SHEs Organized

Today feels well-managed so far but it also feels like 'not enough.'

I woke up before the alarm again so I'm guessing I'm getting enough sleep now.

Got dressed, bed made, did stretches with dh (didn't wait for those before dressing because it would have wasted 10 minutes), did tea and chocolate and light.

Emptied dishwasher and then started making the pork stew for the crock pot. The meat needed browning and while I did that, dh prepped the carrots. I started the stew, so at 4:30 it will be done quite early but my crock pot keeps things warm.

I cleaned up the dinner prep and then we headed out the door for the concert rehearsal. The 8:45 bus never came so the stop was busy when we arrived at 9:06 for our 9:15 bus. It showed up at 9:19 and we were checked in at the concert hall by 9:50. We had to leave the rehearsal early because it ran until 12:30 and ds was meeting us at 12. But we enjoyed what we saw. The music was all unfamiliar to us but really interesting (in a good way), the guest cellist spent about 15 minutes talking with the patrons, and the guest conductor was fascinating to watch and listen to as he worked with the orchestra to get the performance he wanted from them.

Lunch was lovely. Ds had to leave earlier than us to get back to his conference and dh and I stood up from the table at 1:17. The next bus was in 10 minutes and 3 blocks away and I had to use the washroom and we had to put on our coats, hats and mitts (it is chilly and there were snow flakes occasionally this morning), but we made it because we had to cross the street on a light the bus was stopped at and the driver took pity on us and opened the door (he's not supposed to do that.) That saved us 30 minutes getting home because the next bus to our neighbourhood wouldn't be for 30 minutes. We would have taken the LRT and walked home from the station since there was no bus for at least 30 minutes but instead we were dropped off at our door.

Total time between standing up at the table and taking off my coat at home? Just 28 minutes. When the bus system works, it works well (but if you asked the people who stood out for 35 minutes this morning waiting for a bus, they'd say the bus system is awful.) It is the untrustworthiness of the system that makes it so hated and unused.

The public service strike did happen and both our LRT station and several buildings downtown had lots of people at the picket lines (our LRT station is at a large government campus of a dozen buildings.) But we avoided all that by not using the train and walking down alternate blocks. Ds's conference is for the health care support workers union and he was surprised that the strike had little mention at the conference this morning.

He'll still come for dinner tonight so that will be nice, and it is in the crock pot cooking away so that part of the day is well managed.

The part that feels "not enough" is that I need a nap now, but there are a dozen emails that also need attention. And I haven't started the taxes yet, or even finished reconciling in Quicken. And the residents' association needs my attention too. Tomorrow is an equally busy day; I have two zoom meetings and a hair cut.

Hi!

I've been working on paperwork sort of. I discovered a large selection of receipts from 2020 and 2021. Most of them were either from bank machines or grocery stores. I crinkled all of them up and ended up filling a bag for burning. I also decided to deal with 1 shelf on my desk. There is also a small container of old paperwork of dh's that needs to be filed. I have the file folders all labeled by year, then they will go into the "archives".

We are having pork chops in mushroom gravy along with mashed potatoes and green beans from last year's garden for supper.

Back home after a trip to the grocery store and a stop at the post office. I tried to convince dh to stay here and it would only take me a little bit. Nothing doing. I knew we'd be much slower. It's okay. More time spent together. When we got back I gathered all the trash and we took it to the dumpsters. Had quite a few empty gallon water bottles so they're all gone. Dh also took off one empty propane tank out front and we took that to be refilled. Have no idea what a tankfull is costing this year. Last year it was around $25 and we're going through it pretty fast right now. Been down in the 30's at night and 40's daytime.

The day has gotten away from me. So much for my well-managed day.

I got sucked down a rabbit hole with some research. There, I said it; and it was more interesting than what I needed to do. When I wasn't down the rabbit hole I vacuumed the rug on the screened porch, then remembered that it's super hard to push on carpet. So that led me down another rabbit hole to unplugging the thing and cutting strings out of the beater bar. At least now I know it works better so I can vacuum on Friday.

