STANDARD SUNDAY

[Twins' Mom]

Ivy asked:

Twins' Mom, How long do you keep your plants on the porch for?

Too long? A couple are suffering significantly, and another is headed for one of those big construction dumpsters. I've really debated about decluttering them and letting them go. I don't try to overwinter the ferns anymore, they shed too much inside, but some houseplants I've had for years and years, somehow I feel like I have to continue to keep them going even tho they aren't that attractive or particularly significant. BTW, when we moved, one of my orchids which was past its prime went into our bathroom alongside the soaking tub that I'll probably never use, and it is putting out shoots to bloom again.

Goodnight, BW2!

[Elizabeth]

Hi all! Definitely not a standard Sunday here. The only thing that was normal is that I went to church. DD10 is with her dad. I had a long lunch with a friend from the animal org and I am now the Special Events coordinator for the org (I like the idea). I also decided to let the org use my house for a yard sale sometime next year. I have finished sewing one cat crate cover and bought a new purse (the strap on mine broke). I have also tried, with not much success to increase the speed of drainage of my main bathroom! I did a 15 minute deweed of the backyard and FILLED my big trash can!

Last night I worked a little on my job search and found my next crochet project.

Still left to do: more job search, fold laundry, clean bathtub, bath, transfer stuff to new purse.

[Kathryn-in-Canada]

I was down for 2.5 hours and slept some in that time, mainly just dozing in and out while I listened to a call-in about the NHL lock-out. Boring enough to make dozing possible, but still giving me something to listen to instead of worrying about strange sounds in the big, empty, house.

Ds and I have arranged to eat at IKEA tomorrow night, so I had leftover stew tonight. There's still a full serving which will be lunch tomorrow or Tuesday.

I watched an episode of the new Upstairs Downstairs while I ate. Now I need to do something productive. I'm very cold and if I get moving, that should go away. At the least, the garbage needs to be taken out to the street which means gathering it up inside the house first.

[Elizabeth]

I have posted some resumes and searched some sites. Now I am going to crochet for a little while.

[Nancy]

At church today we learned that they had gotten an offer on the building and contents it was pretty low from what I understand so they will be
doing some negotiations for a while it could take up to 6-12 mo. to get things worked out and moved out if needed.

We had lunch a Mcdonald's w/ grands then after their folks picked 'em up
I went for a walk. Then I moved another pile of stuff off the patio, and raked some leaves so the back yard is looking better all the time.

I Peeled eggs for a sandwich for dinner.
Picked up the few hot spots here the grand kids had done most of it that
they had gotten out.

Cut h's hair. x So glad to finally get that done!
[This was a non-standard Sunday here for us b/c grands were here for the night.]

[scattered]

Hello Villagers, I am sorry for my absence and that I am just to tired to cuop now, but I have been super busy with work, reserves, and trying to complete my essay for school.

Thankfully I have completed the essay and it is turned in! WooHoo!!!

This means that I can get something done around the house tomorrow before I put in 44 hours at work this week.

Gonna watch some TV and try to relax.

[lucylee]

Oh my goodness, I feel like I've been away forever!

We got home late yesterday evening, and I had slept a couple hours probably on the way home, but I was just exhausted! Dh & I both napped some more, then got up and went to see the new movie, Argo. (It was very good, btw.)

Yes, Ivy, I am (reluctantly, and unfortunately, this season) an Auburn fan. DH converted me early on... his family has had season tickets since 1968, I think, and we make it to almost all the games. It has been quite a disappointment so far this year. Just two years ago, we went to Arizona for the National Championship game. How the mighty have fallen...
DH, his brother, ds, dnephew, and a couple of dh's cousins are all Auburn graduates. Dniece will be going there next year.
My parents have always been fans of the OTHER state school, however, and dbro graduated there. Dparents are nice, though, and usually act like they pull for us when we're not playing each other, and they are good sports no matter who wins when we do play each other.
OTOH, dh & ds will be pulling for that other orange team next week, just as much if not more than Twins & Cowinkie! LOL!!!

