Thursday Best then Better!

[helia]

Plain tuckered out here. My day:
- got myself s2sed, did teeth and face, sort of did my hair
- put pork roast + root beer in crock pot for bbq pork tonight
- did baby J care - it took 35 minutes to dress her, diaper her, feed her, get bag ready to go
- got to moms group about 25 minutes late for set up; 2 dfriend on leadership did most of the setting up(I had asked for help last night) -- but they needed my help with the coffee maker.
- got home from moms group around 12:50 pm; the pastor in charge of adult ed spent some time after the meeting trying to convince me to teach Sunday School, something in the Old Testament, as soon as I could - even this spring. I told him that was too soon, but I'd like to do that someday, perhaps the fall after sabbatical. . That way I would have a project to do over sabbatical.
- had lunch
- cleaned up kitchen (baby J slept during this time)
- loaded up baby J in the car and picked up my mentoree student
- met w/ mentoree student at our home from about 2:15 - 3:30; dd18 helped some with baby care
- drove student to library for her next meeting; home about 4:10
- more baby J care - very dirty diaper, made a bottle
- needed to pick up dd15 from school at 4:30 -- dd18 did this for me (thank you dd18!)
- walked with a very upset and very loud baby J for about 15 minutes while we waited for the bottle (made w/ boiling water) to cool down enough for her to drink; pondered the advantages of making the bottles ahead of time. . .
- finally got milk into a very desperate baby who then fell asleep.
- wheeled the baby in the pack 'n play back into the bedroom so she could sleep in peace
- checked emails and girls final semester grades - everything is looking awesome; dd18 is still waiting on her AP physics grade
- posted on this web site.

Next:
- prep squash for dinner and put in the oven
- consolidate baby J's things (not in the bedroom) into one spot
- make bed
- update laundry

I am somewhat frustrated that I am not getting to any of the deeper cleaning i had wanted to do before the party Saturday. I have some time tomorrow until about 2:15, if I prep for tutoring tonight. After tutoring tomorrow, I'm picking up a sandwich tray and bringing to the judges for the synchro meet we're hosting. I'm not planning to go to the meet right now; this is a figures meet, as opposed to a routine meet, and dd15 advises us not to attend those.

I'm trying to avoid a newly suggested meeting tomorrow morning to give me more time for party prep. If I do a lot of cleaning on Saturday, dh is going to be suspicious, so most of it needs to be done tomorrow.

[Twins' Mom]

Just got in and ate a Mediterranean wrap for my supper. Things okay with dmom, she had only taken p.m. meds twice in the last week so my poor dbro is going to help monitor that. Then she insists that she takes her meds every night, even when I show her that there are still meds in the container.

Long meeting with rabbi, we covered a lot of territory.

Repeating Dee:

Thinking a lot about your dh, Harmony. Know we're with you in spirit.

Dkids elementary school principal explained to me that cursive is much, much more efficient for note taking, thus was a necessary skill. OTOH, now a lot of kids are doing notes on the computer or an Ipad. I don’t think I would ever get used to that….seems to take too long, although there are apps that will do some handwriting recognition instead of having to type everything. Ds never had great motor skills; although he could do cursive I don’t think he ever was comfortable with it…

Yes, Dee, if your dd’s thyroid meds are off, the family therapy issues are probably hitting her much harder. Hoping hard for dsil's potential job to come through.

Lilac, I have a Shmop also but my cleaning lady doesn’t like it much. I hate the idea of her mopping with that nasty string mop that she likes. Sometimes I can see where she just moved the dirt around and smeared it.

Lucylee, I feel for you! I’d be losing my mind….

75 minutes yesterday should do us till tomorrow, I think.

Bite your tongue, Norma! Not nice!

Think I have to go now and put on shorts since it is 80 degrees here now.

Just remembered I need to clean up for dcleaning lady in the morning. I'm going to take the dddogs for a second walk before it gets any colder here.

[lucylee]

Nancy -- I joined you on that Basic Weekly Plan thread. Mine definitely needs some tweaking. Or maybe it just needs some DOING.

[Lilac]

Twins, dd2 has a large string mop at the shop. When I told her I had used my own, she just couldn't understand that I would rather use my own and do a good job, instead of just pushing the dirt around with her string mop. If I am doing something, it has to be 100 % or why bother?

[Kathryn-in-Canada]

Onboard the tour bus which is revolting. We arrived too late to have any walking around time in Christchurch. But the bus has left on time and we are being driven out of our way to a scenic viewpoint that is currently in cloud but we have to waste time going up and down instead of driving straight to the port and having time to explore the port.

[Nancy]

Working on laundry now that dgd is gone. Thought I'd finish up in the cave basement and watch am. idol.

I did not get to the bwp Wed. Bc I Got sucked into news of the storm in alanta I find it interesting leadership chose to blame the weather guy.

[Harriet]

Oh, ((Kathryn)) I hope this tour gets better!

Yes, definitely thinking of Mr. Harmony, and glad he'll have such good care.

helia, if dh were to notice anything about extra cleaning, you could mention that taking care of a baby has kept you running behind and you feel like you have to catch up. All best wishes! Hope dh loves his moment.

Nancy, I was just thinking that the Charlotte city commissioners, mayor and school superintendent are probably grateful for the circumstances that kept them from the same embarrassment Atlanta has endured. They happened to have a previous bad weather alert that gave everyone a "dry run". The state got busy and made a proactive plan for highways. The new school superintendent quickly admitted he did not know much about the city and it's weather, and listened to seasoned transportation supervisors. They were already warning bus drivers not to take a lunch by 8:30.

But even though the weather hit them later than it hit Atlanta, still all their school closing times were well in advance of business closing times and buses were out of the way. The other side of that coin is that at whatever Atlanta had to consider business closing time, say, 2:00, Charlotte was still pretty dry, so Charlotte had a longer time with better road surfaces. I feel sorry for the Atlanta folks because in a way it was a "perfect storm" of error.

I agree there seemed enough warning from weather forecasters to let everyone know - I knew. Where we live salt was on our little 2-lane bridges by the previous afternoon, 24 hours in advance, so even if people missed news reports they probably saw the salt. But then our county may have had salt stores left over for years and workers just wishing for something to do, I don't know. It must be much more difficult in a dense metropolitan area. It's a good thing, IMO, that a mayor is not in charge of school closings, in fact I think that would be odd. But you do have to have decision makers in the school system who are knowledgeable about the city's resources and decisive enough to hurry up and get ahead of weather traffic. Or, alternatively, you err on the side of caution and just close schools on days that could end up getting you on World News Tonight.

[lucylee]

Same thing in Birmingham, Alabama... lots of criticism -- why didn't they close schools earlier? why didn't they do this? that? Lots of criticism here b/c we're always closing at the drop of a hat, according to my "Yankee" ddil -- but I bet it will be even worse now, after seeing what others suffered. Oh my goodness... I just cannot imagine spending 48 hours or so at school, supervising teenagers. Oh my goodness. No. So thankful I have been spared that.

(((Kathryn))) (((Ken)))

* Hopeful * for (((Dee's dsil)))

* Prayerful * for (((Mr. Harmony))) & (((Harmony)))

Well -- prayerful for Dee's dsil, too! Along w/Mr. Dee... ds recovering from surgery... and dd/dgd situation.

Baby boy here slept awhile in the pack-n-play... woke up whimpering... let me hold him and rock him for about an hour! Sooo sweet. You can never get these days back, can you? Dishes/sippy cups running over in the sink... don't much care. He's playing now. Trying to stay awake this time till "da-da" gets here. (But he's spending the night with us so ds/ddil can go on a day trip tomorrow.)