Tuesday at Tara

[Kathryn-in-Canada]

Harmony since I'd been moving into post-war Tara and good help is all but impossible to find these days, I stand by my comment that Tara is too big for me to handle.

MT sounds like you and dh will be setting up your work desk the same way dh and I do when we are in hotels. If possible we drag the desk to be perpendicular in front of the window so we can each get a view. The desk on the ship is built-in but we drag the coffee table/room service table over, set it up with the larger service and do the same thing. If we have room service, we have them set it up on the desk and just sit with the plates in our laps (cuz we are watching tv while we eat when we eat in the cabin.)

I'm back from volunteering. The day went well. The drive in was traffic free and the office was open (I was worried it wouldn't be because I was arriving early.) I had my task for the day already to do and got it finished plus helped get a shipment processed.

Dh came at 12:30 and loaded our church's 2012 bulletins into the car and I'll drop those off tomorrow.

We had lunch at McD's and then shopped at the two thrift stores across the way. Dh bought two glasses that match his Christmas glass from when he worked in an office.

We stopped by the newspaper publisher to pick up their Christmas song booklet but their choices weren't as good as the song sheets we currently have we didn't take any.

Picked up the mail and visited for a bit.

Now I need to change into warmer clothes (the Presbytery office is stifling hot so I don't wear hardly any layers to that but at home I need lots of layers.) Then I'll start work on the Christmas newsletter mailing.

[Harriet]

Ooh, if I just wasn't a lady, WHAT wouldn't I tell that varmint.

Ya'll have been having a good time at Tara today. I only managed to post in HandF and read here. Morning Daily Card done well, but laundry folded and hiding my real purpose, addressing Christmas cards on the other end of the table whenever I get a chance. Of all things, the mail carrier arrived today with that package! I can't imagine who's package the catalog people have had me watching as it traveled by FedEx truck, because this one was mailed. Tonight I wheedle and cajole HRH into signing them - tradition. The wheedling I mean.

lists getting ambitious - That's part of the problem with them. It's effortless to write down one more thing. Not much trouble to write out a whole page worth. But that pesky nervous breakdown at the end can be a lot of work. Divide and conquer.

Timer chat - I found one of the simple round magnetic kitchen ones, my favorite for travel-through-the-house Round Robins or handing to another family member for their project, well packaged and on sale for $4.50 in a grocery-cart sale bin the other day. a good thing about a magnetic one is that you can usually find it, since you're limited in things it will stick to! Mine usually returns to the filing cabinet.

Back to the addressing with Kathryn.

[Kathryn-in-Canada]

I've only done about a dozen cards and am bored.

Harriet I'm still waiting for the tv I ordered on November 28th. Got an email around then from the company saying they were shipping it and click here to follow the process. Warned the general store it was coming since they don't have a lot of room and told them to call and we'd come and get it out of their way. Checked the details last Friday and it said to expect it between the 2nd and 15th of December and it was 'in shipping'.

Checked again today and it said between the 2nd and 13th of December but under order status it had gobbledygook which ended with the words "awaiting verification". I worked my way through the customer service phone system and sure enough, they haven't even thought of shipping it yet, they were waiting for me to phone! I'm ready to cancel the order but of course dh will have none of that. So they get my money after offering unbelievably lousy service. They are blaming Cyber Monday but that doesn't explain how the stuff I ordered on their deep sale Dec. 25th last year, arrived by the 30th (especially since the 27th and 28th were stat holidays in place of the 25th and 26th since they fell on a weekend and the post office was closed.)

[Twins' Mom]

I've been working on my CPE records and I find that I do need a full 8 hours yet to satisfy the requirement for 80 hours in the last two years - and the program on Friday is only to be 7.5 hours so even if I'm there for the entire day I don't have enough hours. I was really hoping that I was over enough so I could blow off some of the day on Friday by "needing" to pick up dd. I need to wait and see if I can get her on Thursday evening, and then pick up an additional hour of online CPE. There are several places with webinars and such running this month. One of the 8 hour courses I had planned to take was cancelled, thus I'm ending up short.

