TIMING THURSDAY

[lucylee]

Ooohhh... count me in on trying not to eat, also. We are planning to try a new Cajun restaurant tonight, and I'm trying not to ruin my appetite... but I was kinda starving, too -- I had about 10 Triscuits, 2 slices of cheese, and a little pkg of apple slices & grapes.
For breakfast/snack earlier, I had pb crackers, a banana, and a pkg of Emerald Snacks maple flavored granola/almonds/raisins... mmmm... that stuff is sooo good. But that was my last pack and I don't think I'll buy any more for a while, b/c I honestly have been doing somewhat better at staying out of the kitchen.

Thank you, helia & elly, for the reassurance. Y'all are too kind, though. I'm afraid that once I stop "molding young minds" I'll STILL be the same ole lazy lucy... * sigh *

I did get my tasks for the day completed:
* walked 3 miles
* s2s/Bible reading
* delivered gifts to dfriend's house
* got the oil changed & tires rotated in SUV
* paid electric bill
* went to post office
* visited w/ds for a little while when he came over to pick up some mail
* talked to dmom on phone
* ironed dh's shorts for tomorrow

Elder care is really not so much anymore since dfil passed away. My dparents are still extremely self-sufficient... seem reluctant to call on us for anything. Ddad drives himself to/from his chemo treatments; I think he just wants dmom along for moral support. DH does try to visit his dmom every day, but she's only a mile or so away from us. We're in the calm before the next storm, I guess.

I've never seen a fox, either. Y'all will start thinking I'm not much of a country girl, after all! DH said he saw a fox one night when he was going out to get the paper, but I've just never seen one. Rabbits, squirrels, birds, turtles, opossums & armadillos... that's about the extent of my wildlife sightings... and an occasional deer.

Ooohhh... Elizabeth... that poor cat. Those animal hoarding shows are just so sad. It's good that the cat lets you pet her.

Hawaii sounds sooo beautiful. I know y'all are having a ball, helia!

(((BIG HUGS))) Twins! You deserve some time to yourself!

[Twins' Mom]

I should do a bit of a kitchen clean up. DS must have felt bad about the credit card today (dh called him about it when I was driving him home) and he emptied the dishwasher and unloaded the new big bag of dog food for me.

Also was down today because heard that dd called P & D last night, and not us. Villagers may remember that P&D are dd's friends - both adults with disabilities around 40 y/o - I say dd's friend because I have lost all respect for them over congregational issues and I used to consider them dear friends. They have been very ugly in word and deed to another and I'm just kind of done dealing with them. P wants to have lunch with me to discuss a congregational issue.

I just figured out that we must have thunder off in the distance. dMacs is wound up.

Lucyee I agree that you get a lot done - you work full-time most of the year, and have a full calendar of afternoon/evening tasks, entertainment and movies most of the time. I feel like when I work, I come home and collapse and you consistently have a nice ta-da list of what you did after school.

-clear kitchen counters
-finish putting away groceries
-start a lol
-check out for evening relaxation

[Elizabeth]

I am off to dinner and art class. That means it will be a late night for me (class ends at 9 and is across town). Payday is tomorrow, which is good since my bank balance is perilously low. I did not have as big a paycheck as usual because of the non-paid time. I have decided that if I go beyond what is in my savings account and have to start dipping into an investment account, I am definitely looking for other work.

[Kathryn-in-Canada]

Dinner is done and dishwasher loaded. We had people over to see the furnace and ask questions.

And I got two articles written for the church newsletter.

Dh is watching a movie. I'm going to dust or vacuum (he's wearing headphones so won't hear.)

[Harmony]

Kathryn, the new place you picked to stay looks beautiful. I'll bet the water that far east and north is cold! (Course I'm used to the Gulf, (80-85-90). Even the Atlantic on the other side of the state isn't as warm.

Enjoy your time in Hawaii, helia!

Lucylee, you always have a long list of stuff you've done. I guess you think cause you aren't constantly at home scrubbing away that you don't get stuff done. Just stop doing the things you do and see what happens. Then you'll know how important it all is!

Our wildlife: we have possums, gopher turtles, bobcats, squirrels, rabbits, armadillos, birds of all sorts including herons, osprey (these are closer to the beaches) raccoons. At the other house we were closer to the river/bay so got more of those birds. Herons used to walk through our yard and we would watch them eat snakes (whole) and rats and mice...shudder... we also had river otters which would wade on up the wet swales into a deeper pool of water at our swale...but over here we don't get them. The Bobcats are beautiful but when one shows up the squirrel population goes down for a while. There are coyotes around, we don't see any here.

