Day 1: Josh is thirty-seven today. We will see MST3k Live on the 31st. This year will mark seventeen years together.
The snow did come after all, just in time for Josh's birthday. We got about 4 1/2 inches. Our patio table, our cars, and Oliver's mini trampoline have quite a bit of snow. It didn't start until after dark. We looked outside at around 3 a.m., and the world was almost morning-bright.
Yesterday, I read (inhaled) the rest of Ondattje's Handwriting. It was excellent. I plan to read more of his work, especially his poetry, if I can get my hands on it. That puts me at seven books for the year. I'm making good progress. And I'm excited because I've read two five-star books this year already!
Last night, the NCSEAA responded to my E-mail about the DGrant. Because I was a squeaky wheel, Oliver's account moved forward, and I was able to endorse his grant. The grant will cover about two-thirds of his spring tuition. We are also supposed to receive the Education Savings Account (ESA); that hasn't happened yet. But we should be in good shape for January, which means we can start saving for a down payment on a car. I'm hoping to buy one in March if Josh's car limps on that long.
This morning, I've been reading Life Among the Savages, which Bruce and I are reading together. He's well ahead of me, so I'm trying to catch up. It's hilarious with all of Shirley Jackson's subversive cheek.
Today, I submitted two poetry chapbooks to a contest. I didn't think about submission fees and NoBuy2022 when I made my rules, but I've decided not to count them. This is the first submission I've sent in months. I feel rather accomplished, and I'm grateful to Josh who helped me format the page numbers.
I unsubscribed from four magazines today and got a $35 refund. Since that's last year's money, I used it to buy a bottle of Diamine Inkvent Happy Holidays shimmer and sheen ink that is gorgeous: blue with red sheen and blue shimmer. Check out swatches here. I have some other ink on my NoBuy2022 list, which also includes a lot of books I intend to look for through the library. I found out that my library has ordered all four of the books I requested! I'm just waiting for the staff to process the books.
Going back to ink, Van Dieman's quickly responded to my E-mail and gave me a refund for the missing bottle of ink. It's not as good as a replacement bottle, but shipping is expensive. I told Peter that while I won't be ordering ink from him this year, I'll be back next year. I used that money (also last year's money) to pre-order Sarah Addison Allen's Other Birds, a magical realism novel, and to order Connecting the Stars by Marisa de los Santos (another favorite) and David Teague. The latter is perfect for now because it's for young readers, and winter is children's lit season. I have a lot of reading to do if I want to do the season any justice. And I now have three pre-ordered books to look forward to from favorite authors: March, June, and September. They're all books I want to own.
This evening, I finished reading The Patchwork Girl of Oz (book 7 of 15) to the boys. That's book 8 for the year! I want to get to 10 this month. At least I've finished one children's lit book this winter! I have almost two months left, and I plan to read Peter Pan and the Alice books at last.
Day 2: One of the hardest parts of NoBuy is not having mail to look forward to. I'll just have to hope for letters. I have a few I need to write.
I've unsubscribed from almost all promotional E-mails and text messages. It cuts down on temptation and keeps my inbox clear for messages that matter. I started working on this in December. I had no idea how many promotional messages I was getting.
This morning, I went through all the old clothes that were waiting in Oliver's closet. I sorted and folded everything, creating a stack of my clothes for the career closet at the college and a basket full of Oliver's clothes for Once Upon a Child. We've never tried to sell his clothes, but I'm hoping for store credit. He'll need a lot of bigger summer clothes this year.
I made pasta salad, and I read the first chapter of A Swiftly Tilting Planet to the boys. It's certainly a different speed from Oz. I'm counting it as children's lit for my winter focus though it may be more YA. My mother read A Wrinkle in Time to me when I was nine or ten, so I think of it as children's lit. I also taught the book in my science fiction class (along with other favorites Never Let Me Go, The Illustrated Man, and Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?), which is still one of the coolest things I've ever done. I'd like to do it again someday. But for now, I'll work on finishing this series I should have completed long ago.