A standard Sunday...
church... newspapers... naps... and then rush around like my hair's on fire to get ready for Monday morning!
DH definitely spends his Standard Sunday watching ballgames on tv... and he is VERY disturbed if someone books something for him to do between noon and 6:00 p.m. on Sundays.

Today, however, my nap was interrupted b/c ddil called to see if dgs could come spend some time with us. She had been alone with him since early yesterday morning and was getting pretty exhausted, I think. (They did come to church this morning, but dh and dgs spent most of the sermon sitting out in the vestibule.) Anyway, I went and picked up dgs and he & I went to visit my dparents.
Then we came back to our house, I put sheets in the washer, gave dgs a bottle, took him back to ddil, and went to church council meeting.
This was followed by CVS, visit w/dmil, supper @ McDonald's, and back home to continue laundry. We also delivered a hamburger & fries to ddil.
So this was not totally a typical Sunday, but it has been a nice day, anyway.

Keeping up the standards of our grandmothers, etc...
Now that is something that I would like to do better with, Harriet.
These thank you notes, for a number one example, of course.
Nooo... even with my offer to help, nothing has been done this week.
I can kinda see what the problem is. Monday night, I didn't want to work on them b/c I was just waaay too exhausted after our Wmart run... Tuesday & Wednesday, ddil was sick... Thursday, she was working & ds was playing music at the county fair... Friday, Saturday, Sunday, ds has been out of town and of course, last night, I definitely would not have felt like doing them!
Next week... after we do Wmart tomorrow, Tuesday night ds will be playing music for the local nursing home, W/TH, ddil will be working, Friday, we will leave for the ballgame Saturday in Nashville.
* sigh *

Thursday is also the "only" night dh sees it possible to celebrate ds's birthday w/dmil & dbil's family. It is also dsisil's bday, too. Well... I don't think that is a very good night, either, since ddil has to work, and I told dh he needs to get ds's opinion on this before he goes and lines up dbil/etc. * sheesh *

I can just imagine what scheduling difficulties we're all going to have if ddil does get back into school next fall and continues working. * whew * But I keep reminding myself, that will only be for a couple of years once she gets started back, and it will certainly be worth it!

some houseplants I've had for years and years, somehow I feel like I have to continue to keep them going even tho they aren't that attractive or particularly significant.

Oh, Twins, how well IKWYM!!! I still have a plant a very dfriend gave me for a housewarming gift 27 years ago!!! It does not even resemble the plant it was when it was new, but I faithfully take it to school every winter and it still puts out a few new branches every year. I also have a corn plant that is always indoors, and is the same age as ds... but it has definitely not aged as well as ds. This year, I also took a HUGE Chinese evergreen to school. It is about 4 feet tall and is now sitting ON TOP of a 4-drawer filing cabinet, b/c that was the only space I had in my classroom... but it is beautiful and I hated to let it die. Dmom sent it to us when dfil died, and dh doesn't want it in the house b/c he's afraid it harbors a bunch of bugs and spiders. I also have a small rubber plant that was given to us by a former student when dfil died, and I am bringing it in this week. It's not so thick and I think I can see if there is much of anything trying to hide out in it. Dmom told me to spray it w/Raid House & Garden spray before bringing it in, also. She said that would kill the bugs but not the plant. So I'll try it.

More than I meant to say about houseplants. I am really not good with them at all, but I get sentimental and hate to throw them out. I do have one I'm going to let go this winter though. It's from dfil's funeral, too, but is just not holding on very well. Might as well give it a dignified death.

I had better go check the laundry, put the sheets back on the bed, exercise, and finish making preparations to return to school tomorrow.
This will be my first five-day week after giving myself long weekends the past two weeks. I don't know how I'm going to manage a real schedule again!

[Kathryn-in-Canada]

Houseplants here have to be able to survive being watered once a week - whether they need it or not, with occasional 2 - 3 week breaks when we travel. If we are gone 4 weeks, I have someone water them but that's a lot of work since I have to gather them all up and put them in one place.

One time when we were away and ds was still living at home, I came home to half watered plants. As in, he watered the half he liked and didn't water the rest! Just recently we were talking about plants and he said that if he had 'that' plant (pointing to one of them) he'd water it! Now I know he's serious!

