Valerean

I am still off meditating, but I am scheduling this to publish in my absence for National Hurricane Preparedness Week, May 3 - 9, 2026. It is so important for people who live in the southeast, Atlantic coastal and Gulf Coastal regions to get ready for hurricane season, which runs from June 1st through November 30th. You can find lots of helpful information here , and get updates on systems and storms throughout the season at The National Hurricane Center . Every year my guy and I take stock of our supplies of non-perishable foods, batteries, medications and everything else we might need in the event a hurricane cuts us off from civilization. My guy tests our generator, and makes sure we keep enough propane on hand to use the grill if we have to for cooking. This is because we have lived without power for weeks many times in the past, and have never suffered because we prepared in advance for such events. I have just tidied and reorganized our emergency pantry to see what I ...

While I'm off tending to my spiritual side, let me show you how much I got done last month. I experimented quite a bit in April, first by making a dishcloth out of cotton yarn to test whether or not I agreed with the opinions of some influencers about the fiber (end result: I don't agree, what a shock! Ha.) I also made a dog bowl mat for my pups out of cotton yarn, just to be sure I liked it. I tested out a skein of sport weight silk yarn by making a granny square out of it, which I may incorporate into my calendar project. Speaking of that, I finished the April tote for my quilting calendar project, which is a fusion of crochet and quilting. The cutter quilt pieces I've been saving forever for the right project (and I'm so glad I did) and the yarn I used to crochet the tote tops and handles is a worsted art yarn I thrifted last year. While investigating a mystery ball for the crochet blog I turned the yarn into a giant granny square. I made a s...

After having some severe anxiety over the social media problem, and being forced to give up my Mastodon account, which I really loved, I'm going to take a break from blogging for some much needed self-care. I'm putting myself first for once, and hoping to make that a habit, because I want my life to continue to be calm. See you when I'm ready to brave being online again. Image by Enrique from Pixabay

The title of this post and the embroidery on this mini quilt I made last year are the same: jasin-eul salanghaseo . It's a Korean phrase that has very deep meaning for me. It came to me during a terrible time as a gentle wake-up call, and became a motto for this time in my life. It empowered me like no one and nothing else in my life has. What does it mean? The literal translation in English if you google it is "I love you" but the actual meaning is "love yourself." In the past I have always attracted people who do not actually care for me. They have told me they do care so they could use me, abuse me, swindle me out of money and otherwise gratify themselves at my expense. I'm not sure why they behave that way, but that was my heaviest burden. I have done my part by being naive, believing what they told me, hoping it would get better, and even thinking at times that I deserved to be treated that way. I had no one to protect me. Much of thi...

If I didn't have diabetes I would probably never leave the house except to shop for food. I am a homebody by nature. I love my home, my guy, my nephew and our dogs. That's my world. I do not feel the same about the outside world and most of the people in it. The world seems dark and nasty, and most folks appear to be just out for themselves and what they want, and heaven help anyone who gets in their way. For these reasons I would happily stay at home forever. When I'm not writing, cooking, caring for the pups and my guys or doing my housework, I can sit for hours and crochet, read and watch videos. That's my life and I do love it. Maybe that's why I am a very sedentary person. Also, I've never found an exercise that I ended up genuinely liking. I've done gymnastics, weight lifting, dance, aerobics, swimming, tai chi and a bunch of other stuff. Now I'm so old and crippled by arthritis that all I can do is walk, but I do walk, twice ...

You remember me showing you this deadline week disaster. The rack and shelves in my wardrobe ended up spontaneously collapsing, taking all my clothes with it. I have a philosophy about bad things happening, especially when I'm busy: it could always be worse. In that yes, my closet self-destructed, but we can fix it ourselves. Would have been much worse if the wall had come down with the clothes. It took about an hour to clean up, and my clothes went to live in the spare bedroom while my guy repaired everything. The rack and shelves just needed to be remounted, this time correctly. I tried to see this as an opportunity rather than the pain in the butt that it was. I'm not naturally a glass-half-full person, but it's the healthier attitude. So when my guy had finished the repair work I started putting my clothes back while removing things that were too big, too heavy or that I didn't like for some reason. I also weeded out most of my old cold-weather jack...

When it comes to diabetes management, there are a lot of videos on YouTube which are basically fear-mongering for views and sheer quackery for the quick-fix chasers. If you're diagnosing and/or treating yourself according to crap you watch online, you will likely suffer for it. If you're not sure, videos with titles like "Eat/drink this and reverse your diabetes in 24 hours!" or "The simple cure for diabetes that doctors don't want you to know!" or "Lose fifty pounds in a month (or even a week!) and end your diabetes with this trick!" are pure quackery. In my experience, pretty much any title with an exclamation point at the end is crap. Hey, I've fallen for it, too. Turmeric, which is often plugged as a miracle supplement in such videos, seemed like something I could try to reduce my inflammation due to arthritis -- it's a spice, right? How could that hurt? I also cook with turmeric regularly. Simple thing to try. At firs...

Last week while I was writing my guy came into my office to interrupt me, which meant either the house was on fire or a disaster had happened. The first words out of his mouth were, "Honey, we've got a disaster" so it didn't look like we were going to burn to death. No, it was just half of our walk-in closet's shelves and racks spontaneously collapsed. All of them, all at the same time. My half, of course. The folks who installed the shelves and racks did not bother to find the studs in the walls, which is why after 29 years and many pounds of clothes, bed linens and pillows the drywall screws just worked their way out. My guy helped me move everything to the bed in our spare bedroom, which will serve as my temporary closet while he builds me new shelves and racks. It took an hour I didn't have to spare, but that's my luck. Hey, at least the house didn't burn down, right? Good disaster.

