Day 16 of Week 3 January 2026

 Here already? 

How do Fridays do that, get here faster

than the other six days?

Lousy winter weather yesterday of rain to snow as in ice, made me not want to even look outside. I do not drive in wintery mix weather.  Sadly, I expect this season will have too many fickle days like that.

There is nothing major going on art wise in my life at the moment. Clearing out the easel area and desk isn’t finished yet. Same old, same old.  On that note. My life is sounding like a broken record. 

During my continued decluttering and moving things around, I have decided on some simple changes:

• Have sit down at the table meals. 
• Don’t put birdseed out everyday because they don’t eat it all anyway. 
• Stop saving in-case-I-go-hiking boots
• Stop keeping cardboard boxes because they’re small and cute

Have a Simple Change Weekend!

Call an old friend

Bake an eggnog pie*

Count the interior corners of your home

Draw a large barn

Listen to a symphony

Take a walk with love ones

Make something with branches

* There’s a recipe in the Dec 2025-Jan 2026 edition of “Country Living”

Slimming Down Stuff

The arrival of a new year plops us in the middle of a summing up pool that ripples us along in a carnival ride of memories. What will 2026 be like? 

Researching weather forecasts, how Earth behaves is a solid start for the process of summing up where we are in life in general. 

Clutter surrounds me like scattered birdseed. Thus, I am reading about decluttering to build declutter confidence. I already accept the biggest issue is my fault. I have allowed my stuff to outgrow my space. Stuff must go. 

Even my mug shelf is taking over the shelf above it. My focus now is on what I use and what I wear.  All keeping just in case will be for the donation box. Only very sentimental things can be kept.  

The days getting longer will be noticed by the time January ends. The birds and I will go on as usual. Only for me, instead of slim by pounds before Valentine’s Day, I’ll be slimmer of stuff. 

Note Using iPhone:

Google is not allowing photos to be uploaded to Blogger. The information given does not work for me because the directions go to a feature that is not there or else I am unable to find the block or unblock cookies feature on Chrome or Opera browsers.  

I found Safari block cookies. It is not on. 

Depression 24/7/365

Tis the season for many as one of few jolly moments.

There is no enigmatic smile on our faces or in our hearts.

How we carry our condition along through the year may be similar to some but not to others. 

Based on my life's journey with depression, all I write about here is based on that first-hand experience.

Everyone, I believe, goes through stages as they age and participate in different events, birth, jobs, adventures, moving education and such. Our personalities develop and sometimes, there are hiccups in that process. 

Depression, for me, is what causes my being me hiccups. At present, the type of depression episode I've been coping with for over a year is not the same as in the past. I think of it as a depression meh episode.

I used to notice symptoms and deal with them as they arise. This time, while able to laugh, enjoy, have clarity, most of what I felt connected to has disconnected. It is there. I know about it. I remember it. It is all a pile of meh to me now. Weird.

The most significant part of my meh episode is that there is no constant wallowing in sadness, melancholy, dreads or paranoia.

At this stage, I feel, reading about depression that others experience is a good idea because it might help me understand better what is going on. Maybe being at the end stage of my life is impacting me stronger than I anticipated. I have been clearing out stuff lately. That release of the past might have freed up space in my mind to explore this part of my life journey.

Do you have books on depression to recommend?