Happy New Year! The sun is shining, the wind continues to blow, and it has warmed up to 6 from -3 early this morning. Bob is dismantling the tree while I round up the decorations scattered around the main level. I usually forget something and find it later. I fell asleep during the football game last night so was awake to welcome the new year at midnight. I thought I had posted yesterday but thought then didn’t.

”Gma,” your “noodlehead and nitwit” comments always make me ! I don’t think we had anyone shoot off fireworks around here; at least we didn’t hear any. I’ve had several people tell me they have had the crud going around and it hangs on for a long time. I noticed people coughing in church and I hate shaking hands for that reason. Our church has a committee called Staff Parish that deals with “issues.” When this gal was the office manager they called her on the carpet for being “too social, on FB and personal phone calls during office hours, etc.” The main office counters were always cluttered with her cutesy knick knacks, dusty, and unorganized; now her smaller office is the same way. Her official title is “ministry helper” which means she visits the care centers but not homes, and is responsible for the monthly newsletter. She is now part time, 10-2, Tue.-Thur., and takes time off whenever the whim strikes. She is extremely overweight and has several health issues. She wouldn’t volunteer any extra time if her life depended on it. The minister thinks his job is the Sunday sermon, marry, bury, and baptize so he has NO clue. Your cleaning will get done so don’t fret! Will Jack help if you would ask? I know he probably wouldn’t do it like you do but any help would be good. 66 degrees . . . . .

I have a couple special Christmas cat figurines that have their own boxes so I need to put them away. Christmas is over for another year. Hope you all enjoy the new year!

Happy New Year to all! We have sunshine, wind, and “cold” again today. I’ve been home all day; I did a load of laundry, dusted, and vacuumed the main level area. Oh, and I spent a long time double checking two weeks of gift shop figures for the payroll deductions. The accountant was missing an employee signature page (I’m sure it in her pile somewhere because I sent it up) and her deposit to me was almost $600 short. I need to sort through accumulated “free” greeting cards and put them in the SOS box. I think we are on everybody’s list for donations and receive calendars, greeting cards, and tote bags hoping for contributions. I used to give to some but have cut way back over the years. I was reminded by a piece on FB that I need to count my blessings more often!

Ceejay, so far I have not found anything pertaining to Christmas that I overlooked when we were packing things away. I didn’t put as much out as I used to when the kids were still home. I hate any kind of new pain! Hope your foot and leg pains are gone with new shoes. What brand of shoes do you like? I have three pairs of “old” Clarks and they have all started to squeak. I have bought Clarks for year with no problem. Bob asked me if they were paid for!

I have bell choir in a little while so need to change clothes and get ready. Hope to see everyone checking in! Enjoy the rest of a wonderful Wednesday!

Good Morning! It’s another day of sunshine, wind, and a temperature heading to 40 this afternoon. That I will believe whenI see it! Would you believe we did not have mail delivery yesterday?! I am going to call the post office after lunch to hear their pi** poor excuse this time. Anything except death is unacceptable! I started my day with a trip to the po to mail church birthday cards and a bill that should have left town yesterday. Next a stop at the ATM, the nail salon, WM, and lastly a trip to the small town five miles west of us to mail a card that needs to get to Sioux Falls sooner than later. Bob is at a crop meeting so I won’t see him until late afternoon. Only one fuzz ball came for breakfast this morning. Yesterday we watched them go up what we call the kitty trail between two houses at the end of the block. They are becoming more adventuresome so I think we will see less and less of them.

Good afternoon. I am finally over that darn virus yippee! I finished the downstairs, but haven’t gotten upstairs done yet. I have a hair appt tomorrow.

I am making beef and noodles tonight for dinner. It’s nice to feel well enough to fix dinner.

I bought a cool shoe rack, a laundry holder on a cart with wheels, and a neat makeup bag to use when traveling. HSN was having a sale on “help” products. I finally have something I can use to bring laundry up and down the stairs. When jack had his eye surgery I had a horrible time getting the basket up and down. The shoe rack hangs from hooks and pulls down and hooks under the door. It holds like 30 prs of shoes.

CeeJay: When Jack started making enough money to buy quality shoes, I still tended to buy cheap. I bought a pair of Clarkd sandals for a trip to Vegas in 2004 and I never bought cheap again. I am flat footed and on top of that with the knee injury walk with my right foot turned out. I am tough on shoe wear. I find that my back and hips will hurt when they are worn and it’t time to buy new even though the old aren’t worn out. I hope you can find great shoes.

