SHEs Organized

hello hello
dd younger is still in the air
d brother was a God send for her as they are still serving nuts on United. even though they are not peanuts. the woman next to her said she was starved and had a peanut butter bar with her and even though dd offered to buy her a meal she said no. d brother exchanged seats with her and she wore a mask and used wipes. They told her she could take another flight - which means she basically couldn't fly at all. Thank goodness she has gloves and a mask and 2 epi pens.

I have done 2 hours of paper work - bills etc. (more computer changing of information from dh to me).

After lunch I sorted and washed 8 lbs of pinto beans and put them on to soak. Before I left home I put them on to cook in a 22 quart roaster. DH checked on them while we were gone. From what I've read on the internet the beans will be done in 5 hours. I'll let them cool down and put them in the refrigerator. Tonight I'll put the other 12 lbs of beans to soak overnight and then cook them in roaster when I get up. Hopefully by noon, all 20 lbs of beans will be cooked. Then we can just reheat them after transporting them to the church. If I had experience cooking 20 lbs of beans in the roaster, then I could just do it all in the morning using 2 roasters. But with no experience, it seemed too risky to do it when there is no time to recover. Hopefully I won't need a plan B!

DS10 and I spent 2 hours at the YMCA this afternoon. We both enjoyed every moment of it. I'm thankful. It is freezing outside so we wouldn't get much exercise today if we didn't go to the Y. Today he swam in 2 different pools, played basketball and ran the track. Two hours of physical activity for him. I did less because I'm doing small increments of improvement. I walked the track until I hit my step goal then I took a shower & wash/dried my hair. I'm still in learning mode and now have another list of items to add to my gym bag.

I made Cheesy Chicken and Noodles for dinner. This meal is a huge hit with the kids.

We have to spell the world walk here we call it the W word. H. Is home his apt. Is next week so I changed menu for tonight.
Glad I figured that out in time.
Left over soup broth was good after being outside sweeping leaves today.
Got an off white turtle neck instead of a holiday print one I can get more use out of it but too small it will go back.
No mail tomorrow in the U.S.

Dgd is better details in j & c. She is coming tomorrow after school insteat of Fri. That will work better.
I found the beads for her to string cleaning the book shelf that will be fun for her.

Looks like you can get hal mark movies on U tube.

Does anyone know how to get the Ha llmark channel (by subscription) when we don't have cable. Don't mind subscribing to that channel but don't want another 'streaming' channel subscription that would be about $50/month. Dfriend last night swears she has hallmark channel through her internet. We've looked & looked but aren't finding any possibilities.

I can watch the Hallmark and several other channels online at Watch TV everywhere. We have internet and TV service through the same provider. I'm not sure if it is the internet or TV provider that makes this a free service to watch it.

If you have A-river Prime it looks like you can add Hallmark Movie channel for $5.99 a month. I don't use this so I'm not sure. I'm just looking at their offering.

I've decided to set the entire roaster pan filled with hot beans in the back of SUV tonight. It seems an easier way to cool them down. It will be 22 degrees tonight so there is the possibility that I will have to deal with frozen beans in the morning. That still will be easier than trying to package the hot beans tonight and finding room in the refrigerators for them. Note to self.....next time cook the beans the same day they will be served!

I've been searching a couple of weeks for a recipe card for a new beef stroganoff crock pot meal I want to try. I knew the card had to exist because I took it to the store to buy the specific ingredients, which were items I wouldn't normally pick up. I was sure that I'd scribbled the note from a ytube video so searched all my favorite channels and google but couldn't find the video again. (Now I think maybe I saw it in a magazine?) I looked all over the house and in the car for the 3x5" card. I finally found it a few minutes ago in a stack of mail, where I know I have for sure looked at least 4 times.
This is the way my week is going.
I can't seem to accomplish much of anything.
Very frustrating!

Tomorrow has to be better than today because
1) I found that recipe and I can put supper in the crock pot in the morning, and
2) I sorted out the mistake I made in the hat I'm knitting so I can get moving on that again.

At least I got a couple of loads of laundry done today. Clean undies and socks, yay!

