Our House is a Very, Very Fine House

As the workmen are busy on the outside of the house, I'm working on the inside. The painting is complete, except for the ceilings, which I'll tackle after everything else is finished and the weather is too cold to spend time outside. For now, I'm working on the window sills and trim, which are in horrible condition from years of neglect and abuse. I took these photos to remind myself just how bad they look! I sanded half the trim and sill so it's easy to see the difference. Soon they will look as nice as the new windows that are going in a few weeks from now. Bye-bye, old, rattly, windows! Hello new, energy-efficient, wooden windows.

The last photo is of our new dining room rug. The cats aren't quite sure what to make of it. The spent a good deal of time sniffing it when it first arrived and have slept on it a lot, trying to make it "theirs" no doubt. Maybe there were cats in the home where the rug used to live? Cats sure do have a good sense of smell. Gomer couldn't resist getting his nose into the photo!

Re-Re-Rehab

No I'm not stuttering.

Most things in life are cyclical, from the seasons to the days to our moods and so forth, and I really do try to accept and enjoy the nature of things. One aspect of my life that I don't enjoy being cyclical is my health. Right now I'm on the upswing: it feels great. The Prednisone I took last month worked wonders (I *heart* that drug) and I was able to breathe much more easily. I was able to go from being a listless couch potato with no energy back to my spunky self.

I love rehabbing! It's so encouraging to be able to add more minutes on to the treadmill each week, or an extra set of reps with the weights. It doesn't happen overnight but any improvement is always a good feeling. This week I'm up to 35 minutes on the 'mill with 18 of that at a 3% incline. My goal is to be back to 30 minutes of incline, which will probably take 2-3 more weeks. It's so nice to feel energized after exercising, rather than feeling like I need to lie down and take a nap. Isn't that how exercise is supposed to be?

When I told Joe I am up to 18 minutes he said, "soon you'll be back up to 30", to which I replied, "yeah, then I'll get sick and have to start all over again".

Unfortunately, that's true. I'm not one to dwell on the bad stuff and I don't often think about getting sick, but I do admit to dreading the "next time". It's so discouraging to lose stamina and strength after working so hard to regain it, in addition to feeling sick. Ah, this is the fate of a cystic, I suppose. A cystic cycle. ( I sense a clever play on words here, but can't quite get it to work out. Paul?)

So I rehab. And get sick. And re-rehab. And get sick again. Then re-re-rehab. And so the cycle continues. That's life. For now I'm going to enjoy the upswing of and hope I get to stay at the top of the Ferris wheel for a long while. The view from up there is amazing!

More Progress

The work continues. The entire house is stripped of shingles and wrapped, except for the front and back dormers. It's very noisy here during the day with all the banging, creaking of the house, the compressor, and music from the workers' radio. I don't mind so much because I know things will look so much better once they are finished and I enjoy seeing the progress each day.

On the interior, I've finished painting the spare bedroom and the bathroom. I'll take a little break before doing the computer room since I feel the onset of tendinitis in my right arm. No sense in aggravating that!

Once the new windows go in I'll need to stain and urethane them, as well as refinishing the sills, which are in bad condition from water damage they sustained before we moved in (17 years ago?????) It's going to feel like a new house when we are finished! The ultimate repurposing project.

Monday is Laundry Day

Monday is laundry day in our household. Millie finds laundry to be exhausting.

Before and During

I love taking before, during and after photos whenever we have work done on the house so years later I can look back and remind myself of how things looked. This is going to be a rewarding project as it is one everyone will see: the entire outside of the house.

The first photo is of the house before any of the construction started; the paint is peeling off the shingles, which are in bad shape. The workers are going through the laborious process of removing each shingle, wrapping the side of the house as they complete it, and once that is done, they will nail individual shingles (already painted with 3 coats of paint! yay!) in place. So far the back of the house and the 2 sides have been stripped and wrapped with only the front to go. Needless to say, it's pretty noisy during the day. They will also be building a small deck to the right of the 3-season porch on the back of the house where we can keep the grill.

The interior photo below is of the spare bedroom, which had been cream is getting a new color. I finished painting it yesterday and will start in on the downstairs bathroom next: stripping the wallpaper and hopefully priming the walls today. One room done and 2 to go!

