Gearing Up!

 We have made our permanent move to the Truman Lake area of the Missouri Ozarks. Being a child of the Ozarks, I feel like I have gone back home. I love it. We are rural but on a state highway so not completely in the sticks. It is typically quite and peaceful, but our road has become a detour until the end of December. Compared to the city, it is still very quiet, but there is more traffic right now in comparison to no detour. 

We have moved from a pretty large house, to a very small house. Everything landed in the garage because the house is not finished, and there is no place to put things anyway. We have contractors coming in and out finishing things. As we wait to finish, I have decided that when I downsized, I did not downsize nearly enough. I have been watching the Clutterbug system and have found that I am two bugs. I am a butterfly and a bee. One lady that related to this on Facebook called us Butter Bees. I love this, even though it makes my butt look big.  My plan is to go through my boxes in the garage and decide what we really need to keep. I am also going to stop buying in bulk. It is just Rod and I living in a tiny house. We live 10 miles from the grocery store. If I run out of something, it is not like I have to wait a month to go to the store. Besides, when I go to the grocery store....I can drop by the 2 quilt stores in town, right?!

Another issue. Two years ago I sprained my ankle, twice, and found out I had a birth defect that was keeping my tendons from healing. It is called accessory navicular syndrome. So it only took 59 years to find this defect. Anyway, I asked the doctor at that time if, since I have it in my right foot do I have it in my left foot? He said that I did, and I deteremined that I would protect that foot with my life. That didn't work. In packing the old house up, I was running up and down the stairs constantly. I thought I had overworked my foot, but it became so painful I could not stand to walk. Fortunately, I kept my boot. If you have one, please don't throw it off a cliff when you are finished or healed. You may need it again. I went to my general doctor. She sent me to physical therapy. It was not getting better after 6 weeks, and I knew in my heart and mind that I was in big trouble. I went to my ankle ortho doctor and he confirmed the that stupid extra bone was causing me grief. I will be having surgery. I went for an MRI on Monday, to find out how involved the surgery will be. My right ankle had to be fused. I am hopeful that with this surgery they can just remove that bone and life will go back to normal. If this is the case, recovery time is about 6 weeks. If my ankle has to be fused it is about a 6 month recovery time. 

I say all of that to say this. I am getting ready to start a cooking marathon and freezing meals so Rod doesn't have to cook after working all day.  I am kitting up my cross stitch charts and floss so I have lots of sit down work to do while I am recovering. Going shopping for furniture for our new home so we have comfy furniture. Setting up my cross stitch floor stand.  Getting my sewing area set up so I can use it easily, and find my tools. Last time I had to scoot down the stairs on my butt. Crawl on the basement floor to find my things. I then brought it up the steps....step by step while crawling. Not this time. Our house is all one level this time. Last time I did too much too soon. This time I am going to heal and no one is going to tell me I need to be doing more and more too soon.