Good morning! Happy Boxing Day!

CM, I'm glad you had a good Christmas and things are settled with your priest.

I'm very glad you didn't try to take in 13 rabbits!

We had good visits with our kids and my parents. I never got up with my cousin. I did finish reading my first book - an autobiography, and read through my second (it's a pottery book, so lots of how-to information and ideas, not really a "sit and read" book.)

Today I'm going to do some baking for tomorrow and catch back up on dishes and work on some general tidying and sorting out. I mentioned boxing day to Dh - who is generally all for it, and he said "we didn't really get a bunch of stuff we need to make room for."

His present to me was an antique soapstone "sled warmer" we put it on the woodstove last night and then tucked it in the foot of the bed, and it was lovely and warm all night! I got him a pepper grinder.

Our daughter in law made us masks and cute little hanging bags that will come in very useful, and we got some consumables from their area.

MERRY CHRISTMAS

Hi, Tessa, welcome back!

I'll have to make a better post later. Just a summary for now. Hope everyone's having a nice holiday including Tillie who I also hope continues to recuperate more and more.

Last night I went to Christmas Eve Mass, roommate came along, it was beautiful. Our new priest seems very settled in and happy, and we are thankful to have him. And hope that'll be all the changes for a good long while!

Having a more relaxed time at home today, hoping for the best on a new "situation" that came up, namely that the wind blew shingles off the roof day before yesterday. Only two sets, and I climbed up and could see no obvious gaping holes.

The sewer line business may begin to move forward tomorrow... hesitant to say too much as if I might jinx it.

And we almost took in foster bunnies. There is a guy in town who is disabled and his son took off leaving 13 or so rabbits that he was stupid enough to think he'd get rich selling... anyway, they are in terrible living conditions and the rescue wants to get them out of there asap.

Luckily a board member has come up with a space to house them. As much as I love bunnies, I had felt some apprehension re taking on more to deal with right now in our insane little corner of the world. So we can just help by buying food and toys for them, I can groom them, help set up the pens in the habitat, etc.

If/when life settles into the regular routine, of course I still have much to do with my catching up and my decluttering.

Good morning,

Merry? Christmas.

I slept late this morning. First Christmas in 53 years. I kept waking up and then thinking "there's no reason to get up" and going back to sleep.

We have snow on the ground, and the lights on the tree, and a fire in the woodstove. Dh put on some Christmas music, but there are no breakfast pastries to go with the coffee - I didn't bother. And no stockings.

At some point Dh and I will open our presents to each other, and later we'll call ds and ddil and open the ones from them.

I'll finish reading my new books.

I'm sure I'll call my mom today, and I'll probably try my cousin again (she's the closest thing I have to a sister - I don't know if I told you guys about growing up with her?) when I was a kid, Christmas Day always ended with the two of us on a loveseat next to our grandparents' fireplace, opening mostly matching presents, and then playing, and eating too much, and when we were very little, falling asleep curled back up on that love seat together. The loveseat is in her recroom now.

Anyway, I hope you guys have a good day.

Dd2 has rescheduled because of the temperature, so we'll have the girls here on Sunday and I think I'll do my Boxing Day tomorrow after all.

The coop door is fixed and the hens are all moved in with the big senior rooster - plenty of space and Fox proof.

Dh also helped me fix the hinges on the boy rabbit's door so it isn't crooked anymore.

I have the dishwasher running, I am as caught up as I want to be on the laundry, and I am having a hot cocoa to warm up. Then I'll do a little more tidying and go add more bedding to the coop floor. I was too cold once the chickens were moved.

The snow lady is stashed under a table in the basement in her styrofoam coffin.

Tatoulia, I'm glad you had a good time with your friend.

Wow a lot going on there, SubC! The snowman is pretty upsetting. I think you need to keep it. Ugh.

My friend left this morning. We had a nice time last night. It was so nice to get some solid girlfriend time in. Now I have to wash her linens, etc. I wish she could've stayed for Christmas but she needed to get the rental car back and then she leaves for Japan on the 27th or 28th. She went out all day walking with a different friend (the one who took her cat) so I was a full day of work for myself.