Day 3: I went to renew some library books today and found that I can't renew Liane Moriarty's Apples Never Fall as someone has placed a hold on it. So I have a few days to read it. I'm not super excited about it, but I did enjoy What Alice Forgot. I'm hoping this will be a quick and absorbing read. If I can read Erdrich in two days, I can handle this. The deadlines can be good for me.
I finished reading Life Among the Savages this morning around 4 a.m. Oliver woke us early and went back to sleep, but we couldn't. This is the first tiny-book-club read in a long time for Bruce and me, but we've read over forty books together. So I've now read nine books this year. I want to get to ten for the month. Almost there! I've also started Sharon Olds's poetry collection The Unswept Room. I want to read a lot of poetry this year. Josh has been in a very long reading slump. But he did finish listening to my reading Oz 7, and I think that counts. Maybe I'll read him some poems. We read Charlotte Bronte's The Professor last year (our first simultaneous read), and I hope we'll read more Bronte books together this year.
I'm more than halfway through my Paperblanks Valentina journal. I've picked out my next one, a Papier journal with heart-shaped lollipops on it. Papier can handle fountain pens, so I'm going to try out my new inks and use some samples. I still have to sticker up the journal. I may do that tomorrow while Oliver is in school. I've emptied 32 pens this year and set them aside for recycling. I hope my pen stores hold!
Today, Oliver is home for a teacher workday. Josh just left for work, and he'll be there until after 8 tonight. So it's just me and O all day. I read chapter 2 of A Swiftly Tilting Planet to the boys this morning. It's harder to read aloud than the Oz books, but I like it. I'd like to finish it in February. I may go ahead and finish the last two books of the Time series before going back to Oz. We'll see how I feel.
Oliver just ate half a McChicken! This is the closest thing to a real meal he's eaten in a long time. Protein and carbs. Now, if he'd only get interested in fruit again. Josh and Oliver go on a date to McDonalds one morning a week to get the real, greasy "cashbrowns." Today, they got the wrong order and ended up with McChickens. Maybe it's time to try chicken fingers again...Oliver's diet typically consists of beef taquitos, tater tots (which we call hashbrowns--close enough), hot dogs, vanilla wafers (bananafers) and Cheese Pizza Cheez-It crackers, with occasional macaroni and cheese or turkey sticks, rare grapes or oranges, and chips if he can get them. He does eat a large muffin at school each day. We're just happy that he eats at all. I thought I was a picky eater. Luckily, we found some gummy vitamins that he loves, and my mom sent us four bottles!
I've been teaching Oliver to open the trash can with his foot and clear his plate--a pretty exciting skill. Last year, we taught him to get ice from the dispenser and pour his own Gatorade and snacks. This year, we've already accomplished putting on slippers! We're making good progress on getting dressed. Putting on shoes, almost. Putting on socks, not so much. I'd love to get him to independence with dressing, socks, and shoes this year. We've made no progress on brushing teeth (we just got him to tolerate an electric toothbrush as the dentist recommended) or bathing. We should probably start getting him used to deodorant before he actually needs it. He's ten now, and a lot is on its way. Oh dear.
I'm still amazed that, with occasional reassurance ("You can do it!"), he's potty trained. We really completed that last year too. I feel very lucky that Oliver can do this and that he has enough language to express his wants and needs. Last year, he said, "Wanna go lie down in Mama and Daddy's room," to let us know he needed snuggles. That may be the most he's said since he started regressing around age four. But he does sing the "Snuggle Puppy" song; I finally caught it on video. That's my favorite thing to hear, and I love his saying, "Wanna read a book," and "Wanna go find Mama" (he definitely gets the wanna and gonna from me, alas--I realized that when I used auto-captions on a class welcome video. Oops). He has almost no trouble telling us which Thomas video he wants to watch ("Wanna watch 'The Missing Christmas Decorations"). Yesterday, he even managed to let us know that he wanted to watch a duck boat video called "Amphibious Transport" (we got the transport part and figured it out from there).
Josh commented earlier on Oliver's near-constant joy. He's always smiling, leaping, giggling. I said that he has no dread and no upsetting self-consciousness. Josh said Oliver also has no regret. Maybe we can work on reducing the presence of these in our own minds and hearts. Dread used to be a constant in my life, but that has gotten much better.
