THURSDAY - THOUGHTFULNESS

[Twins' Mom]

Another round, done in the MBR except for vacuuming floors and rugs. I am not going to damp mop there this week. I swept to get the worse of it up before I dusted that room. There'a lot of dog fur since the bed she uses most is there. I'm working toward finishing dusting for the house, so tomorrow I only have floors and what's left of the kitchen. I work on kitchen all week.

I am SO bored with my own cooking.

Same here, Elizabeth.

[Harmony]

Elizabeth, I was a stay-at-home wife after the first couple of years. After those years I was unable to work outside the home because I was also taking care of a handicapped husband. I was not unhappy staying home. Occasionally I got a small part time job, but they didn't last long. What was the norm those days is people always were asking me, "and what do YOU do?" And it was embarrassing to say nothing...because that's what stay-at-homes were thought to be doing. I remember being mighty busy.

The difference is these days there almost has to be 2 salaries to buy all the stuff we consider necessary these days.

Thanks LadyM. I did look at Sams, but didn't see a way to look through an online store... but I will try again.

[MysteryWoman]

Back! Wash washed and hung -- debated putting it outside, but the lawn needed mowing, and I didn't want to interfere with that (or have flying grass clippings attaching themselves to the clothes), so things are hanging in the basement. Lunch made and eaten. Prayers said.

Had a call from the doctor about those meds -- my trouble with my morning meds is that the thyroid needs to be taken 30 min. (or better, an hour) before eating, and the rest of my pills need to be taken with food. And clearly, I haven't been doing well enough at keeping those separated out, since my thyroid numbers look a bit off. First world problems, I know.

Fiddled around on the Internet, but what I looked up, other than a snickerdoodle bar recipe, I couldn't tell you now.

Elizabeth, you can count me as a happy SAHM. It wasn't really the original plan, but when the girls were both in school, and I was ready to get back in the job market, the recession of 2008 hit. And when, more recently, a job opened up that would be suitable for me, my anxiety was just too high for me to take it. But I have possibly the world's best husband, so there's that. He respects what I do, even if it doesn't bring in any income, and he does more than his share around here. Amazingly, he thinks HE got the better end of the deal.

Wash (previous day's; the stuff I hung is still damp) folded. Still need to clean out the fridge (it's trash night) and get that thank-you note written. And maybe make those snickerdoodle bars.

[DeeClutter]

thyroid needs to be taken 30 min. (or better, an hour)

I always wait at least the 30 minutes, Mystery. But more often than not it's over an hour -that is UNLESS I've had a too low blood sugar, then I need to eat ASAP.

Right now I'm hungrily awaiting dinner. DD ordered pizza so we didn't have to cook tonight. I'm trying hard not to snack but keep feeling that BS dropping. Should be here most any minute now.

Think in the meantime I'm going to try calling dh. Have everything all packed & ready to go. Just have a few last minute things to do/pack in the morning. We're really hoping to get on the road before 8am. DD's been trying to finish her grades (only 140 of them to go over), but the internet has not been particularly helpful. So she's hoping to be able to work on them in the hotel tomorrow night or after we get up home.

[Elizabeth]

I can get all but two tables to process individually. The ones I need for the timeliness reports process, but will the cube deploy without the two non-rebuilt tables? I will find out soon enough. Or maybe not so soon, since deployment is slow too.

DD18 was planning on coming over tonight, but the x has decided they are going camping instead. I knew about the camping trip, but was told it was Friday and they are coming back Saturday, but don't know what time. Typical of the x not to care whether his decisions affect anyone else or not. I think he changed his plans on the spur of the moment. He likes to change at the last minute, it means that other household members cannot make their own plans. He used to do that to me until I wised up and told him no more. He actually wanted to go last weekend, but accepted DD's excuse of "final exams are this week!" I so wish I had never married.

I NEVER doubted that SAHMs were busy. Too much work was a consistent theme of the conversations around me as a child. One thing a child does not realize that colors their impression of things is: "everyone you know" is not a valid statistical sampling. I doubt happy homemakers hung around my mom and her friends - nothing in common. As an adult, most of the people I know are in engineering, science, or IT with no experience as homemakers good or bad. It was glaringly obvious to me in the eighth grade, when mom went back to work, she was better off there. The entire household improved.

[Harriet]

It's only recently dawned on my cousins and myself that our grandmothers were farmers. We discuss it in that way now. When we were young or even young as adults, our grandfathers were called farmers and our grandmothers were ... .. working hard outside without a title, lol.

