SHEs Organized

For me to take a self-care day I am working my way through the must-do's and want-to-do's for today. I want to keep up with 250 steps per hour. I must do homeschool with DS14. I consider everything else to be non-necessary today and can be ignored.

Got MIL and SIL Christmas cards with gift cards mailed to them today. Took the 3 day option with tracking at a cost of just under $15. Less than the cost of driving to them, which is somewhat off limits right now seeing as how both of them are recovering from Covid. MIL has something else going on as well, but she is being evasive. Numerous local friends are pushing me to make dh drive us up there for a visit. MIL is insisting that we stay home, and she's the boss of our tiny family, so we are staying home.

Supper will be chicken drumsticks in the oven with carrots and chicken flavoured rice.

Cathy, your menus sound so good. I haven't been cooking a whole lot. Seems like there are more leftovers all the time than regular meals. DH doesn't really care as long as there's something there to eat.

I don't like driving in the dark any more either. Here, in the morning I have more trouble with the sun shining into my eyes. Cataract surgery has made them very very sensitive to sunlight. I wear sunglasses - I must - but even they are not enough sometimes. At night it's a bit gnarly driving. I can do it ok but I must take care and watch carefully.

Oh, I'm on the list of we people who have DH's junk all around. I keep gathering tools and stuff in the kitchen and returning to the garage...but that doesn't get them put away. There's one surface that gets covered and I have no idea or there's no room to put that stuff away. Then there's the papers he leaves around....yesterday I organized the stuff in the office as he had stuff all over from trying to do his plan. He has a nice big desk surface back here in the office but prefers to use the kitchen table..

(Dee) will be keeping your DH in my prayers for successful procedure tomorrow.
(Blessed) hope your head feels better soon. Hmmm I have lint and dirt between the washer and the wall and no way to get it out except to pull out the washer...which ain't happening on my watch!

How nice that Harriet's DGKids can come to her for their shopping chores!

I made dreaded phone call to the nurse in DH's bone drs. office. He and I had a conversation about it all last night and he was very angry about my questioning. I wasn't blaming him (which is how he took it) but questioning how long this job is taking and when would he be free to even schedule this operation. This job seems more complicated and involved than I knew and he is having trouble getting the engineering done and has no idea how long permits are taking to get from the county. I remember after H Charlie how long permits took. And we had a big packet of papers to turn in even before they would allow a permit to be turned in. Anything over 50% repair meant the whole place had to be brought up to today's codes...and that's what that packet was telling them. I dread getting involved in all that.

DH was telling me, ok I just won't get this knee fixed and I'll die this way. He seems frustrated with the whole process. What was I supposed to do with all this? I didn't force him to go out working on this huge job. It was totally HIS idea. I tried to explain it to the nurse on her answering machine...knowing it makes no sense to be scheduling knee replacement on someone who's still out working. And not a sitting down at a desk job either. Phew...

If I'd known he was going to do this work, I'd never had sent the paperwork for the ok off to his Cardiologist and started the process.

Moving on.... 2 little boys from next door showed up on my front porch with a card from their family. Writing inside and the printing on the envelope was definitely a family project, so cute and a wonderful picture of the parents and the 6 children. They're a blended family... so now I've added their name to the list of who I need to get Christmas cookies for. I wish I didn't have to do them this year, but it's always my contribution to the Christmas festivities at DD's, and I wanted to give something to the couple who came with hot food when we were in storm damage, and the other neighbor who came and helped with the wires to the generator. Sigh...I wish we had a nice bakery around here.

Today, went through the bin of clothes-too-small. 4 tops to the everyday drawer in my cabinet; 2 things to the donate bin, 1 to the trash, 2 hung up for dressy use. I'm making progress!

Back home, lunch was good although I ate too much. Dcousin bought today for my birthday, which is later this month. We took wreaths to the cemetery for her husband's grave and my parents. They are close but not contiguous.

When I left this a.m. it was sunny and warming up and it's clouded over and cool now. We're supposed to have rain all day tomorrow.

Whoops, left this earlier and didn't post.

I laid down for 45 minutes and slept. Going to walk three laps soon, trying to start a habit...

d twins I am so glad you had a nice lunch with your cousin. how nice that she bought lunch for you!
glad you took a rest.
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hello d harmony - my d mom and my dh both have trouble with sunshine and the cataract surgery. They have to wear sunglasses.
I find I have to make a space for dh's stuff - and return things to where they belong as well. My dh does paperwork in the dining room- dh has a desk and a nice library but doesn't sit in there.
lol - I don't see me moving the washer and dryer on my watch either

dh does this - thinking I am being critical of him instead of just talking are asking questions. (or expecting that I want something done now). I always wondered where that came from- my dh is sensitive to what he takes in as criticism). I guess it's the way they interpret things.

my dd's friends found out exactly what you said about ripping out the inside of their home after the last hurricane in Naples. The permits take a long time and they are not getting the financial reimbursements like they thought they would.

praying that the powers that be start giving permits etc. He sounds very frustrated. It isn't you - My dh, when he gets frustrated, says things like that - it's not anything you can do. he is letting it out on the one person who will listen and love him even if he is frustrated. (we call it dramatic with dh and d mom- they can't seem to say what they are feeling/or worry and thinking and it comes out this way).

praying he takes the time to get the surgery and rest! I wonder if he is feeling the effects of overbooking this job.

how sweet that the neighbor made such a nice card for you and your dh!

yay on your organizing and decluttering work!!!

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hi d cathy! yay on mailing out cards and gifts.
can you have your d sil do a zoom with your d mom in law? this way you are not near covid and you can still see what's going on.

you are a good cook!
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hi d lady
I am so glad you are letting the non necessary things go today! good for you!!!

