Dazzling and Diligent December

[spedteach]

Dazzling and Diligent December

Hey all,
It was a balmy 18 this morning when I went for my run. A little nippy at first, but comfortable after the first mile. Thanks for your support yesterday. Cravings pass. One thing I know about my alcoholism is that if I take that first drink, all bets are off. I don't know what will happen. Will I stop at one or oblivion.

Lav, thanks for the web site. I will check it out. Do you or anyone ever read Pema Chodron? She's wonderful, a Buddhist who really has a lot to say about addiction.

Star, good for you for saying "no"to your daughter and understanding what you can and cannot do. I hope you feel better soon. Did you ever go to a doctor about your eyes? I know Lav talked about Prednisone, a miracle drug for allergic, inflamatory stuff.
As for Xmas, nobody in this family nobody cares about it but me. I've given up trying to make everyone "enjoy" the holiday. I'm just looking forward to family time and good food.

Chill, I am so in touch with the moon phases. Always feel better when the moon is waxing. Right now, at least here, there is a very bright celestial body very close to the moon. I think it's Mercury. Anyone know?

PAguy, hey fellow runner. So proud of you for doing a marathon. I know I've got at least one in me, even if it takes me 6 or 7 hours to do it. Which one did you do?

Good news. All 3 sons are coming home plus one DIL and one long time GF.

Sooty, Blonde, Rusts, Lady bird, SD, all of y'll have a good day.

[Lavande]

Dazzling and Diligent December

Good late morning everyone!

Greetings John - cross posted last night!
Congrats on your marathon! I have to tell you I thought of you when I heard two runners dropped near the end of the race, poor guys. Glad you did well

cyn, home sweet home
The rain moved into this region last night so the moon didn't bother me - yay!

LBH, glad you have found a way to maneuver around the AL this holiday season. Kind of like a ballet, huh?

SD, I feel a bit guilty - we are having temps around 60 degrees but it is supposed to get colder later in the week. Stay warm!!!

Hey Chill, it's OK to be a bit grumpy from time to time.......we're just human. Not being able to sleep is tough, doesn't seem fair.

Sooty, your meditation plan sounds good!
Hope you had a nice lunch with your friend

Star, we are indeed more sensitive as we age, developing new allergies & sensitivities seems to be 'normal'. I can only hope that YB is emerging from his massive depressive episode. I am going to remain in observer mode (for safety).

Blondie, get ready for lots & lots of rain moving your way!
The weather reprt says it could turn to snow tonight but it's currently 60 degrees so I doubt I'll be seeing snow.

Hey Shelley - great news!!!!

Have a great hump day everyone!
Lav

[cyntree]

Dazzling and Diligent December

Hello all -
Sorry about your sleep, chill, hope you feel better soon. I have not gotten a good night's sleep in the Master Bedroom since we arrived; of course it is the owner's bed...can you smudge a mattress?

Star - stay strong, good for you for knowing your limits. I am myself in the 'guilt-boat', rocking away, as I am not going to NE to be with Mom and family for Xmas...will be staying in CT and making the holiday for HB and his daughter (who can be here for about 36 hours). It is my Mom's first Christmas away from her house of 55 years, and we were all there last year. Since I spent the whole summer there, and she was just with us here for T-giving, I decided not to make the holiday trek, which is always hair-raising. Still, I have troubling thoughts about it...aaargh.

Wishing everyone strength of purpose in this awash-in-AL season!

[cyntree]

Dazzling and Diligent December

Cross-post Lav! And I also send congrats to you Sooty - what a good plan, I need to form one like it. Blonde - lovely coat for your 4-legged. Lav - the Safety Plan sounds good, but how nice that things are not as troubling as once. LBH - still enjoying the visual of you being able to fling yourself 'rather merrily down a wintry street' (sorry for the paraphrase). Love it.
Cheers all -

[Chillgirl]

Dazzling and Diligent December

Evening guys

Cyn - Can't you ditch the owners bed and switch it or your own? Good quality Sleep is too important to our sanity. I can see why sleep deprivation was used as a form of torture.

Lav - it can be fascinating stepping back and seeing people go through growth processes in their lives. Harder when they are too close to us though, we kinda want to fast forward their progress. Your patience is admirable.

Speed - great news on all sons attending Christmas. Re the moon, I'm best as soon as it goes full, it's preceeding that, that it affects me. One drink would all it would take me to go off the rails and having been really aware of this right from day one of quitting, it scared me shitless to ever even try one.

Blondie - your Coco and her new coat are adorable! I too was a wino, yep and the good stuff! Both red and white, though mostly white, and champagne on weekends. I had my own wine supplier from South Africa and bought it by the case.

Star - I've heard of Maeve Binchy But never read any. I meant to say I too can't do Chinese food, although I'm not really a fan so it's no hardship. I can still remember the last time friends dragged me along for one, I felt awful for days, never again! The people I work beside don't seem to be drinkers which would have really bothered the old me as I always used to go for after work drinks on a regular basis.

