Snowy Saturday

[Nancy]

We got the first snow of the year woke up to the white stuff! Coffee is on. [_]P Happy Saturday everyone!
Heading out to feed & water and check on the chickens. Done.
Bs was #72 a bit of n the low side so I am up a little early.
I swept off the driveway.
So how are you having a happy Saturday?

[helia]

Good morning nancy. You're up early! We are having freezing rain and might get actual snow later today. It's not too cold, about 30* right now.

I hope my Saturday will be happy. I hope to make a little more progress on catch up projects around here, and Dh and I are going out tonight, so that should be happy!

So far, I haven't done much other than free dogs, let them out and in, make tea, check emails and web sites.

QT and rest of a.m. routine are next.

[DeeClutter]

I'm building a happy Saturday by completing the minutes for our last church council meeting. I've made a calendar up until January 13th and putting the report(s) I wish to accomplish for each day through then. I have to have the report sent to our secretary by the 13th to give her and our pastor time to go over them, make any changes/corrections, print it and collate it. The financial reports will be later in the month. The report is handed out on Sunday, the 18th and our annual meeting is the 25th. I can take a breath after that.

DD, Dh and dsonil have all gone to the flea market. DD's in search of items to work with her new "silhouette" printer she got for Christmas. Can see this is right up her alley and will give her all sorts of projects to mostly give as gifts. Did give her momentum to finish arranging their new 'art' room. It will also give her the needed impetus to finish packing up GD's things and put them in bins for storage. Then maybe I can do more with the office.

Still have our tree up -probably till later this week. DD and dh plan to take the front door off and finish that today. Hopefully it will finally be warm and dry enough to do that.

Off to take my meds, have breakfast and get that report done.

SuzLew, if you happen by, wishing you a Happy Birthday!

[Emptynester]

Dee: I'm on the other end of church duties. I will be taking over as Clerk on Jan. 25. But I'm already working on it. I have started to work on the calendar by writing in the standing committee meetings and others that use the church on a regular basis. I almost think it would be easier to use a digital calendar and print off the pages to carry with me. When a group meets 3 times a week for the whole year - that is a lot of writing in. It is much easier to tell a computer and type it once. I have to think about it a bit.

Got a call from Dr. after we did some blood and urine tests prior to visit next week. DH is very low on phosphorous and I have a UTI. Only problem is that meds insurance changed on Jan 1 and I can't find the letter telling us about it. I haven't received the new cards yet as they probably went to our mail forwarding and I would get that mail until next week. I tried to call DH's old employer but they are closed until Monday. So we paid $15 instead of $3 for my antibiotics. We are treating DH with diet. So I have to cook up some bean soup for him today.

It is light enough to take Dakota out for a walk so I'd better get at that. Then I have to sort laundry and get that done. TTFN

[DeeClutter]

Had not 'heard' about phosphorus in blood tests, MT. Interesting. I assume your health care is still through your home state. Ours is still in our county in New York. Has to be. As is our DMV stuff. We had considered changing to FL but it would cost us in the long run.

Finished the minutes for December and have sent them off to our secretary and our pastor. Hoping they'll catch any mistakes or changes. For instance I had typed that the minutes from November were approved with 'correction'. Hmmmm.....never wrote down what the 'correction' was. So am not sure if there even was one. Good feeling having that much sent off. Now have 3 reports I want to finalize today for the Annual Report. Have to have them sent by a week from Wednesday. I only know this winter is flying by extremely fast. It's a busy month on our calendar.

DD came home with a couple of old blue mason jars to be used for a project. Dsonil even put quite a few of his things that had resided in the living room into the 'art' room. Love it. DD has it arranged so they can put the computer/desk in there. She's thinking of getting her own computer to use with her new vinyl cutter.

[Kathryn-in-Canada]

I'm up after over 9 hours in bed (and 30 minutes of reading in my comfy chair in the bedroom before that.) I had both the vaporizers (cool mist and hot) running in the room all night. Got the humidity up to 26% (30% is minimal in order to not have a sore throat or dry nose, lips, skin.)

All the humidifiers I buy have insane cleaning instructions, processes that take at least an hour a week. The latest one I bought (but haven't bothered to use since I'll return it) has a washable filter. But it is still 1 hour of cleaning a week PLUS the filter needs to be changed every 3 months or more often. I need5 humidifiers for the apartment (1 for each room except the kitchen and spare bedrooom) so when I multiply the cleaning task by 5, I end up not bothering to buy anything. That's one solid day of work cleaning humidifiers each week.

The kitchen is a bit better than the rest of the apartment. As for the bathrooms, as our guest notes yesterday, he took a steamy hot shower and stepped out of the tub to a perfectly clear mirror. There's no way to steam up this place. (One thought had been to fill the tubs with water each day and let them add humidity to the apartment that way but with the ventilation being in the bathroom, I don't think that will work.

