Art Journaling.

I have been experimenting with outlining some of my previous drawings with a darker line.  This one is without.

This is with the darker outline.  It's also in a different light so it's hard to tell, but I think it looks better with the black outline.

I am not sure if I have shared any of these or not  I have been very into these tulip-ish flower shapes lately.

I have also noticed that as my journaling evolves, I tend to like the newer ones, but really don't like the older ones anymore.   Below follow some of the older ones. 

Trying my best.

I'm trying to hang in there this Friday, another day without a car which is driving me completely bonkers and we all know that is not a long drive.  I don't know anyone who goes without a car as much as me.   Yes, I know that is a first world problem, but we seriously live in the boonies here.  I went ahead today and permanently changed my daughter's piano lesson from Friday to Tuesday since we cannot ever get there and then I looked and this coming Tuesday is the next pain clinic appointment for mom, so I probably won't make even the first one.  It seems like, in the winter time anyway, we go from nothing to 100 things on one day (mainly because 4H starts their January-June meetings), like Monday, when we finally get to see our homeschool group for gym day, but also have a needlework club 4H meeting that day and probably won't have a car so won't be able to do either one?  I don't know.  It's frustrating.  Also it might snow again this weekend.  If I were one of those Pollyanna type people (which I would very much like to be) I would just look on the bright side of things, be thankful that if I am stuck home I am stuck at home with 2 of the most wonderful teenagers on the planet and clean the house and bake brownies and do all kinds of Pollyanna type things, but being me, I'll probably just take a nap.  You've got to go with your strengths right?  I'm very good at napping. 

We did do something fun last night after I got home from seeing mom, the kids and I watched part of Season 1 of Boy Meets World from Netflix while I painted backgrounds for art journaling.  That is a very cute show that I really didn't watch the first time it was on.  Then my daughter read several chapters from The Hero's Guide to Storming the Castle. 

Just now when I was trying to type Hero the word expansion software I use for work (Shorthand 10- highly recommended!) tried to expand the word to hemorrhoid, which I thought was kind of funny and it reminded me of an rather unfortunate tendency I have during work to type foot instead of food.  I was typing a GI report this morning and I was supposed to type "The patient was instructed to cut her food into small pieces."  You can see what's coming, right?  I typed "The patient was instructed to cut her foot into small pieces."  I did catch it before I saved.  :-)   It also reminds me of my friend from my very first medical transcription job who accidentally let the spellcheck change the word hemorrhoids to hammerheads about 6 times in a report and printed it and sent it up to the floor, reducing the unit secretary to tears.  Good times.

Anyway, that's another Friday.   We'll see how the homeschool procrastination has gone this week later tonight.

The blahs.

A lady at our church passed away this week, a single woman who never married, never had kids, but was a wonderful addition to our church family.  She was always good to the kids and sometimes crotchety (synonyms are cross, ornery and contrary) with the adults, okay, almost always crochety with the adults, but we loved her anyway.  Her funeral was today.  I didn't go for several reasons, one was that I didn't feel well at all and another was that my husband needed the car to go to town for some things.  I am also feeling kind of sad because today would have been my Dad's 84th birthday and yesterday was the fourth anniversary of his death.  So I am taking comfort measures today, taking it easy, art journaling, making no-bake oatmeal cookies (the ultimate comfort food) and hopefully I will feel better and be up to going to the children's hospital to see the babies tonight.  I feel like I need to.  I think it will help my disposition -- my crotchety-ness, if you will.  We'll see I guess.

I'm also looking for a new job, always fun.  :-P

Finally, we were able to go to the library.

We finished our read-aloud book either Thursday or Friday but couldn't go to the library (or in fact, go anywhere) Friday, Saturday or Sunday and Monday, we got the car (We're sharing one again. :-( ) after the library had closed.  By the time Monday got here we were stir crazy.  We would have gone anyplace, just to get out of the house.  We had a 4H meeting for a club that my son is not actually a member of, but he attended, just to go someplace.  Then we went to the grocery, another activity that my son would not usually voluntarily participate in, but he went and he enjoyed it, because it was out of the house.  I tell you that cabin fever is a real thing.  Whew.

So here's what everyone is reading.

My son:

Found

My daughter:

Skullduggery Pleasant

Me:

An Astronaut's Guide to Life on Earth

And together at night we are reading the delightful:
A Heros Guide To Storming The Castle

We will call it ...

