bit by bit as well, but I have to admit that I look forward to being able to being able to put in a full day's work more often than I have been without being totally worn out for the following few days. I need to get back into taking my vitamins more regularly. I sort of got off track back in February when I had my second tonsillectomy, and my train is still derailed.

I do have to admit that part of the fatigue today has to do with the events of the weekend. We finally got the second raised garden bed in the backyard built last weekend, and we got it all filled with the good soil and manure and compost and such yesterday. So now my tomatoes and peppers are all planted! I'm so excited!

I still want to get the pallet garden done, so we can have lettuce and spinach and peas and such, but at this point, I honestly think I'll be okay, if it doesn't happen. I mean, I'd really, really like to get it done, so I haven't ruled it out just yet. I just don't know, if it will happen this year or not. 

Whatever will be, and all, right?

I wonder how much overwhelmed weighs.

So I've been busy not being busy. Well. Sort of. I've been busy selling some stuff on eBay for a little lady who just lost her house to foreclosure. She needs the money, and frankly, so do I, and I am not doing this for free. Still, it's taken quite a bit of my time, and I've found I've neglected other things that I really should be working on. 

It wouldn't be so difficult, if I hadn't had to relearn how to sell on eBay. I've been away for long enough that almost everything had changed. I'm tempted to open up an eBay store, because I could list up to 2500 items per month for free, where now I can only list 50 for free. It costs about $15 a month for the store, but where listing fees start at 30 cents a pop after the first 50 being free, it would only take 50 listings to get my money back. It makes sense financially, and if I could just get them all listed at the same time, instead of having to wait for days where they have offers for free listings, it could save me a lot of time. I'll probably kick it around for a couple more days and then end up opening a store. :::shrug::: It will either happen, or it won't.

I've been dealing with back spasms in my lower back the last couple of weeks, so that's been fun. Even though it's been on the verge of spasming again today, I threw caution to the wind and worked outside a bit. I need a lot of bits to get anything accomplished, though. The front yard is a disaster after having it dug up for the sewer line replacement back in February. The backyard is a disaster full of downed trees that need cut, split, and stacked, so we can sell it this fall to someone who has a fireplace. Either that, or we need to just get someone back there who will do it for the free firewood.  Then the garden dreams I dream each night have to find their way into the plans, too. 

I'm trying not to get too overwhelmed. We have a ton to do, but we've also gotten a ton done. Let me rephrase that...we have at least a couple dozen tons to do, but we've gotten a ton done. I just have to remember that the ton we've already finished was finished one pound at a time. 

Off to go do a few ounces worth of work and trying not to calculate how many ounces there are in a ton. 

Got Milk? I Wish!

You know what they say...."When God closes a door, He opens a window."? Let me just say that God is amazing!

The 3 weeks since Hubster was laid off have been...well...good. 

Hubster applied for a job the Monday after he was laid off and got the job. It was quite the pay cut compared to what he was making before, since he has to start over from scratch, but we'll manage. We're just very thankful that he already has a job and that he's working for someone who values him and his work ethic. In fact, the new boss has been trying to get him to come to work for him for years, so it's a really good fit.

It's also a lot less stressful a work environment than what he's been dealing with for the last 13 years. As a result, it's the least stressed I've seen my husband in years. The result of him being less stressed out translates into the girls being less stressed, and an extension of that is that I'm less stressed, too. It's as though a huge boulder has been lifted from our shoulders.

There's been other stressful stuff happening around the homestead that I can't talk about on my blog. It doesn't involve anything with any of us, but it has affected our lives. Thankfully, it's mostly resolved. Only time will tell how it ends in the long run, but we're hopeful that justice will be served.

I had to start on a second antibiotic for the strep, since the first one didn't take care of it like it should have. I am finally starting to regain my health, but I really wish I hadn't had to take this other antibiotic. It makes me hurt from head to toe. I found out that dairy can apparently exacerbate the reaction. This must be a new warning. I'd never seen it before this prescription, and in fact, I have always taken it with a full glass of milk. :::insert eye roll here:::

Needless to say, I've stayed completely away from dairy. It's helped a lot. My arms haven't ached from my elbows to my fingertips this time, and my ankles have kept me up at night. However, this time my hips have really bothered me. And I've really, really, really missed milk. And cheese. And the occasional cup of ice cream. 