Jean: Jack’s a gem. I ask him and he’ll do it. He vacuumed the whole downstairs and it started overheating so he took it apart, cleaned it all and finished. He stripped the bed and remade it and brought the sheets down. He unloaded and reloaded and started the dishwasher and moved everything on the counters and washed them and moved everything back. He then moved stuff in kitchen so they could be mopped and when the floor was dry put everything back. I took it easy and would do something then rest, then do the next thing then rest, etc. Sometimes I wonder about the people you have to work with. They don’t seem to be careful/serious about what they do, especially since both the church and gift shop are money related.

​​​​​​​Have a good aftertoon!

Good Morning! Another morning of sunshine and 38 degrees as I type. All four fuzz balls were here for breakfast this morning, later I saw three of them head for the kitty trail. I would love to know where they go when I can no longer see them. I just made a pot of chili; it sounded good a few days ago when it was so cold but not so much today. I had the hamburger thawed in the fridge and was debating about putting it back in the freezer but decided to go ahead and fix it. Bob said he would eat it so leftover chili will be on the menu. I’ve also been defurring Ernie’s bed which is an old bathrobe of mine. I should do it more often but the dryer does a pretty good job getting most of it.

“Gma,” I’m glad you are feeling better! Your crud lasted too long. My mom had a very narrow foot and had to buy shoes at an expensive shoe store. My dad was always on his feet when he was working so bought work shoes there too. Needless to say, that’s where my shoes came from too, and I’ve always bought expensive shoes. Bob is good about helping too. I will rest in between “jobs” on a good day.

Ceejay, practice went ok. There is one gal, a college professor, who is always late. Half the time she doesn’t come at all which makes it hard for the ringers on either side of her. She is a drama queen, being in the drama department. Our friends who winter in Florida, have invited us to come and visit but we will pass this year. We were there with them a few years ago when it was unusually warm for February. Bob would walk in the mornings wearing shorts while the natives were warming their cars before going to work.

Ian has a game today so we will be heading that direction after I pick up the gift shop money. Hope you enjoy a fantastic Friday!

Good Afternoon! It’s been a beautiful spring like day here with sunshine, no wind, and a high of 55 degrees! I hope it’s not the lull before the storm! This morning I wrote checks for the gift shop and got the money ready to deposit on Monday, went to the library to renew a book, stopped at the grocery store for apples and bananas but found a few other things to put in my cart as usual, then came home to do some laundry. I had some crazy dreams last night and non connected to each other. The one I remember was scary! I was back in school and didn’t know where any of the classrooms were since they remodeled. I sure don’t know where that came from. I was up later than usual because we watched a movie after getting home “early” from Ian’s game. They won by 20 points over their arch rival which was sweet!

Ceejay, I’m glad your foot is feeling better. :congrats: on your exercise at the gym! I don’t know if I shared this or not but a couple days ago I walked from the bathroom to the bedroom to answer the phone and rammed my little toe into the corner of the door. It is now more black than blue and the color has spread over half of my foot. It hurts like crazy and I have one pair of old clogs that I can wear besides sandals which don’t work well with socks. I’m trying to decide whether to wear them or just go with a sock to church tomorrow. I rarely go without shoes of some sort because I did the same thing several years ago. I love McD’s french fries! The nice thing about a cat is that you can leave them for a short time where a dog has to be let out. Get two kittens! They are twice the fun and will keep each other company when you are gone then entertain you when you are home!

The dryer is buzzing so need to fold towels and put them away. Bob ushers at church this month so will have to go a little earlier than usual. Enjoy the rest of your weekend!

Good evening. We had shopping today, came home, put it away, Jack watched a football game and I fell aleep. I got up at 2 AM so guess I needed the nap. Woke up at 4:30 and Jack wanted a hot dog so he went to Sonic. I got a hot dog that gave me heartburn,ugh!

Tomorrow we are going to get the rest of the stuff from WM. I typed up my list so I’m ready to go.

I bought myself a new food processor and bread machine. Mine are 25 years old and my bread machine never worked right. I like to make different breads so it’ll be fun to have a good machine again. I bought a bigger cup food food processor so it’ll hold more.

We have had so much darn rain. This weekend was cold but dry so we rushed around to get shopping done. It is then going to start raining again on Monday. {sigh}

Jean: Chili sounds good. Jack doesn’t like it too often, but I do make corn bread. Ohh I hope you foot feels better soon. Do you have a open mule style slipper you could wear? I’ve done that before and it’s awful. Jack dropped a plastic soda bottle on his foot today and has been gyping around. I saw the cutest thing today. It was these little kittens standing on their hind legs and they have suction cups. They’re to hold your Ipad or Iphone. They were cute.

CeeJay: I applaud you for working on getting healthier. You’ll be so happy with the results. I get a check every so often on my life insurance. It’s never a lot, but better than a poke in the eye. I just got a check for $177 as a settlement on a lawsuit I never remembered. I bought these slippers 9 years ago and the company passed on info to a telemarketer who called people on the do not call list and they sued them.

