Friday's Finds & Calendar Focus

[Kathryn-in-Canada]

I was just planning the meals for Christmas and thinking about how much temptation there will be.

The man came with the cheque 20 minutes earlier than he expected so I'm back from my errands. The shop with the battery powered candles is closing down so they were all sold out, but I got the groceries just fine, having Walmart price match the beef I need for tonight from a flyer for a store in the city. They didn't have any cheese to price match but I'll likely get into the city between now and next Thursday. Tuesday for example, come to think of it.

Had a bit of a fight with the bank because I went to the branch at the market town for the first time. They wouldn't believe we aren't a construction equipment rental company so couldn't figure out why I'd have a big cheque to deposit from a currency trading company. Then she insisted the Crane in our name must be a family name. No, it is named for the bird. I pulled out my business card, the one that says President, and pointed to our logo (an origami crane) and explained that in Asian mythology the crane is the messenger to the Gods and we deal with information transmission, i.e. sending messages through the ether so chose crane as our company name.

That satisfied her but then I had to explain why I used a currency trading company instead of the bank. Because is gives me .8 cents more per dollar. She responded that there was no way I could get 8 cents more per dollar. No, .8. You got 1.08? No, 1.04, you were offering 1.0318 and that is .8 cents less than I got. Doesn't sound like much except when you are converting $$$$$ it adds up.

All that to deposit a cheque into my account.

I'm not feeling 'right' which probably made me crankier with her. Can't tell you what is wrong with me but something is. Am eating stuff now to see if it is blood sugar.

Time to start dinner.

[Nancy]

Go Razorbacks!
Game is on.

Dson & dil are having her folks on Sat. and they were going to cook another turkey, one was smoked and brined tasted like ham now my fav. I did not keep any of that and just ours for the most part. I guess I"m not that much of a fan of turkey or turkey day so much now. I did like to cook but opening up sp fries doesn't not really seem like cooking! LOL!

Made soup with beans celery, onions, carrots, turkey broth, and turkey "crumbs" today over stuffing for lunch w/ trimmings! Taters went home w/ dd.

We did not have deviled eggs one of the dgds was asking for some maybe they can make those for next year. Dd is doing green bean casserole these days the Velveeta salsa dip will be eaten at their other gathering we did not need it. Did not miss it either simplifying the meal was a great idea! But don't know that dson doing two birds is simplifying things but at least he LIKES to do it and the smoked brined one was farmed out.

Christmas I think I want fried chicken any thing but turkey. LOL! Dson & fam. do not do Christmas so much, dgson-13 will be at his mom's.

[Twins' Mom]

I've felt kind of at loose ends today. Unable to get started with much of anything. I'm feeling a little cranky about spending the day cooking tomorrow; I just don't enjoy entertaining like I used to. Some of it, I think, is because I end up doing all the work, and I'm feeling it's just not worth it to me.

I'm frustrated at dh about the new house. He's still sitting on the fence and seems unable to discuss it with me rationally. He warned me yesterday that if I start "pushing him" then all bets are off. This really irritated me, and all because I stated that I'd like to be able to do some planning. Yet he's showing off the house and floor plans to our friends. I hope I don't offend anyone if I call it "mental m*sterbation."

Need to get dressed to head out to temple. Dd is spending night with P&D tonight, thus won't be around to help me in the morning, and she's the one who wants lasagne.

I'm definitely on a vent today.

[OKay]

SherinJoy - Congrat's to your DH on making such wonderful changes! WOW! That is a hard decision to make and follow through. I'm so happy for him (and you!)

I went through DH closet last week and pulled out about a dozen shirts and 1/2 dozen pairs of pants that are bigger size than he is currently wearing. I laid them all out on the bed and asked him if he would take a look at them and tell me if he was ready to get rid of them. He went through them and picked out one shirt that he says still fits okay and then said to pass the rest of the clothes onto someone else. Our church has a new clothes closet ministry so we are donating these perfectly good clothes to it.

High carb foods are out of the house - ~~~waving good bye~~~ to dressing, gravy, hot rolls, peach cobbler, rice/broccoli/cheese casserole and pea salad. I kept the cranberry sauce and mashed potatoes for LO to eat.

[Emptynester]

I'm done for the day - I was able to get 9 of the 10 things on my L**T done and the 10th was to sand the dresser. In fact, I did about 4 things not on the list, so I'm feeling pretty good.

