It's Monday. Let's Move It

[Kathryn-in-Canada]

Sadie: can he turn the fixed mower into a way to make a few dollars doing neighbour's lawns if they are going away for a while?

Back from physio. Like Harriet, I've watered the plants (inside and out) and mailed a letter.

The outside plants are doing well now that the weather is warmed up. My gerbera daisies have bloomed again. I had put 4 fake ones in there but 3 of them have rebloomed so I pulled those out and left the real ones. This time the flowers are smaller than last time but still pretty. My geraniums are still blooming too although everything else in that hanging basket has died or is on life support.

I've restarted the wall clock (dh hung it again for me, this time on a deeper screw) and seems to be keeping time, but it has only been 14 minutes. One had was badly bent. The plant underneath the clock was in a decorative metal planter which took the brunt of the weight of the falling clock and is buckled in one corner. But that absorbed the energy. The glue that held the tabletop on the pedestal gave way (it is antique) and so the tabletop flipped off, which also saved it from breaking. So, all in all, we were really lucky. I still have to try and mend the scratches on the floor.

I'm in a mood today and struggling with 'floaters' in my eyes that are distracting me. I have never had them this badly but it is making everything harder because I keep turning my head to look at whatever is in my peripheral vision.

[Twins' Mom]

Done with that round....tummy is okay and lunch tasted pretty good. Wondering if I was dehydrated...had coffee when I got up and some water, but not a lot, and had sweated a lot.

Dbro said things went well with home health care nurse and dmom will have bathing assistance and some PT. I hope the nurse who interviewed her calls me back - she had seemed surprised this morning that dmom hadn't qualified for hospice care. Anyway, I am letting this rock along with the home health care and not pushing the hospice concept for now.

Need to get going again....
-see if I can get a pedicure appt tomorrow or Thursday
-reschedule "body work" after I make the pedicure appt
-reboot laundry
-finish kitchen and breakfast bar clean up
-do pantry declutter for July 2

[Elizabeth]

Bleah. Can't get Oracle SQL Developer to behave properly. Bleah. #@$%!!! Network problems @#$%!!! All I want to do is change a password.

I did manage to get one task done.

[helia]

I'm very tired. I might actually lie down for 20 minutes. I'm back from the groc. store and everything has been put away. I'm still finding my way around this new-to-me K rogers, so shopping takes longer. They did not have any naan (or I didn't find any), so I'll need to stop by TJ before Thursday evening.

((Elizabeth)) Sounds frustrating.

I have started the rice cooker and put the chili on the stove to defrost. I've updated the laundry.

I did get my 5x5 done!
x 1. Jog
x 2. Pepper to vet appointment
x 3. menu plan and groc. list
x 4. groc. store
x 5. laundry progress - I kept this vague so as to more easily claim it as a finished item. . . .

[lucylee]

I am a big believer in children playing team sports, especially in a small town environment. The peer pressure is positive. The community awareness and interest in the child is huge. If LO remains interested in playing team sports, I will certainly support his interest.

Just now getting to cuop, but wanted to chime in to ditto that ^, LadyM. I certainly hope dgs will be interested in sports and ddil will support that interest. The way ds travels so much, I am sure a lot of responsibilty will fall to ddil and us, but we totally agree with what you are saying here.
DS played baseball and basketball until he was in 8th grade, and this was pretty much every day practice or game... and then he added football in 8th grade, so we had all three sports 8-12. He was never the star of the team or anything, but I think he is glad he played, and I know it was good for him in lots of ways. He also took guitar lessons from about 4th grade till maybe 8th grade. (That was sorta became a waste of time, b/c somewhere along the line, we realized he was not learning to read music but was playing totally by ear, so we were just paying for him to go sit around and "jam" with his teacher, LOL! But he enjoyed it, anyway.) We quit guitar on the day I realized he was supposed to be at ball practice, scholar's bowl practice, and guitar -- all at the same time. I called the guitar teacher and told him something was going to have to give, and since there were no teammates involved with guitar, I guessed he had to be it. But especially w/ds being an only child and something of a homebody anyway, I thought he really needed the socialization he got from all his activities. (He NEVER spent the night with anyone except grandparents except for some school camp events and Boys State, until he was in his senior year. That year he went to the beach with a girlfriend and her family.)
So yes... lots and lots of time in the car and meals in the drive-through, but we wouldn't have changed a thing. Of course it helps that we were always within about 5 minutes of the practice field...

