Monday, Early and Effective

[Harriet]

Time to get started and make a difference this week.

What will be effective for you, and what will get things out of the way and done early in the week so you can move on to other progress?

I'm considering some 15s today. Hearing the Rocky theme playing in the background.

~♥~~Happy Anniversary, lucylee and dh!~~♥~

[BookSaver]

Good morning, villagers ~
Thanks for opening the thread, Harriet.
I have a lot of catching up to do.

[Lilac]

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY LUCYLEE & DH!

[Twins' Mom]

Good morning, I am trying to get an early start here also. Need to be at title co for potential closing of dsis' house at 11.

-breakfast (boiled eggs underway) &AA meds/vitamins
-s2s
-walk ddogs
-start lol
-make the bed

This will mostly finish am routine, at least.

Temple f/s work continued from last week is priority after dsis' house. I "should" have spent time this weekend on that but just didn't. It was really great to see ds and he was appreciative. He looks well and seems happy and together. He had two or three days fall break last week and his classes aren't ramped back up to full speed yet, so it was a good day for a visit.

[Kathryn-in-Canada]

Harriet's Early and Effective beats my Late and Lethargic!

It is 7 minutes to 9 and my only accomplishment is making tea and a doctor's appointment. Will have to drive out to the country for this but decided it was best to go to my family doctor's practice (he's away this week) since they have my hepatitis and pancreatitis records and will understand my unfounded hysteria over this.

I'm queasy and can cry at the drop of a hat. Am also achy but that isn't necessarily a symptom since I have other reasons to be achy, although I will say it is more than usual.

Dh had a conference call from 2:30 to 4:00 a.m. so we were in bed at 9:30 p.m. last night. I got out of bed after 8 this morning but that doesn't mean I had a good night's sleep. I was too hot, too cold, and too uncomfortable. I even took an extra dose of advil through the night but it didn't help much.

Can't decide what to do about swimming. If I hit the pool at 9:45 (open swim time) I'll be out at 10:20, and leaving the dressing room, s2s for the day at 11 which gives me just enough time to make it to my appointment at 11:40. But I'd have to rush now and end up swimming after eating, neither of which appeal to me. I have my class tonight so can't swim then.

[BookSaver]

Here's a story that will be added to the tales of our sewing camps:

S wanted to bake a special pumpkin dessert for Saturday supper but she forgot to bring eggs. I said I could give her the one I had brought to make brownies, but she needed 3. The camp is out on a gravel road 2 miles off the highway and then it's another 4-5 miles to the nearest Tiny Town. S said she would be willing to drive that far if the eggs were needed for everyone's breakfast, but it was too far to go for an ingredient for a dessert when several other people had brought candy and desserts.

L & N went out for breakfast each morning (because the water at the camp made truly awful coffee), so on Saturday morning they went to the Tiny Town market. After they bought their coffees and muffins or whatever, L told one of the employees that she was on a scavenger hunt, and asked if she could buy just 3 fresh eggs instead of a whole dozen. L said the young man thought that was the funniest thing he'd ever heard, and he took her back to the meat counter. The butcher laughed, too, and ended up giving L the 3 eggs for free. (I think the butcher is the owner of the market.)

Sunday morning when L & N went out for coffee, they took a few pieces of the pumpkin dessert back to the Tiny Town market as a thank you to the people who had helped with the "scavenger hunt."

The rest of the weekend, we all kept laughing about L's skill at finding "3 fresh eggs" -- 3 FREE fresh eggs. And now a few of the attendees want us to do a real scavenger hunt next year. I, however, am not willing to give up that much sewing time!

[Harriet]

I've had a Desk Day morning, including getting a $10 rebate ready to mail. That's positive, since it required being able to put my hands on a receipt from the right time frame. Also my Healthy Habits notebook is Monday ready. with new exercise calendar and week-journal pages hole-punched and organized for the next 6 weeks.

Morning Daily Card and school run done well. Pick-up through the house took extra time, so I can tell what day of the week it is.

A yesterday TaDa was finding packaging tape to get ready to send this cabinet back by FedEx, and at the same pharmacy picking up 2 prescriptions. I had a valuable money-off thingie from the dr for one, and waited quite a while on pharmacist to apply it. Was SO discouraged that after I got it into my hands and read the info, this was only a one-month tide-over prescription until an appt (something for which I had not asked). Sigh. So now I get all the fun of trying to get dr and pharmacy on the same page to MAYBE switch this savings to the new prescription. Such a hassle, but $$$ enough to make me spend more time, I suppose. Ugh.