Day 4: I wrote a poem! This is the first poem in a long time. It's called "Dark Laundry," born, I think, from reading poetry and Shirley Jackson. I'm thinking about where I can send it. I've had a poem in The Headlight Review, so I may try them again. I wonder if reading poetry again will awaken my own poetry writing. This morning, I couldn't have imagined writing a new poem, but suddenly, there it was.
I've got discounted mealies coming today, some of which I actually have to assemble and/or cook. We'll see how that goes. I hope they arrive before dinner time.
Today, Josh took Oliver to school and then brought home the biscuit and Dr. Pepper I didn't get to have yesterday. He's so sweet. He's at a conference all day, so I'm having my first whole day alone in a long time. I'm not sure how to feel about it. But I've written a poem and started laundry. Music makes it easier for me to get ready, but Oliver can't handle music in the house. Today, though, I listened to Peter Cetera duets, On Your Feet, and Pentatonix while I showered and put on sparkly makeup.
My janner for February is not coming until Saturday, so I'll be scrambling to decorate it and set up my DREAM boards.
I went to the library this afternoon. Lately, I've been doing well about returning more books than I check out. Not so today: I returned one and checked out six. Oops. Checking out library books is one of my current greatest joys, though, so I don't regret it. I just have a lot of reading to do. I checked out two novels, three books of poetry, and a graphic novel (Vol. 4 of Locke & Key).
Day 5: I had a phone session with my psychiatrist today. I told him that I've been having mood swings and waking up earlier and earlier (3:30 a.m. yesterday). He increased the dose of one of my meds. I'm glad to have a doctor who takes me seriously. I'll start the new dose tonight.
I cooked today. I made fajita chicken and rice and pesto chicken with walnuts and green beans. I used meal kits from HomeChef. Don't use HomeChef if you don't know how to cook! I couldn't find any instructions, and I had no idea what I was doing. I was texting Bruce to ask how to bake chicken. At some point, I'm planning to make an extra trip to the grocery store to buy spices, seasoning, and so on.
Day 6:
I finished reading Apples Never Fall, which was due today for someone else's hold. It was fine, 3 stars. Josh dropped it off at the library for me.
I made chicken and green beans again plus potatoes, this time with lemon, garlic, and garlic pepper. My CookUnity mealies arrived. I tried the avocado chicken burger, which was fine. Josh ate the sweet potato fries.
Today, our new dryer arrived. It was an unexpected expense that cut into our car savings, but it was certainly a need. Luckily, Lowes was able to deliver it quickly. The delivery guys locked themselves out of their truck--while it was running. I gave them all my cash ($14) and a wire hanger. I guess they figured it out. That seems like the start of a story or essay.
I started Stephen Graham Jones's Mapping the Interior, a novella. I want to read as much SGJ as I can find. The library doesn't have much.
Josh and I write letters to each other in two notebooks/journals. One of them is filling up, so I got us an anniversary present to replace it soon. We've written to each other like this off and on for over sixteen years.
Day 7: Josh and I had the morning together, and something lovely happened: I took a nap! This is rare and wondrous. I continued to fade in and out after Josh left for work. I think it's probably because I'm getting used to the new dosage.
I had a couple of holds ready at the library, so I went there before picking Oliver up from school. I checked out the rest of the Locke & Key series, Paris Library (which I didn't finish before), and Remembrance of Things Past, a graphic novel. I've never read Proust, so I thought this might be a good way to start.
I didn't read today, but I did finish three books this week, so it's okay.
I went to Bruce and Corey's, and we watched two more episodes of American Horror Story: Red Tide. We still have four episodes left, and I have no idea what else can happen. I haven't watched any movies this month. I feel like watching something with Juno Temple. I call 6:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. the lonely time because Josh is usually putting Oliver to bed. I should try to watch movies during that time. Last night, I put stickers in the Papier journal. I finished Valentina and started the Papier with my TWSBI fountain pens and ink samples: Diamine's Starry Night and Winter Miracle. Bruce told me about Archive 81, which I may try to watch while Josh is around in the mornings. It sounds to scary for me to watch alone.
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