Small stuff? Strange stuff? Sunday stuff!!

[blessedw2]

oh my gosh d cathy too funny!!!! I love that!

I honestly thought I posted more today -
thank you for starting us d cathy!!!!
I think you are right - I think that person has contacted others in the family!
you make such wonderful meals - I have said that before and I am saying it again!
I have never had mincemeat pies.

hi d twins how nice that your dh and your son went out for breakfast!
the soup sounds really good!!! I like a good barley mushroom soup! invite us to come over!
yay on all your work today!!! you are going to New York - good for you! What are you hoping to see?

hi d Nancy
yay on your recording in your planner. have a good store run.
yum on the soup!

hi d lady how wonderful that you had a good start for your day!
love the no overthinking - no stress or straining!!! yay on your cards!
cheering you on while you accomplish your day!!!

you had a very busy day!!!brilliant d kitty

hello d everyone!

[blessedw2]

this morning was busy - the Sunday helper got the stomach flu and couldn't come - mom, knock on wood, has been stronger - very thin but starting to show a touch of weigh gain. no longer so gaunt. I think she got down to 85 pd.s - she was in her 90's most of her adult life until she got older. a tiny little thing.


we have had a very good day together. mom helped me empty some christmas decoration boxes - made her happy
she watched: Santa Claus is coming to town and enjoyed it - I was surprised.
Her brain is with it again. I take it when it comes!

I have a chicken cooking in the oven,(lemon and garlic inside and under it lemon and onion) made rice for tonight, after the chicken is done I will make a vegetable. dh has been getting rid of my oranges and apples as I buy them - I saw them they were great - I think that because he doesn't eat veg/fruit that he doesn't see the necessity.

dd's went out yesterday for the whole day - and dinner together. I am so happy they enjoy each other. dd younger is at a dog activity in our area - dd older is picking up dd Youngers gift -


this week:
I hope to make some new appetizers and sides - to try for Christmas Day and and Christmas Eve.
do you all have an appetizer that is a favorite at your house?

I have been thinking of making ina garten's raspberry sauce and dh's grandmothers chocolate sauce as christmas gifts for sis in laws. I have to think if I want to do that.

today: finish hanging up garland.

[CathyS]

The mincemeat I am always referring to is a "sweet" mincemeat. There is no longer anything to do with meat in it, other than beef suet.

Ingredients: Apples, sugar/Glucose-fructose, mixed glace fruits (cherries, pineapples, papaya, rutabaga, orange peel, lemon peel and/or citron peel, sugar/glucose-fructose, citric acid, sodium benzoate, potassium sorbate, artificial flavour, colour, calcium carbonate, calcium chloride) raisins, water, beef suet,, modified tapioca starch, spices, caramel colour, vinegar, rum, brandy, sodium benzoate, potassium sorbate, citric acid, salt, artificial flavour, colour (contains tartrazine) sulphites. May contain pits.

Suggested uses Pie/tarts.

[Lady Maverick]

3 things listed to accomplish today are completed.

3 blessings
** DH is doing laundry
** DS17 brought everyone their favorite from donut shop
** Sunshine! I am so very glad to see it return.

I’m trying out a daily diary planner, something I’ve never used before, though having a 365-page diary always caught my attention when looking at planners. I’m not entirely sure how I’ll use it, but I plan to start by writing down three accomplishments and three blessings each day. Part of me doubts I’ll stick with it, but another part is willing to give it a try.

DD14 has a packed week ahead with four medical appointments scheduled. Noting this for my memory—DD14 recent bloodwork showed three areas of concern: iron & thyroid levels out of range, and very low Vitamin D. While the results aren’t alarming enough for immediate concern, they’ll repeat the test in three months before making treatment decisions. For now, she’s started a daily multivitamin and has a meeting with a dietitian on Thursday.

[Nancy]

We've walked the sun came out while we did yea!
Had late lunch then got dressed.
Bonus it was after my writier's planner work shop
also after rains happened!

Found more yarn to wind into cakes! Did that!
Store run not as urgent as I thought after looking in the freezer!
The list is short.
Washed my dish.

