Kathryn, you'll be gone nearly a month, right? Wow. It's a huge job for me to pack for a weekend; I just can't imagine yours.
(Elizabeth). I hope things get easier for you.
Nice to see Suzlew here last evening. We've missed you!
My motivation for getting my chores done is to stay ahead of any problems and leave time for sewing. So I'm not procrastinating on any task. When something comes up, I get right on it. Saves time that way. I wonder how much time I've always wasted just thinking about things?
Conversation with DH this morning leaves me with another file to set up. Personal stuff I now need to track. O-k-a-y I can do this too.
LOL hanging (whites). Big crock pot of chilli cooking for dinner. They had the biggest green peppers in the store, biggest I've ever seen. I have dinners planned for at least 5 days, considering leftovers.
Next up, set up that file, dishes and lunch then back to my sewing.
Thursday "Where's the motivation?"
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Harmony
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cathyy
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Re: Thursday "Where's the motivation?"
I am feeling MUCH better today! I had a headache and body aches yesterday, but spending most of the day in bed seems to have headed whatever it was off at the pass.
A nice man came and replaced my kitchen counter yesterday. It was irreparably uneven at the mitered corner. Now it has a smooth even seam. The next kitchen counter event will be replacing the Formica countertop on the island with butcher block, and that's on hold for a trip to Ikea to buy the butcher block inexpensively.
I'll still be taking it easy today, just doing some minor cleaning.
A nice man came and replaced my kitchen counter yesterday. It was irreparably uneven at the mitered corner. Now it has a smooth even seam. The next kitchen counter event will be replacing the Formica countertop on the island with butcher block, and that's on hold for a trip to Ikea to buy the butcher block inexpensively.
I'll still be taking it easy today, just doing some minor cleaning.
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helia
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Re: Thursday "Where's the motivation?"
I'm back from moms group and meeting with my lovely prayer partner afterward. I'm heating up some soup for lunch. I can be addicted to butternut squash soup with feta cheese sprinkled on top. . . . .
Hi Suz! Nice to see you here again.
I'm glad you're feeling better, cathyy.
Hello everyone!!
Harriet, I now realize I was wasn't being clear with my language! Actually, my kids are mostly taking midterms, not finals. For whatever reason, the high school calls this "finals week." So, this is the halfway point for dd13's algebra class - not the end. I think only dd16 has one class that is changing from 1st to 2nd semester. Here, the kids aren't required to take PE after 6th grade in middle school. The high school requires 1 semester PE + 1 semester of personal fitness. Dd16 has learned that a student can take sports medicine instead of a PE course, so she is scheduled to have that next semester. Ds got out of the PE course b/c of his marching band participation. In terms, of electives, things are structured so it is difficult here to take a foreign language, a music program class, and PE, so my kids just don't take PE. And dd16 has dropped out of the music program so she can take art classes, which is a good decision for her. There's not enough space in the schedule to take everything, unfortunately. I've never heard of edmodo! I know how important it is for middle school girls to have some friends in their courses. I hope your dd13 enjoys her new classes!
Yes, we have a bus system here. It is quite a straight shot from our home to campus on the bus, actually. This is a decent sized city, population of about 114K, not including the students, which add about 42 k more bodies to the city when the U is in session. So it's not a huge city but not a village either. It does have a nice cosmopolitan feel for a city of this size, with a thriving downtown area w/ some good restaurants and art galleries/shops. I've heard that with the surrounding villages/towns, the population of this area is close to 500k, and that helps with the cosmopolitan feel. Anyhow, we live pretty close to campus, so I could walk to my class in an hour, I think. I will try it sometime! It would be a great way to get some exercise. I'll just make sure I'm correctly dressed for the weather.
Older 2 kids are done with their exams. No school for them until Wednesday.
Dh and I picked up my van first thing this morning. It had a broken strut. The transmission is having issues, and we're going to have that looked at tomorrow. I think this van's days are numbered. *sigh* We really dislike car shopping. . . . .
After lunch, I'm going to finish my a.m. routine and go buy stamps. I need to print out and get the last New Year letters + photo in the mail. Cards have all been sent. I might go to the gym and work on the elliptical trainer too; I'm feeling a need to bump up my activity level. My prayer partner is a strong runner (she's run in several marathons and was on the cross country team of the college she attended) and she told me today that she has heard that running is better than meds for depression! I don't have depression, but I thought that was interesting. She has started running seriously again, like 10 mile runs a couple times a week, and I can tell what a joy that is to her!! I think I get a pretty good endorphin rush from exercising, but I'm not passionate about it like she is.
