Monday Mop-up

[Kathryn-in-Canada]

Harriet: how disappointing and frustrating. If you are like me you spend hours online shopping and now you have to restart the process.

I've stalled. I got the bed stripped and remade and some assorted tidying done but then just lost all focus. Sigh....

[Harriet]

Wait, wait, wait... ..

I spoke too soon.

HRH has remade and even re-angled the tree's post (tree trunk?) - Channellock plyers are wonderful things. Also hammering seems productive sometimes. A little bad language. Possibly Angels in the corner who also wanted a tree... ..

Now slightly homemade tree is blinking its lights looking around the room acting all normal, like, "What? We're cool, we're cool. I meant to do that".

I feel a little concerned that it was even able to be bent OR re-bent, because I would have thought it was sturdier for the price. But, we're good.

[LadyMaverick]

I'm home from my 3rd trip out of the house. There are 2 more trips later today.
Completed -
7:30 = DD12 to school
8:30 - DH, DS15 and myself to gym.
10:30 - DS15 to music studio
Later today
3:30 - DD12 from school
5:30 - Me to ladies Christmas party.

I woke up with the knowledge and desire to live one hour at a time today. I can focus on one hour without getting overwhelmed so that is what I am going to do. I have completed 8 hourly focuses and am pleased with each one. I do realize this sounds ridiculous for most, but it is the best I can do. I have no bandwidth available for Christmas prep or anything more than I'm already juggling.

Our septic system red light came on during the night. We called THE MAN and he came to work on it. It has been repaired and is working again.

Homeschool is in progress. I have all the lessons planned for the rest of the calendar year. Only two more weeks of school this year!

I have several lbs of chicken tenderloins defrosting. I will be cooking them later today. We are having enchiladas at Christmas party tonight made by DFriend who was taught how to make them by multiple generations of women in her family. I'm looking forward to the experience.

[Nancy]

Laundry is dry folded & put away.
Processed the mail.
Have made up 5 meals ahead with my fav. kind of box cornbread stuffing sausage & a serving of frozen pumpkin in each container.
Wahoo for progress!
-----
Rested
vacuumed Liv. room
Scrubbed dog's dish too.
Got on the stat bike and got my exercise ring closed. Yea!
Had dinner & did dishes.
Dd checked in, I did pupa in two rooms while we talked that helped.

-----
To restart it is good to do a few quick tasks 2 min. then 3 min., then 5 to build momentum.

[Ramblinrose]

Well I have finished with all my decorations with an exception of one small thing I need to do. That will happen tomorrow as I am Christmased out!

Had to do a dollar store run to return something. The dollar store around here usually have Cmas cards for kids, especially baby;s first Christmas, but non of mine seem to be carrying them this year. Tomorrow a dollar store is on my way home from my errands so I will stop and again look to see if they have restocked any.

The rest of the house is in order. Next up is to go through my recipes for our Christmas Eve dinner and buy as much as I can ahead of time. I want to make my moms sweet potato casserole, not my favorite, but everyone else. Several years ago I put together a cook book for my mom to give to her grand kids with all their favorite recipes. The casserole was included. Unfortunately I can't find mine so I will ask my nephew to send a copy to me. I know it has marshmellows, but she does something different to her's that makes it different than most.

[Kathryn-in-Canada]

I've flipped the laundry and got the bedroom tidied, dusted, and vacuumed. Vacuum and duster is put away.

Dh took the two now empty Christmas bins back downstairs.

And I continue to tidy, tidy, tidy. Literally one item at a time. One trip was a single bobby pin from the kitchen counter (it has been there for over 8 weeks) to its spot in my bedroom drawer.

I'm keeping up with email as well.

[CathyS]

Morning knitting group was okay. There is a new woman there who is a soft talker and she sits far away from me, so I just smile and nod and take cues from what the other women are responding. Afternoon knitting group was very quiet today. Only 3 of us showed up and one was concentrating very carefully on making a wreath and the other one was making home made Christmas cards for family members. I left there less than 10 minutes later than usual and got stuck behind numerous school buses. After those all went down various streets I had to stop for a couple of other buses letting kids out on various corners. Next week I hope I don't get stuck again, so I will make sure to leave right at 3.

