Working Wednesday

[OKay]

Thanks for the well wishes. Two school years done.....only 16 years +/- to go!!

I just finished turning off the 5 school related alarms. Tonight we can attend Wednesday night church since LO can stay up past 8pm. DH has already left for elder meeting. LO and I will meet him at church service.

Twins - I am outraged your DSis is mistreated. It is so very sad that it isn't uncommon. Our state has recently passed a law where camera can be installed in nursing homes rooms so family can monitor & record mistreatment.

[Ivy]

Kathryn, Your LIFE seems SO INTERESTING! I'm glad the piano & grandfather clock will be attended to & that you got invited back to preach, too. I'm glad there are clusters of English-speaking churches in Quebec, too.

I cried, I don't know why, so DH said, "Why don't you DO SOMETHING." I said I'm not supposed to have coffee, it's killing me, so he & I figured International Coffee would be okay. I'm a "Happy Camper" now. I had 2 Constant Comment teas & 1 iced tea, was sluggish, & my headache was starting in. Anyway, I worked on a story for a bit, I'm not certain where-oh-where this story's taking me! It's good, but so far, on my index card outline, it's twists & turns are making me dizzy! But it's exciting to try something new.

It's still sunny here, our dneighbor's drilling a well up in back of us & then to the West of our line. It's exciting to hear the birthing of a new home. His Dmom has M. S. & is a double amputee, so she supplies the land, her son builds the homes, they sell them & split the $$. It's great for his Dmom because she's retired. She's an old-timer out here, having gone to school with my MIL, as kids. MIL died in 2002 at age 78. So you can "see" how elderly the Dnighbor's Dmom is now. I'm very happy for them. They already built 1 nice new beautiful home & sold it. It's about 1/2 mile from our home. It's so nice the son is helping his Dmom like this, as well as she is helping him out, too. Win-win situation.

I'm playing classical FM radio music and the Fisherman's Woman Overture just came on. I love it! I took piano from age 6 until 17. I gave it up in my Senior year, as I worked as a nurse's aide, went to H. S. full-time, helped with baby-sitting, had youth group, youth choir, & was just a very busy young woman. So, I've had auditions with a qualified adjudicator with some scores & certificates. I loved piano, but with Senior H. S. activities, I got too busy to practice. I love classical music, adore George Winston's music piano CD's, too. Dmom had divorced my natural father, but he was a pianist & physicist. I took after him, with my love of music & science. Dmom saw to it, by hook or by crook, how I was going to have piano lessons, so she worked to help pay for my lessons. We had/have our "differences", but I appreciate how much she loved me, to pay for my lessons. She easily could've used the $$ elsewhere. ♥

OKay, You must be Very Proud of your dkids!

Lucylee, How is your Dmom doing today? How about your Dmil?

Twins', We don't grow Magnolias or Gardenias here, but seeing them on Southern TV & in photos is awesome. So pretty! I know what being chained to paperwork is like, too!

I have 15 minutes left on my timer. I'll go cuop on the other threads. Have a nice later afternoon & evening, Everybody! My FM radio station has a fund drive going on, like PBS TV does. It keeps the radio free & confirms it'll be on the air for the public. They advertise a lot. Oh, well. The music's worth it. Couldn't find the local pop music FM station. Maybe I'll go hunt for it again.

[Kathryn-in-Canada]

Dh just identified more 'low hanging fruit' to tackle except he's heading out tonight to visit a friend.

I'll work and get the 10 boxes done. I'm being practical, not a martyr about it. If 70 boxes will hardly scratch the surface, we need to get our act together.

[Harriet]

Also meant to tell Twins' Mom I hope Macs has a speedy recovery and responds well to the antibiotic.

lucylee, do you feel a bit of nostalgia when you pick up the school paper? I hope they are not floundering without you (I'm sure the creativity and the desire is there, but you would know how to direct it and be practical.)

Cheering for Kathryn as she picks up the pace.

Cheering for Sunny as she considers sewing ideas (love the video in A, C and N).

Cowinkie, it's good you have options for your substituting, and can avoid a building that concerns you.

Ivy, here Tobias watches for HRH to stand up and immediately jumps into his seat. We think its' a combination of waiting for the warmed spot and teasing HRH.

Strange news about ebay today.

Went to dr with HRH. No particular news. Back to healthy foods store and shopped quite a while. Bought 2 bags of groceries which is unusual for us in that store. But both of us are actively looking for additions to our diets. May have found a few. Also they had Bob Marley green tea, so that has dd's name on it, lol. Anything Bob Marley is completely cool right now for teens - who knew. We got her a slice of pizza right out of their oven.

Continued more weeding.

[Harmony]

OKay, will LO go to the same school for 1st grade? You guys are such good parents to him.

