Mitchell vs. Thread

I’ve never succeeded at uploading a video on blogger. So I’m trying it on safari instead of chrome to see if that works. 

Yesterday Mitchell knocked the spool of thread off of my sewing machine while I was napping. Kevin came home to him playing with it, and shot this adorable video. 

Alex did this when he was a baby while I was at work and my daughter was at school. It was a much bigger mess back then when he did it!  The thread was wound around furniture legs and everything. Anna was in first grade at the time and helped me cut it all away with her kiddie blunt edge scissors. 

 

Movie

 We watched a movie last night. It was the 2006 movie about Marie Antoinette starring Kirsten Dunst.  

Spoiler alerts aren’t necessary- we all knew she was be-headed. The ending doesn’t show this, however, it only shows her and her husband in a carriage escaping France. 

I know I learned about Marie Antoinette and her husband in school, and their role in the American revolution, but of course I was ADHD as hell and never paid attention. 

Later on, I watched a documentary. The revolutionaries who overthrew their monarchy also kidnapped their little boy in fear that he would grow up and re-establish the monarchy. They imprisoned and abused him, and he died of torture and abuse at age 10.

I doubt they mentioned that part when I was a kid in history class. It’s easy to say, “They never taught us this in school!” when you never paid attention and just got passed through by the system. Nowadays I just “wonder” if it was taught, instead of assuming. I do remember being about ten years old myself, seeing a picture of Marie Antoinette in a textbook and thinking “jeez” when I saw her hair. Kirsten Dunst was perfect for the part. 

My New Avatar

 

I changed my profile picture from my wedding picture (which was taken 6 months ago tomorrow) to the phoenix rising. This is because things are looking up for me. With my 6 month anniversary being tomorrow, I feel like no longer a newlywed. 

Some good things have happened. First of all, I finally figured out Grammarly!  I love it so much that I used it to work a little more on my book. 

Secondly, I found an app that REALLLLYYYY helps one know what to eat/not eat with NAFLD or non alcoholic fatty liver disease. My gastroenterologist called my case “promising” and said my stage was “zero” then corrected himself to say “Well, between zero and one.”  Obviously, a total stage zero would mean I don’t have the condition at all. Stage four would be cirrhosis.  I believe that I can change my diet and reverse this. The app I found is called “Food as Med for fatty liver”, cost $3.99, and looks like this:

There were some surprises for sure!  I went to the store and stocked up on the most “helpful” foods and some “ok/neutral” ones. 

I left the facebook group called “quit sugar”. The information was all over the place with that group, and it was full of people who “can’t” for whatever reason. I stepped on the scale last week and had gained four pounds. I attributed it to that group so I just left. The last time I stuck religiously to an eating plan specifically for NAFLD, I dropped weight quickly and then plateaued once I was not so strict anymore. 

Yesterday afternoon, I also went to the gynecologist because I have some things that I am not so sure are related to perimenopause.  There’s not only a lot of misinformation about sugar on the internet, there’s a lot of misinformation about perimenopause as well. I just wanted to get it sorted out. My gynecologist is a man, and he’s a very good doctor- probably because no one wants to see a male gynecologist, so he tries harder. When he walked into the room, I realized he’s extremely tall. I didn’t notice that about him last time which was April. He decided to give me a progesterone patch to help with menopausal symptoms. Honestly it sounds just like birth control, and I wonder if I’m just being made to go on birth control because I don’t really use any due to my and my husband’s ages. My weight at the doctor yesterday was 190.1. That was so frustrating!  Of course I was dressed, but if I wasn’t, then I would have been below 190. He also scheduled me for a mammogram on 10/2. 

With fall approaching, it will be easier to go for walks in the park with my husband who goes daily. I literally can’t go in the summer. My step counts daily are between 2000-6000.  Hopefully if we get a cool front that sticks, I can get to 10,000. Maybe on January1, 2027, I will weigh 145 🫶🏼

Tiring Sunday

Today I went to San Marcos to spend some time with Anna. I started the day extremely early in the morning so I could do side jobs in San Antonio. I left at 3:00 am just so I could get to San Antonio as stores were opening at 6:00. As I walked into the first store (the jobs I worked on were to capture pictures of HBC endcap), there was an Asian woman following me in the dark parking lot. She  stayed about 5-6 feet behind me. She had her phone out but didn’t have earbuds and was listening to something that was very obviously from North Korea (the communist part). A couple years ago, I got hooked on YouTube documentaries about North Korea, and I learned that when they talk, they speak extremely dramatically and fake. South Koreans speak the same language but have a wider vocabulary and a normal tone. This definitely sounded like something from North Korea. I actively tried to avoid her twice, both times giving her dirty looks. She kept following me. Finally I went into the family restroom, and when I came out she was gone. I didn’t see her in the store anymore. This was in San Antonio, so it was weird. I don’t understand Korean, but the way North Koreans talk made an impression on me that I never forgot, and this was definitely it. 

I did five side jobs before Anna texted me to pick her up and by that point I was only 30 minutes from Texas state. We went to lunch, and I took her shopping and on other errands. She really likes it there but is homesick!  I miss having a little kid, but I’m proud of who she’s become. One thing that’s getting to her is that she wants to work. I got paid yesterday and sent her some more money on PayPal. I brought my own student loan balance to $16,100. Plus I shopped, paid the phone and car insurance, and I have to get my registration sticker. 

Vivid Dream

 I have been having vivid dreams lately. The one last night felt like a premonition of sorts. In the dream, my husband Kevin was deceased and so was my cat Alex. I was living in this house by myself with his cat Mitchell, who at this point is a very old cat. Then in the dream, my daughter who is now 18 years old, walks in the door holding large boxes. She is in her 30’s in the dream and I think that the boxes mean she’s moving in with me. She puts one on the table and says, “Look, Mom, I got all of these from your garden. Look how prolific it is this year!”  She started pulling out every kind of vegetable there is. I don’t know whether to be happy about my garden or disappointed that she’s not moving in. Then she tries to pick up Mitchell, but he hisses at her. She starts crying and telling me that I need to euthanize Mitchell and I get really upset saying he’s all I have left of Kevin. Anna said, “That’s not true, you have this house.”  So I agreed through tears and we both put Mitchell in the carrier for his final ride to the vet. 

I woke up with a sore throat and phlegm. I must have been sleeping with my mouth open. Kevin wasn’t in the bed and he wasn’t at the table. He was asleep in Anna’s room (she lives in the dorms at Texas state). I woke him up and he said I was sprawled diagonally across the bed so he couldn’t get in it. I wonder why I slept so rough last night. 

Wreaths

I made this fall wreath yesterday. Absolutely no thought went into it beforehand. I do not sit out and plan wreaths. I just sit at the table with all the stuff spread out and as I’m making it, I decide what will go on next. This is because I’m not trying to be professional with it right now. I’m only trying to make one for each season for my own home. With this one, I feel like I might could trim the leaves, but nah.  It’s fine. It looks good in the wreath spot next to the door. 

This is the one I had up all summer. I was going to stick small white daisies in between the sunflowers, and maybe some more leaves, but then I decided I liked it with just the sunflowers. I have enough sunflowers to do another one with sunflowers, white daisies, and leaves. 

If anyone has ideas or expertise, lemme know in the comments.