Saturday PWYC

[OKay]

Starting us off with the basic theme.

Feel free to change it to suit your needs today

[DeeClutter]

My same dilemma this morning, Okay. So guess that title's as good as any.

Dh just went for his shower. Going soon to get him some anti-itch cream or something. He's itching all over and can't sleep because of it. Went for several blood tests yesterday and will have another echo cardiogram Monday morning. His bp this morning was 174/108 -way too high. He's quite concerned that he can't get that down. I'm sure they will be tweaking meds again on Monday.

Have to get dressed and get out of here for a bit. Were going to take a trip but it's looking a lot like rain. Was surprising dh with a ride on the Arcade/Attic railroad about 70 miles from here. But if it's not going to be nice out there's little sense in doing that. Plus the fact that his health is questionable right now. Too far away for my liking.

[OKay]

I've tried posting a couple times, but get sidetracked before I can get it done.

Last night DH family decided to make DSisIL go to ER. She has been sick for 5 days but didn't want to seek medical help. DH and DNephew loaded DSisIL up into truck. Long story shorten.....I kept DNeice2 while DSisIL children took her to hospital. After running some test, they admitted her. Will know more in next 72 hours as test results come back.

This morning I started cooking at 5am and was finished by 7:30am. I made pasta salad for 75 people and baked couple hundred cookies. Got that all packaged and ready to take to funeral meal we will be serving at noon today.

Also made biscuits for the guys breakfast today. They loooove weekend breakfasts because they are bread lovers.

I have changed my mind on today's PODA. I decided to send funeral food with DH to the church. They are going to have plenty of help, so I'm going to stay home. I think it will good for LO to have a low-key day so he will be emotionally ready for this evening. We will meet DD at bowling alley to celebrate LO birthday.

[Kathryn-in-Canada]

Booksaver: The documentary was on fan support for making Serenity.

I'm up. S2s. Bed is made. Eating my breakfast now. Washer just buzzed with the first load of laundry for the day. I need to decide if I have enough to do a second load.

Dh is working on music for tomorrow. I don't have the retirement home service finished but I do have the music picked so he has that to do, plus the music for our church's service. He'll be playing there while I'm preaching in another church a half hour away. I'll drop him there but he'll have to car pool home, although he might just use ds's car.

My goals for today:

1. Update quicken with the sales chits.
2. reconcile credit card accounts. I paid those bills yesterday.
3. finish the two service for tomorrow (still have to write a children's story for the first story.)
4. move more than yesterday.

[OKay]

Firefly fan here too!

Adjust. Adjust. Adjust. My PODA keeps changing. I'm going to take DMIL to visit DSisIL in hospital. DH will come and get LO to be his "helper".

[Harriet]

Has helia posted lately?

Glad Cowinkie had a safe trip.

OKay, I know that you got up at 5:00 and cooked 2.5 hours out of the goodness of your heart, and I don't want to take anything away from that. It's sweet of you. Can't even imagine how hot your kitchen must be after that much baking and pasta-boiling in July to serve 75.

Perhaps it's because it's just not part of the tradition here that I find it confusing. However, I think the death of a person is no time to expect his/her community to start working hard. Were I the one whose family member died, it would make me a bundle of nerves to find out that so much was happening and so much had suddenly been expected of my friends, and that there was another event/time for my family to try to hold emotions together in front of the community. Plus, I'd start worrying immediately about reciprocating - both guilt over perhaps not having done as much for others in the past as others were doing for my family now, and thinking how much I "ought" to work in the future each time one of the many current helpers had a death.

HRH just called from the other house. There was trouble on the phone line and he and phone man have both spent time. Now it seems to be working.

I have deep-cleaned the front bath.

[Lilac]

Harriet, I think helia and her family are on their camping trip to Glacier National Park.

[Harriet]

Right, Lilac, thanks!

Sorry if my post offends anyone - I know lots of our folks in our village are used to that kind of hosting for bereavement. Don't know why it is never done here. I have only one memory of an after-funeral meal in a fellowship hall, and I was the "ride" to that funeral for my dear aunt in her old age, so, about the year 2000. I remember she was less surprised than I, so maybe remembered it from other decades/times....

