Since last writing, short version:
DH mother found wandering her city center somewhat incoherent, hospitalized with family present and ultimately put into board and care home where she is comfortable, chatty, relieved (she said she likes it, she doesn't have to pay rent and they feed her three times a day). That in itself is telling.
Put a half dozen items to sell on Tradesy to test it out. Only sold one item so far. I get to set the price with automated 'help' but they are allowed to do sales or provide discount promotions.
Dropped many items to consignment store locally, minimal sold to date and I am not the one setting the price.
Almost done sorting and scanning pictures. I bogged down on the family side. I am hesitant to throw away originals even though I have the scan which was the point. I think I need to envelope up some groupings and send them to family members i.e. brother's wedding, DH sister pictures. I will be keeping our wedding pictures and negatives. I may do one album of the best of the best. I did have a lovely dream with my Dad present (he passed in 2000). I think looking at the photos and reliving some moments brought it on. Again, hesitant to toss, so the special ones will be kept.
This picture is from 1999, visit from my parents to West Coast. It was last time I saw him in person. DH accompanied him to water's edge to test how cold.
I love the footprints in the sand.
Attempted to read Wally.Lamb newest book We are Water. Horrendously amateur. I so liked his other books but perhaps I have outgrown fiction. It has been some time since I have read fiction. The last prior was Barbara.Kingsolver's Lacuna which was dreadful. I later found out multiple (backroom) writers contributed. The Wally.Lamb book was inane dialog of selfish, self-centered people and name dropping of Lady.Gaga to Maya.Angelou. How horrendous. Oh dear.
Finished signing up in early December on Health Exchange for our new medical coverage. Our coverage will greatly improve on Jan 1. Tax benefits will also be very helpful.
Saw Naturopath. Won't outline issues in detail but I knew there was a problem. Short story - gluten sensitivity and yeast overload. Once resolved, system back on track and off gluten, metabolic issues could possibly resolve. I plan at least 6 months of restricted intake to help heal leaky gut.
Spent hours on Amazon figuring out best supplements to obtain based on Naturopath suggestion. Multi-Vitamin, Enzymes, probiotics, adrenal healing, gut healing. Once last medical test done (by this weekend), then I start on that regiment. Some I was already taking but others are adds. Looking forward to feeling rejuvenated. The gluten issue along with leaky gut can render one malnourished. I really like this Naturopath.
Holiday season now passed. We do not participate. We figured out long ago to forego gifts to one another. We had/have everything we need. It relieved any issue of stress of what to get to 'surprise' one another. I recall when it happened about 10 or more years ago, a good gradual process to get to that space. We went to Hawaii just before Xmas one year (many years ago), arriving back home on Xmas day thus missing family traditional gathering on purpose. We still get gifts for each of our Moms but small items. Neither need anything so book for DH mom and this year I purchased an LL.Bean carry-all for my Mom (25% off sale with free shipping). She really liked it. My Mom says she wants for nothing and I believe her but the moms are hard to stop as we owe so much to them. We skipped DH Mom this year, we already bought the book but are told she is not up for reading comprehension at this time. So we held off. Don't want to be insensitive clods. So this year came and went, we ignored all we could. It is hard in the grocery stores where sappy music playing and I found right about the day before Xmas that the songs were playing in my head. I was ok with that. We even walked funny to the Little Drummer Boy in a store, both of us at the same time spontaneously and then burst out laughing at ourselves. It is ingrained but we are removed from it all. The difference is we don't have children and all nieces and nephews are grown and most of family live pretty far away which allows us this freedom.
Both of us had our annuals and our eyes examined. Taking care of business.
Have read Shauna.Ahern book Gluten.Free.Girl. I follow her website, did before my own diagnosis, she is great writer, wonderful cook and recipe giver. Now with diagnosis wanted to read with my needs in mind. She made this transition seem far less frightening. We also have her first cookbook to utilize.
Reading The.Joy.of.Living by Yongey.Mingyur.Rinpoche who is a very up-to-date Buddhist who works with neuroscientists around the world and they together are formulating insights into meditation practice and associated brain activity with happiness and compassion. So far interesting read.
Next up to read is Bird.By.Bird by Anne.Lamott. One of her older books. On one of the blogs I follow, Susan.Black, 29.black.street, she uses quotes from her more recently which piqued my interest. This is probably the first blog I started following, reading with enthusiasm which opened a world to me a handful of years ago. I now follow quite a few blogs, perhaps 20 to 25 on my blog reader (a separate blog that this one) where any new entries pop to the top. I used to go to each individually until I figured that out - dooh!
Weather has been moderate since our cold snap. Not our usual rains and we didn't have our November/December wind storm this year (or we have acclimated). We are still having mostly overcast days which further justifies our stance that it is time to head to the sun. I think the continued lack of sun and warmth has possibly had some effect on my health. I am less inclined to be outdoors, my Vitamin D3 levels are very low and now finding out perhaps I haven't been absorbing the D3 supplements I have been taking these past 5 or more years is sad (no pun intended). So into the sun and warm we go, with many more days to play outside.
Until the next time, I bid adieu
and Happy New Year.
Note: periods used between names or titles to hopefully keep unwanted traffic from this blog.
