Wednesday One Way or Another

[LadyMaverick]

I had a teacher stop me today and ask me how to get started homeschooling. I told her what our state homeschool laws are (180 days) and what curriculum we are using. She is strongly considering homeschooling her 14-year-old.....while she continues working at a public school. That surprised me.

My plans for tonight have changed. Since DS8 is taking state test tomorrow we can't be late with bedtime. I have to choose between DS8 needs and the church meal needs. DS8 wins. I have sent messages to several people what needs to be done for the meal at church. Hopefully, someone will step up and get it done. DH cooked all day today and has everything ready to serve. All they have to do is pull it out of the 3 ovens, make tea and coffee, and put out the plates, cups, napkins, silverware, serving utensils, etc

[Kathryn-in-Canada]

Ok, dinner is done.

Dgs makes me feel so good. I got to dd's and she was just burping him. She had things to do so before I even said hi to him, she handed him over to me to burp. He pushed his head back, saw it was me, gave a smile and snuggled in. What a lovely welcome. I dropped them (dgs, dsil & dd) at the hospital for his physio, had my lunch and shortly after I finished eating, they were done so I headed back to pick them up.

We did Costco, and I put my frozen things in their freezer when we unloaded their frozen stuff, and then we kept on driving to a big grocery store and I finished off my grocery list. As we walked across the parking lot to the store, dd asked if I wanted to push dgs and so I took him and did my shopping and they did theirs. He was able to reach the wire side of the cart and played with that in his fingers, watched things go buy as we went down aisles and smiled and paid attention to me as I talked to him. So I had a lovely time with him.

At the end he was really vocal with me, babbling away but vowel sounds, not hard sounds (which he seems to have stopped doing.) Dd and dsil finished going through their cash a bit before me and came over while he was talking away. Dd said he hasn't 'talked' that much in ages.

He was good in the car on the way back. By now it was almost 3 hours since his last feed and not a whimper at all. We got back to his house and she sat him on the potty and he was happy to smile at me and then played peak a boo with me using a towel that was hanging above him. She's giving him chances to go on the potty, not to train him but to train herself a bit to catch him and ease cleanup. He likes it so why not, especially since she's had some success and it is another chance for him to practice sitting up. He was twisted today and the physio people say it is because of his shots and teething, there's been no progress over the past few weeks. I also got to see his new tooth today. Since he got it 2 weekends ago, he'd hide it under his tongue. He still plays with it with his tongue like an older child would play with a loose tooth. I also think I see the next one getting close to the surface.

Anyway right until he was about to be fed, he didn't fuss at all. He signed milk to me while I was cradling him while him mom got the breast pump hooked up (she pumps one side while nursing on the other and the milk is donated to an older child who cannot tolerate any food at all.) When she took him he was anxious enough to pull at her bra but no whimpering.

He was simply as good as gold all the time I was with him today.

Sorry to brag so much about him. But it made the hour long drive home more bearable after! (Rush hour was really bad because there's also a hockey game, first game of the playoffs.) I ended up taking the route home through downtown Ottawa. Counter-intuitive that driving home through downtown streets is faster than taking the freeway but that's the second time it worked out for me. I know it was faster because up on the highway was a sign saying how long to get to the exit 2 miles before mine and it was 35 minutes, the longest I've ever seen. I was home in 40 minutes after seeing the sign so know it was faster.

Dh met me at the car and helped me bring up all the groceries.

He then took down all the boxes to be shredded and went for pizza. The boxes will be dropped off tomorrow. The business meeting here today was put off until tomorrow so I'll spend tonight finishing the tidying so they can meet at the dining table and brainstorm tomorrow.

[Nancy]

Dinner is done, I did pizza burgers. They were ok but not awesome. That works for me. Did get the dishes rinsed off. Weather is supposed to be rainy tomorrow. so I will be working in all those piles legt in my creativity room. I am crocheting a hot pad to use up the last of some 4 ply cotton yarn.

[lucylee]

One way or another. I'll say. I will get to visit with you ladies here, ONE WAY OR ANOTHER.
Whew. What a day.
I am beginning to feel like Little Suzy Homemaker.

I know y'all are ROFLOL at that comment... poor lucy... she's cooking meat in the oven and suddenly she thinks she is Betty Crocker.

Honestly, though... this is such a CHANGE for this household.

