Be sure to sell or give away that beautiful old railing and not throw it on a heap. I happen to like it. But indeed, it might look better in black. The railing you have posted instead gave me some shudders. Quite a contrary style and not one I'd welcome in my home. Way too modern for a ranch home, is what comes to my mind. If you are really going to get a new railing, I like the one Judy proposed, although I wouldn't want it in white at your place. Perhaps in black and the railing that matches the wood of the stairs? Or maybe something like this?

Just a quick hello from me - to let you all know my heart goes out to all of you going through tough times; it's so good to hear from you all, and I wish I could somehow get the words out to give needed comfort and hope to everyone individually, but somehow they're failing me, and have been for some time. I too miss Virginia amongst others, she was so kind to me and to so many others when in difficulties. I've been having a s**t time since November when I rashly thought I'd have a little outing into the city one evening... and relapsed (several rather traumatic events happened during and after that evening, all in quick succession, so I think that's what caused the relapse; I might have got through one or two of these challenges but not all of them, one on top of the other. As Ingrid said, any stress can exacerbate these weird auto-immune/neurological/inflammation type of illnesses like crazy.) So then I didn't have the mental or physical energy to follow the forum at all for a while, then could only manage to read but not respond/write anything; then managed to write a bit every now and then, so long as it wasn't too complex for my challenged brain (which means anything involving multitasking, like feeling and thinking/forming words at the same time (!) ...I know, it's weird!... But, as I'm getting better at using the mindfulness to dissolve the stress, and with time and rest am definitely improving now; I actually got out of my gloomy house for a little walk the other day and saw the sparkling blue sea again! So beautiful... and have even done a bit of tidying up in the garden! Whooa! 35 minutes max per session including lots of sitting, and/or lying down to rest every time I'm on the point of fainting, heart pounding, until the blood gets back to the brain and I can see and think and stand up straight again. Just pulling off dead leaves and stems from the row of agapanthus on the raised bed and tearing them up and scattering the debris for mulch. That's all I've got growing out there I'm afraid, apart from some dying, drought-struck/borer attacked natives on the verge. And lots of overgrown rye grasses around the dead lawn! But it feels great to do something out there, no matter how minor. :-)

DH and I bought our house about 18 months ago. At the time, everyone told us we were crazy to buy such a large home for essentially just the two of us. But now (and at Thanksgiving,) I am especially glad we did. DH has his office in the great room, which was a former home business office for the previous owners. It is on one end of the house, has pocket doors to close it off, and is almost soundproof. Perfect for his many conference calls each day. Our basement is finished, but mostly empty. It is the perfect place to tinker with the dollhouse. I also have a desk down there where I take my now online botany class. Here is an interesting note about that. Before everything closed, I was taking the class in person, at Longwood. There was a lot of normal classroom chatter between the professor and the students, in a structured, but loose way, if that makes sense. It was fun, filled with comraderie, and the material, while dense, was doable. Now that we're online (Zoom), the class feels more difficult--there is no banter, no visualization of hands collectively raised, suggesting others might be struggling with a point as well. Now I simply take notes and feel overwhelmed. Yes, our professor does ask if we have questions, but it's different, and more distracting to ask. Not sure this is making sense, but I imagine our college-age kids might be going through something similar. My ds is home from college and learning online. He prefers to work from the desk in his room. I do notice more stress in him after classes and he is a good student.

maifleur03 "Desertsteph meatloaf does not have to be made from beef." thx. I haven't gotten good tasting ground beef at the store in a decade or so. It could be my 'taster' tho 'cause I've notice other things I've eaten for years that I no longer like or eat. otoh, I thought back to eating burgers my BIL grilled and brought over to me on holidays (like the 4th) and they were good. so I'm hoping this Sam's club beef will make the difference. I'll cook up the Sam's club meat this next week and find out. but using another meat might be something I could try. the only option that I might like for a meatloaf would be a mild sausage. thx for the idea, I really hadn't thought of using a different meat for it.