Little Miss Millie

The kittens have been a bit out of sorts with all the chaos around the house lately, though they seem to be able to make the best of it. For example: Millie discovered this plant basket I was storing on the porch (without the plant) and decided it made a wonderful bed. Up high, safe, and with a nice view. She settled in for a good long nap in the afternoon. What a disappointment it will be for her when the house is put back together and the basket once again has a plant in it!

Finito!

For me, fall is a time of doing things inside the house, partly in response to having a bit more time on my hands, and also in preparation for the winter months and spending more time indoors. Nesting behavior, if you will.

The dining room is finished, save for the new rug; the table is re-done and a fresh coat of paint is on the walls. The new windows haven't gone in yet, so I'll refinish the trim after that part of the project is completed.

With the dining room looking so fresh and spiffy the hallway looks extra-dingy. Ok, same color and I have some left over, I'll put up a fresh coat of paint in there too. Hm.... the guest bedroom would look much better in a different color and the "office" needs a spruce-up... Off to the home dec store to pick up 2 more gallons of Benjamin Moore. I'll tackle the 2 rooms over the weekend, but for now I'll bask in the glory of having finished the dining room. It's a race to see if the carpenters finish putting on the new shingles on the exterior of the house, or I finish painting the inside. My money is on the carpenters.

Colored Glasses

It's amazing how some days nothing seems to faze us and we can fly through the day letting things roll off our backs. On other days everything seems to go wrong. Is it how the stars are aligned? Cosmic karma? Luck?

I don't have the answer but I do believe that our moods greatly influence our interpretations of the events during our day. The expression "wearing rose colored glasses" comes to mind for people who don't want to acknowledge the darker side of life, so why not consider the opposite? Wearing dark glasses.

Some days, for whatever reason, we put on our rose colored glasses. Little things don't bother us and we can take the bigger stuff with a grain of salt. Our perspective is good; the bigger picture is easy to see and small events are recognized for what they are: small events. Other days we don our dark glasses: little issues irritate us and it feels like the whole world is out to get us. Things don't have their usual flow and we feel out of sorts. It's easy to take things more personally, whereas if we had been wearing our other glasses it might be easier to see that some days shit just happens. It's not all about us.

In a perfect world we'd all have bifocals, or maybe one lens of each, for balance. But as it is we have to settle for being aware that some days we're wearing our rose-colored glasses and some days we have on our dark ones and that the events in our day don't change; it's our perspective that does.

Happy Birthday Girls

A year ago today Millie and Gracie (in that order) entered into the world, assisted by their foster-mom, Joyce. Millie was first and her feline mom, a stray named Chelsea, wasn't quite sure what to do. Joyce to the rescue! She removed the amniotic sac and - voila!- Millie was born. As a tiny kitten she was always a bit slower than the rest of her litter-mates, but she's just as clever as any other cat now. A bit more hesitant and timid, but no less intelligent.

Millie is the first one to greet us in the mornings and as soon as she hears us stirring she hops up on to the bed for her attention. She's a skilled mouser and has brought up several trophies from the basement in the past couple weeks. Hopefully her presence will deter any more rodents from setting up shop down there. After all that hunting she must be a bit tired; she has decided to spend her birthday lounging on the 3 season porch in the sun. Aaah, the life!

Gracie, on the other hand, is the more outgoing of the two. She loves to play with toys and asks us to throw bouncy balls for her, which she delights in chasing. She'll play fetch with yarn balls, depending upon her mood, and will bring them back to be tossed again. She loves sitting on my lap when I do my treatments and is a good sport about getting her claws clipped. She is taking some extra time to pamper herself with a good bath on her birthday.

Happy Birthday Millie and Gracie, and may you have many more happy, healthy ones.

Bad Cystic

We returned last night from 4 days at Joe's sister's house and oh boy is it good to be home! I don't think my own bed has ever felt so nice. It was a fun-packed, fast-paced good time, although exhausting. We saw 2 concerts, ate out at Reids, Fat Bob's Smokehouse, The Basket Factory, the concession stand at the concert venue, and my personal favorite: Cold Stone Creamery. My sister-in-law and brother in law are wonderful hosts; we had a delicious meal on the night of our arrival and they cheerfully put up with a house full of people despite the chaos.

