I've been spending some evening hours lately painting and sewing, refurbishing children's toys and furniture to sell in my antique mall space.  I've painted several old rocking horses, a couple of doll beds and doll chairs, etc.  It's so much fun!  I'm not particularly skillful, but I sure enjoy it.  If the stuff I'm painting sells, great!  If not, I will be looking for somewhere I can donate it so kids will enjoy these things this Christmas. 

I won't be needing to buy any more stuff for resale in my antique space for a long time!  I went down from two spaces to one, starting tomorrow, the first of November, and I had to bring a lot of good, salable stuff home.  So for now I'm concentrating on my crafts rather than on buying antiques for resale.  I will also increase my efforts to sell on eBay, since I have all this stuff sitting around, taking up space.  This is usually a very good time of the year to sell on eBay, as people start buying holiday gifts. 

Everything else, besides business, is going pretty well.  Our oldest child started college this fall and has made it onto the novice crew team!  Our middle child got his driver's license.  Our youngest is really loving her school and has more friends than she has ever had before. 

We are overly busy, with me working two jobs and selling antiques on the side, but for the time being we are handling it okay.  Sometimes, though, I'm on a really tight schedule, and I have absolutely no time for anything to go wrong!  Of course, that's about the same time something tends to mess up!  As they say, "If you want to make God laugh, tell him your plans." 

It's been 10 days since I last blogged.  Where does the time go?  Mostly to work, I guess.  I am less busy with my editing work for the UW than I've been in months (the workflow has seasonal ups and downs)...but I've been really busy with the antique business. 

I've been making enough sales each month to cover my rent, but not enough to cover my expenses of buying inventory.  So I'm downsizing from two spaces that I rent in the antique mall to just one.  Last week I spent three days moving and rearranging, and I'm still not done!  It'll be a great presentation, though, when I'm finished.  I'll be gearing up for the holidays and will have a small Christmas tree with vintage ornaments, some handpainted rocking horses, and other fun stuff on display--all of it for sale, of course!

Yesterday I took a reading break at a local bookstore and looked at five books that all took different approaches to nutrition.  I learned that, regardless of the approach, I need to be eating more protein than I normally do.  I think the approach I liked the best was a book called "Body Fueling," which said that if we work on meeting our nutritional needs, our bodies will adjust towards a healthy balance of muscle and fat.  I've thought of myself as an overeater--I may still be that, but I have also clearly been an "underfueler." 

So I started this morning with a homemade egg and cheese breakfast wrap rather than the usual bowl of cereal, and I'll work on getting several servings of protein per day.  Uggh!  I don't like a lot of protein foods, so I'm going to have to check out protein powder for making smoothies, nutrition bars, that sort of thing. 

Last night we went down to the University and picked up my stepdaughter, who has been a freshman for just a few weeks.  We took her out to dinner.  It was really fun.  College is really agreeing with Sandy!  So far the classwork is not too hard, and she absolutely loves crew.  She has a good chance of making the team.  We are all getting stars in our eyes, wondering if she'll make the novice team, then varsity, then...Beijing for the Olympics in four years?!  One can hope! 

I got home in time to watch my favorite show, "Joan of Arcadia," and I painted a rocking horse while I was watching TV.  I have 5 or 6 old rocking horses that I'm refurbishing to sell in my antique space for the holidays.  I'm also doing some doll beds and other wooden toys that I've found at various thriftshops over the past few months.  It's slow-going, but very fun work. 

Today I am puttering around the house, working on my proofreading, indexing, horse-painting, housework, etc.  I love days that I can putter and don't have a bunch of appointments.  I am meeting my best friend for a late lunch, and I'm invited to a pajama party tonight, but right now I'm thinking I will skip the party.  I still have lingering symptoms from the bad cold that I got while in Minnesota for my Dad's funeral, so I think I'd rather stay home and sleep in my own bed rather than stay up too late with a bunch of gals and take the chance of getting sicker.  I'm working all afternoon at the antique store tomorrow, so I need to make sure I will have energy for that. 

I have a new quest.  I have asked the local public school district to pay for Betsy's private school tuition.  It will probably be a long drawn out process and it may have to go through several levels of decisionmaking before reaching a resolution that works....but I think it's the right thing to do.  Betsy just can't function in a regular classroom setting, and she is absolutely thriving at her new school.  I can't believe some of the good things that are happening for her there.  She fits in even though she is autistic.  She's making friends.  She's learning to solve problems and make decisions.  It's all great stuff.  I hope the school district will support this placement that is working so well. 

I haven't blogged for many weeks.  At first I was kind of feeling like I had nothing interesting to say, because my days were so much alike:  work, work, sleep, work, eat, work, work, play Scrabble, work, work.  So I stopped writing on a daily basis and only wrote once or twice a week.

Then my dad died on September 22nd.  He was 86 years old and had been sick with congestive heart failure for about five years.  His condition kept getting worse and he had frequent emergency hospitalizations and had gotten to the point where it was difficult to do anything at all, even just eating a meal or walking a few steps.  So it was a blessing that he no longer has to live in a body that had gotten so worn out.  But it's still a big loss for me and the rest of the family, even knowing that Dad is at peace now.

I flew to Minneapolis to be with my family for Dad's funeral and I stayed a couple of days afterwards and was able to help Mom with the thank you notes.  Then I came home to the Seattle area with a very bad cold, almost bronchitis-like, and couldn't get back into the swing of things for the first four or five days back.  This past week was better.  I could work again, and that helps to keep me feeling okay.  The days when I don't have to be on a busy work schedule are harder, because then I'm sometimes alone with just me and my feelings. 

I've been through enough hard times in my life to know that I will eventually feel less sorrowful.  The main thing I need to do for my own personal well-being, in the meantime, is to not engage in self-destructive behaviors such as overeating, shopping, or other things that one can do to not have to feel.  The best thing to do, I know, is just to hang out with these feelings while I have them...just be with them...and not try to do anything to "fix" them or to shield myself from them. 

Everything in this world, regardless of how painful, can be a form of renewal and growth.  After coming home, I rented "Supersize Me," and that along with my dad's death from heart disease has reinvigorated my own quest for better health through better eating habits.  Also, the sameness of my days, that felt so unworthy of blogging about before Dad's death, now seems much sweeter.  Right now I don't feel blase about any day that I spend above ground. 

Today may actually be the first fun one since Dad's death.  I am going to pick up some work at the UW, and on the way, I'm going to go check out a flea market that is held just once a month.  A fellow antique dealer told me that it's a great place to blow out merchandise that is just taking up space at the antique mall.  So I'm going to go experience it today as a shopper and consider whether to go there as a seller next month.  Later, Larry and I are going to a Hawaiian BBQ for lunch, and still later, my best friend Helen is coming over for a Joanathon.  (That is, we're going to watch a video of an episode of "Joan of Arcadia" that I missed while I was flying to Minneapolis, followed by an indepth debriefing...)