So. Flippin. Tired.

I basically tithed my waking hours yesterday. While Fourthborn was getting the last of her dental work done, I skipped the knitting in favor of linking more records to names in FamilySearch. Wore out my battery. Wore myself out as well.

We had soup and salad at Rockfish. I dropped her off at home and made a beeline for the temple.

One very happy great aunt. This work is real.

This morning I skipped the gym and did deathbed repentance on my VT writing route. I'll drop the envelopes into the mail on my way to work.

But now I have to sluice off and put on grownup clothes and remember to tank Lorelai.

Looking forward to about 6:30 tonight and maybe, just maybe, an exceedingly early bedtime.

Knit did not happen.

If I release, it wouldn't be very Zen.

So I went to yoga tonight. And found a couple more things I can do, plus a whole lot more that I can't. But the year is young.

I've tried a couple of new foods this week, specifically (cooked) chia seeds and quinoa. My body isn't sure what to make of them. I looked about five months pregnant in my yoga pants tonight. I spent most of class focusing not on breath but on trying not to toot.

At the end of class, when he was walking us through a meditation, he kept encouraging us to let go. And I kept telling my body, "Oh no, please don't!!!"

There is this one pose called Happy Baby, which is like fetal position but sunny side up. He came by and asked how I felt. I told him my happy baby had colic.

I really hope my body gets this figured out before next Tuesday night.

In knitting news, I've got virtually nada. One row today. One. Row. I'm going to fire  up the washing machine. And then I'm going to fire up my needles. I am *this* far from finishing the front of Charity's sweater. I might do a little genealogy after stuff is in the dryer. But I want to knit. And I want to eat half a cow. And that's about it.

Namaste, y'all. Try to stay upwind.

Down the rabbit hole of genealogy.

kWell, if I'd ever wondered what on earth I would do to keep my wits about me during retirement, yesterday answered that. I came home from church, fired up my phone, and spent the rest of the day, minus lunch, a brief nap, and a Downton Abbey break at Mel and Squishy's, connecting public records to various ancestors and merging a few duplicate individuals on Family Search.

Absolutely no danger of falling asleep during the process. I was sufficient irritated by the intermittent internet connection on my phone that I remained awake and alert until nearly midnight.

Which meant that when my alarm went off a little before 5:00 this morning, I most uncharacteristically pushed it back an hour and promptly fell asleep. No workout for Ms. Ravelled this morning, so I will be building more movement into my workday and at lunch.

I tried something new for breakfast yesterday. Made a batch of oatmeal using cashew milk and throwing in some chia seeds and a spoonful of coconut oil, both of which are diabetic friendly. Also a cup of frozen mixed berries.

And of course it made more than two servings, so this morning I am eating the rest of the bowl I couldn't finish before church, and I have at least two more days' worth of purple oatmeal. The texture is a little weird: slick, mushy, chewy, crunchy.

The chia seeds blew up during cooking like my ankles when I've had too much salt. I think I like them better as a garnish in salad. And I'm not sure if the slickness came from them or the coconut oil or some combination of both.

I think probably less coconut oil next time.  I guessed on the quantity.

And if I don't scurry, I won't be able to knit before work. Later, gators.

Bobeche. And too much salt.

I am ready to sort through more boxes of stuff. I've been making incursions into the middle bedroom for about a week and a half. The typewriter has gone to a homeschooling family with some of my favorite kids in it. My computer and printer are out in the living room. The keyboard is still in the bedroom but in plain sight. Eventually I will find the box with the cords and the modem. By eventually I mean "I hope in the next couple of weeks."

Kitchen progress, thanks to Fourthborn, one of the YW, and my own intermittent efforts, has been faster than expected. We'll work on it some more next weekend. Maybe to the point of clearing the counters and painting the ceiling? (That would be really cool.)

Meanwhile, I keep finding stuff to go through. There is a box of storage containers which needs sorting. A box which says "candles" that I packed for the  move to the penultimate apartment, seven-plus years ago. A box with candlesticks and bobeche (candle rings and bling) from the same era. Those are boxes which could transport items to new homes or to charity.

I have So. Much. Paperwork. I made a good start at digitizing it when I lived in Fort Worth. My computer, the one that 2BDH helped me put together, has two terabytes of memory. That would hold a lot of genealogy. And that, I've realized, is a major factor in this impetus to set my house in order.

Moroni may not be tap-dancing on my front porch (telling me it's time to start dating), but Elijah is*. And there's a whole chorus line of my ancestors singing backup. They want their temple work done. They want to be found. And I can do that a whole lot faster with home internet and an uncluttered house.

*Elijah held the keys to the sealing powers and passed them to Joseph Smith. Those sealing powers are what link families together for the eternities, through temple ordinances.

I said I would talk about the most recent temple work I've done. Five baptisms a week ago yesterday. Five confirmations as members of the Church. I did the initiatories for the three women before leaving the temple that day. My sons in law will do the initiatories and priesthood ordinations for the men. On Tuesday I went back to the temple and did the endowment for my great grandfather's second wife, who died while pregnant with their first child. And then I had her sealed to him.

I've grown accustomed (as much as one can be) to sensing the presence of the sisters I serve in the temple. I don't feel all of them by any means, and I've never seen them in vision or had them come to me in my dreams. But the ones who want their work done, they head straight for my tear ducts like Beloved does when he's nearby.

With the exception of my dad, I don't remember sensing the presence or emotions of the men as their work is being done. Until the baptisms last weekend. I come from a long line of farming people. Hard-working. Pragmatic. Not particularity demonstrative. Those guys were there. And they were feeling things. It was tender, and sacred, and almost overwhelming.

The same when I was helping Phebe get sealed to my great-grandfather. I've thought about her a lot. What would it mean to a woman who died before giving birth, to now have the ability to bear untold numbers of spirit children in the eternities, and to rear them in the presence of Heavenly Father and the Savior?

On a lesser note, what was her life like in mortality? What was her favorite color? Flower? Did she like to read? How did she meet my great-grandfather? Did she get along with his kids from his first marriage? Am I going to be able to find her parents and any siblings and connect her to them?

This work is real. These people are real. They are closer than we realize. And I  need to link them with census records and other public records and eliminate the duplications and get their work done.

But today I am going to content myself with sorting two or three boxes in a leisurely and orderly fashion. Baby steps. Sabbath appropriate baby steps.

(The "too much salt" observation relates to the food I ate while watching the Harlem Globetrotters last night. They oversalt the food so people will buy sodas and adult beverages. Good marketing, but hard on my kidneys, which were seriously unhappy with me when I woke up this morning. I'm going to be guzzling water all day.)

Progress before breakfast.

The middle shelf has looked like this for a year or more. Ditto the right corner of the bottom shelf. But until this morning the top shelf was a jumble of mugs, glasses, and chimneys for kerosene lamps. The left corner of the bottom shelf was not much better.

I purged my beloved red-stemmed goblets. Attrition had reduced them to two water glasses and four flutes. Just very simple glassware, Libbey I think, definitely from Wally World. I kept three sets of big glasses, the five surviving sheepie juice glasses, and a bare handful of mugs. In the dining room, I have the handblown goblets from Pier One that go with my plates. I think we're covered.

I've filled a box to donate. It can wait until next weekend, when Fourthborn will be here, to make it into Lorelai or the Tardis for donation. Although I noticed the other night that my upper body strength is much improved over a few years ago: I brought my printer/scanner and computer out of the middle bedroom. The printer was awkward but not heavy. The computer was lighter than I remembered.

Heading out to the dining room to sew up my quilt block. I set up the sewing machine and the ironing board last night but did not get started. Why?

One of the YW, her younger sister, and their mom came over. The girls attacked the cabinet which had contained the tin of feral peaches, the floor in the pantry, and a once-over of the lower walls in the pantry.

The pantry looks amazing! The cupboard is much improved, but they were unable to get all of the fossilized peach juice off. Which means that, oh drat, I will have to get some of those nice cabinets from the Habitat resale shop.

Big fat juicy crocodile tears.

So: quilt block while the dishwasher runs. And then some knitting. I'm about halfway up the front of Charity's sweater. I need to do a very little grocery shopping. And buy some notions for the doll skirts. But mostly I want to craft and ponder and plan. Tonight I'm meeting Firstborn at the American Airlines Center to see the Harlem Globetrotters. Sounds like the makings of a lovely, restorative day.

Breather.

Lots of good stuff happened yesterday. The two and a half hours that I was at work, went smoothly.

I ran to Jo-Ann before picking up Fourthborn for her penultimate dental appointment. Bought four yards and a large remnant to make doll clothes. That should clothe the whole resin tribe with enough left to make a few gifts.