I'm going to stay off dairy for a bit longer just to make sure the antibiotic has time to pass through my system a bit more before starting it up again. I don't want the hurt locker to become my home. 

So that's about it for an update. I'm hoping to get back into some sort of schedule of blogging, dehoarding, walking more regularly soon. I've been totally thrown off track with all that's been going on, but it's a process, and I will get there. 

I'm off to bed to dream of the Land of Milk and Cheese. 

Have a glass for me!

Nesting. Huh?

I have this weird quirk where I act like I did in my last week of pregnancy whenever we go on a trip or there's a surgery. 

I can't stop cleaning.  

So in honor of my surgery tomorrow, I spent the day cleaning. Not normal, daily cleaning, though. Well, some of it was - like mopping the floors and making sure the dishes were all done, so it will be easier for Hubster since he'll be handling meals for the first couple of days. But who feels it's necessary to clean under the stove and refrigerator right before surgery???

Apparently me. 

:::insert eye roll here:::

I tell myself I'm doing it to make things easier for Hubster, but if I'm honest with myself I have to admit that I do it, so I can relax and not have it hanging over my head while I'm recuperating. In reality, I should probably have gotten a bit more rest today or at least stopped a little earlier than I did. I'm wired and might have a little bit of a problem sleeping, although the way this heating pad is starting to relax me, I should be fine. 


I figured that, if I got enough rest today or went to bed early enough I wouldn't have to fight quite as hard to wake up after surgery. I know that I've been looking forward to catching up on my sleep as I recover, but I don't want to do it at the hospital. The sooner I wake up and can function, the sooner I can go home. And I really want to be at home with my family. 

So I'm going to go crawl into bed and hope to nod off quickly. Zero dark thirty is going to come soon enough!

Will a tonsillectomy cure the hiccups?

I can't believe it's been over a month since I last posted! So much has happened in the last 5 weeks, and yet it feels as though nothing has happened at all. It's just sort of a blur.

We woke up the day before Thanksgiving with a horrible cold. Within a few days, it had moved into our chests, which resulted in nebulizer treatments, fever, chills and exhaustion. Scooter ended up with an infected ear to go with her sinus infections, and I ended up with another abscess on the back of my throat. 

Antibiotics and oral steroids followed by a second course of antibiotics and IV steroids, and I'm finally free of the infection in my throat. But I have not been able to warm up the last couple of days, so I'm really hoping I'm not coming down with something else. In the meantime, I'm scheduled for a second tonsillectomy in mid-January. Once is usually enough, but a small portion, (about the size of my small fingernail), of my tonsil grew back, and it's what is causing the repeated abscesses. It just needs to go. 

The day after Thanksgiving, Frank twisted his ankle while he was playing Extreme Frisbee in the park with his friends. He severely sprained it and has only been able to put weight on it in the last week. We thought for sure he was going to have to have surgery to fix it, but since he got the right kind of boot on his foot, it seems to be healing much more quickly. I know he's more than ready to be done with it all and to get back to walking without pain. 

Thankfully, the health issues we've had have been nothing but hiccups. They're not going to kill us. They're just a little annoying and last longer than we'd like. 

You know. Sort of like laundry.

I hope each of you had a Blessed Thanksgiving and Christmas! And in case I'm not back here before 2013, I wish you all a New Year full of the Lord's blessings!

Bzzzz

We've been busy the last week or so. 

Hubster took last week off, so we could work in the backyard and cut down trees. Hah. You know the saying about your eyes being bigger than your stomach? Yeah. Well, our want to was bigger than our can do. 

The first half of the week was hot enough that we struggled with getting overheated while we were working on getting the apple tree down. Then a cold front kicked in, and we had a hard freeze with a couple of dreadfully cold days that followed. Needless to say, we didn't get nearly as much done as we'd wanted. However, we did at least get the majority of the apple tree down, and we got the apples that the worms, squirrels and hail didn't get harvested as well. We had to be happy with that, and we were. 

Of all the trees that need to be cut down in the backyard, the apple tree was the one that was the biggest priority. The branches were long enough we were afraid of one taking down the power lines in a windstorm. That would not have been good. Thankfully, Hubster was able to cut pieces of the branches off before getting to the bulk of each branch, so the power lines were never in jeopardy. 

He was at one point, though. For whatever reason, I hadn't thought of taking before and after pictures until there was only on major branch left on the tree. I figured I'd at least get a few pictures of him chopping that last upright branch down when I heard, "Crap! Jude! Help me!"