Okay I need to figure things out here. Will write more later.

Good morning.

I finished bagging up the feed sacks. It made things look a little better.

I refilled the rat cafe because I have seen some new signs of rat activity.

I marked the rest of my blueberries.

And I partly cleaned out a stall - laying down cardboard around my farm bell and covering it with manure. My goal is to put a round herb garden around the base of the bell this spring. I got as far as a half circle.

My cousin didn't answer her phone (as usual)

It's supposed to be bitterly cold here the next three days.

We opened presents on zoom with Dh parents last night.

I got two books and a set of glass measuring cups that I asked for, a very cool hat that mil had the logo dd2 designed for our farm embroidered on, a beautiful little cutting board handmade by fil from trees felled on their farm (he is a skilled furniture maker and used scraps of all the woods left from projects) and two things I don't want - a grey t-shirt with a picture and a slogan on it that I know mil thought was cute, but is worn by a subgroup of my 4h community that I do not want to be identified with, and a handmade by mil gift.

Dh is happy to take the t-shirt - it's unisex, and he does not get involved in 4h. The handmade gift is harder. It is a snow-woman made of poly quilt batting and felt, identical to one mil made herself from a good housekeeping pattern in the 70's. She made one for "each of us" (daughter and dils) because "two of you asked for my snowman and you can't have it! But I couldn't remember which two." (Hint: maybe not the woman who has way too much stuff and tries really hard to keep man made materials out of her life) it's 18" tall and arrived in a styrofoam cooler for safe storage.

I told dh "I don't know why she gave this to me and not you, it's from your childhood." And he replied "because I've never liked it. You can get rid of it."

I can't get rid of it - she worked really hard on it and she will come to my house at Christmas time again when all this is over. I have to put it out. If I get rid of it, she will be hurt.

Today Dh is going to help me repair the door to the old chicken coop so that I can put the hens in it. They are currently trapped in a too small pen because a fox ate three of them.

I don't know what else.

So it looks like I'm going to be fighting thus in small chunks.

I'm trying to complete lityle jobs at the moment, instead of starting big ones - even though big ones really need to be done!

I also crossed with Tatoulia kadt time, so Tatoulua, I want to say I'm glad things went well with your friend. I'm sure you'll pass her compliments on to the cleaning fairies.

I rolled up and bagged about 1/3 of the empty feed bags that were lying around the barn (these feedbags are the bane of my existence, but I can't bring myself to pay 2x for feed in paper bags when I'm so happy with the nutrition science behind my feed and the other feed is marketing environmental impact, not animal health.)

I swept half the little concrete pad in the barn, I put a shovel away, and I picked up two stakes with ribbons on them that were lying on the floor of the barn and hammered them in next to some small blueberry bushes that my husband theoretically knows are there, but will otherwise probably forget and run over before they leaf out in the spring.

That took 30 minutes. Now taking a water break - more for stress than hydration - and planning to go back out for another 45 minutes and then call my cousin.

Hi Tessa! Welcome back!

I am so sorry you have been struggling with depression, but proud of you for being here!

I hope your day gets you to a good result on the inspection!

I am struggling to get on my big girl pants today. It is unseasonably warm and there is so much to be done in the barn! But I used the sunny part of the day picking up around the house, starting laundry, getting feed, and taking care of some things with my bank (please hold...) it was good use of my time because I saved myself $65, but now it is overcast and I want to stay inside.

But, I am going to take you as I spiration and go do SOMETHING. Hopefully when I come back you will have posted an update with your success (not to pressure you - I know some days "success" is "I put real clothes on")

You can do it, Tess! Backsliding is part of the process! Cheering you on, today and everyday!

Quick check in. All went well with friend. The cats didn't do too well together but boy what a sweetheart her cat is! She has taken her cat to a different friend's house (part of the plan all along) and I'm just working away. No issues using our masks, wiping down surfaces, etc. all going well.