I discovered a friend request on FB from my dentist, and grinned because it told me he was friends with LittleBit.

I added nearly an inch to the current doll sweater. And took a catnap in the spare dental chair adjacent to Fourthborn. (But they tell me I did not snore.)

We split a footlong combo at Subway. I dropped her off and headed for the temple. Got there in time to join my ward for temple night.

Completed the work for my great grandfather's second wife, including their sealing. The brother who served as proxy then did some work for his wife's family, and I recognized one of the surnames.

His wife is an ordinance worker, and the other sisters helped us connect afterwards. She said that her mother is the "real" genealogist. She will give her mom my contact information. One of the daughters of this great grandfather married (briefly, I think) into that line. Truly a small world.

Then I came home, had a small snack, and crashed. I skipped the gym this morning in favor of blogging and some much needed practice on the song I'm teaching the YW to sign for New Beginnings. And breakfast refused to wait, so I've been noshing on cheese, a small apple, some turkey bacon, and a couple of hard boiled eggs as I write. It's a particularly good apple. A few more bites and then I can wave my hands around for ten minutes.

More progress on the house.

I deleted the truly awful photo of the #10 can that used to contain peaches. They had eaten holes in the can and fused it to the side of a cupboard in the kitchen. Fourthborn had to use a crowbar to free it. The contents were mostly gone.

I posted that picture to our RS Facebook page, with some snappy patter. The YW are selling candy (not interested) for Valentines Day. Some are also offering service, all of it to raise money for Girls Camp. I am paying $25 towards that to have one of them, or a pair of sisters, sit on my floor and lean into that cupboard and clean up the residue. Also that last stubborn spot on the floor of the pantry.

It will be money well spent.

Fourthborn is standing by my very full trash bin to illustrate a point. She was trying to explain to her roomie two weeks ago that we got rid of so much stuff, it was the functional equivalent of a body and a half in volume and weighed about the same as an average adult. We took this picture yesterday to illustrate her point, and I texted it to him. (Roomie is he who was formerly known as Fiancé. They are still the best of friends. And I still love him dearly and consider him family.)

It weighs significantly less this time, and I'm hoping that the trash dudes have an easier time of it and will not be taking my name in vain.

We (she; I mostly supervised) mucked out three cupboards yesterday and went through three shelves on the steel rack. We're getting there. Next time we'll tackle the cupboards above the stove and refrigerator, plus the last couple of shelves, and maybe even clear off the counters.

Our goal is to transfer the microwave to one counter or another so we may take the shelving apart and start getting rid of the wallpaper, which once upon a time was charming (I am not being snide) but has begun to come free in spots. I hope that bodes well for removing the rest of it.

With that wall and at least part of the window wall freed, we can paint the kitchen ceiling and begin painting the walls. And then I could make a decision about whether I want cabinets along both of those walls, and a window seat, or maybe bookcases, or green IKEA linen cabinets with room above them to hang art or kitsch or whatever.

Which will determine how much of the remaining vinyl plank flooring I will use, and whether I replace the existing cabinets or just repair and repaint them and properly rehang the upper ones, which are merely nailed into the walls and are beginning to edge their way toward second base with the idea of stealing home.

I'd like to forestall that.

The kitchen is still mostly set up for a 6'4" man who loved to cook from scratch and feed an army of growing boys. The boys are well and truly grown, with kitchens of their own, and I am a 5'4" empty nester who wants to entertain frequently but in a small way, and who suspects that family history and temple work will soon be taking over my life in a big way.

I need a home that is warm, welcoming, functional, and uncluttered. As I said, we're getting there. I sent a bunch of glassware home with Fourthborn yesterday, and the spare double boiler.

I think we have finally gotten rid of the last of the expired food. I bought a *petite* bottle of olive oil yesterday. We threw away vats of it in industrial sized containers, some of which were several years past their prime. That nearly made me weep. And a gallon of geriatric cider vinegar. The recycling bin is also full.

We found several items that Fourthborn said looked like medieval torture instruments. I will have to ask Squishy what they're for and who should get them.

I'm heading out to the kitchen now to figure out breakfast. I need to be at church a little early today for a choir run-through before ward conference. And I need to wrap the completed hat to go in a care package to the young sister at BYU-Idaho. And decide what I'm doing for church knitting.

I'll share about yesterday's temple experience soon.

Survived. Maybe thrived.

The original idea, last year, was to take both anniversaries off in case I had a meltdown. Which I did not, nor did I this year. I had some lovely, tender moments, and a modicum of progress on the house, and I'm calling both days a win. I'll go back to work today and type like a madwoman and do some more mucking out of the kitchen with Fourthborn tomorrow afternoon.

I spent a couple of hours each day at the family history center. I now know the name of the ship on which my great grandparents sailed to America, and I have two alternate spellings of his name, but I am still no closer to having the names of their parents. So I asked Beloved if he could search them out and help get that information to me. And I prayed that somebody, somewhere, would digitize the parish records. I'll keep looking. And praying.

I had two great workouts. Yesterday I did another 5K, this one from the comfort of the treadmill, in a little over an hour. Felt great. Feel fine this morning.

Knit did not happen, once I finished the hat. I did go to the quilt shop on Wednesday morning and order my finish out kit and another tool.

More stuff left the house yesterday: a typewriter, a lamp, a bud vase, and a banana hanger. I was able to access some of our wedding gifts (!) and some of the decorative items I brought into the marriage. A couple of things came into the house: the ampersand in this picture and a reel of lighter weight picture wire. I hung a few things up.

I finished reading " Life of Pi". Weird. Will either give away my lavishly illustrated copy or sell it at Half Price Books. No idea what I want to read next for fun.

I did buy a few things on my anniversary that would typically get a husband in trouble if he gave them as anniversary gifts: new fluffy cover for the seat of the commode, new ironing board, new (modestly cut) yoga pants and coordinating shirt, cheap pair of gloves.

Well, it's 5:01, and I've been awake for an hour, so there's no excuse not to go to the gym. Happy Friday, y'all.

It's the 13th? Already?

I can't believe it's been almost a week since I posted. In that week, I've gone home sick (or something) from work, glossed the new 2015 youth theme song to teach the YW how to sign it for New Beginnings, and just realized that I've double booked myself for tomorrow night. I can't teach them at 7:00 and be in the temple at 8:00 for baptisms for a couple of my ancestors. Oye to the veh.

Tomorrow is my third anniversary. Thursday is Beloved's second angelversary. I'm taking both days off, as I did last year, but this year my focus is on service. I plan to spend a good chunk of one or both days in the temple and/or the family history center.

There will, of course, be knitting. I will finish the hat for my young friend who is attending BYU-Idaho before I call it a night.

Am home from my second yin yoga class. It was a little less crowded this week. And my body still laughs at me. I don't mind the full classroom. The full parking lot is a little annoying, and having to walk through the weight room to get to the yoga room reminds me of having to walk past the jocks in high school. There are no catcalls. Everyone is too focused on their own workout to pay attention to a middle aged woman. So that's a blessing. But it still makes me uncomfortable.

This is the part where I give my flannel sheets another 10 minutes in the dryer so I may go to bed wrapped in warmth.

Planning a little mischief.

The managing attorney sent out an email that said, in honor of the football game this weekend, we could wear our Cowboys jerseys, jeans, and sneakers tomorrow. I popped back, "Would I get lynched if I wore one of Beloved's Packers shirts?"

So I washed it tonight. Not the sweatshirt, because I'm sleeping in it, but the long sleeved shirt I wore under my hoodie and coat on the 5K last week.

You know me. I am the anti-sports. I don't care who wins (Beloved would be rolling over in his grave, if he had one.) But I'd love to be at least marginally warm tomorrow, and that shirt would help.

The second tiny sweater is blocking. Time to wind the yarn and cast on for a human-size project. This would be a hat for the young sister who just left for BYU-Idaho. I found a pattern on Knitty with tons of cables.

If I can stay awake that long.

And ... the next teacher has shown up.

There were only a couple of the positions that I knew better than to try. No hands and knees. No downward dog. And pretty much everything else was severely modified. Maybe the wrong word. I think maybe severity and yoga are antithetical. Although we were warned that our hips might be talking to us sometime in the middle of the night. Hey, my bladder has no compunction about yodeling until I'm awake. What's one more body part?

But when class was over, I was able to stand up without assistance. Maybe not gracefully, but adequately. You know me. I count all the small victories.

Mostly my muscles yelled at me and shook, while I tried to keep enough space to breathe. There were a couple of moments where I could actually feel some yielding. Grudgingly, perhaps, but real nonetheless. My left side was a little more cooperative than my right. My right just hung in there and held on for dear life. I suspect my ego is right handed.

