I have found that if I take my shower in the evening before bed rather than in the morning, I sleep better. It must wind me down. The night that I slept right through I showered with some baby wash I had from when John was a baby. I like to use body wash rather than soap so I figured I'd try that. Maybe there's something in it that lulls the babies to sleep, because I sure slept well that night! LOL If it works like that again I will be buying a new bottle!

Karrine, perhaps your daughter would rather have you live somewhere that's comfortable for you rather than worry about leaving an inheritance. I think our facilities here are expensive, too. I don't think I would get enough for my house to pay for very long. I would not have to have a fancy place to live. I am accustomed to living without all the bells and whistles. As long as I'm safe and comfortable.

I'm glad your ankle is starting to improve, finally. You've been through a lot with it.

And you have been through a lot with your sciatica, Gayle. I don't understand why the exercises are making you hurt worse, unless it will improve as you do it more. Try to keep in mind that you want to be able to continue to get around. I had a painful night last night that I haven't had in a while. Reminds me of my intention to get back to my exercise.

Mary, I highly agree with this statement that you made above. I was eating very poorly for a while and my last A1c was in the 8's. That's when my doctor increased my Amaryl to 2mg twice a day. Since then I have gone back to much better eating and am no longer getting any blood sugar readings above 200 at any time during the day, and I have been only taking half a mg of Amaryl in the AM and 1 mg or less in the PM. Occasionally, I will take more if I know I will be eating more carbs, but I try to avoid it. Most blood sugar readings are below 150. I think having the Amaryl makes me think I can eat more carbs, when I know I shouldn't. I have not gained any weight from it, but it is probably contributing to my inability to lose.

Sandy ~ Maybe we can help/encourage each other to do the PT exercises. I am off to a good start today. Following her instructions to "ease" back into it. A tiny bit achy, but not in pain like my other attempts to resume the program she had worked up for me.

Dh went fishing today so I've been being lazy so far this am with nobody to get me going. Tried to get Halo in for her "spa" treatment but she needs her rabie shot updated so they won't take her. We can bathe her and clip her nails but we don't like to brush her teeth and her breath is very bad. Has anyone tried the dental chews for dogs? I had some samples but misplaced them. I may buy some.

Glynne - I too forget to do my PT exercises a lot anymore. There are a few that most mornings I do before I get out of bed. I sit at the side of the bed to do those, but occasionally I don't feel I have time so don't do them. In reality they take very little time though. It is all the others I haven't been doing much at all and I'm trying to get back to them. So I definitely understand the struggle. On the pain I'm not sure it is the same with you of course, but for me they caused me pain in the beginning and now do again since I don't do them often...but the more consistently I do them, the better my back and shoulder feels. When I have back pain, I lay on ice for 10 min. and that helps too even though I hate doing it. I feel like I'm wasting my time, laying on the floor for 10 min. LOL Wonder what I'd do if I weren't there...there's a good chance I'd waste it anyway. :dizzy:

Karrine - I understand about the high cost of senior centers...I wonder about that too because our house and whatever cash we happen to have at the time will be all we will leave to our children. We have only had to touch our EF once and we quickly paid that back, but whether it will be there at that time I can't possibly know. And you are right that no matter how much savings you have (or get from your home), at the high cost of the senior places, it won't last long. I try to make every decision prayerfully and I trust that things will work out right one way or another ..so we (I) will just make the decisions as needed when the time comes.

Sandy - Your dh sounds like mine. Even though is not like he was before he fractured his leg and all the surgeries, he still is a hard worker. He loves it when the sun shines and he can be outdoors working. Winters are hard for him although he has seemed to adjust a bit since we stopped RVing. He doesn't seem quite as anxious to travel even esp new places. I think partly that might be because of his hearing loss, and feeling a bit less able. But here at home he still often does more work in a day than many younger men.

Carol Sue - Understand what you're saying about the BS issue. For me it's about timing my food...I tend to want to eat way too often. Right now my weight goal is simply to get down to my sig weight and stay there! Only one more pound to go as of this morning. So I'm trying to only eat every 2-4 hours (I know, ONLY?) and no snacks unless my bs is low enough. Eves are my biggest problem so trying hard to have only ONE snack...but crazy as it may seem, that is not easy for me. I cannot imagine how I ever lost weight in the past because it is so hard for me now.