She kept complimenting how clean my house is (and not in comparison, just in general) and today she said she's never seen a cleaner bathroom. THAT IS SO NICE. I told her I have cleaners so she doesn't think it's me.

Hi everybody! Guess who's back!!!! I hope everybody has been staying safe and healthy. I have spent most of this year in one level of depression or another. Still am. It's been a really rough year emotionally and physically. Unfortunately, I've had a little bit of a backslide. Not nearly as bad as it was, but still, I have some work to do. And, surprise!!!! Emergency inspection tomorrow. Could be a good thing. It's giving me a reason to get out of bed today. Well, better get busy. Have a good day all! I will have a lot of reading/catching up to do here during my breaks!

Thinking of everyone.

Emily, how are you doing?

I had a great day with Bean. Sent Dd home with most (4) of her Christmas presents - which she insisted on opening in front of us on the porch. Since I got to hold bean longer it was fine with me.

We saved two for when her sister is here, since I had two for dsil and two for Bean (Dd got more gifts because hers weren't expensive)

I sent her dolly too.

Dh put up my outside lights today!

I think I will be caught up on the dishes when I go to bed - just have to unload and partly load.

CM, I recognized your rabbit and your greeting. I hope they made Tillie smile.

Hopefully everything will go well with your cousin and it will just be one of those odd things and benign.

Tatoulua, you sound like you have everything well planned out. I would love a queen sheet on a twin bed. I am a restless sleeper and drive Dh crazy stripping the bed - there is never enough to tuck in. I use king sized blankets on our queen bed.

I hope you get your trash out.

I had a good day. I had my fire and finished burning my things just as it started raining.

I did some planning, made Irish tea bread, exchanged emails with a parent, cleaned off that shelf I had been avoiding and did some more clean up work in the scullery. I also sorted through my in/stash basket and recycled a bunch of stuff. There was stuff in there from 2017. It's not cleared, but it's no longer overflowing.

I chatted with my mom for an hour - I opened her last package - it was another puppet of a turtle. and I rode the exercise bike for 45 minutes.

Dh made me a yummy dinner, and best of all I got a surprise call from Dd who wants me to pick up Bean tomorrow morning! His dolly is all dry and clean and ready for me to dress him back up in his little corduroys and flannel shirt and hand him over.

Dh and I also had a good talk about our goals and plans for the next year. It's a little hard because he still doesn't know if he will keep his job, but some things are pretty certain.

I did get some sad news today - my uncle (not blood or law but my grandmother helped raise him) died yesterday. It was not unexpected as he had aggressive cancer and had been holding his own wake one friend at a time for several months. One of my blood uncles and my cousin were able to sit through the night with him at the hospital and say a last goodbye.

But to end on a happier note - tomorrow - Bean!

Listen to your body and mind, Cm and know that you need to coast right now.

My cleaners came today. My house is very clean. My friend arrives tomorrow. I did the two loads of laundry I wanted to do. The pillows I ordered for my friend have come in. I've washed her sheets. I couldn't find the top sheet for her twin bed, so she will have to use a queen sized top sheet.

I really should run out and get more cat food for the two cats. Hers and mine. My little bud went through a lot with the cleaners here today.

I just found out that tomorrow Am is our only trash and recycling pick up for the week. I am grateful that the collectors have Christmas off but it will be tough going here in the city for a week. I took out three recycling bags and one trash bag. I have a very heavy trash bag that needs to go out now.

I am exhausted. I have a semi important meeting in the am so I have to be showered and dressed and I'll need to put some makeup on.

Dressed from the top up.

I really should go run errands but I'd like to just hop into bed.

I may just take the heavy garbage out and then lay down. I can get Perrier tomorrow. I have a department meeting at 4 and my friend is going to try to get here between 3 and 4 tomorrow so I don't have to exit and let her and the kitty in.

O-kay... the site changed my bunny's eyes from circles to question marks, and that should read

HI TILLIE

below, but since we can't edit, I have to do this.

Happy Solstice day

This is a thing I saw on Facebook - you copy the bunny and change the emoji item he is holding to whatever you want.

