Fast Track Friday PWYC

[Twins' Mom]

Continuing on the thruway, expressway, and fast track today. Let's get it done!

[Kathryn-in-Canada]

Today is a professional development day for dd's kids so I had thought about doing something with them but woke up not feeling great. I did a tremendous amount of stuff yesterday and may be just overtired from that despite a decent bedtime last night. I'm waiting for my tea to kick in and I need to shower today as well which may help restore me.

Yesterday I got all but the 'covering with tarp' work done on the balcony. And all but the dusting housework done inside the apartment. I'd invite the grands over to play here except I just got the apartment back to normal after dgs2.5 so don't want it trashed again.

I also rearranged the kitchen furniture a little bit.

My kitchen is a L-shaped with a patio door at the top of the L. The bottom part of the L is the main work area (with an entrance from the dining room and office), and while the space is 12' x 10' is good (especially for an apartment) that area has only two 30" sections of counter and a 48" section, so not a lot of work space. The problem is the window can't have any counter in front of it due to the radiator (for servicing) so we were missing about 36" that should be running between the sink and the pantry cupboard. Instead there is just 30" beside the pantry and 3" beside the sink. We added a kitchen cart from IKEA and built in a droppable piece of counter which fills in that gap from beside the sink. So now the kitchen is usable but no little space for appliances to be left out all the time. The only thing out all the time is my kettle.

When the kitchen was updated from its 1968 original, they put a pantry cupboard where the fridge used to be (I know this because the old plug for the fridge is in the pantry cupboard!) As a result the fridge is half way down the long side of the L in the eating area of the kitchen which is supposed to be a generous 13'x7'. The eating part is defined by a columng sticking out on the wall and I've put a small set of drawers in front of the column in order to have a place to put things down when loading/unloading the fridge.

The two windows are along the long side. Because of the lack of counter space, across from the fridge is a fancy stainless steel rack with the microwave and toaster oven (thankfully there is an outlet there) as well as all my occasional use appliances (crock pots, mixer, popcorn maker).

This leaves about a 7x7' for the eating area (at the top of the L) but one has to leave access to the patio door as well. At least there are outlets in that area (one high plug in the middle of the wall, goodness knows what it was for originally but it is on the dining room fuse) and one at the floor level beside the window. Since dh keeps a computer on the table we can't have the table in the middle of the area, not that that makes sense. Unfortunately, there are two tall-boy drawer units and one bedside-table-sized drawer unit also in that area. And the kiddie table. So it is crowded and awkward.

Just writing this all out has me thinking. When we first moved in, we debated moving the fridge so that it at least opened into the 'work triangle' but decided that having the rack was move useful. I may need to rethink that. And of course, the kiddie table won't be there forever.

All the grands can sit at the high table now but they prefer the little table for some reason when they are together and it does give dgs2.5 a place to play when he's in the room with me while I'm cooking or cleaning up. Also a place to do messy stuff like playdough or colouring. The older grands can be trusted with the latter, but not dgs2.5 who has been known to colour on things other than paper and I prefer the hard surfaces of the kitchen for cleaning that up when he escapes my notice. Although last time he was colouring, he had left the table and then came running back, put the cap on a marker and put it back in the case. So he's growing up.

I forgot to rave about his talking. He still vocalizes/babbles all the time but he's starting to use words more which is really helpful. He clearly says, More, Now, Please, Big Hug, Dinosaur, Apple (although that is applied to any red food, tomato and BabyBel cheese included!) Unfortunately, Now is usually "<babble babble> NOW!" which isn't useful to me!

But most of the time he lets me know what he's thinking by singing. I put him in the bathtub and he picked up a toy and started paddling with it and singing Row Row Row Your Boat. Only a few words are understandable but the tune and rhythm is dead on. He looked out the window when it was snowing and sang It's Raining, it's Pouring. When I pulled out his toothbrush he sang "This is the way we brush our teeth" and when I checked with his parents, they don't sing that with him, but his Miss Rachel show does sing it. So he was taking something he learned on TV and applying it to real life.

Because I was so focused on him and applying the speech therapy methods to reinforce progress and encourage communication, i.e. not "Can you say Horse?" but "yes, the horse running away" when I heard him say horse when he picked it up, by the end of the week, I could identify at least 25 words he was saying, and heard three 2 word sentences during that time (including "me dinosaur, ROARRRR!")

Given I could only hear a few words in August (the last time I was with him overnight), this is a great improvement. Sadly, Nana is not one of the words. Buppa is, but not Nana. Then again, his daddy didn't talk until 3 and he'd say Day for daddy and Kay for his sister but had no sound for me. So none of this is new to me, I just wish I had learned the speech therapy stuff back then. It was when Ds started nursery school that he started to speak within a month. Obviously, his teachers there were able to reinforce things. In our house, it is always hard to get a word in edge-wise (something dfs noted when he came to live with us at 17!)

This took an hour to type out (you can tell I'm seriously re-thinking the kitchen arrangement) and so I really need to get s2s now.

[CathyS]

Hi!

I had a very busy day yesterday. Walmart at a large mall, Costco, dropping off some stuff at the knitting group I no longer go to (I waited until almost an hour after the group's scheduled time ended so I could drop it at the front desk), a mammogram for the first time in over 10 years, making supper...

