Sunday Soliloquy as we slide into 2024

[blessedw2]

can't wait to hear how your hemming turns out.

many christmas boxes put away
all the lights are separated, wrapped and put away.

My ADHD is hitting hard. I put on football to keep my mind occupied.

I am not a fan of New Years - a lot of hard things happened in the past on New Years eve. I Never liked the expectation of it either - I don't drink - maybe a 1/4 glass of wine - my whole family are like me. I also don't like being near drunk people and New Years seems to bring that out in some people.

Next: continue putting away monthly delivery
if I feel like it - go in basement and get plastic boxes for the remainder of Christmas
read - study.
find the meatloaf from the freezer

[blessedw2]

how many are done with putting Christmas away = I need a push to finish!

[LadyMaverick]

DS15 has been delivered to friends birthday party. I gave my approval for him to attend the party several days ago without giving it full thought. I am not comfortable with what I suspect might happen at the party. We know this family very well (5 generations of them) and they are overall good people, but the mother of the birthday girl has a long history of making poor decisions. I do not trust the mother to put any constraints on the party. ANYway, we allowed DS15 to attend with a warning & a discussion of him needing to not be a follower and to make his own decisions. All these years of training DS15....will it be enough to guide him through this situation filled with potential opportunity to do stupid?

Our #1 niece is getting married in the big city today. They chose the date because of 123123. We choose to not attend the wedding and celebration because of not wanting to be on the roads during New Year eve.

[blessedw2]

d lady hope your son has fun and safe time at the birthday party! praying that it all works out!

praying your sweet niece and her new husband marriage is filled with joy, growth and happiness with each other. may blessings to them!

I could not go downtown for a wedding on New Years eve either. Driving with other New Year celebrants on the road would be worrisome.

[blessedw2]

dh is a little anxious as tomorrow it will one year anniversary of him going to the hospital for two month with covid.
I think we both will be grateful to start the new year!

time to empty the dw

Happy New year's everyone!

[Harriet]

Wonderful cookout by dstepson, all presided over by dstepdil, such a good hostess. With nearly everyone turning up. Only dd26 and our young man couldn't make it. HRH said when he even saw ds coming through the door carrying ddil's brownies to share, he was so pleased. How easy for our two boys to perhaps have rivalry, but they enjoy each other instead. The children have great fun playing - looked like touch football this time. They don't seem to notice the cold, although Grandma worries. The older boys are right in the middle of it all and the younger ones call out sad goodbyes when the cousins have to go.

Working with my new planner, I notice that the quality is not as high as last year (same one). The thick plastic set of interior pockets is just paper this time. I hand-threaded the old pockets onto the new spiral , so I have them back, though. There are no stickers this time, but in all honesty, I didn't use them last year, just would like the chance to decide if I wanted them. Price didn't go down, lol.

Never finding a stamp I liked for my weekly checkoff chart, I made a better master sheet and ordered pastel paper. I'll keep gluing in my own for now at least. Now that I've done that for a year, I know that It does thicken the pages, but not so much that it bothers the use of the planner.

Thinking of you all for a great 2024. I look hopefully for Harmony to keep getting better and better through what is probably a lot of daily therapy work. Feeling very encouraged for each one of us who are cheerleading the health and well-being of family members, too - parents, dhs, young folks who need guidance. We are seriously good at that stuff. Happy New Year!

[Nancy]

The coconut shrimp I had last time was better than this air fry kind I got this yr.
the pizza I did last time with meat was better than this year too.
I remembered the oriental place we used to enjoy closed even before the pandemic so it is no longer even an option.

Found some nice music a special I've seen before I greece I think anyway no connections with that and it's a nice distraction from the noise
makers out side. They are bothering me less this year so that is good.
I got tired of the mystery series so took a break from it.

Glad I have spiffed up a bit earlier in the day.
Ddoggo is hiding out in the safe room with out windows.

I am glad I made an effort with food but will need to change it up in the future with different choices.
My mood is good I am glad I went back to bed this morning for a bit that is helping me now.

[lucylee]

Typing on the Chromebook, and I guess this is a good thing, although I'm still working via Personal Hotspot on phone and I haven't tried any more of the connection tips, LadyM. (Sorry. It's been a busy day and all of that is overwhelming to me. I'm going to wait till ds has time to check into it.) On the plus side, I am here, watching tv, and dh is on the PC in the computer room... so it is nice.

(I'm watching the New Year's Bash from Nashville, btw. DGS has already called to wish us HNY on Eastern Time, said he would call back when it's "officially" midnight here. LOL.

For New Year's Eve, we've been busy --
* church -- ds played duet with his piano teacher, which was very nice. (The FIrst Noel). However, I'm afraid some people thought he was playing both parts, and it was much more advanced than his ability!
* all the end of the week tasks, except garbage -- it will run on Tuesday again this week
* groceries ^^^ and all put away except the drinks (soft drinks and water)
-- I took dgd home before I bought groceries, then we were interrupted while putting them away to take dgs home. (They ate supper with ddil's parents, but ddil hadn't made it home by the time they finished eating! They were having FROG LEGS and chicken wings. LOL... not traditional NYE supper, maybe, but dgs was looking forward to trying the frog legs.)
* dh and I went out for supper. I told ds it was sorta a progressive dinner -- we had supper at IHop, then Krispy Kreme donuts for desert, and made another stop for Cheerwine from yet another place. (In case you don't know, Cheerwine is a sort of cherry flavored soda, which is probably very regional, and only one place in our area has it. It may have originated in NC, but I am not sure.) (Harriet?)
* filled up the car
* after dropping off half the donuts with ds (we had a coupon for a dozen) dh and went home but left again so he could listen to the Malpas Brothers on the Opry from last night, and made my second stop at Wmart for something I had forgotten this afternoon
* and the BIG thing -- while we were home -- I prepared that BIG ham (20 lbs) for baking tomorrow. I have it sitting on pineapple slices, rubbed down with brown sugar and ground cloves, with additional cloves stuck in the diamond shaped score marks... and in the morning, I will baste with more pineapple juice and add pineapple and cherry garnish... and then bake for 6 1/2 hours according to our best interpretations of various recipes. Can't wait to let y'all know how this turns out.

Sigh. Chromebook is better than phone for typing, but the verdict is DEFINITELY still out on this thing.