TOTH or BOTH Tuesday

[Harriet]

What will your hours find you doing today, at top or bottom of the hours? Lots to think about as we start a new week in a way - goodbye to the 3-day weekend and hello to normalcy!

I see Kathryn is here and she may be starting PWYC, too! Ah, great minds... ...

Smiling because I wasn't fast enough to suggest to Kathryn that I like HER start and would have deleted mine! Ah well, anticipating her post.

[Kathryn-in-Canada]

You beat me Harriet, so I deleted mine!

It is back to school day here. The bus stop is at the end of our walkway so dh called down "It's the first walk to the bus of the year!" to me. I went out and wished the boys well.

This is a family of 4 boys and the littlest one (3) was marching along with his older brothers, with a large lunch box. So we thought it was his first day.

Turns out, it isn't his first day, that won't be until next year. He was just anticipating when he got to go to school!

The bus just picked up his brothers and the driver said to the little one, "Step on up!" and then we heard, "Oh, you aren't starting until next year..." And tears. Sometimes it is hard to be the baby.

It makes me think about big changes or new opportunities I can see for myself over the next year and how 'dry runs' are important so we are ready for the big day. At the same time, it is important to be able to live in the moment. I'm sure there is a mom who is hoping her 'baby' won't grow up too fast at the same time that 'baby' is trying to rush through time to get to take on the next big challenge in life.

[Kathryn-in-Canada]

helia, she is so blessed to have you and your family as her exchange student sponsors/family. If I had a child going to a foreign country as an exchange student, I would be thrilled if you were that family. None of us would have had any doubts about you and your family not being approved. This will be exciting for us too, because we haven't had anyone with an exchange student, that I can remember anyway.

Ditto to all of that.

Helia's exciting adventure starts soon! Yay!

I spent last evening working on the travel stuff. Got a laundry basket of things to give away, half a green garbage bag of garbage and reorganized things so that all the travel stuff except for one small drawer's worth, fits into my closet. No more digging around for boxes under the spare bed. The bureau in the guest room is almost empty. When dd takes the bureau at the end of October, we'll move the last things into the closet in that room or to my craft room (the only large drawer in use has birthday and other holiday decorations in it.)

We are thinking we'll put the captain's bed my dad made in our guest room at the new place and it has 4 drawers and a cupboard in it so I'm starting to think that's where I'll store the board games and the decorations. We are trying to figure out a way of making that bed into a queen size so we can continue to use it as a guest bed. I have a design in my head but we need to make sure it can take the weight of a mattress and a people, plus we have to figure out if the bed will be too high for people to get onto (it is currently about the height of a kitchen counter.) If the room is big enough for the single and a double, we could just get a futon or something (with a good air mattress on top) and then the room would serve multiple purposes (my office, a den, a guest room and our packing centre with the suitcases on the high captain's bed for packing.)

Enough dreaming....

I'm up, s2s, sorted through my hair things and added stuff to the sale box. Tidied our room and have put away the clean dishes.

I'm going into Presbytery today to volunteer for a few hours. And pick up some groceries on the way home.

[Harriet]

In a way, a lovely start to our morning, as HRH and dd15 had conspired last night that they wanted a big breakfast today. (I am never part of big breakfasts - nope.) So they got up together today at 5:30 (ugh) and started cooking. I'm happy for them. I'll have my bacon and egg biscuit for a later meal and appreciate their efforts. On the other hand, I'm sure (I think I'm sure) they appreciate that I washed all the dishes!

And then... ... a not so lovely part of the morning. HRH went out to let the chickens into their yard and Penny the Rhode Island Red did not come out. Inexplicably, she had died during the night, in a secure house on a mild-temperature evening. Not a clue. This is the lament of anyone who keeps chickens, of course. But it made us feel rather down. Cecily was quietly going about her egg-laying business, but Fay clucked to me about it - she so much older, yet outliving the newer, larger hen. Sigh. The last interaction I remember was Penny running right with the others after yard bugs, and I could have sworn I got an egg from her yesterday. Of course, Penny wasn't reared here so I can't prove her age, but I thought she had more good years.

helia, a near-guarantee of a good experience, to have your household as "home base" on an exchange.

I have an appt in big city this a.m. so had better get a move on. Then this afternoon, the dishwasher repairman comes.

