SHEs Organized

The family gathering went fabulous. There was several family members who couldn't attend but we ended up with 36 who came, sang Happy Birthday, ate and stayed for hours to visit. DMom received several cards from friends and phone calls from extended family. Between mine & DSis FB pages there was over 100 Happy Birthday wishes sent electronically to DMom. DMom enjoyed every moment of today and I'm sure there isn't anything she would have rather had than this experience. I'm exhausted but its a good tired.

Harriet - I love your humor!

As I was CUOP, I was impressed over and over how much is being accomplished. POTB all around!!

I'm glad the birthday party went well, OKay. How do you make your corn muffins? I used to make Jif fy mix with paper liners but so much of the muffin sticks to the paper all the time I quit making them.

Cowinkie, that is a lot of traveling around for one year. It will be fun to read about it.

Well, I am finally making progress around here. I went to church and helped with communion between the 2nd and the 3rd services. Offered to come back but she had 3 others there, so happily, I came home. Before we left for church I put my whites in the washer. I give them a presoak and an extra long wash cycle so that load takes 2 hours. It was done when I got back this morning and I was able to hang it up.

Folded another 2 LOL plus the whites when they were dry. I got another bag of Christmas stuff up on the shelf. Got some things put back into the hall closet we emptied when we did the grab bar.

I rearranged, organized, cleaned 6 kitchen drawers and 4 cabinets today. Such a difference. I did the same with the bottom half of my china closet. Got some things off the top of the refrigerator. I hope this is going to make the kitchen easier to use. Much of my plastic was in a low cabinet and I'm having troubles getting up and down so I found myself leaving things out on the counter. Now it's all in a big deep drawer, up much higher. Clean and organized, yay I'm so happy!

Set up a compost bin outside. New experiment this year. Got all the garbage out for pickup and the recycling, including a lot of odd ball plastic stuff I found and junk I no longer use.

See, when I stay away from my desk I can make progress in the house!

Harmony, I also use the Ji ffy corn muffin mix and I just grease the muffin tin directly and the muffins will usually come out whole. Course, there's more clean up but I usually let the tins soak a bit before scouring.

Happy New Year everyone! I am back from Mobile, Alabama, home of the original Mardi Gras. New Years kicks off the start of the Mardi Gras season and we went to a parade. DD10 really enjoyed that because she caught 3 stuffed animals (like she needs more). We caught tons of beads, some candy, Moon Pies, the animals, and I caught a package of Ramen soup of all things. So I can say I caught my dinner, even though I don't fish. We had tornados Christmas day and my old high school is unusable now and the kids are being sent to other schools while it is being repaired. The neighborhood around it did not fare well either.

I still need to do my Christmas cards (Christmas in July anyone?). I got a Christmas bonus, which surprised me since there has not been any work at my office for months. Not that I am complaining mind you. The insurance stuff on the accident is progressing nicely. They are waiting for me to send them a receipt, which I found Friday.

Today was my day with DD10. We went to church and ate a Chinese lunch. Then we tried to call friends to come see her, but none of them could make it. So we watched movies and crocheted. She has a 'snake' (a long set of chain stitches) that is long enough to go across my house longways one and a half times! After she left, I updated Quicken, transferred some money to savings (yeah!), and bought a crochet pattern for my neice's birthday doll outfit. I have to do something similar to a Barbie 1876 ballgown pattern, only for an American Girl doll! I will use the bodice pattern from the purchased pattern and design my own skirt and train. I still need to eat dinner and wind some yarn.

Thanks for the kudos glad to have the rest of the day here to rest. Watched my team win today. Now trying to decide about closing the chicken door they all went inside to sleep w/ out the roo disrupting roosting is good & they settled in three slept out side last night.

H. & I both had to help process chickens when we were kids but have forgotten a lot over the years trying to relearn it S.I.L. wants to learn how when we get it settled to a new routine. H. caught the bird this time.

Did not get ahold of the person with the others for sale but I'll try again we will have to "make room" first so it would be at least a week. But good to try to get the summer stock up and going before Easter. Then we can think about what's beyond that. We could transform the the coop into a brooder later in the spring easily enough. Especially with the newest nest boxes b/c they are portable & removable.

I helped a friend do some chickens after her bro. did the deed one day we divided them at their family farm and had meat for the freezer. That was an interesting day. Sorry if this topic is objectionable for some.

Gardening thoughts are on my mind the ground dug very easily when I spaded up a small area in the back yard for the chickens to scratch in.

The only flaw with the High Fructose Corn Syrup theory is that I didn't have any in my diet. I've been monitoring for it for years now (at least 3, possibly 5) and while I was drinking diet drinks, had no easily found source. If I drank juice it was pure juice. I don't have processed cereals (although there were times I had some while traveling since Raisin Bran is the 'healthy' cereal option and it has it) and it isn't in the crackers or other things that I eat. On the other hand, I eat lots of baked goods (mostly at church but calories count there too!) and they are all made with sugar.

Dinner was very good tonight. Our first proper dinner for a while now since I've been quite lazy. Downton Abbey was very enjoyable.

I've cleaned up dinner and put the clothes in the dryer. At the end of the day, aside from church things and a nap, I accomplished virtually nothing today.

Missed the first thirty minutes or so of Downton Abbey, but enjoyed the rest of it.
Got ironing done.
Groceries all put away, plus dmil's delivered to her.
Talked to ddad & dmom on the phone.
Going to finish reading the paper and go to bed.
Tomorrow's Monday again... right? * sheesh *

I did enjoy Downton Abbey tonight! Sat there glued to the tv. Have to listen carefully. Sometimes I wish there were subtitles. I know they're speaking English, but with the accents, I don't catch everything. Maybe a hearing test is in my future. DH and I will look at each other when watching tv and say at the same time "What did they say?"

Welcome back, Elizabeth!

Haven't "seen" Ivy for a few days, have we? Hope all is well.

Goodnight, all.