Sorry so long. . . .
Hi Suz! Nice to see you here again.
I'm glad you're feeling better, cathyy.
Hello everyone!!
Harriet, I now realize I was wasn't being clear with my language! Actually, my kids are mostly taking midterms, not finals. For whatever reason, the high school calls this "finals week." So, this is the halfway point for dd13's algebra class - not the end. I think only dd16 has one class that is changing from 1st to 2nd semester. Here, the kids aren't required to take PE after 6th grade in middle school. The high school requires 1 semester PE + 1 semester of personal fitness. Dd16 has learned that a student can take sports medicine instead of a PE course, so she is scheduled to have that next semester. Ds got out of the PE course b/c of his marching band participation. In terms, of electives, things are structured so it is difficult here to take a foreign language, a music program class, and PE, so my kids just don't take PE. And dd16 has dropped out of the music program so she can take art classes, which is a good decision for her. There's not enough space in the schedule to take everything, unfortunately. I've never heard of edmodo! I know how important it is for middle school girls to have some friends in their courses. I hope your dd13 enjoys her new classes!
Yes, we have a bus system here. It is quite a straight shot from our home to campus on the bus, actually. This is a decent sized city, population of about 114K, not including the students, which add about 42 k more bodies to the city when the U is in session. So it's not a huge city but not a village either. It does have a nice cosmopolitan feel for a city of this size, with a thriving downtown area w/ some good restaurants and art galleries/shops. I've heard that with the surrounding villages/towns, the population of this area is close to 500k, and that helps with the cosmopolitan feel. Anyhow, we live pretty close to campus, so I could walk to my class in an hour, I think. I will try it sometime! It would be a great way to get some exercise. I'll just make sure I'm correctly dressed for the weather.
Older 2 kids are done with their exams. No school for them until Wednesday.
Dh and I picked up my van first thing this morning. It had a broken strut. The transmission is having issues, and we're going to have that looked at tomorrow. I think this van's days are numbered. *sigh* We really dislike car shopping. . . . .
After lunch, I'm going to finish my a.m. routine and go buy stamps. I need to print out and get the last New Year letters + photo in the mail. Cards have all been sent. I might go to the gym and work on the elliptical trainer too; I'm feeling a need to bump up my activity level. My prayer partner is a strong runner (she's run in several marathons and was on the cross country team of the college she attended) and she told me today that she has heard that running is better than meds for depression! I don't have depression, but I thought that was interesting. She has started running seriously again, like 10 mile runs a couple times a week, and I can tell what a joy that is to her!! I think I get a pretty good endorphin rush from exercising, but I'm not passionate about it like she is.
Sorry so long. . . .
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OKay
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Re: Thursday "Where's the motivation?"
outfit calculator??? This has me intriguedloading my outfit calculator
Harmony - you deserve 10 STARS for staying up with things and being sooooo organized!!! YGG!!
Cathyy - Glad you are feeling better!
Helia - I've heard that about running/exercise but had forgotten it. Thanks for the reminder and memory refresher. I started back with my baby stepping to c25k. MAAAAYYYYBEEE by July I will be there.
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Kathryn-in-Canada
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- Location: 60 minutes north of Ogdensburg NY
Re: Thursday "Where's the motivation?"
Harmony, actually I'll be away 34 nights and 35 days. And it isn't my longest time away from home. I do know that I'll be anxious to get home at the end.
I was just going over the cruise documents and the weather will be cooler than I anticipated so I think I'll add a pair of jeans and one or two more long sleeve tops or sweaters to my suitcase. Only 4 days are expected to be over 75 and while I'll have a sweaters and a jacket packed plus one long-sleeved blouse, that really isn't enough if I'm wearing them day in/day out. Spain, in particular, will be cold, barely 60. Plus I'll need warm clothes for the drive. At least we can leave our heavy coats, mitts, etc, and boots in the car.
Travel in both directions is hard. First we have to drive 4+ hours to the airport in Toronto. We'll stay overnight because the hotel includes parking while we are away. Then we fly to Washington the next morning. Stay there for about 5 hours (the long layover is to allow time for snowstorms) and then get on the plane to South Africa. We leave at 5:50 in the afternoon and arrive in Johannesburg at 5:50 the following afternoon. The plane will stop to refuel in Senegal, along the way. After under 2 hours in J-burg, we get on a plane to Cape Town, arriving there at 9:40 at night. So we leave home on Thursday and arrive at the hotel in South Africa late on Saturday night.
We have an extra day in Cape Town, again in case of major storms making our travel plans fall apart.