When I got home tonight I was planning on reheating a veggie rice dish I'd made but it smelt bad. I'd added organic beans which had no added preservatives and it was them which had gone off :upset: so instead I went to the nearby mini market and bought a frozen pizza! So much for my non preservative diet! (but it was pretty tasty)

[Lavande]

Dazzling and Diligent December

Thanks Shelley

“Most of us do not take these situations as teachings. We automatically hate them. We run like crazy. We use all kinds of ways to escape -- all addictions stem from this moment when we meet our edge and we just can't stand it. We feel we have to soften it, pad it with something, and we become addicted to whatever it is that seems to ease the pain.”
― Pema Ch?dr?n, When Things Fall Apart

Chill. it is interesting to step back & watch YB's evolution especially since I feel no need to try to control the outcome!

[Dewdrop]

Dazzling and Diligent December

:wavin: Quickie post from a very cold and chilly Scotland tonight but I think you have it even colder and worse to come on the West coast Chill :upset: I have my coal fire blazing and I am trying to heat up since I got home, think I need to reset the timer on the heating to come on earlier these evenings. I do love the snow though and hope we get some soon, might even get some skiing in during the xmas holidays - yahhh!!

I'm planning on putting up the Xmas tree this weekend, a week early for me but I'm too busy the next weekend and it's this weekend or not at all I think I have one of the rugrats on Friday evening so I think we will spend Saturday decorating the tree. I also need to check out local pantomimes for my grandson, not sure if the girls are too young this year but maybe the one that is nearly 3 would enjoy it. I just love a Christmas pantomime and it's great having the grandkids as an excuse to go! Do you guys have pantomimes in the States?

We are having our work Xmas Night out in Paris on Thursday/Friday next week which will be fun but very drunken as it's a free bar so need to get myself in a strong place prior to going. Fortunately I had a AF Xmas last year so I know what is possible and how easy it is to stay AF amid the chaos of other's drinking.

Stay strong and determined my Double D'ers

Dewdrop :h

[Lavande]

Dazzling and Diligent December

Dewdrop, are you actually going to Paris next week or am I just being stupid??:what?:
I'd love to go to Paris for a Christmas party

Just sitting here listening to the rain & I think I heard a little thunder earlier - strange!

Have a great night all!
Lav

[papmom3]

Dazzling and Diligent December

Hey Lav-rain has been here all day and now it's getting COLD!! small amount of snow predicted for tomorrow where I live. :upset: I love that quote-so so true! "...pad the pain".

Blonde-LURVE Coco's new coat and yours!! You two will be so stylish out on the town this holiday season!!

Sped-great news about all the kids comeing home for xmas!! I'm sure they will appreciate the decorating won't they? Hey, they don't have to do it so they should be grateful!!

Cyn-I'm so sorry you find yourself at odds with your xmas decision. I can't imagine how hard this is. Is there any family out where your mom now lives that can be with her? At the same time, you have been through so much these past 2 months-you deserve some peace and quiet and to enjoy the season in your new town. I'm with Lav-put the owner's bed in storage and buy your own!!

Chill-hope you're sleeping like a baby tonite! Now I get your FB reference LOL!!

Dew-Is going to Paris like going to NYC for us New Englanders? A few hours and you're there? Good luck-hope it's not too hard.

John!!!!!! So good to see you! I've missed you these past 8 months! You sure sound good. How is that little westie of yours? As you can see, we have a few more doggie lovers who have joined us!!

Star-just like with Cyn's dilemma-you need to take care of yourself first! It is no fun and no good to appease someone else but be miserable in the process. Warm hugs to both you and Cyn that the right decision be made and can be lived contentedly with.


Well, last nite I finally finished my first table runner at class. I am very proud of it-I machine stitched the binding AND machine quilted it. My teacher said I have done great work considering I'm a beginner!! :blush:

I've posted some pics below but it's really hard to see the parts I'm so proud of or the detail but here they are anyway:



this is the back side but shows the quilting design much clearer than the front side:



Can't tell what the design is but you can see the machine stitching:




Not much going on tonite. have already had dinner, catching up with posts and will snuggle in with the kids soon. It's cold in here tonite but I. will. not. turn. the. heat. up!!
Tomorrow is a day off-grooming for Mick and DD on the menu as are some errands and laundry. Also working at the NH tomorrow nite.

No work from my bro this week so I know I made the right choice by offering to stay on at the NH on Thursday nites!!

Have a safe warm nite everyone!!
:l

[BlondeAFAmbition]

Dazzling and Diligent December

Hi Abbers!

Yup, got the rain all day that was predicted. But, forced me to stay in and get lots of stuff done, which feels good tonight. That and the fact that I am sitting here sober and grateful for it.

For the record and in agreement with Star and Chill, I cannot do Chinese food either. It must be the salt or something cause I gave up salt a long time ago (switched to No Salt, which is a sodium free alternative) and Chinese food just makes me feel like crap the whole day after. Bloated and yucky. I remember the days where hubs and I would drink and then think that take out was a good idea and order from the Chinese place down the street. The next morning I was hungover AND feeling like crap on chinese to begin with. Not a happy picture and so glad to never have to relive that!