He was losing the grip on the chainsaw, and the ladder was starting to move. So the last picture I took shows the camera being set down in a hurry. I was able to get the chainsaw and set it down just in time to grab the ladder and keep it as steady as I could while he clung to the tree and kept himself from falling. He wouldn't have fallen far. His feet were only about 5 feet off the ground. But he'd have fallen on some rather sharp parts of the tree that had broken off before and were vertical, jagged spears that would have impaled him, had he fallen. 

While Hubster was working on the apple tree, Hopper and I were harvesting all the tomatoes we could. There were still quite a few left that were on the verge of ripening as well as lots of green ones of various sizes. We brought them all in the house, covered the peppers and lettuce up and came inside. We were done. I didn't want to take a chance on losing the tomatoes to a hard freeze, but the peppers were all so small I didn't care, if they were lost to the cold or not. Thankfully, they stayed warm enough with the frost blanket and plastic that covered them, and they will hopefully get some size before the next hard freeze comes along. There are still about a dozen peppers out there, and I'm so looking forward to enjoying them!

I've got to get busy with the apples in the next couple of days. I need to wash, core, peel and slice a bunch to put in the freezer for apple pies this winter. I'd like to make some apple butter, too. I just don't want them to go to waste. We figured we'd save some of the seeds to see, if we can get a tree going. These are such good tasting apples, that it would be a shame to not have any in the future. 

I'm tired tonight but I'm feeling the best I have in months. I feel like I'm getting back in a groove and will be able to get back to dehoarding in earnest, if I can just get the girls' health back on track. They've both got some nasty cough and congestion. Taking Scooter into the doctor tomorrow. It makes us a little nervous after her bout last year with pneumonia. 

I'm thinking the best way for me to deal with it is to get enough sleep myself, so I'm heading off to bed. I've got a long day planned for tomorrow. 

Whooped

I am so tired tonight I can barely move.

Hubster took the week off, so we can try to get the backyard in shape. We've got to cut down several trees-a small peach tree, a huge apple tree, a few ash saplings and hundreds of the dreaded elms. Most are less than 3 years old and only about 2 to 3 inches in diameter, but there are a couple that we've cut down so many times that the trunks are quite a bit larger and the new shoots coming out of them are 2 to 3 inches in diameter. 

We got started on them today. Between raking and shoveling up the fallen apples that have fallen and begun to ferment, sorting the apples from the tree that are still edible and cutting a few branches down I can hardly lift my arms tonight. Good thing I don't need to live them in my sleep.

We all got our flu shots today, too. The girls did amazingly well with getting them, and it was 1/100th of the struggle it usually is. Last year when Hopper broke her leg, I had to give her shots of blood thinner in her stomach twice a day. She actually did very well with it, and the repeated injections seem to have desensitized her to getting the regular vaccinations. 

Who'da thunk it? We wouldn't have. I can't begin to explain the fear that we all had when we found out we'd need to do her injections at home! At the time we weren't really happy that we had to do it, but now we're are so very thankful that it wasn't an option.

I'm off to bed much later than I should be, but I'll sleep like a log tonight. 

I'll take it. 

I'm thinking logs sleep pretty well.

Well, unless they hear the chainsaw revving up in their dreams. Then they probably don't sleep very well. 

Here's to chainsaw-free dreams!

Like a box of chocolates left in the sun.

Long day today.


Sick and melting children.


I've been freezing again all day today. Just can't seem to get warm all the way through to my bones. 


Maybe tomorrow.

Yesterday.2

Today was a repeat of yesterday, except that Hubster ended up getting hit and stayed home, too. 

Hoping tomorrow is better.

Really hoping we can maybe see the solar flares tomorrow night. How cool would that be? The videos and pictures always look so amazing. Would love to see it in person. 

Ugh-A-Roony.

Unlike Ugh-A-Roni, which can be cooked on the stove by adding a little water and served up for dinner, Ugh-A-Roony is a malady born of fatigue and a severe lack of sleep. Its symptoms include a general inability to concentrate and to hear the voices of pillows calling from the other room.


Thankfully, it's a temporary condition. Usually resolving itself after a full eight hours of sleep without interruption, Ugh-A-Roony is not to be taken lightly. Repeated doses of Ugh-A-Rooney can result in a severe episode of Don't-Give-A-Lick. 


