Wonderful Wednesday PWYC

[Harmony]

Funny how I think of things as I sleep, and they're on my mind when I wake up. I was worrying about certain information being in all those papers we put in the recycling bin yesterday. So I wheeled it back in and went through it all again. I did find one packet of stuff I should have kept back. Then I went back to the closet and found those papers I was worrying about still there.

And I also had more thoughts about something we kept. I decided to pitch all that except for the past 3 years. It was a big job, took a couple hours to go through it all, remove a lot of staples as I went, and look page by page for personal information, ours and all the employees we had for the past 15 years. I found lots of places where Social Security numbers were printed on their forms (by the ins. company). It's no wonder there is so much identity theft. I'm very careful with people's information.

So, one more good-sized bin emptied.

Dailies done. Made us lunch. Amazing it's May already.

[Kathryn-in-Canada]

Blessed: Dh's mother had a 7 meal rotation. Friday was fish, Saturday burgers, Sunday roast, etc. A lot of the time she used the same 7 meals as well. With 4 kids and a very small house and kitchen and being unable to drive until the children were older, all made this the most effective way to cook. By the time dh was in his early teens, they went out for dinner once a week, parents to a Mexican restaurant and the kids to the Red Barn (fast food burger) across the parking lot.

I'm home from the concert. Dh is at a doctor's appointment. The ground was dry when I step out of the arts centre but there was the occasional ice pellet. By the bus stop just before mine, the ice pellets started to come down steadily and it was a wet and slippery walk home. Ice pellets are like teeny-tiny hail coming down with the speed of a moderate rain shower. They make ticking noises and bounce off you as you walk along.

I'm making turkey soup for my lunch now.

[blessedw2]

hi

d kathryn my own cooking is repetitive to a point. I tried freshly for 2 weeks and I can't complain! the service was great for a time but I can see it's better for me to keep it simple and cook earlier in the day so i don't let the inner brat in me take over and eat junk bc I am tired.
I have to learn to cook for one or two - rarely does dh have anything but a plain hamburger at night. it's been like this forever. Before I had DDS and friends to cook for. I will just have to keep it simple and cut down recipes to fit in our current lifestyle. I think part of the problem is that I am spoiled rotten - I used to cook some fancy schmancy meals, (when their were lots of people in and out of our house).

How was the concert d kathryn???? it sounded lovely

hi d harmony,
i am glad you found those papers. Worry nightmares about real life events weigh on ones mind!
wahoo on your decluttering.

[blessedw2]

mouse guy came over
and things are slowing down. I dislike having poison in the house.

well back to reality before I drag myself down. force myself to continue on and CHANGE THE ATTITUDE.
I ordered groceries today. I would rather go to the store but I am not able to go until tomorrow.

[LadyMaverick]

I'm home from town.

I went looking for Miloš Karadaglić music and that lead me on a merry adventure listening to the various guitar artist. The talent and sound are hypnotizing. I have the guitar music playing in the background now.

sidetrack warning......watching Physics can be very satisfying while listening to amazing guitar music is even more hypnotizing.

We had a whopper of a thunderstorm last night. Thankfully there was no damage here. We got a little over 1.5" of rain.

[Twins' Mom]

It's now 2:30. I got back here a maybe 1.5 hrs ago and dd showed up feeling low and now I've lost any momentum I had. And I feel depressed too. I wonder if I need to shut myself off and tell her she needs a therapist to give me break. I just can't take her anxiety over so much. I'm about to have a good cry myself and she's gone about her business.

I had hoped to get back to genealogy this week somehow but everything is working against me. I did go ahead and call our pest control service about our ants coming in and about carpenter bees in the back. I hate poisons too bw2, but need to do it.

I'm going to nap. I feel pretty depressed right now.

[Kathryn-in-Canada]

The concert was very good.

This is a rehearsal so they play the piece through, then go back and replay bars or movements until the conductor is getting the sound he wants.

First piece was Fanny Mendelsohn Hensel's Overture in C Major. It sounded familiar but I had never heard of her, just Felix Mendelsohn (her brother.) Turns out she published under his name (because their father felt she shouldn't publish her compositions.) Not sure if this is one of the pieces he published for her.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fanny_Mendelssohn

Here's the Overture.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_cont ... vZdsZLuS6Q

The second piece gave us the honour of being in the first audience to hear the Concerto "Forest" played. It is wonderful. It is a good thing we liked it because it was also the rehearsal in prep for tonight's world premiere and they returned to passage after passage as they worked on it.

