Freeing Friday

[Nancy]

What can you do to free up time for the weekend today?
I need to spiff up a bit and do some dailies here.
How about you?

[blessedw2]

thank you d Nancy for starting us off!!!

today: my dmom , dd older are picking up visiting d cousin and taking her out lunch... she is staying near downtown.
I may pop in here and there today and tomorrow. Hopefully next week I will be able to visit my home more! . Have a great day.

[Harmony]

Nancy, sorry to read your repair could turn out so pricey. Hopefully you'll find another way to fix.

Kathryn, saw your note about your dson yesterday. It's good to take heart! My DSiL is dyslexic and slightly AD (though you'd not know to interact with him) and he's a CPA and had to get through college and all that other education and testing. Our kids can do it!

I'm trying to free up my time this weekend so I can spend more of that with DGKids who are coming tonight. Yesterday I got a beef stew made in the crockpot; I made a pot of mashed potatoes (in freezer now); I have ribs in the crockpot now and a chicken in the oven. Next I must make the birthday cake. And gravy. This is the other family of boys who typically keep me very very busy and love our meals, but don't want us spending big gobs of time in the kitchen. They'd rather play board games or go somewhere.... and DGS wants more piano lessons.

I'm hoping to get a nice nap this afternoon. They will likely be in quite late tonight.

I did the patches on 2 sheets last evening. Wow, what a job. The first one I did by hand and that took forever... so I decided the other 2 patches would go faster on the sewing machine. Opened that up and I had to put the cam in the top to do the zig-zag and I haven't used that stuff for years and years and didn't remember how to set the dials... this machine is 45 years old... and it was annoying working on queen size material. Anyway, I did get it done and got everything cleaned up (Had everything dragged out)... so that was good.

Need to sweep and mop floors and wrap gift also. And wipe up bathroom. They are bringing their dog since neighbor who used to watch her has moved away... and I'm a little worried about that since she's not good in the kitchen, being really tall and has bad habits around food. I really wish I had a cage to put her in during meal times. Otherwise she's just a nice dog...and getting old.

Better get to it!

[Lady Maverick]

My day started at sunrise with workmen arriving to put a new roof on shed. They had to start early because of the heat. Yesterday the workmen worked in our home to fix 3 separate water leaks. When the workmen are here, I have to give them the majority of my focus so it heavily affects my schedule and amount of things I can get done. I am thankful to have these leaks repaired, new roof and the house back to normal occupants/activities.

We have someone interested in buying MPB however they want more/newer financial documents than I have available. I have HAVE TO drop everything I can and focus on paperwork and financial spreadsheets. I think I can get financial things caught up with 20-30 hours of focus. I just have to carve out those needed hours from normal doings. Hum.....thinking.....I am intrigued with the thought of how much time it REALLY would take. I think anything that makes the process seem like a game or challenge would be motivating for me. I'm going to try and time myself and see how that goes.

[Harriet]

Good morning, Nancy.

Freeing thoughts
I have a lot of family doin's over the weekend and don't have a timetable yet for that. I have considered Harmony's plan of lots of cooking ahead... ... and abandoned it out of hand! I think I will call the grocery and ask for one of their sandwich rings to be made, though. That satisfies a lot of folks (and children) without costing much, and will be kitchen-freeing of work/space while so much is going on.

Laundry needs to be high on my list for freeing pre-work! Dd needs to pack a rolling bookbag and one more relatively small bag for her week away.

[Ramblinrose]

Morning y'all...

I was up before day break... 4:30
Met friends to hike a near by small mountain. The distance from bottom to top is .6 of a mile but the elevation is great. The top is very flat.

Did "Spook Mt" twice, plus circled the top several times. Enjoyed watching the sun peak through the other mt ridge.

My friend has lost 105 lbs in 10 months and will be featured in the August addition of women's magazine. We are talking abt doing an daily early morning work out at our HS. We both are registered to do a small triathlon in the fall and want to train together.

My home is in good order. Today I plan to shop for a much needed bathing suit. Mine no longer fits and so this is a needed shopping trip. All I can say is ugh

Waving to y'all ... Hope you have a great day.

Waiting to hear what lucylee has to say abt the movie last night... The reviews haven been very good.