Once on the ship, we are there for 29 days.
Flying home is quicker - a short flight from Spain to Germany, then a daytime flight to Toronto. We get in quite late in the evening so stay over at the hotel once more and drive home the next day. So I leave in the morning of March 13 to come home and will be home on March 14, probably early afternoon.
OKay Dh wrote me an outfit calculator spreadsheet. Across the top I write in my tops, down the side, I write in my bottoms. In the cell where a top and bottom 'meet', I make a note as to whether the outfit they make is Formal, Semi-formal, Dressy or Casual wear. The calculator automatically adds up each category and gives me a running total. Plus it notes how many outfits each piece makes so when I'm looking for something to leave out of the suitcase, I can see, for example, the black t-shirt makes 6 outfits but the flowery t-shirt only makes 3.
For instance, not including the jeans and sweaters I intend to add, the calculator is telling me I have 7 formal outfits, 11 semi-formal, 13 dressy and 33 daytime outfits. So I can scale back the daytime outfits easily (and should if I'm adding jeans and a couple of sweaters.)
What it doesn't help with is colours (for instance 9 of the 11 dressy outfits are based on a bottom that is black and quite a few have a black top as well) or warmth rating (which is why I need to add more sweaters and pants.) So there is still a lot of laying out on the bed (and often trying on) to make sure that things really do 'go' together and that I have a range of colours. I learned from my trip to Minnesota that taking too monochrome a palette will have me ending up buying more clothes. For that trip I took two blue heavy sweaters and a number of blue turtlenecks plus a blazer. Then bought so much at the store one day that I had to have dh come pick me up after work because I couldn't carry it all back on the bus!
During the trip, I keep track of which outfits I've worn, so I don't get stuck in a rut. It also helps me for future planning - just because something goes together doesn't mean I'll actually wear it.
I was just going over the cruise documents and the weather will be cooler than I anticipated so I think I'll add a pair of jeans and one or two more long sleeve tops or sweaters to my suitcase. Only 4 days are expected to be over 75 and while I'll have a sweaters and a jacket packed plus one long-sleeved blouse, that really isn't enough if I'm wearing them day in/day out. Spain, in particular, will be cold, barely 60. Plus I'll need warm clothes for the drive. At least we can leave our heavy coats, mitts, etc, and boots in the car.
Travel in both directions is hard. First we have to drive 4+ hours to the airport in Toronto. We'll stay overnight because the hotel includes parking while we are away. Then we fly to Washington the next morning. Stay there for about 5 hours (the long layover is to allow time for snowstorms) and then get on the plane to South Africa. We leave at 5:50 in the afternoon and arrive in Johannesburg at 5:50 the following afternoon. The plane will stop to refuel in Senegal, along the way. After under 2 hours in J-burg, we get on a plane to Cape Town, arriving there at 9:40 at night. So we leave home on Thursday and arrive at the hotel in South Africa late on Saturday night.
We have an extra day in Cape Town, again in case of major storms making our travel plans fall apart.
Once on the ship, we are there for 29 days.
Flying home is quicker - a short flight from Spain to Germany, then a daytime flight to Toronto. We get in quite late in the evening so stay over at the hotel once more and drive home the next day. So I leave in the morning of March 13 to come home and will be home on March 14, probably early afternoon.
OKay Dh wrote me an outfit calculator spreadsheet. Across the top I write in my tops, down the side, I write in my bottoms. In the cell where a top and bottom 'meet', I make a note as to whether the outfit they make is Formal, Semi-formal, Dressy or Casual wear. The calculator automatically adds up each category and gives me a running total. Plus it notes how many outfits each piece makes so when I'm looking for something to leave out of the suitcase, I can see, for example, the black t-shirt makes 6 outfits but the flowery t-shirt only makes 3.
For instance, not including the jeans and sweaters I intend to add, the calculator is telling me I have 7 formal outfits, 11 semi-formal, 13 dressy and 33 daytime outfits. So I can scale back the daytime outfits easily (and should if I'm adding jeans and a couple of sweaters.)
What it doesn't help with is colours (for instance 9 of the 11 dressy outfits are based on a bottom that is black and quite a few have a black top as well) or warmth rating (which is why I need to add more sweaters and pants.) So there is still a lot of laying out on the bed (and often trying on) to make sure that things really do 'go' together and that I have a range of colours. I learned from my trip to Minnesota that taking too monochrome a palette will have me ending up buying more clothes. For that trip I took two blue heavy sweaters and a number of blue turtlenecks plus a blazer. Then bought so much at the store one day that I had to have dh come pick me up after work because I couldn't carry it all back on the bus!
