Good News

Doc appointment today and he cleared me to start training for a overnight hike I want to do this summer. Yes I know with all the crap I am up and down with that it might sound like I've lost my mind but frankly, I'm not getting any younger and I've been frustrated with the way my diabetes meds have been working/notworking and this is also a chance to tackle these issues that have been seesawing my blood sugars anytime I try to up my activity levels when I am able to move around.
Along with upping my daily blood sugar checks he will be monitoring my A1-C's monthly and adjusting diabetes meds levels as needed. He said today that if I didn't have Fibro/CFS that I wouldn't have to take ANY diabetes meds until I was quite a bit older.
So...I am pretty excited about this (I'm sure I'll feel different once I'm in the middle of it LOL), it's going to be really hard but I'm looking forward to it too.

Coastal hike, starting out at Rialto Beach /Ozette Loop

I wanted to take my kids along this trail to Hole In The Wall when they were little but I had to wait they were old enough. By the time they could go, I couldn't...and now they're all grown up but still game for going so I'm stoked. Good Lord I miss being outside!

I already know this will be a MINIMUM six mile hike for me...you have to hike at least 3 miles in before you can set up camp for the night so at the very least... LOL It's not the first day that is the real test, it's the day after and the day after that. To be pill free again, that would just be a great bonus

Here's a closer pic of Hole in the Wall---you see that dark spot to the left of the opening? That's a person standing there. The opening is huge! :

OK, off to pretend to be productive, I'm just happy things finally feel like they might be moving forward for a change :)

Just another day in the trenches...

It's Monday and since "planning day" is traditionally Sunday and I didn't do it, I'm technically starting out already late this week. I didn't feel up to it yesterday----this heat wave is sucking the life out of me on these dead air afternoons so I moved "planning day" back until Monday morning, along with "Question of the Week" (which I did get posted in plenty of time).

Well it's early afternoon and I still haven't even started planning and the heat has descended with a vengeance. I'm not going to stress over it. My huge list of self-imposed tasks can wait while I enjoy life. Today.

Today I realized we are on the back end of Summer. Summer is almost over and there is so much I haven't done because of so much I haven't gotten done. I haven't sat around and enjoyed the sun, the weather, the smell of Summer, the beads of condensation on the glass of iced tea and the purely frivolous reading material... the enjoyment of the season has been put on hold by me because I haven't done so many things that all need to be done before the rain and cold seasons return. All work work work...but no play until done...wait, I can't do that. I can't be that way anymore because I'll never be done which means I will never play again...unless I change how I look at it all.

So this is what I decided to do today. I'm taking my planning notebook outside and setting it within easy reach and I'm going to do some things I want to do so I can have some fun. I want to eat dinner outside at my table like we usually do when the weather is nice but like we haven't been able to because of twenty million other things I have to do before the table can be moved to its "Summer" spot. I'm just going to do it. I'm going to enjoy my gardening efforts--- the tomatoes are just amazing and the peppers are going great guns too :) I'm excited to see the final color of the Cherokee Purples:

while I'm currently enjoying the huge flavor bursts of the tiny but oh so mighty tasty Early Girls:

and I can't wait to see how big the German Striped Tomatoes are going to get. Plus the basil, the lavender and all the other herbs that combine into this aromatic mishmash hodgepodge of an olfactory wonderland when I'm out there weeding, gathering and watering...sigh.... you know what...

I'm not waiting anymore. This post can be done and other stuff can wait...I'm going outside...see ya later! Happy (late) Monday!

I've busy sleeping a lot in between other stuff

Trying to get myself together. Summer has finally arrived and the weather has been record breaking HOT.

The resulting effect of the hot weather upon me has been me sleeping. Excessively.
But I'm feeling pretty good over all :)
It's like I'm catching up from all the restless unrefreshing sleep and constant fatigue from pain from this winter.

My pain levels are down down down. I still have pain yes, but not like this winter.

I am truly enjoying it while it lasts :)

We've been busy. Well. I've been busy trying to get stuff done before the rains come back. Stuff like the downstairs floor. The kitchen. The living room. The roof. Ug!

