Thursday Thoughts

[Kathryn-in-Canada]

This should be a challenging and reflective day for me.

Not sure where to start, so I'll start here by reminding everyone to get their thoughts in order. If they are jumbled, they often act as a dam, stopping action from flowing from the thoughts.

P&P's system gives us a great place to get the 'littler' things in order. If we aren't worrying about the routine stuff, we have more energy to spend on the bigger issues in life.

[Lady Maverick]

Happy Birthday to Mr MT!

I've been following my schedule plan this morning and feel energized by getting things done. When things get accomplish in a timely manner, it makes me happy. Not only are the personal & home care daily tasks done but now the day is open to doing other things.

RE: pictures from phone. I use dropbox.com to store pictures. Dropbox app (free) on the phone can be configured to automatically upload the pictures from phone when I am in wifi range (I don't want to use phone data plan to transfer pictures). Just tossing that option out there for those who regularly take pictures. I take well over 100 pictures a month with phone so it is nice to have the process automated.

I am attending a Master Gardener meeting this morning. It requires a 2 hour drive which I'm not looking forward to, but I REALLY want the information and contact with other gardeners. I know what/how my family gardens, but I am always looking for ways to improve. There are some really knowledgeable experienced gardeners in this group and I am drawn to them like a moth to a flame.

[DeeClutter]

My thoughts are caught up in why I wasn't feeling so well during the night. Woke up once and was cold but completely 'sweaty'. Almost felt nauseous part of the night and my left knee was quite bothersome -couldn't move it at all without discomfort. Seems a little better this morning, but then I've managed to take 2 doses of t ylenol since it all began and put on icy hot gel. Dh started 'complaining' about one of his knees yesterday bothering more than the norm. Perhaps it's been our weird weather.

My thoughts also were on "how to get rid of spammers". Hope I've done at least 2 today.

DD called me at 8 so had to get up. Let me know that all the washers were available. According to the laundry repairman all our dryers are set the same as ones in town. Somehow I doubt it. Never had trouble with drying there and continue to do so here. Guess he's going to check the vents next.

Happy Birthday, MR. MT!! Hope you're feeling better.

I'll have to check out that photo app, LadyM.

[Kathryn-in-Canada]

Had a good night but today has been spun around.

Just had to send a 'heads up' email to the minister so that gave me time to reflect on a situation. Now I need to listen to what I need to do in response to the situation.

My musician friend phoned at 8 to let me know that her 3.5 month old grandson is currently brain dead and not expected to live another day. Last night he was all giggles and happiness, standing on her lap while she held his hands. He was put to bed and when his mom checked on him, he was unresponsive and blue. They started CPR, were transferred to ds' hospital (so glad he wasn't working last night) and then to the childrens' hospital but the scan shows he's brain dead.

I'm a loss for what I should be doing. The household consisted of grandparents, two adult daughters and grandson plus 3 hyper, unmanageable, dogs. Only the father can drive legally. The baby's father is not allowed to see the baby unsupervised due to his addictive and abusive personality so at the hospital there is a police escort with him. Oh, and the baby's mother has just started 'dating' her legal husband now that she realizes that he is a good guy and didn't deserve to be dumped in the first place.

Part of me says to stay away from the drama. Part of me says that I need to be there. Sigh. I'll let you know what happens.

[DeeClutter]

In prayer for the situation and for your part (?) therein, Kathryn.

[helia]

That is really sad and awful news, Kathryn. I'll pray for the family and wisdom for your participation. . .

I've been up for a while and have done a lot of emails - finally got the emails sent out re: details of girls transition from our europe trip to the church youth group's Detroit trip. Asked a friend if dd16 could stay with them another weekend; emailed teaching team w/ my travel dates as we're going to want to reschedule the last cancelled meeting; emailed Tori's parents about a need for a person to watch all 3 dogs during above mentioned weekend. . . .Still need to email care team re: the meal I brought over to the family 2 nights ago.

Next - a.m. routine.

Then, I really do need to gather my thoughts on my trip prep. We are packing only carry on, so I need to keep everything to a minimum. I don't think I tend to pack a whole lot in general. I'm a pretty simple person in terms of clothing and physical care, but this will still be a challenge. At least we're not doing the standard hut tour in the Alps, so I won't need hiking clothes too. . . . We will not have laundry until we get to NL, a full week after we arrive. I imagine I'll be washing some items out by hand and spot cleaning as needed.

I did take care of a mail vacation hold and newspaper stops yesterday.

Too bad the Dutch team ended up losing yesterday - after 120 minutes of play and the score tied 0-0. My goodness!! They couldn't bring in their special goalie for the penalty shots b/c they'd used up all their substitutions earlier in the game. I'm now rooting for Germany.

[Nancy]

(K in C & friend. )
62* - 96*
Short walk done.
Watering now.
Breakfast check.
On the patio writing in my journal.
Planning my day. Looked for camping stuff found it.
Store run today w #2 dgd on tap.

[Twins' Mom]

Today I pick up meals and go to dmom's house. My patience is running short these days so I need to keep it together there. Dcleaning lady is coming today also, so I need to straighten up for her. I haven't had a proper desk day this week and need to do so. Perhaps tomorrow, which is quiet otherwise.

