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Still going...........

I am not the Energizer Bunny, but I'm still going. Laundry is being done. I've packed several boxes of stuff so that things can be cleared from the living room and dining room. I threw a rotisserie chicken into a big stockpot and cooked it til it was falling off the bone. I will make one or two more trips to the kitchen and that will take care of cleaning up my chicken mess and the last work necessary to declare another cabinet clean. 

So, the bookcase in the living room is completely empty. The china cabinet is empty, but there are a couple of things on top that I need to climb to rescue. All the cookbooks are packed and moved except for two boxes. The dark clothes are washed and dried. I need to fold them and put them away. Light colored clothes are washed and ready for the dryer as soon as I move the dark colored clothes. There's still a small load of white things to tackle. I probably lowered the level of paper on the desk today by at least an inch. It still doesn't look good, but I can tell it's improving by the trash cans that are filling up and the file folders I've made and filed today. 

I will be in bed by midnight. YES, I will. I work tomorrow and I have to leave here for the store by 9:30AM. However, I still have about 5 hours during which I can try to finish up as much as possible. The only thing holding me back right now is a dandy headache. 

I forgot to mention that I'm still doing backups, unzipping and organizing files and deleting e-mails whenever I stop to rest. And I made an important phone call that needed to be made. Unfortunately, Allstate's customer service greets folks with a recorded message asking that a message be left with a promise that a return call will happen in 3-5 business days! What kind of customer service is that? 

All in all, I'm pretty happy with the way the day has gone so far. I'm sure I'll get a bit more done before I give up for the night. Later, y'all...........

 

Another day done........

It's been a quiet day here at Tara. Just Jesus, me and the dogs. Jesus has been busy keeping us safe and keeping me going. I've been busy doing stuff I wasn't supposed to need to do, and the dogs have been busy barking and eating.

Tuesday night, I spent an hour on the phone with Mr. Fixit, discussing getting the carpet that is in the garage laid in the hall and living room/dining room. I am having a difficult time communicating with him. He is prone to talk over me and to push his ideas over mine which doesn't work when I am the one who has to pay, KWIM? Anyway, it was finally decided that he and his two sons would be here this evening to move the furniture out of there. And, if they finished before It got too late, they were going to pull up the carpet that's there and check out the pad that's underneath, the tacking strips, etc. And, he was supposed to call me last night at 7:30 to confirm what time they'd be here.

Well, there was no call last night and they haven't appeared today. I'm a tad bit torqued........

But, it did give me the motivation and opportunity to pack up and move a good bit of stuff myself. That's cheaper than having them do it, LOL. And, honestly, some of this stuff needed to be moved to more sensible places anyway. While I am not happy about unkept commitments, I will be able to keep a few more pennies in my pocket. And, when this is finally done, the house will look the better for it, not just because the carpet will look better but because more stuff is put away or donated or whatever. 

He keeps pushing at me to do more than I want to do. And that, of course, will cost me more than I am currently prepared to pay. The man doesn't seem to be able to grasp that I am living on a shoestring so I can keep everything paid. He also keeps telling me he'll "carry me". Well, nice thought, but NO! If I can't pay cash for it, we're not doing it. End of story. I only want to deal with the hall, the living room, and the dining room right now. So, during our hour long conversation Tuesday night, I fought off the idea that we were going to empty this room too and drag everything to the back yard and cover it with a tarp and leave it there til the carpet is replaced. No, I don't want my stuff in the back yard and No, I'm not prepared to pay for all that. Then he started pushing at me to buy tile now for the entryway, kitchen, and bathroom floors. No, I'm not prepared to do that now. The next thing was that he would fix up the entryway floor. It has numerous broken tiles where the tiles join the carpet. I'm thinking that is probably because it wasn't put down with the proper amount of the stuff that goes under tile (I lost the name of that stuff temporarily--senior moment). Anyway, that would, of course, require more labor charge and it would reduce the size of the entry area which is already really small. No, I don't want to do that...... 

I was pretty frustrated when I finally got off the phone. He tends to repeat himself over and over and it's a crazy maker for me. I'm fairly swift--I can usually get your drift the first 4 or 5 times you tell me something! And then to have him set a time to call Wednesday night and not call and promise to be here today and not be here, well........... Yeah, I'm frustrated. 