I missed the morning service so I don't know how I'd have felt about it. I caught the first lecture/sermon, which I believe would have worked well as a long poem. Every sentence was so perfectly stated with brevity. A good thought, though. I missed most of the next because of phone calls. Enjoyed the bluegrass music very much, thought of lucylee's ds.

thyroid pill - I just take it first thing after weighing (keep it in the bathroom medicine cabinet) and then get dressed, get started on my morning pint of water, feed Tobias, unload the dishwasher, all before breakfast. And even then, by the time I make breakfast I'm sure it's been a half-hour if not an hour. I don't have many quick breakfasts these days anyway, but alternate between oatmeal and veggie scramble, two breakfasts that both require cooking.

[Harriet]

Oh, there was the interview, I forgot. I believe I saw almost all of that. Very interesting and I took notes.

Monthly reports sent after many emails and a little hair-pulling.

The Easter report was handicapped by the fact that the 5 percentages of distribution for gifts did not add up to 100 percent but 110 percent. Sigh. This error had been printed on every form sent to everyone, and if anyone discovered it previously, I certainly didn't get the memo. Not my circus, not my monkeys. I did a reasonable guess for what was expected, and sent in the money.

Grocery pickup happened. Happily, not in the rain, so I did reasonably well picking a time according to the forecast.

Made a veggie lasagna today. So much kitchen work before and after.

My legs are so tired they hurt. Only one more set of various drops to remember.

[Kathryn-in-Canada]

It was a very interesting day with very different preaching viewpoints and styles.

In the afternoon we had Lenny Duncan who was amazing. Ya'll wouldn't have like him, most likely and in the chat we had a debate about swearing from the pulpit. I'm for it if it is authentic, and it was in his case. So he had a tough, high energy, no excuses, sermon that expressed the dismay, fear, loss, and anger I feel at this time. I really felt blessed for having heard it.

Immediately after was William Barber II who's style was equally as social justice oriented but quiet, persistent, insistent, calling out society, calling society, calling preachers to call up their people to make the most of this moment which highlights how the bandaids that society has placed over the festering wounds of injustices are not what we need, the wounds need to be cleaned, the infection cut out, and proper medicines prescribed in order for real healing to take place.

The line I loved from his was the service workers (cleaners, store staff, labourers) are now referred to as essential workers. But even though we admit they are essential to our lives (not just our economy) we still aren't paying them a wage that means they can afford a two bedroom apartment in any county in any state in the country. That's a damning indictment - you are essential but we don't value your work with a living wage.

It was equally as powerful as Rev. Duncan's sermon, but so different in style.

And the focus on the "Old" testament books this year is really interesting. We live in a time of lament and also a time that needs prophetic preaching so the prophets are being held up as an example of those who struggled in their times, and yet went on to preach the word of God.

After, I basically did nothing for about 90 minutes, I even skipped the music because I was exhausted. Then dh cooked dinner, and I cleaned up and worked on the dining balcony after enjoying a cup of tea on the living room balcony as the sun set. The table out there is now set up. I actually bought two tables when I replaced our big table so I could be more flexible in how they were set up (for 2, 4, or 8.)

Now they are laid out end to end, making an 8' long table that's about 30" wide. There's enough room to put 2 couples at the table with 6' between them. We could have someone over for a meal! Because the balcony has two entrances, they could enter the apartment and go to the balcony and we could enter it from 6' away using the other entrance without ever seeing the people inside the apartment. I'm really excited at this possibility.

[lucylee]

Never got to the photos...
played Carmen Sandiego with dgs and then watched him play the piano a bit — he has to usd a finger chart and beginner music with letters in the notes. Plays with 2 fingers, but I figure he’s learning a little anyway.

Then went to swimming lessons with them and ddil. Sooo amazed at how far this boy has come — the child who we had to beg and plead to jump off the diving board now just RUNS to do it and can pretty much swim the length of the pool! Dgd is still learning but she loves it and she has no fear whatsoever.

On the way home however.... much complaints from ddil re: how she and ds never have any time alone... how ds is in such a “funk” about the change in his work life... and how he’s working too much... how stressed she is about school online again this summer... how overwhelmed they both are...
And I hate it — and I want to help — but if both kids are over here, then I have to deal with dh being overwhelmed and stressed.
Sigh.
It would be a good thing to get her parents down here, wouldn’t it? My dmom has even offered to let them live in her 2nd house/dgmother’s house, at least as a temporary measure. Just waiting on the job transfer to com’s through, I guess.