Posted on January 5, 2026 in everydayness

2026

It’s hard to believe it’s 2026. As a kid I don’t even think I considered years past the year 2000 and now here we are, 26 years later. I don’t have a word for the year. I didn’t make any resolutions. I am not doing 26 in 26. Like any other year there are things I have to do and things I want to do but I didn’t feel like making a list just to cross things off. I didn’t even make any reading goals. I have two goals for the year. I want to learn how to identify trees and I need to learn how to get up and down off of the floor easily again.

That last one makes it sound like I am 80 years old. Maybe the first one does too. I don’t see that I ever wrote about this here but in May of 2024 I tripped and fell as I was walking into Wal-Mart. It was a rainy day and they had those carpets out at the entrance. I tripped on one of those and fell hard on my right knee. I should have just picked myself up and gone to the ER but I was humiliated. I just wanted to get my groceries and GTFO. None of the employees cared. I should have asked to file a report. I hobbled around on my injured knee while my shoe was squishy with blood from my toe that was bleeding from tearing off part of my toenail. I did end up going to the doctor a week later but not much was done. It took forever for my knee to heal and still hurts on occasion. Recently I realized that I had been avoiding sitting on the floor or kneeling on the floor to clean things since I fell. I don’t want to do that anymore. I want to be ablet to get up and down off the floor with relative ease.

Like seemingly everyone else, I want to do more analog things this year. Although I’ve always done a lot of analog things when everyone else wasn’t. I did last year too. Playing hand solitaire and sitting under a blanket on the couch with my eyes closed while a YouTube video of the weather channel (from 1993) plays count, right? I didn’t cross stich much last year. The desire just wasn’t there. I’d like to change that though. I miss it. I got a Nintendo Switch at the end of 2024 and bought Animal Crossing. This is probably why I didn’t cross stitch as much as I have in the past. I think I played almost every day this year. I find it incredibly soothing. I love my little island.

I feel like I just want to let the year unfold how it wants. It always does. Holding on to everything so tightly and trying to control everything makes me extremely anxious and unhappy. I don’t ever stop the bad things from happening, so why try?

I’d really like to try to write here more. I miss the “old” internet.

Happy new year!

Posted on September 29, 2025 in the state of me

small update

Unsurprisingly, I haven’t written here since I made my 25 for 25 list. Also, not surprising that I haven’t done more than an handful of things on that list. This year has been a lot. Much more than I even imagined it would be. Everything feels like it is falling apart. It’s hard to continue to function.

A couple weeks ago, I turned 51. I look in the mirror and wonder how I got this old. It seems like just yesterday that I was young. Perimenopause continues to bring new fuckery. Every time I think I have something figured out there is something new and weird waiting for me. It’s a bitter pill to swallow. Summer SAD also continues to be awful. Summer here has gotten hotter and longer than it used to be and I get so depressed. It’s only recently the weather has changed a bit. We had to buy a small air conditioner for the bedroom this year because between the heat and hot flashes I could not sleep. It’s hard for me to sleep normally so this summer was extra hard on me.

I have not been stitching much this year. I think I have only completed one pattern. Which would be unheard of in prior years. I’ve been reading but also not as much as usual. I have been playing a lot of Animal Crossing and sitting on the couch with my eyes closed while the weather channel or old commercial play on TV. I’ve done a bunch of puzzles but don’t like the current one so it sits waiting for Eric to complete it. It feels difficult to start new things and I feel like I never have the energy. I can’t quite figure out how to change things.

Earlier this month, we found out that Red (aka Swee) had cancer and had to make the hard decision to euthanize him. He was my best buddy and the grief is still really intense right now. I miss him a lot.

Posted on January 3, 2025January 5, 2026 in everydayness

25 for ’25

Supposedly the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. Which is how I feel about making these lists every year. Every year I think I will finish the list. I never do. I’m not sure that I even get more done than the prior year. (Five completed in 2022, three things completed in 2023, 11 in 2024. I guess 2024 was better than the prior two.) I changed up what I put on the list this year. No more “have to” do things. Putting them on lists in prior years made me not do them. In fact, it made me actively avoid them. Which isn’t great for things I actually need to do. I tried to put more fun things on and a few things that aren’t “have tos” but are things I just want to get done.