But, the china cabinet is about 90% cleaned out. The bookcase in the living room is empty. Another bookcase in the dining area is cleaned out 60%. I found homes for some stuff that was sitting around and tomorrow I'll find more homes, pack more stuff and start moving whatever small stuff I can move. I've already been moving boxes today so I'm all tuned up to give it a go. 

I can move most of what's in there. However, what I don't think I can do is stand the couch on end and that pretty well has to be done because of space considerations. I also cannot move the piano. However, I can certainly move most of the electronics out of there (all but the TV) and I can move the table and chairs and side tables, etc. I'm not going to move it fast, but if he and his 2 big sons aren't here tomorrow, I WILL be moving things! The more I move the more I save. 

My one big dream is that maybe by 1/1/15 I will once again be able to get the van in the garage. I would LOVE that! It has been, literally, years since I've been able to do that. I NEED to reduce the wear and tear on that vehicle that comes with the extreme heat in the summer.

I am really starting to see progress on the top of the desk. It doesn't look it right now, but that's because I have lots of piles of sorted papers for which I am making folders and so on. But I can tell you the number of piles and the height of said piles is significantly lower tonight than it has been in quite a while. 

In the background, I am running backups on the computer. I haven't done as much of this throughout the month as I should have, so I am pushing hard on it now. I wont get it all done in November, but I aim to do everything I can. 

There was no feast or fancy food here today. I had a rotisserie chicken in the freezer which I thawed. I ate some of the white meat. Tomorrow, I'll probably throw the thing in a pot and cook it down for soup which was my intention when I bought it last month. I also bought a pumpkin pie at Costco last month. It was quite large and very well priced. I brought it home and cut it into serving sized pieces and froze them. So chicken and a piece of pie did it for me. I don't need all the extra carbs that usually go with a Thanksgiving meal anyway. Think about it: mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, stuffing, rolls, desserts--all carbs. Well, I'll be thinner for not eating all that stuff! And, most likely, healthier! 

I did not tell you something about last night. You know, I was not sure about my ability to handle the 2 8-hour shifts back to back. I'm telling you, there was a lot of scripture quoting and praying going on the last 3 hours I was at work. What was interesting was that I had a tough time getting into the van! I went to get in and my right hip let me know it was NOT amused. I did it though and I drove home. And, no further problems today! God be praised.......

So, anyway, that's it for Thanksgiving Day, 2014. Black Friday will probably look about the same, LOL but I'll check in and bore you with the lack of excitement in my life tomorrow. I am not unhappy to have spent the day here without other humans. I admit I had some wistful moments, but I stayed busy and all was well. I am actually pretty content these days. So grateful for that and for God's many other blessings! See you tomorrow............

 

I survived..........

2 8-hour shifts back to back. Not without a fight, but I survived to the bitter end.

First of all, I was shocked that I felt reasonably well this morning. At least the soreness was gone, that soreness I was having to deal with last night. I did start the day with an upset stomach but that settled down when I got to work. (Funny thing--it started up again when I got home, LOL). I spent the first 4 hours tocay with the new girl and Mr. Nice Guy. The new girl was late arriving, but she had warned everyone that might happen due to a doctor's appointment scheduled before she was hired.

It went pretty well. I was more or less the "trainer" today, or at least I was the "watchdog". I was very close at hand to keep her out of trouble. I asked Mr. Nice Guy to walk her through closing procedures. He is so organized and so low key that NONE of the craziness from yesterday recurred and he took the time to explain how things were done and why things were done. She was very happy with his approach and felt she had learned some valuable stuff from him. I knew she would. :) 

Besides being the "watchdog", I got a chance to show her a few low level things like how to clear out the machine that tracks the gambling wins, how to pay out a gambling win, how to clean the capuccino machine, and so on. So, all in all the day shift part of the day went well.