Yesterday I took out all the things under our bed that used to be under our son's bed and put them back there. Also had to clean out under his bed to do this. But that's all I got done here at home beyond the daily stuff. Spent too much time out. I have to go out again today cause I forgot one item but hope to dust and vac the same bedroom before I leave.

Have a good day!

Tomorrow morning we are going to try to get our taxes done. I used to do them myself, but it's not as easy now that they no longer send the forms and instruction booklet. I know I can get all that online but I don't like to do that. I tried to efile one year and that was a disaster so I won't do that anymore. Last year we went to the AARP who does it free for seniors. You don't have to be a member, but it gets really crowded and you have to get there early to get in. Last year we had to go up a second time because they were full by the time we got there. The AARP does the efile for us.

Today I bakes some cookies for my grandson for Easter. Tomorrow I need to do some last minute shopping for Easter. Then on Friday I will make Beet Horseradish and Easter Cheese, which are 2 traditions from DH's Slovak family. I am the only one who still makes them. When I am gone they will just be a memory. We will be away on Saturday, and on Sunday I will cook a small ham for us, make potato salad and a kielbassi casserole to take to my step-son's. I have all this planned. I hope things fall into place and I get everything done on time.

Good evening GG's,

The sun has kind of come and gone today. Steve and Maddie have gone to do some errands. I was surprised ~ usually she has homework on school nights. It is quiet here right now, so I'm gonna take the opportunity to visit here.

I got to talk to mom today ~ it was one of her better days. Lately when I call, she has dozed off in the chair. She has been having spells of being agitated, so I hate to have them wake her when I call and disturb her when she is calm and quiet. They are doing a kind of music therapy thing with her ~ they have loaded music (they read me a list and I told them the ones I thought she would enjoy) onto an iPod and she can listen with headphones to help calm and relax her. They are so wonderful there. (If I mentioned this before ~ forgive me ~ I don't always remember what I have shared.)

I followed my PT lady's instructions and did some of the exercises this morning. A tiny bit achy after, but not pain like I had been having when I had tried to resume them on my own. There was one exercise I asked her about, and she said only if I didn't have pain. It was a back stretch that was to be done while standing ~ 10 times every hour. I thought I'd do it once and see how it went. No pain right after, but it started later on. I wasn't sure if it had anything to do with that exercise as much as from sitting at my sewing machine. I always seem to end up having pain after using the sewing machine. I wasn't even doing it very long today.

I had gotten a new sewing machine, but hadn't had a chance to try it out and I knew that Steve would start fussing at me soon if I didn't get around to that. I think the information about it said that you could sew without using the foot pedal, and I thought maybe that would help me to be able to sew without aggravating that sciatic pain.

I did walk for one 10 minute chunk on the treadmill and had planned to do more and another set of the PT exercises, but now, feel like maybe I shouldn't push it.

Mary ~ I don't forget to do the exrecises, I just don't like doing them. Just like the regular exercises ~ I feel like there are other things I'd rather be doing. But as you described in your experience, like you, I wouldn't end up doing anything of much importance and would probably waste that time. In the whole scheme of things, that half hour walk isn't much time out of the day. And the PT exercises don't take all the long either.

My bad habit of wanting to skip these important things probably gives you all a clue as to why I am in the shape I'm in.

Mary ~ several years back I had heard about the Fly Lady thing you mentioned. It sounded like a good idea, so I signed up for her emails but so many came it got overwhelming. And I could never keep up with her schedule ideas and I ended up feeling like a failure at it. I just have to kind of do the cleaning in what ever time frame works for me.

