Wednesday Smoke and Mirrors Day

[CathyS]

Dh have been productive. We went and renewed his driver's licence and health card and the license plate "sticker" has been renewed, even though it's now free and you don't actually get a new sticker anymore. Then we both went someplace else to renew our game fishing licence for another 3 years. We bought bait when we were there.

Just heard that rain is coming to join the wind, which has gotten bad. Then the rain will change to the white stuff later tonight and be nasty over night. Going out like a lion, I guess.

Dh and I also had a talk about what needs doing outside this spring. That includes taking down the old mail box and it's post. I told him I want to call dd and tell her I want "time" from her for Mother's Day and I want it before Mother's Day weekend. We need patio stones moved, and 3 bags of sand and 2 wood piles. We are having both fences replaced this year and that means we have stuff to do out there. The wood is currently piled on our side of the fence between us and the neighbours who never trim their hedge.

We are having shake and bake pork chops for supper. Possibly with a box of mac and cheese. I haven't decided yet.

[Twins' Mom]

The painters have gone out for lunch. I'm going to go upstairs and get a laundry basket I can use to empty things in the laundry room. Dh's words keep echoing in my head that they will move everything and put it back but I don't expect them to do some cleaning before they put it back, and it's a chance for me to purge items too. I'm trying to keep my head above water staying and head of them too.

Harriet, thank you. I feel quite sad about some of Tennessee's recent happenings.

I'm also thinking about what needs to happen outside, Cathy, when there's so much inside that needs doing.

LadyM, I envy your garden. We would never ever eat that quantity of veggies tho!

As suspected, the first genealogy publication that I offered my three generation family work to doesn't publish a big enough journal for it. Will move to the next, although I did ask her opinion on that question.

I'm enjoying my quiet house right now. I need to leave about 2:10 for haircut.

[Nancy]

I have made some progress. Last load of laundry is in the dryer, two other loads are ready to be folded in a few min.
I cleaned the kitchen sinks.
Got the living room vacuumed & swept the kit. dining room & hall area.

[CathyS]

Had to go pick up a form for dh to renew his passport.

After I posted my previous post, I looked outside and dh was trying to take down the old mail box post. I went out to help him and it still took a while, but dh used the winch on his ATV and eventually got the entire post out. I'm glad that's done.

[Lady Maverick]

My lunch was pinto beans and chicken breast.

I put the time & effort in to add two more blocks to the raised bed garden. I lifted and set the same block over and over to accomplish it. It takes me about 10 minutes a block to get it perfectly level and filled with dirt.

DH has been using a chain saw in the front yard for the last couple of hours. He is cutting up some huge trees into chunks small enough to be hauled off. The chain saw quit working, but he was able to get it fixed for free at the Ace store.

[Harmony]

Hi, all. I slept in a bit this morning because DH had me up several times during the night. Help with this or that. He'd come out to his chair a few times, not getting comfortable any place he tried to sleep. Then trying to get up on our tile floor was hard because he was just in socks and his feet kept slipping and he had no strength in the sore leg to stand up. I got the complaint of his carpet mat with vinyl on the back not being there in front of his chair. Last week he'd gotten frustrated at it constantly getting wrinkled up under his feet and told me to get it out of there. I washed it, dried it and put it in the linen closet. He didn't remember it was HIS decision to put it away. He needs something under his feet when he doesn't have his shoes on, with shoes it just gets wrinkled up. sigh....

And then something in his eye that needed attention, drops, and of course I didn't put the drops in the right part of his eye...

But we made it through the night. I've been putting the ice pack on his knee on and off and that with the pain reliever seems to be helping. He can barely walk right now.

I missed the postal lady. I hate that they come so early now. Even going out in nightgown and slippers, I'm not early enough, and I'm not going to leave sensitive stuff like that out the night before. I had important stuff to get off so told DH I'd drive down to the post office and stop on the way back for hamburgers. Easier than cooking something which is what he wanted. So I did that...good plan. I just made him a coffee because I noticed he hadn't had any today yet. He missed breakfast too. This is a full time job...I did take him all his Meds which he asked about later, not remembering he'd had them.

It looks like rain but they're predicting just clouds and it is beginning to brighten up. If we don't get any rain I should go out and water. All my flowers are blooming.

When the Tennessee news happened I immediately called my DD to see if she was watching. My GRandD is in a private Christian School down here....

Changed DH's sheets, almost ready to put in the dryer now. He never thinks his sheets need changed regardless of how bad they look.

Smoke and Mirrors..... is that when we think a person has it "all together" unless we really know them? If we begin to know them we see they have some of the same problems we do. I think sometimes people don't know how hard I struggle.

[CathyS]

The snow has started here and it's coming straight in from the west. The wind is strong enough to blow the door to our house open, so I have locked it closed for the night. My car is in the garage and I put the wind shield cover on the truck. I've also brought in some soda from the garage. I'm "sheltering" in place. Now I just need to put on my flannel nightie, fluffy slippers and my thick housecoat.

Shake and bake pork chops just went into the oven.

[Twins' Mom]

Yes, Harmony, it's when everything looks great on the outside, but the smoke and mirrors obscure what's really going on! Or the duck who looks serene but is paddling frantically under the surface of the water!

Painters still going here, working on trim.

While out I went by the Health department for death certificate which I can't get, not even as a relative. I'm going to request just the info from the state as a verification of death facts (I had to do that for some folks on the 3 generation report.) I might have it upstairs but would rather request and not need than wait to go through papers upstairs and then not find it.

Dh is out tonight. I started editing the three generation report but don't have much energy to work on it for now.

This sat here awhile, not unusual with ADD kicking my behind.

[Lady Maverick]

The two dishes for potluck only took me 40 minutes to make. I allowed 1.5 hours so I have some unexpected free time to put my feet up before leaving.

I am loving the habit that DD11 started a few weeks ago. When she gets home from school she goes to sit in an office chair that is a few feet away from my recliner. While DD11 is sitting in the office chair she is going round and round while telling me about her day. At first her twirling round and round bothered me but I didn't say anything and now I have grown used to it. I make sure that I have nothing distracting me so I can give DD11 my entire attention while she is sharing. #PricelessMoments.

[Harriet]

Turns out that picking up anything as far as food wasn't going to be wise anyway, because the young man wants to come for supper and bring something. At first HRH said no, don't bring him anything. Then he had me call back with an order!

Nurse and PA are both happy with my skin healing. They had a lot of time for me and we confabbed and laughed. Why couldn't it always be like that instead of so anxiety inducing. They both said HRH (who wasn't even there today) has such a good sense of humor. I wonder how many people he must have been talking to, all these appts while I was being seen.

They don't think I'll have a recurrence of the itching. Ds is not so sure, and of course he has a lot of real world experience too. Hoping. Last evening I thought I felt a start-up again and got kinda down. This morning was the last pill.

I gave them the recommendation of a tee shirt for skin comfort. When softness is paramount, Original Use brand men's tees (Tarjay here) are ideal, IMO. Yes, of course wash first, but the idea is that they are soft from the first wear. How I wish I could go back in time and give them to my dmother when her skin became so fragile in her 90s. There is a light blue and a coral light pink that don't even release much dye.

There's the door. bbl