He killed the medicinal aloe plant I gave him. Dd's recently died too so I promised to start a new on off my plant so she can have it when she moves back. I'm pretty sure I killed the one I gave her when she first moved out (she gave me her plants when she moved out west since she couldn't take them with her.) I only have my own medicinal one here now so I must have killed it. I do know I killed her African violet (and haven't told her yet because it was special to her.) I need to start a new one for her before she moves back (all violets in this house are from Grandma's plants, that's why they are special and we are attached to them.)

I also need to plant a spider plant baby that I've been rooting for my senior friend since her last one died. Lately, my spider plants have been suffering so something is wrong. It might be over fertilizing (I've been adding fertilizer to my water for the African violets.)

I did some Sunday chores, mainly getting the garbage out but also giving the fridge a good clean out (not quite a full cleaning but reasonably close. I've been letting too much food spoil but find my eating preferences come and go in waves. For instance, I'm craving beef right now (so will have some tomorrow for dinner.)

The dishes are all done up too, so the kitchen looks good again.

I'm out of decaf tea (ds couldn't get it for me at my price point when he did his border run) so I need to hit a grocery store tomorrow.

While walking through the house, gathering up garbage, I brought up two suitcases to try for the trip. I'm hoping to only use carry-on but am worried I won't have the strength to carry my bag (my usual one doesn't have wheels) and computer. So I'm hoping I can get everything into one of the carry-on wheeled bags. My non-wheeled bag is much bigger than they are because no room is lost to the wheels and handle mechanism. Since I'm hoping to bring my pillow, I'll be tight for space.

CathyS - you should be able to get enough into a 26" suitcase for 21 days. Just pick a palette (I use black, white, red) and go with that. One black dress pant, a flowered black skirt, tan pants a red top, a black top, a white top and a matching flowered top and you have 12 outfits right there. Add another pair of pants or shorts and you have 16. IIRC this is a cruise and on the ship you can easily wear the same things over and over. If you are at a resort, it is even easier to repeat clothes since most people are only there for a week.

Shoes take up the most room but try for one pair of dress shoes, one pair of walking sandals and one pair of runners (which you'll wear on the plane so they aren't in your suitcase.)

Our ship is formal so I have dress sandals for gowns and semi-formal outfits, pumps for semi-formal and casual nights (which are dressy like I wear to church.) For daytime, walking sandals and runners (which I use in the gym too.) So I have 4 or sometimes 5 pairs with me (the fifth pair is another dress sandal.)

To pack for 14 - 28 days is basically the same amount of clothing. You just mix things up with more scarves, vests or cardigans/blazers.

I'm just going away for 5 days so I figure jeans for the plane, a skirt for dinners, and 3 tops and I'm done. That's 6 outfits in total with the skirt taking on different looks if I match it with a matching top (looks like a dress) or a contrasting top. Or add in a shawl. I'll wear the jeans, runners, heaviest top and my coat on the plane, so will only have to pack a few things (plus that pillow!)

[Harmony]

Kathryn, you have that packing down to a science!

Ha, my science tip is not to grow penicillin in the refrigerator.

My standard Sunday is church, lunch, nap, catch up the house and get ready for week ahead, gather up the garbage. Everything's much different with DGD here.

I had the dog out twice before church. I went to the later service since it takes so long to get some food into DGD. She was very good at church, sat in my lap quietly most of the time. After lunch I hit a wall and exhaustion swept over me like a bulldozer. I bribed her to take a nap if I'd give her a spoonful of ice cream after, and by golly she settled right down in her crib. We both slept a couple hours. First thing she said when getting up was "ice cream"! Oh well, whatever works, right?

Boy, I'm going right off to bed now. Am so tired I can hardly think.

[ellyphant]

Harmony--I'm gonna remember that ice cream trick for when I become a grandma! What a sweetie your DGD must be!

Our Sunday was morning and evening church. In between, DH raked leaves and talked to his father on the phone. I straightened the house and talked to DD on the phone.

Watched "Call the Midwife" on PBS. Has anyone else seen it? I like it!