Since I do give a lick, I guess I'd better nip this current case of Ugh-A-Rooney in the bud and go to bed. 


Ugh.

Thoughts.

I've had a lot on my mind today. Nothing really extraordinary...just...life.


I rarely dream. I struggle with getting all the way to REM sleep most nights. It is what it is. When I wake up and actually remember a dream, it's unusual. This morning I'd decided to take a little nap after getting Scooter off to school. Hopper had decided to go back to bed and start her day a little later, too, so I felt comfortable getting a little shuteye. So this morning, when the phone rang the first time, and I realized I was dreaming, I was a little surprised. 


It was Bugster. We had a bit of a freak snowstorm hit, and it was super icy outside. The defrost in her car wasn't working, and she realized the car was overheating. She couldn't get Bubster on the phone, so she called us to help her figure out what to do. She decided to try Bubster again, and I told her to call back and let us know, if she got a hold of her husband. If not, I knew Hubster would go help her out.


When Bugster called back a little bit later to let me know that she'd called in and let them know she wouldn't be able to make it to work, she once again woke me up from a dream. It was a weird dream with pieces of our past melded with pieces of our right now. It included lots of people from our past and present lives, and it was just sort of fun. But it did surprise me that I'd been able to get into the REM cycle twice within such a short period of time.


I was still exhausted, so I closed my eyes once again. It felt as though my head had hardly touched the pillow when the phone rang for the third time waking me from yet another dream - this time about someone opening my cupboard doors after my house was completely dehoarded and asking me why I still had so many cake pans. I tried pulling my head out of the cupboard in my dreams and bring myself back to the conversation at hand. It was Bugster once again. Her radiator had sprung a leak, but Bubster had been able to help her get the car home and was going to replace her radiator before he went to work. 


I took the third call as my cue to get up for the day, but I have to admit I'd have loved to have crawled back into bed. I heard from Bugster a few hours later that Bubster had indeed been able to replace the radiator and get to work on time. It made my heart swell with pride knowing that our son-in-law was taking such good care of our girl. The more we get to know him, the longer they are together, the more we are so very grateful that he is her husband.


We aren't sure how it happened, since he didn't learn it from either of his parents, but Bubster is such a responsible young man. As parents, we have always seen Bugster take her responsibilities seriously, so it didn't come as such a huge surprise that she's such a responsible adult. But they have taken on so much with Frank.


It's so incredibly unfair that he was first abandoned by his mother and then a short 3 years later was deserted by his father. Seriously, who does that? And it got me to thinking. What causes some people to refuse to take responsibility and compels others to take on way more than their fair share?


I get that there are a lot of different circumstances that can factor in.  Finances. Physical health. Mental health. Age. Maturity. 


I get that. I really do. And sometimes, I think that those factors are valid reasons not to take on certain responsibilities. But when does a valid reason turn into just another excuse for bad behavior? When does it turn into an excuse to pawn your responsibilities off on someone else?


I'm really struggling with Bubster and Frank's parents about now. The extra responsibility Bugster and her husband have taken on by taking Frank in is taking its toll. Don't get me wrong. Their marriage isn't in trouble. They're still very much in love and very much willing to have Frank live right where he is in the extra bedroom. But they never really have time alone. They've never had that awkward but wonderfully fun adjustment period with just the two of them against the world. And it angers me. 


It angers me that two adults who should be taking their roles as parents seriously are so selfish that they pawned their youngest off on young adults just starting out on their own. 


Mostly, I'm just so incredibly proud of Bugster and Bubster for being the amazing, selfless people they are that they continue to sacrifice, so Bubster's little brother has a home. A family. And love.


And I am honored to call them my family. 

Goodness gracious!

I am beat tonight.


I didn't sleep as well as I could have last night. I slept wrong and woke up with pain in my hip. I did what I could to stay active today, so I wouldn't feel stoved up, but I'm enjoying my heating pad for awhile before I go to bed. I'm hoping this thing will work it's way out of my lower back and hip, so I can function better tomorrow.


I was compelled to work in our closet today. It was driving me crazy. It's just a tiny little closet that measures about 4x6 or so. The clothes hang on the smaller sides of the closet, so it's technically a walk-in closet, but it's more like a 'walk in and turn around' closet. Thankfully, neither of us have many clothes, so even though it's cramped it works for us. However, the shelves don't work so well.