I like the teacher. I trust him in the same way I trusted my banjo teacher last year.

My mat is hung up to dry (I knocked over my friend's water). I'm going to clear off the bed and call it a night. No knitting. No reading. Just me, becoming one with the mattress.

Namaste, y'all.

More blessings.

A friend in the ward posted some of her honey-do projects yesterday on Facebook. When I was talking with her in the hall between meetings, she mentioned that she had some frames I might want.

So I went over before Downton Abbey at Mel and Squishy's, and while the frames were not what I needed, I came home with the flushmount lights that will go up in the halls. They have the amber lights I wanted, but I will need to repaint the brushed nickel bases to match the oil rubbed bronze I'm using throughout the house, or the cream of the woodwork. Either would be lovely.

The shoulder seams are done on the sweater, and the first sleeve is cast on. I read a few more chapters in The Life of Pi. Still liking it.

SemperFi is back from a holiday trip to Old Blighty with his family, bringing me real English toffee in a little red tin that looks like a double decker bus and could become a bank when it's empty.

I had a flobbity jillion emails waiting for me this morning, which I mostly had whipped into shape by lunchtime. At the end of the day, they were under control, my To-do's were done, and my calendar items were marked off.

After I finished at 5:00, I logged onto Ancestry.com and Family Search, where I found two names ready for ordinance work and connected a bunch of dots for my paternal grandmother and maybe found a distant cousin through Grandma's mother. Also found out where my great grandmother was born in Bavaria. Got a little sniffly over that.

This is the part where I stop even pretending to engage in the real world and dive headfirst back into The Life of Pi. Later, gators!

After.

We mucked out the pantry yesterday. The trash can is full to the brim with dead food. Twenty year old canned fruit(?) with some or most of the canning liquid gone. Four jars of mystery meat. Two boxes of herb tea (that I brought into the marriage) bought when Fourthborn was in high school.

I was still working on getting the Mystery Spill up off the floor in there when I went to bed last night. I'll tackle it again tomorrow, but for today I'm really glad it's the Sabbath, and I can say, "Nope. Not gonna touch it."

The sister from church who borrowed my belt sander brought it back yesterday. I sent her home with the spare immersion blender and the can of paint stripper I did not need for the doll bed. I'm taking two candy molds to church today for another sister. Fourthborn took the Sunbeam hand mixer home with her. I'm keeping the Kitchenaid.

I had been dreading that pantry. And now it is nearly ready to receive the vinyl plank flooring, but that won't happen until later this year.

Fourthborn also took home three emptied rolling carts last night. There are five to go, but I am currently out of clear plastic shoeboxes. I will pick up another case of them later this week. The empty box will join its brother at Wes and Sarah's, for their move.

My fabric is preshrunk for the next quilt block. I would start it after breakfast, but this year we have 9:00am church. That will take some getting used to. I console myself with the fact that next year we will switch back, as the Spanish branch keeps the middle time slot. Always. Which is fine with me, because the only thing I like less than 9:00 church is that 11:00 or 11:30 slot. Just. Makes. Me. Twitch.

In knitting news, I am nearly done with the second back. I will probably finish it at church and get the shoulder seams bound off and a sleeve begun. I love working at dolly scale.

I started reading "The Life of Pi" again, night before last. Thus far it's going well. I don't know why I couldn't get into it before. And Downton Abbey starts again tonight, huzzah!

Good day at work.

I wrangled four attorneys today, although three of them were out of the office. Opened a case and got the answer filed. Organized some personal financial stuff. Stayed busy. Stayed awake. Stayed reasonably warm.

The 5K was an amazing experience. It won't be my last one. And I am trying a new flavor of yoga on Tuesday. (There will be no film at 11.)

Am nearly halfway up the second sweater back. Tomorrow's quilt block is done and waiting by the front door. I'm thinking an early bedtime is in order. Looking forward to a great workout tomorrow morning. And I have no idea what to put on the honey-do list. But I'm sure we'll think of something.

Night, y'all.

Happy New Year!

I spent a good chunk of last night going through my yarn stash and subdividing it into 20 clear plastic shoeboxes. I'm not done. I need another case of boxes. What I don't use for yarn will get used productively elsewhere. Fourthborn will cheerfully take the empty three-drawer rolling carts off my hands as I get them emptied.

I am sitting here in bed with the remnants of breakfast, waiting to see if my first 5K is postponed. Freezing rain seems to be the order of the day. I have enough bits and bobs to stay warm if it is merely cold. I'm not exactly equipped to walk three miles in crossing-the-plains style.

And if the roads are unsafe to walk, I will also not be going to Secondborn's to help bind a quilt for BittyBubba. Which would be an even bigger disappointment.

I am loving the new relative degree of order in my kitchen. There's so much work left to do, but just getting the breakfast table cleared off and out the door to its new home has made the task seem less daunting.

I took a big bag of soft goods to Salvation Army on the way to work yesterday, along with a smaller bag of miscellaneous stuff. Did I mention that I found two pairs of slacks that I hadn't worn since Fort Worth, and they were too big?

In knitting news, I finished the front of the second Pukifee sweater last night. I've yet to cast on one of the backs. If I don't leave the house today, I could very well end up with a sweater pinned out on the ironing board before bedtime.

There was a nice stretch of nothing-to-do just before quitting time yesterday. I spent it in the back issues of Knitty. And I found a gorgeous hat to make for the young woman who's heading up to BYU-Idaho shortly. I will see if I can get that yarn wound this weekend and the hat begun. It would make a nice change from knitting at doll scale.

Time to check the weather again.

Goodnight, my someone.

Remember these little necklaces? I got one as a Secret Santa gift, back when I was single. You wrote a prayer or a wish on a scrap of paper, rolled it up, and enclosed it in the box.

I found this among other pieces of forgotten jewelry over the weekend. My prayer was largely for my children. But at the end, I had added, "please bless my someone." I knew he was out there somewhere, but not his name or his situation. I would pray over him occasionally, asking Heaven to bless him in his marriage, if he were married, and in his search if he were not. Sometimes I would sing Marian's song from "The Music Man".

Three years ago, we were putting the finishing touches on our wedding. That seems so very long ago. Two years ago, I had the privilege of loving and serving that dear man up to his final breath. In two weeks I will observe our anniversary, followed immediately by his second angelversary. I think I will try to spend part of both days serving in the temple.

I'm not sad tonight. Just pensive. I love him more, if possible, than I did during the time we had together. And oh, what a year that was! I still feel his love and watchcare. There are some things stronger than death.

Plans.

The one for mucking off the kitchen table was successful. A little over an hour of actual work, with one knitting break and one snack break. So that's done. (Picture of naked table, soon to make like Elvis and leave the building, below.)

The trip to Madtosh was also successful. I came home with some yummy purple yarn for me, and the grey to knit a hat for a young sister who'll be attending BYU-Idaho.

Got the elders fed in a timely fashion. During the day a cold front moved in, so by the time I met them at the church, they were thoroughly chilled.

I was pretty cold myself, so I jumped into bed and napped for four hours. Knitted until 2am and went back to bed. Lots of lovely rest in two installments.

This morning I attached both sleeves and stitched down the first grosgrain band. I'm debating whether to do the second now or just call it a night.

Spent a significant amount of time with my spreadsheets. Submitted the music for the next two Sundays and penciled in the music for next December and the sacrament hymns for the entire year. Also brought my mortgage sheet up to date and estimated that I could have it paid off at the end of 2020, or approximately eight years ahead of schedule. That would be really, really cool.

Tomorrow I plan to set up another savings account, this one for a piano. By the time I have the money in hand, I should be done wrangling all the excess stuff around here and have some idea if and/or where a piano might fit. I noodled around on a Steinway yesterday. Drool... (I would be equally happy with an Essex or a Boston.)

It's not coveting if I am willing to work for it and save for it.

I am also looking into the feasibility of attending BYU Education Week next year. Maybe I could combine that with the trip I had hoped to make this year to go visit Tan? A lot will depend on how many other people want that time off, and how large my bonus might be. And, of course, on Tan's availability.

And maybe in 2016 I can combine a trip to visit Wes and Sarah in "Joisey" with a visit to Tola and the Church history sites in New York.

Dervish.

It's 9.30am, and I am eating the other half of yesterday's sandwich for breakfast, because I am Not In The Mood To Cook. I've been to the gym and walked 1.77 miles and am revving myself up to excavate the kitchen table. It's about a foot deep in stuff. And I have a new home for the table.

My inner four year old looks at the clutter and whines, It will take *all day* to fix that! To which my inner mom replies, Probably less than an hour. Let's set the timer for half an hour and see how much we can get done. And then you can knit for 15-20 minutes. And when we're done, we can go to Fort Worth and spend the Madtosh gift card. And if you're *really* good, we can have lobster bisque at Lucile's.