Supper tonight has been decided. Leftover pork and gravy and dh went and bought a bag of frozen fries.

[lucylee]

I'm not actually MOPPING, but I am trying to finish the year with better habits. I went back to my major check list -- morning routine, afternoon, evening. I do pretty well with the morning routine IF I stay away from my phone, and I do pretty well with my night time routine, but afternoon (when the actual WORK is supposed to get done ) is a REAL problem.
I set an alarm on my phone for 1:00 pm and labeled it: FOUR SETS OF 15. (15 minutes each -- daily, weekly, zone, and extra project.)
Right now zone AND extra are both CHRISTMAS.

So today, ds called as soon as we were up. I went ahead and did my morning quick stretch/exercise, and then started in on Christmas cards while he was on the phone. I easily spent 30 minutes on that. Got them about half done.
Mostly he and dh were fussing about the way the National Championship brackets played out. * I bet Twins' Dad is aggravated, too! *
Twins, around here, we think there is no excuse for an undefeated conference champion to be excluded from the playoffs. If half the team was out with injuries and they still managed to be undefeated, IMHO this just shows even more so how qualified and deserving that team is.

Well, then I called dmom and did 15 minutes of PUPA around the house while I talked to her.

Then, I decided to take whatever kind of shower I could manage with the low pressure we were having with our water. (((Kathryn))) Seems there were leaks along the lines and they were working on it. I called to make sure it wasn't a problem specific to us. (Water just came back to normal, about an hour ago.)

DH and I went to town, got the mail, paid a bill, and now I have stew defrosting and cornbread in the oven.

I just smile and nod and take cues from what the other women are responding.

Cathy, I find I do this sometimes. DH says I don't hear well. Maybe I'm just surrounded by soft talkers!

I desperately need to do the PUT AWAY of Christmas boxes here.

WTG, Nancy, making meals ahead of time!

LadyM, do you find it hard to re-start after you've had to leave the house? It seems you make as many trips to and from as we do, and I'm sure you have a lot of interruptions in your day, too. It's just hard really for me to start something after I've had to go out, and it gets frustrating trying to stay with something when SOMEONE is constantly wanting something else, or interrupting, etc.
Blessed, I'm sure your days are filled with things like this! I can understand why it's kinda nice to have the quiet with dd and her dog out of the house.

How do the rest of y'all handle this -- the loss of momentum and motivation when your day gets interrupted?

Oh (((Harriet))) -- I can just see the frustration, and then the change in plan, and then the hope... no, no, we're good... (((HUGS)))

Rose, I'm glad we're not in the cold-cold part of the year yet, but I guess 88 degrees is a bit much when you're trying to get into the Christmas spirit.
It's close to 60 for the high temp around here, no need for big coats, and after a rainy weekend, it's beautiful here.

Must get to supper prep. BBL!

[LadyMaverick]

do you find it hard to re-start after you've had to leave the house?

Interruptions and being out of the house are expected and a regular part of my day. When I am interrupted or gone then it feels like I just hit the pause button and I just start from where I left off. I usually carry 3-5 cards in my pocket that are my current focus for the hour. Near the TOTH I will refile the completed cards and select another 3-5 cards to work on next hour.

Ladies night was fun. We ate, painted Christmas ornaments and visited. We had several drawings all through the evening and gave out prizes.

[Harriet]

Ds and dgdC came over because we were hiding gifts from ddil here. They said they could see the tree through the window, yay. DgdC tried to help me fluff out branches and we both think it's a tough job. Fun to hang out with her, though.

Ds' face looks quite normal. He feels good, he says. He says you can tell at one temple, but I find it hard to do that. I do see the scar, which has not yet gone white, but I think when it does it will be invisible.

lucylee, what a good idea with the alarm.