BRB...

Up from the first nap of the day. Nap. Huh. Like it's a voluntary thing. LOL. yeah. right. LOL.

Just going to go crawl in the shower and get on with the day before it gets too hot to function! Maybe pictures of progress later :)

Well, it never got at hot as predicted and that is good :) :) :)

I've busy sleeping a lot in between other stuff.  I'm going to be busy for awhile. Not just with our projects at home as it turns out. A friend (who lives in AZ) called and needed us to help her out with her storage unit here in WA. It seems a church group told her they would help her out and take everything in the storage unit as donations and then sweep out the storage unit etc so she just went ahead and turned in the keys since they were just emptying it out etc. It turns out they only took the big $$$ stuff and left a huge mess going through all the boxes etc. That was last month. She just found out about the mess left (she was supposedly cleared out of there last month) the day before yesterday. The storage unit owner said if we can get the stuff out and get it swept they won't charge her another month but they are elderly and can't do it themselves and would have to hire someone so they would have to charge her for that too. They were shocked the church group did that too and they feel sorry for my friend and have been really nice in helping us to help my friend but what a mess! It's going to take at least two more days of moving stuff and I figuring five days (at the least) for me to recover from the thing (and I'm not lifting anything, I'm just packing boxes etc).

Question of the Week #54

The "Sunday Morning Craftiness" Studio

So yesterday I loaded up a bag with some beading supplies and went to my Mom's for "Sunday Morning Craftiness" (that's what we are calling it anyway, lol). 

One of my mom's many hobbies is quilting and she's really good but as her Parkinson's progresses she has more troubles so she's trying to get some specialty quilts she's always wanted to do crossed off her list before she's back to "grade school level" (her words, not mine, I never progressed above high school level in most areas of sewing, lol). She's currently working on a puffy quilt for one of my brothers for his birthday (July 7th) and we needed to put in a major crafting session since she wants to present it to him on the 4th. It's a king size quilt so even with her previous dexterity she would still have needed help with this large amount of fabric.

I brought my beads so she could work on her project and I mine and when she needed a hand stretching or pinning (about the extent of my skills in quilting) I could just jump up and help out. It's fun because she's got this huge long dining room table and we set up tv trays beside our respective chairs to hold our tools to keep the table from getting too cluttered for the actual projects and she likes to listen to an old time radio program (and I don't mind a bit) and we talk and sip our coffee while crafting.

One of the things we talked about was our "game plan" for Independence Day festivities--- we are having a grill fest and all but one of my siblings and their children will be attending. At last count I have 18 nieces and nephews ranging in age from 24 yrs to 6 1/2 months old. At least 14 of them are going to be in attendance. The weather is supposed to be nice so we've made sure to have the big swim rafts ready and I'm picking up some bubbles for the smaller kids on Thursday and let me tell you, I am really looking forward to all that bubble blowing and wet kid chaos!

I still have a bunch to do though and I am really enjoying getting the opportunity to get a lot of stuff done ahead so most of the entertaining prep work is minimized on the actual day. I know some of you don't celebrate this holiday but it made me wonder what everyone else is doing this week. Holiday prep or not, going out or staying home, I know everyone is doing something...even if it's just resting and recuperating.

and there is this week's question:

What is on your schedule for this week? Bunches? Nothing? Is there something in particular you are looking forward to this week? Care to share?


OK...Looking forward to hearing your answers!

Please remember to submit your suggestions and questions to: spdychevy@gmail.com with Question in the subject line and we'll get your question up here soon!

Happy Monday to all :)

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Christmas in July means Halloween (and Thanksgiving) in June

I don't know if you've all heard the phrase "Christmas in July". I have but I have always associated with it differently than the definition found here on Wikipedia: Christmas in July

As to the "Christmas in July" article above, I really don't know much about it and that is not what I am talking about here.

I am talking about a phenomenon that used to exist in the world of periodicals and magazines. I don't know if still exists in this sped up world of easy push button desktop publishing but when I sat down at the end of last December to write down my wishes and goals for the coming year I kept thinking of this marketing preparation concept and how it could relate to increased online sales in my store.