My inner mom is pretty tricky.

In knitting news, the sweater body and one sleeve are done. The second sleeve is cast on and the first row of pattern worked. I hope to have it pinned out and blocking when I go to bed tonight. It would be great to finish this weekend with one Pukifee sweater done and the second underway.

Heading out to the kitchen. If you don't hear from me within two or three days, send over a St. Bernard with a cask of hot chocolate.

Perfect.

My amazing sister has done it again. She gave me this art tile, which picks up all the new colors I've incorporated into my home. (I sent her paint chips with her birthday present in October.) This can stand on a shelf or hang on the wall. I'm not sure where it wants to be, but I'll figure that out after I put away the Christmas trees.

Benaya Art Ceramics.

I spent a good chunk of Christmas Eve at Wes and Sarah's. They just texted me an invitation for biscuits and gravy, but I am full to the gills with salmon steak, a slice of Squishy's bread, and my Fage/Nutella jollop. Plus, I need to be sluicing off in preparation for the tribal feast, as I'm leaving the house in an hour and a half.

In knitting news, I was so sleepy on Monday and Tuesday that I dozed off midway through a row of 22 stitches, both nights. I did better yesterday. I have a completed sweater front and one back for Grace or Chutzpah and am a third of the way up the second back. I will probably get both backs attached while at Secondborn's this afternoon.

I am taking 40 oz of Wholly Guacamole, 80 white corn tortillas, and 40 flour tortillas. I realized a few minutes ago that I could divest myself of the limes leftover from the office luncheon last week.

Merry Christmas, all y'all!

Found my Nativity!

Puttered a lot yesterday. Went through several boxes. Mel and Squishy came over and took some stuff home for distribution. I set up the long folding table along the short wall. It is now serving as a staging area, but I am planning to set up my computer there, at least until I can turn the middle bedroom into an office and/or guest room.

Most of my tools are in my toolbox. The two grilles that the girls painted are now in place. I have a clear path to the microwave. And a bunch of stuff that's going out into the truck this morning for drop-off at the thrift store. There are swathes of uncluttered floor in the living room.

The finials are glued to the bedposts. And I found the lemon oil. I might rub down the doll bed after work. But first I will need to replace a headlight on Lorelai. I am driving the Tardis to work today.

The sweater front is done. My last conscious act before bed. And the trio went gloriously well at church. Got some nice feedback from our friends, but that was not why I did it. That was my Christmas card to Heaven.

I've mentioned here that I was a little shy about singing around the house when Beloved was alive. FirstWife had a glorious voice. He would never have said anything against my singing. But he never praised it as the children's father did. (I loved singing with that man.) We had far more important things to talk about than whether he liked to hear me sing.

So what I gave my Father in Heaven yesterday was my vulnerability. Because many of the folks in our congregation had heard FirstWife sing. Just typing this, I feel Heaven's love all over again.

Sniff.

This is the part where I get the clean warm stuff out of the dryer so I may load up the back of the Tardis with more stuff.

It's going to be a wild week at work. I will be covering at least two attorneys every day. I was juggling five on Friday.

Gentlemen, start your engines.

Honey-do's

Fourthborn and LittleBit and I made great strides on yesterday's list, as you can see.  I picked them up early in the morning and turned them loose while I prepared to go to a funeral for a sister in our first ward in Texas.

When I got home, LittleBit and I finished the floor inside the coat closet while Fourthborn painted. The flooring is now extended just into the kitchen. I don't want to take it any farther until I've dealt with the cabinets. The grilles for the short wall and the living room ceiling are repainted. I've brought my narrow folding table out to go against the short wall to hold my computer, once I've refastened the grille. But first the table will serve as a staging area while I declutter the kitchen.

I'm thinking that I want to take out the metal shelving unit that Beloved and I so carefully finessed into place. Floor to ceiling cabinets would be ever so much more attractive. And if I extended those cabinets along the window wall, maybe with a window seat, I could have more counter space and be able to get rid of the kitchen table, which is a clutter magnet.

The doll bed only needs the finials glued into place, to be done. I used two shades of wax sticks to touch up the finish. I will need to make a mattress, pillows, and bed linens, but that can all wait.

The big Christmas tree may not get decorated this year. It's in place, and the ornaments are at hand, and I may choose to do that today. I think I would rather knit.

I'm trying to figure out what to eat this morning that will not gum up my voice for singing our trio in sacrament meeting this afternoon.

That would be a honey-don't.

Long day, and I'm tired.

Happy, but tired. Fourthborn's dental appointment ran long, because somebody came in with a dental emergency, and our wonderful dentist did absolutely the right thing when he stopped working on my kid and helped the other patient.

My stomach was unconvinced. I neglected to grab lunch on my way to pick her up, so by the time we were done and could think about feeding our faces, we were both ravenous. Made a beeline for Boston Market and their meatloaf. (Yes, I was just there for dinner last night, and half of that is waiting in my fridge for tomorrow's lunch.) I figured I would eat half and save the rest for later. My stomach thought otherwise. It's been a long time since I ate that much at one sitting. Cleaned. My. Plate.

And then we stopped at Half Price Books, where I picked up BittyBit's birthday present before taking Fourthborn home.

I got about a third of a sweater front done. It helps that the finished piece will be two inches square. Not sure that I have enough energy to add any more rows before bedtime, as it took me nearly two hours to get home.

But I think I will try.

Dolly fun!

I've posted these on FB, but for those of you who don't know my secret identity...

Note to self: what does Wonder Woman go by in civilian life? Diana Something. Fourthborn would know.

Two doll sweaters done. (That's Hope on the left and Temperance on the right.) Measurements taken and a graph made for wee Arans for Grace and Chutzpah.

The swing is new, a gift from a coworker whose husband works for Pier One.

That's all I've got for you today.

Found the rods and brackets.

As it turns out, I'm not using them. At least not for the front window. I got the three new brackets partially secured to the wall on Monday night and ran out of steam. Heavy drill + late hour = tired me. Wes came by on Wednesday night to finish the job so I could hang the new drapes.

I did get four packets of cut up T-shirts assembled before I left for work one morning. They will go out with the Christmas baskets/boxes.

Temperance's sweater is lacking only the snaps. The earlier attempt has its grosgrain reinforcements, and I've deconstructed one seam, removed the sleeve, and shortened it. When I left the ward Christmas brunch yesterday, I was ready to reattach the sleeve. I'll take care of that after I've posted.

My goals for today, bookending church, are to finish both sweaters, decorate the big tree, and finish assembling the Christmas boxes for mailing on Tuesday. Fourthborn and I are both sending stuff to Middlest, and Fourthborn has another dental appointment that afternoon.

I had a blast wrapping presents after work on Friday and again yesterday.

Did I mention that Wes and Sarah are moving to New Jersey? Tola, they will be in Mahwah, at least to start. Is that anywhere near your neighborhood? I'm trying not to think about how much I will miss them.

She's recommended a massage therapist, and my HT/VT couple will gain custody of my spare house keys. Because when she told me, I immediately tucked the messy emotional stuff into my pocket and went straight into single-mom,  problem solving mode.

In other news, I got the doll bed reglued and the random tiny streaks of white paint removed. I still need to touch it up with wax sticks and enlarge the holes at the top of each post to receive the new finials, which are small ceramic drawer knobs a la MacKenzie Childs.

Projects for the coming week include laying down the vinyl squares in the coat closet so I/we may extend the vinyl plank flooring into it, then moving the paint cans into a back corner. Eventually I will probably install shelving in one or both ends of the closet, but for now I will be content with stacking the paint cans out of sight but still accessible.

The living room is looking mostly civilized. And I am getting antsy to start decluttering the kitchen. I'd like to replace the steel shelving unit with a wall of cabinets. And replace the current cabinets with some I've seen at the Habitat store, moving them a few inches to the right so I may insert a narrow cabinet between the fridge and the wall.

But now? I need to figure out what I want for breakfast, and how to stay hydrated today without drinking our nasty tap water (will fire up a Brita pitcher for later) or breaking the Sabbath. Somebody was having too much fun socializing to take care of the grocery shopping, and I just polished off the last of the bottled water.

We're calling it a design feature.

We couldn't figure out how to get the blinds down without damaging them. So we painted part of the window frame and left part of it coral. It's close in tone to the new paint on the fourth wall, and it will go with the drapes.

The second shot shows the flooring meeting up in the hall. I left the last two planks for Fourthborn and her OCD. I tried to give you a shot of one of the walls, but apparently Blogger thinks I should only upload two per post. I tried twice. There may be four pictures when this posts.