We have this cabinet in our house.  It is between the stove and the pantry.  It has an odd assortment of things in it, cookbooks, spices, seasonings, medicine, sometimes a mixer and/or a small food chopper, band-aids - you name it.  Anything can wind up there.  We used to have our microwave sitting on the counter below it, but 7 or 8 years ago we got a microwave cart and moved the microwave.  To this day though, I have continued to direct people to this cabinet by calling it the-cabinet-above-where-the-microwave-used-to-be.  The other day my youngest noted this and decided that since the microwave has been gone for quite some time, maybe we should rename this cabinet?  The cabinet next to the stove?  Nah, not specific enough.  I guess the cabinet next to the pantry would work, but we have decided to call it George.

A book review and other things from our new new normal.

I am looking for my place in the new new normal.  Yes, I am still a homeschooling mom for at least the next 2 1/2 years unless the youngest graduates early.  Whether or not I will continue to be a medical transcriptionist/editor is in question.  I have been applying for other jobs, but have had no luck yet, no response at all yet.  I'm trying to find my footing after a year of some very difficult physical issues, joint pain making it very difficult for me to walk at times.  At the recommendation of the bloggers at The Common Room, I bought some Dr. Christopher's Complete Tissue and Bone supplement and surprisingly, it has really helped.  I still have some knee pain, but the all over joint pains are fading.  It's weird and unexpected.  So anyway, the things that I was focused on in 2013, finding a solution to mom's issues and trying to deal with my physical pain may be in the past.  I fervently hope so.  Mom seems okay and my joints are getting better.  So now, what?  I need to figure out a career path and enjoy my last 2 years of homeschooling.  And then, what? what?  what?  I have no idea.  I have had some plans but they all seem to have fallen through.

Last week I was reading blogs and I found a list of book recommendations.  I got a couple of them from the library, 1000 gifts by Ann Voskamp and a book about being an astronaut called An Astronaut's Guide to Life on Earth by Chris Hadfield.  I started trying to read 1000 Gifts and though it is beautiful and poetic, it just does not suit my reading style.  I keep skipping over the poetic parts and then find that it is all poetic parts and I've gone through several pages without getting anything out of it.  In theory, it's a great book about being thankful for all the little things in life, but the writing style is just not one I can get my teeth into.

I'll let you all know about the astronaut book. 


 

Another Friday.

I can't believe it is Friday again already.  We've been hanging in here, keeping warm in some very cold weather, playing in the snow a little bit and figuring out our new new normal.  I have to say that this one is an improvement on the last one.  For the last couple of months I have been so stressed out about my mom and now I feel that she is doing so much better.  She is living with 4 other ladies, getting 3 nutritious meals a day and says that she likes it reasonably well.  I think in the back of her mind, she would rather go home, but I am hoping that as she continues to live here, she will feel that it is home.  I am not sure if she will, but she's doing things that indicate she's feeling more homey like taking her shoes off when she gets in, so that's a start.  My brother and I discussed how well our parents raised us to feel guilty about everything, and so both of us feel like we are not spending enough time there ... but at the same time, feel that mom is okay.  It's weird.  

This is a picture of a snowman that the kids made on top of my husband's car.  His car doesn't have a heater, so he has not been driving it to work for some reason, which means that I had to miss volunteering last night :-(  to finish mom's TB test and run errands because I wouldn't have a car today.  Or this whole weekend.  :-(    It's very frustrating.  I guess maybe we could get the housecleaning done? 

It is supposed to snow here again Saturday I hear.  Geek Mom has a gathered a bunch of snow-related fun activities.  If you are expecting snow, go take a look. 

The reason.

Last night, at 7:00 p.m., promptly, we all discovered the reason the alarm hadn't gone off at 7:00 a.m. yesterday.  Yes.  I set it wrong.  However, I am kind of glad I did because of the snow yesterday because if I had gotten up on time, I would have had to agonize over the decision of whether to go despite the slick conditions on the road.  I am not the greatest with decisions like that, especially early in the morning.  So I got up, called mom's caregiver, called the clinic and rescheduled.  Then later, after the roads had been cleared, I went and got mom and took her for her TB test and took the VA paperwork to the person who is helping with that application.  I did get something accomplished yesterday and it felt good to get that out of the way.  And also, I can't emphasize this enough, it felt great not to have to go to the pain clinic yesterday.  If you have read my blog for long, you will know that I hate that place.  I love the service they provide and all of the people are nice, however, the waiting and waiting and waiting, just makes me crazy.  Yes, I know we still have to go but I am just as childish as my kids when they are wanting to take a day off school - I realize I have to do it later, but I don't have to do it TODAY.  :-P

I had a good visit with mom in the car as we were running errands and she told me that she likes this place she is living better than living alone and the people are nice.  There was no crying from either of us.  (I nicknamed the road that the old assisted living facility was on "The Trail of Tears".).  This is such a relief.    Thank God.