[helia]

Wow, you all are VERY encouraging and supportive!! Thank you!! I was a little worried about the house b/c the rep took photos when it was not in the best shape. In fact, she took a photo of the kitchen right after I'd hastily prepared dinner and not yet cleaned up - b/c she showed up before I had the chance, so there were dishes, cutting boards, cantaloupe rinds, etc. on the counter. At least the photos show that we eat home cooked meals. I hope the GG (German girl) experience turns out to be good. Yes, it happened very quickly -- b/c she was one of a handful of students that hadn't been picked yet. I got a last minute email bulletin re: students left, and I happened to read her summary aloud b/c I thought she sounded like a good match for our family. Then dh, whom I fully expected to immediately nix the idea as he always has in the past, actually said. . . "She sounds like a good match. Can you find out more information on her?" We liked that she was described as quiet by her teachers, she does not seem uber-sporty as many of the kids are, she really likes animals - a necessity for our house - and wants to work with children, which dd17 does in her volunteer activities. She also writes stories for fun, which my girls do, plays the flute, and is interested in psychology, which dd17 is too. And she is happy to attend religious services with her host family, which was something we wanted as well. Still, there are so many unknowns. . . .If things don't work out, she can be moved out to another family, and this does happen, as you would imagine. We just need to give the area director 2 weeks notice.

First day of school here!! It was very hard for me to get up this morning. I must get accustomed to an earlier schedule. The school emailed last night, and they're handing out new schedules to all the kids first thing this morning. I guess they had some problems. I hope the girls' schedules stay the same. Between ds and dd17's years at the school, we've had all of dd15's teachers, and it is in fact a bunch. I wasn't sure about the science teacher (she was ds' AP chem lab teacher), but I've heard she is an excellent classroom teacher. Oh yeah -- remembering the Latin teacher is not the strongest and one other teacher is also not the strongest choice. . .

So, you'd think my a.m routine would be done by now. . No. .. it is still in progress. I need to tighten up my schedule and start focusing better.

BBL with progress.

Belated Congratulations. . . . HAPPY ANNIVERSARY TWINSMOM AND TWINSDAD!!!

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY SHERINJOY AND MR. SHERINJOY!!

Did I miss someone?

[helia]

Oh, I'm sorry to hear about Penny, ((Harriet)). Will dd15 be upset over this? I'm not looking forward to that part of chicken raising, though we've already lost 2. . . .I think our 2 hens are now 4 years old.

[Twins' Mom]

I've decided not to take the car in this morning about the indicator light, which is no longer on. Macs had a difficult walk last night and I wasn't sure I would get him home; I am going to wrestle the harness onto him and try for a little walk outside. He has PT later so I don't want to wear him out but he'll nag at me until I take him out.

Forgot to post this....have walked ddogs w dMacs in harness. He wasn't too bad about me putting it on him - it needs some adjustment but he lost patience with me messing with it. I'll try to adjust later.

-breakfast
-meds/vitamins
-refill meds/vitamin box
-water plants on front porch
-continue w laundry, fold/put away two lol from dryer, hang delicates, start a new lol

Thank you for the anniversary wishes - it was on Saturday while we were still at the beach.

[Emptynester]

It is birthing day for me - can't believe my "baby" is 42 years old!!

It is also pack up the trailer ooze day. Tomorrow will be taken up with a trip to the Dr. to get DH's staples out so I must start to pack today.

He has been going without bandages except at night and is doing very well. Of course, we aren't doing much - just watching the boats go in and out all weekend. He has two patches where the skin was taken completely off and couldn't be stitched. Those are going to be the hardest to heal. But it is starting to heal around the edges.

We have a group of loud mouth men behind us this morning. They are cooking outdoors and telling jokes. Can only hear the loud laughter. Wish they would go fishing so DH could sleep more. Otherwise the campground is almost empty again.

Thursday we will move to the little city park in DH's hometown. We will have a lot of quiet there. But not as much to look at.

[helia]

LOL! I edited out "a STRONG bunch," when talking about dd15's teachers, and forgot to put in another adjective. I think it is still a strong group, with the Latin teacher being the weak link.

[OKay]

Good Morning

I woke up an hour late but have been accomplished the most important things. I just finished weed-eating so am taking a break and sipping a glass of iced tea while my body cools down.

RE: yesterday discussion on sweeping entire house daily in 15 minutes. I think it depends on the floor cover, arraignment of furniture and size of house. On most days, I sweep the entire house in 10 minutes (I don't sweep under furniture during this daily card). We have wood/laminate floors without any carpet. I rotate through choices of ways to sweep the floors - vacuum, dust mop, broom. Each one does the job in a different way. About 1/2 of the days I also use SHE-Mop to damp mop after sweeping. My focus is not for perfection but to quickly go over the floors.

MY big goals for today is to
** return the 21 pairs of jeans that did NOT fit LO. After all that effort to find jean that fit better, the brand/style he is wearing wins. They still show his underwear (or crack!) when he bends over but finding high waisted jeans that fit him seems to be something I am not able to accomplish.
** process a slew of tomatoes and peppers. I harvested last night until I had picked enough for one good day of processing. There are more ready to pick once I get these done.

Next up -
** process yesterday MPB daily gross
** restore Kitchen to MM
** Sweep floors