Tuesday I took Fourthborn to the dentist, and then we went to LittleBit's dance recital at the college. Friday I had my quarterly checkup, and a birthday party for 2BDH. Yesterday we picked up our December quilt blocks.

In between, I've laid a little more flooring, picked up a second floor lamp for the other side of the wing chair, finished the second sleeve of Temperance's sweater and attached it, blocked same, sewed the October and November quilt blocks, window shopped, set up both Christmas trees and placed their respective ornaments nearby, and dealt further with the power outage.

I have not been to the gym. All week. That will change, beginning tomorrow morning.

I found the curtain rods after taking Fourthborn home last night. I've yet to find the supports, but I trust they're in my studio somewhere.

Today there's church and the Christmas choir performance in my old stake. I will probably get the ribbon and snaps attached on Temperance's sweater. I'm picking up LittleBit, as Fourthborn is singing in the choir.

And tomorrow I go back to work, to rest. 

Semi-cyber Monday

So I decided last night that I wanted a duplicate of the swing-arm lamp by the wing chair in the living room. Came to work and pulled up the website. Took me a couple of minutes to find the model. Then I searched for a local store. Apparently I found the last lamp of its type within 25 miles of the house. Tossed that puppy into my cart and locked it up for pickup after work.

One more reminder that Heaven is in the Let There Be Light business.

In knitting news, blocking the two miniature stockings that I made during my Hill Country getaway helped me to figure out my electrical problem at home.

That's the thing I said would be a story for another day. I woke up early yesterday because my power went off, and my CPAP stopped, and I learned that even though I've lost nearly 40 pounds, I still need the CPAP.

I checked inside and outside the house. Eventually realized that I'd only lost power in half the house. Unfortunately, it was the half that reminds me to breathe. I went back to bed and kinda sorta slept, but mostly I woke up a lot.

So I got up for good about the time the sun had committed to a new day. Meanwhile, Older Twin had responded to my FB post with how to find the breaker box and what the problem might be.

Confirmed, as I said, this morning. On Saturday Fourthborn and I will clear a path in the garage so I may call an electrical to switch out a wall plug or two in the relatively near future, and install the hall lights while he's at it. There's a brother in my ward who does good work.

Update/correction: I started this post earlier today and came home to a cooling house and a faintly whining furnace. Mel helped me break a trail to the breaker box.  Wes determined that it was OK. Paul and wife came with his HVAC stuff and determined it was likely a power company problem, as I had one hot line and one cold one.

We locked ourselves in the garage. Wes had to come back with the spare keys. We called the power company on Paul's phone. They came out and did a temporary fix and will do a permanent one when it's daylight.

The house is warming up. I got the sleeve attached to the body. My nose is cold. I'm going to bed. I have to be reasonably alert for two and a half hours at work tomorrow, and then I'm taking Fourthborn to the dentist.

I need a good cry (relief) and to sleep for about three days. But my new lamp is pretty!

Ask, and ye shall receive.

Not perfect, but here is the best shot of what we've accomplished. Bargain wing chair centered beneath refurbished barnwood shelf. The smaller Vettriano print in between. The floor lamp I bought last year. I'm going to see if I can get another just like it for the other side of the chair. Christmas tree up but not decorated. Impromptu end table from Beloved's 72 hour kit (green) and a suitcase we found in the garage. Teal footstool in place.

We painted the walls on either side of the short hall a lively coral not far off from the  original color of the baseboards. Fourthborn calls it the love child of a watermelon and a cantaloupe. It is *gorgeous*. When I sit in the wing chair and look into the dining room, all the colors play so nicely together.

I have the dining room mostly cleaned out. The trees are in place just inside the entrance. The dining room table is still piled high with stuff, but I can get to the sewing machine to do my quilt block before Saturday. The tabletop tree is in place.

Wes came yesterday and yanked out that obnoxious nail. He also brought a hammer in case the claw couldn't budge it.

It's been quite a day, beginning at 3:15 when my power failed and my CPAP shut off. But that's a story for another day. Time to take my Metformin and call it a night.

So, we've been busy.

Fourthborn came home with me after Thanksgiving dinner at Firstborn's. She painted the stripes under the window. She helped me replace the handful of tiles between the sheet vinyl at the front door and the squares at the entrance to the dining room. At which point we called it a night.

Yesterday we finished the planks in the entry, all the way to the front door (in the middle of the day, when it was warm enough to leave the door open), and out into the living room. When we went to bed, the floor was about 80-85% done. We also discussed what color to paint the fourth wall: the darkest shade of green, some shade of turquoise, or whatever.

As we were sitting on my bed during a rest break, I looked out into the hall and saw the soft warm terra cotta of the mat to my picture of the Fredericksburg library. We took that to Home Depot with my swatches and picked a lighter value that would harmonize with it and with all the other colors and tie in with an accent color in the drapes.

We got one of the bookcases emptied, dusted, moved across the room to its new home, and refilled. The second bookcase is also emptied, dusted, and hanging out temporarily in front of the first. Once we repaint the wall, it will go back where it was.

We finished off a partial box of flooring and emptied eight more. Six of those boxes are standing upright in my garbage can, and it just now occurred to me that they would more properly go with the recycling box when it goes to the curb on Tuesday. So I think I will fish them out and put them on the curb next to the carpet.

I bought a package of smaller claws and pry bars yesterday. None were successful in removing one stubborn nail at the entrance to the hall. It has to come out in order for us to join the flooring in the hall to that in the living room.

I am hoping that Wes can swing by with his claw and maybe a sledgehammer and his superior upper body strength and vanquish that nail for us.

Today we will paint the trim around the window. Fourthborn will finish the cutting in at the ceiling which was blocked by the depth of the two bookcases. We will paint the fourth wall, rehang the art, and move the bookcase back. We will paint around the front door (and maybe paint the trim; it's not a priority). We will extend the flooring at least partially into the coat closet after removing the boxes with the Christmas decorations, and also into the entrance to the kitchen.

We are also doing a drive-by fooding of the missionaries at 5:00, and depending upon how much we get done before then, that might be the first leg of taking Fourthborn home, or we might come back and work some more.

Wish us luck.

Thankful.

The shelf is done. I put another coat on after blogging on Tuesday and before going to bed. A fourth before going to the gym yesterday, and the final coat before leaving for work.

I rounded up the vacuum and the bottle of Murphy's Oil Soap. Threw some snacks into my bag, grabbed my knitting and a small deposit for the alternate bank, and hit the road.

I was running behind after accomplishing so much, so I took Central and was pleased to see how little traffic there was, and how polite and sensible everybody was being. I had enough time when I got to work, that I was able to knit a row or so before it was time to fire up my workstation.

Another pleasant, productive day. I was nowhere near as busy as on Tuesday, but there was enough to keep me occupied. I even created 30 vacation letters for one of the other secretaries. And I got to leave an hour early, thanks to the hour of PM (permission morale) I scored at the last support staff meeting.

After work I made a beeline for the grocery store which houses my alternate bank, made my minuscule deposit, and picked up a few groceries. Brought them home and put them away, then hopped back into Lorelai and headed to Hobby Lobby.

I had seen something on Pinterest that spoke to me: a ragtag collection of letters plus a wreath, spelling out N-O-E-L. I wanted some to sit up on the shelf, in place of the Nauvoo pitcher and bowl I inherited from Beloved. I also bought three small bottles of craft paint in the palest neutrals, but for now the letters and wreath are up on the shelf in unadorned glory.

From Hobby Lobby I ran by In-N-Out for a burger to eat on the way to Wes and Sarah's. They were hosting a marshmallow roast at their firepit. I visited with a few of their neighbors and some friends from church. Restricted myself to one perfect s'more. Got a little chilled, properly warmed, and came home.

Wiped down the finished side of the barnwood shelves with Murphy's Oil Soap, then lifted them into place and started the screws by hand. Fired up my drill and finished the job. Still getting used to being somebody who owns power tools and knows how to use them. I was still grinning when I went to bed last night.

I also got more of the tack strips up. I had hoped to complete that task before bed, but tiredness and a modicum of common sense won out. I'll finish that after breakfast, sweep the floor to get up the big chunks, then vacuum before heading to Firstborn's.

There are a handful of nails that I haven't been able to pop up, but I think they will be more accessible once we get the baseboards off. I have one where the head broke off. Not sure what to do about that. A rasp? Because the broken part sticks up just enough that it would poke through the new flooring if I left it.

Fourthborn is coming home with me after dinner. I need her help to get the blinds down without damaging them. Or me. And back up again after we repaint the window trim. We also have two bookcases to empty and move so we can get that last bit of carpet up.