Trying to decide what to do next.....if anything. I had a decent day yesterday, and I've had a decent day today - getting clothes squared away goes a long way.

[Elizabeth]

I'm back and I'm still cold! My down coat is wrapped around my legs. And I am in my office! BRRR!!! I am trying to modify some slides, but I am not sure exactly how. Mostly I would like to sleep some more, even though I slept about 15 hours last night.

[Nancy]

Baked chocolate sprinkled with coconut cookies w/ dgd we have them plated up and snowman cellophane two plates for gifting. She is pleased! One more to do but we ran out of cellophane ~sigh~ oh well.

We played outside she drew with side walk chalk while I bagged up more leaves.
I've reclaimed the kitchen.
Lunch was planned left overs & that was a great plan as I had some unplanned granny duty but not totally. Luckily I had enough ahead time to thaw out one batch of cookie dough for us to make up.

This morning cooked up some pumpkin for my smoothie in the morning, and a ch. breast for soup later on.

[Elizabeth]

I'm off to Girls' Night Out! I did not get nearly as much done at payroll that I needed to. Tonight I have to remember to put the trash out and pay a bill.

[helia]

Day was OK. I was distracted at times, and there were more things to do around here than I had thought. I did my a.m. routine, wrote out a card to a dfriend who lost her baby at 18 weeks pregnancy , talked to dfriend who moved to MS this summer - she called and we chatted for about 20 minutes, sent some emails and made some phone calls when I realized a potential mistake in the moms group potluck invites - all is taken care of now, did 2 lols - I didn't get to towels, chauffeured dd13 around for about 2 hours this afternoon/evening, threw together a dinner of leftover peanut chicken, rice, mixed veggies, cauliflower. . . I fit in Hebrew studies around these activities.

Kitchen is clean, dw is running, dh has gone to his ceramics class. Kids are studying -- or playing on the computer. Well, not dd13; she is not taken with the computer like the older two are. I'm going to retreat to the play room to get in more studying.

I am having a hard time staying away from cookies and the gingerbread house dd16 made on Sunday. . .I'm being lenient in terms of my snacking to support my studies, but I'm going to pay for it tomorrow - and the next day, etc.

We need to put out trash and recycling tonight too, Elizabeth. Thanks for the reminder!

[Kathryn-in-Canada]

Dh got an email confirming our after-church brunch for this Sunday. So I'll probably do a lot of decorating on Thursday (my next available day.) In the meantime, since I'll have the table open fully to accommodate all 11 of us, I'll have to get the Christmas cards done.

The rest of my week is as follows:

1. Tonight: finish Christmas cards (at the least the overseas which are 1 week past their delivery time, and US which are due next Tuesday.)

2. Tomorrow morning - hospital run for friend, followed by Costco run.

3. Tomorrow afternoon - choir (must remember to practice tonight.)

4. Tomorrow night - start decorating or finish Canadian cards.

5. Thursday - house blessing and then decorating.

6. Friday - more paperwork (that will help clean up the kitchen) and groceries for Sunday

7. Saturday - seminars all day (with my favourite theologian - I can't believe he's come to my city, I'm going to Atlanta next spring to see him there as well.) Costco run to pick up fruit plate after seminar.

8. Sunday - church and then big brunch.

[Sunny]

Hello Everyone!

Quick post here and in J & C. Dh is now home; was released late this afternoon. We stopped on the way so I could pick up four new Rx for pain and antibiotic, etc. He will have home health and I think PT. I think full recovery will take a while!

Tomorrow I will have more time to cuop and visit more. I have so much to catch up on. I'm exhausted, mentally and physically, so I'm taking a notebook and will go relax in bed and see if I can make up an agenda for the next few days/week.

Nitey, nite!