MARVELOUS MONDAY

[Dove]

Good morning!

It is so nice to stop by the village with a cup of tea, take a break, & cuop.

((Dee)), I love the way you all celebrated Zoe at Disney yesterday.

Indi, I can just picture Jake with his ears blowing back ! My ddog loves to sniff, sniff, sniiiiiiiiiff the air on windy days.

Kathryn, how nice that you got to hear that dfriend received your gift -- and how nice of you to send one!

Joining you all in praying for Mr & Mrs MT today.

Hang in there, Twins! You're really in the home stretch now .

What little boy doesn't love tractors, Harriet? Sounds like the perfect gift . Oh, by the way, you had asked about my arm -- no bruising at all. It really seems to be a strained muscle between my wrist & elbow. It feels fine if I'm not lifting anything with it. Have been mindful to use the other arm instead, as well as icing 2 or 3 times a day & it is feeling better.

(((Okay))), how nice to have that DVD of dbrother, but I understand how emotional it is to watch. Hope your eye is healing well; I thought it was so clever of you to wear safety goggles instead of an eye patch.

Elizabeth, I found myself nodding in agreement when you posted about having trouble saying no in bookstores .

Quick comment on the obit discussion from yesterday -- I actually mentioned to dh on Sunday that so many obits no longer list an age, or even a date of birth if the age is not included. I've also noticed that many also give very basic info & then direct readers to the website of the funeral home for more info.

Today is a LBOE* day for me. (*LBOE=Little Bit of Everything ). I ran a few quick errands this morning, & this afternoon I need to make a DPC, pick up & put away in several rooms, do clothes laundry, put the summer quilt on the bed, wash the winter comforter (that may not happen today), spend some time on kitchen chores, & write an Off My Mind list. Actually, the list should probably come first, along with checking several notes I wrote to myself over the weekend of things that need doing. I can't remember what they are off the top of head -- which is why I am constantly jotting down reminders to myself !

Let's see how much I can get done before lunch. Have everyone is having a Marvelous Monday!

[Nancy]

Indiana I'm hoping for a different solution for you trash troubles! Not just for you but others that follow after you then need to change up that policy a bit it sounds like.


I'm up Coffee is made and drank.
B.S. was up so no breakfast for me.

It's quiet here today.
Kitchen needs a bit more attn. it got ahead of me this weekend so I've been plugging away at that.

Today is marvelous remembering the excellent day I had yesterday! Grand kids were here; dropped them off at home before church. They came again after church 1-3 their folks had a house on the home show tour thing I fixed their lunch. We walked up to see the goats and they fed them grass and really enjoyed doing that then later on we dropped them off on our way over town, I was glad we had rounded up all the games and toys they wanted to take back home with them. Even the wts. I borrowed from dd found a diff. way to use my arms with wall push ups and my body for resistance leaning on it love clutter free exercises!

Then we we went to the movie "This Means War". {A couple sat in front of us that we knew he has Parkinson's and it's pretty bad he could not sit still and it was a bit distracting for me so I was wishing we had chosen different seats.} It was a cute movie if I'm ever a spy I want music like that to play so I'm at an exciting part of life! LOL! It was PG - 13 so not for the younger set how ever.

[lucylee]

First day of spring break has not started out in a very marvelous way. Allergy trouble has me very lazy and irritable. Besides the fact that I'm sniffling, sneezing, and my ears/nose/throat are itching like crazy.
I've done nothing so far. Well... that's not true. I've read the paper & talked to dmil on the phone twice. Ate breakfast. Now I'm going to eat lunch. * sigh *

Must s2s soon,however and get ready for errand day: Wmart, ironing lady, etc.
Also need to call & make appt for dh @ dermatologist.

Hope all goes well for Mr. MT! (((HUGS))) for you both, MT!

Also loved hearing about celebration for Zoe, Dee.

(((OKay)))

Hope all is well w/Ken, also! (((Kathryn)))

Maybe I'll have something to report in the ta-da column later.