Great news found a home for the Christmas lites
I gathered last summer yea!
dsons's/o is looking for Christmas decor items I have the box of lites & a Santa bag size
full of things I can let go of it's red and white striped!
I've got some things at sales but do not really have a plan for the items & no room.
I also put in some red and green baskets, ribbons & trims white & red mostly or the ribbons too.
She said she could use them. She does a booth to decorate hats.

Worked on putting some order back into the sewing room after having it in need
of that as I worked on getting yarn stash organized too that helped when I put that away.

[blessedw2]

thank you for sharing d cathy!!! I have to try that sometime!!!

[Twins' Mom]

I went off the tracks on those tasks when I realized I needed to get this soup started. The barley takes a little more than two hours to cook. It's labor intensive but it's on the last 45 min and I just need to keep it simmering, not boiling so much, not sitting. Hard to do on my stovetop. Dh took care of fixing our Poly wood chair outside today. It ended up nearly fifty degrees and nice for the afternoon. I played with the dog, checked in with neighbors next door, too. Kitchen is cleaned up, I think this recipe uses every pot/pan/container in the house so the dishwasher will be running tonight.

I feel like I'm ramping up my energy. This soup took a lot of time and energy, I'll offer what's left to dog sitter or his parents because I know we won't use it all before we leave. Or wonder if a soup with barley would freeze?

Tomorrow I have an appointment for hearing check and hearing aid check at Costco. It's been three years since I got them and I'm just now beginning to wear them regularly. I must lean on dh to get his hearing checked. He told me when we met that he was hard of hearing because of childhood ear infections but I'm tired of him fussing when I can't hear him.

I just checked on meds I'm supposed to get at the pharmacy. They have the script from the doc, but the cost says it's over $100, when it was nothing when I got the same script in August? No changes whatsoever in insurance since them. So sent message to pharmacy. We'll see when/if they respond. Also did a return for A river. I get an Amlactin Intensive healing lotion for my skin - it's cheaper at A river because they have the larger bottle, and it came without the top pump.

Thoughts on to dos for tomorrow:
-return at the mall, since I go almost by it when I go to Costco
-disassemble the return to go to Home Depot \
-check HOA receipts etc. for November to agree to bank stmt, and file. That will finish Nov.
-what else?

[lucylee]

Sunday stuff here -- so boring for everyone concerned, I imagine -- dgs and I ate at the chicken place he likes, DGD went home with ddil, dgs and I came home and after a little while, I fell asleep on the couch and he went back to my bed! He says he didn't sleep, just watched videos on his phone. But when I apologized to him for sleeping all afternoon, I said, "I like having you here even if we're not doing anything." He said he felt the same way. He is such a blessing to me.
I took him home around 5:00 pm -- neither of us was ready for supper so he said he would eat with his mom. I came back home and ate a bowl of chicken noodle soup.

OH -- and I found the remotes before I went to bed -- they were on the dresser. He must have laid them there before he went to bed.

Tomorrow, I get to pick up the memory bears! The lady sent pictures and they look very nice. I hope the dgrands will like them.

Twins, I do not envy you the two-hour soup making. I was so relieved today when a friend in Sunday School told me she did not like to cook. LOL -- I thought I must be the only woman in the world who didn't just love preparing five course meals for her family. We were talking about holiday prep and my dmom passing on breakfast prep to me.

BTW -- my Sunday School class is having a party next Sunday evening. I don't think I'm going to go.It just seems too "couple-y" or something. DSisIL said I could go with them, but she also said she totally understood if I didn't want to go. When I told her I had been extra emotional this week, she said she understood, that she still missed her first husband. I know she is happy with dbroil and she loves him so much -- but there's still a part of her that misses her first husband. Of course there would be -- they were married around 40 years and had three children and multiple grandchildren. I cannot imagine ever starting over with someone else, but ten years ago, she had never even met dbroil. But I can't imagine being in another relationship with anyone.

