Thorough Thursday

[Lynlee]

I'm through w thursday. Dealing w Friday. I'll consider getting to days end thorough enough. Any extra doings will be a winfall.

heat is turned back on here. New box fan w timer is twirling. I thought ddog may sit in front of it but no. not atm at least.

yoga has happened. new iphone won't play on gym equipment. A class for 2. I hope this new instructor sticks around untill some folks come back. Maybe after holidays end.
appointment soon.

I bought a solar spot light and it does work ok so think I'll get some more. I need to use back door as front door says no to being used when its so dry. Fortunately after a heap of hastle I got it/security screen to shut and lock before I left on Sunday. If I want the front door to shut I'll need a wedge or a few bricks or something.

I am intrigued by the various approaches of hens to snow and such. Big wtg to Nancy's new layer.
Next door has 3 ducks joined their yard now raised by a silky. they still all hang out together. The roosters there have "disappeared". it seems to me. About the end of ramadam. You only need a rooster for chicks - not to get the hens to lay so I'm not sure if there was a rooster in the latest huge batch of chickens. Many have moved on to new homes it seems.

I need to move. teeth and rethink yoga clothes for appointment.

waving to all across the lake and hills

[Kathryn-in-Canada]

We don't cancel for snow but they cancel for freezing rain and we seem to be getting more than we used to. The kids have missed one day of school each week for the past 5 weeks of school. Two due to freezing rain, one due to strike, one due to strike that was canceled at the last minute but the school board refused to open the schools and tomorrow is a PD day.

Church Board meeting was pretty rough. I was taking minutes and am not sure how much to leave in. Especially since the 'target' will receive a copy of the minutes. But the 'target' has asked for second chances over and over and things are now at a crisis point. Pulling together the annual report is nearly impossible. We have no pastoral charge bank rec, a non-usable budget and a questionable income and expense report so the individual churches can't pull together their budgets. The annual report may be printed without audited numbers for the pastoral charge and without budgets for any of the three sets of books. No one has actually met with our treasurer in person in the past year. She even mails the expense cheques to the minister.

Gotta run to bed now. Hopefully, my mind will settle down and I'll be able to sleep.

[helia]

I think we cancel when the bus drivers feel they can't safely navigate the country roads to bring in the kids. I've heard that a pair of drivers will go out at 5 a.m. to assess the road conditions. Cancellation can be due to depth of snow and/or blowing and/or slick roads. Once we cancelled just b/c the wind chill was too darn cold! Another time, we did cancel the night before based on a forecast for a giant storm. However, it takes a lot of snow and pretty bad conditions to cancel here. UM never cancels; well, I think there is a legend that it cancelled once in the last few decades. Our school district didn't have a single snow day cancellation the last 2 school years, much to the kids' chagrin. We'll see what this year holds, but it isn't promising so far. However, we can get snow into March so there is still plenty of time. Right now, everyone seems to be getting snow -- but us up here in the north!! Our ground is brown and green, not pretty white. . . .

Mini-rant: I went to the groc. store tonight but forgot hot chocolate and apples - and then came home to dd17 telling me she is out of synthroid AND dd14 telling me that she would like more reeds before the Univ. honors band weekend next weekend. So, now I need to return to the groc. store, run to Wal greens, and remember to put a check to the reed maker we buy from tomorrow. I just emailed her to let her know of the reed order (she is in OH). --And per an earlier conversation, ds needs snow pants and wants me to go shopping with him tomorrow afternoon. . . . Argh!! Why are all three kids asking me to do things tomorrow, the day we're trying to eave town?? I have more than enough to do as it is. . . Granted, putting a check in the mail won't take too long -- it is just one more thing to remember to do. I may encourage ds to go shop on his own. I now have no idea when we'll be ready to leave.

I'm going to tuck the girls in and then do the same with myself. I think things will look better in the morning.

[Harriet]

Big wet flakes here are expected to continue for as little as 3 more hours. But they are dropping down onto ground so soaked you have to walk slowly to keep from splashing, and of course the temp will freeze all. I managed most of the chores for the hens myself, but needed HRH a bit. My raincoat is still dripping dry over the tub. They have abundant water and feed inside and are snug, so in theory tomorrow the worst that could happen is boredom. Sammie's house's heat-rug is still giving warmth, and she doesn't venture out much in precip since the wild animals don't bug her then, so we may weather this without too much difficulty. The next few days will have sun, even though it's to be ccccold.

I cannot imagine school can begin on time - so dangerous - but I suppose a late schedule might be considered.

helia, hope things look good in the morning.

Hope Twins' Mom is safe and sound at destination.

Happy for Emptynester to get to see friends.

At least in a small class you get good individual attention, Lynlee. Glad you are pleased with the solar light.

[Harmony]

Kathryn, are your churches in danger of not being able to stay open? Would they be better if they consolidated into one church? I think they did that to Sunny's church.