I ended up vacuuming the house when I realized I needed to do this in the kitchen … one thing lead to the other and before I knew it the house was done

Sat outside in the late afternoon reading and getting some sun. I don’t want to bake, just get some sun on my legs so they don’t look like they belong to a ghost. Course my face and chest are slathered in zinc sunscreen

The other day somehow a bug bit me on the bottom of my butt. Not sure how that happened perhaps bending over to work on my sunnies. I tend to were a T-shirt dress and my bathing suit bottom to keep me presentable. Anyway the bite really hurts and itches like crazy. It’s the size of a quarter so it’s not a little thing. Boy is it annoying. If it’s a mosquito bite I’ll be dealing with it for a week because I have such a reaction to them!

We have storms popping up and some are severe. I'm comparing maps showing DS14 and DH location and the location of storms with the prediction of where the storms are headed. Ugh. I'm going to stop looking and just say a prayer and have faith they will be okay.

DH is picking up kids for church. Our pastor was just diagnosed with C-Diff and called DH to step in for him. DS14 is with the youth group traveling an hour away to watch a movie. DD11 choose to not attend tonight. She doesn't enjoy being in crowds with loud sounds. I'm staying home with her.

I am putting together an online order for pantry items that are on sale. I'm also ordering DS14 pants. He has ruined all but one pair of pants. He doesn't care if his pants have holes or stains, but I do.

I thought I better check in so y'all know I'm still alive! And my computer is still alive as well, although I don't have a lot of confidence in it.
We've just had a lot of crazy busy days around here.
Monday, I spent practically all day trying to get the computer working again -- and I finally did get it to run the defragment and disc clean up tasks, and that apparently was enough to get it going. It's not "good," as dh says, "but it's back to where it was before it went black Monday," dh says. Monday night we had to go about 15 miles away to dgs' ballgame, which lasted less than 2 innings... that was quite the experience for all of us...
Yesterday, I had the monthly teacher group AND another ballgame...
And today we have been to a funeral and will be going over to dbil's house in about an hour to FINALLY see dniece and "celebrate" Christmas with her!

I'll update later about the funeral. It was at the family cemetery I mentioned before. The lady who was being buried was the widow of dh's first cousin. It was a nice ceremony and it was good to see dh's cousins again -- they all live in Knoxville, and since they have no more of their immediate family here (no grandparents, aunts, uncles, etc) they don't visit a lot. She was 85 years old and had been bedridden for some time. DH's cousin passed away almost 30 years ago, and she had remarried and the second husband had also passed away.

A well-managed day... hmmm... been so long since I had one that I can barely remember.
I think it would be a day where I had time to do all my morning routine, including Bible reading, before leaving the house for any reason.
Then I would prefer to do whatever household tasks needed doing before leaving the house, also.
THEN, I would go to the post office for the mail and run errands if necessary...
and when I got home, I could relax and read the paper and not feel like a lazy slug if I did nothing more.

Today started out fine, * I even curled my hair and if I do say so myself, I was having a good hair day before standing out in the wind for a couple hours.
BUT... when we got home, I ate two pop tarts and fell asleep.
It's kinda like I have this thing (I guess it's just a bad habit) that if I go out the door and get in the car -- for a 15 minute trip or a 5 hour trip, doesn't matter -- when I get home, I want something to eat... and often as not, I also need a nap.
We did not get up early for today's outing, and we only drove about 5 minutes away, so there is NO EXCUSE for this kind of behavior.
I just have to figure out SOME WAY to keep myself DOING something for 15 minutes upon arrival home. If I could do 15 minutes, I could stay at it longer and I know I'd get more accomplished.

