Thursday - Go for it!

[Harriet]

My batch of deleted e-mails today was Cold water Creek. Again chose not to unsubscribe, because CC is the store/catalog from which I hope I can wear lots of clothes someday. At this point, oversized tops! But in really looking at their practices for the first time, I see I need to stay aware. They are one of the worst offenders in sending rapid-fire e-mails I don't have time to read. Glad I decided on daily attention to this. Better to control what goes on around my house, even if it's cyber-goings-on.

DD15 reports that response to her haircut at school has been overwhelmingly positive, with some comparisons to models or stars like Emma Watson. One boy did tell her she looked like Ringo Starr, but she said she takes that as a compliment, too. Her engineering teacher is such an absentminded professor type that he only noticed something was different today. He asked, "where did the rest of your hair go?"

[Ivy]

I wanted to tell you all who have chickens, something I learned. I'm not a chicken woman, so I didn't know what this meant, but here goes. "Google" a blog called "Chickens in the Road." On the blog posting for January 15, 2014, she, Suzanne McMinn, the blogger, shows her cross-beaked hen. She was told by some folks her hen would surely die, but the hen is alive and going strong. If you want to see a cross-beak, go to her blog to peek at it. It's very interesting, I thought.

Harriet, I'm glad you're motivating by your posts, because I, too, have been unsubscribing from some newsletters. I'd picked out some for crafting, quilting, sewing, crochet, recipes, etc.. But they sent so many every day, so I finally had to unsubscribe. I try to keep my newsletters down to the priority ones, which is a simple living one that talks about decluttering,etc.. and one about a gal who teaches W. W. classes and has a blog and e-newsletter. She was featured in Woman's Day and her blog is called "Brooke Not on a Diet."

DH and I don't feel so hot today. The lasagna didn't agree with me because I'm lactose intolerant, but my mouth watered for it for my b-day dinner. The pre-made garlic bread was smothered in dripping butter w/garlic and green herbs, and the dump cake was way too rich, DH didn't like it, it made me ill, so we're dumping the dinner in the garbage can. So once again, another dump dish is dumped out. I don't know if I'll ever get up the nerve now, to try out the cookbook desserts, but I'm going back onto W. W., so won't be eating desserts for awhile. I got my short story sent off, will take it easier today, will relax, and read. I'll do things like this, which I often get too busy to do.

Thursday is "Go for it!" day and I went for it, got my story done and sent. I'm so happy! It's an adventure, mystery, romance from the male POV. Either it's accepted because I did a good job on it or it's not accepted because it was too different and my male POV "bombed."

Kathryn, I'm glad your ankles/feet are slightly less swollen. Hoping your knee's better, too. The physio must really help. Does physio stand for PT here in the States, which is Physical Therapy for short? "Physio" sounds much more sophisticated to me.

Lilac, You're so busy! Busy keeps us young, doesn't it? You sound ready and prepared for anything, to me.

Twins', Do you do accounting for the temple and work in the office there or volunteer? I'm glad the secretary showed up. Walking the dogs to regroup sounds so nice.

Harriet, Your DH has good advice about the POV and photocopying and giving up listening to what they think they want, and YOU provide what YOU think. You're smarter than THEM!

Dsis had POA for Ddad, I know not much about it, as we didn't even have it with DH's Dmom. But I have an idea, because when I had surgery in 2005 and 2010, they asked me if I had a POA. DH thought I didn't need one, just for surgery, as I was okay, had him to make decisions for me, and I wasn't that old. 53 and 58. I didn't get one, but in later years, I may need to.

Oh! That's RIGHT! Oscar nominees are out as of 5:30 a.m. today! Thanks for reminding us, Nancy! I'd forgotten!

OKay, I hope everything works out for you and all. I hope it doesn't get "too weird." I hope for the best. I guess we should have hopeful optimism, rather than the half-empty cup and fear. Be prepared, is the Girl Scout Motto, too. If you're ready for anything, it's great, too. Just in case. All my best to you and your Dfamily, too. It's great you had no appt.'s for today, too!

Oh, Nancy! GET WELL SOON!

My tummy's been caddywampus for all morning, but it's finally settling down. DH got sick, too. He's so tired from cleaning with me, and nobody used our bathrooms, which look like a million bucks! I even re-decorated, washed rugs, cleaned mirrors, and oh well. It's beautiful for us!

Dee, the Amish make the best food! Dstep-Dad gave me some Amish cookbooks! Enjoy!

I'll pray for your DS-R about his shoulder surgery, too.

Have a GR8 "Go for it!" day today, Everyone!

[Harmony]

(Lilac) I just can't imagine. Wow.

