Soul-mending Sunday

[Kathryn-in-Canada]

Good morning all!

It isn't sunny here, but I'm still going to make an effort to heal my soul. I'm still having dreams at night of either an operation or nurses fussing over my IV so I still have some mental mending to do. I'm hoping this mini-vacation will help me with the process.

What mending do you think your soul needs? And can you carve out a time to do some sort of activity to help you with that mending? Church, quilting/crafting time, a long walk, reading, cooking a delicious meal are some of the ideas that spring to my mind.

[Kathryn-in-Canada]

I'm hoping to whittle back the number of advil I'm taking. The limit on the bottle is 6 and I'm still taking 7 or 8 but I can either switch to one every 6 hours (except for the start of the day) or 2 every 8 hours and see if that works for me. I'm sore right now but went 8 hours between the bedtime and wake-up doses.

I'm starting the final push for packing, gathering the things I think I want to work on while away. There's a little bit of paperwork I'll take with me to work on in the car and I've copied the readings for the 4 Sundays I'm working and will read over those and think about hymns. And I've packed 3 books to read, all easy reads. That should fill my time nicely, along with walks and visiting with friends (dd's godparents will meet up with us for one day and I'm hoping to connect with Molly's Mistress as well since she lives about 40 minutes away from where we are staying.)

The weather is supposed to be miserable for the next week, the icons on Weather Underground and the Weather Channel indicate storms every single day. So it may end up being an inside vacation. Our hotel room overlooks the lake, so we'll have a lovely view even if it is miserable outside. But it makes packing a challenge!

[Emptynester]

It is a travel day for us - but a short one. 193 miles, if I remember right. We will be taking off about 9 or 10 and will arrive in Cheyenne, WY before noon.

Yesterday, my printer bit the dust. It copies and scans fine but will not print.

All of the shops I could find on the net were way across town and I just was so jittery (angry at printer and agoraphobia) I didn't want to try to find them. We will be much closer to shops in Cheyenne so I will find something there.

We did make a trip to Cam ping Wo rld to look for an electrical connector but didn't find one.

We did meet a delightful couple - he was on the 1967 Kansas City Chief's Super Bowl winning team and was wearing his Super Bowl ring. His name is Goldie Sellers. We were able to talk to them for quite a while. Such fun things we fall into.

Stopped at a "K" box store and picked up some things plus a pizza for supper. Went to bed early and slept very well. It gets quite chilly here at night and snuggling under the down comforter make for good sleeping.

[Twins' Mom]

Need to make some things happen around home today. We've walked the ddogs and I've had breakfast and read the paper.

-make the bed
-empty dishwasher
-clear kitchen counters
-start a lol
-meds/vitamins

[DeeClutter]

I'm just finally getting here. Woke up a little after 4:30 -went for a br break and ended up staying up. Made coffee, put up meds, etc. Then I laid down and dozed again somewhat.

Very good title for me today, Kathryn. Knew when I just started crying at 5am, that I'm on "emotional overload" and need some "soul-mending" myself. DD, DS-R, DDIL#1, DGS8, DDIL's DSis and I went to DGD18's graduation ceremony last night. This is DShelley's dd so naturally I was missing DDShelley a lot. Then add into the mix dh's condition(s) over the past few weeks, etc, etc. and it all got to me. So I'm now on the upswing.

I moved our car Friday for the visiting nurse and evidently left the key in on "accessory" and notta, nothing when we went to start the car. Neighbor got it started again and it was fine until dd and I got in to leave for graduation last night. At least I got a click this time. She had put the seats up in the car and left the sliding door open -which shouldn't have drained the battery in 10-15 minutes but it did. Dh & she got it jumped using the golf cart. So I guess it's a new battery tomorrow. We just put one in (figured out it was 2 years ago & it was a heavy duty one -and the good brand- so have no idea why it's shot already).

DS-R & DDIL, after 13 years in their site, have decided to move to a site closer to us. It's got water view on about all sides and a huge lot. People had their RV, deck and golf cart for sale for $6,000! They bought it (after approval from dcampowner to move onto that lot -it's a 50 & over lot -no children- but they're grandfathered in and dgs8 is definitely no problem for anyone in that particular area.) They are re-selling the deck and camper to someone else who are moving it to ds's present lot. It will cost him to move but think it's only $100, but he'll be paying $200 more a year because it's 'water-front property' and also a very large lot. So dd also has to move her MH so she can be near to them for DGS8. She takes care of dgs for the summer.