Ivy, how do you come up with ideas for so many different stories? Do you publish under your own name or do you have a pen name like Mark Twain did?

I'm not sure I accomplished much today. I did take care of the current paperwork and run errands for DH. Made dinner (spaghetti with spaghetti squash and sauce with ground turkey) and made lunches for tomorrow. Our regular helper is working somewhere else and DH has been scrambling to get other help. He has been busy.

I've been trying to finish up my last 2 fiction library books so I can start on the stack of research books I brought home the other day. The fiction reading is fun, not so sure how much fun the research will be.

Twins, did you get your paperwork all done?

Tomorrow is fasting lab work so I've stopped eating though I'll drink some water later. I hope my veins cooperate.

[CathyS]

Hi every one!

Congrats to Okay and family!

Today is the 20th anniversary of Bob Marley's funeral. (I heard that on a radio station today)

Last night my sister called at around 8 and said she was going to dad's. It was her birthday and she wanted to go up and do her final pick up from the stuff still left. We had been told by my brother and the stager to leave stuff in the large cabinets in the basement. There isn't as much in them after last night. I decided that I have done enough clearing, so if my brother wants me to join him this weekend, Mike and I have plans we made today. The last 2 weeks of May are the best for lilacs at the unknown Lilac park in Niagara Falls. It's just a few hundred feet east of the Floral clock. That is where we will be on Sunday. I think we are going to Downsview to see a derby game on Saturday.

We have also planned to empty the bottom of the dining room cabinet and the long credenza to see what we can part with to make room for what I would rather have from my dad's. Funny how I thought I didn't want a single thing last year. We even brought home my older brother's lacrosse stick and his 4 wooden golf clubs. My dad kept them even though my older brother died in 1969.

[Kathryn-in-Canada]

I'm up to five boxes, possibly six (not sure how many dh did, but I think he only did one earlier so that would put me at 5.)

I finished off the living room bookcase except for the books I might need between now and then (only a couple.) Added a few things from my desk as filler.

Emptied by dnephew's desk. It is a small roll-top and all fit into one box. That was another piece of low-hanging fruit. Next up is the candleabra. Not sure but I think it might take a box on its own. I seem to be missing something for it (it has 'roses' that fit in where the arms go and I expected those to be in the buffet drawer.)

In regular living news: the dishes are washed up and the dish washer is running.

It is amazing the lengths I'll go to not pack things - I made up a brownie mix and tossed in leftover white chocolate chips and Skor bits. That's three things less to move! Using up food is my new passion - I had pears for dessert because I knew there was a huge can of them downstairs. That will be dessert for the next few nights.

I'm not sure I'll buy mixes in the future since I have 4 boxes in the basement that are almost a year past their BB date. Except I need an angel food cake one on hand because there's no way I'm making that from scratch and I like having the option of a pineapple angel food cake for pot lucks or last minute desserts. But I might start experimenting with easy cake recipes. Mom had a 'hot milk' white cake that she'd make for a quick dessert. When I get my cook books back (they were all packed except two yesterday) I'll look for copy of the recipe for me. I'm sure she gave it to me when I was much younger.

[Ivy]

Harriet! Your cat & HRH.

Harmony, I write regular for the confession market, so my name's not used, unless it's a prayer or non-fiction piece in their issues. But I'm trying to get into other publications, which use my real name. I get ideas from watching TV sometimes, reading a pen pal's letter, from my past, my family background, my old jobs in real life, from people living on our street, from relatives, & sometimes, talk shows. Also, the TV news or something in the newspaper "tweak" me into composing a story. They're fiction, so I don't copy everything from fact. I change the sex of the main character or add more kids or make a family with kids, a childless couple who later adopt kids. My ideas just "pop" into my brain. Some people believe it's "The Muse," and some people feel it's "Divine Intervention." It's so much fun to take 1 or 2 different people, from my past, then re-locate them into a different setting, make up a story, so it's very different from what used to be fact. When DH got his hearing aids, I wrote a story called "Can You Hear Me Now?", for instance. I write about singles who date, young married, young families, middle aged sandwiched generations & the elderly, too. I'm 62 now, used to be in my twenties & with my kids being 40 & 42, I get ideas from them, too. It's sort of like "magic." I honestly don't know how all these ideas come to me, but sometimes, after bedtime prayers in bed, I start thinking about a good story & find it hard to get to sleep because I start to get excited.

[DeeClutter]

I am sure you described 'low hanging fruit' at some point, Kathryn. Please describe again...... Knew I was wondering earlier and kind of see it now.

[lucylee]

Woo hoo!!! Administrative council minutes are typed and...

wait a minute... brb...

okay, now --
[x] administrative council minutes are typed AND e-mailed to church office.
[x] letter of recommendation is typed and e-mailed to former student
[x] bags packed for weekend. -- Well, not really packed -- dh will do that tomorrow -- but I have all my stuff ready to go, except for cosmetics/etc. stuff that has to wait till I'm s2s on Friday.

