That's not thunder you hear . . .

it's coughing. Coming from me. I think I might be getting better, but I'm not sure yet. I've been sick since last Tuesday. Left-brain brought this home, he had it first, was out of work most of last week, got better, then I got it. Much worse than he did. One of the things I've realized over the past week is that, if you are not 100% healthy to begin with, all the cold remedies that they have that are safe to take don't work for anything. Or my body doesn't want them--Robitussin did not agree with me. My doctor gave me cough medicine with codeine, but I can't take that and drive, so I can't take that that much, since I practically live in my car. Left-brain said I need to take a day off work and rest, since I will never get better just "go-go-go." I rolled my eyes at him. But I can almost pull a full breath today. That is an improvement!

I haven't been stitching very much as a result. I did finish my Secret Needle Night kit on Saturday, right on time. I'll try to get a pic of it, without the beads and buttons since I am changing those out. It's OK, but I can't think of anything to use if for myself, so it's out the door as a gift for a friend. I pulled out an old JAB Co Stitch Every Day kit, called Lucky Dog, and I'm working on that one. I used to order these all the time, and really not sure why I never stitched them. Probably for the same reason I never stitched all the Secret Needle Night kits, I just got overwhelmed and gave up trying to do them.

I wonder if we super-stashers could be labeled as some type of hoarder? When I look at my sewing room and think of all the money that has been spent of charts and threads, is it really that different than those people on A&E? I'm not saying that my sewing room is full of trash and feces, and dead animals (scratch that, my sewing room does have a dead animal in it, but does it count if it's the cremated remains of my dog and I do actually know where she is? She's on the bookshelf.), but, seriously, if someone came into your stash storage area and said, "You need to let this go, because it has no value," would you docilely agree, or would you kick and scream and try to explain why your world is a better place for having every cross stitch magazine ever published? Do hoarders ever feel that momentary guilt when they look at their stuff that occasionally runs through me, like, "You could probably have a really good stock portfolio or a nice down-payment for a house if you hadn't bought all this stuff?" Fortunately, that guilt is quick and goes away.

One of the things that I am going to keep harping on myself about this year is to become a better caretaker of my things. To have more respect for them and to be a better steward of the blessings I have been given. So far, that has manifested itself in this determination I have to consume less and use what I have, since what good is it to have a pretty chart and never stitch it? And I am proud of myself--I'm planning to stitch Hallow Eden by Plum Street Samplers as a wedding sampler to display during the fall, and part of me says, "Don't dig through the giant tub of floss, or the bobbin boxes, buy new, get the rush, you know you wanna!" and, thus far, I've been able to tell that part to shut up. Sometimes it's not that easy. But, thinking about using the $4 saved from using floss in my stash to frame the finish, and being a good steward of both the floss I have, and the money I could use for framing, that helps a lot! Don't get me wrong, our CVS is by Michaels and it was quite a fight to not walk into Michaels after picking up my cold medicine on Saturday, but I felt pretty good when I got home . . . and it wasn't because of the codeine, LOL.

Does anyone else ever have this internal conflict? I know a lot of people have shied away from S.E.X. in large quantities, but it makes me wonder if I'm a freak or just normal . . . whatever passes for normal.