Formula Monday

[Ivy]

The boys, DH and his friend/neighbor are in the wood working on getting a dump truck full of firewood to stack at our house. 4.5-year-grson called last night to tell his older brother, "You come home NOW! I miss you! You can drive a car now so drive home NOW!" He also called his brother's phone this a.m., but they're in the woods. Poor little one has 5 days to go! He's so adorable!

I went out to Dad's Memorial Bench this a.m. to journal. The birds were signing beautiful songs, all kinds, then the squirrels started scolding me for being out there, and a big animal was in the bushes. Undoubtedly a doe, who's keeping her twin fawns near our home for safety. It was so quiet and beautiful. The traffic was in the distance, which was quiet, too. I was out there about 7:15 a.m. The bench seat gets hard after about 10 minutes, so I'll use a little throw pillow I've sewn to sit on, I think.

We'll do laundry after lunch and showers. The place is fairly picked up, everything was dusted, dust mopped and vacuumed on Friday. So the house is in good shape.

Have a great Formula Monday! My formula is that I put my foot down on doing daily laundry, told the boys it'll be M-W-F when they get wood. Also, I do house blessings on Mondays and Fridays, but don't need to do a blessing today. That's my formula. I work around my work job, too.

[Harmony]

I have good formulas, routines, in place; the trick is to always do them!

Well, still on the slow side here. This is an unbelievably slow recovery. I have made a decision to keep doing what I can when I can and try not to become lazy. When I sit down I immediately go to sleep.

I did go in to church Sat. morning to help with a funeral. The hardest part was standing around waiting for the service to be done...we usually can sit down on the chairs back there, but they had the service in that place so we all stood in the kitchen. Intended to nap when I came back home but DH had plans to go up the palm trees in the front and trim and he asked me just to hold his ladder. Our trees have grown very tall so he's way up there. I did that, but it was very hot and humid and of course I have to keep dodging the cut fronds that are falling.

Then I helped him pull them over to the edge of the property where we stack them up. If he was strong like he used to be I wouldn't have felt like I had to help.

Sunday I helped with communion. Today it is very humid so I am trying to stay inside. I have heat intolerance right now. Did get a LOL hung outside.

Yikes, this sound so negative, I should just delete it all.

[Kathryn-in-Canada]

Haven't moved from my computer but did get a vacation to Nova Scotia booked. Airfare went up $150 each since Saturday morning but another airline came down in price so I split the booking and ended up paying on only $60 more for each of us. Our usual hotel in Dartmouth has changed hands and seems to have gone a bit in quality. Since it was iffy before, I've decided to pay a bit more each night and guarantee myself a nice place. So two nights are booked in that nice hotel and two nights at Whitepoint in a room as opposed to cabin. That will give us a chance to check out the rebuilt lodge.

Oh, still need a rental car. Then I'll be done. Forgot all about that since we've driven down the past few years.

[helia]

Groceries are bought and put away. I've bought napkins, plates, cups, etc. for the baby shower. Though S is having a girl, she does not want pink for the baby, so I'm basically doing yellow + napkins w/cute zoo animals on them. 2nd (small) lunch is being ingested. That makes for 10 WW points so far today. I exercised 3.5 points this a.m.

Any fb friends, you can see S and R on my photos from our small group camping trip. S is the pregnant one. Actually, you've probably already figured out who they are from previous photos, etc.

Next up:
- finally finish the a.m. routine, including quiet study time
- tidy living areas a little
- take dd15 clothes shopping when dd17 arrives home with the van in about an hour

Dinner tonight: leftover mac 'n cheese casserole which ds made last week while we were away! (His first time cooking by himself - he said it turned out well but was a lot of work.) + other leftover pasta, a new small mac 'n cheese casserole which I'll put together tonight, green salad, rolls. I wasn't sure the two leftover pasta dishes were enough for the 5 of us.

Dd15 has drum line 7 - 9 pm tonight, so we'll have to eat early.

I almost forgot - I need to get the tuxedo shirt numbers to the band director! I'm looking at what the boys have used over the last 3 years to make an estimate for what we need for the coming year. There are more kids this year, though, so I'll have to add a bit of a margin to the number. I may do that this evening, then. . .

[OKay]

Multiple colors of icing mixed and ready for DGS16 and LO to finish decorating the cheetah cake. I'm going to give LO 15 more minutes of napping then wake him up and get started on evening activities.

[Harriet]

Harmony, I'm awfully sorry to hear you still feel you're not seeing an end to this recovery time yet. That really is a lot of outdoor work in the hot sun, but, if you were already feeling that weary from indoor kitchen work at the church, that doesn't explain it, hmmm? This is the second day of midday naps for me. But there was a moment over the weekend when I recognized I was both socially and physically exhausted and knew I had to keep on keeping on to take care of the boys. I'm hoping that'e still the only reason.

[OKay]

LO birthday celebration is officially done. Cake ended up being a bit of a weird looking cheetah, however LO was VERY HAPPY with it. LO received many gifts (toys, clothes, fireman uniform, money, etc) but his favorite gift turned out to be the trekking poles. He is absolutely thrilled to have his own poles. All is well that ends well.

I'm tired but can't stop yet. I took a break and drank a DPepsi in hopes it will give me a boost.

[OKay]

Alrighty! DW is running and most of the other dishes are done. House is picked up and looks company ready again. The 4 generations are coming to play with LO in the morning while we meet with lawyer.

I ready for a long hot shower (yes, hot....even though it is 97 degrees at 8pm!)

[Kathryn-in-Canada]

Great Day, OKay! Pat yourself on the back while you are in the shower!

Dinner turned out well. Well, the stew was just okay but I was missing an ingredient to guessed on substitutions. I made buttermilk biscuits that turned out amazingly, though. My biscuits are usually just edible. Had buttermilk to make my refrigerator muffin batter so decided to make biscuits as well. Mixed the dry and butter. Went to add in the buttermilk and discovered it had turned, despite it being 10 days before the best before date. Thankfully, I was measuring so didn't ruin the dry ingredients.

Used the vinegar in milk trick to 'make buttermilk' and used that instead. My recipe made 12 and there were 2 left after dinner. (There are just 3 of us at home!)

Ds came home from work early. There was an incident at work and they let him off early so he could avoid answering questions. Turns out gun wounds are mandatory reporting, not stab wounds but the police had called asking them to be on the lookout for a stabbing victim who had fled a scene. Ds got caught when the police asked for the hospital to break patient confidentiality (by tricking ds.) It was 30 minutes before end of his shift and the head nurse decided he could go home to guarantee he wouldn't have to stay past the end of his second shift of the day. The police arrived as he was packing up his stuff so he left quickly through a back entrance. No calls or texts since he got home so all must be fine.

Dh is heading off early in the morning so we're off to bed on time.

[Harriet]

Had to nap again today, which I already said above. Afterward, momentum seemed to sag and I couldn't think of the right direction, so I wrote 2 more thank-you notes so that at least I was continuing on the "already-in-the-middle" chore.
At least it's not a waste of time when I get a few of those done.
Earlier,
Mini errand run happened, getting gas and making a deposit.
Desk Day was done.
Some more clean-up in dd's room. Slow going.
Funny kind of family meeting atmosphere tonight, as the three of us talked about some sadness, some overwhelm.