One of my biggest flaws is not being able to keep up with my treatments when I'm out of my environment. I'm not perfect at home, but am extremely compliant- rarely missing a neb or vest session, dutifully taking supplements, enzymes and exercise on a daily basis. Somehow when I leave home I morph into this non-compliant person who thinks nothing of abusing her body for days at a time. True Confession Time: I didn't do one neb or vest treatment while we were gone. Bad, bad cystic.

Part of it is that I forgot my vest. Doh! I packed the machine, tubing and cord but left the jacket hanging on the back of my chair, which made the rest of the equipment pretty much useless. I did bring my nebs and compressor, but rationalized that while I was skipping my vest I might as well be really bad and skip the nebs, too. Yes, I'm well aware this is downright stupid. I know better. I also know it's going to take me a week or 2 to get back on track after this little holiday from reality.

I'm aware that when I'm on vacation I'm not as good about doing treatments and always vow that "next time" I'm going to be better about it. I suppose that as compliant as I am, there are times I need to take a break from reality and pretend to be a "normal" person, if only for the purpose of realizing that no matter how much I pretend, it'll never be the case. I'll skip treatments and then feel terrible for a number of days, all the while thinking: this was NOT worth it!

I know what I need to maintain my level of functioning: a solid 8 hours of sleep with the Bi-Pap, 2 full vest treatments a day with nebs, frequent, healthy meals -lots of fruits and veggies, plus at least 45 minutes of exercise. Time consuming? Yes. Pain in the ass? Yes. Impossible to do on vacation? No. A challenge, definitely, but nothing that isn't within my reach.

Memo to myself as I work to undo the hopefully-not-permanent damage done while away: no more vacations from reality- the price is too high. Sometimes I really piss myself off.

Coping

Last year it was painting projects and this year it appears the theme is going to be furniture stripping and refinishing.

I didn't expect it to be as difficult this year, and it isn't, W's moving back into the dorm, though the house does seem a bit empty without him already. It hasn't even been 24 hours! Not a good sign.

After tackling 2 very small household projects yesterday afternoon I started in on one that became much bigger than I anticipated: refinishing our dining room table. It had been given to us by Joe's mom and is special for that reason. It had seen its share of wear and tear from 5 kids and 3 decades of use when it came to us. I did a light sanding and 2 coats of polyurethane over the summer to spruce it up, but for some reason the last coat didn't stick well and began flaking off in a couple places. Oh well. I figured I'd to a very light sanding and reapply another top coat. Ha! Think again.

As soon as I began doing that light sanding, the top layer started coming off in earnest. Ok, so it all needed to come off, I can do that. But....... while I'm at it I might as well take it down to bare wood and do a proper job of it, no sense in cutting corners now. That burn mark where the candle fell over during an enjoyable dinner with friends can be sanded out, as can be the deep scratch of unknown origin.

The "small project" I thought I'd be able to tackle in an afternoon or two has now become a full-blown refinishing, and will take a week or 2, depending on how much time I devote to it.

I was laughing at myself a bit as I was working on the table yesterday, noting the coincidence of my starting this project and the departure of W for college. As Freud said, there really aren't any coincidences, and I suspect he's probably right. Ah well, we all have our strategies, and mine is clearly that of working with my hands.

More Homemade Cleanser Recipes

After reading this article- link- I was very disappointed to learn that one of my favorite companies, Burt's Bees, was owned by one of the most un-environmentally friendly companies around- Clorox. I suppose I should have known: products that used to be found at out of the way, small shops could now be found at commercial giants such as CVS and even Wal-Mart. Is nothing sacred anymore?

In response, I thought I'd post a couple more recipes for things I can make on my own. I have a terrible habit of jotting things down on pieces of scrap paper and then losing them, so this will at least ensure that I can find the recipes down the road when I need them.

A dear friend swears by a recipe of brushing her teeth with baking soda, then mashed strawberries for sparkly white teeth, which her Nana taught her to do. Can't wait to try it!