Howard Shore (composer of the Lord of the Rings and Hobbit and lots of other stuff, plus a member of the Canadian rock band, Lighthouse) was there to hear it. He had written the piece, specifically for Milos, and it was interesting to watch him following the score during the play-through and then he had lots of comments as well.

Then there was a break and Shore had a chat with us.

As this was a world premiere, there is no recording of the piece to share with you!

Dh remembers Shore coming to perform at a dance at his high school with Lighthouse. Their big hit was Sunny Days which came out when I was 12. Given the snow/ice/rain we're getting, I'll give you a link to that to brighten your day.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P8IcW5TtP0E

Finally was Brahms Symphony 1 in C minor which was completely unfamiliar to me. And isn't at all what I think of when I think of Brahms. The tympani was well used throughout the piece and since my sister was a tympani player, I have a fondness for the instrument. We had switched seats and had a perfect view of the tympani (we were centre to see Milos hands on the guitar for the first half.)

Here's the symphony:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EGRqIGOAPcE

(Bernstein plays it slower than others and we didn't hear all the movements before we left since dh had his doctor's appointment to get to. But this shows the tymp at the opening of the piece.

As I was listening to the music, I circled back to Blessed's question from Monday, "Where are your joy times (in this week.)"

So I can report back that yesterday's dgs leading me home on our walk was a joy as well as the long walk dh and I took in the afternoon.

This morning the Mendelsohn was a delight and the Shore was a joy.

So thanks to Blessed for putting that thought of looking for joys in my battle-weary brain.

[lucylee]

Thinking of all of your community during this terrible weather, (((Kathryn))). But yes, in the words of Charlene Darling, that is a pretty man.

Rain is headed our way as well, and it is the weekend of a major town festival here. With the mess from the burned buildings combined with the rain, it is not looking very good for this event. Fortunately, I have no responsibilities or obligations at all and will most likely not even attend.
I love our little town, but I am just not much for big crowds and all that goes with this sort of thing. Plus, I don't need to be spending $$$ at this time, and y'all know how all these places are -- vendors lined up as tight as they can be with all sorts of goodies to tempt a person. Same reason I didn't go to the thing last week in ddad's hometown. DGS doesn't want to go, so there's no incentive to take him, and our church, which was planning to sell cupcakes, has backed out because of the forecast rain.

Dmom has called three times. My goodness. She is turning into my grandmother. First was to tell me how much she had cleared out of the playhouse, which is now used for storage. Second was to get ddil's phone number b/c she couldn't get ds on the phone. Third was to correct ddil's phone number b/c she wrote it down wrong. * sheesh * Plus I called her once to tell her about dfriend (J&C JOY.)

ROFLOL -- I read that as MOOSE guy came over, blessed!
I need a mouse guy. Actually, from the sound of the noise underneath my bathtub at night, I may need a raccoon or possum guy. It certainly sounds like a LARGE animal is carrying on under there. (Not as large as a moose, though... ) DH simply cannot get under the floor to inspect it, and ds is not very eager to do so, either. Besides, our house is approx 90' long. This is at the far end from the access door, and on the end where the crawl space gets much tighter. I don't mind one bit having poison under the house but I need someone to get it under there. The only good mouse is a dead mouse. Same with the snakes that will be coming to eat them. I want all snakes and all mice on this place dead dead dead. It might be a snake under there now. Could be a python for all I know. * sheesh *

I did get my second wind last night, decluttered a LOT of papers -- actually, envelopes. I threw away the envelopes from greeting cards... but not the greeting cards themselves. I have a HUGE -- HUGE -- collection of greeting cards. I don't think I've ever thrown away a single one. And I still can't make myself part with them. It's kind of ridiculous. Marie Kondo would just have a fit. But it's amazing how much space the envelopes take up in themselves.
I also decluttered some books that were just embarrassing to have around -- y'all remember The Total Woman by Marabelle Morgan (I think?) from the late 70s/early 80s? Susan Dey's Guide to Popularity...
Dmom has been somewhat inspiring to me.

I also exercised, just trying for 15 min daily to develop consistency habit right now.