I have been mindful of this marketing preparation because "back in the day" (about 10-15 years ago, lol) in the writing world, this is when print magazines were prepping their holiday features and spreads for the holiday editions. So if you wanted to pitch a Christmas article you needed to be pitching in May because you'd be writing in June for a July article and photo spread deadline. It was the same way with Thanksgiving & Halloween but of course plan even earlier.

I normally don't do much (or any) seasonal specific designs and I usually don't offer them for sale online if I do.

One of my goals on my list concerning my etsy store is to increase my listings and seasonal sales, specifically targeting the three commercially big U.S. holidays in Fall and Winter. AND make and offer seasonal specific jewelry too PLUS all the fun vintage stuff we have been finding to list online as well. (Oh boy do I love the vintage holiday decorations! LOL)

Keeping the "Christmas in July" preparation in mind I planned on designing and making some projects earlier than that to be finished, photographed, inventoried and ready for listing.

Checking the etsy listing length dates was another thing that I had to check and coordinate as I list a shipping deadline for each holiday about 5 business days in advance of each particular holiday. For instance, my shipping deadline for Thanksgiving 2014 (November 27th) is November 20th but the Christmas shipping deadline is a full 7 business days (December 16th) before the actual holiday due to the inevitable "mail crush" that happens to slow up the mail every year. I don't want seasonal listings (unless they are a holiday "overlap" such as Fall/Harvest/Halloween (some) and Thanksgiving) to run past the shipping deadline date. I calculate etsy listing date lengths so that I can tailor my listing end dates to the precise shipping deadline date.

What all this planning and preparation means is that June 15th is my kick off for designing, making, photographing and writing listing copy for the 2014 Holiday season...

If any PCASG member is interested in joining me in this silly adventure of crafting for Fall and Winter in the Summer, please let me know and maybe we could share our progress (or stumbling blocks lol) with each other.

So Happy Halloween in June so to speak :) I'm knee deep in black and orange and pumpkins this afternoon. Hopefully with more pictures and progress updates coming soon :)

Update of sorts

Been trying to get motivated and get off the couch but between the loperamide making me sleepy and the chronic fatigue coupled with my recent foot injury making me tired as well, I've not achieved much of anything except binge watching Hart of Dixie on Netflix to avoid binging on Orange is the New Black all at once. I waited so long for season two of ONB I'm trying to string it out and enjoy it as long as possible :)

The weather has been pretty nice lately and it hasn't rained but it hasn't warmed up either. All in all it's been a pretty chilly June.

I've gotten some little stuff done here and there but most of this week I've been napping or on the couch. It's hard not to get down when I'm physically unable to do the things I need or the do the activities I want. So far I've been keeping those bummed feelings about what I haven't gotten done at bay by remembering all the stuff I have gotten done.

I won't go into the list here but I accomplished some major monthly chores for the household and did some work on several projects I've been wanting to play with for ages :) Just the enjoyment of getting to work on little things here and there helps counteract the "blahs" when I'm feeling like a definite underachiever.

One of my biggest disappointments has been wanting to write more posts here on the blog and not having done it for so many different reasons: too tired, too uncomfortable, to yukky too...all just a bunch of excuses because I really haven't been ready to face how horrible I was feeling. Now that I am feeling a little better I can admit how horrible I actually was feeling. Does that make any sense?

I just find it hard to write about anything when I feel like I haven't done anything lately but loll on the couch. BUT as I said, that's not true, I've done some stuff, really, lol. And in theory I have many things to write about but this feeling of being unproductive by feeling shackled to the couch is overwhelming at times and presents a huge mental hurdle in addition to the obvious physical obstacles I'm trying to overcome. Sometimes it's the only thing I can think about....or expend energy avoiding thinking about.

This "choosing your attitude" is some pretty hard work but it does work :)

Of course, now all I'm thinking about is the nap I'm feeling coming up. So, off to do that with no guilt, I earned it :)