Early ride out to meet DH at drs. Rest of the day spent on the phone trying to get an appointment. Know DH will be really upset as I have not been successful...

And I need to go out and make a big copy of something for him and stop at grocery for lunch stuff and I haven't even stopped for breakfast and my stomach is reaching up and grabbing my tongue.. gotta go

[Nancy]

Got the tree branch roost up in the chickens run this afternoon. Cleaned the coop & hens run.

Got gazelle time nearly donevwhile I watched one of my knitting & crocheting shows.

Dgd wanted to bake something.

Paid a bill and got sug. free cough drops, & gardening gloves. Could not get donations droppedvoff bc of the road crew found side walk chalk and a tote to put plastic bags before I recycle them. I picked up dgd from preschool they were grateful for the three coffee cans for drums they make each year. I need to find a better spot for the feed bags I have collected.

[Ivy]

I finally did:
- s2s, dressed, hair, earrings, moisturizer, brows,
- deleted email folders to clean up my inbox
- got out some Al Coon's Essays on W. W., which are motivational, inspiring, etc... He's the DH of Dottie of DWLZ, or something like that. They have a W. W. newsletter I've signed up for, too. (Harriet, I'm trying to keep newsletters on the healthy proactive side, fewer, too, to learn more.)

DH is getting me some Sprite or 7-Up b/c of queasy tummy. Don't know if this is a tummy bug picked up Tues. from the restaurant from somebody else or what. It keeps hanging on. At least it's just tummy nausea and upset and nothing more, now. I'm so tired, too. But DH and I worked hard to get things "company clean" and then company didn't go to any other rooms or bathroom. However, we're delighted to have this nice clean home, except haven't been able to do FOCUS in the bedroom yet this week and it's already Thursday. I have through Sunday to work on it in baby steps. And DH can help. Will start tomorrow, I think. During the Seahawks/49-er's game, will be a good time for me to work on it. I tend to get rather inquisitive about this and that, ask DH too many questions, and comment on this and that, during his Seahawk's games anyway. With me out of the room, he can truly enjoy his game, I'll be busy, and productive. I do enjoy the cuter-than-cute commercials, they're so funny, and entertaining! So Sunday will be a good day for me to keep from bothering DH, so he can enjoy his game. After all, from writing in the male POV,I've learned more about men/DH.

It's a gloomy day, is cloudy/smoggy, and it's better than storms, fires, ice/snow/high winds and drenching rains. I'm off to journal some prayers, my thoughts, since I got a later start today, due to being ill this a.m. I got up earlier than 8:45 a.m., so this is really nice. I'm planning to read this afternoon, since the story's been sent off. It's a luxury to be able to concentrate time to read and a treat. ♥ I don't do it enough.

GO FOR IT, Everyone!

[Twins' Mom]

This has been a pretty busy, stressful day. When I was done at temple, I picked up drive through lunch and came home. Did a short round of a.m. routine stuff, walked ddogs, read the paper quickly and headed out again.

Picked up meals at JCC for dmom and went there. Turned out that last Sunday when she was upset/confused about her meds she had taken them all out of everywhere I stored them and put them all together in a bag. I had the ones she's not currently taking segregated from the current meds, with the p.m. meds and thyroxine in a drawer in the bedroom and the a.m. meds in her DR. So I had to sort them out again and dbrother and I agreed that we would "hide" them i.e. put them in an out of the way place where he could produce them if needed, but she wouldn't be rummaging through them. She reacted very badly to the idea of giving me a POA so I'm glad that the attorney didn't get our appt on his schedule (how did that happen???) and we can't go tomorrow. She has this idea that I will "put her in a home" if I have a POA.

We can't find the calendar that I bought for her last summer, so dbro found another that was his so I could record her medical appts for Feb.

Then she brought up that she thinks she needs to see eye doc and that her blood sugar may be too high and that she can't check it because her meter says the strips she has are out of date. It turns out that they expired in November so I had to ask dbro to pick some up for her. (Her A1C has actually been too low so doc suggested she only ck her BS if she felt it was too high so here were are.) Poor dbro was just losing it as was I by the time I left, running late to get to my massage which I needed very badly.

And.....of the three meals I took to her last week......she had only eaten 1.5. She had a full, large chicken breast with two veggie sides and approx 1/2 of the fish + veggie from the fish meal, all stored away in the freezer. Told her I wouldn't keep bringing food if she didn't eat it.

I really don't know how much longer she can continue to live in her house.

On the plus side, I got a massage/body work and my body feels better, even when my mind is reeling.

[DeeClutter]

Back from our day in Sarasota. Was nice to see several of our fellow campers. Now dd and I will be off to Trivia night shortly.