Speaking of food, just finished off a lovely grilled shrimp spinach salad and now I'm having a cup of gingerbread tea for desert. Yummy!

Dew, wow, New Year's Eve in Paris must be so magical! I would love to see that someday. We will send you all the support in the world to stay strong around such festivities, I can imagine how the champers would flow on a night like that in a city like that! But what a wonderful opportunity to go and have fun sober!

Supposed to get cold tomorrow and may even snow...we'll see. I have another day off tomorrow so I get to stay in if I want and I pretty much have to as I didn't get everything done today that I wanted to. I did manage to decorate another wreath though...wanna see? (I guess I am on a role with pictures lately...lol). This one is for my front door. Again, I did the shell theme but all around since it is a smaller wreath than my bedroom one. It came with the white velveteen bow attached but otherwise, I added all of the shells and mermaids, plus the starfish ornament on the bow. I posted in Newbie's Nest how funny it seemed to me (well, not funny, kind of patetic actually), that if I was still in my drinking stage I would have started to drink at 3PM since it was my day off and that was about the time I started this wreath project, and look what I have to show for it instead of wasting my afternoon getting wasted? I like this much better cause I get to enjoy it for weeks (maybe even months if the greenery holds up. I know, I can glue on some hearts for Valentine's day...ahahaha). Ok, here it is:


Hi to everyone checking in this evening! Have a great night and I'll check in with ya in the AM! Peace to all.

[BlondeAFAmbition]

Dazzling and Diligent December

PS, PapMom! Xpost! Love your pics too! That is a lovely piece! Thanks for sharing! I am also refusing to turn the heat on over here too...lol. I haven't had to turn it on yet. Maybe tomorrow though...they say snow? Stay warm, my Mass friend!

P.P.S, Chill, I also used to have white wine in the summer but stuck to mostly red. Wow, a distributor, huh? I did buy wine by the case occasionally only to save a whopping 10% off the bottles, but mostly I bought good quality box wine so I wouldn't have to display my weekly bottles (the several) on the curb for recycling pick up. Almost made me want to throw them in the black bag trash and not recycle but I love the earth too much for that. What a waste of our money, huh? But that is the past and we are living in the NOW.

Good night all!

[papmom3]

Dazzling and Diligent December

BlondeAFAmbition;1222207 wrote:
... but mostly I bought good quality box wine so I wouldn't have to display my weekly bottles (the several) on the curb for recycling pick up. Almost made me want to throw them in the black bag trash and not recycle but I love the earth too much for that. What a waste of our money, huh? But that is the past and we are living in the NOW.

Me too Blonde, me too!!
I love your wreath-so creative and gorgeous!! I'm seeing an Etsy store in my future, how about you???
I don't want no stinkin' snow!! And we get it bad up here in the hills of Central MA! I'd rather be by the coast! Sorry for being such a bah humbug about it!

[BlondeAFAmbition]

Dazzling and Diligent December

Pap, lol...I remember those days in Central mass all too well. I lived on a knoll of Mount Wachusett for 5 years...I remember all wheel drive and snow tires were NOT optional...lol. Seriously, I hear ya sistah. I guess it's just a craving for snow and will soon pass, just like AL cravings!

Stay warm my dear and well done on that lovely table runner. I don't know if Etsy would be my thing...I like doing it for myself and friends and family but not so sure about the general public. But I am flattered that you mentioned it girlfriend! Have a cozy night in those beautiful hills!

[Chillgirl]

Dazzling and Diligent December

Good morning gang

The rain is pounding on the window out there, sounds like hail. Not looking forward to my walk with Elle this morning :upset: on a good note I slept well and feel good despite the pizza and chocolate I ate.

Lav - I like the line "we become addicted to whatever seems to ease the pain" oh how true is that!

Dewdrop - a Christmas night out in Paris does sound glam! Ours is next Friday too in downdown Troon! I haven't decided yet whether I will go. I'm guessing for you the Paris flight is probably 1.5 hrs. Im jealous of your real fire, I miss my wood burner so much.

Papmom - you are such a talented lady, maybe you could start a side business selling these? And you too Blondie, we have so many artistic guys on here and Lav is our Queen of embroidery!

Im using up the very last of this years annual leave and have only a half day to work today and tomorrow off! Yippee! Today my friend is coming down from Glasgow on the train and we are going for lunch. We met in Portugal and she is a very close friend, it was her and her husband who lived in Libya and who were evacuated earlier this year. They lost all their belongings, their home and their business but she never complains.

Ok time to face the elements......

[rustop59]

Dazzling and Diligent December

Hi everyone

Love the photos and reading all your posts. Unfortunately wont be able to get near the computer much for the next week. My daughter is on study leave for a week before her exams and has decided to come home from university!!! She has set herself up in the office so my computer time is now limited.

Just wanted to let you all know that I am thinking of you all.

Rustop