Thursday Perseverance

[Harriet]

Stick with it today!

How are your plans for the week going?
Do you already have reason to pat yourself on the back?
Or do you need to pick up the pace on a project?

“Perseverance is a great element of success.
If you only knock long enough and loud enough at the gate,
you are sure to wake up somebody.”

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

[helia]

Well, I need to pick up the pace on the prepping for houseguests project! LOL!

I am up, s2s-ed, have reclaimed the kitchen, checked on bedding laundry, replied to an email from my supervisor, and am working on mug of tea #2.

Next for me:
- QT
- finalize li$t of things to do today
- dust/wipe down surfaces in ds' room
- make up the beds in ds' room

Later:
- tidy play room
- dust/wipe down horizontal surfaces in the play room
- clean bathroom down; dh has recently cleaned, sealed the tiling, and regrouted the shower down there so it should be set
- vacuum down stairs
- put out hot spot
- tidy coffee table
- quick vacuum of living room rug?
- quick s/s of upstairs main bathroom
- prep for class
- print out lists of students and missing hw assignments
- change clothes and gather items
- go in to work around 2:30.
- come home to a house full of people
- help dh finish cooking and setting up
- dinner for 10 adults, 2 kids (7 and 10), and 1 baby
- clean up; chat with dfriends
- go to bed exhausted

[Kathryn-in-Canada]

Perseverance is certainly working on the diet front for me. Although still 17 pounds heavier than when I got sick with hepatitis (and I was 20 lbs overweight at that point!), I'm continuing to feel better about myself when I look in the mirror. Since "happy with self-image" was one of my Freedom 55 goals, I'm glad I'm making progress on that along with the knee pain and the weight.

I have something new wrong with me that needs to be checked out, though. Sigh. Will try and get an appointment for tomorrow or Monday (while dh is still here to drive me to the eye doctor.)

I'm up and s2s because there's an enter notice to work on the laundry room vent today. Of course, we had the same notice last week and called at 3:30 to discover they had put it off. Every inch of my laundry room is used so I should be here to move things out of the workman's way. I have decorations on the top of my dryer, a rod hanging under the vent pipe for recycle bags, ironing to do, and extra hangers, and an antique wash board in the way. My old laundry room was part of the entrance to the house so I was used to it being decorated and did the same here.

Also have to finish the service for Sunday and start seriously practicing the narrative by memory. I've done it before so am not starting from scratch but I did it 6 years ago and have rewritten it so may as well be starting from scratch. Still trying to shorten it as well since it runs 10 minutes and I don't have that much time with the retirement home services, especially on days when I have two services and have to rush from one to the other.

[Nancy]

I have watered lawn, fed hens, put clothes out to dry, had breakfast, walked, let out hens. Thinking of a meal plan for dinner. Journaling undef way now. Today is my Friday thinking how or what to do with time then, h. Said he has to work Sat. A.M.

[Elizabeth]

Good morning everyone! Not a whole lot of progress to report since (as always) the animal org meeting was long. (There are major changes in the works - this is to be expected). I did get the kitchen completely done, all the way down to sweep and mop, which are the items most likely to be put off. Got to bed later than I would have liked.

Here's what still needs to be done on turning the pigsty back into the cat house before the pet sitter sees it:
Finish DD's room - some pick up, mop
Master bedroom - think Disaster Recovery
Master bath
Living room - mostly ok due to work done last week

Other things I should do tonight after Girls' Night Out with DD13: clean out the borrowed rolling cooler, extreme clean one catbox, write up info for pet sitter, update GPS maps, activity/reservation check.

On the train, I finished crocheting the body of a TMNT based on a Care Bear pattern.

[Ramblinrose]

Morning y'all...

Yeah RunKitty is back

I have several errands to run this morning including a hair cut.

Yesterday I had a wonderful long lunch with a friend that I don't get to see that often. We worked together for a year and have a great friendships.

I am making plans to visit my son in Dallas just waiting to verify dates. He wants to spend Xmas in NJ with my Mom and family so I will need to start planning for that as well.

Of to start my day...Sweetie needs me ...

[DeeClutter]

So nice to be needed, RR. Raining here & chilly. Was hot till yesterday. Even had the furnace on this morning. Just now eating my breakfast & only just took my meds (it's 10:50). Was up & down for 3 hours -11:20-3:00, so tried to sleep in this morning. Got up at 7:50 to answer phone. DD wanted me to go to dgs10's lacrosse camp with her. I declined & tried to sleep on.

Should do laundry this morning but hate to go down in this rain. I'm happy in my warm little nest. It'll hold till tomorrow. Suspect dd and dgs will be here after a while -after all, Grandma has internet.