Find a brown ink that works in all of my fountain pens
Buy a belated birthday gift for turning 50, preferably a ring or a charm
Frame Harvest Time
Bake cinnamon rolls from scratch
~~Buy two festive mugs~~ Rec’d as a gift
Dye my hair a fun color
Finish my book of crossword puzzles
Make a felt ornament
Crochet another pillowcase
Fill all of my Currently workbook
Start and complete a temperature cross stitch
~~Buy or make a charm for my purse~~
Catch up on Dr. Who.
Pick a word for the year
Make a scrapbook for post 2005 stuff
~~Make a vision board~~
Finish diamond painting
~~Start latch hook kit~~
Plant some flowers
Fill up sketchbook started in 2023
~~Get rid of books I am not going to read from my TBR~~
Blog more (I know this is vague, but I don’t want to put a number on it.)
Paint my nails at least once a month
~~Make something with the red chile puree in the freezer~~
TBD

Posted on December 20, 2024 in everydayness

chop wood, carry water

*I realize that it’s only November, but it’s been a year. The “ber” months are my favorite time of the year but these have been hard. The weather has been uncooperative until this week. Summer temperatures just kept hanging on and hanging on. The end of daylight savings time felt like a blessing. My brain feels infinitely better with dark evenings and light mornings. I used to be a night owl when I was a teenager but that changed as I got older. I love that it’s starting to get dark before 5pm. My brain needs that long wind down before bed. To have an early dinner, light candles and sit under a cozy blanket with a cat.

*Work, for a variety of reasons, has been hard. House stuff has been trying. Health things have been irritating. Election season infected my brain in a way I didn’t like. Everything has just been a lot. I feel unequipped for everything.

*I turned 50 in September. It is hard to wrap my brain around this.

*I started this post in November and it’s now almost Christmas. Time passes too quickly. It’s finally cold now, or at least chilly. I usually love Christmas but everything this year feels a bit SSDD. There are some many things that need to be done or that I would like to do but I do not have the energy/spoons to do them. It is frustrating.

*Over Thanksgiving my SIL gave us an advent calendar that is 24 small puzzles that make one large puzzle.

I did not know how much I needed this silly puzzle. I look forward to piecing it together with Eric every day. I will be sad to be done with it. I probably need to buy a couple more puzzles.

*I’ve been thinking a lot about the upcoming year. I can’t decide if I want to do 25 in 25. I’m not sure how my 24 in 24 list shook out. I know I did a few more things on it. Maybe a recap will appear here in a week two. And possibly a new list.

Posted on August 9, 2024 in 24 for 24

24 for 24 update

This year has been flying by. I haven’t purposefully worked on my list this year. Which seems to be my standard operating procedure. I should probably stop making these lists but I love an aspirational list.

15/Finish Eric’s scarf. – Done! Once I committed to working on it each night, I finished it much faster than I thought I would.

21/Buy a three year journal for my birthday. – I decided to do this one much earlier than I had planned. I hated the planner I bought for the year. In March I bought a random 3 year one on Amazon. I back journaled the first couple of months and have been keeping up with it ever since. I already have too many stickers on it for year one.

17/Fully finish five cross stitch projects. – I’ve done two more to bring my total up to three now. I stitched and framed a bunny and I put a house I stitched on a tag. It still needs a bow or a little something added to it but that has yet to be purchased.

13/Finish one large WIP. – This one makes me feel accomplished. If this was the only thing I’d gotten done on the list this year, I would be happy. I re-started this WIP (Harvest Time by Prairie Schooler) so many times. The first time I didn’t check the errata and stitched something in the wrong color. Then, I could never pick a fabric I liked. I love stitching and I love Prairie Schooler patterns but sometimes those two things don’t overlap and this was one of those time. Everything about this felt like a struggle. This was a SAL with Kristi. She finished hers earlier in the year and it motivated me to finally finish mine. It was such a relief to have it done. It was my oldest WIP started in 2019. I need to frame it soon and hang it up.

I’m hoping to be able to knock a few more off the list soon.

Posted on August 8, 2024August 5, 2024 in life in the land of enchantment

anniversary

Driving Monkeys — It has been 19 years since this picture was taken. Nineteen years since I became a resident of New Mexico. It doesn’t seem possible that it was that long ago. Yet at the same time it feels like a lifetime ago. NM doesn’t always feel like home to me but I’m not sure that CA would either.

(I feel like I should have more feelings on having lived here so long. But, if you live in my part of NM, NM is a hard place to live right now.)

Posted on February 25, 2024January 5, 2026 in 24 for 24

24 for ’24

It is almost March and I am still undecided as to whether doing this is a good idea. I feel like I didn’t complete much of what I put on last year’s list. But I can’t resist a list. So here goes.