I am telling you we, Accident Lady and I, scrambled for the rest of my shift. It was so crazy busy, I felt guilty about leaving. And, I offered to stay, but she decided I could come home. Phew! That was a relief. Of course there is all the sidework to be completed, and normally I am there til almost 8PM. However, both yesterday and today, I ended my shift at around 7. That left us with an hour less for sidework. Between trying to serve the customers, make sure we have food on the grill, and the extras, we REALLY hustled. The store was REALLY busy. I think it was that the grocery stores were horrific so people decided to try us when they couldn't even find a place to park at the grocery stores. So, in addition to all our regular business, we had LOTS of extra people milling around the store looking for last minute supplies for tomorrow. I wouldn't be surprised if we has record-breaking beer sales tonight. I guess all the guys were gearing up for some football tomorrow. 

We did manage to get done in 4 hours what we usually do in 5, but, boy oh boy, did we ever hustle. I think I spent half the evening out of breath!

We had quite a scare early on. We got a delivery from Coors and that means we need to scan what comes in so it will show up in the store's inventory and be cross-checked against our orders. Accident Lady went for a scanner and found not two (there SHOULD be two) but one. My Lord, we both went into a panic. Remember--we had one stolen from the store a couple of months ago and there was a BIG stink about it.......... I searched every surface in the back room and every surface in the area behind the registers. She ended up even searching in the cooler! Finally, I said "We'd better call Mrs. Owner!" Obviously, at that point neither of us had touched a scanner, so it's loss couldn't be blamed on us, but there's always that "shoot the messenger" thing........ If anyone would have taken my blood pressure about then, I would have refused to look and would have covered my ears and sung the NA-NA-NA-NA song very loudly. I just wouldn't have wanted to know.......... And she, well, it turned out Mrs. Owner had left the scanner locked in the office. Accident Lady really did end up yelling at her on the phone "Why didn't you leave a note?????????????????????????????" Accident Lady was shaken; I could tell based on how long it took her to scan that shipment in and I don't think my BP went back to normal til half an hour or 45 minutes later. We are both fairly certain the excrement would have hit the fan if another of those scanners had been lost or stolen and it had been our fault...........

I guess Accident Lady had some excitement last night. Along about 9-9:30, she had a break in the rush and stepped outside to smoke a cigarette. A guy in a van pulled in and started heading for the phones. Right behind him came a police officer. For whatever reason, the officer ran the van's plates (we think he might have been following it), and it came back as stolen! When the officer looked for the driver (who was supposedly headed for the pay phone outside), he had disappeared. That started all kinds of excitement. Apparently he called in "reinforcements". We were told that streets were blocked off for blocks around the store. In addition, Mrs Been There Forever lives just a block from the store. She was coming out of the shower when she heard a commotion behind her house. She peeked out the windows to find 2 SWAT teams and their dogs in her back yard. Folks, homes around here have 6 foot walls around their yards. We figure the officers had to climb over her block wall and lifted the dogs in as well. Anyway, numerous customers were asking tonight what was going on at the store last night. Apparently, they even had the helicopters out searching........ No one seems to know if they ever caught the guy........

Then, this afternoon, we had 6 marshalls ride up to the store on bikes. I guess they were some sort of "bike patrol". No clue what that was about......... Anyway, these were big burly guys. I'm tellin' you, the store felt "crowded" while they were there. No idea what that was about but it added in a bit of excitement and definitely was an improvement on the scenery over our usual group of guys with paunches........

So, that's the news for tonight. I'm gonna be up about another hour and then I'm going to crash. I have a lot to do tomorrow. 

My places that hurt..........

have places that hurt this evening. Geez.......... Why it seems worse today than usual, I couldn't tell you, but it does. 

Today was a crazy day at work. Mostly the early part of my shift. Shift change is at 2:45. I started at 10:45. I did okay til shift change started and then life turned into a circus. 

One thing that gets to me is a lot of noise and hubbub around me. The more that is going on, the more aggravated I become. And today it was determined that Mrs. Been There Forever would show the new girl how to do shift change. So that put 3 of us behind the counter. In truth, I "learned" from Mrs. BTF and it nearly drove me mad. Again, it is her intention to teach people how to do this and it is an essential task. BUT, Mrs. BTF believes you can get it just by watching/doing it. 

Well, that didn't work for me. I knew all the steps and had no idea when each step should be done (and there are quite a few steps to the process.) Watching today, it just looked like the same confusing process I'd been exposed to lo these many months ago. I was very grateful I was not the student this time. Months later, I got a bewildered Accident Lady to walk me through how she did it and that more or less made sense to me. I don't think she could understand how it was that I didn't understand by then.......

