Michelle, keep feeling those hands and hearts holding you. We're all keeping you close. I'm glad you have a bear to hug. If it helps, imagine lots of hugs from us, too.

Tinker, love the picture- where's its source?

WYS, great to see your progress, in the midst of your great heart reaching out.

Kat, good for you. Wash that hair, move that bod as much as you feel able to- and then savor how good it feels.

We have developed a helpful habit of having people over to dinner on just about a weekly basis, folks in the community we don't know well (or at least, not well enough to leave the house in its usual clutter!!). So, right now the living room is tidy, I can see the countertops in the kitchen, and the kitchen island and table are sparkling.

Today we had the central heating installed- as the winter began in this new house, we thought it would be enough to have a wood stove. It's true that the stove heats the whole house, but we've nearly gone through 3 cords of wood, and we haven't been able to get away overnight for fear of the pipes freezing, and we are aware that, although the wood stove isn't too bad now, at ages 50 and 65 respectively, now while we still have a building loan is the time to finance the furnace which we will likely rely on more as we age.

The biggest accomplishment that I'm working on, though, is "de-cluttering" the upcoming Animaterra season. I'm working on arranging 3 more songs, and I may write a new round (I keep hearing robins, chickadees, phoebes, chattering their spring songs in my head and trying to figure out how to render that musically!). From now until next week some time, the house, the "inbox", exercise, etc. are not at the top of the priority list as I wallow in this happy, creative place.