It's been almost five years since I posted on LJ. Life has taken some interesting turns.

At the time of my last post, my husband and I had recently moved from the suburbs of Oklahoma City to a beautiful log house on two acres in the Blue Ridge Mountains of southwest Virginia. We've settled in wonderfully to the small community here. Hubby has been president of the local Rotary club, and is now president of the historical society. I coordinate the volunteers for the society, and serve on a board that deals with the prevention of domestic violence.

But the first years here were not my best. I became ill shortly after we arrived, and it took almost a year to diagnose the problem (including a spinal tap - NOT fun). I have a rare blood disorder called essential thrombocythemia. It's taken me almost this long to learn to spell it, LOL. What it means is that my system makes too many platelets, and they're not healthy ones. They clog my bloodstream and interfere with my oxygen flow. I got tired easily, and out of breath constantly - no fun when you live on the side of a mountain and in a two-story house. I sat/lay down a lot, got more out of shape, and gained weight :( Finally I got on a treatment that works - a chemo-like drug to which I've finally acclimated. I take a three-hour trip to UVa Medical twice a year for testing and checkups. So far, so good. As long as I stay on the meds, I should be fine.

So, now I'm dealing with the other issues - being out of shape and overweight, neither of which is a lot of fun when you're 62. But I'm slowly working at. I joined an online service called Fabulous, which helps you set life goals and make positive choices, and build them into new habits. Every week we get a new challenge, and a new habit to set for the next seven days. This week, I drew journaling - so I've come back to LJ (and started a parallel account at Dreamwidth, since LJ appears to be pretty much dead these days). Posting at least once a day is the goal, so we'll see how I do through this week.

I cleaned out my friends and communities lists, and they are woefully small now. So, if anyone would like to friend me, I'd love to make some new connections. I've updated my interests list on LJ, and will work on adding things on Dreamwidth this week. But the major short list is: baking, cross-stitch, anything LOTR or Narnia, reading (everything from sci-fi to fantasy to biography/history to psychology to...just about anything, LOL), Jane Austen (especially P&P, but I enjoy all her works), and most programs on BritBox or Acorn TV, especially the British murder mystery genre. If any of those interests are up your alley, please friend me and let's talk!