Trying to feel better

I've been trying so hard to feel better but there's a limit to what I can do.  All I can do is keep asking doctors and reading anything I can find for ideas of things to try.  Today I am exhausted but I'm trying to do whatever I can.  I am making my husband a birthday cake.  I keep messing everything up but in the end there will be cake.  It won't be perfect but I know that will be okay.  Everyone around here likes yellow cake with chocolate frosting.  It will probably be gone by tomorrow.

My husband has been working a lot and he's very tired.  He's on call this week and there's a major thing going on. I hate to see him so tired but I'm also proud.  He's been working such long hours, sometimes going in at night and the working the next morning too.  He has stayed in a pretty good mood considering.  I am trying to prevent any extra stress by doing whatever I can around here.

I have not been making anything crafty-wise but I have all kinds of things I WANT to make.  I have beautiful new yarn and patterns and I just need to feel better.  I decided to come in here and write and see if that helps my mood at all.  

I have been reading whenever I can.  I am currently reading A Light in the Window by Jan Karon.  I have read it before so I know I love it.  I love the whole Mitford series and decided to read them all again. I always wish I could move to Mitford.  I know I would love it there. I want to sit in Grill and chat with all the great characters.  I haven't read the last book in the series though.  I think it will actually be the final book and I'm a little nervous about what's going to happen.   I'll read it after I refresh my memory of the other books.  

I read the first book last month and decided to do something new.  I always end up googling a lot of details whenever I'm reading.  I look up quotes and authors mentioned, maps and look up photos of places, food, recipes etc. but I don't usually do anything with that information so it just gets lost.  This time, when I read At Home in Mitford, I decided to write down lines from the book I loved and any other info and slip it in the pages.  The next time I, or someone else reads that book that information will be right there.  

I read that Mitford was probably based on Blowing Rock, NC and that Miss Sadie's amazing home called Fernbank is most likely based on the real Flat Top Manor.  I found a postcard of that and put it in the book.  I collect postcards and I've done that with another book as well.  I plan to do that with all the books I keep, which is just a few, but I'll be collecting many more book related postcards.  That is something that brings me joy and I can use all the serotonin I can get.    

And knittin', knittin'....

  "I am not the weather. I am the wide and open sky, and so I can let pain move through me and out of me." - Josie George

Let's get it started....  

song by the Black Eyed Peas  

I have not been feeling so hot lately but I am doing my best to do life.  I haven't been able to knit or read much for a while until last night.  I picked up the baby blanket I'm working on and got some done.  I've been knitting on it today in between household chores.  I have finally gotten the groove of this pattern.  I made so many mistakes when I first started and took it out several times but then I looked at the pattern repeat and counted the stitches.  I put in markers between where each repeat should be and that has helped a lot.  If I have extra or too few stitches I'll notice before I move on.  At first I was counting after each repeat to make sure I hadn't missed a yarn over or something.  Now I don't have to do that anymore.  There are 16 rows to the pattern but the even rows are easy (just knit the knits and purl the purls & yo's).  I think this will be a very pretty baby blanket and the yarn is so very soft.  I like that it is a light weight yarn because it can get hot in Alabama.  

• The pattern is Bernat #778 Cable and lace Blanket (intermediate level) 
• The yarn is Loops & Threads Soft Ombre in Plum/Periwinkle/White (light 3 weight)

I have gone on a few small adventures that I will have to post about later.  I did not go very far but found some interesting historical things close by.  A few of them I have seen before but didn't really explore in a thorough fashion until recently.  

I did listen to an audiobook although not the best.  It took a crazy long time to listen to an audiobook I would normally have finished in 1 or 2 days.  It was James Patterson's Cross My Heart (Alex Cross #21) James, I'm not thrilled.  It was really only half the story.  I'm continuing on with the next book, Hope to Die.  I hope it is better and less depressing.  I'm sure he didn't die though since the series has more books lol  

I've had a few medical adventures that were not nearly as fun.  I got a new med, it started working and then I had side effects so had to stop taking it.  I got a different new med and when I added it to my Samsung health app on my phone where I can set up reminders it popped up a warning about a serious interactions with another med I take.  It said it can cause heart rhythm problems among other issues. I called the clinic and the doctor was out of the office.  The nurse there did not seem to take me or my health app warning seriously.  While talking to her I just googled it and got the same exact warning.  She said, "oh but that's google.  You can find anything on google."  She wasn't interested when I said I could check the source (NIH).  I told her I would call my pharmacist then and my Rheumatologist who prescribes the other med I have been on for years.  My pharmacist is phenomenal and really went to work for me calling different doctors and other people.  Now I have a new doctor who is apparently skilled at figuring out the best meds for people that won't cause interactions and hopefully without side effects.  To be fair, I am a tricky patient but tricky patient does not want to die from a drug that is supposed to help.  