DD is here -BBL

[BookSaver]

Good morning, villagers ~

DH family reunion picnic was not as much fun as I'd hoped, but we survived. We were able to see many nieces & nephews that have become an every-other-year appearance, but I was helping with food so did not get to visit with many of them. Then when it came to my favorite part -- sitting around the campfire after all the work was done, and chatting with everyone -- DH didn't want to stay. I had even bought myself a new comfy lawn chair!

Oldest DSisIL -- the one who thinks she has the right to dictate to everyone -- spent most of the day complaining loudly about the heat. I'm sorry, it's summer in Iowa, we have heat and humidity. I was grateful that it wasn't storming. But every time we've seen her in the past couple of years, she doesn't seem to be happy unless she's complaining about something ... so I guess that means she was having a great day, right?

The young kids looked like they were having a good time playing together, squirting each other with water guns, bubbles, playing a bag toss game, and running around being children. There is a playground next to the park shelter, too, which is nice for distracting fussy pre-schoolers on swings and monkey bars.

We've been lucky that the bad storms predicted have gone around our Tiny Town. Unfortunately, the combination of storms in nearby towns, plus I'm guessing the excess heat causing everyone to crank up their a/c, have managed to create some problems with our electrical grid. I don't dare leave my computer on overnight any more, since we can hear the bedroom fan click off at least once each night. Yesterday morning we lost power for an hour and a half (luckily I wasn't trying to cook any food for the picnic!). In the wee hours of this morning it went off again for about the same amount of time.

I could tell by the clock on the stove, which is an analog with no battery backup. I've decided I like that, it comes in very handy for tracking power outages. When we finally get a new stove, I'm sure it will have an atomic clock or some such, so I'm going to have to find an analog clock to put on my desk.

I have already done a load of laundry this morning. Nothing else planned for today except to bring the rest of the gear in from the car, clean the cooler, and put everything away for a few weeks. May do some decluttering in my office if DH doesn't want to go anywhere.

We may camp over 4th of July weekend, depends on the weather.

[Twins' Mom]

This is kind of a soul-mending weekend for me. Yesterday was pretty relaxing and I'm trying for as much downtime as possible today. I feel like I was through the wringer last week in several ways.

Dh is put out at me because I got put out at him. I was emptying the dishwasher and he complained he couldn't hear the TV - this was a movie he was watching that seems to be on TV every month or so. So I just stopped on cleaning up the kitchen (I needed to empty the dishwasher so I could reload the stuff on the counter.) Then as the movie ended he came over and started trying to do clean up and was just in my way. He was probably trying to "make nice" but I just needed space to do it my way at that point. He's gone off to the market and I'm going to the grocery now.

I'm so glad for a quiet weekend. Looking ahead, this week doesn't look nearly as busy.

[DeeClutter]

DD just spent nearly 3 hours copying over a slide show to "word" (using "paint") so dh could direct workers how to install solid awnings. They only come with a DVD slide show. So everyone is supposed to do 1 step, go watch the next step on DVD's???? There are no printed instructions. Dcampowner has the dealership for here for solid awnings/rooms. Since dh can't do them he's recruited our next door dneighbor (the one who just arrived from FL -he's a contractor and knows his business.) He helped dh do one last summer. So this will give him a little extra pocket money over the summer and maybe it'll convince them to stay a bit longer. They actually lived right near here till they moved to FL about 5 years ago. Their daughters all live close by so it's nice for them during the summer.

It is very hot and humid (by NY standards) and dh says he has no energy today -after feeling his best yesterday. Think the weather has a lot to do with that. He doesn't seem out of breath or anything so not really worried. Visiting nurse will be here again tomorrow. Have to have his blood work done tomorrow morning. Told dcampowner we'd be bringing the car down in the morning (he has a repair shop -mostly big trucks, MHomes, etc, but does do individual cars). That's where we got the new battery in 2010. He said it'll be stamped on the battery when we got it, so we'll see. Warranty only allows us to get it at cost anyway -which is how we bought this one.

DS-R has a beautiful fairly new golf cart with the purchase of the RV he just bought. The cart is all they are keeping -he's selling the RV and deck. Sadly the people who are buying it, most likely, know his purchase price, because they wanted it. DS got first dibs however.

[Kathryn-in-Canada]

Heading off now. Much later than hoped for but as fast as I could manage it. House is in good shape so that's good. See you this evening (or earlier if I play with my USB modem.)

[Nancy]

Time in the garden is great for soul mending for me & to process the week and yesterday's events and actives. Today I headed back out to unload the sod I loaded up yesterday. Got that done and have more to do but a bit of a break was in order.

Neighbors are having an open house mid-day here so I got most of the hens in the chicken yard.

We've had breakfast and I did my qt. Got sub way for our lunch today. I'll s2s after I'm done working on the yard.
Waving to every one.