Anyway, there the 3 of us are behind the counter. And since there is no rhyme or reason to the process as performed by Mrs. BTF that I can see, I was being shifted from one place to another continually. In addition they'd "broken down" the drawer on Register 2, meaning they'd taken almost all but the barest amount of cash from the register. And I am the only one checking. And I run out of $10 bills. And I run out of $5 bills. And I soon run out of $1 bills. And I have no loose change, just rolled change in the drawer. And everywhere I step to try to get a pack of cigarettes for a customer or $$$ with which to make change, either Mrs. BTF or the new girl are standing there or walk into me while I'm trying to do whatever I can to keep the customers moving. And Mrs. BTF and the new girl are LOUD. And suddenly the store has been swarmed by customers and the customers seem to be having a reacquainted party as they meet people they haven't seen for a while and the customers are loud. And people want to buy food from the grill and I'm the only one checking and on and on and on.

Then Accident Lady was late in arriving for what was to be the second half of my shift. And, I was thinking I'd go mad if I had to work another 4 hours with either Mrs. BTF or the new girl. And in the middle of all that, some vendor showed up with a delivery which needed to be checked in. 

I'm telling you it was about 45 minutes of total madhouse! Holy 3 Ring Circus, Batman! Anyway, I was SO RELIEVED when Accident Lady arrived. She had to pick her DGD up from school and said DGD had lost her coat at school............ Ugh! I don't remember the last time I was so glad to see anyone! 

Well, that was my post for last night. Once I got all that out, I was too blitzed to even post it, so we're using it for your morning read. And, we're using it as a request for your prayers that today I hold together better in the face of whatever adversity comes......... YOU be BLESSED today!

Two days off, two days on........

The "two days off" part has ended. Now it's "two days on". I work two 8-hour shifts back to back today and tomorrow. 

For a room that needs paint, flooring, and more, the hall bath looks pretty good. No, really, it just looks clean. Pretty good is stretching it.

The washer and dryer have been polished and cleaned inside and out and clean clothing has been put away.

And a WHOLE LOT of design work has been done! The kit I've been working on most is a crafting kit. We ladies do enjoy our crafts, don't we? I have no clue what more I can put into this kit. It's chock full of stuff now, but my computer tells me I need more MB to make my goal of 100MB of elements per kit. Perhaps I can offer some elements in more color choices. For example, I created a glitter spatter and it's created in dark turquoise. But I have 3 other color families in the kit so maybe I will do that. I plan on stitching in this kit and that will help. I want one button (at least) in each color family so I can add a couple more buttons (I have 2). But all in all I think I have one fantastic kit going on. I am really pleased with what I've done. It just might be my best kit ever. 

I've been told that it's all in attention to detail. Well, if so, this kit ought to be a real winner as I've got details galore! And I keep reducing elements in size in the preview in order to give a better look at all the stuff that's in there. I've outdone myself, I tell ya! 

Anyway, I painstakingly carried a bunch of trash to the outside bin last night, but I failed to drag it to the curb. So, I'm gonna knock off with this for now and get that taken care of. Just discovered my front porch looks like a light smattering of snow has fallen. Not so! There is a desert "weed" that is in bloom and it's blowing things all over, kinda like what happens when you blow on a dandelion.......... Lovely.......NOT! They are lighter than air and there's no sweeping them up. You just gotta pray for a windy day or two............

YOU be BLESSED today! I might come back and talk at ya tonight..........

Today I WILL.........

get away from this machine. Honestly, I felt like this thing was my ball and chain yesterday. I worked on two different kits yesterday, just doing clean up and adding in some things. Neither is "quite" done. The one that needs to be uploaded today needs two new previews created. The other needs a few specific elements created plus previews for wrapping. Then I'm done with both for now.

I got almost nothing done in the hall bath and the hall yesterday--the areas on which I planned to concentrate. And, I baked banana bread last night so the kitchen is a mess. It was almost 11PM when I finally pulled that banana bread out of the oven and I was just too tired to care. So, I start the morning behind the 8-ball............ 

