Stepping into life and art

Was it really September the last time I posted? Must have been, because that's what it says...

We've been through Thanksgiving, caring for my parents with another compression fracture for mom (hospitalization, rehab center/nursing home, vertebroplasty) and healing, and Christmas season, all of it exhausting. Last year, it was my father having a difficult time with his Parkinson's right around the holiday season, falling all the time and horrible spasticity. The year before was when my folks' situation at home hit the fan, and we scrambled to get the house in order for them to come live here. Is it any wonder that I start to feel a "worse than seasonal affective disorder" feeling as I approach October?

I'm now seeing a therapist who is a social worker. She seems to be more "task oriented" than the psychologists I've seen, which could be both a good thing and a bad thing. Good, because I'm going to be working on the clutter around my house that's dragging me down; bad, because I don't have an outlet to ramble on about how I'm feeling.

My homework this time is to find some papers I got from another social worker showing support groups (haven't found them yet) and put them in a three ring binder. The other is to take pictures of the various areas of my house. Sort of "before" pictures. I've done this before, taken pictures of my clutter with the idea of them being "before" pictures, but somehow I never got to the nice "after" pictures I was aiming for. Here are some in an album that I took around 2005-6: "clutter" I haven't taken the ones for my homework yet, I'm doing it this afternoon because my appointment is tomorrow morning. Yes, I procrastinate. A lot.

I've signed up for a charm swap through Lampwork Etc. and I plan on making the maximum number - 15. We'll send our charms in, and we'll get back the same number we sent. I would not want to be the person sorting out all the charms, as there are over 50 people signed up. I've started making some smaller Karen Lewis-style drum beads as my charms. (like the photo on the left, but smaller) Four are made but not cured yet (then the sanding, antiquing, and more sanding and buffing). The deadline is April, but if I let myself, I could get down to the wire and I really don't want to do that. I'd like to enjoy the process...

Right now what I most feel like doing is laying down and sleeping. Mom got me up at 6 am, and I'm afraid I did not get to bed and to sleep until close to midnight. Stupid on my part, no doubt about it. I knew I would also need to get her a shower, which I did. But now... I just want to crash!!