Helia, where are you going tomorrow?

I got the last stuff picked up in the bedroom and ran the sweeper all over. I am just bewildered at how things got like this so quickly. I know I didn't do much deep cleaning over the summer when I was sick; Then by the time I began to feel better and got over all that babysitting I did, it was the holidays and I had all that sewing to do. Now, after all the year-end business work is done I'm trying to dig out the house.

I don't know how to proceed. There are 2 areas needing decluttered and a big cleaning all in the bedroom still...and I just don't know if I should continue in there or move on to the next space and come back to it. It appears that each space is going to take me way longer than the usual week to do. What do you think? At this rate it'll take me months to get through this whole house.

[Harriet]

Harmony, I think just remember Indiana's concept that you are going to be getting back to each area anyway, and everything doesn't have to be done right now.

If you react to that with distaste when you think of what you'll leave undone, then you have your answer! If you like the permission to have changes of occupation, as I would, then you have your answer!

Ugh, poor Sammie is out in the cold wet snow, probably standing in near-frozen water, barking at some varmint that doesn't know to go hole up somewhere! That was not the plan. She is just too vigilant sometimes. I'd better see if turning out our lights gives her permission to go back to sleep.


Happy that Mystery Woman checks on us to make sure we are behaving.

Goodnight, all!

[lucylee]

We have another 2-hour delay tomorrow. Then we're out Monday for MLK Day. I will be totally spoiled rotten by Tuesday.
However, I bet I will have that Crazy Class from H... tomorrow. * sigh * And no planning period.

DH here goes completely nuts before he has a doctor's appt, too, Ivy.

He's been pretty much nuts all night tonight anyway. Got mad @ his d?bro and (IMHO) totally over-reacted... but d?bil IS kinda hard to take sometimes... and I guess dh is feeling a little bit of stress re: the chaos in our lives right now, too. I'm just trying to remain pleasant and let him grumble it out.

[helia]

We are going up to some ski areas in N. Michigan with our ski buddies, another family from church - and the dh is also a colleague of dh's in the same dept. This is the Chinese/Taiwanese background family that adopted a boy from China. Also, their dd16 is dd17's bff. We are not staying at a ski in ski out condo this year, as our friends plan to visit a couple different ski places. We (our family) will probably start at Nub's Nob - and we may remain there.

Here's a link if anyone is interested. MI skiing is certainly not Colorado skiing, but it is decent - and extremely family friendly. It is actually great for small children and anyone learning to ski and for wimpy skiers like me - which means most of our party will be bored which is why the kids are probably going to try snowboarding this year and some of us will go check out other ski areas. There are several close to each other.

http://www.nubsnob.com/

[lucylee]

I know I'm not doing well @ keeping up w/posts and responding to anyone, and I really do appreciate y'all putting up with me.
I'm also afraid I'm putting too much in J&C that might ought to go here, but it IS a "concern" and I just feel better keeping some stuff over there, I guess.

Just looking at some of the school closing posts. Everybody laughs @ the way we close school on weather forecasts. Right now we're concerned about black ice, I think. The rest of the week, it has been a combination of ice and flooding that has caused our delayed starts. I don't know how many delayed starts you can do before the state supt starts checking into matters, but so far, we're doing fine. We won't have to make up these days, and since we have NO "weather days" built in to our calendar, that is a big concern.

I'm sooo glad I never had to play outside in the snow during recess. Or worse yet -- SUPERVISE outdoor recess in the snow. Oh my... I could never be a PE teacher anyway. NEVER.
Never been snow-skiing, either.
I am not much of an outdoor, sporty person anyway... and definitely not an outdoor person in extreme temperatures!

Harmony, I know I'll be thinking the same way as you once I do retire and feel I have to get a handle on some of this "deep cleaning." I don't know how I'll manage either. Just keep thinking, slowly and surely... it will get done. And -- of course, this is not a really good attitude, in some ways, but it IS true. If it hasn't been done in a year... then anything you DO accomplish is a plus, and whatever you miss can certainly wait another 3 months or whatever, till you get back to that zone.
Of course, Harriet is right. If Room X is driving you insane, by all means, stay with it.
The SHE Police are NOT going to come get you if you stay longer than a week in a zone.

Ddil went to doctor today. Probably tonsillitis (sp?) Did not check positive for strep or flu... waiting on another throat culture to do its thing. She just feels miserable. Probably working nights like she does is NOT really in her best interest... but I think she kinda likes that shift. It just keeps her rundown b/c her sleep schedule is always messed up, IMHO.
DH kept dgs while she went to doctor, b/c she wanted ds to go with her.

I have a load of clothes in the washer. When it finishes, I am going to bed. Even though I still have papers to grade. I tend to put that off too much. I know. Bad Teacher.