So, my to do list for today is much like yesterday's......... Kitchen clean up, work on filing, etc., on the desk, finish cleaning the hall bath and get the hall in order. I also need to put on an afterburn on back ups on the computer for November. And there is always plenty of e-mail deleting and file unzipping and organizing to be done. It's a cinch I can keep busy. 

I bragged about this banana bread recipe to a friend. For days after, I was feeling a little panicky because she asked for the recipe. I wasn't sure I could find the exact same recipe again and I'd failed to pin it! Geez. Well, I had 4 "free" bananas from the store and they were a priority (i.e., they were approaching unusable). Imagine my surprise when I realized I'd printed out the recipe last week. So, I got that banana bread made and I can just scan and print a copy of the recipe for my friend! 

Well, this was short but sweet, right? I want to get rolling. Only 13 hours left before my 2 days off end. I will accomplish very little around here Tuesday and Wednesday as I have 2 back-to-back 8hour days.....Let's all pray I have the strength and mobility to move on Thursday, LOL. Meanwhile, YOU be BLESSED today!

I should have known..........

After 2+ hours of blessing from church, something was bound to go wrong, right? Yeah....... Satan had to see if he could rob that blessing. Yep, Mark 4:18 in action--the worries of this world.

I spent most of the day doing quality checks on the Christmas kit I've been trying to finish and on next week's release. Then I realized I could fit a good bit more into the kit for next week so I worked on that. And, as I worked, I added things to the working preview. And then, as I was finishing what was to be the last element, Photoshop went down. Thankfully I didn't lose a whole bunch of elements, just the one. But the working preview went away and so did a number of color palettes I'd pulled together. I also had a few things open from the out in left field kit I started last week when I should have been working on my Christmas kits. I have no clue, yet, what I may have lost there.

I should have been better prepared for just such a thing to happen. But, I have a new preview nailed together and I even squeezed a few more elements into the kit. So there! 

I am headed to bed. I've had it. We'll talk more in the morning, 'kay? 

136 minutes later.........

the Spirit of the Lord is "heavy" in this house. Whew! 

I submit to you that if you go to a church where everything is "normal", maybe it's the wrong church. Perhaps this should become the subject of prayer in your home. God is supernatural. And, sadly, in THIS world, the supernatural is not "normal". God's powers, His thoughts, His ways of doing things, these things are SO different from ours that they just can't be "normal". When God moves it's miraculous. And what is a miracle? Well, one thing it certainly is NOT is "normal". I don't think you can pour God into a box and carry Him around. He cannot be contained when He is on the move........ So, if your God is contained, staid, solid, quiet, you haven't seen enough of Him yet....... He'll shake your world when you let Him do His thing........

I got a heavy duty assignment today. I have known for a long time that no job is just a job. No job is just a paycheck. No job is my source. God has ways of getting my needs met that I haven't even conceived of yet. A job is a mission field, end of story. It is a place where I am a/the light in the darkness. And, I have prayed over and over and over to shine brightly for Christ in that place where I work. Knowing that this place is an assignment from God (I knew THAT much before the job was mine), does a whole lot for my prayer life because I do NOT want to be an embarrassment to my Daddy--ever. 

What I got today is that this little place where I work is going to become a hotbed of crazy Christianity. And somehow, I'm a catalyst. Now if that's not a scary thought, I don't know what is. What if I fail? How many souls will it cost in those moments when I am more controlled by the "human", "normal" side of me than I am by the power, the Spirit of God? Oh, I don't even know how to pray about that...... 

What do I say? What do I not say? What do I do? One thing I know--my prayer life just ratcheted up quite a few notches...........

I tell you now, if there is ANY light in that place, it pretty much HAS to come through me. There are those who work there who deny God's existence or who mock the very thought. And there is little display of anything "Christian" in that place, at least not among the employees. Maybe someone there goes and sits in a church somewhere on Sundays, but it stops there. There is a display of "ungodly" and there is a display of "decent" there, but the crazy upside world that is Christianity, where we are called to love our enemies, etc., well, no, that's not visible unless it's visible in me. Lord, help me because far too often it is probably not visible in me either............... There are three or four customers who tip me off that they know something of Christ when they wish me a "blessed day", but that's it, folks.......... So it's Jesus in me that has to turn the world upside down. And I am not what I think of as a world changer. On most days, my best witness/victory is just keeping my mouth shut when I have something to say to someone that is distinctly unloving........... Can God use just that to change that place? Oh, boy.............. The only way I know to change a world is prayer, a whole lot of prayer.....