Everyone have a nice weekend.

Good Afternoon! Went to early church, as always, then out for breakfast. I have been decluttering the kitchen counters since being home. We have enough return address labels to last another lifetime so have been shredding some of those. I have gotten lazy and just write our street address and zip code on envelopes for bills. It’s cloudy, windy, and cold in my neighborhood today. Yesterday was so nice but now back to winter reality.

“Gma,” I wore my clog shoes to church this morning. I have another pair of canvas clogs I wear for slippers because they don’t slip on the stairs. It seems like my toe and foot hurt more by the end of the day. I take my shoe off when I watch tv so suppose it swells some. I wanted to get a pedicure this week but will wait on that. I’ve noticed more FB recipes use food processors or the fancy mixers with one beater. My stand mixer is the old fashioned two beater kind; I don’t use it often enough to splurge for a new one. What all do you use your food processor for? I don’thave one of those either. I did have a bread machine but no place to store it so gave it to the SOS store. It took up a lot of counter space. My gift shop “boss” gave me a ceramic cat when I picked up the money Friday. She said it was my “treat” for doing the end of the week paperwork when she is gone. We are getting new merchandise in now, lots of spring greenery, vases, and different kinds of cats. I was surprised to see the cats!

We are leaving soon for Sioux City and the bell concert. Beth is going with us and maybe out to supper afterwards. Enjoy the rest of your super Sunday!

Good Afternoon! We have sunshine today, no wind, and 45 degrees! I spent four hours at church this morning, then finally gave up! The secretary, who helped me count last week, dumped a bag of money which should have been kept separate in with the rest unbeknownst to me. She kept flipping envelope piles and checks willy nilly while she ran tapes that wouldn’t balance. She thought she knew what she was doing and obviously did not. We had more “pots” because of it being first of the month and several people write one check but want it divided among different accounts. I finally said, “let’s quit and I will recount when my regular gal gets back tomorrow.” She wasn’t happy but couldn’t make the figures balance so I locked it up and left. I was more than a little frazzled! This afternoon I spent some time in the gift shop going over cards to reorder. I have no energy to start any new projects now.

Ceejay, your food plan sounds a bit like ours. Leaving for games at two in the afternoon, with a pit stop midway is not a good plan. Game popcorn always smells so good! Good luck with your SB plan. Bob’s doctor recommended SB to him a few years ago. Bob bought the book, and I kept it dusted off for months. It finally found a new home. He did better following the diabetic nurse’s suggestions. It was basically choose what you like from different food groups, then count what he ate. I think you and I are similar cooks. Fancy I am not! My toe feels better today, not as sore but still colorful.

I have laundry in the washer and dryer so will read my library book while I wait for them to finish. Hope you have enjoyed a marvelous Monday!

Good morning! Going to be a nice warm day today then temps are going to drop about 25 degrees. I am already ready for spring.

I got the upstairs bathrooms cleaned and the laundry done yesterday. Today I am going to go out in a couple hours and get my nails done. I put a roast, new potatoes and carrots in the crockpot for dinner.

I set up my appointment the end of the month to get my SS started in June. He said I could do it over the phone, but I have too many questions I need answered. I also set up my mammogram appointment and it’s the following week.

CeeJay: My doctor and nutitionist says Keto diet cuts too many carbs and that’s what the new SB diet is. She said you should maintain around 25-30 per meal, not per day. It’s the new thing and frankly, people can do what they want, but I am going to listen to my medical personnel. Let’s just say I got into a disagreement with someone on FB about it. You do what makes you feel well. Ask your doctor what they think. My practice want me using the plate program. 50% veg, 25% carbs, 25% protein, serving of fruit. As I am diabetic, I am not screwing around with my carbs. My blood sugar stays down, so it is not detrimental to me. I like to cook, but physically it is hard for me to stand long periods with the knee. My kitchen looks like an appliance store. I have a Kitchenaid mixer, bread machine, food processor, rotisserie, instant pot, air fryer, immersion blender, ninja blender, elec can opener, 4 slice toaster, convection toaster oven, ice tea maker, Kuerig coffee maker, a griddle, microwave, and a crockpot! The only one I haven’t used in a long time is the rotisserie as the thing’s hard to clean.

Jean: Hope you got the church money all straightened out. I use my food processor to chop or slice stuff, grate cheese, blend stuff like homemade salsa, stuff like that. I love making homemade bread, but the one I have just never worked. The dough never got past a soup stage. Waste of money. I want to make fresh wheat bread or rye, etc. Stuff that is better fiber for me.

Well need to get going. Have a good day.