One thing that is hard for all diabetics to do is give up certain foods. Usually when I give up something I have to stop eating or drinking it entirely; doing smaller or even tiny amounts doesn't work for me. Eat just two M & Ms? Please. Sometimes I'm able to find safe substitutes, like sparkling water for soda, or zero sugar cookies that taste like the real thing. I've also modified my expectations. Before I was diagnosed I could eat a whole pile of Oreos. Now? I eat two of the zero sugar variety. To give you more ideas, here are: Ten Healthy Substitutes to Control Cravings: Baked potato: A baked sweet potato with a sprinkle of cinnamon is much lower in carbs and just as satifying. Bread: I don't care for Keto breads, but I do like chaffles as a substitute. Cereal: Instead of sugary processed cereal for breakfast I eat oatmeal with ground flaxseed, chopped walnuts, a sprinkle of cinnamon and a little stevia. Chocolate candy: The be...

I decided to document everything I do in one day. I was curious about how much I get accomplished (more than I thought.) I also never really think about how busy I am. It's just life. If you'd like to know the details, and you're not easily bored, you can walk through 17 hours of April 15th with me via this photo album here .

It's time for me to make a quilt entirely on my sewing machine -- piecing, quilting, and binding with my Singer. I have done a few small pieces like mug rugs, pot holders and place mats on the machine, but this will be the first actual quilt. Last year I purchased a bundle of eight fat quarters featuring dragons and castles at the county quilt show, and I think they'd make a marvelous little quilt for my nephew's dog. For the pattern I'm going to rely on my trusty favorite: Yellow Brick Road by Atkinson Designs. I love this pattern and it makes some really beautiful quilts. It's also all rectangles, which will not be difficult for me to quilt on the machine (I hope.) The baby size quilt of this pattern calls for six fat quarters, so I removed two that were print repeats in different colors, leaving me with these. The first step is pressing, cutting and piecing, so stay tuned to find out how I do with that.

During my bi-annual checkup last year I had the opportunity to go on a GLP-1 drug. My doctor considered it a wonder treatment, particularly for diabetics, and recommended it to me, but I refused. I have only 20 lbs. to lose before I'm at my ideal weight. Also, I do not want to be dependent on any kind of needle if I can avoid that. I'd rather lose the weight the hard way, by controlling my diet and doing daily exercise. Make no mistake, it is very hard to manage this disease and continue to lose weight. I've hit that last 20 lbs. plateau, and I'm fighting for every pound I lose now. Back to the drug. There wasn't a lot of information about GLP-1s at the time, especially concerning the side effects, but I had heard that the minute anyone stopped the injections, they put the weight back on. That made sense, too -- people were dependent on using the needle, and when the needle went away, so did the results. Big pharmaceutical companies seem to be more...

While we were down in the city last week I asked my guy to stop by a Michael's Craft Store a few miles away, as I needed a couple things I had to see in person. I have not shopped at a craft store since JoAnn closed, and I thought I'd look at their new yarn prices. Hooboy. I thrift 99.9% of my yarn, so I am not used to the price tag of new, but everything in the yarn section was SO expensive! $14.99 for these Caron cakes -- I thrifted two latte cakes for less than a dollar per cake last year. Wool Ease is now up to $9.99 a skein. That's crazy. I thrifted three skeins a couple months ago in a big bag of yarn for five bucks. Even the clearance yarn was $7.00 per skein or higher. I'm sorry, but I just can't justify spending that kind of money on it on a material I can usually thrift for less than a dollar a skein. What did I get while I was there, you may ask? Not much, and no yarn. This bunny basket was marked down 70% and was still $7.99...

Last Thursday I saw my diabetes doc, and while I have a couple of minor issues to work on (getting my A1C down to 6.5; losing the last 20 lbs.) I am in very good shape. Even my habitually low blood pressure was lower, which means the exercise is still paying off. He was quite pleased, and it's always a relief to have a good checkup. As I've been rather anxious over all this, and also deeply upset over recent events in the world, I gave myself the next day and the weekend off to take it easy, especially as the following week was my deadline week for my first day job project of the year. At present I'm working up the last of a skein of variegated yarn into a no pattern moss-stitched clutch for my art supplies, mainly so I can see the color changes in this yarn (Bitty Stripes by Red Heart Super Saver in Moonbeam) and use up the rest of the skein. After that I'm going to make a quilt for my nephew's dog. Maybe. I'm trying not to put any more pressure on myse...

Today I'm going to the diabetes doc to get my bi-annual check. After that I'm going to get started on a little quilt using these dragon novelty prints. I'm also going to try to make it entirely by machine. Wish me luck on both fronts. :) Sometime in the next few days we'll be heading into the city with our nephew to visit IKEA and have dinner out. His house build is going very well, and he's on track to move into his new place in June, so I want to show him some room designs I like (not that I think he'll paint black polka dots on his walls, lol.) While we're there I'm going to pick up another one of these hanging organizers for my yarn stash. This one has worked out so well I wish I had a dozen of them, but I have room for only one more.