-breakfast
-walk ddogs
-meds/vitamins
-kitchen counters/breakfast bar
-straighten GR room

[DeeClutter]

Finally garnered my 'thought' process enough that I'm almost ready to go (try) do a LOL. Don't think I have enough quarters to do more than 1 load (especially if they need longer than 1 drying cycle. ) I did have them but gave $20 worth to dneighbor yesterday as the machine wasn't working for change. Hoping it's working now so I can cash in the $20 she gave me. That will keep me for a while. I'll be lucky to get up there and find washers open. I'll be so glad when our laundry is open on our side, but doubt it will be for several weeks yet. Know they have to re-do the leach field (the one they put in last fall did not 'pass' ). And I know the machines need to be installed, as well as benches for the showers and countertops. Sure it will all take time. Think the contractors work on it as time allows. They've been working for 2 1/2 months now. I know this because the guy that was hurt so bad was on the 2nd of May and they'd been working a while at that point.

[MysteryWoman]

Good morning! I never did get back here again yesterday, did I?

We didn't go to the movie, either -- we'll be doing that today. DH and dd were well engrossed in splitting wood, and it was such a gorgeous day that I didn't want to drag them inside. So instead, I sent DD outside with a sketchbook: She talks about wanting to be an artist, but she spends all her time on the computer obsessing about My Little Pony. So I made her go out and draw. She went up to the beach club and came back with a couple of nice drawings of trees, one of which was incredibly detailed. As for me, I continued puttering in my room.

*sigh* Yet again, I am at a "15-puzzle" stage. (You know those puzzles with 15 tiles in a 4-by-4 grid, and you have to slide the numbers around to get them in order, but it seems you can't get some in order without getting others out of order?) I'm puttering in my room to make space to move some things out of DD's room so we can clean it (and get proper access to her dresser to go through clothes to see what still fits her -- which seems to be precious little). The things I need to move out of DD's room were moved in there from the "office" sun room... which leads to the saga of the raccoons....

For the past couple of years, I could see that the soffits under the eaves were rotting out, as was some of the other wood trim. However, I've had no luck finding someone to take care of them, because the wood trim on a brick house is not a very big job -- just an inconvenient one. Well, finally it got bad enough that a raccoon was able to get into the eaves and ended up making a hole in the roof itself. (Now, the last people I tried to get to come out & do the woodwork (before this happened) were not that interested in the woodwork, but if they could do the roof as well, since the roof was getting old & showing wear....) But we didn't have money to do the whole roof; I just wanted to get the soffits fixed before something happened.

Well, obviously, something did happen -- around about Thanksgiving. The raccoon(s) managed to put a hole in the roof itself, and either their clawing or the rain that got through the hole put a hole in the ceiling of the office. So we spent a day catching water in buckets and rescuing papers from the rain. I had papers on the clotheslines in the basement, on drying racks, and on screening I had strung up, not to mention the stuff I was drying with my hair dryer. We had no idea what to do about the hole, and I figured we should call the insurance company. I didn't think we had a claim -- after all, if we'd managed to get the soffit fixed, none of this would have happened -- but I figured that they had an interest in things not getting worse to the point where we did have a claim. They connected us with someone to fix the hole that day (not particularly well, but at least water was no longer pouring into the room), and they thought we did have a claim. Since it was raccoons -- and we could prove it was raccoons; we had gotten the services of a trapper, and he'd caught some & taken them out to the country to release, but since the hole was just tarped and not really sealed, more kept getting in -- we were covered. (If it had been squirrels, we wouldn't have been.)

But winter hit (and of course it was a hard one) before they could get a claims adjuster out to assess the roof. (They couldn't really check the damage under the snow.) So we spent the winter battling the raccoons -- as well as battling the bathroom pipes freezing because of the cold air (the damaged eave/roof was just the other side of the bathroom wall). Finally, they got someone out in the spring -- and decreed the damage was such that it couldn't be patched -- we needed (and they were paying for) a whole new roof! (Thank you, raccoons!) We finally got the new roof installed last month -- but I thought I heard noises above my head in the bedroom after the roofers were gone. We were worried a raccoon might be trapped up there and try to get out by using the hole that remained in the office ceiling, so we raced to get everything out of the office and the room sealed off before dark. No raccoon, and we were able to get the trapper to put traps in the office and eave crawl space the next morning just in case. We're convinced now that we have no more wildlife, but the contents of the office are strewn about the house -- some in our room, some in dd's room, some in the living room, but the bulk is in DD's room. DH doesn't really want to put everything back in the office until we get the plasterer in, not that we've even called a plasterer yet. Hence the shuffling of items.

But in cleaning things up in my room, I've come across my collection of old task cards. I probably should pitch them, but they make interesting reading, between the progression from "nurse dd" and "help DD with potty" to "help dd dress" and "take DD to preschool" to "take DD to school" and "take dd to preschool" to "take girls to school" to "drive carpool" and the changes in the cards themselves. (I started out very simply and am pretty simple now, but for a while there, the cards got really byzantine -- at one point I was using numbers, letters, Roman numerals and Greek letters! )

The laptop is about out of juice & the cord is downstairs, so I will post now & BBL.