Simplicity Saturday PWYC

[Lady Maverick]

Baby stepping my way through the day.

TA-DA's
** vacuumed 7 main rooms (I do this most days).
** PUPA Living room, kitchen, fun room and 2 bathrooms swished & swiped
** cooked mac and cheese for the kids lunch. I added extra cheese to it to increase nutritional value. There are plenty of leftovers for them to add to this dish. Spiral ham, meatloaf, ramen, and multiple vegetables.
** tweaked an existing spreadsheet to include the data I need to track for this 30 day class.
** Played in the garden. I am currently working on Bed #3. I am mixing green grass clippings with brown leaves and then incorporating this mixture into the existing soil. This is a great exercise to strengthen my back and upper arms.
** Potted 2 tomato plants. A couple weeks ago I broke some of the branches off the existing tomato plant and put them in water to root. Now that they have lots of roots growing, I am putting these tomato branches into dirt to grow until time to transplant into raised bed.
** Tested blood glucose 4 times. I am in awe of T1D who deal with this process on a daily basis. ((((Nancy & Dee)))
** Exceeded my hourly step goal for the first 5 hours.

DS14 is home for lunch. He worked at his primary job this morning but will be switching to part time job #3 for the rest of the day. This afternoon DS14 will be assisting a friend removing Christmas lights from the roofs of several homes.

DD46 stopped by with a pan of assorted homecooked sweets. I am so thankful to not have a sweet tooth. These treats hold no temptation for me.

[Harmony]

Slow going here. Let's see: cleaned off desk, bigger project than I'd thought. Missed mailgal with check. But the mail had several more things to deal with. Gov't form came and I had to change a spreadsheet and copy for CPA and file stuff in my year-in-a-folder.

2 LOL washed, first one hanging up, 2nd one partly hanging up partly in dryer. Couple things back in the sink soaking in bleach water. DH, thanks to the aspirin he takes every day, bleeds all over whenever he gets a scrape or cut. His wash is always a chore to do.

Sigh...doesn't sound like much but I've been moving and working. Just for curiosity, I counted my steps from my desk to the bathroom and back. 50 steps. So every time I need to get up and P there's my steps.

[lucylee]

I had trouble getting to sleep last night, but slept really late and I feel more rested than I have in quite a while. It is so much calmer with just dgs here. He entertains himself and requires very little from me. I love Dgd just as much, but she’s at the age that she constantly wants me to be doing something with her.

Talked to dmom last night and she sounded good.

Re: our renters, I don’t know their actual financial status of course, but they both still do odd jobs — he lays carpet and flooring occasionally, mows yards (including ours, so basically, they pay $100 rent in the summer and the rest goes back to them for yard service!) She cleans houses with her daughter occasionally. She is having some heart/bp problems.
They have just been so good to all of us, especially dinlaws when they were living, and they have made some improvements to the house at their own expense.., so we do not want to upset them in any way… but… you know… it’s going to take a long time to pay for a roof at $3600 a year. (Minus the normal thing they’ll that come up too, which have been almost $1000 this year. I forgot the roofer had already been there once this year when I said $800 yesterday.)

We have NEVER had a loan of any kind, never any credit except monthly credit card, which we pay in full every month, so the idea of taking out a loan to roof this house, when our own needs so much work just REALLY does not sit well with Sheldon — At All.
I am just holding on to Harriet’s words that MAYBE the roofer will be able to patch it together. If we can just hold it together as long as this couple wants to stay there, then a For Sale sign will go up the day they move.

Oh — and there is no insurance on this house! Dfil didn’t have it so dh didn’t want to add it when we got the house.,
We DO have insurance on our house, but there is something in the policy that prevents them from covering the roof damage. ??? Something about a change in policies after a huge amount of claims in our area for hail damage some years ago.

At times like this, I really miss my daddy. Of course, the problem with the shower started when ddad was alive and he was supposed to get back to it and never did. Sigh.

[Harmony]

Lucylee, so sorry for problems with the house. Home ownership is never really easy. Our insurance company is pulling out and we received a letter a few months ago that they will not be renewing ours this coming May. Our roof will be 15 years old then or nearly so. Florida insurance laws are that ins. companies do not cover houses with roofs 15+ yrs old. When we built this house we bought 50-yr shingles. Top of the line. Never thinking they would last a whole 50 years, but they had to be good to be rated like that. Well, now here we are with the insurance stuff. FL has big problems with homeowner insurance companies. Our governor tried to fix some things, many were under____? monitized or whatever its called...unable to support all the policies they'd sold... and then we had this huge storm and so much damage.... DH is saying lets just go without... and that would be a disaster for us if we needed it... so I don't know what we'll do. I anticipate a huge battle with him over this when I get the courage to tell him.