Off to another day...  hopefully full of fun adventures and chocolate.  

Latest book purchases

I bought the top two books when I was in Palmer, AK at Fireside Books. The first one is a book of short stories.  The other one is a twist on the Titanic story.  

The other two books I got at the farmer's market from a local author - Laurie G. Robertson.  I hope to enjoy all of these books.

New goals for crafting

Spring is finally coming and it's time to come out of hibernation.  It is so nice to see the sun shining again.  I can't wait to see green grass again and get some flowers planted in my yard.  

I took a big break from every kind of crafting for a while so I want to get back into that.  I did make a few things recently so that's a start.  My husband fixed up a better area for my yarn in the garage so now I need to get in there and organize it.  I have too much for the space though so I need to use some of it up.  I am going to look at what I have and see what patterns I can find to make with it.  I'm thinking about doing YOP (Year of Projects) again.  I wish a had a little space for a chair or something in there but there's just not much space.  We have two exercise machines in there close to where my yarn is.  I did just donate a bunch of stuff so I'm going to try to find a little room there.  It just won't be anything really cosy.  

I have been reading a lot.  I have started to read more new books and mainly using kindle unlimited and books from the digital library.  In years past I've been really focused on reading the oldest books on my shelves and moving them out.  I still have a lot of books that I need to read though.  I really need to focus on finishing some series that I've started and just keep dragging around.  

I also started watching Doctor Who again starting from the very beginning (1963).  I love watching those old shows.  I even watched (or listened to) the missing episodes.  I'm now up to season 12 with the 4th doctor.  He is who I remember from when I was a kid and I love him and the crazy things he says and does.  

D

Murder on Marble Row by Victoria Thompson

I enjoyed this book but parts of it were weird and I thought it could have been better.  Sarah's mother didn't seem like the same character from the previous books.  She started acting just like Sarah and I felt like Sarah's character was just copied for her.  I do realize they are mother and daughter so could be very similar but in all the other books she disapproved of all the things Sarah was doing.  Now, all of a sudden she is out running around in the seeder parts of town with her daughter and interrogating people.  It just seemed odd.  

I do like her helping her daughter though and loved the sneaky ways she helped too.  

I love the parts about Malloy's son and how he is improving.  I hope the relationship between him and Sarah will start to move a bit faster.  

I'm torn now about what to read next.  Should I read another book in this series or move on to something different?  I have so many books to read.  

Murder on Marble Row by Victoria Thompson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This story was very convoluted and hard to figure out, although I did guess the ending pretty early. I just didn't know how it would work out. What a messed up family! I kept thinking they could have gone on some crazy talk show if it were a different time. I could just see that family talking to Dr. Phil. I have to say it was weird how Sarah and her mother suddenly seemed like the same character in this book when they have always been very different. Suddenly, Mrs. Dekker is out running around brazenly interrogating people in the sketchier parts of town with Sarah. It was a weird shift. I know they are mother and daughter but suddenly they are acting like twins. I did like the ending after the conclusion of the mystery.

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Affirmation for today

My pain only has as much power as I allow it to have. So today, I am giving it no power.

Murder on Mulberry Bend (Gaslight Mystery) by Victoria Thompson

I just finished this book and I already want to read the next one.  I haven't been writing reviews on the books I've read lately since I haven't been feeling so hot.  I felt like writing one this time though.  I am really liking this series and I definitely recommend it.  I don't like to write a summary of the books when I post on goodreads.com since it is at the top of the page already.  You can just click the link below to read it and more reviews by others who have read it.  If you don't use goodreads you should check it out.  It is very useful.  You can use it different ways.  I use it to track all the books I read and I always make a yearly reading goal on there.  You can also just use it to look up books to read the summaries and reviews, see all the books in the series and see the recommendations for other books you might like.

