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Delia's making leaps and bounds in reading. So far, it's based on memorizing words and recognizing them in different contexts. We're working on sounding things out, but she'd still rather guess based on the first letter and general length (sometimes taking the last letter into account). She can't yet deal with recognizing rhyming words. That is, she knows 'up' but can't go from that to 'cup' or 'pup.' She recognizes 'black' but can't get 'tack' or 'sack' until she's memorized them.

Thursday morning, Delia starts a Rec & Ed dance class for kids 2-5 years old. Another family from pre-school will be giving us transportation. The other mother says that this class is pretty laid back and generally consists of music playing while the kids do their own things. Delia's nervous about it and keeps insisting that she already knows how to dance. For me, the hardest part will be that the class starts at 9:15. That means that we have to be out the door at 9:00. Delia often isn't *awake* by 9:00 (she's been staying up late in her room, looking at books and playing with her dolls. She often only falls asleep about 11:00).

The poor girl's bored right now. Her pre-school follows the public school calendar, so there's no class today and thus no social outlet for her. I've done a bit of calling around to see about possible play dates, but people either aren't home or are busy at home and not available to go out visiting. (I didn't try cherydactyl's family because her younger daughter spent the night Friday and because I'm not sure when she's getting home from her trip.)

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The last couple of weeks have been filled with literal headaches and other bodily rebellions. That means that I haven't accomplished much else. I did manage two meals yesterday that were more than simple carbohydrates, so I feel accomplished.

I'm fiddling with things, trying to see if I can change anything to get rid of the headaches. Right now, I'm stopping the magnesium supplement (I started it last week) for a few days to see if that makes a difference. I also should probably learn how to irrigate my sinuses because pressure there seems to be setting off migraines. Sudafed and Mucinex and lots and lots of water helps but isn't solving the problem (plus, lots and lots of water isn't an option within three hours of when I want to sleep).

The folks doing the long term disability review have decided that they can, this time, take my psychotherapist's opinions in spite of her not having an MD. I wonder how much this has to do with the nasty letter that I wrote about the behavior of the psychiatrist they sent me to last time and the fact that I cc'd an attorney (my uncle) on it.

On the down side, my psychotherapist has retired. Due to the various illnesses in the family and the holidays, I hadn't seen her since early October. She retired at the end of October but didn't want to tell me by phone or letter, so I found out last Tuesday. She's set me up with someone else who she hopes will be a good match for me. I'm not happy about the change, and anxiety over it is certainly contributing to my current headaches, but I'm also not really surprised. Lena is seventy and not in very good health. I'd had a worry about her retiring (or dying) in the back of my head for a while but had been unwilling to say anything because I knew that doing so would make the anxiety solidify and hurt me.

(Yes. It sucks big time to have that sort of block against being sensible. I have a sort of weird constant calculator going in the back of my head that measures the relative cost of pre-planning versus waiting and dealing with things only when I have to. It's not conscious, but I do know it's going on. It's part of what I refer to when I talk about dissociating from things that make me anxious. It's a crutch, but it lets me walk.)

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I'm trying to figure out what I want to try to do tomorrow and Wednesday. I definitely need to get to the post office to mail some BookMooch packages, and I'd like to return some things to the library. Picking up my library holds would be nice but is something that I can put off for a few more days. I'd like to do a little shopping at a drug store. I'd like another gel pack to stick in the freezer for when I need to ice things.

Speaking of shopping, I feel a little odd-- I just ordered my deodorant via Amazon. The drug store where we've bought it for years (none of the grocery stores we've checked carry the brand) hasn't had it for months. Since this is partly an allergy issue, I'm reluctant to switch if I don't absolutely have to, but I'm also not willing to send Scott off to scour every drug store in town or to call places myself. Figuring in the postage and handling costs and assuming that I buy five at once, a bottle of roll-on costs about fifty cents more online than it did in the store (at least six months ago).

In addition to catching up on my book logging, I've started working on writing my recs. I did thirteen yesterday and another six today. My minimum goal for the week was twelve, so I'm ahead even if I don't do any more this week. I'm not going to post them to the website until I'm caught up and can do a large update. After that, I'll try to do an update every month or two. Recs are *much* easier to write when one still remembers more about the story one wants to rec than, 'Yeah. I read that and liked it. What fandom was it in again?'

I've worked through several books from my to-be-read stack. Most, I didn't finish, just started and decided not to finish. Still, gaps on the shelves are gaps, however they come to be there, and I'm ahead of my book a week.

I'm doing okay with my crocheting, too, though it's been a week since I finished that hat. The hat is made from two remnants that don't entirely go together. I figured that that gave me latitude to experiment. If the colors worked better, I'd count it as a rousing success since the shape came out the way I wanted it to.

I haven't yet managed much else in terms of my goals. Having headaches to log somehow makes doing the logging harder, especially when the headaches don't go away completely (and because I don't have my logging template set yet and don't have the habit established). I desperately want a thorough neck and shoulder massage. I don't know how much it would help the headaches, but having my neck and shoulders hurt less couldn't hurt in general.

Watching some of the various things that I want to watch will have to wait on having a better screen on my laptop. Right now, everything but blue, black, gray or white ends up some shade of brown due to the excess blue in the screen.

I will note-- I don't think the screen is causing my headaches. Using it or not using it doesn't seem to affect whether or not the headache worsens except during the times when any use of my eyes seems to make things worse or when I'm foolish enough to try to play solitaire.