BookSaver, I remember you mentioning that someone had the idea of games at the retreat. And I thought, sure, if it was something like quick baby shower games, but not some murder mystery theater. Did NOT think of a scavenger hunt. As much fun as a scavenger hunt can be, it's not really for people with hopes and dreams for their retreat, is it? Anyway, that is a funny story and I'm sure it will be remembered. Gives a new meaning to borrowing an ingredient from the neighbors.

Spent more time on the phone with pharmacy, and they say if they are reminded, they will apply the reduced cost to the next prescription as well. I'm not sure how that will work, but I will make whatever calls I need to make. This dr's office is so fast to send in prescriptions that I don't know if I can get ahead of them, and they always say, "go ahead and fill now", which I wish they would leave for me to decide.

[DeeClutter]

Good morning, everyone! I'm hoping to be up early every day AND effective. I need to be truly effective in this house and get it up to snuff. (I can hear it now....."Mom's here!")

I'm meeting dd and her co-teacher for lunch at 11. They're at a class across the highway from the restaurant where I'll meet them. Have known co-teacher for years and count her as a dear friend. I'm pretty well settled myself and our room is quite neat -always find more to do and slim down.

Love the scavenger hunt story, Booksaver.

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY DLUCYLEE & your dh. May you have a very blessed day!

Off to at least try to recapture the kitchen. Here I go>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

[Twins' Mom]

No need to go to closing for dsis' house at 11. Title co will call me if the guy shows up with his $$. Sigh.

GOing to go walk ddogs, start laundry and make the bed.

[BookSaver]

Harriet ~ The person who was talking the most about wanting to do a scavenger hunt next year was remembering when she was a young girl and her church youth group would go around to people's houses in town. As I said, the campground we go to is way out in the country and not only would it take a long time to drive around looking for things, I would not feel at all safe going up to any of the houses.

Someone else mentioned a recent scavenger hunt in her quilting group where the participants had a list of fabric stores to visit and take a photo of a particular item, with a small prize for those who visited every store. That would be a possible activity for the spring or summer day camps that we have at our regular meeting place in The Big City. However, it would still take away a lot of sewing time. I'm already missing a lot of sewing time doing chores, I'm not going to give up more for a game if I have any choice about it.

The game they ended up playing this weekend was a trading game with special dice. Each person brought 5 sewing items -- could be a fat quarter of fabric, a gadget, 1 person brought a couple bags of candy. To start the game, each person puts 2 items in the center of the table for the kitty. You roll the special dice and do what they say, either trade something with the person to your left or right or across the table, or take something from the center kitty. The game is over when the kitty is empty. I think everyone ended up with different items than they had brought. Everyone liked 1 particular piece of pretty fabric so it became the item that was traded most.

They didn't tell us about bringing 5 things until a few days before the event. I was doing well to get my project supplies packed in time, I didn't have time to look for things to give away or go shop for 5 things. I didn't participate, nor did 1 other person. People offered to give us things to be able to play, but we were both in the middle of sewing our projects so we just watched the game while we sewed.

In spite of getting to the campground later than I'd planned, I still had to help set up tables & chairs and help other people get situated. Every day there was at least 1 problem to be solved. Thursday we had no internet so I had to Call the Man. Friday 2 of the toilets wouldn't flush so I had to Call the Man. Saturday morning we woke up to no water so I had to, yes you guessed it, Call the Man. (Thank goodness I took my shower late Friday night, and also before bed I had filtered 2 pitchers of water to drink and make coffee in the morning.) The Man came immediately when called, I have no complaints about his work ethic -- it's just an old building that needs a lot of maintenance. The problem with no water Saturday morning was at their pump house on the property; apparently every now and then The Man has to go there and Kick Something.

The reason I was dealing with the problems instead of someone else was that of the 2 official organizers, 1 had never been there before and the other had only been there once. The previous organizer was out of state at a family wedding. The 2 group members who have always helped with problems because they belong to the church that owns the camping lodge, could not come to the event this time. This was my 5th time at the lodge so I sort of know where to find things. I was It by default.

By the time they played the game Saturday night, I was tired from not getting enough sleep in a strange bed, and getting frustrated at all the interruptions that kept me from playing with my fabric. Even if I'd brought the 5 items to trade, I wouldn't have stopped sewing to play. At least the game was keeping the others occupied and not finding more problems for me to solve.

I don't know if I'll go to the fall camp next year. Maybe I'll tell everyone I'm going, get all my projects ready to go, pack my suitcase -- and then hide at home to sew by myself!