Homemade Toothpaste

6 tsp baking soda

4 tsp vegetable glycerine (available at Whole Foods)

1/3 tsp salt

15 drops peppermint extract

Mix all ingredients.

I may try adding a few drops of oregano oil, which has antibacterial properties.

Homemade Deodorant

2-3 Tbs unrefined Coconut oil

1/8 c baking soda

1/8 cup cornstarch or arrowroot powder

Mix dry ingredients and add to melted coconut oil; Pour into glass jar or old deodorant container.

And here's a recipe for another household cleaner:

Toilet Bowl Cleaner

1 cup baking soda

1/2 cup vinegar.

Let soak 15 minutes in toilet bowl and scrub as usual.

I can't believe how much money we've been saving since I started making most of our household cleaners. On top of that, they're much more environmentally friendly. As we use the store bought ones up I'm replacing them with the ones I've made. Maybe I'm a total egoist but I actually think mine work better!

Millions of Peaches

Peaches for me. Millions of peaches, peaches for free. - Presidents of the United States

Well, maybe not millions of peaches, but an abundance, certainly. And yes, they were free! My generous friend Cynthia has a peach tree that produces really ugly fruit, but they are the best tasting peaches I've ever had. I made a peach cobbler yesterday and had so many peaches left over I thought I'd try to make some jam. After calling around trying to find canning jars (who knew they were so uncommon?) I finally found some and got all the supplies.

Mmmmmmm, summer in a jar. These will be great next winter on toast!

The KISS Principle

I first heard the idea of the KISS principle in college, one of my professors mentioned it in reference to our term paper: Keep It Simple, Stupid!. It got stored away in some dusty corner of my brain, along with what I considered to be other, non-essential information and was there waiting for me to re-discover it when I was ready to really understand what it was.

I've discovered that keeping things simple is really one of the keys to happiness. Bigger isn't better. Less is more. Yep, keep it simple, stupid! I think the last word is there because it seems so blatantly obvious; we think we understand what it's saying, but perhaps it takes 4 decades of living under your belt to really "get it". At least that is how long it has taken me.

It started without my realizing it, a downshifting of the household to make things more streamlined. I hadn't realized I was making things more complex than they needed to be! Once the lightbulb went on and I had that "a-ha" moment I was able to see many things in my daily life that were superfluous and unnecessary. All that junk that we're storing in the basement in case we need it? Guess what- it's been there for 15 years and hasn't been touched. Common sense would tell us that we're not going to be using it if we haven't already. Why keep it?

We're programmed to hang on to things, some of us more than others, but this is just one example of how we are sometimes our own worst enemies and make things more difficult on ourselves because we're unable to break our old patterns and habits. Not an easy task, let me tell you, but slowly and surely I'm trying to look at all aspects of how I live and simplify, simplify, simplify. Less possessions, less purchasing, less products, less chemicals, less clutter = more happiness. And isn't happiness what it's all about?

Authenticity

We awoke this morning to the news that Senator Ted Kennedy, age 77, had died late last evening. Although the news wasn't unexpected, it is very sad to know that this advocate for the people has died after battling brain cancer for a little over a year. He definitely left the world a better place than he found it and will be sorely missed on many levels.

While listening to the recaps of his life, it struck me that his effectiveness was due to the fact that this man had truly found his niche in the senate. There must have been tremendous pressure for him to fill his brother's shoes and strive for the Presidency, which he did attempt in 1980, but it seems that he realized his place was working behind the scenes for change, and that was where he remained. I applaud his ability recognize his particular skill set and work with it to maximize his individual potential. Clearly, his gifts were the ability to advocate for fairness and equality, in addition to being able to compromise and work with senators from both parties.

We're all presented with a unique set of gifts. So often we get caught up in what we "should" be, or in the quest to be "better", or move up the ladder, but that doesn't always translate to using our own skills in a way that is best for us, personally. Not everyone is cut out to be a senator, businessperson, doctor or lawyer; the trick is to figure out what your skills are, what you want to do with them, and be the best at it that you possibly can.

Rest in Peace, Senator Kennedy and thank you for being such a powerful role model on so many levels.