Up until 4am tending the fire, watching a long video on YouTube, reading the newspaper, holding Tommy, reading a new library book, eating, feeding the cats, thinking. And then sleep. Weird dreams, no doubt due to my pain meds and the video I watched. Woke with an intense headache and stomachache at 10am and stayed up. Bowels in an uproar. I'm groggy as hell and Toad says it's cold outside but hey, there's sunshine streaming in the windows and back door! It's going to be a good day after all. I'm willing it to be.

The stomachache is my fault--I waited all day yesterday to eat and then ate a heavy carb meal in the evening, following by snacking on chia crackers and jalapeño Greek yogurt dip during the night. Very unwise of me, and I knew it but did it anyway. The headache is from dried sinuses, especially around/behind my left eye. I keep a pot of water on the woodstove to add humidity to the air but the water level had gotten low. I'm trying to think of more pleasant topics, to use some diversionary tactics, and to that end have already completed today's jigsaw puzzle. It is 1:04pm. Time to get moving, starting with cooking for the chickens.

We each had another bowl of my roasted vegetable mushroom soup today. It was lovely. Only one bowl left, which I've stashed in the fridge. Dishes, counter and stove washed. Chickens fed. Cats fed. Houseplants watered. Gut inflamed, abdomen bloated and painful soon after eating the soup. I'm sensitive to onions and to pumpkin, so perhaps also the butternut squash. Something in the soup got me. I had wanted to go to the arena and walk this afternoon but can barely move, so I have to take it easy. I have library items to watch before having to mail them back Monday, so that's my plan for the rest of the day after practicing French. If I feel better I hope to accomplish more in the house, the living room in particular. I have books stacked that need a home and papers to go through.

I finally received a copy of my mother's will in the mail yesterday and read it today. It took a month to arrive from her lawyer's office. She had redone her will a couple of years ago and really messed up, causing hard feelings that she cannot remedy. Possibly she was coerced, or maybe even tricked, into the terms of the new will by the two who benefited most and who helped kill her prematurely. I would rather think it was not deliberate on her part, but she was like that and could well have done it on her own. In doing so, for whatever reason, she hurt my brothers and me and caused a rift in the family that is unlikely to ever heal. I'm tearing up just writing this, so will move on to French. C'est la vie.

When I practiced French via Duolingo this afternoon I strengthened irregular plurals, abstract objects 2, and infinitives 3 to re-gold those units and maintain my golden French tree. In the process I

• earned an achievement badge called Big Spender for spending fifty lingots (their currency that you earn and can spend); in my case I have now spent fifty lingots to earn one hundred lingots via ten times betting five lingots double or nothing that I could maintain a seven-day streak. I now have a ninety-nine day streak. The obsessive-compulsive in me rejoices and worries at the same time.
• earned the distinction of becoming 70% fluent in French
• came nearer level 20 French

So I checked my overall language status and saw this:


For a while I took a break from French to work on refreshing my Spanish. For a longer while I took a break from French and Spanish to learn some Italian; this was around the time my grandsons were born. But then I found that it was too confusing--I was getting all three of these romance languages mixed up! I chose to stick with French, since I live in the only bilingual province in Canada and had already invested so much time in studying it. And here I am, plugging away and doing better, although Je fais encore beaucoup de fautes en français. Vraiment !

Egg on Toast and yogurt for dinner, trying to be kind to my gut.

Watched Justified S1E4-9 (of 13) this evening, as it is due Tuesday and must be mailed back Monday afternoon. Had a Skype visit with my daughter during the fourth episode. The visit was like watching a comedy, although apparently D doesn't see as much humor in the boys' words and actions as I do. The boys had had their meal and were eating the last of their applesauce and ready for their treat: "circles", some dry cereal they enjoy, and then a cookie each. GC told me "We baked the cookies, Nana." And they did bake the cookies. D is really great about having them stir and roll dough and cut out shapes and decorate cookies and little cakes. GT noticed D's shadow on the wall and said "It's a shadow, Mama! Mama's shadow." He then noticed and mentioned the shadow his arm made on his high chair tray and even the shadow of the cereal "circle" he held between his fingers.

There was a dispute over cookies that I found hilarious. GC had first choice of three different cookies and said "I want red. It's my favorite." His brother took a larger green-sprinkled one. Once GC saw that GT's cookie was larger he wanted it instead. He asked very nicely if GT would "Want to trade?", holding out the red one. GT traded. I was impressed by this very civil exchange. But after examining the green one, GC realized that GT had his favorite cookie and wanted it back. He asked to trade again. GT obliged, but had eaten half of the red cookie. GC cried out "It's half! T ate it!", feeling gypped, even though D pointed out that he had traded it and of course GT had eaten some of it. Before the situation escalated further D defused it by offering to trade GC's half red cookie for the third cookie, a small chocolate one. He accepted the trade and was pleased, even though he is not as keen on chocolate. He ate half and told me he would "save this one for T". Luckily GT didn't hear him say that because GC's appetite got the better of him and he ate the rest of the chocolate cookie in one bite. He then said "It's over. It's over, Nana." in his sweet, soft voice.

While they were eating and trading cookies, D was making herself some toast to eat with some soup. GC, finished with his cookie, asked for her toast, pleading "Please, Mama. Please!" She tried to give him half a piece. No, he wanted the whole piece. She handed it over and began to eat her soup as he tore the toast into small bites. He wanted to dip a piece of toast into her soup, so she held her soup mug over and he dipped it, then fed it to her. It was so sweet. He said "One more time!" and repeated this. Then twice more. At this point GT wanted to join in and dip and feed; he reached over to get a piece of toast and GC said "No! You have your cookie!"  D had to tell GT not to dip his cookie into her soup, that she liked toast in it but not cookie. Fortunately for her and for GT, she had toasted two slices of bread and had one in reserve. She let him have part of it to dip into her soup and feed to her. So both boys were happy and she got to eat her toast after all. I got to enjoy witnessing all this and am so amazed at their language development! They are so young to have such good vocabulary and usage of the language.

GC dipping toast into D's mug of soup

Feeding his Mama

GC to GT: "No! You have your cookie!"

A couple of lines I like from early in Justified S1E5:

• "There have been a couple of times that I wanted to feed a hose in from the exhaust."--U.S. Marshal Rachel Brooks, after spending 3 days doing surveillance with Raylan Givens
• "You're like a drunk looking for his car keys under the street lamp because that's where the light is."--Chief Deputy U.S. Marshal Art Mullen, re: no results yet from the surveillance; an old joke but one I'm happy to have written down for posterity.

And so it was a good day, especially thanks to my grandsons. Even though it is cold outside -9C (16F), with windchill -14C (6F) I feel warm and relatively happy inside. Toad had his evening/bedtime meds, I've readied his morning meds for him, I've taken my B12 and I'm off to bed to read.

I'm Reading:

• Hunger, by Roxane Gay (started during the night)
• A Little Life, by Hanya Yanagihara

French Lesson Sentence(s) of the Day:

• C'est une maison avec beaucoup de travaux à faire ! Meaning: This is a house with a lot of work to be done!
• Je fais encore beaucoup de fautes en français.  Meaning: I still make a lot of mistakes in French.
•  Ma mère sait me soutenir dans les moments difficiles.  Meaning: My mother knows how to support me in difficult times.
• Je n'ai pas de preuve.  Meaning:  I have no proof.
   
    

Photo(s)/Capture(s) of the Day:

Today's jigsaw puzzle

Puzzle Description