Journey to 1000 Paper Cranes

  After a break on 12/17/20 came Days 42 to 44:  Thursday was rough.  The morning started with unpacking the car insurance deemed totaled.  Then there was the unexpected call that Ming's ashes had arrived.  Oh the tears fell; it felt like losing him all over again.  On Friday my friend Leslie brought over some other needles that I tried however the eyes of both needles were still too large to fit through the smallest beads.  Thankfully Saturday I got a bead kit with several tools including the right needles; the day was spent running errands and catching up on work so I didn't get to stringing any paper cranes. However I've been writing in preparation for another blog post for my private practice which morphed into a second writing that was polished to share with a group today.  All of this during this journey to 1000 paper cranes and so I've decided this one, will go here.   ******************* Through the Woods Over the hill & thro...

Day 35:  My last client of the day reminded me it was Hanukkah.  The family I nannied for in Pittsburgh from 1997-2001 is Jewish and really the first family I knew really well who observed Jewish holidays.  I got to attend my first bat mitzvah for their daughter, it reminded me of a wedding except that the focus was on her and her family celebrating her, their culture, and each other.  It was very very sweet.  I was paid to attend because I was helping out but I definitely would have done this either way.  They were generous that way and help keep me from needing.  I love them like extended family and wish very much I lived closer to any of them!   My morning started out going to the auto shop to sign some paperwork about the car I crashed the day before and did a walk around with the guy and explained what happened.  While my pride was still hurt, he talked about how things like this happen all of the time.  Realizing I am talking ...

Day 21:  We woke up at 6:30am, our first day without Ming.   On this morning I was going through a box of dog toys/supplies and found his baby collar.  This was a comfort and I am saving it because a bought a black stuffed dog that should arrive today that will get to wear this.  A quiet morning but sweet time with the other three boys.  I got chores done and asked Jeremy when we should start making our Thanksgiving meal.  He was open to anything.  After about an hour he asked if I had decided, I looked over and said - well I'm hungry now.  So off I went to start cooking probably a little past 9:30am.  We were eating by 11:00am and boy was it tasty!  The rest of the day was folding cranes, doing my new stickers by numbers workbook, playing with the dogs, playing games, checking in with family and a couple of friends, and watching shows.  Night time was hard, right before Ming's bed time routine the tears just started flowing....

Day 15:  Finally had a good night's sleep and was pleased to leave work before 6pm!  Today I took my origami paper to work so I was able to get a little extra paper folding done.  I have been having some right wrist pain and I am wondering if this is the cause....at the least probably doesn't help.  Today I got a sticker by numbers notebook, it is so much fun!  I spent a good part of my evening doing this, it is going to be competing with my paper crane folding I can tell :) Getting really excited about my four day weekend next weekend.  Nothing in particular special is happening but I haven't had four days off in a row since maybe February?  Yeah, too long ago.  Weird to think about taking time off without going some where.  Often I would be planning a few long weekends to see my aunt and cousins near Portland.  One of them actually has a beautiful framed shadow box of paper cranes he folded for the birth of one of his daughters.  ...