STUNNING SATURDAY

[Cowinkie]

Morning y'all...

I slept late as well...not that I'm complaining. I am slowly cutting down on my nightly sleeping pill. Last night I I took 1/3 of a pill and slept 8 hours. Tonight I'm going to try to sleep without one.

One thing I've noticed since I've cut out all sugar is I am sleeping much better. I don't get as hot as night. Yesterday while at lunch with my girls....all 18 of them ...a friend of mine who happens to be several years older than me mentioned she has begun wearing a hormonal patch. I was curious and asked her why. She described all the symptoms I've been complaining about and said since she's started this hormonal therapy all her symptoms have stopped. That gives me hope ...

I had a wonderful time with my friends yesterday. I'm so glad we have agreed to meet once a month. Its fun to spend time with everyone and share conversations that don't involve school stuff. Within my close circle of friends...the 8 of us who taught together and shared our lunch time at school for 10 years...we have made a vow not to talk shop. I volunteered to have these 8 over for a lunch in the coming week or two. They like coming to my house because I can set up an eating area where we can all eat at the same table like we did for years. Some want to go swimming so I am going to suggest we have an early supper around 4:30 and then swim afterwards...too hot to do it during the day as I have friends that won't want to put their toes in the water. Sweetie said he's going to visit his friend that afternoon....

Harriet...I have used colored overlay sheets for some of my students with reading problems and have great success with it. The sheets look like a heavy 8.5 x 11 piece of plastic and come in many colors...red, blue, green and yellow. Trial and error helped me to figure out which color worked best for which student. Once I was in an assembly with my kids when I noticed one of my students was very engaged with what was being shown on the movie screen. I had been teaching him for over 4 weeks and nothing I had done seemed to capture him the way this presentation did. When I questioned him about it...why it was so much easier for him to read what was up on the screen...he said because the back ground was blue and the writing was white. After that I tried my best to present my lessons that way...white on blue...and when I did I notice a big improvement with many of my students.

Since I did my house blessing on Thur. I am pretty much caught up on everything. My vacuum ... a Hoover... has a part in it which just broke. I was going to take it in to be repaired, but Sweetie said considering its age and how much it would take to fix it, I would be better off buying a new one. Then he said....find the one you want and I'll pay for it. Love a guy who understands the importance of good working tools. Yesterday I spent time reserching vacuums and have decided to buy another Hoover.

I need to work on my office again...that's really becoming my hot spot. Just bought my own shredder...we have one, but its in Sweeties office. Sometimes he's got other computers hooked up to the outlet so I can't always use it when I need to. Fixed that problem by buying my own. It's not in a good spot at the moment, so I need to think about where to put it. Thur I totally rearranged my livingroom. I tried to think out of the book and ended up placing different end tables next to different furniture. I like the results, so I need to use that same thinking process here in my office.

Hope y'all are having a good day...glad to see everyone on the mend. cy'all later........BTW, not baby chicks yet.

Kathryn...I have a new muffin mix that is healthy, uses no real or artifical sugar and can be microwaved in a coffee cup. It takes only 50 seconds to make. My son who's become a health nut, loves it. I'll post more about it in Healthy Habits.

[Twins' Mom]

My beast Macs did well with his PT (swimming and walking on the treadmill in water) and I ate lunch and got in bed to nap when we got home. I slept hard for over two hours.

I'm going to do a little clean up while dh takes a shower, then we're going out.

[Kathryn-in-Canada]

As I expected, I'm a slug today.

Dh and I tried a walk but turned back due to rain. Next time we head out we'll take umbrellas.

One load of laundry in the dryer, the second in the washer. The lounge chairs are by the back door to put into the car tomorrow when we pack.

Dh informs me the bacon in the fridge went bad (we buy from Costco and there's too much for us to eat if either of us become diet conscious or are hospitalized!) It was good until we were to leave but of course we didn't leave on the trip as planned and dh didn't catch the impending problem in time to freeze the bacon before it went bad.

I need to get motivated to tackle the sales chits data entry. I don't know how to do that.

[Harriet]

So happy to see Lisa walking about the village.

[ellyphant]

Hey, there!

It's been a productive day. Made a cake this morning. Puttered around outside. Removed 2 empty birds nests from under a balcony and a porch. Transplanted a big pot of thyme that I got at a wedding last year. It started out very small and even survived the winter outside! Dh cut down another tree limb. The best thing was seeing a horse-drawn carriage go by taking a bride and groom to their reception nearby. Oh, and I sprayed where a wasp was trying to build a nest at my front door.

Did lots of reading also. Have an easy plan for supper...frozen pizza and grapes. This is my kind of day!

Paid one bill. Happy to have that one out of here.

[Harriet]

The air c man came and left, and I am $300 poorer. He had a long explanation for how lucky I am. Sigh. I suppose it's true those bills are sometimes super high. It has to be fixed ASAP specifically for my ddad's sake. Because ddad witnessed me have to write a check, he has gone on and on (as he often does) about how he has a certain amount of $ in the bank and how with all that money, the whole family will be well fixed for life. He doesn't realize he is talking about the value of a dollar when he was a young man. He says he could buy all the cars we wanted. Quite true, just need a time machine first.