(\_/)
( ?_?)
/ >🌞

For me, and for my roommate, the psychological boost is tremendous, even if the days only lengthen by about a minute.

Tatoulia, I'm sure those Bose headphones will be lovely to have. SubC, that's cool that Bean can inherit his momma's doll.

I'm starting into my pattern of coasting until Christmas is over, mostly. Will wrap the few little things I got for roommate.

My cousin 8 months older than me was to have had surgery today to remove a suspicious lung module. She never smoked or partied very much, married fairly young and had her kids, and has been in good health, eats lots of vegetables, etc. The only thing I know of lifestyle wise that could've had an influence was she used to sunbathe a lot when we were teenagers; I don't know if UV damage could cause something without there first having been melanoma (which is too scary to think about, but she didn't mention any). So I pray and hope to hear that everything went okay and that the growth was gotten in time, etc.

H I T I L L I E
❤️🧡💛💚💙💜🖤🤎🤍💗🦡🐇🐈🐈‍⬛

Good morning and happy solstice!

I got up early this morning to restart the fire from last night's coals and light candles.

Some years I would have been out by a bonfire, but it is cold and wet and I am getting older. So I settled for walking outside in my pajamas for a few minutes to give thanks for another year. I will have the bonfire later.

Tillie, you are on my mind. Sometimes I have students who are doing all they can to log on and they can't face the camera or the microphone. I ask them "if you can, I really need you to just turn your mike on long enough to say "hi" so I know you can hear me."

If you are reading, I really wish you would just type "Hi" or anything. I'm wishing you blessings in the new year.

WTG SubC! Great work! I'm so proud of you. I love your daughter. And the little doll drying by the wood stove!

I had coffee with Bf when I saw him so I'm A little hyped up. I had a nearly three hour zoom session with friends and we did our gingerbread houses. Four for me this year. This time I used only gum drops and marshmallows and other things that I'll never eat. I'm not sure I'll even keep the house. It was more for the experience with my friends

I'm doing laundry now. Washing up a bathrobe and slippers for when my friend is here. I'm also running the dishwasher. Just once for me, SubC!

I have two bags of recycling and one bag of garbage. All ready to go out. You did a good job today SubC with getting those things together. All of my gifts are wrapped and the stockings are done. I am awaiting the oil painting of Tigger. I bought a bunch of stuff for mom to cheer her up. A pretty plaid tote bag that zips, a sparkly bracelet, some Burts Bees body and hand lotions, that sort of stuff. A calendar (Edward Gory) and Monet placemats. BF will give her the last two items, with a little envelope with some money. I also got BF a Swiss army watch. He loves watches and I figured that would be nice. I may have mentioned this but his gifts last year were all tickets to events that were cancelled.

Every year he buys me beautiful gifts. Even on the no gifts years. And this year, I know he's struggling because he doesn't have any time off from work and the stores aren't open as late as previous years. And he can't even supplement my gift with massage and spa treatments since nothing is open. So I did something uncomfortable. I told him what I want. I told him it's something that I won't buy for myself, that I've wanted since March and that I will never, ever buy. I want the Bose noise cancelling headphones. I told him I don't care what model and I don't care what color. I can use them for my work meetings instead of the cheap headset, I can use them for my phone calls, I can listen to music and meditation tapes, etc. so I know what I'm getting. He understands my hatred of amazon and he told me to get the model I want (I had given him the option of the cheaper model and the one I really wanted, knowing he will always go a step ahead). So I went on the Bose website and ordered them. He told me to act surprised, which I will even though it's just the two of us.

We are having work done in our tiny laundry room so no washing on Tuesday and Wednesday. I'm not thrilled with having the construction work done so close the Christmas but I know I can use that laundry service if I need to.

I didn't get the cards put away. But the hallway is almost back in place. The sound of the dishwasher at night is so comforting.

I'll go get my things out of the laundry and head off to bed. Goodnight dear hearts.

Tillie signal us when you can. No pressure. I just want to make sure that you know that I love you. I really do.