CUOP (sort of) from yesterday... just some thoughts --
I think it was Blessed who said she saw Yul Brenner in The King and I (not me)... but I did see Richard Harris in Camelot. LOVED it...
Trains. My paternal grandparents lived across the road from a train track. Dmom said when they first married and lived with my grandparents, she would wake up in the night thinking she was in a tornado. But before long, as someone else said here, she didn't even notice them anymore. I always loved watching the trains go by. The noise never bothered me as a child.
Sigh... we could also hear drag races from a nearby track on summer Saturday nights when the windows were open (no ac). Oh my... what I wouldn't give to be able to go back and re-visit those days for a while. (At least until dmom is back to "normal." Ha. It's like nothing has been normal since my ddad died. And it's not just that I miss him... it's that I miss the person my dmom used to be, too.
My ddad would have turned 79 tomorrow.

TODAY, dh told me to get some rest. He and ds went Christmas shopping and then to a college basketball game. They left around 9:00 a.m. and won't be back till around midnight. I got up when dh did, (even though Fitbit says I got only 4 hrs 42 minutes sleep) took my shower, washed my hair, and shaved my legs. I tried to lie down and sleep some more, but I guess the stress of all this just has my adrenaline going wild or something. I have not been sleepy all day. (I've gotten in over 11,000 steps today, BTW. Woo hoo for ME!)

Then... phone calls/texts/etc...
-- pharmacy
-- ass't living administrator
-- nurse at family doctor's office
-- dmom
-- dfriend who paints Christmas ornaments
-- nurse at neurologist's office
-- ddil
-- friend who does engraving (trophies, etc.)

Then... errands...
-- post office
-- went with ddil to trophy engraver friend (ddil needed a nameplate engraved)
-- library (WHY do I want to check out 3 books? I have newspapers stacked up since last Thursday!)
-- dmom's house (she wanted her make-up brushes, I took the garbage to the road, and sorted out the pile of stuff we had dumped in the floor from a junk drawer b/c we were taking the table it was in to ass't living)
-- grocery store (for dmom -- bananas and applesauce)
-- picked up pizza for my supper

Mixed in with all this... housework... and Christmas prep...
-- S/S bathrooms, including dh's shower and master bath mirrors
-- changed sheets
-- washed 3 loads of clothes
-- put up Christmas tree (only got lights on it though) and
-- put candles in windows
-- also tried to figure out how to record directly to disc on my DVD recorder.

Last night, I spent forever getting today organized. I had all kinds of notes and scribbles from dmom's appt yesterday, plus my random listing of OMM tasks. DH said I spent more time planning than Eisenhower did for the invasion of Normandy. LOL... I just had to have it all organized, and it REALLY helped. I folded a sheet of paper in fourths and each quadrant was divided by general area --
* Phone calls and computer work
* Housework
* Errands
* Christmas prep

Still OMM...
-- Get pics from dmom's photo album onto my computer
-- Take pic album to H*bby L*bby and see if they have posts to re-attach the covers and if they can show me how to do it. The posts are there, but they must be stripped out or something.
-- Type and send minutes to retired teacher group
-- Take "gently used" coats to goodwill or school coat drive
-- Dust/Vacuum
-- Put out house decorations
-- Finish decorating tree
-- Organize gift list, what I've spent, what's still to buy
-- Shop
-- Sign/address Christmas cards
-- Buy Christmas stamps
-- Color hair

I guess staying busy helps keep my mind off my panic re: dmom and frustration re: dbro and general exhaustion re: life.

Tomorrow I have to leave here by 8:00 a.m. and dmom has appts at 9:20, 10:30, and 12:30. Plus we have to go by the pulmonologist's office and get orders for another x-ray next week. Doctor said what he saw on yesterday's x-ray isn't a SERIOUS problem, but "because her body has been through all this trauma" he wants to keep an eye on it. So she gets another x-ray next week and sees him next Thurs. In the meantime, she may be signing on for 2-3 days a week at the "Balance Clinic." It is approx 30-45 minutes from my house to ass't living, and then another 20-30 to the doctor's office. I know GPS said I could make the entire trip in 46 minutes, but one has to account for stopping, getting her out the door, and traffic and red lights. I allowed an hour yesterday, but that was NOT enough time. We were late to the ENT, but fortunately, he seemed to be running late too.