There's a shelve that goes in a U shape starting from the edge of the closet, down the length of the 4ft wall, across the back of the 6ft wall, and then ending up at the front edge of the closet again on the opposite 4ft wall. It helps. I mean, it does give us more space for storage, but it's also a bit of a pain. It feels like there's a lot of wasted space above the shelves, since the space goes straight up 2ft, and today I changed that.


When we replaced our refrigerator in the Fall of 2010, we had to rip out the cabinets above the refrigerator and stove, because the fridge wouldn't fit under them. We made a set of pine cubbies to hold baskets to go over the refrigerator, but they were so warped we couldn't use them there. We put them down in the workout room thinking we'd use them there, but they just didn't hold enough for them to do any good.


Hubster brought them upstairs Saturday, and they've been sitting in the hallway ever since. We weren't sure, if we were going to put them in the garage or what. Then I thought of that space above the shelf in our our closet. These would be perfect! I measured, and they would fit in there just right. So after Hubby went to work, I got them wiped down and took them into the closet to see how well they would work.


You know what's coming, don't you?


Yeah. They wouldn't fit.


Well, technically, they were the right size, but I couldn't get the thing up past the closet bar. The cubbies were too long. So I brought them back out to the living room, grabbed the circular saw, and removed the last cubby, so they'd fit. Sort of. I did remove the cubby, but the circular saw got hung up on a knot in the wood, so I had to switch to the jigsaw to finish up the last few inches. It worked like a charm, and I was able to get the cubbies put on the long shelf in the closet.


I can't get over how much better it is! No wasted space! I was able to get stuff that was being stored on the floor up on top of the cubbies, and I was able to sort the stuff that had been on the shelves into the cubbies a bit better. I took the part that I'd cut off and placed it on the shelf above my clothes. It completely takes away the empty and wasted space, and I'm thrilled. 


It spent a couple hours in the closet getting things straightened up, vacuumed out and organized. I didn't get to the rest of the bedroom. I'll work on my side in the next few days, and I'll leave Hubby's side for him to worry about. It will be nice having things cleared out again, because it's getting a bit cluttered in there again. Hubster is looking forward to being able to transfer his books and a few other things down to the workout room/library. It's so cool that he finally has his own space, and I'm so excited for him. I'm pretty happy that it's going to make it a lot easier to keep our bedroom clean without the extra stuff in there, too.


So the end of my very productive 4 day weekend comes to a close, and I need to get to bed. 


5:45a.m. comes way too early...

Ribbit.

The last few days, my asthma has seemed to be getting worse. You know. The wheezing-heard-round-the-room-kind-of-asthma. I've felt pretty worthless, but I've still managed to get some laundry, paperwork, and sorting done.

After working for several hours on paperwork and sorting today, I sat down to take a bit of a break tonight. I swallowed wrong and ended up in a coughing fit that had my chest muscles feeling the sting of lactic acid comparable to that of a marathon. Forty-five minutes later, the coughing was finally under control. 

I'm no longer wheezing, but it's obvious I've got bronchitis. I strained my voice enough from coughing that I sound like I swallowed a herd of frogs. 

I just wish it didn't feel like they'd taken a dump in my throat. 

Travel plans.

Things went well for Scooter with her first day back to school in several weeks. She fell asleep on the couch shortly after she ate, and she didn't give a second thought to going to bed - just got in her jammies and snuggled into her flannel sheets. 

I didn't handle the early wake up time nearly as well. I overdid things in the workout room a bit when we were sorting boxes of books yesterday. It kept me from being as productive as I'd have liked to have been, but I was able to get 4 loads of laundry done and some of the bedding changed. It's better than nothing, but I'm hoping to get a bit more done tomorrow. 

It's going to take awhile to get back on a schedule of zero dark thirty wake up calls. I think it's going to take me crawling into bed in the next 15 minutes and snuggling up under the blankets. 

I think Scooter had the right idea...

I'm off to LaLa Land.

There's always tomorrow...

Haven't gotten anything done today. Woke up feeling off and couldn't get warm. When my body did finally heat up it over heated, and then I was feeling the effects of a stomach bug. 


Thankfully, Hubster doesn't work weekends, so I laid down and took a nap for a couple hours. When I woke up, my stomach felt much better, but I feel like I'm coming down with bronchitis. Thus, I got nothing done today.