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Hello dear everyone.

brought 2 year old dog to vet to get stitches out. She still has the cone of shame as it is still red. Neosporin is on now.
I picked up st bucks and got d dog a puppy whip.
1 year old dog was all over the 2 year old dog when she came home - smelled her from tip to tail

I need to wrap the last present of my brothers. put on the calendar of what dd younger is supposed to get done for the cards (gifts) for d brother and his wife. (they spend Christmas even and day with her and my uncle - who loved me so much recently /aunt. My brother is picking up the filets for my uncle and his wife from my d mom.

dh wanted to take all the presents out of the hall closet to put back the rest of the towels but I said no thank you! - - knowing exactly where things are is a blessing for me - I am (from past experience) afraid of him moving things into his closet and not seeing them when I need them. his heart is good and means well. (one year he tossed some tickets out) I know I am being a little particular about it. I like my mind to feel free of the worry. each shelf is set for Christmas morning for our immediate family, another shelf is for Christmas Eve and and another is for Christmas Day.

Next:

list jobs for this weekend with dd older. (paperwork etc.).
I may not want to but I will continue working in the 3 season room.

Blessed, I think sometimes it is their history from growing up that makes them sensitive to things now. With DH, he knows I am against him working like this, so anything said about that job was thought of as criticism. I truly was searching for information and trying to put together a plan and a schedule for this.

He may be getting frustrated with his difficulties and I know he's hurting just being on his feet so much. I've seen him begin to lash out and it's his frustration, has nothing to do with me. He's always been so capable and hard working. Someone with a different personality might be more accepting of life's old age challenges. I figured that out a couple weeks ago when we were doing something and he couldn't reach out to grab something. He got really frustrated. Well, it is what it is. Somehow we'll get through it but I hate having to watch every word I say.

TaDa here: I went through DH's chest of drawers and refolded and organized stuff, donated or threw away stuff from there. Has not been done in a long while. I found about 8 TShirts in another drawer when he changed sizes once... they were brand new, so I won't have to buy him a package for Christmas now! Then I went through his closet, took out stuff that was old and pilley, dress shirts that I've noticed look too small for him. Have a pretty big bag for trash and half a dozen things in the donate bin. Put like things together, got rid of all the awful wire hangers and put things on nice ones. Went through the shelves in there. Wow it looks better. He won't care that I organized it and he won't remember whatever I got rid of. There's benefits to his state of mind.

He has no sense of order, a little with his tools in his truck, he did set up shelves and bins to store each, but stuff in the house, NO. ADD getting a bit worse with old age. I just recently watched a video about all that. It's common in old people. It's a good thing I've got the organized gene or we'd be on those hoarder shows.

Dh and I don't/won't/can't do zoom. Our computers are old and the users aren't computer savvy. My SIL does zoom for work and all kinds of things. We do have a weekly phone call with MIL. I'm quite certain she wouldn't do a zoom call either, as she is even more camera shy than I am. Both (edited) of her children know that they aren't to take pictures of their mother and they don't. The last known picture taken of her was over 40 years ago. (She was in the background in a wedding picture.) I hate being photographed and I cringe when people are making videos with their phones around me. I used to stand behind my x whenever he started using a video camera anywhere near me. There was a picture taken for FBook yesterday at a local library that wanted to post a picture of the Monday knitting group for their FBook page. I said no. Dh saw the picture on FBook later and asked why I wasn't in the picture with the other ladies even though he already knew the answer.

Glad you got your tree "up," and VERY glad you got such good news (whatever it is!) from the doctor. Harriet!

We are back from dh's doctor's appt and he is exhausted and still feels congested/coughing, BUT -- after a steroid shot, antibiotic shot, rx antibiotics and rx cough syrup, I think he will feel better soon. He also had to go get a chest x-ray, but doctor said unless it shows something surprising, the meds he started today should do the trick.
DH also got his medicare annual check up -- much to his dissatisfaction, because now he has orders for bloodwork, which will include the PSA test, and dh just absolutely refuses to follow up on that with a urologist. He practically has a panic attack thinking about talking to our family doctor about it. Last year, his numbers were high, and he takes Flomax already, and he says he just isn't going to do the prostate exam and biopsy, etc. If he dies with it, he'll die with it. (He says.) He worries about making family doctor mad. I don't think that is anything to worry about, though. Family doctor has known us his entire life, played ball for dh, I think he wants to make sure dh has a long healthy life -- but I don't think he'll throw dh out on the street for medical care if he refuses a referral to a urologist.

Also talked to dmom -- she is ready to be released from rehab, LOL, after less than 24 hours! Honestly, she said, "I knew I didn't really need to be over here. I went up those three stair steps they have like it wasn't anything." She is certain she can care for herself at home, and wants me to come Thursday to get her, since tomorrow is supposed to be rainy and possibly stormy here. Of course, she IS 9 days past surgery now. She thinks she can drive -- I'm not sure about that. She still has a line of staples up her stomach. It looks like a zipper from her breast bone to her belly button.

(((Harmony))) Hugs for all the difficulties with dh, but also -- WTG on the closet organization!

Oh, YES -- keeping Dee & Mr. Dee in prayer for excellent results from procedure tomorrow!!! (((BIG HUGS)))

Waving to everyone! I have got to get myself in gear around here -- after a week of the flu and practically two weeks with dmom's problems... I have really let the laundry go and that needs to be taken care of ASAP. Also, MUST get back to work on Christmas cards.
WHB... what's that??? Sigh. Must set priorities, though. Cards & laundry first.