Thursday Top Priority

[blessedw2]

dd younger made roasted veggies with a lemon/olive oil with parsley/rosemary/thyme

[Harriet]

Lynlee, you're better off not having to worry about showers and just put up with the clothes temporarily.

Back and forth with new A-river situation here. (being their own delivery service) 2 different packages hopelessly lost at this point, and now others saying what I was told last evening was never followed through. They no longer seem to be able to be who they once were - at least not in my area.

In the meantime, lip gloss arrived in mailbox, right on time, in its tiny package. Maybe I just need to buy tiny gifts, one at a time.

Drinking water right now - I think I've been gradually reducing my intake. Looking at my watch, I know this is really playing catch up at this time of day. Maybe this is because I now drink coffee once or sometimes twice a day and count that when it's not as "countable" as I think.

Mopped the kitchen.

[Nancy]

Top priority seemed to be last today needed to talk w h about paperwork. Sigh did not go very well. Holiday has messed up mail and some stuff I did not want to deal with see j & c . Have both been a bit under the weather this week.

[Lilac]

While watching 3 recorded Hallmark movies I worked on the tree. It is all done except for digging the Raggedy Ann ornaments out of the top of the closet in the, where else, Raggedy Ann room.

Dgs13 was here after school. Dd2 came with dgs11. Then dsil showed up with the 2 girls. Dgd8 changed into her gymnastics attire. Dgd6 was glued to the tree. When dsil got ready to leave with dgs13 and dgd6, dgd6 declared that she wanted to live with us and our ornaments. And that is why I spend so much time on my Christmas tree. Then dd2 left to take dgd8 to gymnastics, dgs11 to basketball practice and herself to workout.

In 24 years of buying H allmark ornaments, for the first time ever, I was unable to get an ornament. I let the grandkids pick out their own ornament, from my ornament book. This year dgd8s choice of M oana was ordered and ordered and reordered. Finally Tuesday the local store was notified that it was no longer available. So tomorrow after they come to change clothes for basketball practice, we will go to the local H allmark store and let her pick out an ornament. I let the boys take their ornaments home tonight, since they will be going back to their dad's tomorrow. I finally cut off the yearly ornaments after buying their last ornament, the year they turn 21. That was hard to do.

Guess I better finish the tree............

[blessedw2]

hi lilac

dishes now washing themselves in the dw
I still have 2 pots and a bowl to wash but I am taking a break
I put away leftovers

what still needs to be done:
some more dishes
wash counters,
wash stove top
clean sink
vacuum kitchen floor
swiffer rinse kitchen floor

no I don't want to do it but I don't want to wake up to it either - I shall see how I feel - dd youngers fell asleep again - I can't wait until her body gets better and regular

[lucylee]

I'm trying to decide when to cut off yearly ornaments for dniece & dnephew, Lilac -- and dnephew is 26, I think! And doesn't even put up a tree of his own! This might be a good year to stop that.

I do need to look for new ornaments for dgrands. I usually get ds/ddil one also. And I like to add to our tree each year. But OTOH, I'm about running out of TREE. DGS said last night, "There is no where else to hang this one!" I do NOT have space or energy for a second tree... so I don't know what to do about this. We do hang at least 6 dozen plastic apples on the tree, ranging in size from very small to medium to large. I could certainly take away some of those and never notice. They were on our very first Christmas tree. DDIL thought it was b/c we were teachers. I never even thought about that, I just thought "country Christmas," and "decorations of red on a green Christmas tree." I have a (fake) popcorn string garland too, but ds never liked it, and it was a lot of trouble to get it somewhat evenly spaced, so I haven't used it in a long time.

No Christmas prep today.