Dd14 and I are cleaning out the walk-in closet in prep for her to begin using it again. Frustratingly (or happily) we've found some clothing that was stored for her by her sister that would have really helped her with outfits recently. Sigh. Oh well, that move to bring Daddy here to live was hasty, and we did the best we could - the right thing to do.

She now has another good skirt and a below-knee dark slim dress - Yay. Also, after dry cleaning, a trendy retro-40s blouse that will be perfect business-dressing for presentations at school next year. A thick corduroy shirtwaist that will be welcome for January snow Sundays.

Donations of some men's clothes are piling up. Also Yay, but bittersweet. HRH says time to do this at other house, too. Sigh. Daddy had some nice new Carhardts that some hardworking man will be grateful to have.

Memorial info has started coming in from the church. I got two of that batch of thank yous into the mail this a.m. I'm using my own notes rather than FH's - no more trouble, really. Grateful for those envelopes, though, which are always helpful.

Re 3rd death in our string of 4 here, I'd like to send a memorial. The family asked for memorials to go to the hospice house where their mother had arrived a day before her death (sudden illness) .....? Is it odd that I want to give to her (lifelong, right up to the end) church instead? Do families do that out of gratitude for being given a space by hospice? Oh... ... is it because none of her children attend the church now... ...bet that's it. Perhaps one of them has something against the church for all I know. But it's what she and I had in common. Hmmm...

[Ivy]

Grandsons go home tomorrow. They arrived the 20th, go home the 28th. It's been fun, they did a lot of helping getting firewood on M-W-F. DH took them to The Olive Garden one day, went shopping for groceries and out to Costco another. They played lots of XBOX 360, did movie watching with DH, and lots of eating. One grandson's growing like a weed, is so tall and husky. Wants to play football, too.

I'm slowly writing letters, am taking a "vacation" from laundry today. Been doing 1 - 3 loads daily since their arrival. One didn't pack enough clothes, so needed to wash daily so he could get his socks back, etc.. Everybody's lounging today, the boys are barefooted. The 13-year-old brought oodles of boxers and socks. The older one brought 1 pr. of socks and 1 or 2 pr. boxers. But it's been very enjoyable getting to know them better.

Happy Saturday, Everybody!

[helia]

Well, my ears must have been burning Harriet. I just decided to pop in and see what was new with you ladies.

Glacier was AMAZING! It was SO beautiful! And camping was great after all, particularly since the weather was gorgeous, too hot if anything. The new inflatable mattress helped us sleep. Dfriends arrived before us and got nice sites next to each other, pretty amazing considering how quickly the camp grounds filled up each day. We ended up on the east side, though we originally intended to be on the west side - and dfriends started out there. Dfriends liked the east side better b/c of the cooler temps. And there were many possible hikes from our campground and mountains were visible all around us, from every angle; many campgrounds only had one trail heading into the wilderness and mts. were obscured/ not easily seen. Dh, ds, and dd15 went on an overnight backcountry backpacking trip that sounded gorgeous. I forgot to send the camera with them. . . Dd17 and I stayed behind to hold our camp site and hang out with dfriends.

We're already talking about going back again. We saw such a small fraction of the park. Dfriends are planning on going back in 2 years.

More later - tons to do now that we're home. I've made initial run to the groc. store. Dh has washed all the camping dishes in the dw.

I've spent a lot of time this a.m. filling out a single online application form for various teaching/tutoring type positions in the area. I did not finish; it is taking forever. Maybe that is partially due to the large number of part-time jobs I've held in the past - and the number of volunteer type positions too. . . I'll finish later. I also took care of some emails - band uniform data needed, moms group stuff, including one potential child care teacher, an initial response from a teaching position I applied to.

---This sat here while we ate bfast (lunch for me).

Kitchen is cleaned up. Dw is running again. Dd17 has gone off to a friend's house. Ds is off doing something on campus with his Christian campus organization. Dh and dd15 are heading out to pick up the pups soon. I will start laundry and finish a short groc. shopping list - just for the weekend. Dh is shopping tomorrow with 2 friends for our small group camping trip.