I even did an end run around the software that wouldn't work and got it to print labels. So I'm really feeling good about myself today. Tomorrow I will do the printing and also get the Christmas letter ready to mail.

Next up is heating up the leftovers and change clothes for the pot luck supper. We have to eat up the leftovers from yesterday.

See you all in the morning.

[Lynlee]

hugs prayers giving thanks for all.

Indiana - congratulation on every effort you make to regain skills.

there is a company here has advertised pre boxing day sales coinciding with Black Friday - boxing day sales are our sales with madness here.
Saturday here and I'm ready to go to farmers market. I don't need much.
Friday morning a friend came around for a while which was nice.
Late in the day bathed and clipped nails for Elli . She was one hot piggie.

[Harriet]

Smiling at Twins Mom's phrasing.

Good job, Emptynester, you are so on-the-ball. I fear I have made a mistake ordering our cards along with some other items. I checked the order status and it says everything is waiting on the personalization of a completely different item, not at all what I understood before placing the order. So the cards will be sitting there an extra while, when I could have run out and bought some of those and been working on them.

On the other hand, the Quilt in a Day order arrived today, one working day after placing the order at 5:00 p.m. my time. Fabulous. Maybe I'll just give everyone in the family sewing notions this year. Yes, I sent an email of compliment.

Dd33 and family arrived safely. We had take-out (I can't believe it) but all my fixins for tomorrow are ready except the turkey breast, which is HRH's thing. Also dstepdil is bringing green bean cassarole and dd33 brought a pie for excellent additions. So at least I can relax about everybody's tummies for the night and know that at least ONE big meal will be right. The boys LOVED grandma's dinosaur-shaped sandwiches and homemade cocoa with straws and ate almost all the veggie platter PLUS a sliced apple, trying snap peas for the first time. So I am good for something (and happy about their eating habits). The boys are now playing "Scrabble People" with dd13. Tobias wants to play so much. I'm amazed at his fearlessness around 3 boys.

[Lilac]

Dd1 ever so gently broke the news to me today that her dh no longer wants to host any dinner because he doesn't want to be around dd2 kids. The sad thing is that for them they were actually pretty good last night. They just get on dsonilaw1 and dhs nerves. I commented to dh, we are buying a bigger house, why? His answer, so they can come over a few hours and leave. My db actually tells his kids and grandkids to leave when he has had enough. He just says it in a way that they laugh, get ready and leave. No hurt feelings, because they always come back. I can't see that working for us.

[Harriet]

Good grief, Kathryn, I think you come upon a very confused teller. Hope you figure out how to feel better.

Lilac, I don't mean to make it sound so perfect around here, either. Just when we got the two oldest boys here happily playing a board game in one location, the one-year-old started opening cabinets and pulling out other games and stepping on the boxes. Yikes. Dsonil said, oops, now we've shown him Grandma's game cabinet door opens and there are colorful things inside. Multi-child young families are always going to be eye-openers for the larger group. HRH is a wonderful happy teddy-bear grandpa until suddenly he's gone to his man-cave and we don't see him for an hour. That's how he copes. Also by running any errand that comes up. This time, dsonil went with him! Always paper plates - that helps.

I am thrilled to find that DangerBoy is articulating words well these days. I was able to understand a long speech about fancy Oreo cookies with orange centers and monster designs that he had had for Halloween. I am certain I couldn't have understood those complex words a year ago - maybe not even 6 months ago.

Clutter failure - I can't find the Christmas storybooks. I may stay up all night.

I've sent an extra blanket and extra washcloth with the little family off to my ddad's house - just trying to make sure we think of everything. I had turned the temp up, taken the monitor/alarm off, and stocked with towels. They will be pleasantly surprised to find it was HRH who stocked the fridge for them this time and there are frozen pancakes and mini-burgers for anyone who gets a snack attack in the middle of the night. Also cracker-jacks. (I have no idea.)

The take-out food is sitting in my stomach uncomfortably. I ate absentmindedly, of course. Not smart. I did find time to talk to dd33 about thyroid monitoring. She doesn't feel she has particularly intense PMS, which I now learn should have been pointed out to me years ago as a red flag for future hypothyroid complications.

Nice to hear Elli had a cooling spa treatment today and is doing well.