the week ahead

Command Central

Another Monday, and we meet again.
The weather is quite nice this morning. It's cold but then it's winter. After several days of sun on the snow, there is a lot of ice still around here, but our driveway has almost melted. Yes DH shovels, and I sweep what's left but still ice forms.

As I look around I see a lot that needs doing but I just cannot keep up with it. I have a PT appt today to try to relieve the nerve pinch. I do love this house however big and dusty it is! I try to pick up the random stuff before going to bed each night so it's tidy, if dusty, but that poodle made quite a little mess yesterday.

He's tired of us being injured and not getting to play as much, so he tore into cardboard, and tore up toys, got every toy out of his box, pulled the sofa blankets around! It looks like a storm went through here! (no I won't show you the mess!)

I wonder if all of you have designer homes, without piles of magazines and library books and sewing stuff. I can see the boxes of things to address and mail to friends, a pile of dish towels to wash, one stubborn box to unload from the move, amazon boxes waiting to go to recycling, etc.

To Do
finish as much quilting on the V-day quilt as possible before PT
Call PT to see if I can go in later in the day
Make some soup as DH doesn't feel well
Wash my clothes, got DH's done yesterday
Take a long walk in the middle of the day when it's warmer and I can see ice on sidewalks
Try to be nice (hard when my nerve is pinched)

Eating
Oh you know, fresh fruit and vegetables, meat and cheese, bread and milk. The attempt is always balance but cookies tip the scales

Making
I finished the V-day quilt top and am in process of quilting it. I love seeing the stitching add up, giving it texture and line. Making the edges tidy after all the design work. I love that it was made from the scrap bins.. something pretty from throwaway pieces.
I am ready to baste the winter cattails too, but that will wait til I'm better

watching
I found a great series online, of stories of animals adopting or befriending other animals... narrated by the most charming actress! I am enjoying that. Survivor starts soon, yea!!! I admit I watch the bachelor, and he's just not ripe yet... he's so immature in a childish way, of not being ready to face the demands of love. He's annoying but I watch. I also watch the good doctor, This is Us, and look forward to seeing the Housewives of Beverly Hills return. Doc Martin current season was released in the US so we're watching that too.

Reading...
 
I really enjoyed the book on CD about the Sherlock Holmes shop owner, sorry but I gave the wrong title for that last time. The reader was good and clear. I'm now listening to the Aviator's Wife about Anne Morrow Lindberg. Terrific reader and well written. I listen while quilting and it's one of life's pleasures to be read to.

I grew up in Tampa and there is a large Latin quarter, formed by cigar factories long ago... the cigar workers would listen to a reader all day as they worked back in the early 1800's. They had schooling as well as entertainment and isn't that a progressive thing to do for workers to keep their minds busy as well as their hands?

Tips
DH was told by a coworker that the hard water here caused their skin to crack. Hmph. I had to learn to use lotion more often, and my heels crack painfully. I am now using CeraV because my friend Shannon, from (I'm working on a project) told me about it. It's helpful... if I remember to use it. Another friend told me to use the bath net balls to help with dry skin, so I'm enveloped in the Light Blue scent I love in the shower now.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7GMNRwNh1yU

Lesson learned
 I watched videos of animals adopting other animals. Human animals have thought for years that they are superior because they have language and use tools. Well, the video showed animals kindly taking in prey to raise, a group of monkeys adopting a marmossette for instance, instead of eating it. They showed those monkeys using tools to prepare food, as do crows and otters. We know animals communicate we are not able to speak their language so many humans think they are beneath us.

Which led me to think that we do this kind of one up manship to other humans too. Since other groups of people are different, they sound different and not understanding them we say they are speaking gibberish. They dance differently or dress differently so they are less than.

It seems to me, humans do this to rationalize holding them beneath, enslaving them because they aren't really equal, keeping them out of our midst as they are not as worthy somehow, because they are a lesser religion or color or gender or love the wrong way.I watch lions adopt little deer, and tigers and bears become a herd because they grew up together.
Is that the answer to accepting other human groups... being near enough to see that they are just like us, just different? Could people act as kindly to each other some animals do?

Inspiration

from https://www.wallwords.com

Linking to
 Free motion by the River Tuesdays    
https://comedy-plus.com/ Awe Mondays
https://familycorner.blogspot.com/