Sunday Smiles

[Kathryn-in-Canada]

I was tempted to name this Snow-under Sunday but decided to go with the positive spin.

Giving smiles makes me feel better. Receiving smiles, especially from little ones, is also great mental medicine.

I hope you all give and get a good dose of smiles today. As I'm still masked everywhere indoors, I will have to make a real effort to arrange this, finding time to be outside in the snow with dgs. I need to teach him to love playing in the snow because I need to get out in the snow more often.

[CathyS]

I know what I must do today. I must move the ironing board out of the pantry. As I was leaving this room last night, I stubbed most of the toes on my right foot. Oh, did it ever hurt. Although the TV wasn't loud and there were no other things making noise, dh didn't hear my reaction to the pain. (Groans, followed by colourful language.) The ironing board is currently covered in 3 piles of paperwork plus some pantry items that need to be put away on the shelf which is less than a foot away.

Tonight we will be having the pork roast with crackling and home made scalloped potatoes. Dh will be watching NHL football.

It's cold with no sunshine here today. Dh wants to go to Costco to get peanut butter.

[Kathryn-in-Canada]

I'm up and at it. I need to leave for church in about 90 minutes because it is very snowy and the driving iffy. In that time I have to s2s, get the apartment ready for dgs1.9, come up with a lunch for dgs and a dinner for all of us tonight, and assorted other minor tasks. Pork roast is likely on my plan too, Cathy, but not with crackling because it is a tenderloin. Dh would rather come to your place for dinner! (I really need to learn how to make a pork roast with crackling.) I might have Danish potatoes (https://www.simplyrecipes.com/recipes/c ... _potatoes/) with dinner tonight since I have some good russet potatoes on hand. Not scallops, those I have with ham!

I'm looking forward to my nap. It was a short night cuz I got to bed after 11, but I got most of the important stuff done for the Residents' Association, including dh helping me by proofreading the newsletter that will be delivered to every apartment and then me getting it into Staples to be printed. In theory, it will be ready on Wednesday. It cost 2x what I expected. It was 3x but I forgo white space and crammed everything onto one side.

I did sleep through the night (well I remember waking but never got out of bed) and so that's a positive.

I'm getting used to the snow storms. Which is another positive. Our last storm (Wed/Thur) was 11 inches of snow (not the 6 they predicted) and today's has been upgraded from 2 - 4" to 4 - 6" so it will be a slight challenge driving.

I've discovered my AWD car isn't really an AWD car. The computer decides, if I'm sliding, to engage the front drive train. Which is bizarre because in snow, FWD is far preferable and AWD even better. Rear drive simply sucks. After reading tons and tons on Thursday (after sliding around every turn, no matter how slow I was going), I learned that I need to speed up when the car's rear end swings out, not slow down. Otherwise the FWD doesn't engage. I might never manage to learn this since I've spent 40 years well trained to slow down if I'm sliding, not speeding up.

The big problem here is with all the back to back to back storms, the roads have been plowed but the snow banks have not been removed so the roads are far narrower than usual. One's rear end swinging out on a summer's day isn't a big deal because roads are usually wide enough for an approaching car to move over. Currently, major two lane roads or 2 lanes plus bike lane are barely 2 lanes wide now. I also have to go slowly around corners because you can't see due to the snow banks.

Neighbourhood roads often can't take two cars passing, especially if there are cars parked on the road which is very common here due to infill increasing the number of households and decreasing parking spots.

So Tesla's being designed solely for California where even heavy rain is unusual (the cars hydroplane badly in rain as well due to being only rear-wheel drive despite the marketing claim they are AWD), makes driving my car in what are normal conditions here is not pleasant.

I just heard from ds and I'll drive out to the hospital to pick up dgs after church. So more driving for me. Sigh.... It won't be awful, just more stressful than I'd like.

So I'm going to focus on getting out in the snow to play after nap time today. I'll dig out the sand toys, and shovel. Hmmmm, maybe we'll go over to dd's and play in her back yard with the giant snow play structure she's trying to build.

