February 24, 2018

• winter update

  
  Didn't realize it had been so long since I've updated. It's disappointing when others do that and here I am doing it myself. My u.colitis has stabilized, though my arthritis has been bothering me a lot recently, no doubt because of the cold weather. last winter we had more rain than snow, but this year we are making up for it. The snow started before Christmas and it has snowed just about every week since. Sometimes everyday. There have been a few freakishly warm days, but most are cold.For all that snow, it hasn't piled up too much and sometimes melts in between snowstorms.
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  One of the reasons I'm not online as much is that my new art venture. It's The Sketchbook Project, which is buying a sketchbook and filling it with pictures before sending it back to NYC for inclusion in a permanent sketchbook library and traveling exhibit. There is a deadline, it must be postmarked by April 30th. Since I'm a notoriously slow worker, this is proving quite a challenge, as is the restrictions on what kind of mediums are allowed. Acrylics, which is what I do most of my work in, is not allowed, so that makes everything harder and more difficult as I try substituting other types of paints, which doesn't always work and sometimes leads to me doing certain pictures over. I'm afraid I won't finish in time, so that's making me nervous, but Plan B is to fill in with computer printouts of paintings I've already done, reduced in size. I would prefer not to have to do that, but it does give me an option in case I don't fill every page.

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  My elderly mother is becoming more fragile and though she can feed and dress herself, she can't cook or do things that take a lot of moving around. So I help her as much as possible, which sometimes frustrates her, as she often thinks she is able to do more than she can. She's unsteady on her feet, which she doesn't always realize, so sometimes she gets angry at my hovering. She also has a pressure sore on her ankle which hasn't healed in nearly 2 years(she keeps laying on it), and the most recent medical treatment is changing the bandage everyday. My sister, a nurse, does that on the days she's visiting, but the rest of the time I do it. All of these duties call on skills that I don't really have, so it's been an adjustment. Because our mom struggles with depression anyways, we don't want to put her into a nursing home unless we absolutely have to, so it's imperative that I try my best to do everything I can.

  • 6:55 pm
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