Carol Sue ~ I'm glad that the evening showers are helping you to rest better. I was always a morning showerer ~ because if I did it at night, and slept on my hair, there was no fixing it in the morning. I have to start with wet hair and dry it. Also, I had very oily hair and had to wash it every day. Now my hair is not oily like it used to be and I can skip a day. I have learned a trick and now if I have to get up earlier in the mornings than I usually do, I can take a shower at night still be able to fix my hair right in the morning. I have a spray bottle and spray my hair so it is damp and then use the hair dryer same as I do when I shower in the morning and I am able to fix my hair as usual. Your Easter sounds like a nice one of some family time. You should write down those recipes even if no one is asking now ~ they might regret later on that they didn't ask you while they had the chance ~ and you could be one step ahead of them. I asked my dad to write down some of the recipes for things he fixed when he came to visit us. He thought that was a silly request, but now I have a memory/keepsake of some of the recipes he made and in his hand writing. I also have some my mom and grandma wrote down for me. Treasures.

Karrine ~ did your ankle do ok after the sweeping on your porch? Hope it tolerated that ok. I've heard that the kind of facilities I mentioned are pricey. It sounds like a good idea, but it is probably not something we could afford. I wouldn't mind just staying where we are and trying to hire someone to help us with the yard work and such when we are no longer able to do it ourselves. Or maybe some kind of condo type place where the maintainence of the structure and yard are done for you. Steve did have the good sense to seek out a one story house so we wouldn't have to deal with stairs. I sort of hate the thought anyway of having to go to a smaller place and having to give up some of my stuff ~ my bike is one such thing.

Sandy ~ glad you got to enjoy your walk the other day ~ sounds like it was beautiful out. What is geothermal? The different plants you describe in your yard sound so beautiful. I will have to google the names of the different things you mention ~ my imagination without a picture I'm sure doesn't come anywhere near to what they actually look like.

Grandpa and Maddie found a sale on kids clothes at one of the local stores and she is wanting to put on a fashion show for me. So, guess I will get off and check out her outfits.

Hope you all have a good rest tonight.

Good morning everyone,
We had freezing rain overnight and it is still freezing rain now. The roads are full of ice so I'm hoping the road sanders and salters will improve things in time for me to go for my physio therapy appointment this morning. Nan's family (DD; SIL and 2 grandkids) are coming to visit today. That will be very nice for her. They live in the next city (40 minutes from here). DD and SIL are separated but they will be together today for the visit. I imagine they will come in separate cars

Carol and Mary One thing I would dread about having to go into a nursing home or retirement home would be the thought of having to share a room. I would want a private room which, of course, would be more expensive.
I am not diabetic but I have a question about your posts. When I do my BS readings I am in the 7 and 8's but my A1c readings according to the doctor are still in prediabetic range. What is all this about readings of 200 about?
Carol - your Easter dinner plans sound very nice.

Gayle Speaking of exercise....I sure am getting bad since I hurt my ankle at the beginning of January and although I hate exercising I really need to get back on the treadmill again to regain some strength. I never did get the front porch swept but it has to be done before Saturday afternoon when my DD and hubby will be coming to put out my patio furniture.

That's all my news for now
Hope everyone has a good day,
Karrine

Karrine, you in Canada, use the metric system. We in the US use imperial units. Here is a conversion chart that compares the 2. My blood sugars in the AM aren't too bad. I used to get readings over 200 after meals but not so much anymore.

https://www.joslin.org/info/conversi...onitoring.html

We spent the morning getting out taxes done so that's over with. A lot of people got their early so we had to wait a couple hours. Then I went to the grocery store to get the last of my needs for Easter. Now I've made stuffed peppers for dinner and they are in the casserole waiting to be cooked. Then I get to spend the rest of the evening reading.

Just got home from the gym where I felt I had a pretty good workout. Now to get something done at home. I am making a beef enchilada dish tonight. I do not usually care for my enchiladas but this is a new recipe so will see how it is.
Last night we had Subways for dinner before the Easter communion service. It was a wonderful service.

Strange how it is so cold with freezing rain and snow in many places. It is damp, cloudy but it is 52 degrees. I just wear a light jacket and it's enough since I don't stay out long. Dh dresses warmer.

Karrine - I hear you on wanting a private room and yes I'm sure it would be much more expensive even if you can get it. Don't rush and overdue your ankle...perhaps you can do some chair exercises or very brief standing ones.