While I would very much like to put up the trees and decorate them tomorrow, in reality that may not happen until Saturday night, or even Sunday morning before church. I need to have her home in time for choir practice in her stake.

I am hoping that when we are done with our labors this weekend, I will have a finished living room and a tidy dining room and hall. And I could spend December being crafty and socializing.

That's the dream, anyway.

I am thankful for the new skills I've acquired this year. For kids who aren't too bossy, and who have great ideas. For friends who share their tools. For how this collaboration has blessed and strengthened my relationship with Fourthborn. For the fun I had with Firstborn and Secondborn and Spring and their families last weekend. For Middlest, who worries about me more than is needful and checks on me on a regular basis. And I'm thankful for the good years with LittleBit. (I hope there will be more of them someday. It's not fun to be a tough love mama.) I'm thankful for Squishy and Mel, that there is peace and love and respect between us. And I'm hopeful that sometime before I kick, I can have that with their brothers.

Because I am an inconvenient truth, and I am not going to just quietly go away. So I'm thankful that for the moment there is polite silence and distance, and not active wrangling. When I pray for the family, I pray for all of the kids and grandkids.

Today I'm praying to be civil to the children's father and to the crazy lady who thinks she's his wife. Somebody from her church said words over them, but they didn't bother getting a marriage license, presumably so one or both would not lose their benefits.

I should probably also pray not to be self-righteous about this, but I think I've already lost that battle.

Happy Thanksgiving, y'all!

Nostomania.

An irresistible compulsion to return home. So says dictionary.com. I experienced a little of that last weekend. Firstborn leaned over to me during church and murmured, "do I have to go home?" I was right there with her.

I could move back to Fredericksburg after retirement. For at least part of the year anyway. Spring in Fbg. Summer in Taos. Fall in ... New England? (Don't know. Haven't been. It's on the list.) Winter in Galveston. Sounds like a well-rounded year to me.

The stripes are up on the living room walls. Tonight I put two coats of paint on the brackets. I'll put on another coat in the morning when I wake up and maybe a fourth before leaving for work. By bedtime, that part ought to be done. I've pulled up almost a third of the tack strips. And worked a centimeter of Temperance's sleeve. And put Grace's new wig on her.

Had a good day at work. 37 emails waiting for me, all of them dealt with and more that followed. Three days' mail wrangled. My to-do's worked. I was steadily busy all day but not snowed under. Loved it.

And now I'm at the point where I'm dozing off mid-sentence, which suggests it might be time to go to bed. Night, y'all.

Frigorific.

I'm not sure where or why or how, but dictionary.com decided I should get the word of the day. And this is the word of the day. (As Inigo Montoya said, I do not think it means what you think it means.) Most of the time, the chosen word is already in my vocabulary. Today's was a welcome exception.

I saw it and thought "flippin' wonderful?" But no. It has to do with producing cold. Rather like when you use childbirth words in the chapel during sacrament meeting.

Yesterday was a Mary Poppins day: practically perfect in every way. Two movie references in three paragraphs. This Tootsie is on a roll! (Make that three. I think maybe too many carbs for breakfast.)

I would like to take this bed home in my pocket. Ditto Firstborn's white noise machine, but she told me where she bought it, so that's actually something I can acquire.

Lots of happy walking. Took some great pictures. We are about ready to go to church. I'm fed and dressed and packed and reasonably well fed (not a big fan of reconstituted powdered eggs), and I have my protein snacks and church knitting in my purse.

(Later) church was even better than Saturday. I had the most marvelous sense of homecoming. One of the boys who used to mow our lawn is the branch president, following in his father's footsteps. The man who was our branch president was delighted to see us. And I got to hear his maniacal cackle again. His wife was ill, but he took my love and my contact information. And one of my Merrie Miss girls came up after sacrament meeting and did the same.

I am finishing this up from Firstborn's. We are back from the Hill Country. I am eating a nice bowl of chicken tortilla soup. And not quite looking forward to the drive home from here, but very much looking forward to sleeping in my own bed (once I unpin the Knit Swirl. I will weep if that sweater is not dry.) The fingerless gloves are done. Two miniature stockings are ready to block (if I could only get to the ironing board).

It's so quiet here.

I slept in a room that cost more than I have ever spent for lodging in my life. And it was wonderful. The bed was like a warm hug, and the commode is just the right height, and there's a gym downstairs. The desk is too high for its chair, but there's an easy chair in the corner with a reading lamp behind it! I caught nearly six full hours of sleep. And there's WIFI. (Humor me. I have a better connection here than I do at home.)

Tonight I will share this room with three other people whom I love dearly. But for now I am savoring the solitude. I was so tired when I hit the sack that I didn't complete even one row of knitting, and there aren't that many stitches on my needles.

Speaking of which, l lost a 4" DP yesterday, probably in the auditorium at the Bitties' school. It made for some creative finagling on the increases for this fingerless glove. I'm nearly done. I'll be able to give Sarah a finished pair when I'm back home.

I got Knit Swirl blocked on the bed before leaving for Firstborn's yesterday. I'm hoping it (and the bed) will be dry when I get home tomorrow night.

I brought two other small projects to work on: the miniature Christmas stocking for Steadfast, which should be perfect church knitting for tomorrow, and Temperance's sweater, which is waiting for me to design the sleeves.

The forecast is 100% chance of rain, so as of last night we had cancelled our plans to climb Enchanted Rock. I'm not sure what we will do instead, but Firstborn assured me there's a Plan B.

We left this town 21 years ago with our tails between our legs. Jobless. Momentarily homeless. It feels so good to sit here in this room with 20 years of gradual but sustained progress under my belt.

I drove past the place where we lived, but it was so late, and the town was so dark, that I couldn't see it. I want to get a picture of it before we leave tomorrow. We made some happy memories in that house. It was also the place of my greatest personal fear. But that's a story for another time.

The kids are an hour away, and I desperately need a shower, notwithstanding the soaking I got last night from the rain that blew in sideways under the tarp.

By the time I got in Firstborn's car to come here, I was cold and weary and tired almost to the point of tears. And then I drove an unfamiliar car on dark, unfamiliar roads, the last  30 miles behind someone who couldn't maintain a consistent speed but whose tail lights serve as an erratic beacon to keep me awake and in my own lane. I hope that I didn't frustrate him as much as he frustrated me.

Last night's dinner was perfect. I didn't stay for the Dutch oven cobbler, but the burger baked with onions, potatoes, and carrots was delicious. I brought the Greek yogurt and strawberries I bought in Burnet, but I left the Nutella back at camp.  So my midnight snack with my Metformin was hummus and crackers. I need to eat breakfast, and I need to do it soon. But I need a shower more.

I don't ever want to go camping again, even for five or six hours. I'm grateful for the beauties of this earth. And I would have made a lousy pioneer.

Influence

I noticed something while watching choir practice before sacrament meeting on Sunday afternoon. The choir director is my visiting teacher (that's not what I noticed; I already knew that!), and she was wearing a multicolored jacket that closely toned with all the new colors in my house.

The last time I drove under the High Five (an interchange in Far North Dallas that soars to the sky) I noticed similar parallels, although the High Five picks up the warm tones, and my friend's jacket picks up the cool tones.

This got me thinking about Alma 37:6 (you should go look it up) and the importance of little things. Big things are typically composed of lots and lots of little things. Jigsaw puzzles, quilt blocks, needlepoint cushions, sweaters, compound interest, fractals, battles lost because of a missing horseshoe nail.

The great thing about creativity is that it pulls from all over. The simplest explanation for why I am painting my rooms in colors I once would have told you I didn't like (hello: Not Red) is that I flipped open a Christopher Lowell book that belonged to First Wife and read about a project where they painted a starscape on a dining room ceiling. He did not show a picture, but the idea stuck with me.

And grew on me. One of my attorneys gives me her old copies of Real Simple. Where they are big on painting the insides of things a contrasting color.

And I like Behr paints. Their or Home Depot's website has a widget that helps the timid (not me, but I play one on TV) pick three colors that go together.

So: starscape gave me all sorts of color possibilities. Walls are one of the yellows from the stars. Alcove is painted one of the colors from the next paint chip down in value from the walls. Contrasting greens were found using the widget. Toss in the months I spent working part time in a quilt shop while pregnant with Middlest, and you have an appreciation for what a little color dissonance can do for the composition as a whole. Which is why I have an alcove and long hall painted baby poop yellow, clearly not the most attractive color in the world. But it works.

Which brings me back to the beginning of this post. I am now, several months into repainting, seeing my new colors everywhere. And not twitching. So I am wondering how long this had been building inside before it found expression?

I have not broken up with red. But I am definitely holding hands with teal.