I did not find very many things to donate, only a few, but I also created half a bag of recycling, cleaned off the other shelf and the floor in the back hall and wrapped the Christmas presents (not very many this year - most were shipped directly and we are keeping things small. Dh and I are giving each other one gift. - he knows what his is 😕)

And I did a load of laundry plus I washed the cloth doll I made for Dd when she was little. She said "don't make him another one - clean mine up and he can have it." So there is a little naked stuffed baby drying by the woodstove.

And I found a few worn/broken natural material and obsolete paper things that can be symbolically (and literally) consigned to the fire tomorrow.

I got one bag up to my car to go to goodwill. I've gotten part of my hallway put back together. I believe I am done with sending Christmas cards and will put the remainders away. I didn't blast through them all but I made a dent.

Last night I washed the comforter for my friend's visit. Also I saw two of BF's friends today; wife is a doctor and husband is in med school and we discussed protocols for friend's visit and the wife was on board. So I think we are good. Their dog was good friends with Tigger. He even helped search for him when the cat was missing. Poor doggie.

I'm sorry about the passing of so many people, SubC. Very discouraging and sad.

Let me know how you are doing, everyone. And waving to Tillie

Cm! I am so sorry about the knee! It's always something. Keep doing what you can. We believe in you!

SubC I'll start a big cleanup with you today. Music on.

Tillie I love you so much.

Good morning.

Tomorrow is the solstice. I am bemused by all the people who are suddenly embracing the symbolism of the holiday.

Me, I'm going to have my fire and meditate on closure for the last year and my goals and intentions for the new one.

I'm thinking that I might at least start my "big cleanout" today. I'm kind of in the mood for it and it would help give the new year more of a fresh start feeling (my new year, the astronomical one, not the western calendar one - my "holiday season" sort of starts with the one and ends with the other.)

Also crossed with CM.

Your poor knee! I'm glad it wasn't worse.

I am hoping your sewer holds on!

There are also things about this social distancing that I'd like to hold onto, but I do not feel at all ambivalent about ending the pandemic!

I called my parents yesterday. My high school English teacher and my brother's kindergarten teacher and her husband all died.

One of my mom's best friends is in the hospital, but with complications of diabetes, not covid. This is not a good time to be in the hospital with diabetes!

So, a total of three loads of laundry done today. Either hanging to dry or put away!

Ran the dishwasher twice total.

Took some pottery stuff out from the dining porch to the studio.

Other stuff I already said.

Also, I have restarted an exercise program. Riding the stupid exercise bike again.
40 min Tuesday
30 minutes Wednesday
45 minutes Thursday
45 minutes yesterday
45 minutes today.

So far I have managed to enforce not watching videos unless I am riding the bike.

It's not actually helping yet.

Hi, having a quiet and not too productive Saturday but it's okay, I've lowered my expectations till after the holidays.

Yesterday was semi-crazy to very crazy as the day went on. Poor roommate was scrambling to finish up knitted gifts and I helped wrap. She needed some files from her workplace and I rode out, sat in the car while she went in.

Thankfully the building has opened an entrance closer to her office so she didn't have to go through the whole thing. It's a former high school turned administrative building, one story, feels miles long, and had been a Covid test site but I'm not sure if it still is. Not someplace to linger, though.

We stopped by the bunny house to pick up our hay order (everyone masked). Then back home where the trash pickup had taken place and the guys had flipped the dumpster into the flower bed. So I scrambled out and was hurrying to push it back up the driveway, caught my toe on a nasty place where the concrete sticks up, and went sprawling onto my knee and heel of my hand.

Those moments of shock, damage assessment, and hoping not to have to go to the ER with the pandemic, but then I realized with relief that it wasn't too bad. Threw a bit of monkey wrench in my plans though. The knee was stiff so I iced it while she went to the post office. It's less swollen today, coming along.

Later roommate was struggling trying to find documents for work that no one had known they'd need to look up again. By the time evening came, things finally settled down and we watched Dark Shadows. We need to watch some Christmas shows too in the next few days.