And... I'm sorry but I have not checked on dmom today. She was supposed to have haircut appointment today and wanted to take care of a couple other errands, so I haven't tried to call. Now she's watching Jag and she really prefers not to be disturbed when that's on, LOL...
Dmil... not doing so great... diahrea is still such a problem.

Harriet -- I do feel a bit of nostalgia when I visit high school and when I read the school paper, but not anything like wishing I were back in it, of course. I am still very, very pleased that I retired.
I do miss my dteacher friends, but five more of them are leaving this year so the staff is really undergoing a huge change and I'm glad I got out ahead of it.
The current newspaper sponsor is probably a bit overwhelmed. She is teaching AP classes as well as regular classes in tenth and eleventh grades after having been in junior high/middle school the last several years. Plus she has to help with the dance team. (Such a joy to be the low man/woman on the totem pole, you know.) Plus she has a baby about the age of dgs. If anyone ever says anything to me about what I would be doing with the paper if I still had it, I try to remind them that what they saw last year (my 20th year with it) was NOT what they saw my first year with it. I suspect she may be under some administrative pressure too, b/c the paper is NOT a good money maker. It should support itself, but just barely... and since they didn't do a major fundraiser this year, it may not be supporting itself. The digital age is affecting all paper journalism, I think. I've read that even lots of college papers have converted to ALL digital, which is sad, IMHO. Anyway... that's more than you wanted to know, I guess, but yeah... I miss some things about my life in that school building b/c it was such a HUGE part of my life since I was 12 years old... BUT... ooohhh... I like my lazy life of sleeping late and going to late movies and walking in the sunshine w/dgs.

Ivy, can you explain a bit more about the "confession" market? What sort of publications does that include?

Wow, Kathryn... Oh. My. Goodness. Brownies w/white chocolate and Skor candy??? Oh my... I am sooo envious... that sounds like HEAVEN.
And here on earth, btw, you are doing an AMAZING job w/this move!!!

Thinking about Kathryn's move... and Cathy cleaning out her ddad's house...
Dmom is talking about sort of gradually moving into her parents' house, which would put her about 10 minutes closer to me. That doesn't sound like much, but when you figure a round trip takes about half an hour right now, and it would be less than 10 minutes if she moved, it would be really nice. It would also eliminate all school traffic, red lights, and stop signs, as I have to go through town to get to her now. More importantly, it would put her next door to her church and within walking distance (on a good day) to two little convenience stores/gas stations. So... it would be a really smart move. OTOH, she really hates to leave the house she & my ddad built... AND... ooohhh... I dread helping her pack up and move! So when I say gradually... that might help. She said she might start staying at dgrandparent's house on Wed. nights and Sat. nights, so church attendance would be easier for her.

What are you researching, Harmony?
I'm more of a fiction fan, myself, too. I am almost finished w/Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn and let me tell you... it is very, very interesting. However, I must admit, the language IS terrible. At first I didn't like either one of the main characters partly b/c their personalities leave something to be desired... and partly b/c of their vulgar talk. BUT... ooohhh... suddenly the story grabbed me and boy... I keep thinking, "Hmmm... didn't see THAT coming..." So I can't wait to see what finally happens.

Ivy, that is interesting about the coffee. I wonder if that contributes to dmom's problems. I don't think she could LIVE without her coffee, though... so it's probably not worth discussing.

I took piano lessons from 3rd grade to 6th grade. I only play well enough for my own enjoyment. Dbro is a VERY talented pianist... took lessons from 2nd grade to 12th grade, and actually went to college on a piano performance scholarship. He dropped the scholarship after a year though b/c he said it took too much time to prepare for his music classes and was taking time he desperately needed to be spending on academic classes. Not that he was a great scholar -- but he did graduate. I'll never forget one phone conversation we had while he was in college. He was grumbling, "And dad thinks I'm just down here having a big time... and I am having a good time... but not as much as some people. Some people I know have already had to go back home... (flunked out)." LOL...

WTG, helia w/no cavities! That is always SUCH a relief!!!

Bob Marley. I had a student once who was a HUGE Bob Marley fan. I don't know if I have ever even heard a Bob Marley song. I should look him up on You Tube.

Waving to Okay... Sunny... Cowinkie... Dee... and EVERYONE else!!!

EDITING TO SAY...
Just talked to dmom and she sounded really good. She had gotten her hair cut today, which was MUCH needed... and she went by the cable tv place and set up auto-payment there. She was talking about sitting at the marina this weekend and trying to sell the boat... and she just sounded really good. * whew *
Also -- got clothes ready to pack while I was on the phone and put away stuff that was hanging to dry.