I'll be doing what I can to get something done tomorrow. I really want to get some unpacking done on the books, so we can get to the workout equipment. 

Here's to hoping things go better tomorrow...

Steamrolled.

Scooter was a trooper when she had her blood drawn today. She glared a bit, because she wasn't happy to be there, but as soon as she was done, she was happy as could be. All was forgiven, and she was nothing but smiles.


She makes me happy. :)


When we got home, and I kicked my shoes off, I could hardly walk. My feet were so incredibly sore. I don't know, if it's the shoes I was wearing, or if it's still the IKEA shopping from a couple weeks ago that had my feet feeling bruised. I took the gel insoles out of my tennies and stuck them in my slippers. It helped. I'll take to wearing the slippers with the insoles for a few days until my new shoes get here. 


I decided to take my sore feet to the carpeted workout room and rest them up a bit. It's amazing how much carpet can soothe the tired soles compared to hardwood floors. I decided to kick off my slippers and let the carpet work its magic.


In December of 2010, we cleared out the storage pod on the driveway and took several boxes of books to the workout room. Even though it's been over a year since we emptied out the pod, we haven't unpacked any of the books. As a result, the only workout equipment we've had access to is the treadmill, and its accessibility has been sporadic at best. 


I really need to get some use out of the equipment that can help me with my back, and I can't use it when there are boxes piled all around. So I worked on getting some of the shelves on the simple case we made to hold some of the hundreds of Hubster's books. I was able to unload a couple boxes, but I realized I had no idea how Hubster wants them arranged, so I called it quits. It was time to stop. I'd completely soaked my t-shirt as my fever broke, and I knew it wouldn't be long before I got the chills again. 


Hubster and I will be doing what we can to get the boxes unloaded and the contents put away this weekend. At the very least, we'll get enough emptied that we can actually workout on some of the equipment. 


I'm motivated to get some dehoarding done. It's been entirely too long.


Now, if my body will only cooperate and kick this fever...

Wash. Rinse. Repeat.

It's been another one of those days around here. 


Scooter is still feverish and sleeping more than normal. I don't think the antibiotics she's on are working like they should. I will probably put a call in to her doctor tomorrow, so we can come up with a game plan. 


My back has been in a continual spasm fora few days now. I think I'm going to have to take a muscle relaxant for it to stop. I can't seem to think straight from it. It's so annoying.


I did my best to get some laundry done today. I was marginally successful. Worked on sorting some paperwork with limited success. I have a feeling that even when I am actually able to fall asleep that I'm not resting like I should, since I've fallen asleep every time I've sat down today. 


Maybe I'll be a bit more productive tomorrow. 

IKEA is bad for my health.

I think shopping last weekend was a bit much for me. I think it's the cause of the most significant fibromyalgia flare I've had in a few years. My feet and legs in particular have taken a beating. I'm hoping that soaking them in Epsom Salts tomorrow will help. 


I feel like all I've been able to do this week is say, "I'm tired... I hurt... I don't feel well... I need sleep." I can't seem to concentrate on writing, and I've got so much I want to say. 


It's just sort of stuck up there between the ears. 


Maybe the Epsom Salts will dislodge some coherent thought, and I'll be able to get a post or two up this weekend, instead of more whiny drivel.

Halo Moon

Bugster stopped by earlier, and when she got ready to leave, she had me come outside to look at the moon. It was the coolest thing ever. The moon had a huge halo around it. It was definitely worth seeing, but the smoke from the neighboring fireplaces flared the asthma even more. I started writing a post tonight, but I can't think clearly enough to finish the post I started earlier. I'm wheezy again, tired, and going to go to bed in a few. 


I did take Scooter into the pediatrician today, since she's had a problem with a low grade fever for the last couple of months. She doesn't show huge symptoms of being sick except that she's requiring more sleep than normal. It's not unusual for her to get 9 to 12 hours of sleep. She's always done that. But lately, (in the last week or 2), she's been needing 12 to 15 hours. 


Sure enough. She has a sinus infection. The doctor figures the antibiotics she had for a sinus infection back in December just didn't take care of it completely, and it's been festering in there. We're hoping this course of antibiotics kicks knocks it down quickly. Poor kid. She's always struggled with sinus and ear infections. It has to do with the bone structure in her head. Things don't drain properly as a result, so we'll go through this from time to time.


I'm just hoping she's back to her Scooterific self again soon!