[Lady Maverick]

~~~~Waving Hello to everyone~~~~

Kathryn - Thank you for the start and smiles.

A couple of the kitchen servants are cooking lunch today. Bread machine and Instant pot will be making shredded BBQ pork and a loaf of bread while we are at church. I have green salad ingredients that I need to prep for a salad.

Our weather pattern has changed. We still get 3 days of continual below freezing temperature, but the moisture has been delayed. That decreases the chances for ice storms. #Thankful

The tomato plants growing inside the house are now over 3' tall and blooming. I am using clear string hanging from the ceiling to provide them vertical support. I don't expect to get a huge harvest from these plants, but their purpose is to distract me from not having an outside garden to play with.

[Ramblinrose]

Mornings and smiling back

Did get most things done yesterday including making my carrot bread. Turned out ok but that’s because as I suspected my oven is not cooking properly and baked the bread at a lower heat. I need a new dishwasher and it looks like I might need a new stove.

I plan on contacting several people who design storage cabinets for my garage and laundry room. I’m done with trying to make more space for things.

Harmony … do you know of any companies to contact besides Closet Design! In the desert we had a company who specialized inexpensive utility cabinets but can find any company like that around here

I have done more than just my daily routines and at the moment am watching the Men’s final for the Australia Open. It’s bittersweet because my mom loved to watch it too and sometimes we would watch it together while on our phones.

There’s also some great football on today but I want to work on putting my bookshelves together first.

Kathryn, I love playin in the snow… actually I just love snow and if my life was a bit different I would have moved to where I could get some. I don’t even mind shoveling it although at my age now would need some help. My brother who lives in NJ thinks this will be a winter without snow, but Feb and March are still yet to come.

Harmony and I, and maybe Dee, will be experiencing above normal temperatures for the coming week and I am not looking forwards to that.

[Nancy]

It is 15* here today br-r. 27* is our hi today.
I would really like to say in hibernation but...
there are things to take to the church IF I decide to go.

I am feeling better today so that helps.
The sun is out and that is a tremendous boost to my spirit.
I am hearing spring birds outside so that is encouraging as well.

Got notices that my packages will be here by the 15th and that made me smile.

I need to remember to take the items and round up the others I have in mind.
Like the baby blankets, but no hurry on those.

I slept well and was up on time 7 this morning.

[CathyS]

On our way home from Costco we called my MIL. They have a LOT of snow there and it's been snowing since last night. We have had rain since early this morning.

[blessedw2]

I still call winter - name that lump from pam and Peggy's time. The said their dad left things all the time and when winter came they played "Name that lump".
This year we are having that with dog toys - oh my gosh our inside yard will be like an archeological dig as the snow melts

hello d Kathryn
hello d cathy
hello d Nancy
hello d rose
hello d lady
hello d everyone.

we had to send dh to the er. The nursing home he is in is terrible. They over suctioned him - over and over again (even if he said no) and he kept bleeding! he started bleeding in his mouth as well. Turned out he had a fever and the hospital kept him. I am praying that they keep him - I am trying to see if another home could take him. the EMT said pull him out of there as fast as you can. When the emergency crew all say take him out of there that it is another sign. I will be calling places again tomorrow and go see some homes. I wish I could have him here but I don't know if I could help him if there was a breathing emergency - he needs oxygen.

I need to get dressed and go over there. dd older is there right now.

[Twins' Mom]

I'm aiming for a quiet day here. Ddog woke up at nine or I would have slept later, but that possibly leaves room for a nap later too. One genie from the class this week said she slept 13 hours on Friday night. We had a delightful evening last night but I was ever so glad to be home at 10 p.m. And I'm so glad to have nothing on the schedule for today.

I really really need to do some routine things today. The stovetop, folding two loads of laundry, lots more. And an OMM list that just won't end (dh saw me recopying the list from this last week, which was recopied from the list the week before.)

This has been sitting here all morning into the afternoon. Dh has gone out to the (Jewish) Federation annual meeting. I'm piddling about, unable to find a direction. Yesterday I would have given anything to have piddled around cleaning up the kitchen - today I don't want to start anything. Maybe tomorrow is good enough.

[Ramblinrose]

Well I’m taking a break and eating lunch

Sweetie and I put together a bookshelves to sit outside in the protected area of the lanai. I added baskets and put my gardening things which were in my kitchen cabinet in wicker baskets and it looks great.

That opened up a huge space in my kitchen cabinets and I start rearranging a bunch of things and reorganized several other cabinets. Right now it looks like a bomb went off and is waiting to be put up after I eat.

I have both lanai doors open and I have my overhead fans on. Have no idea what the temp is but it is delightful sitting here with the flow of a gentle breeze.

After I finish putting everything away in their new homes I’m gonna start my taco soup. Then I can sit down and enjoy watching the football games without worrying about dinner!

Blessed…can you work with your husbands case worker to find someone who could help you if you brought your husband at home? That’s what we did with my mom. We hired a service that sent us a live in companion and she was God sent. She was certified to administer oxygen if my mom needed it and the cost was cheaper than rehab.