Need to formulate a plan to keep me from nibbling in the afternoon
Know, like Helia, I need to absolutely figure a plan for drinking more water. Know I don't drink nearly enough.Was going to go shopping but dh's "winterizing supplies" are in the car -hate to have him taking them in/out. After he finishes that job we have to get ready for his Dr appointment. Not having a stress echo today -only an EKG.
Have a couple of piles started on the couch -of clothes to go south. Trying to really pare it down this year and be able to leave some things there and others here. Will have dh get the suitcases out of storage for me later. Won't pack our 'travel' suitcase until it's near time to go. I have to make a Dr appointment for me for my flu shot and general follow up -SOON. Just can't decided when it's best for me to plan to go. Know I'll have to have lab work done after the appointment. She likes it done that day, but I'd rather go fasting and have to 'prepare' much like Kathryn. I am a horrible 'stick' and have to 'plump' up those veins and be sure everything is heated/warm.
I may ask if I can have thyroid checked. I am finding I'm becoming even colder than I have been the past few years. It can be 72 in here and feel like it's low 60's.
And the shortage of priests doesn't help matters; when I was a child, it seemed most parishes had not just a pastor, but one or two associate pastors as well. Now it's not uncommon to find two parishes sharing a pastor, with lay administrators handling as much of the non-priestly duties as possible. The current bishop was perceived as being sent by Rome as a "hatchet man"; our previous bishop, a native Clevelander, did close some parishes, but not many -- he set in order a process by which parishes were expected to team up and share joint ministries. I think he was naively hoping that if parishes saw that they could accomplish more by pooling their resources than by acting separately, they would merge by choice. At any rate, the new bishop very quickly required every parish in the diocese to make their case for staying open, and very quickly closed over 50 parishes -- about one a week over a year or so. Some of the parishes appealed their closings to Rome and won. At any rate, the current bishop has been very heavy-handed and, it seems, deaf to the grumblings of his people. His response to the decline in church collections -- how much of which is "voting with the pocketbook" is hard to tell in this economy -- is to start a capital campaign for the diocese, with the priests required to solicit each family in their parish for funds and with financial targets for each parish. 
Little by little we see some good poking out. 