What I haven't tried yet is the two vaporizers placed in the spare bedroom with the door shut. That room doesn't have a bathroom attached to it so there's no ventilation in there if the door is shut (and possibly a towel across the bottom.) It is also a smaller room (about 130 square feet) so the vaporizer might be able to make a dent in there. I have a desk and chair in there so can work there if I get too miserable.

It doesn't help that I have a sore throat and my nose is sore from this cold. And I'm miserable all around.

Big storm coming in today - up to 6" of snow, then freezing rain, then rain. Ds has to go to church tomorrow but I think I'll stay home. No point spreading this cold further. Ds will contact the minister today and see if it makes sense for them to car pool tomorrow.

I'm still not s2s. Today is supposed to be a pool day but that won't be happening. I'm going to make Monday my "return things" day.

Yesterday I felt tired but managed to do an awful lot. Today I don't feel as sleepy but have no energy to move whatsoever.

[CathyS]

Hi everyone!

Happy new year! Wayne and I are home from our week in Cuba.

[Harriet]

Happy Birthday to SuzLew!

Humidity - We don't have a way of measuring humidity in the house, so I'm never sure we are doing our best on this. We usually use one Vicks cool mist humidifier from the pharmacy and it costs more than $20 but less than $30 - I've forgotten. The one we have now says it's "ultraquiet". It does seem to get us past the dry feelings. This one has a "demineralization cartridge", which may help with staying clean. Our water is full of minerals and I've found that to be the reason humidifiers don't last long here and need attention. When dd34 was a baby, we had baseboard heat, which afforded slight (3-inch?) ledges that stayed warm. Her dr suggested placing mugs of water on the ledges and that easy change eased her breathing/dryness quite a bit.

Cathy, I hope you had a great vacation.

I've completed Desk Day and added getting a Get Well card into the mail fast, after just hearing that a cousin is feeling poorly.

Also a card to another cousin for belated bday. I found one in my stash that said, "on this special day", so I added beneath, "the day Harriet finally gets a card in the mail". I know he will laugh.

In a different cousin direction, we believe we have "found" the daughter of my ddad's first cousin and I will try to write to her at her business, which she owns. We all lost touch with her mother after she moved from a retirement place which will not give forwarding info. Sigh. That letter will take some careful thought, though - I didn't even know her daughter at all and my ddad has passed away now so I can't exactly send in his name, which the daughter might remember. I think I may hand-print the return address so that I can get my maiden name in there. I don't want her to think I'm a nut. Not right at first.

[blessedw2]

Happy "I WANT LOTS OF SNOW' Saturday! We got a small dusting and I want the snow we had last year.. Everything is mushy... I want lots of snow!!!

D kids have chatted and worked things out... I keep reiterating that they see things differently but both views are important and be aware of how the other might be feeling. So they are all hunky dorey again.. Sisters... lol.

D dee and d mt.. both of you have started the day doing good work!
D nancy thank you for starting us off and Happy Saturday to you.
D suz Happiest of Birthdays
D Mt.. hope your dh's phosphorus goes back to normal and that the antibiotics help you right away
D Kathryn Send me the Snow! do you still have a cold?
D Cathy how exciting!!! I hope you had a wonderful time in Cuba!!!
d Harriet ... you always make my day shine... I love the belated bday card comment.
D Helia.. have fun tonight and I am sending you and extra Happy day.

Today is a room by room heavy cleaning day which I am actually looking forward to... who said that. (mostly a floor vacuum and washing day on the first floor)

[Twins' Mom]

I don't want her to think I'm a nut. Not right at first.

LOL, Harriet! I need to approach the grandson of a great uncle - he contacted me once through Ancestry so I have his full (unusual) name and think I have found him in K-town. Would like to get this granddad to do DNA testing before it's too late.

MT, would Google calendar work? The synagogue uses "My Church Events" for which there is a minimal annual fee. Was chosen before my time - I'd switch to Google calendar but it's not a big deal either way.

Dd packed up and went back to K-town yesterday while I was out. I think she was anxious to get back, we had tried to convince her to stay last night and watch the football game with us. Ds and Z have gone out to have lunch with P & D, adult friends. Tonight dh, ds, Z and Z's father are going to the local basketball game. Dh seems in a huff today - he had a bad day yesterday (found that his orthotics won't fit his current shoes) and came home yesterday in a snit. He's upset at ds today because ds doesn't want to shop for new jeans, which dh believes he needs.

I slept in today very late, and had to call and reschedule dMac's PT appointment which was at 11. I didn't feel I was that tired last night and tossed and turned for awhile before I slept. I was awake around 8:15 and thought I'd snooze a little and then woke up at 10:45. Tomorrow Macs will have PT at 11, then when we come back we will leave again to get ds back to GT.

Next week will be busy, need to do some planning ahead. I kinda hate to feel this way but I am so glad that holidays are over and we can get back to what passes for normal. Thinking on how my life could be simplified. Must reduce volunteer commitments somehow.

Right now:
-breakfast/brunch of eggs, spinach and mushrooms
-vitamins/meds
-clean up kitchen counters and bkfast bar
-reboot laundry for ds, who is washing before he goes back to school
-try to clear kitchen table