 

And no fun was had........

Well, that's not quite true. I got to see a number of customers who are faves of mine and just decent folks with whom to deal. My "partner", Mrs. GlassHalfEmpty was a total pain in the tush yesterday. I think she is the most negative, argumentative, critical person I've ever known. I thought I was raised around that person, but that person couldn't hold a candle to Mrs. GHE. 

In general, I think she means to be "nice" but it's all about her. She chatters endlessly and has absolutely no manners. She will talk over anyone. NOTHING anyone else says has any merit whatsoever. And she has no problem saying so. 

Here's a classic encounter. I went to refill my coffee cup and noticed the little light was flashing on the capuccino machine. That means it needs to be "rinsed". This essentially means getting a bucket and setting the machine to shoot hot water through the nozzles. No big deal. She said she didn't care whether I did that or ran the register. So, since the machine needed attention, I went to take care of that. I'd barely started when she walked up, took the bucket out of my hands, and proceeded to tell me "Nobody in the store does this right but me." Geez........... I finally just walked away...... But I managed to keep my mouth shut. It just seemed like a real "catch 22" place to be. If nobody can do it right but her, why not claim that opportunity in the first place. Why let me go over there and start just to come over and tell me she is the ONLY person who can do it right? 

I don't spend much time with Mr. KIA these days, so maybe his effect on me has worn thin as my memory has faded. However, Mrs. GHE is probably now lower on my list of people with whom to spend time than Mr. KIA. Maybe that's the result of my repeated prayers for God's love for Mr. KIA to fill my heart. Maybe not, LOL. 

Anyway, I am at the beginning of two days off. I think I am going to try to knock off four parts of the house these next two days instead of just two. Now don't think I am going to have them all spit polished or anything. That's not going to happen. But, these will just be areas I am trying to improve. My idea is that if I continue working on the rooms in round robin fashion, sooner or later, they will all become more liveable. I can't go in and devote whole days to any one or two room. I have other balls to keep in the air, KWIM? 

For right now, the guest room is being used for storage for the stuff I am boxing up and removing from the living room/dining room area. I will not even look at that. I know it's temporary. I am more concerned with attempting to sort through and organize some of the clothing items that are still in there. 

The sewing room isn't in bad shape at all. If I could spend time in there, it would be sewing. I have, more or less, landed on a color palette for the house as I move forward. I want to go with brown, brown with white added (no yellow, no gray) to create beige, turquoise, a yellowy green, and orange. Maybe some yellow thrown in here and there. In essence, if you remember that huge curtain that was given to me, I am pulling colors from there. I have all sorts of pillow forms in there. I'd love to spend just a bit of time making some decorative pillows.......... But it's not the right time for that. First the carpet, then the paint.

Yes, I realize that is kind of back asswards. Anyone with good sense would paint first, then lay new carpet. However, that person would probably not have carpet with holes and rips everywhere. I have that holey, ripped carpet and it has to get out of here SOON. So, decorative pillows--well, much as I would like to play with those, it's not time. 

It occurred to me the other day that I could actually go "seasonal" with those colors. Think pillows on the sofa: brown and orange for fall, green and gold for winter, green and turq for spring, turq and orange for summer......... Think corduroy or other heavy fabric for winter, cottons for the other seasons with some white thrown in. In my mind's eye, I'm seeing prints on white in orange, turq, and/or green. Yeah!

My primary goal for this round, however, is to clean that hall bath down to spotless and to clean the hall. Wipe down the washer dryer, little stuff like that. Once I get the livingroom back together (sort all the leftover "stuff" from the coat closet) I will tackle the linen closet, maybe next round. I have a feeling I'll be lugging a lot of donation bags to the van when that linen closet thing starts........

On the design front, I need to spiff up a kit for the DSB store. I also need to put the one Christmas kit that's almost finished on a diet. It's too big for its britches. And I need to get the raw previews ready for wrapping. If I can get that kit "skinny" enough, I still want to add a few elements.........