Anyway, I'm still busy here. 2 dreaded projects tackled. One, a kit we received at Christmas...I've started the project and tomorrow will do the next step. Can I keep little plants from seeds alive for 5 years and prune them into bonsai trees? Doubtful. We'll see. Read the instructions for the weather station I got DH for Christmas. Instructions do not say what the A B C settings mean...I have instructions how to change the setting, but what do they mean? DH frustrated. I got the easiest-looking one in the store. He just wanted to know what the outside temperature is. We used that a lot on the atomic clock until it quit working. Works except for that. So DH is saying why so complicated...take it back. I will look it up online and then decide. Poor instructions for sure. And the plant instructions - printed on BLACK paper.

Cleaned off front porch. Watch us get a freeze now that I've put all the covers away.
Did the rest of the filing for 2022. Had to copy a couple, more stuff to the big folder.

That's it so far. One more thing, clean out car, then most of the stuff on my list is done. Better progress than I've had in a couple weeks.

[Nancy]

Ddog did not want to walk more than a block. I did the rest of the block on my own.
I am cooking a bit ahead for my dinner, a place with new owners a cafe' has re-opened near by so glad for that option.
I did some reading decided that was my fun thing to do for today, a book I got on a journaling process was quite in-depth.
47 pages before the section on the journaling and set up was way in the back of the book. Oh my maybe I will learn something.
Had my lunch.
Watching miss marple or one of those mysteries maybe Agatha C.

[Harriet]

You will be much better at that then I, Harmony. I like the fastest from zero to blooming, lol. That's why I used to say marigolds were my favorite plant! I hope it will turn out to be fun.

I drove out and got the prescriptions that were ready.

Brought potting soil in from the storage chest outside - dug out just enough to do the potting up. Wonder if I should go back out and get some vermiculite.

Dd42 and her youngest came over - gave him an apple. While they were here dstepson and his friend came to pick up parts for dd24's truck that HRH had ordered for her. DangerBoy joins in working on that.

During that time the mail carrier came up to the porch and left on the porch floor a small amount of mail that would have fit into our box 10 times over. I searched all around for a package nearby or any reason for that but couldn't find any. A little concerning since I've been waiting on a package ... ..

[Harmony]

Harriet, sure hope your package just didn't disappear. It is puzzling.

Well, the kit we were given (have to try this because the intent was loving) has 4 little pots and 4 different tree seeds, 5 of each type. They look beautiful on the picture, but I know there is a real art to this stuff. I have scuffed the seeds and have them soaking overnight. Then the hope is to germinate the seeds in the 4 pots and after some weeks or months remove the weakest seedling, then after another time do the same...until I am left with 4 stronger stems, one of each kind of tree. And 5 years later begin to prune. I'm sure there are tutorials on line. I do not have high hopes. I will for sure put these in my will....

Marigolds and zinnias, Harriet. I agree.

Going to see if the weather station is online somewhere...with some good instructions. Would be nice if there was a you tube....

I don't know. If anyone is looking to buy something for older folk, don't buy stuff with jobs attached or for those like us, certainly nothing with any electronics as part of it.... although for christmas this year besides these, we got an awful lot of chocolates and popcorn of dubious popped quality, and chocolate covered nuts... and I'm thinking I'd told everybody I didn't really need/want anything this year, was intent on cleaning out, downsizing, and that sorta backfired. I'm surprised I still fit into my clothes! Course, I could walk away - if I had will power.

[MysteryWoman]

Good evening!

I have been AWOL and unproductive these past few days. I couldn’t even tell you what I’ve done. Having DH home has kept my brain in Vacation Mode. He’s been doing some work from home, but there have been times he was just watching TV or such. He still has cold-like symptoms. He won’t be going to church tomorrow. I don’t know what his plan is for Monday. He should test again at some point, but who knows when, since there’s little change in his symptoms.

Good to hear from Dee, though I wish the news was better. At least it’s not worse, I suppose. Keeping her and blessed’s families in my prayers in particular.

Sweet dreams to you all!