Was thinking about Kathryn today and her swelling. I remembered to put on my compression stockings before we left this morning. Have to admit my legs still feel good. Tried to get dh to put his on -no go. I told him I would insist when he flies home next Wed. Makes such a difference in mine when I'm going to be sitting a great deal and/or riding. Almost put on warm socks (got up to about 50 here and that's cold for here) then remembered the stockings. A little harder to put on but glad I took the time.

I was good today and had no dessert. There were desserts on the buffet and you could have ice cream, but I figured -nah. I have now been 12 days without any 'sweets'. I have that "Don't break the chain" (that I think Sherinjoy told us about some time ago) going on my cell phone. It's good to see all those X's. Makes it harder for me to think about breaking that chain. But at some point before we go home I am going to reward myself with a piece of Coca-Cola cake from a certain cafe' here.

[Harriet]

((Twins' Mom)) Also ((dbrother and dmother)).

Ivy, it's been my experience that when you expect folks may need your bathroom or other area, they never do, but when you least expect it several different folks will ask! In our case, there's a lot of requests for baby changing on our bed, too, that sort of thing. Hope you continue to feel better.

Oh, I had forgotten about the chain of calendaring, Dee! Yes, you're probably right it was sherinjoy, being bright.

Lots of continuing Desk Day, including dd33's bday card. I picked out this one, because of her circumstances this year! You can scroll down to see it all - the word under the levitating cake is "is". Not to be outdone, HRH signed it, "Love you very much, we do. A disturbance in the force, we feel."

Sent by snail mail what I myself decided should be sent to cancel former insurance. However, before I mailed, I did make another call to talk to another more experienced person. I requested retroactive cancellation and got it, and filled in their form that way. So I don't know for sure how much that will save, but in theory, $25. For some reason, these things seem so much more important to handle correctly when it is a responsibility to an estate, rather than personal stuff.

Put that in the mail, plus a "return to sender" of a continuing mailing I've been trying to get stopped for 6 months now. Some entities just won't hear that a person they solicit for funds has passed away.

Stopped by the bank to correct an error on my own acct. I ordered checks and the Har lan check printing people sent me all deposit slips instead. ??? I just can't seem to catch a break with everyone misunderstanding me in business! How do you misunderstand an ordinary reorder slip that only has a few check-off boxes?

Found it! from April 9, 2012 by sherinjoy... ...

I have a large laminated wall calendar up and I'm going to play "Don't Break the Chain" on it. I get to mark a big X on each day that I complete 2 hrs. of decluttering work - and I don't want to miss a day or I break the chain. Google it and you'll read people's description of this productivity game, based on Jerry Seinfeld's joke writing system. He wanted to write 1 joke every day and used this game to motivate himself.

[helia]

Peeking in. . . I'm finally home. And exhausted. How do women who work full time do it all? I just don't have the energy. I left the house at 8:30 a.m. (late!!), was home at about 1:50, left again at 3:50 (also late!) and was home finally at 6:30.

Teaching seemed to go well; got one comment which I'm not sure I fielded well, but teaching team chair seemed to think I did fine with it. Other meetings went well, meeting with volunteer ESL tutoring supervisor and then with my Uni student mentoree. . . . .

R is coming by for dinner eventually. I invited him and S last minute after chatting with S at moms group this a.m. It would be good to see them -- but S has meetings this evening.

Dh's plane landed safely this afternoon. He went straight to his office but is now en route home. roads are sloppy and slow as we got a bit of snow this afternoon.

I took dd15 to her percussion ensemble rehearsal this afternoon; a friend brought her home.

I'm really tired - did I already say that? THe house needs some attention too as I've been focusing on the teaching. . . .

Off to finish heating up some (un) glamorous leftovers for dinner tonight. . . .

[Elizabeth]

Is it 5:20 already? Where did my day go? Well, I got up at 2 pm because yet another migraine had appeared. I MUST do a better job of regulating my blood sugar or this will be my every day. I have made some accomplishments: checked email, wrote birthday card for friend (can't find her address yet), called mom for her birthday, paid bills. Have not done any job applications, guess I will do that after my church meeting tonight. I intend to check to see if the library is open and go there, then to church, then drop off mail. Then, yes, resumes.

Ivy: All of my previous employers required me to keep an updated resume for proposals. This made it a lot easier when I got laid off. All companies seem to do their job applications online now. The bad thing is that you must apply for a specific job rather than a general application. I have always gotten my jobs with a general app.

Harriet: Thanks for the explanation of the chain. I think I will start one on job applications. However, Saturday will not count because between cat clinic and DD11 coming it just does not fit the schedule. I will put stars on my calendar for completed applications, starting with the one from yesterday.