All in all, I'll be busy this next two days. However, before any of that starts, I need to get myself ready to meet the day and do some church! I'm off to get on that. YOU be BLESSED today. Be sure to honor the Lord on His day (and every day, LOL).

If I were doing Christmas,

I'd probably have a great time reading all the blogs right now. There are all sorts of fun and creative ideas for holiday decorations, holiday food, etc. But, I'm not doing Christmas, at least not in the traditional sense, so blog reading is kind of boring right now.

I've thought about it. This is the first year since before Joe died that I can actually get to the Christmas stuff. Yup, I had to pay to have someone move all that carpet around in the garage, but it is now physically possible to get to the Christmas stuff. However, while it's physically possible, it sure isn't easy. It would require opening the garage door and navigating around 5 large pieces of furniture and some other stuff to get there. There are boxes and boxes and I don't exactly know what's in any of them. I think I would wear myself out just trying to get all that into the house, let alone get the tree up and decorated. And, it will be just me. So, I ask myself, why bother?

Christmas was always a big time for baking in this house. I'd bake 3 or 4 dozen of 5 or 6 varieties of cookies. Sometimes I'd throw in a homemade version of the only fruitcake I will eat. However, whatever I bake will a) cost money and b) add to the padding on my hips. I will not be baking much.........

There is one variety of Christmas cookie that has graced my family's holiday menu since my father was a kid. I've decided I'll bake those and nothing else unless I get a wild hair to make some chocolate chip cookies besides. I don't really regard chocolate chip cookies as "Christmas cookies" so they're just......different. I am planning on mailing a goodly number of those cookies to my mother. She'll understand the sentiment behind them, the tradition, and since she is now in assisted living and unable to bake them herself, she'll appreciate them.

I don't really feel I can take Christmas cookies to my grandkids. The middle one has Celiac's. So, if I bake cookies the way I know how to bake cookies, he can't have any. How could I show up with cookies that can only be eaten by 2 of the 3 kids? No, that just won't do........ 

I am doing gifts for the DGC this year. I've been saving my pennies and nickels and dimes and I can do it. I have decided the oldest DGS will get money. He's a teenager now and would be most pleased with a video game. However, Grandma does not have the budget for that. But, I figure he can take whatever I give him and add it to what other folks give him and perhaps get a video game himself. 

The DGD will probably get a very special little dress, something that makes her feel like a princess when she wears it.

At this point I have no idea what to get for the younger DGS. I'm pretty sure he has Legos galore. What else do 7 year-old boys like? I guess I'll be studying the Toys 'R' Us website........

Switching gears, I found a big cardboard box on my front porch yesterday. My mother recently had the opportunity to go to the storage facility where what's left of her stuff is stored. She sent me some clothes. I don't know if they'll fit, but I appreciate the thought. They're pretty, though. And my mother was a depression baby, so they have been well taken care of. I'm a little bit concerned in that I saw two sweatshirts and a warm robe (If I'm not mistaken, I got her that robe for Christmas one year) in the box. For years now, she's complained of being cold. I'm guessing maybe, at age 94, her ticker isn't what it used to be and perhaps her circulation isn't all that good. Anyway, it seems untimely to be giving away warm clothes, particularly now that she is living in an institution where she has no control over the thermostat. However, I'm grateful for the stuff! Other than the thrift store shopping I did so that I'd have long sleeved shirts to wear under my "smock" for work, I have no plans to buy clothes for a LONG time. So, these will be my "new" clothes for 2015. 

I have pretty well concluded I will not be making a trip to Costco in November. My "stock" is enough to carry me through. There are only a very few items I need and I can get them at El Cheapo. I always buy stuff that I probably don't need at Costco, despite my best intentions, so not going this one month will result in a significant savings. Of course, I may buy more than usual next month, but we'll see. Besides, who is brave enough to go to Costco during Thanksgiving week? Not me, LOL.

And, I have been making a concerted effort to use up some stuff and use other food stuff more wisely. I have been guilty of bringing home "free food" from the store and then not eating it. My conscience gave me a little nudge on that one! 

I can't hang around. I'm due at the store in 1 hour. YOU be BLESSED today, okay? Take care of things while I'm gone............