Monday, June 1, 2009

Sleep...does a body good

I'm so very tired, but in a good way...I hope.  I'll let you know at 3 a.m. if I'm curled up on the bed in pain.

I slept last night.  A good, solid eight hours.  I actually felt good this morning.  Good enough to work outside, cutting down weeds and moving chunks of concrete out of the compost pit (don't ask who put them there...I'm trying to stay in a good mood.)  I had help, of course.  Zach was out there moving them with me.  So now the compost pit is ready for garbage.

I also did two loads of clothes and cleaned up the kitchen.

You know...when I write it down it doesn't look like much but for me it was an incredible day.  It's supposed to rain tomorrow so we'll work in the house.  I plan on baking bread and maybe making pizza from scratch.  Also I need to work on the bathroom, cleaning it up.  And maybe fill the garbage bin with stuff from the basement.  I've made a lot of progress there but there is still so far to go.

I didn't get a lot of drawing done today.  I tried working on something but my proportions were off and I couldn't get the shading right.  I don't feel too badly though.  It's still better than it used to be.  Tomorrow I need to start earlier and work steadier.

If I can move, that is.

I still haven't scheduled my mammogram.  Our financial cushion is gone, aside from what I have in savings and I don't want to use that.  I'm hoping to save some money this summer but I need to get that mammogram out of the way.  And that's going to be around $100 a month for a few months because the hospital and radiologist won't take less than $50 a month in payments.  I wish I knew why the insurance puts this on my deductible instead of paying a portion of it, at least.  They've got me in a hard place because technically they cover it so I'm not eligible for any of the programs out there.

I'll try to remember to call tomorrow.

I have to admit I'm worried about this coming winter.  It doesn't look like Tom will be going back to 5 days a week any time soon.  I know I should be grateful he's still got a job, but prices are still going up and our pay has gone down.  It's so hard.  We're locked into the Charter bundle for another 18 months but we need the internet for Zach's college and it's nice to have television.  If we went to just an antenna we'd only get 3 channels.  And two of them are PBS.  I could probably live without it because I get stuff from the library and have hulu.com and the various channels to watch online but Tom would drive me crazy because he won't watch tv online and if he isn't watching tv he wants me to keep him company.  Not keen on that idea at all. 

If we cancel Charter we have to pay about $400 in penalties.  That's how they get you.  Yet, I have no complaints about service and I went into it with my eyes open.  Keeping the cost down for 2 years seemed like a good deal when we had a full paycheck.

I'm down to super-duper frugality though.  I used half a pound of hamburger to make a rice casserole tonight.  I used to make a meal out of a quarter pound but I'm going to try it this way for a while.  No more eating out.  No more packaged meals.  No more store-bought snacks.  I should have dried the clothes out on the line today but I was weeding where the clothes line is and didn't want to get grass all over the clean clothes so I used the dryer. I'll just wait until it's sunny again before I wash another load.

My homemade laundry soap is fantastic.  I use about a tablespoon of soap in a load of clothes and it cleans them better than the cheap stuff I used to buy at the store.  And I've been using white vinegar for softening.  No complaints whatsoever.

My hostas are coming up on the north side of the house.  I didn't see them at all last summer but this summer they're back.  I bought some more so I think I'll plant them there instead of the garage and use the garage for herbs since it's right at the back door.

I'm slowly getting rid of all the junk around the back door and garage area.  Shhhh....don't tell Tom.  He hasn't noticed yet.

Well, off to grab a shower and make up the bed for the night.  I looked at some crocheted shawl patterns today.  I love knitting but it takes so long to finish anything and I've got so much yarn to use up so I thought I would polish up my crochet skills and crank out some shawls.  Not tonight though.  Tonight I'm working on socks and the beaded scarf.  I'm a bit tired of the blanket.

TTFN


1 comment:

Kay-From the Back Yard said...

A good night's sleep is priceless, isn't it?

Tell me how you use the vinegar--I didn't know that would soften water.