It's just something about knowing I have SOMETHING to do EVERY. SINGLE. DAY. this week, that has made me very rebellious about doing the WHB and any other stuff that I know needs doing on the rare occasions I am home!
Tomorrow night, dgd has a ballgame, Friday night she will be spending the night, Saturday she has two games, Sunday is the usual busy Sunday, and Monday they both have games. DS is out of town from Saturday morning till sometime before daylight Tuesday morning, so you know who is going to be responsible for the weekend. DGS might stay with the other grandparents on Friday night -- just depends on whether or not he wants to go to his sister's games on Saturday. They'll both be with us Sunday night though, and I'll be doing the school drop off Monday morning.

~~~
Ghost legs... ME TOO, Rose. I ordered a new self-tanner yesterday. Everyone was raving about it online, including my very fair-skinned cousin, so I thought I'd give it a try. I am not very hopeful though, because every time I use one that has the gradual darkening effect, it makes me itch! I think I'm allergic to whatever the chemical is that causes the color to develop, so it's probably the same thing in every brand.

I'm just going to wave to everyone and ask forgiveness for not cuop properly. I did want to say WTG to LordM for good report from doctor, and give a (((HUG))) to Mr. Dee for slicing his finger! Ouch!
Also saying a prayer for safety for LordM & ds in the storms.

I hope you all continue to manage your day well.

I told dh I was going outside to pick up any large sticks because he said he was going to cut the grass tomorrow. I wasn't even part way done and I hear him start the lawn tractor. It looks so much better, but I think it's too cold right now. It's 50F out and it's going to rain tomorrow.

I stayed outside for as long as it took dh to cut the grass, which took almost an hour. The smell of fresh cut grass was so nice.

I had a well-managed day - well, pretty much. I kept busy with small tasks which was an improvement here.

Always happy when the lab reports come back good! And when the kids are happy and confident. I enjoyed reading today's posts, a lot of positive things today.

I started out working on my study for this week, the last for this year. I had a big understanding moment that almost made me cry, it was so clear in my understanding and I felt so blessed. I have to say it put me in a wonderful mood the rest of the day.

Went outside and walked in the yard with DH as he pointed out weeds (I miss some he sees) and I pulled or dug them out for him. We got that done for the week. I did the dailies for today and I can report that they don't feel like work, just somethings I do on a regular basis and go fast. None of them are hard to do...clean up the kitchen, wipe counters, put clean dishes away, make the bed, brush teeth etc. get dressed, check the laundry, what's for dinner, mail to the box, stuff like that. But boy is it a mess when I don't do these things!

Also, big success here in that the wonderful clock updated itself and connected to the signal (I think it comes from Colorado, isn't that amazing?) and the day, date, time, temps are all working correctly now. I managed to get it hung back on the wall. I told DH if he just followed the instructions I read to him several times (very simple about 3 steps) instead of fiddling around trying to reset it himself, we'd have had it fixed a long time ago. He said he didn't understand those instructions.

Another thing, I was able to put away the little food grinder that I couldn't get going. DH looked at the parts and I demonstrated how they had to be put together to make it work. He put the edge of the blade into a slot and got it to start and now it's working fine. It's a little $5.00 thing and I almost tossed it but had it sitting out and Mr. Mechanical got it going again for me. Yahoo!

What else...oh I watered all the pineapple plants DH has growing in his plant stand out on the porch. We have about 8 growing around 2 trees also and they all have very little tiny pineapples growing. You can't imagine how different these ones are than the ones in the store. Delicious! Then I filled up both of our pill containers, 3 weeks for DH and 2 for me. Wow I got sorta organized around here today. Oh, I also went down to the bank and deposited a check. Tomorrow I will stop for a few things on my way home from the dentist. So, my next couple days are scheduled.

Have a good evening and sleep tonight! Huh, my computer clock is wonky, I had it off for a while.... it's 3 hours behind!

Harmony: I'm delighted you got that clock going. When you mentioned how often you looked at it every day, I knew it was going to be something that really bothered you if your repair didn't work.

We had a nice dinner with ds and he's back at the hotel now. I'll go to bed soon since I'm not getting anything done here. I'm starting to get a bit hysterical about all that I need to do.