This year we're off schedule, disoriented. Wonder what it'll be like when people get vaccinated and time starts flowing normally again. I'm ambivalent since in some ways I've liked having fewer set obligations.

And the city people still haven't flagged the yard, plus our handyman has a friend who is dying. So who knows about the sewer line. Just hope it doesn't bust during an ice storm sometime. We had more earthquakes here today. I felt them. The gas company may again be having to check for leaks, so that could cause delays with flagging. I hope not though.

Never a dull moment.

SubC I'm glad your "housekeeper"?showed up! I do understand what you mean about just having your husband still. It gives you room to do what you need to do and to do it in a way that makes sense to you.

I can't find a bean emoji.

I am wrapping up gifts and puttering while my very quiet electrician is here. He is a joy. He just does his work and as my friend's husband, there is no creepiness.

Winter is just hard.

The housekeeper showed up thus morning and started the dishes, laundry, and woodstove. Then she moved all the school materials to the dining porch and picked up the living room, so Dh has agreed that we can put off firing her another week.

Dh has had a long week and is very tired and reading a book by the fire. It's funny, it actually helps me when he does stuff like that, because usually he is so hustle-bustle and efficient I feel like I am struggling to keep up, but when he us still, I feel like I am accomplishing so much, like "look at all the stuff I got done while you were reading!"

More update later.

🐰for CM
🐱for Tatoulia
🐻 for Tillie because I hope she is hibernating safe and snug
And 👋 to Emily because I don't know what critter to send you.

SubC my house definitely shows the face of depression. I need to pull it together. I am unhappy with it and I know that neatening up will help. I will check back in a bit.

Day one of winter break.

Last night I made two lists - one that is just the daily routine stuff so that I don't forget it now that my daily routine will be changed (like my vitamins and checking the water level in the fountain) and one of things that I want to get done today - which I'm sure we all know is long enough to overfill my two week break - lol!

Then I went to bed and slept 9.5 hours!

Mr. kitty and I have been sitting around lazily drinking coffee, reading and having tummy rubs, but he just announced that it was time to go outside, and I think I'm going to see what I can do about getting this house in order. The last three days have not been too good. The housekeeper has not shown up at all!

I had to go back and reread my post.

I left out the messy hard parts - my inlaws are just icing.

Today was pretty good. Such an odd start to Christmas break. My last class was with my teens who were terribly goofy today. I eventually gave up on them getting anything done and basically just bantered with them while the few motivated ones worked independently. At the usual clean up time, one of them asked "is class over?" And I said "yes. Class was over 20 minutes ago if you didn't notice."

I will miss them, but enjoy a little downtime - although I'll probably spend part of break on school stuff.

I need to clean up my "classroom" and run my dishwasher and do my evening chores.

My girls are coming to socially distant visit in the barn on Boxing Day, so I will have to pick a different day tatoulia.

I hope that things go very well with your friend.

SubC! That was a messy evening, esp after slogging through a massive headache.

People are, in my opinion, making this pandemic and safety very complicated. Whether their reasoning is valid or not, isn't the point. What is upsetting is that the gatherers are making life so hard on us social-distancers. I am so disappointed by how many people think that any holiday is more important than safety, and how they feel free to belittle and argue with people who are choosing a different level of safety. It should be, "im having 14 people over," "cool, I'll sit this year out," "We will save a seat for you next year." And it goes both ways; I am furious with people's choices to gather but I just sit it out.

SubC I have an artist friend who made me a mug for Christmas. I've been drinking out of it everyday since I got it. It's wonderful.

The end of school will bring up a lot of emotions. Just be good to yourself.

I am nervous about having my friend here for two nights. But I'm setting up a very strict protocol for us. She is very neat and clean and if either of us gets a little nervous, I'll book her a room at the Westin. I might even be able to get her a room at the Four Seasons, which I know she would enjoy.

Tillie, SubC, Tess, Joan, Emily, Anony, Diane, Dianne, LR, Bitsy, Roxie, we are here and we are thinking of you.