Today has been
-- take dgs to school
-- pay water bill, electric bill
-- help dh with parking permit order for ballgame this weekend
-- phone calls & texts with ds/ddil/dbil/dmom
-- prepare chicken and dressing
* Is it possible to do this without messing up every dish and utensil one owns???
>>> Boil chicken
>>> Cook biscuits (Pillsbury Grands)
>>> Cook cornbread (Martha White)
>>> Wash/chop celery
>>> Stew celery and (precut) onions
>>> Boil, peel, chop eggs
>>> Shred chicken in mixing bowl
>>> Melt butter
>>> Combine and mix all ingredients
* This better taste good tomorrow. * whew *
-- pick up dgs at school
-- grocery store for gravy
-- cook hamburgers & corn on the cob for supper
-- wash what seemed like every pan in the kitchen
-- bake 3 doz cookies (Pillsbury refrigerator w/added pecans)

I am wiped out.

DGS had a pretty good day at school, but he was wiped out too (though he would NEVER admit it!) I doubt they'll have trouble getting him to sleep tonight.

I need to get an A-river order completed. I did order 3 Christmas gifts last night, and I am so excited about them! Cutting boards with dmil's sugar cookie recipe laser engraved on them -- for ds/ddil, dniece, and dnephew. I hope they turn out nice. I ordered them from a site I found on e t s y.

[Kathryn-in-Canada]

Harriet: delivery issues are true here. A-River cut out good delivery companies in order to cut costs and are reaping the results.

I've written and sent out the summary of today. I hope I did ok. There wasn't much to say but I did want to highlight numbers since people were really upset with L for refusing to settle. The difference will be, in 2 years, $6 a month for each $1000 in rent. It was as little as $1 per month/$1000 at the end of the first year. So nothing to get upset over. Rents are going up (mine is supposed to go up $153 per month.) But the amount that was offered for us to settle was so small it made no sense to take the offer. Better to try and fight for more by having the adjudicator look at all the expenses we think are improperly charged to us (according to the law.)

I'm currently underpaying my rent by $97 per month because I only have to pay the legal minimum until this is settled. I do need to start putting that money aside, though. If the hearing isn't until April, by the time I get the bill for the shortfall (there will be a shortfall - I know that) it will be over $1000. That's not spare change.

Dh is in bed so I guess I should get there too. I just realized I forgot to start the humidifiers in the early evening so the room will be too dry. It was 24% when I was there before dinner. I like it to be at 30% before I turn out the light.

[Lilac]

The big upstairs tree is finished. At some point I will put up the smaller one in the basement family room. I call it his tree, because I have car, truck, motorcycle and sports ornaments on it.

Tomorrow I need to buy groceries, run some errands and then come home and get started decorating the house.....

I need to remember to call the bank tomorrow. I tried to access our account online and it said there was an error. I should only look at our account when they are open, so I can immediately talk to someone.

Very sad to read that a classmate has passed away from cancer. Her dstepd wrote the most beautiful, loving post to her on FB.

[Harriet]

And that is why I spend so much time on my Christmas tree.

Sigh. I guess that's inspiring, Lilac, and will help to get me to stop saying to myself why am I doing this. One sad feeling I had today is that ds' family tree is rather sparse of ornaments. Mine, of course, has potential to be so full, but some are his (and his sisters') little childhood crafts. I think the way I feel about it is that those are precious to me, not to him.

But there is only one ornament on his tree that I made, and that's like "the cobbler's children have no shoes" because I could make them more. (In fairness, they do also have 3 hearts I made, but use them at Valentine's.) I want so much to make more, for them and the rest of family, but it's just hard to find time. That dovetails into how much I'd just love to craft/sew in general, too. Time, time.

Kathryn, this sounds like it was a difficult day for you. I hope you feel some closure now.

[Nancy]

I do not feel like decorating for Christmas, but did get the santa hat out and the blocks for kids today, & the blocks in the shapes of nativity, and the smaller creche so at least I did something.

I need to do evening routine it is time we had soup from a can for for dinner.
Tomorrow turkey taco soup has been planned I need to get tky sausage thawed out. Nope taco soupbwill need to wait till h tummy issues settle down a bit.

P m routine help me to get a grip. Listening to some nice music now before bed it is helping.