The State of My Kitchen Address

Thursday. And It's Almost Over.

Yesterday Jonge appeared in the living room wearing a vintage colander on his head.

Earlier we had been shining a flashlight through it's many holes and creating twirling solar systems on the ceiling.

We are all about 'ideas' here, and when he appeared with it perched on his head he informed me that by wearing the colander on our heads, we could "Repair our minds."

I plan to try it out. It just might work for me.

Nothing else has.

End Migraine Pain Forever

No. I don't have any ideas on how to DO that, but I sooo desire that someday it will happen.

Yesterday afternoon, with NO prior warning, I got sacked with a BAD BAD one.

Thankfully, I was able to sleep and woke up an hour and a half later without it. Or, without the worst of it.

It's still sort of 'over there', to the left of normal.

Anyway..,

I didn't get it until I made it safely home from the nursing home, where I found my mom looking chipper and down right pretty! Her hair looked amazing, her skin was glowing and her nails were polished. I, on the other hand, looked like an absolute mess.

And, I ALMOST lost it again. Those hymns. Those hymns filled with such hope sung by so many who will live out the rest of their lives in a nursing home.., well.., it gets me every time.

Both crying and trying not to cry are two of my migraine triggers.

A new resident was sitting at the table with us. She is there for physical therapy as she learns to live without a recently amputated foot.

Diabetes.

Let's end THAT forever, too.

Early Sunday Morning on the Back Porch

Who would have thought?

It's early in this picture.

That's THGGM reading me a 'funny part' from Dumas' The Three Musketeer's.

We've both been talking a bit odd lately (lately?) as he is reading Dickens and Dumas and I am reading Bronte' and Austen.

We just cannot 'quit this'.

Oh, well.

I talked to my dad this morning and he had had a very bad night with hallucinations again. This happens EVERY time he takes a particular antibiotic. 'They' say this doesn't happen, that it's from the pneumonia, but WE know differently. The doctor on call today told me that he is making improvements but that it will be a very sloooow process. Improvements are good.

I, who am NOT taking an antibiotic, had a weird dream last night. In the dream I was riding a cow trying to round up Jonge and Famke who had wandered off into a field somewhere. Over a ridge, I think. The cow was slow, and they were fast. Interpreting dreams could be quite fun, one would imagine, but I think this one came straight from a picture on Daughter's Facebook of Jonge and Famke sitting on a cow statue at Binder Park Zoo. Well, that and waaaay too much caffeine in the evening.

My plans have all changed. If you know me well, I do not handle change well. Well, actually, I do not handle change AT ALL. Except for the money kind. Because when it comes to money, all I have is change. Which seems to sum up my life lately, too. Some change we don't talk about.

This week I had three appointments scheduled with my dad, and two that I still had to fit in somewhere. Instead, tomorrow I shall be cancelling three appointments, and wondering when in the world I will be able to get him to FIVE appointments. Not that I'm complaining. I want nothing more than for him to get better and come home.

Next week Daughter goes back to work. She works part time. EXCEPT for next week, when she will be working six days.

Can you feel it? That weird feeling? Like, the world is spinning faster and faster and I am sitting on a giant plastic cow that will not move! And.., everything else.., it's moving farther and farther away from me...

And, on a lighter note. I got a new camera. It's a Nikon Coolpix that ended up costing under $13.00. I haven't had time to properly read through the book, but today I did shoot random pictures throughout the house (i really need to dust!).

I brought it along to the hospital, thinking that while my dad napped I could look over the book and the camera. All that did was cause my dad to worry. He cannot accept the fact that his baby is 51 years old and cannot see a thing unless I lay my nose upon it. He is SURE there is a doctor who could fix this for me. Soooo, I put the camera and book down and we watched a Fox Sports station that had dogs riding surf boards. I don't care WHAT the announcer said, the dogs did NOT look like they were having fun.

It was a fun weekend. Busy. But fun.

And now I shall move along, doing whatever it is that I do.

What DO I do?

I don't know.

(just ignore the screaming. i'll be fine. really, i will.)

Ideas and Dreams

Do you ever have those dreams that every time you walk through a door in your house there is another wing to the house that you never knew existed?

I have this dream ALL THE TIME.

But, even more frightening is the fact that while I am perfectly wide awake, I keep opening drawers, closets, bins and boxes full of projects that I have started, put away and have totally forgotten about.

This has been going on for years now.

Some of it is stuff I've bought at thrift stores and stuck somewhere until I find the drawer, closet, bin or box that it needs to go into. But, I can never seem to find the correct place, so I start a new one.

This must be why I've become such a piler. If it's in a pile, at least I can sort of SEE it.

I also spend January - November buying things that could be used as Christmas presents. But, I can never find those either.

Or, I find them and they just seem really stupid.

Worse, I just can't let go of it.

Today I worked on a doll for Famke. I really liked the first one I made.

I knew it was perfect when I brought it out last Sunday to show my sister, and Daughter pronounced it "Hideous". A 'hideous' from her means it looks exactly how I wanted it to look.

But, even I think the new one is bad. Scarey, even.

And, now I have several new piles to wade through, as I'm going to have to try again.

If only I could find that magical world of 'where it belongs' that everyone is always returning things to.

I don't have one.

I have hundreds.

Good Things

One of my more recent thrift store finds was a deck of cards called "52 Silly Things to Do When Your Are Blue".

The first card I pulled out of the deck recommended that I write out 50 good things that have happened to me in my life.

Too hard. I am exhausted, and I do not know why. So, I will simplify this excercise by beginning with 10 good things that have happened to me, today.

1. Jonge and Famke came to my house to play today.

2. Jonge likes to rubberstamp, draw and make things. I find this thrilling.

3. Famke allowed me to trace her onto craft paper to make a life size paper doll of her. She laughed out loud because being traced tickled her.

4. The nursing home reopened and my dad was finally able to go visit mom. They had a good time. She was very talkative.

5. I did not have to clean up dog poop today. Since I am home today, if I had to that would have been really weird, as I do not have a dog. But, yesterday...oh, boy. (can i mention here that i am SHOCKED that a beagle won best of show at the dog show? SHOCKED.)

6. THGGM brought me roses. He is a good man, and I like him.

7. I made him a Valentine's present, and he did not laugh. This is a good thing.

8. My daughter-in-law is not at Northern Illinois University anymore. Today I am very thankful for that.

9. A tornado did not hit my house. It just looks like one did.

10. "Morning by morning new mercies I see".