Glynne - Glad you are doing the exercises again. It's one of those discipline things and hard for me too. I joined Flylady long ago..at first I got the emails but that was too much for me..so I dropped them. Now I just use the Flylady version of Cozi organzier and the am, pm and missions are in there. I don't really need reminders on the daily tasks but I try to do the missions (specific extra tasks like monthly etc) and the weekly home blessing (only I do a little every day if I can) and otherwise if I have time I vac the carpet in any room that needs it. Don't always get to that though esp if I go out. So really I have these few reminders but I work it all into my schedule. Since I'm retired I like being able to just go out with dh when he says asks me. If not all the housework gets done I try not to worry about it. My home is not super clean but it is fairly maintained so I don't have to be too ashamed if someone drops by. One thing I really really need to do and I have trouble fitting in is shampooing the carpets. Since we got Halo they have gotten very dirty.

Carole Sue - I think it's great that you are carrying on their family traditional recipes. I hope they will wake up and realize they'd better learn to make them on their own one day. My kids don't seem to care much about traditions either. Or maybe it's just that they have started their own...

Sandy - How you doing? Don't over due in the garden.;)

My step son might carry on the tradition of the beet horseradish because he likes it, but the others won't care, and no one would miss the Easter Cheese. They couldn't be bothered making it. They don't know that I take a short cut with the beet horseradish. My mother-in-law used to get a horseradish root and peel and grate it. Then she got fresh beets and peeled, cooked and grated them. Then she blended it all together and added as much beet juice as was needed. I am a big cheater! I buy cans of sliced beats, drain and smash them with a potato masher. Then I buy jars of prepared horseradish, which contain only ground horseradish, vinegar, salt and flavorings. Mix it into the smashed beets and I'm done. No one ever noticed that if wasn't the same as grandma's. DH knows, because he sees me make it. We serve it on slices of the Easter Cheese, which is just made from milk and eggs, or on our sliced ham. I don't understand why we only have this at Easter.

CarolSue Of course the Beets are so good. We make it with canned beets, too. It won't go as good with the Lamb we are serving so it will be skipped this year. Sure makes Beef great, tho.

Mary DH wears hearing aids, and the lack of hearing well causes some weird conversations, and occasionally an angry comment. We used to talk so much more, easily. I do miss that.

Going to Mass in a bit. So glad they moved it to 6:00 instead of usual 7:00 pm so we'll get home earlier. Same for Good Friday. Friend planed to meet us, too. When we get home we'll watch Kansas in NCAA tournament and Oklahomal and also one other.

Scale was not friendly today. Eating more carefully today.

I'm a little bit worried about the scallopped potatoes I plan to make for Easter dinner. Wondering if I could prepare the potatoes and sauce and put in fridge overnight if I get too worried about the timing of everything on Sunday? If we go to the 8 am service I think I'll be fine but if we go to the 10 am I might have problems as I have to heat the ham too. Both will take about an hour per instructions. Has anyone ever tried preparing the potatoes and sauce a day a head? Any advice?

ETA: Just read online that these potatoes can be prepared even two or three days ahead, so if that's true, I guess I could do them on Sat. They said if you set out to get to room temp before heating they only take about 30 min to heat. I could set them out before I go to church...will be at church almost 2 hrs. That way I could go to the 10 am service. What do you think?

Good morning everyone,
Well yesterday was a bust as Nan's family was unable to come visit due to needing to work late yesterday. They have plans for over the weekend so they will come visit her hopefully next Thursday. I'm not too thrilled with her family because I don't like the way they treat her. You would think that they could put her first occasionally but that would interrupt their social life. Oh well, I best not judge as it's none of my business but I can see that I will be the one giving her the care & support she will need on the home front during this sad time and I don't mind doing that. We will be going to the early Sunday morning mass at 8:15 am and now that we have the disability parking permit we can park close to the church entrance so that will really help. I really hope the snow on my deck melts today as tomorrow my DD and hubby will be coming to put out my patio furniture. I don't care if it gets snow on it as I need to get the help wherever I can right now.