Agreeing with Nancy -- listing what you DID is a good idea, too!
That's a good idea, LadyM -- three blessings and three accomplishments.
I don't have any accomplishments today, except getting myself and DGS to church.
Blessings --
* DGS and dgd
* friend at church told me my hair looked so nice (I had rolled it on heat rollers to kinda "calm" it down
* dsisil

I hope everything goes well with dd14's appointments this week.

Cathy, your mincemeat sounds kinda like fruit cake. A lot of people make fun of fruit cake, but my ddad loved it.

I'm sorry the helper got sick, blessed, but it's so nice that you and your dmom had a good day!

Waving to all! As usual, I am about to fill out my planner for the week ahead, full of high hopes that This will be week I Get My Act Together.
Hope springs eternal.

[Lady Maverick]

Our evening hours were busy. I took DD14 to meet with friends and then afterwards she walked the mile home. I monitored her on life360. DS17 and GF have 3 friends here. DH attended elder meeting and Sunday evening services. I am thankful the church is just a couple blocks from our home, and the lifelong friends keep an eye on DH while he is there. If we didn't have so many teens here, I would have attended with DH. It all worked out okay.

I've made a tweak to the way I mark the pathways complete and surprised myself by having the best day since I started tracking them a month ago. I currently have completed 175 cards today and there will be a few more done before I call it a day. I didn't cook anything today which gave me time to do other things.

I'm ready to go to bed but am waiting on the house to calm down a little. DS17 and GF just started cooking a huge amount of mac and cheese using my biggest pot. I asked why they are cooking so much and was told because they are REALLY hungry. They just finished eating pizza an hour ago...........

[Harriet]

Strange stuff how husbands can suddenly become clueless while shopping.
Our morning was normal and trip out this afternoon successful. Prescriptions - done. Getting gas - done.

But shopping? Honestly, I don't know what HRH would do without me on a shopping trip. And he was convinced we HAD to find what was requested TODAY because the child's mother asked to come tomorrow afternoon, no time for online.

We tried tar jay for a gift, which was the store the mom suggested. Evidently, she knows no more than we do about purchasing games for gaming systems. They don't give shelf space at the tar jay except for a very small grouping of the most cutting edge, certainly not for little kids. HRH never asks for help. Sigh. So I went and found a worker who was able to confirm what we could see - they didn't carry it. She suggested a game store, and I immediately said isn't there one in this very shopping area, this very parking lot. No, no, she said (having no idea where she works, I guess) and HRH believed HER and not me, decided to give up.

Before I would walk out of the store, I looked it up on my phone and told him the phone said we would have to walk a few hundred feet.

So, we went there and he was determined he could find it on his own. Again, would never ask anyone - why would he do that? So, while he reinvented that wheel, I went straight and got into the line (of one other customer) to ask the guy at the register, who valiantly went through his library/files of everything in stock anywhere in store or the back. Sure enough, he found ONE existed and mused that it might be the only copy in town. HRH was ready to pay and leave and I said, whoops, no, you wanted some kind of toy, too. So, I asked the fellow, and he took us right to the toys that would go with the same characters and there was a nice little toy. Done.

And that's how I came to get out all the wrapping supplies and papers today and wrap our first two presents earlier than I was thinking. BUT, now the mother has called and postponed their visit to us, so, HRH could have just bought online after all. Ta. Da. Of COURSE she did.

Barley chat
I must have found some kind of short cut in Bob's Red Mill Pearl Barley (maybe it's been more "polished" or "pearled" than some?), which says 30 mins until soft. That's the extent of my experimenting, except for sometimes cooking in broth instead of water. But then, the recipe they give on the package for a stew does say an hour after you put the barley in with the veggies and says that's when the barley will be soft (?), and both use the word "boil", so I wonder why a difference of twice as much for the same package, unless you keeping boiling for one and simmer for the other. Hmmm... .. not sure, but hey, this stew recipe sounds nice... .. never noticed it before.

Kittykatt, I just love getting to watch Poirot together. Aren't they absorbing? Such a quality production each one is, so much thought and effort going into the authenticity. And exercising the little gray cells.

lucylee, what a sweet thing for your dgs to say.