[Kathryn-in-Canada]

Elizabeth: I find google is my friend. I put complete questions in the search box, i.e. How do I switch the Westinghouse model 33xx77 from celcius to Fahrenheit? and invariably find the answer. I've used that approach with my freezer and a half dozen other things.

Often I'm just being lazy - I have an excellent manual filing protocol in the house. It makes perfect sense to me! Most are in the basement in a box, filed under categories, i.e. basement equipment (water systems, furnace), furniture (assembly guides), bikes, clocks, suitcases (you can tell what is a priority in our house!) BUT the manuals for the entertainment system components are kept in the living room, the exercise equipment manuals are on a shelf in the exercise room, the weather station manual is in a drawer in a cabinet under the weather station, the label maker's is on the bookshelf next to the label maker and all the kitchen manuals are in a binder on my cookbook shelf. Then there are odds and sods - the gas fireplace manual is in my desk drawer, only because that desk used to be beside the fireplace - now it is 30' away in another room! I could move the manual to the basement but then I'm sure I'd never find it again! Don't ask where the manuals for the business equipment is!

I have managed to strip and remake the bed, including changing the feather-bed and the mattress cover. It is far too warm now for the feather bed - dh and I were having a whining match at 2 a.m. each complaining we were the hottest! It has been such a mild winter, I never put the winter duvets on, so I can't make the duvets any lighter, although dd had the suggestion of just using the cover with no duvet in it. Did I mention how smart my dd is?!!!

I'm awaiting a ping back from my dsil who hasn't been able to file the tax return on the government website so asked me to do it from my software.

I made my lunch (a pita pizza) and weighed the cheese this time to see just how much I was using (to get an accurate calorie count.) I was very pleasantly surprised I'm using 20% less than I thought I was and my cheese on the pizza is only 96 calories. Switching to low fat cheese will reduce that more but I don't mind using up the full fat I have on hand in the meantime. I'm loving these little pizzas for lunch each day.

[Harriet]

Repeatable lunches! Oh, I love to find smart, healthy repeatable lunch ideas, Kathryn. Do tell - how are you making the pita pizzas?

My recent repeatable lunch is a chicken salad sandwich. I use Martin's sliced potato rolls with the big "Only 90 calories" circle on the front. I top with a bunch of lettuce and 1/3 slice swiss cheese. Dd13 laughed at me Saturday because she said my sandwich was taller than it was wide. (Like I said, LOTS of lettuce) Right now the chicken salad I have in the house is our nicer grocery's deli one, but homemade or other would be similar numbers. I put it into the computer tracker and sandwich in total is 270 calories, 300 grams sodium, 17 of protein, only 6 of sugars. It only adds 2 grams of fiber to my day, but I'm not looking at a sandwich to get that anyway. When I don't have chicken salad I can substitute a frozen Morningstar Garden Veggie burger and mustard, but the sodium goes up. I've also put thin slices of avocado on for more fiber, but watch those calories. If I eat the sandwich, I don't have any other bread that day.

HRH couldn't find his prescription glasses this a.m. (he only wears them for reading so it was okay, but troubling). Thankfully, I later found that my ddad had taken them to his room, so we are going to have to watch out for this. He honestly believed somehow they belonged to him, although they look nothing like his own glasses and they were stored overnight in HRH's cap.

Thanks lucylee for noting Kathryn's dh has so much going on today - I'd missed it. Yes, hoping all goes well.

Oh, Elizabeth! I can imagine the frustration of a cat in the furniture arm! I believe you have a cubby-loving cat there. Orphan Cat was like that. She delighted in peeping out from somewhere, certain that the humans had NO idea. LOL.

Indiana, that's wonderful your dear great aunt is still so capable at 104.

Good job keeping up the icing, Dove.

Cowinkie, I don't think you're at all scandalous in your outdoor attire! That is your own backyard, and you are lucky to have seclusion. I've often thought investing in some bright blue or multicolored bras would be smart in the hot summertime. Ordinary comfortable bra by morning, masquerading as a bikini top by the heat of the day if the shirt just HAS to go.