Carol Thank you for the conversion chart. I didn't even think about me being on the metric system lol. Everything is more clear now. Your Easter recipes sound good and like you I don't understand why we don't make some of these things year round for instance. I love hot cross buns but they are only available during the Easter season.

Mary How did your beef enchilada dish turn out. I would go for making your scalloped potatoes and sauce the day before. I've often peeled and cut in halves potatoes the day before to save time and just changed the water the next day. They didn't discolor as long as covered in water but I'm sure you already know that.

Sandy I'm not one to try new foods therefore I've never had lamb. Does it taste anything like chicken; beef or pork?

Happy Easter everyone and have a good day,
Karrine

I guess I was wrong about the evening shower and/or the baby wash helping me sleep. I did both last night but tossed and turned all night. I guess it was just a fluke that it helped before.

Gayle, I have the same problem as you, that I cannot fix my hair after I've slept on it, but if I take my shower at night I don't always wash my hair. Sometimes I wash it in the morning over the sink, or I wet it again in the morning and then blow it dry and style it.

Mary, I don't know how you or others feel about this, but you could bake the scalloped potatoes and the ham in the oven at the same time. Some people worry about the flavors of the two blending together but with ham and scalloped potatoes, that's not a bad thing.

Sandy, I have eaten lamb, but I don't think DH would eat it. My mother made it once in a while and I liked it. As a kid, it was just meat. All meat tasted good to me. She made leg of lamb and also made lamb patties out of ground lamb. We eat gyros, and I think the meat they use for gyros is lamb, so DH has eaten some lamb.

Karrine, Nan is so very lucky to have you to care for her so much.

When I cook for a holiday I cannot make anything the day before because then it's leftovers, and DH will not eat leftovers. There are exceptions. One time I made something the day before a family get together but he told me not to tell anyone that it was made before. I don't remember what it was, but it was something that took a long time to cook and would have been impossible to make the day of the get-together. No one else would care, except him. I will be making the beet horseradish and Easter Cheese today because we have plans for most of the day tomorrow. The potato salad would taste much better if I made it the day before and the flavors all melded together, but DH will not allow that. He's finiky.

For some reason, my computer wouldn't boot up this morning. When it finally booted up, I was no longer logged into 3FC and I had to log in again. Now that I'm trying to post this, it's telling me I don't have permission and myst refresh and log in again. I hope I can save this to repost later.

Good evening GG's,

This day has just kind of flown by. It didn't turn out at all like I thought it would.

I was gonna go out to Walmart and Dollar Tree right after I got up, but Jason called and needed me to find some papers he had left here the other day. Then he went to a place to get some information on training for a different kind of job. He planned to stop by here after, for a few minutes to tell what he had learned and for some help from his dad (dad acts as his account/financial adviser) because of his decreased pay while he is on light duty from work because of a back injury. I didn't want to leave then ~ hate to miss a chance to get to visit with him.

He ended up being here until almost 4 pm. So, I didn't accomplish much today. But I guess that is ok ~ I did a lot of cooking yesterday, so maybe being able to take it easy today was good even though I feel kind of guilty about it. My back has been kind of more achy today ~ I think I didn't move around enough.

Jason helped facilitate Steve getting rid of some piles of paper stuff. We get busy with other stuff and don't get around to getting rid of stuff in a timely manner like we should.

We kind of got a little break today. Maddie was with her dad.

Carol Sue ~ you have the patience of a saint with this no leftovers stuff. I guess each of has something like that to deal with and it sounds difficult to someone else, but we are used to it and just do it. Enjoy your family time this weekend.

Karrine ~ Nan sure is lucky to have you. Sad that her family chooses to do other stuff and not spend time with her. Especially with the health things she has going on ~ you'd think they'd be taking every chance they could to spend time with her while they can. Glad you are able to park closer to the church enterance now. That is good for both of you.

Mary ~ hope all your foods turn out well for you. Glad you are able to have family time this weekend.

Sandy ~ enjoy your basket ball games and your family time this weekend.

Hope you all have a nice evening.