~~Clean out closet and donate clothes~~ (Done! I did this in January.)
Collect medical records from my ophthalmologist.
Find new ophthalmologist and make an appointment.
Get a mammogram.
~~Have lab work done.~~ (Done! 2/19/24.)
Paint the front door.
~~Buy a new mattress.~~ (Done!)
~~Organize back room/closet.~~
Hang hummingbird feeder.
Get film developed.
~~Buy better photo storage.~~
Make one felt ornament
~~Finish one large WIP.~~ (Done! 7/7/24)
Stitch five owls. (1*)(2)
~~Finish Eric’s scarf.~~ (Done! 4/2024)
~~Finish one punch needle project.~~ (Done 12/29/24)
~~Fully finish five cross stitch projects~~. (1)(2)(3)(4)(5) (Done!)
Send 100 pieces of mail. (Current total: 10)
~~Do five puzzles.~~ (Done!)
Read ten physical books that I already own.
~~Buy a three year journal for my birthday.~~ (Done! 3/2024)
~~Finish transferring DMC floss from bobbins to floss drops.~~ (Done! Finished 2/4/24)
~~Figure out storage for Anchor floss spools.~~ (Done!)
TBD

*Only one owl was stitched this year.

Posted on December 3, 2023January 21, 2024 in she's crafty

WIP Parade

It’s been a while. A long while. Life tends to get away from me. I had Covid (after avoiding it for three years) at the send of September. It was terrible and gave me vertigo and fatigue long after I was testing negative. Thankfully, the vertigo is gone. The fatigue is not.

I really wanted to go into 2024 with under five WIPs. That did not happen. Here’s what I have waiting to be finished.

This is Harvest Time by The Prairie Schooler. It is my oldest WIP. I really want to finish it in 2024. I don’t think I am even halfway finished yet.

Next is Autumn Owl Etching by Heart in Hand. This is stitched on 20 count lambswool. I am stitching it with four strands over two. It’s using a lot of floss and I need to buy more to finish that second owl.

This is a Southwest Santa by Mill Hill. It’s been in this state for a couple years. I’d really like to see him on my tree next year.

This cute snowman by Lizzie*Kate is my snow day stitch. As you can tell we haven’t had many snow days this year. I think I will move him up to a non snow day stitch once I finish Harvest Time.

I started this one this year. I’d like to have a little collection of stitched post offices. This one by Country Cottage Needleworks will be my first.

Next is the pattern that was my “new year, new start” pattern. I didn’t get very far on it.

Next to last is this ornament by Satsuma Street. I love the colors in it and want to see it on the tree next year too.

Lastly, the one I am working on right now. It’s an ornament by Lizzie*Kate from an issue of Just Cross Stitch. The colors I am using are just random colors I like.

Hopefully all of these will be done by this time next year and I will have a new batch of WIPs.

Posted on July 22, 2023 in currently

Currently

Watching:

Old episodes of Name That Tune on YouTube, Formula 1: The Drive to Survive, Wham!, The Mandalorian, Eight Is Enough, Oppenheimer

Reading:

Saturday Night at the Lakeside Supper Club, The Year of Magical Thinking, Strange Sally Diamond

Listening:

Wham!, What’s Up Weirdo?, Decoder Ring, The Beatles

Eating/drinking:

Ice (so much ice), Eric’s birthday cake, portobello mushroom pizzas, peaches, watermelon

Grateful for:

the swamp cooler, moisturizer, Zyrtec

Thinking about:

how much I haven’t done on my 23 for 23 list, Christmas, painting the front door

Wishing for:

cooler weather, a croissant from the farmer’s market, and iced tea from Sonic

Posted on June 3, 2023 in everydayness, reading, saving my life

May

May flew by. Except for this past week. It dragged. Probably due to it being a four day work week. I’m finally starting to feel better. I’m not 100% yet more like 70%. It’s much better than what I was though and I am so thankful.

April/May held un unexpected surprise for us. We bought our house. We were not planning on buying a house. In fact I never though I wanted to buy a house. We had some werid landlord drama this year in which he “gifted” the deed to this house to some woman and she became our landlord for three months. In April we were told that he had rescinded this gift and had decided to sell his house along with many of the other properties he owns. (He owned most of the rental properties in this town and by selling them we lost most of the places to rent.) Our options were to try to move to one of the couple rentals that were available, move to a completely different town or try to buy this house. We got a lot of help from our families with the down payment since we had no money saved for this. It was a short but extremely stressfull process but now we own thsi house for better or for worse.

Here are some things I loved/made me happy in May:

Seeing The Cure! My friend flew in to see them with us. She went to my first Cure concert with me 31 years ago and we have been to 7 or 8 together since. I was afraid that I would not be able to physically make it through the concert (the long parking lot walks, the standing, heat, etc) but I did. We had seats and I sat down a lot. It rained a bit and was chilly, which helped a lot. The concert was great and I am so happy that I got to go.