[blessedw2]

d harmony... sounds yummy
d rose great job on the walk
d harriet have a lovely day
d lady good morning to you too

I have to go soon but I did make a combination of lunches and dinners for dd younger, dh and for me later
time for kitchen dailies... have a great day!

[Kathryn-in-Canada]

LadyM: most people having to produce financial documents don't have little ones underfoot. My children were a lot older before I had to start working on things like that, therefore they were in school all day.

Is their a neighbourhood teenager who you could hire for a a week to act as a mother's helper, dealing with meals and activities with the LO and dgd? Or a drop in day care the your dh could drop them at for 4 - 5 hours a day while you work?

[Kathryn-in-Canada]

I'm up and at it slowly but it is the second half of my sabbath. Actually, just over an hour left. Spent an hour on the balcony working on sermon prep which I found useful. I'm now s2s and have done my exercises.

Breakfast is done as well and I'm having my 1/3 of an ounce of nuts as a snack. CM will be over with the middle boy in a bit. She's dropping off the anthem for Sunday in the hopes we can learn it in time. I've also got to come up with a dish for the pot luck. I still have salsa and chips so might go with that and cut veggies. Easy and quick.

[helia]

Great title for today. Thanks nancy! Freeing Friday. . .Well, I've already started feeling more "free" with my low-key week and with dd17 just now starting her summer vacation.

Despite dh sleeping in - his new plan to try to acclimate his body to Japan time a little - and dd17 sleeping in, my body was awake and finished sleeping around 7 a.m., which is my normal time to get up. I know that IS sleeping in for some of you. LOL! I've been having a slow morning, though. The a.m. routine is done, except for making the bed. I have been to WW - down 0.6, which doesn't sound like much since I've been very carefully tracking and exercising this week -- but I did attend 4 parties this past weekend + went out to restaurants 2 times, all of which were *ahem* not helpful to staying on track. So, I consider a 0.6 lb. loss a success! En route home, I stopped by TJ to stock up on some frozen foods and the pet store to buy more g. pig food. Taffy is almost 7 years old! I think that's pretty old for a guinea pig.

Later today:
- school awards ceremony 12:45
- finish end of session tasks
- jog?
- go to my class at 3:40, though I doubt anyone will be there
- buy 2 grad cards
- grad party this evening

Last night, dh convinced me to go to the running store to buy new shoes. He's been wanting me to do that for months. I'm glad I finally caved in. I am SO impressed with all the shoes I tried on! They are so light and so cushiony and I don't feel like I'm wearing shoes at all!! My old running shoes were probably close to 10 years old and had lost all cushion. Shoe making technology has clearly advanced a lot since I bought them. Fortunately, I do not have fussy feet - or knees, etc. so I never had any pain or problems with my old shoes. However, I'm how excited to give my new running (jogging) shoes a whirl. Maybe after payroll today, if it doesn't rain. Dh (and most serious runners, I think) replaces his running shoes about every 6 months. I noticed they also had a laundry soap that claims it will get the sweat smell out of clothes. I may have to go back and buy that. I can't quite get the smell out of dh's running clothes. . . . Maybe TMI. . . LOL!

Thank you for your kind comments after my bragging yesterday. Thank you for bragging with me, Harmony! As impressive as many of our village young people are, I was most touched by hearing about your nephew's (I think) graduation, the young man who was in a different program for some help. Those success stories are the most impressive, imho, and maybe those kids deserve the most kudos. I don't remember if I commented on this or not at the time - but I do remember. I do enjoy reading about all the family members here and what they're doing and their success stories. Success comes in many different forms. And I've learned over the years that kids/people taking higher level classes/degrees, etc. are not necessarily any smarter/talented than their peers who aren't. Drive, motivation, opportunity, other powerful forces come in to play in schooling - and in life. --Oh, sorry. I just started going on my soapbox, apparently.

Yes, I've been pretty well healed of helicopter parenting tendencies, at least in regards to school. I'm (a) too busy and maybe (b) too lazy to keep that up. LOL!

Oh - I need to leave in about 20 minutes. I'm going to grab some lunch, keep laundry going, make my bed, and change my clothes. Have a good afternoon friends!