Today, the day before the day of waiting, I needed to find a spice in the back of the spice cupboard and needed a stool to reach it. I was delighted to see that after months of not having a handle, my step-stool now had a sturdy twine handle. I’d asked Dean to help me figure out how to make a handle for the stool because I was afraid of pinching my fingers every time I opened or closed it. He came through.

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Have you heard of Nikki McClure? Most likely not. I’d not heard of her either until I saw some of her work in Olympia where she lives, writes and creates amazing works of art with one piece of black paper cut with an X-Acto Knife. Check out her website, I guarantee you will love her artwork. (Actually, go to BuyOlympia instead — her website seems to be having trouble loading images at the moment.)

Every year I request a Nikki McClure calendar from Clare (who, as you know, lives in Olympia too). The image below is the November artwork and it hangs on my refrigerator. I looked at that this morning and whispered a tiny prayer, “Please.”