[Elizabeth]

I remembered to bring my lunch today. It is in the microwave now. I forgot to mention that Sunday I finished the shorts for the doll dress I have been crocheting. I have only to sew buttons on the sweater and hat and I am done.

[Kathryn-in-Canada]

Dh is fine.

He's got a monitor on for 2 weeks. We'll see what it shows. He gets weird stuff happening most nights when he goes to bed (heart races for a while) and he's had two major incidents, one while traveling (was running to come back to me in Barcelona and got so short of breath that he thought he'd pass out and there was no way I'd know where he was) and the other was 16 hours of extreme dizziness before we left, so bad he felt he couldn't safely drive.

The urologist was followup on his procedure in December. No news to report there, or at least none he's sharing.

Pita Pizza: Take a 6" pita shell (whole wheat, high fibre for me), put on pizza sauce from a can, oregano and basil, some bacon bits (from Costco), some veggies, and 1/4c of grated cheese (I have a 3 cheese blend I made up in the freezer so just scoop out some of that.) Cook in the toaster oven for 10 minutes. I'm addicted. Obviously, you could make this healthier by upping the veggies and dropping the bacon bits. But I choose not to at this time.

Speaking of addictions: I just had the last diet pepsi in the house. Finished the diet Dr. P's on Saturday. I'm going to try and go without them for the rest of the season of Easter. This is also part of my getting healthier strategy. I'm thinking less caffeine might be good for me. I'm well stocked up on diet gingerale and club soda so I'll still get my bubbles.

It is really hot here today and the sun came out so I have the feather bed on the line airing. I also got the deck furniture out of winter storage mode and put all the cushions on things. Dh is getting the snow tires off the car now. Ds will be here later with his snow tires to store in our garage (now that he's moved to an apartment, he has no place else to store them.) I'll do his taxes as well.

[Emptynester]

Just got done seeing DH in recovery. His color is already better. He said the only thing he didn't like was they got the BP cuff too tight and it hurt. He has to lay still for 4 hours - not moving ANYTHING. Then will stay in recovery instead of a real room for the night. No beds in the hospital - better care in recovery anyway. They will discharge about 9 tomorrow morning.

The descending artery in the middle of the heart had a 99% blockage in one place and more in another - don't know if it was above or below - so two stents went in that artery. The other stent went in the artery at the top that goes around to the right - that one was blocked about 90%. So that is why 3 stents - rather than the 2 we thought would go in. The blockage was a lot worse than Dr. had thought. That was why he had no energy and was so tired. Should be a real difference now.

I'm all checked in at the motel. I will go back around in about 3 hours as he is just sleeping now. I need to get some food. There is a Sonic just around the corner so I'll go there.

That's all I know for now. Thanks for all the good wishes. I was OK until they wheeled him in and I had to go to the waiting room. But sniffed a couple of times and then was OK.

Going to find some food - I'm starving.

[Sadie]

Hello Dear Ladies,

Beautiful sunny day here!

Called my Daunt92 in NY, knew she was fretting about our weather. Couldn't call over the weekend as I work. Called to let her know we are ok.

OKay-- about obits: when I submitted Dmom's obit last year, was told there is a form, listing very basic info. Beyond that it costs and the price for a little more info was quite hefty. It is not the number of words but the content that matters. So a lot of people have very basic obit unless plans are made and paid for a more detailed one.

Got up with gumption but found it went missing as the day went on. Got my exercise in along with time in the sunshine. Dishes done, dinner started, laundry going. Am proclaiming it a take it easy day.

Find myself emotional and weepy at times. One year ago today Dmom's health started going downhill. And of course Mother's day is the next holiday, and WM has all the stuff out.

Just a thought but how about a thread this year honoring our mothers, if they are here with us or not? Maybe something like Mother always told me_______________.

((((The MTs)))
Going to finish up dinner.

[Indiana]

Thanks for sharing MT. That is great news. Wow he will feel better now.