During the trip, I keep track of which outfits I've worn, so I don't get stuck in a rut. It also helps me for future planning - just because something goes together doesn't mean I'll actually wear it.
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SuzLew
Re: Thursday "Where's the motivation?"
Good morning SHE world! I have picked up in livingroom. After we cleaned rug yesterday. Dishwasher is almost fully loaded and will finish as it looks like more then one load this morning! need to tidy familyroom a little then would like to sew this afternoon!Thanks everyone for the welcome
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SuzLew
Re: Thursday "Where's the motivation?"
Dh and I are taking RV for weeks vacation starting valentines day. we need to organize,pack, and plan and cook some food for trip menu.
Pleased that we will get to see Mr. and Mrs. Emptynestor on trip!
Pleased that we will get to see Mr. and Mrs. Emptynestor on trip!
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helia
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Re: Thursday "Where's the motivation?"
OK, YGG on the cp2yk program!!
Wow, that is a LONG trip, Kathryn! Are you on the cruise ship for 29 days? That is a long time. Have you been on one so long before?
I'm happy for Suz and the MTs that they get to meet up together soon.
Laughing at myself!! What an illustrative statement!
I'm not being very productive. . . .so I'm going to close this machine.
Wow, that is a LONG trip, Kathryn! Are you on the cruise ship for 29 days? That is a long time. Have you been on one so long before?
I'm happy for Suz and the MTs that they get to meet up together soon.
I now realize I was wasn't being clear with my language!
Laughing at myself!! What an illustrative statement!
I'm not being very productive. . . .so I'm going to close this machine.
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Harriet
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Re: Thursday "Where's the motivation?"
helia, here I am very disappointed in how hard it is to get the classes dd has wanted. As you may remember, the choral program, of which we had assumed dd would stay a part, does not even exist this year - you simply can't take chorus for a year. This is a handicap that will be difficult for the high school program to overcome and expect to be at all competitive, or even year-appropriate. The reason given was that there was no teacher available to hire, which I found hard to believe. I couldn't help but think it was because of the cut-backs that everyone wrestled. (There weren't going to be any team sports in the entire system, either, until a local millionaire suddenly gave the money at the last minute.) She tried and tried to get into art, but even though I was told at one part of the office it was available, by the time her paperwork got to the other part of the office, it wasn't. My best guess is that all the choral students, thrown to the four winds for a year, probably penciled in "art" and that's why it was so crowded.
Today's Weekly is bathroom day, but the front bathroom was done yesterday morning. I got the master bathroom spiffy today and used my new post-it idea to be able to check off each item on the grouped card for both! Tobias kept me company the whole time.
Was able to go through the photos from the reunion and the old photos that were brought to it to be scanned. Sigh. My emotions went the gamut. There was delight at seeing them, but pangs too, because so many old photos had never been shared with us (ddad was 91 - when were they going to share
) and we had not been told who was in them. Plus, from the reunion photos I can see that many people must have showed up fashionably late and missed even seeing my ddad. Photos of his generation on the lawn do not include him, even though we stayed a long time, until he was tired. Dd32, dd13 and ds26 attended, but ds was in no photos and my two dds were only in one, which also makes me sad - we were told ddad's family had the most in attendance. My ddad is napping and until he awakens I won't completely know what I have here. I hope he is able to remember these faces from the past and help me document. There is a very white-haired lady beside my grandmother in one, and I am holding my breath in hopes we have a photo of my great-grandmother - it would be a one-and-only.
Today's Weekly is bathroom day, but the front bathroom was done yesterday morning. I got the master bathroom spiffy today and used my new post-it idea to be able to check off each item on the grouped card for both! Tobias kept me company the whole time.
Was able to go through the photos from the reunion and the old photos that were brought to it to be scanned. Sigh. My emotions went the gamut. There was delight at seeing them, but pangs too, because so many old photos had never been shared with us (ddad was 91 - when were they going to share
) and we had not been told who was in them. Plus, from the reunion photos I can see that many people must have showed up fashionably late and missed even seeing my ddad. Photos of his generation on the lawn do not include him, even though we stayed a long time, until he was tired. Dd32, dd13 and ds26 attended, but ds was in no photos and my two dds were only in one, which also makes me sad - we were told ddad's family had the most in attendance. My ddad is napping and until he awakens I won't completely know what I have here. I hope he is able to remember these faces from the past and help me document. There is a very white-haired lady beside my grandmother in one, and I am holding my breath in hopes we have a photo of my great-grandmother - it would be a one-and-only.