THE FIRST DAY OF WINTER DEFINITELY WAS A COLD ONE. I am having some issues appreciating this cold season even when I wear a coat. Brrr...chilled to the bone. As we move one day closer to SPRING, I hold onto hopes of a warmer day. I will be staying busy turning loose of STUFF and getting organized plus painting the Dining room in the main house, clearing out the JUNQUE ROOM, laying marble tile in the entry room and possibly painting the upstairs Hallway.
COLD WEATHER gives me an opportunity to stay indoors to deep clean in the inside of the house and remodel the cottage. Gathering ideas on what to do with the cottage. Things are coming to mind which makes for thinking about what will be done in the near future.
Downsizing to a COTTAGE will have challenges, but all the thinking about it requires energy to think it through. It's not a comfortable thing for me. Not with ease. Here we are living in WINTER time. All ready. The cold does kill off viruses and such. That's a bonus and so is having so much of nature lying dormant. Tis necessary. Some sleep before Spring arrives with lush blossoms and gorgeous colors coming to life.
The CHRISTMAS cards went out in the mail Monday. Hallelujah and a half. I will give it ago next year to address and stamp the cards in July leaving the envelope open so a letter can be inserted in December. Whaalaah. Easy does it.
I suspect the cards will reach their destinations by Friday, Christmas Eve. Christmas Eve is my beloved husband's 67th birthday. I hope to make his favorite cake on Thursday and if all goes well, fix CHRISTMAS SWEETS as well. CHRISTMAS is nearing. Taking time to worship and remember our LORD JESUS and what He means to the world and me. What is really important to LIFE? What is LIFE about? Worshipping the Lord and honoring Him. He is the one that gives meaning to LIFE...and death.
I can downsize my HOME and change my way of looking at stuff. Changing the atmosphere of HOME becomes necessary. I can decorate accordingly. Not so much stuff sitting around. More streamlined and organic in nature.
We toured the ARK ENCOUNTER in Kentucky last November. I will post pics after the Holidays. The way they had the living quarters decorated rang true to me. I liked it so much and thought it was gorgeous. I'd like to incorporate the designs and textures I saw into my HOME ENVIRONMENT. Change here you come for the new year.
We are doing something special for my hubby's birthday on the 24th. 67. I met him when he was 18. We'd marry the following year. He was 19 and I turned 19 just before we said "I do." Married for 47 years. Almost 47 and a half. Praying for more time together as we downsize and focus on art, building doll houses, writing material, exercising and eating healthier for ever.
We will be talking more seriously about what needs to be done with our cottage which will actually be our RETIREMENT COTTAGE. I have been on edge about this phase of life. The downsizing has me very concerned. If we can get the cottage up and going to where we can move into it, we'll need to get a storage unit for the overflow until we are for sure we made the right decision about moving. We will continue to downsize all the way, but don't want to turn loose of everything until we are very sure.
After CHRISTMAS, I will begin going through our junk room. Between the cottage and the main house, I am a bit overwhelmed. Flustered. Having order means peace and harmony to me.
Yesterday, I had a scary thing happen to me as I was driving the car. My left eye started to feel like it had something in it like a hair so I felt around the eye lashes and continued to drive. The feeling didn't go away, so I felt about the eyelashes again then looked in the rear view mirror seeing that my eye was slightly blood shot. Drove some more and looked again to see that my eye was redder than before. Hmmm. Continued to drive, looked again where my eye was extremely blood shot. Looked again and it was horribly blood shot and growing. Told my husband that something was going on with my eye. Looked again in the mirror and about half of the white of my eye was completely bulging with bloody looking blood clot.
Then I said, "You're going to have to take me to the Hospital." I pulled off the road and we switched drivers. He looked stunned when he saw my eye. I was stunned. Starting praying. Thought I was having an aneurism. I said, "Dear God, I am in your hands."
We went to the Topeka Hospital where I was greeted at the door by security officer with a wheel chair. Took a ride to check in. Hubby wasn't allowed inside until I had a room.
Asked a multitude of questions, vitals taken, pictures taken, examined, meds in eye, doctor looked at me and said I had a subconjunctival hemorrhage. Like a bruise to the eyeball. I was stunned. Never heard of this or knew it existed. Anything from trauma to the eye, coughing, sneezing, vomiting, lifting heavy things, medicines to being a diabetic can cause this.
I left the Hospital with a completely bloody eye and was told to have a follow-up before Christmas. Hope I can get in to seeing my regular eye doctor being it's the Holiday. Icing the eye and putting eye drops in it. After 24 hours, I will place heat on it. The coloring will change over the next two weeks and all should be better in two weeks. If not, back to the doctor I will go to get checked for bleeding disorders. That isn't something I want.
When I was alone in my room, I said out loud, "God, I don't want to go through LIFE without you."
I had carried a heavy load up the stairs earlier in the day. Welp, I suppose I shouldn't do that anymore which means more frequent trips up the stairs so I am not overdoing the weight being carried. Point taken. I felt like this was a wakeup call again where I have got to take better care of my temple. No HE-MAN acts of any kind. Done. Finished. Just a polite looking woman being feminine. Actually this is how I am suppose to be after all. No gender confusion of any kind. When I do exercise with weights, they will be light weights, etc.
Blood test early on Tuesday morning and today I have the results back already. Hallelujah...the numbers were excellent. Down a little bit on the A1c. TSH number better. Cholesterol was all better, but still a tad bit high on one of the areas. Still I was down, down, down where I needed to be down at and the one that needed to be higher was. I was so HAPPY! A deep gut happy.
I will be visiting with my doc as he still would like to see me on a statin drug. I want to give it some more time as the numbers are so much better than they were in AUGUST plus I am losing weight!!! I know this has helped eating organic, less grains, etc. Praise the LORD I am losing weight. Still counting calories and doing my best to stay below 1200 calories a day.
I made my December goal! This excites me as I will forge ahead with eating the way I have been. I did have some higher carb foods this week and I will allow some sweets at Christmas, but will not go over board on it.
Cutting back on the sweets, breads, highly processed foods, using olive oil, no high fructose corn syrup, no soda pop, no coffee, watching the sugars, eating more veggies, going ORGANIC and avoiding GMO foods is the magic bullet.
PRAISE THE LORD AND THE WEIGHT IS GOING DOWN!
Officially into WINTER. Lots of snow in 2022? More cold weather for sure. Bundle up with blankets and heat the room I'm in. Turn the temp up a little more. We have a heat box in the Living room. I believe we need to heat it up. Most of the main floor feels comfortable until walking into the Living room then I can feel a barrier of cold. With the heat box on, it should take the edge off of the cold.
PLANS for the rest of the week are forming. I'm sitting here sipping a cup of HOT WATER. I drank two cups of Earl Grey Tea earlier. Actually was nice to sip on. A scratch in my throat and sipping hot water now. No head cold needed or wanted. Took some Vitamin C, Vit. D and Zinc.