Plus it wasn't windy yesterday morning so 2 bags of burnables got burned. I also went up and down the driveway 4 times. Compost and recyclables went to the curb first thing in the morning, plus mail box had to be checked and compost bin had to come back up the driveway later in the day. I also had to bring everything in from the Costco part of my day. I can't believe I bought 7 loaves of bread. After many years I am back on Ativan. Dh's driving makes me very anxious.

Today my hips are telling me what a rough day I gave them yesterday. I also told dh I needed new wiper blades for my car. They are already here and dh put them on as soon as the parts delivery guy left. It was pouring rain to the east and the west of us yesterday, although we didn't get any.

To top all of that off, I dealt with putting away 2 loads of laundry and loading the dishwasher.

So, to add to that exhaustion, I started reading Henry Winkler's bio that just came out. I couldn't put it down, so I read until I finished it at 4 a.m. Because he was dyslexic and couldn't read or write, most of his career has been improvised in front of the cameras. His parents thought he was lazy and stupid and insulted him for many, many years and called him a dumb dog. After he became famous his parents and his sister tried to profit from his fame as the Fonz.

Sheesh... sorry about such a long post!! On top of all that, I don't have a clue about supper.


Supper will be cheesy macaroni hamburger helper.

[Lady Maverick]

Twins - Thank you for opening the SHE village today.

I love reading long posts!

I slept in this morning which felt luxurious. I do love the slower paced start of days that I don't need to be out the door early.

I have finished most of my AM personal cards, kitchen cards and have set out the cards for today. Both of the kids have commented in the past 24 hours of the space the cards take as they are laid on the kitchen counter. I am going to clear off the dining room table in the fun room and move the card system there. The cards won't be seen by people who stop by and stay in the living/dining/kitchen area but will still be visible to where all family members frequently pass by.

Today's PODA -
** DS15 leaves for Joplin, Missouri to attend a two-day youth gathering for high schoolers. The parents of another youth asked us to pick their child up and take them to the launch point also.
** DD12 finalize which pants she will keep. We will return all the NO THANK YOU pants to the store.
** Pick up DH prescription from Sam's pharmacy

[blessedw2]

waving - I am waving from my house, with coffee in hand - I am on the front stoop waving North, South, East and West to all of our wonderful SHE's. brrr it's a little chilly outside but I wanted to wave and say a Big Hello to all of you!!!!

hi d twins - thank you for opening up our village! thank you!
have a good day!

hello d Kathryn
I hope you feel better!!!
you really worked hard and I hope today your body feels better fast!!
so cute that your littlest is starting to talk and singing! so cute.
have a good day!

hello d cathy
you did have a very busy day yesterday!
hope your hips feel better today!
I had no idea about Henry Winkler - hope you enjoy the rest of your book.

hi d lady as well.
I love reading the posts as well!
yay on your 3 x 5's
have a wonderful day.

everyone HAVE A GREAT DAY!

[blessedw2]

good morning.

We figured out why mom was/is so so off. I had given her back her meds for a trial run. Nope - she didn't take her meds like I thought - she moved them.
dd younger found her box and mom just moved to the next day instead of taking them. sigh I feel bad that this happened. She had been doing so well and I thought I would try. We can only move forward! in Florida dd younger can see everything. She knows mom's putting away spots.

Next take a shower, make mom breakfast to bring over, mom's place with dd younger and give mom breakfast and meds, lunch with dd younger and d sis in law.

dd younger cleaned my fridge yesterday - it needed it.

have a great day everyone.

[Nancy]

Waving. UP on time.
Did some journaling not all.
Had some bfast.
I have been in better mood just sayin'.
45* / 59* F. today's temps.
Back from errands & art date.
Went to the antique mall and got a reasonably priced tea cup english purple violet now sauce.
Got Rx some groc. shopping glad the soup I like was in stock got 4 cans of it!
My mood had improved bs tanked got a couple chocolates from the box I got for my art date.

[Twins' Mom]

Rats. I just realized I didn't have my Fitbit on for the three laps I just walked with the ddog. Oh well.

I've started the continuous glucose monitor again as a check up and had two low alarms overnight, one at six a.m. It was hard to get back to sleep after the one around three. Had to realize what it was, get up and find it, and I ate something. I also sank to 66 while walking ddog and I'm still feeling it, although I didn't feel anything overnight when it hit 57.

I'm having lunch later with dcousin, picking her up around noon, and we're going to temple tonight for the service and for dinner.

I need to get moving, as always!

And after hitting submit, then stopping to read, I'm finally getting back to the submit button.

[Lady Maverick]

I am home from gym exercise with DH. We decided to go to gym 5 times a week (Monday - Friday) and use Saturday as catch-up day if we missed a day. DS15 only goes to gym 4 times a week as it is considered a class in his school. DH and I both got a good sweat going which is one of the signs that I look for to make sure we are getting return on the time we are putting in at the gym. I admit to a feeling of satisfaction as I refiled that "Gym exercise" card to Monday. I went 5 times to the gym this week, so I won't see that card for the next 2 days.

I remember/forgot/remembered/forgot/remembers (hint....I didn't make a card for it!!) that today is the yearly Methodist church bazaar and meal in our small town. We always enjoy attending this event. The visiting, shopping, eating with friends, and supporting their fundraising effort is always a yearly treat. After we drop DS15 and other youth off this morning then we will attend this event.

Twins - you are getting some good and informative feedback from the CGM. I am tempted to get one just to observe my overnight blood sugar. humm...

[CathyS]

Blessed I didn't stop reading the book until I finished it to the very last word.