Anyway...
Today has certainly been the busy day I expected...
* 1 hour on phone w/H ome D epot and L owe's getting prices, etc. to replace the dishwasher.. finally decided on L owe's b/c they will do delivery and installation on same day. HD has delivery with one group, and then installer comes the following Tues. or Thurs. L's also had slightly better price. Locally-owned appliance dealer that we like to do business with was not open today, but he would probably have been more expensive.
* Talked to pool table man, who says MAYBE Thurs. or Fri. He will call me back.
* Talked to ds re: tonight's plans, pool table man's plans, babysitter plans...
* S2S, Bible reading, breakfast, vitamins
* Talked to dmom re: tonight's plans, while on my way --->
* to next town to fill out order w/L's (they would not do that on the phone)
* Went to one store, got ddil's bday present for next week
* Went to mall, looked for dh's bday present (first of next month)... had to order that...
* Treated myself to a pina colado smoothie (Dairy Queen -- y'all don't worry, no driving under the influence or anything)
* Went to the body shop, no one there
* Left phone message w/body shop man re: scratched bumper
* Drug store
* Bank
* HOME
* start a load of laundry

And in less than 20 minutes, we'll leave again for ds's music thing tonight.
Declutter challenge? Hmmm... nope... not yesterday or today, so far...

[Twins' Mom]

I'd probably have dkids do fewer activities if I had it to do over again - It seemed like we did almost everything, hoping they would really enjoy and make at least one a passion. Over the years, dd did softball, ballet, piano lessons, karate, a girls choir, girl scouts and Hebrew school (not a choice, actually). Ds did only baseball, piano, Hebrew school, and karate but we were often on the go. Thankfully most of their activities were on the mountain once I got home from work...hummmm, both kids had therapy at one time or another also, and ds did some "vision therapy" that was a waste of time and driving. Oh, and Kumon math - dd, who needed it never got better and it was almost impossible to get her to do the work, ds, thrived on it and credits some of his math ability to Kumon.

I'd probably drive less if I could do it again.

The lady at the nail place hasn't gotten back to me so I went ahead and scheduled the body work for tomorrow. I hope the nail place isn't closed this week? She is the owner and sole operator so she occasionally closes for her vacation.

[Nancy]

H is on his way home he was going to a new take out place but they were closed. I had a nap, did my hair, made cookie dough. Time to move water again on the shrubs. I have a plan for dinner.

[helia]

LadyM, it sounds like you are really thinking of LO's needs, desires, and your community with the activities you signed him up for!! Yeah, it's a tension: some activities are really healthy for kids in many ways, but you don't want to overburden yourself with so much driving. It sounds like you have other things on your plate that I didn't when I was taxiing children around. It also sounds like things are far away where you live. Most of our kids' activities were at least relatively local, within a 15 minute drive.

When the kids were little, I did spend hours after many school days driving the 3 of them around, but my kids have multiple times since expressed their appreciation for that time I spent. So, I don't think I regret it. I just blocked off those hours and saw that time as a season of life that would soon pass. And it has, and I feel a little sad about that. They're growing up too quickly. I also found I enjoyed some of the conversations we had in the car, so there was a positive to all that time we spent stuck in the car together. LOL!

We did limit each kid to 2 activities until hs. That made 6 activities for me to schedule and navigate. Some activities were seasonal, so not all year long, especially the sports. We did also car pool as we could. Of course, a sports activity generally meant several outings a week; when dd19 was on the gymnastics team, it met 3-4x/week plus eventual monthly meets. Our 3 kids also varied greatly in how much they wanted to be involved in extracurricular activities. Some of them wanted to do everything! Ds was eventually involved in 7 teams/clubs in high school, including NHS and band, which were lower time commitment outside of school hours than the others. By his senior year, he was doing: robotics team, chess team, science Olympiad team, web design club, cricket club, NHS, band. This didn't include his weekly private clarinet lessons or church activities. (He was also driving himself by that point.) In elem. and middle school, he had also been involved in boy scouts, soccer teams (he's not very sporty, though), math olympiad, Lego League, and private piano lessons. OTOH, after dropping out of orchestra her sophomore year, dd19 was involved in . . . two activites in high school: NHS and art club. But she really invested in art club and went deep there. She was the pres. her senior year, and she revamped some of their policies, guided the club in painting some murals on some school walls, and had the club do their first charity event ever. Hmm.... When younger, she also did at one point or another: brownie scouts, soccer, field hockey, competitive gymnastics, biology club (middle school), violin lessons. . . I think that was it for her. Well, I won't go into dd17's activities, which are more than dd19's but less than ds'. Dd17 is doing it differently from the other two, as expected. They all do it in their own way.

We survived IKEA. We got a folding bed and a small bench seat for our living room. The girls helped dh and I get the bed downstairs. Dh decided to get rid of the old sofa while we were at it, so we carried THAT upstairs and it is now in the back of my van until dh can find the time to take it to the dump. I now need to do some extra vacuuming and dusting in the play room.

I didn't get to many things today, but I think I'm going to bed anyway. I don't think I'll go jog tomorrow morning. I have a moms group teaching team meeting at 9:30, and I'd like to do a little more reading before then. I'll have payroll in the afternoon.

OK, I'm off to bed.

[lucylee]

How much do babysitters charge these days?
DS and DDIL are going to need someone for about 12 hours on a Sat. afternoon/night in August. I'm just wondering what to expect.