Today,
I have washed and hung to dry 4 loads of clothes, including master bedroom sheets, (but clean sheets are not on the bed yet.)
I have been to the drug store & library, and picked up dgs at school.
I have bathed dgd and dressed both dgrands for Easter pictures -- ds then picked them up and took them to meet ddil at friend's house where they were taking pictures.
I have washed & capped a container of strawberries for dgs's party tomorrow, and found an Easter basket for him to use. (I already had strawberries, and they cannot find last year's basket.)
I have typed and emailed teacher organization minutes from last meeting.
I have talked on phone to dmom, preacher whose son used to mow yard at dmom's 2nd house, ds/ddil (repeatedly), dfriend out of town who called to ask about dh, treasurer from teacher organization who asked that I include a reminder re: dues in the email, pharmacist, and dh's nurse from cardiac clinic (twice), and bank autoteller line to make sure dh's SS was deposited.
I have written a check to the IRS that took all of that SS check plus all but $200 of my retirement check for this month...
I have cooked supper -- baked chicken breasts with Mrs. Dash and heated up black-eyed peas and corn on the cob from Monday.
I have washed dishes and s/s kitchen. How do you people DO this all the time???
and
I have listened to dh moan and groan all afternoon.
* Nurse says he can continue taking 6 mg med in the morning and increase to 12 mg at night only, for a week or so. Those phone calls were re: the fact that dh has felt much worse since beginning the increased dosage of this heart medicine. She says unfortunately, his complaints are not unusual for patients increasing this medicine.

I have NOT cuop yet...

[Lilac]

Kathryn, brag away. Reading your post made me so happy at the relationship you have with dgs. He is blessed to have a doting grandma and I love to hear about him.

After spending so much of the last 4 weeks helping at dd2s down the street house, I decided I was done. Monday I stayed home and worked on getting my tax info ready to file. Yesterday after dh's chiro appt. we tackled the taxes. Last year we owed since dh had received 2 months worth of income from his unused vacation money and had taken money out of his 401k when he rolled it over to his IRA, to reimburse our savings for the motorhome. So we were pleasantly surprised to find out we are receiving a refund from federal. That is a first in many years. So after filing our 2016 taxes, we know that we are having enough money held out each month for federal taxes.

Late this afternoon I mowed after walking with dd1 and running errands. After running errands I seen that dd2 was at the house so I stopped by. She was loading the last cleaning supplies and misc. in her car. I cleaned the last corner of the counter top and backsplash where she had had things piled. I also was able to clean the island because it was finally free of misc. Then she started taking pictures of the house. Before she left, she placed the for sale sign in the yard. Within a short period of time she had 2 calls. One just asked questions, the other wanted to see it tonight. So she showed it. They are asking 279,900 and this couple offered 270,000 and closing costs. Dd2 and her dh want to show it more before accepting that offer. I don't blame them. They are going to tell the couple that if they are still interested, they would rather sell it themselves than have to pay a realtor 7% to sell it, if it doesn't sell within 2 weeks. I hope they can get a better offer, but time will tell.

Since I didn't spend 3 days over there this week, dd2 had to buckle down and finish it. Many days while I was helping her, I was there after she left for the day. All I know is I felt FREE, when I left there after helping her for that little while today.

My house needs cleaned!

The church is having their annual day of service a week from Saturday. I want and need to go through all of my clothes and get rid of what doesn't fit, what I don't wear, etc. etc. Everything donated is free to whoever needs it. It is crazy how many clothes are donated each year. Anyway I want to start working on that project soon.

When we had all of that rain, dh checked the motorhome and we had had a leak. He was all depressed and was talking about trading it in. I reminded him that if he had been patient and waited until after he retired, we might have found something else and too late now. He was able to put this wide tape made for this on the area that cracked. It is this piece that is like trim at the top of the back of the motorhome. He called the factory and they had 1 and also the side pieces. I figured we might as well replace them while we were at it. The local guy will replace them when he replaces the air conditioner. I just feel like we need to keep this and fix things as needed.We don't want to buy new because of the cost, so any used motorhome will need things fixed. Anyway the 3 pieces arrived on Monday and were in perfect condition. Dh was leery about UPS delivering them, but it wasn't a problem. We had the motorhome parked here for about 6 days but took it back to it's rental space today. I really wanted to start stocking it with things we will need but didn't have the time between dd2s house, income tax and the clothing donation hanging over my head, so I will do that after I get squared away around here.

So that is what has been happening in my corner of the world but I have stayed cuop.

Better head to bed soon.