Got names and dates in dmom's family Bible through ddad & dmom's great-grandparents & aunts and uncles.

Got photos in monthly "folders" on computer -- will eventually have these printed, but not immediately in my plan.

I have one more section of greeting cards to go through and I plan to do that today.

In fact -- 5x5 -- but it's more like 5 6 x midnight :
1. Greeting card declutter
2. Change sheets
3. Exercise
4. Supper, s/s kitchen
5. Church -- talk to lady who got dh and me all upset Sunday re: worship changes, share dh's point of view on all this stuff
6. Review/update calendar for the month

(((Harriet, HRH, dd))) I can't even imagine all the emotions dd is going through right now!

We have white plastic on the ground in our crawlspace, but I don't know if it's a true "moisture barrier." I'm positive we did not pay a high dollar amount for it like you are talking about, blessed. We had insulation under the floor, but duct work condensation caused it to get wet and messy and we had a guy come in and take it all out. It was providing a great nesting space for mice, etc. and was just a mess. Even my ddad said we'd be fine without it.
Boy... ds so desperately needs his basement sealed and repaired. $$$...

RE: the birds, Twins -- YES -- put something shiny up there. The aluminum foil at my back door did the trick! Of course, nothing could possibly have looked more like "You might be a redneck..." and I don't think dh would have allowed it at the front door, but it worked. If you can hang it out of sight, a blank CD or pie plate dangling in the wind will help also. (But that did not help me in this case; the bird started building right beside the CD.) I've also heard people say rubber snakes work, but I've never tried that.
(((Twins))) I hope you feel better after a nap. It is so hard not to let our children's emotions affect our own. (((BIG HUGS)))

Waving to Nancy! Hope everything goes well today!

WTG, Harmony! You're getting so much done!

We have a sort of meal rotation, with no particular day assigned. We go through baked/broiled fish, baked/broiled chicken, hamburgers, and Philly Cheese sandwiches, which are NOT my favorite. I use the Steak-Ums slices because they are relatively low sodium, and Swiss cheese. DH doesn't even want peppers and onions on his, but I add them to mine w/some Cajun spices, salt, pepper, and garlic salt. The fish and chicken, I use Cajun spice & onions and peppers on mine and Mrs. Dash lemon-pepper on his, plus a little unsalted butter. Hamburgers, I just brown in a griddle pan, no added salt or anything. And we always use King's Hawaiian bread, b/c it is lower sodium than most brands.
Boring boring boring... but dh usually loses a little weight when we eat this way for a few days. Then he gains it back when we go out. He won't let me try anything else b/c he says if we're going to eat high sodium stuff, he wants to go out and eat something he really likes.

Hello to Lynlee & Dee, too!!!

Guess I better get busy!

[blessedw2]

so happy you enjoyed the concert - I will look at the links tonight!! thank you d kathryn
What a cool experience!!!!

d twins when my d girls are what I call stressed-depressed, I find it hitting me as well - it takes the life out of me if it is constant as I can't give advice. Even just listening isn't enough when dd older has her anxiety and worry as well as tears that come with not knowing which way to go next. dd older said that she and dd younger let out all their angst with me and then they both feel a little more in control. I remember thinking that dd older hated her first year of college - she adored it but I only heard when things were bad. it's overwhelming especially if I feel stressed or things are out of control and can't catch up.

Praying, d twins, she can see someone while she is adapting to work politics - unfortunately it takes time for young ones to have a good healthy boundary in there heads and having the internal strength, they need, to stand up as an adult with others who don't play by the rules or try to have power struggles instead of teaching her.

dd older boss wanted this one woman to be his new secretary - she was close to 50. At first dd thought it would be good for him but she started to tell her that their office was doing it all wrong and then proceeded to tell the boss that he was doing it all wrong as well. the woman had a huge attitude of dd being her boss, as she is young. It took dd awhile (still does at times) for her not to be walked on by this woman. It took awhile and the office as a whole suffered with the games but she went after dd twice as hard and blamed dd for her own mistakes. She didn't last long but it was a hard but valuable lesson for dd. It's hard. (it will come again; don't I know it, but I hope she can handle the situation without taking it as personally as she did the last time.

[blessedw2]

oops I can't stay - but wanted to quickly say hi to d lucy and d lady - I will look at your video this evening as well. can't wait.