All the little things we do. They matter. My friend's jacket. The High Five. The quilt shop. The widget. Our daily kindnesses, to others and to ourselves. Our prayers. Our talents. Recycling. Fair trade chocolate. We bless, or we place stumbling blocks.

This is my Friday. Tomorrow I go see the Bitties at "Chilton". And then I head to my beloved Hill Country with some of the kids. We'll climb Enchanted Rock and worship on Sunday with old friends.

Tonight I will pack, and maybe paint stripes on the living room wall. I think the last of the touchups are done. I skipped the gym to paint and to write. Tonight I will also inspect my Knit Swirl to see if the bugs chewed on it when they got my red scarf prototype. If it's intact, I'll block it at dark thirty tomorrow morning, and it can dry on the bed over the weekend. If not, I will frog it and reknit it in the smaller size. Not a tragedy either way.

Woohoo! Loads and loads of progress!

Notwithstanding the fact that I picked her up around 9:30 and we didn't get to the house until 2:00, Fourthborn and I knocked it out of the ballpark yesterday. She got the carpet and tack strips out of the coat closet after I offloaded most of the contents onto my bed.

She got the shelves off the brackets in the living room and finished the first round of cutting-in on that wall. She touched up the window wall and cut swathes of carpet around the perimeter of the room so we could Tetris the furniture out of the middle of the room and eliminate most of the rest of the carpet.

I got the closet reloaded and moved 18 boxes of flooring singlehandedly and again with her. I also finished taping the long wall in preparation for the alternating stripes of eggshell paint in the same color.

The matte paint is very low. I hope I won't have to buy a quart to finish the job. That paneling is mighty thirsty. We (mostly she) schlepped the carpet and padding out to the curb.

And then we went to Firstborn's for crafting and conversation. It was a really, really good day.

Only downer was that I ate something that woke me with hives after I'd slept for about an hour. I wish the little bump beasties would have the courtesy to spell out the culprit so I could avoid it in future. I haven't had an episode like this since last year.

I slept until 9:30 and made myself a good breakfast and am now going to scramble to leave for church in half an hour. Sarah's first glove is nearly finished. I will make 20-24 cards for Relief Society after church. All the makings of a good Sabbath.

Note to self: don't scratch.

Hey! Who turned on the winter?

I was just getting cozy with fall. Tuesday morning I went to the gym in my shirt sleeves. Today I had to toss a sweatshirt on over my gym clothes.

Lots of happy knitting. I am nearly done with the increase/decrease portion of Sarah's first fingerless glove.

Bought a few Christmas ornaments this afternoon. Got a coat of paint on the wall under the picture window. I keep falling asleep while writing this. It's been a most excellent day, and I'm ready to put it, and myself, to bed. Night, y'all.

The incredible vanishing VT-ee.

The apartment manager called me at work yesterday afternoon. There are two Hispanic and one Asian family living in three of those apartments. A guy lives in the fourth. She did not have a forwarding address for my VT-ee.

I reported it to the RS president and the ward clerk.

In happier news, I made noticeable progress in the living room last night, with a bit of followup this morning. Part of me wants to see how much I can get done before it's time to leave for RS. The rest of me strongly suspects that I would get sucked into flow and forget all about RS, and this is an activity I've been looking forward to. So, no.

But the odds are great that when I come home at the end of the activity, I will hop right into my painting clothes and see if I can finish this second wall and around the front door.

We shall see.

In happiest news, BittyBit made it into a prestigious choir. She had to audition in order to audition. The grand finale is next spring, out of town, and I've already gotten the time off approved.

This is the part where I brush my teeth, grab a sweater (and my knitting), and head to Relief Society.

Feeling a little like a bum.

But not in the British sense. Took Secondborn her finished fingerless gloves after church. The Bitties reprised their Primary sacrament meeting parts for me. And Secondborn helped me extract my home dec photos from various Facebook posts and toss them into an album. I wouldn't say they are exactly *organized*. But they are now in one spot. I can go back on some mythical "someday" and tidy them up. Or not.

I also responded to a bajillion messages that had been piling up since FB introduced its messenger program and I opted not to install it on my phone.

By the time I got home, took my Rx, and got ready for bed, it was 11:30, and me with no nap. So I pushed the alarm back an hour. And woke around the usual time, laughing a little at the irony of it.

No gym for me this morning, hence the title of this post. I will cheerfully walk up the stairs from the parking garage and try to move around as much as possible while at work.

Dinner tonight with the Empty Nesters. And then home to paint some more. I didn't touch a roller all weekend, so I'm hoping that a divide and conquer plan like last week's will get me where I want to be at the end of the week. I have RS tomorrow night, and I'm looking forward to that.

If I seek first the Kingdom, all the other stuff will either fall into place or fall off the list. I spent yesterday morning putting together the packets for my VT route. And I determined that the reason one of last month's envelopes came back was because we don't have an apartment number for her.

So I drove to the complex and dropped the packet with a note through the mail slot where folks drop their rent. And followed it up with a voicemail to the management office explaining what I had done and why and asking them to call me if she is no longer a resident, knowing that they could not or would not give out her apartment number.

We'll see how that goes. I'm hoping that maintenance will tape it to her door or something. I didn't put a stamp on it, so it might go right in the trash.

If that doesn't work, I'm thinking four postcards or notes, each with the address and a possible apartment number. There are four units in her building, and I am nothing if not persistent. If I mail four and three come back as undeliverable...

In knitting news, I cast on for Sarah's first fingerless glove yesterday and got part of the first row on the second section done. I'm on a roll. Why stop now?

Two men. Make that three.

Dieter F. Uchtdorf is a member of the First Presidency of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I learned this morning that he is one month older than the children's father. It gave me pause.

President Uchtdorf fled political persecution as a child in East Germany and has consistently followed the Savior. He has served humbly, in positions of increasing responsibility, and is loved and respected by 15 million people.

The children's father joined the Church in California two weeks to the day before I was converted and baptized in Idaho. He and I have had our individual struggles to remain faithful and active.

(I never lost my testimony, even when I was struggling hardest to apply the principles I've come to love, in daily life.) I've managed to "stay in the boat" [see the October 2014 General Conference talks on lds.org to appreciate that reference].)

The children's father has splashed and flailed and nearly drowned at times. He was able to regain the privilege of a temple recommend a few years ago.

It was weird and uncomfortable to run into him -- frequently -- on Thursday nights when I was serving as a temple worker, even after I remarried. Once, while waiting for my sealing cancellation from him, he asked how that was going. I told him it was stuck in Salt Lake. He exclaimed, "What the hell's wrong with those people?" Loudly. In the foyer of the temple.

No filter. One more thing lost to his diabetes and the multiple strokes. Our children still love him. As they should. They have no use for the (truly) crazy lady he "married" (no license, just some words said over them by somebody at her church). I will be biting my tongue at Thanksgiving.

Thankfully, I will come home to the peaceful house provided for me by Beloved, who in his own less public way followed humbly in the steps of President Uchtdorf and the prophets and the Savior and is now serving and blessing others in the world of spirits.

We all get to decide who we'll be.

Thank you, Susan!

I'm glad I'm posting more often, too. My life has felt all lopsided lately. Too much "home" work and not enough music and other good stuff.

I mostly just played today. Had a blast visiting and shopping at the Dallas Flea. Brought home a turquoise glass bowl that resembles an oversized brandy snifter (who came up with that word, anyway?). A small steampunk wall hanging that pleases me enormously. And a couple more prints to frame.

I also picked up my November quilt block and the tool we ordered last month. Tanked Lorelai and the Tardis. Put together my standard wedding gift (note to self: buy more small glass candle holders and candles) and went to a reception. Had dinner with the local widows and widowers. Which deserves its own paragraph.

We met at an area chain restaurant, and the food and service were uncharacteristically *off*. There were six of us. Three dinners were served cold. Mine was one of them. One woman's dinner was inedible, so she ordered fresh. It came with a big chunk of plastic from the mushroom packaging. I am not naming names, because the manager really did everything he could to make it right. So the company was excellent, and I won't go back to that location, but neither will I diss it online.

I finished Secondborn's second glove today. I've wound the yarn for Sarah's but am thinking the best thing would be to publish this, brush my teeth, and call it a night. I took a little catnap before leaving for dinner, but that has worn off.

I just want to curl up in Beloved's sweatshirt and kiss this day goodnight. Paint did not happen. At all. But I did ponder the next steps. And I looked up the names of some architectural salvage places.

Did I mention that Steadfast's wig is just that much too small? Consensus at dinner last night was that the manufacturer has made recent batches a smidgen smaller. Mel can loan me a wig until I can buy him a new one.

Bed. I said I was going to bed.

Paint on a wall.