Dstepson, dstepgd and dd have taken off for lunch and a movie. Very happy for them. Dd needs to see different family faces. She let dstepgd dress her before they left. Tank, then sleeveless top, then crocheted vest , so 3 layers and still no sleeves, then a hat... She looked strangely fashionable, though. Dstepgd wore a full-length orange-flowered skirt. Dstepson was What a good Daddy.

I've deadheaded my fuschia plant after looking that up on the net.

I gave up and just put a circular pad for Tobias on my desk. It was either that, an option that allows me to place him to the side, or putting up with a cat-obstruction of the computer screen.

[Kathryn-in-Canada]

I can't imagine no sleeves in a movie theater. I get too cold in a/c in public spaces so have sleeves with me almost all the time.

Folded load of laundry 1. Asked dh to carry the baskets upstairs but that hasn't happened yet. If the items in load 2 are to dry on the rack upstairs, they need to be hung up soon since most are quite heavy. They are too delicate to stick in the dryer when wet but, if push comes to shove in the morning, I will finish them off in the dryer.

Still no progress on the chits.

[Harriet]

The answer for nearly every discomfort is to be 14, Kathryn. Does wonders.

This turned into a tough day socially when HRH decided we must feed them when they came home from the movie. At the same time, we were expecting a call from dd's friend's mother. I went out with the girls and picked up pizza, a no-no for HRH and really not wise for me, but we did it. While we were gone the mother called the house phone (of course she did - I'd been home all day and the pizza place is only 10 minutes away) but then she wouldn't call the cell to reach me as dstepson suggested, and then wouldn't answer her cell phone any time we called back. Sigh. As we walked in the door, my ddad was looking for his supper as well, which was fine, I was ready to fix that. But he became frantic about "so many people all coming at once" (2 familiar family members, just 1 car) and could not relax. So he spent a very suspicious, questioning suppertime while I tried to make dstepson and dstepgd feel comfortable in an uncomfortable situation and reassure my dad over and over and over. All the while, dstepson was intent on showing his dad and sister a movie that he admires, Temple Grandin, which is indeed an excellent movie, but very high tension and loud.

By the time the evening was over, I thought I'd jump out of my skin. I'd taken in way too many calories, too.

In a few quiet times, I was able to have some good talks with dstepgd and be a halfway decent grandmother. She is going to come back to spend a night with us soon, we hope. Unless the atmosphere here has scared her off.

[Kathryn-in-Canada]

Got all the bills paid. Most of the credit card statements reconciled (still have 2 hard ones to do) and all the chits entered.

I'm half packed. All clothes are in but still have toiletries to do, plus the cooler to pack after church.

Dh made a nice dinner and I ate that. Ended up with only 4 meals today. Started eating at 10:30 this morning and just sort-of ran out of time. So there's still soup and a banana to be eaten up tomorrow either before we leave or brought with us.

I'm off to bed late but with a good deal of progress made on the day. There's a lot more of the dining table top showing.

[Lynlee]

Dyslexia glasses - Did ya'll know about this? Saw a blurb in Shape mag's Live Healthy section. 50 percent of dyslexia sufferers experience it as visual distortions. Those are helped by this type of reading glasses or contacts. Expensive, but not that much more than bifocals, I suppose. Opticians are starting to carry them. Prescription dyslexia glasses/clip-ons/contacts Some insurances cover, some don't.

I heard of and tried Irlen lenses at great expense.
I ended up with blueish multifocals. (there were many colours overlaid) I was unhappy with the multifocal part, and I had trouble seeing blue things - eg - blue yarn when crotcheting.
Problems - Optomitrist for a script, Irlen practioner for colour. It had to go to the Irlen place to be made up.
When I went to complain it turned out the Irlen practictioner was away for months on a dx/business "tour" and it was months from when I got the glasses til when I could get back to see him, and I felt caught as the optometrist had nothing to do with the colour or workshop. Normally here if you complain that glasses aren't right - you have 30 days to complain and have them try again .
I felt caught between a rock and a hard place. Went back to my olden days glasses.
Also - later found that a visual disturbance I had was caused by some psych meds being at too high a level.
Result - I just get ordinary glasses, and wear them all the time to help my brain get used to everything being at the same focal wave length.
I did get perscription sunnies (bifocals) - in shades of brown which does have me go uggghhh when I put them on, but I see well enough - but try not to read in them. I just don't like it.
Next time I'll go for transitions (vary colour in the sun), and an optomitest who isn't trying to be a supermarket and just push people thru ... I might see if he does checks on colour therapy lenses as well.

Without glasses print does tend to swim on the page.

Last nights spilt pre-cooked rice called for dog clean up.

Thank you, puppy dear. ((Lynlee))

Today I did the babywipe applied under slipper to the affected quadrant treatment.

washed today. stool into laundry room to get to front loader. a rope on the laundry basket handle to make it a pull along sled helped.
The clothes line is on nails on veranda posts, and taking down the mid section made things more easy to reach. I need check. clouds have come in and there is rain being vicious way down south. Hoping I don't need rehang it.

Need to eat as well. food is cooling in my place/ on table. added rice and frozen veg to a precooked meal.
check washing first.