I also use https://booksontrack.net to keep track of my series books.  It lets you see which book is next in all the series you are following on one page.  It is very handy.  They are very responsive too if you can't find a series or if a book is missing.  You can just contact them and tell them what the problem is and they get it taken care of pretty quickly.  

Murder on Mulberry Bend by Victoria Thompson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I love these books even though some of it makes me sad. It's horrible just thinking of children on the streets fending for themselves while also having to protect themselves from predators. I always want to read more into this time period and see how much of the details are true. I know it would be hard to read about. This story was a bit different and it seemed Sarah did more investigating. She went to some pretty sketchy places by herself and I couldn't decide if she was brave or crazy. The ending was not what I expected. Malloy was not just twiddling his thumbs though. He was looking into another case that involved Sarah and what he found out is very sad. I really hope there is a twist there and that it isn't really what it sounds like.

I want to gather up all the homeless boys and girls and give them love and whatever else they need.

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Affirmation for today: 

I Choose Happiness

Organizing books

I've been going through my books and I have a small stack of books I know I will probably never read.  I'll just donate those.  That will give me more room on my shelves for books I definitely want to read.  I recently started reading more fantasy so I need room for those.  

I used google sheets to make a few charts to help me keep track of things.  The last 3 years, I think, I was following this blog called theunreadshelf.  She just closed it down but I learned some helpful things from her.  She always said to count your books and that it helps to go through them every year.  I didn't think it really mattered but when I actually did it, I realized she was right.  It helped me to look at each one again and remember why I bought it.  Sometimes I just forgot all about a book I was dying to read when I bought it.  Going through them again and rereading the summaries helped to wake up that desire to read those books again.  It also helps to find books that you really aren't into anymore.  I just have a way more books than shelf space. 

When I was looking at my books I decided the best way to organize them was by book type.  I have shelves for mass market paperbacks (MMPB) with a section just for those new ones that are a little taller (MMPBN).  I have separate shelves for hardcovers and trade paperbacks.  I have all of my books (and my husband's and my oldest son's) entered into my goodreads account.  I have tags set up to show where to find the book and what format it is and I have mine is alphabetical order.

I made a google sheets file to keep track of how many books I have for each type and then I will be able to compare those numbers in the following years.  During the last 3 years I have been counting my books, I have read and moved out a bunch of them.  I have a lot more to go though.  I'm not sure how this works exactly but apparently, I can share the link to the file I made so it can be used as a template for anyone interested in doing the same.  This is a copy.  I also made a file to keep track of the books in and out for the year.  At the end of the year I want to have less books than I started with so I enter books out as a negative number and then books in as positive numbers.  Here is a copy of that google sheets file.  Those files are set up to do the totals for you.  

I'm almost finished going through my books for this year and I'm already happy with the way my shelves are looking with the space I freed up last year.  Last year I focused on reading hardcover books because they take up the most room and after taking out the books I'll never read my shelves look much better.  

I hope everyone has a fantastic reading year.  

Donna

Reviewing my reading goals for 2023

This past year I didn't make as many reading goals.  I really only wanted to focus on reading more of my oldest books and especially hard covers.  Hard cover books are harder for me to hold because I get pain in my hands.  They also take up more room.  If I could get rid of most of those I could fit a lot more trade and mass market paperback books on my shelves.  I also wanted to end the year with less books than I started with.  I did go through and count them all (as best I could anyway).  I will be going back through all my books again soon but I'm not quite ready for that yet.  I did keep a spreadsheet of physical books in and out with a running total.  Books I read were entered as a negative and books coming in are positive.  I was doing pretty good until the last few weeks and then I got 9 books.  I am ending the year at -9 books.  

I read and moved out 25 books.

13 were hardcover books but I bought 5.  Those will be going out quickly.  

6 were MMPB and 2 were the new MMPB's that are taller.  I keep those new ones separate because they don't stack well if you mix them with the others.  I got 9 more MMPB books this year.  

4 were Trade paperbacks and I got 2 more trades.  

I read a lot of digital books this year so that's why I didn't read more paper books.  I'm getting ready to start working on goals for next year.