I timed my nighttime routine. I tend to do everything all at once, going from one thing to another. It took me 1 hour to shut all the blinds and gar. doors; dishes washed, others put away, counters wiped, water hauled outside and poured on bushes; coolers wiped, plastic bags from lunches washed & hung up (I just do the zip ones) coffee recharged; lunches made; bag of garbage outside. The lunch part took 20 minutes alone. Now I'm depressed thinking how long all this takes. It is really hard if I've had a hard day.

I also bring in whatever laundry is hanging. I usually must wait tll the sun just starts to go down before it is dry. This is why it doesn't get folded sometimes till the next day.

How much work do you all do in the evenings? I wish I could pare mine down. I have to force myself because I am tired.

[Sunny]

Just wanted to say hello to you all. Dh and I have had a couple of quiet days, but I see everyone here has been busy.

Happy Birthday Elizabeth! Sorry to be late with the wishes!

Lucky you, Helia, spending time in beautiful Hawaii! Sounds like you will have a nice time.

OKay, those were big rockets to rattle the car. One time when we visited dfam#3 we heard large booms that rattled the windows. Ddil said it was training at the nearby mil. base and it happens regularly. Oh, btw -- I'm glad LO's hearing test was good.

Harriet, I hope dd13's mosquito bites are healing. I'd heard about the garlic thing a long time ago, but forgotten it. Mosquitoes never seem to bother dh; I think it's all the medicines he takes.

I agree with the others Lucy,. You always seem to have a lot of errands you do and that all takes time and energy.

This morning I did my usual routine Thursday before the weekend cleaning. This afternoon was desk day.

We have coyotes here, too. That would have been scary to see, Harriet. Good thing Sammie didn't try to chase it! As built up as our county is there are still some pockets of woods around and there are articles in the news about sightings every once in a while. I've never seen one though. I've seen possums in our back yard, huge frogs or toads, and the usual rabbits, squirrels, birds etc. We have ospreys and bald eagles. The tall electric poles along highways and tall dead trees on back roads have huge nests in them. This time of year we can sometimes see the chicks peeking out over the edge of the nests. I have seen buzzards (vultures) here also. We have different kinds of turtles; I once stopped our car and picked up a snapping turtle from the middle of the street and moved it across to a swale it was headed towards so it wouldn't get hit. It was bigger than a large serving tray.

editing to say the turtle was a "softshell turtle", not a snapping turtle!

[ellyphant]

Twins--I've had days like yours was today! I'm going to put evaporated milk on the grocery list, as Indiana does. Don't like black coffee.

Harmony--You were moving pretty fast to do all that in an hour! I don't do much in the evenings, but I will unload the dishwasher if it is run after supper. Usually only run it every other day. DH and I usually take a walk--just starting back doing this as his gout flared up last week. Tonight, I am proud to say, I filed and shredded a bunch of papers that had piled up. You do so well staying on top of your office work. My father was a self-employed brickmason, so I know how much work a small business can be and how hard it can be to get good helpers at times.

Of all the animals named here today, I have never seen an armadillo. Thought they were all out west!

[OKay]

Sometimes by the end of the day I am so tired that I just do bare minimum. MPB PM chores take about 2 hours to complete. Thankfully DH does them most of the time. I always do LO bath/bedtime routine...and mine. But everything else is iffy.

We spent 3 hours this evening assembling the trampoline. We only have one more step to do but it was full dark and hard to see so we had to stop.

Sweet Dreams!

[Harriet]

This evening dd and I ran into a neighbor couple from a few houses away as they were out for their walk. So I stopped to tell them about my sighting and it turns out I'm not the only one. The man at the house on the other side of them saw it, too. They say he described it as big and looking "like it was just back from the groomers" it was so young and good looking. I told them I'd already called it a "specimen male", and they said that was the way he was describing it. I said I thought it was on its way to becoming the pater familias (what the George Clooney character called himself in Oh Brother, Where Art Thou when he talked about having 7 children) and made the husband laugh. They have a much-loved tiny dog and say she's not going outside without supervision.

It will take a while for these bites to stop itching, Sunny. But I am helping her keep the Benadril topical on them. I'd heard about garlic, too, but on the net I found as many who were doubtful of it as those who thought it might work. Knowing people who've had a good experience with it is so helpful. I distinctly remember asking our family doctor and he said he knew of nothing in the way of natural supplementation or foods that would help, so I don't think the AMA is up to speed on this. I know those turtles and if their shell is sort of flat I think they're called a "Cooter" (sp?). Maybe that's why an old word for a car trunk was "cooter shell"? Of course I'm not old enough to have ever heard of that.

Harmony, there are two answers to that here. My Evening Daily Card takes 30 minutes, so that's the simple answer. But I have SO many routines, from the outdoor things to the fact that my exercise is in the evening now, to making sure dd isn't forgetting anything, etc., etc., etc. And I have that rascally old pill I'm supposed to remember every evening. HRH usually starts to bed long after I start getting ready and still makes it to bed before me.