"Pre-Decorating"

What have I been doing since we last "talked"?  Well, the same old thing mostly--spending time exercising and eating foods with few calories.  I went to see my doctor last week and he officially sanctioned the discontinuation of my blood pressure medicine.  It was kind of funny because I told the nurse that one of the things I wanted to talk with the doctor about was my blood pressure; then, when she took my blood pressure, she said, "well, it's perfect!" and looked at me like she didn't know why I'd want to talk with the doctor about it.  Little did she know I'd already stopped taking the medication (although I was monitoring my blood pressure daily, just in case).

I was also concerned that the recent blood work the doctor ordered didn't include a test for diabetes--I know it's kind of funny to suddenly become concerned about diabetes now that I'm actually doing something to prevent it, but I had read an article recently that suggested many of the symptoms of diabetes are easily explained by other things, so sometimes it's not diagnosed right away.  Fortunately the lab still had some of my blood and were able to test it and confirm I do not have diabetes.  Woo-hoo!  So all in all, a clean bill of health and a whole lot of encouragement by my doctor to keep doing what I've been doing.

Of course, as I've mentioned, my new routine leaves me little time on weeknights for anything fun like quilting so I had to wait until this weekend before I did a little more quilting on the Comfort and Joy quilt.  Yes, it's very slow going with maybe about a quarter of the center section quilted now.  But I'll keep plugging away at it.  I can't help but think that if I can just squeeze in a half hour a night on weeknights, that would get me SO much further along, wouldn't it?  Well, I'll try.

So what else have I been doing?  Do you remember I said I wanted to see if I could get some Christmas decorating done before Thanksgiving?  Well, I've done some of that . . . sort of.  Some of you were also going to start decorating early while others said you just don't feel right decorating early.  And as it turns out, I'm straddling both sides of the fence!  While I haven't actually unpacked any boxes of decorations, I HAVE prepared the living room and kitchen for decorating--and the master bedroom, too, to some extent.  I've made sure everything unnecessary is cleared away from shelves and surfaces to make room for the decorations.  I've moved furniture around.  I've cleaned all the nooks and crannies.  Where there are things I switch out for Christmas--like using red chair pads on the kitchen chairs instead of beige, for instance--I've done that.  Many of my Christmas quilts are up.  And Hubby put our artificial tree together, but it's not lighted or decorated yet.

I'll continue on in this fashion probably until after Thanksgiving, and then I hope the rest of the actual "decorating" will go quickly.  It seems like a good compromise.  Christmas isn't beating us over the head, but the house is looking cozy and inviting.

One thing I haven't done lately is scrap piecing--I just keep looking at the Pie in the Sky blocks up on the design wall thinking I'll get back to them one of these days.  But for those of you who are continuing with Scrap Basket Sunday, here's Mister Linky:


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