I spent yesterday afternoon at the dentist with Fourthborn, who doesn't drive. I got a lot of knitting done. I will definitely finish Secondborn's second fingerless glove today or tomorrow.

Delivered the empty bookcase to its new home. Attempted to buy a new grille for the ceiling, but Home Depot did not have one in this size. Beloved said that the builder was known for making things a non-standard size so people would have to come to them for replacements. I will go online when I'm at work to see what I can find.

Provisionally, I love the new color. I wasn't sure I would when it first went on. I didn't bother to cut in. I just went with the roller and took it somewhat near the edges but not enough to endanger the new paint on the ceiling. A second coat will improve things considerably.

Tonight I have a doll meet up. I'm taking Steadfast, to get his wig from the group order. Right now he looks like a pediatric chemo patient. And I'll get to meet Middlest's friend Ashbet, who organized the group order.

I have all kinds of sweet mischief planned for tomorrow.

Ceiling is done.

My non-evil plan succeeded. I painted the second coat in three sections, and it's done, unless Fourthborn sees placed I've missed.

Sarah came over after YW and picked out yarn. When I am done making Secondborn's second fingerless glove, I will crank out another pair, to exchange for a massage.

It was so good to have my friend visit. I loved showing her the progress on the house.

Tonight, unless I am prompted to do otherwise, I'll start painting the walls in the living room. That should be a breeze compared to the ceiling. It will definitely use my muscles differently that the ceiling did. I have all sorts of interesting creaks and stiffnesses in my neck, back, and shoulders. (No real pain. Just moving a little more slowly than usual, but still moving.)

I brought home a box to mail the cupcake shaped cookie jar to Middlest. When I got the jar down from the storage shelf in the kitchen, I discovered that it had been broken and glued back together. Maybe more than once. So I regretfully pitched it.

This morning I have cleaned out a small bookcase on the cusp of the living room and the kitchen. Three partial packages of Thrive freeze-dried fruit that will get incorporated into a smoothie or a baking project in the very near future. Two packages of Brita water filters.

Three #10 cans of food storage. A square vase I saved from the memorial service. A two-years-expired packet of taco seasoning. An unopened bag of cheesecloth (for making pomegranate jelly). The red wooden box with my eBay silver service. A green leaf shaped plate my aunt helped me make the day my parents moved us from Wilder to Boise. (Still unbroken more than 50 years later.)

A coffeepot with hinged lid that must have a story to tell, because Beloved and his mother were faithful, observant members of the Church, and we don't *do* coffee. A ginormous bar of Italian soap in a scent that makes my nose crinkle but does not quite make me sneeze.

A soft-sided briefcase containing an extension cord. (I have no idea.) Two small coolers: one collapsible, one not. The latter one containing stuff that Beloved took along when he went for chemo. Whew! Not ready to sort that out.

One of those plastic sleeves that holds 10 to 20 business cards, this one with cards for his team at the Cancer Center. A whole shelf of cooking magazines (some dating back to 2003) and more cookbooks to add to the stash. Some of which are diabetic themed.

Bookcase is now emptied, approximately dusted, and strapped to my luggage carrier for easier schlepping to the car. It will go to its new home after work, and the light fixture will go to Habitat.

That's a hunka hunka Elvis leaving the building. And I've freed up one of the two short walls in the living room. The other is covered up with the two tall bookcases stacked back to back. As soon as I've finished breakfast, I'll put on some shoes and load the car before sluicing off for work.

Work has been a little frustrating of late. I am scrambling to keep busy. Thankfully, today is a short day for me, because I'm ahead on my To-do's for the week.

Visibility.

I've posted more than once about the fact that in a culture which worships the young and the sleek, a middle aged woman is frequently nigh unto invisible, at least for middle aged white men. This was brought home to me even more strongly when I was walking with a cane after I broke my leg line dancing. (Thankfully, this is Texas, and there were plenty of young men whose mamas had raised them right, who opened doors and spoke cheerfully to me.)

Men of color seem to have better vision. I cannot say why this is. The young ones, of course, are as susceptible to idiocy as any full grown Bubba. But once they have outgrown the "hey, baby, baby" stage I've found their appreciation to be leavened with respect.

It has been at least 15 years since anybody hollered, "¡Ay, chiquilina!" to me. I'm fine with that. But let me tell you what happened on the way to work yesterday.

I was driving down the road, one hand on the wheel, the other gently finger-combing my hair. It's by far the easiest way to untangle it, as it's nearly to my waist. This takes me about three-fourths of the way to work, and then I comb it with my wide tooth comb to get anything I've missed.

Anyway. As our story begins, I have begun to comb my hair at the stoplights. I roll up to a light and hear a quiet whistle. I don't think anything of it, but as I am waiting for the light to change, I happen to see a guy two or three cars back in the next lane over (in my right mirror), and he is definitely looking at me, and smiling. The light changes, he passes me, as his lane is moving much faster than mine. I am focusing on not-hitting the bumper of the car ahead of me. He zooms on while I try to figure out if I am putting one and one together and getting three.

As I pull up to the last major intersection before turning downtown, I catch up to him. He turns to look at me, nods courteously, and smiles. I smile back, astounded.

I am visible.

We make our turns. He goes his way. I go mine. And I spend the rest of my commute asking Heaven's blessings upon him and the people he loves.

It's the small kindnesses we give, that make someone's day.

Busy. Busy. Busy.

Work. Costco. Tom Thumb. Tank Lorelai. Start a load of laundry.  Stow the groceries. Tank the Tardis. Shuffle furniture. Start a second load of laundry. Paint. Run the dryer again. Paint some more. Run the dryer *again*. Finish painting for the night. Put that stuff away. Knit three rounds on the thumb. Doze off. Call it a day.

This morning, the first load was finally dry. And I discovered that the second load hadn't spun out completely. It's now on its second tumble in the dryer. I've cleared the decks for tonight's paint-fest, which will happen after I vote. Which will happen after work.

Staying awake at work might prove to be a challenge. When I left the office last night, I had pretty much done my To-do's through Thursday. I sent out a "will type for food" email but got no takers.

I would love to just stay home, go back to bed for an hour or two, and spend the day knitting and painting. The finish-itis has subsided a little from Saturday night. I made enough progress last night that the frustration I felt on Sunday has nearly disappeared.

Where we are.

"We" being me + the house. Fourthborn did two rounds of cutting-in on the perimeter of the ceiling in the living room. I got the first coat of paint up, and about 20% of the second before we ran out of paint. At which point we were both ravenous, so we combined a paint run with dinner and a yogurt run, getting home just as daylight was fading.

We work well together, and as she remarked, we tend to forget how often we need to take breaks. So we didn't get anywhere near as much accomplished as I had hoped, but what we did was good solid work.

More importantly, we enjoyed the process and the time together.

So during the coming week, I will finish up the ceiling in the evenings after work, and maybe get started on the walls. I am trying to figure out how to remove a shelf that Beloved put up. It is very solidly attached to the wall, with no visible clue as to how. (There are none of those little wooden buttons that people use to hide countersunk screws.)

It is a great shelf, and there is another in the kitchen, and each has supports painted the most lovely shade of red. The shelves are barnwood from a barn that belonged to someone in Beloved's first/late wife's family.

I would like to keep the shelves, and I would like to *move* the shelves, and those red supports are not likely to play well with the shade of green that I am repainting the walls. (Or they will make my living room look like Christmas 24/7, which is not the look I am going for.)

The chandelier-ish lamp is down from the ceiling. I will probably donate it to Habitat for Humanity. It is absolutely lovely, and it gives great light, and it is absolutely not-me.

I discovered another wall plate after we took down the curtain rod and brackets, this one for a co-ax cable. I may be stuck with it, as I don't think the manufacturer makes those in the Texas star pattern I am using, any more than they make blank ones. I will probably just have to paint over those, or hide them with furniture.

I had originally planned not to get together with Fourthborn next Saturday, except to meet her and Firstborn to pick up our quilt blocks. I had planned on having solo adventures. And that still might happen.

But I had also hoped that we would get as far as ripping up the carpet yesterday, and we're a long way from that, and Thanksgiving is in less than four weeks, and one of those weekends I'm going to be making a getaway with some of the other kids, so time is of the essence if I want to have enough space to set up the air mattress so Fourthborn can spend most of Thanksgiving weekend with me, playing with dolls and helping me decorate for Christmas.

Whew! Pausing for air.

It will all get done. Maybe I won't be able to put up two trees (one big, one little). Maybe we will be painting and ripping and planking the floor right up to the very last minute. Maybe it's unrealistic to think we can redo the living room in three weeks when it took a month and a half to do the hall.

Maybe.

But we can try.