Need to find the kitchen. Prepared pulled pork and took over to dd & ds-A's last night. DDIL#2 and I came back over here to order a gas grill for their birthdays and anniversary (and Christmas? ). Bought DS-R & DDIL#1 a smoker for all of theirs. Cool present -hit the nail on the head.

DD, DDIL#2 and dgs's 10 & 2 went down the road a few miles to see the alpacas yesterday. They all enjoyed that. The rest of them went to see all the ducks as well. When they came back I asked dgs2 if the ducks 'quacked' him up and his answer: ACTUALLY, NO! Actually???? His vocabulary is certainly growing.

Dividing my day into 1-hour time slots today and my first hour is nearing its end (all the personal stuff and making the bed). Doing very small jobs in each time slot. First up will be to tidy the kitchen and do the dishes.

[Twins' Mom]

Good morning to everyone - I was away yesterday visiting dsis - left about 10:15 yesterday morning (after spending a lot of time messaging with dd sigh) and got in around 8:30 last night. Easiest trip I've had in awhile in terms of traffic; last time I was almost despairing of ever getting home again. Dsis gulped down meds as we were going to head out for ice cream and got choked up - later had difficulty swallowing Krystal soft hamburgers so they will do another swallowing evaluation. I'm worried about aspiration pneumonia - she coughed yesterday until she nearly threw up and continued coughing for awhile.

The whole trip depresses me - that sometimes I feel "stuck" with taking care of dsis and dmom. I read the discussion in H&F about taking care of self first - and I feel like I do a lot to take care of myself but I'm somehow failing in that respect because otherwise I wouldn't feel so overwhelmed. I've fallen by the wayside on declutter challenge and on fitness challenge for my 60th birthday in December. And in the car on this long trip I start going over all the things I feel overwhelmed about: the garage, the bonus room upstairs, Master closet, paperwork, almost everything I can think of....

And I'm almost feeling ready to get on board with tracking what I'm eating but we're going away again to the beach with friends...

I know....I know....I just need to do it. I'm just feeling sorry for myself today.


And....to get on with the rest of the day...


PODA:
-stamp camp tonight at 6 p.m.
---need to look at catalogue and decide on order
-pick up meals for dmom and visit her
-groceries - we don't need much because we are leaving on Saturday, but ds will be home...
-be ready for dcleaning lady tomorrow so I can get out and get a pedicure when the walk in place opens tomorrow

Hanging heavily on my mind right now is a wedding invitation we just rec'd for dh's cousin's wedding in NY over labor day weekend. We had already told dcousin that we would attend, and dh has made flight and hotel arrangements. But when I saw the invitation, I realized that it is probably quite dressy since it is at 6:30 p.m. at a NY hotel, altho black tie is not specified....and I'm stressed about finding something appropriate to wear at this weight. If I get my head together I could lose a few pounds by then but so far I haven't gotten my head together.


aaaaacck! I don't want to be needed!

[Twins' Mom]

And a couple of other things to catch up....

Thank you Helia and others for weighing in on dd's travel...it appears that what she wants to do is to return to the U.S. about the same time as originally planned by cutting short her trip to Israel and spending a little time somewhere else. We thought she wanted to spend more time in Israel, which we are in favor of her doing, but spending the money to change her flight is not worthwhile to us unless she wants to spend significantly more time in Israel. And I can't seem to get that through to her. So I'm to tell her today (when she starts messaging me) to talk to dh about it. She is just wearing me down.

As for traveling overseas, this is her first trip other than going to Colombia when she was 11, so she is not experienced. Dh worries. I do too, but I always hated it when my dmom said...."Girls can't do those kind of things" which is basically what dh is saying. So I am somewhat sympathetic.


I was also thinking about Lady M yesterday - how she has more on her because she has five generations and she is truly sandwiched in the middle.

And there was something else I wanted to weigh in regarding but I can't remember....must get going now.

-quick s2s
-reboot laundry
-make the bed
-10 pieces of paper gone
-take out kitchen trash

[Kathryn-in-Canada]

Twins: just because you are going away doesn't mean you can't track. If you are using MFP just enter the first item that comes up for each food. Doesn't have to be accurate, we'll start getting you in the habit of logging everything. Then we can work towards accuracy and then towards tweaking your food intake so you get all the nutritionally dense foods you need in fewer calories so there's room for the emotionally dense foods that comfort you.

That's my plan for the month I'm away and out of control (I'm going to a place without many chain restaurants so I can't even eat at Subway all the time in order to keep my tracking easy.) I recall trying to WW track reindeer stew once while in Finland. Sometimes you do your best and work on maintaining the habit not working towards the desired outcome of the habit.