Whatcha doing today?

[Mt_Rider]

   I got to sleep at 10:30pm last nite.  I woke up at 10:30 AM this morning.  Well......at least that's the right side of the clock.  Must still need 10-12 yrs hours of sleep.  Freudian Typo there...     

 

So my skin doc appt was pushed back to January...doc had an emergency of some sort.  Hmph.  My horse ride tomorrow isn't happening cuz no one else wanted to ride this Saturday.      Ah well...might be for the best tho...not a good time for me to skip rehab.  Hmph.

 

MtRider   ...just sayin' HI and going to bed....maybe by 11 or 11:30pm?   

[Jeepers]

Becca_Anne, glad your handy man showed up. Sometimes that's half the battle. A man with a plan is a good thing. I used to go to a laundry mat that used plexiglass over a single pane window. It was a wonderful idea. It worked so well I thought about doing it at my house. They had it screwed on so in theory they could remove it in the summer, although they never did. But I think doing it at home would make the screw holes stretch out over time. It could probably be velcroed on or double sided taped on though. Over a window you didn't want to open, like a basement or an attic, I think it would be a good idea. It was very insulating. I've always remembered that idea and kept it in the back of my mind. 

[Littlesister]

Mt. Rider, glad you were able to get some sleep.  

 

Becca Anne, it's good to be able to get someone over there to get those things taken care of. Plexiglass is a great idea. And yes, it does insulate well.

 

Fired up the new wood stove today. SIL couldn't stand it. He had to check it out and he wants one. They have a natural gas fireplace, and he wants to change it out for a free-standing wood stove. Seems he and DD has finally woken up to reality and stocking food and thinking about ways to keep warm without current of any kind. So that is a start. We are working on getting GS set up with everything he needs to be on his own. 

That fireplace will run you out if not careful. Still have to get fans situated and such. But being the first time using it and getting the feel for how it is going to do was the main part.  And Mother is right. I will be able to cook on it and put a cast iron pot inside when it gets down to embers to cook something inside the stove. Wondering how bread in a cast iron pan would work in there. SIL thinks I should get that oven that goes onto the pipe going up into chimney also. He said he has cooked on one before. I might think about that. House is now up to 70*. And that is in back of house which is usually a bit colder than front of house. So, working good for keeping whole house warm.  They saw my bedroom pantry for first time finished up and they love it. SIL has his brain going on what they need to do now. He has known for a long time that they need to start prepping but DD was never on board. It was always it will be fine. This won't last. Now they see it will last and no end in sight.  She went to store and got sticker shock. I think that got her on board. She still won't do canning, so I am introducing her to dehydrating. I think she will be on board for that. 

[Mother]

Little sister, I’m glad you got a chance to try out your stove and that it’s going to work for some cooking. Next time try some biscuits in a cast iron pan right in the stove top.  You might have to flip them over to get them thoroughly done but I’ll bet that will work.

 

[Mt_Rider]

Littlesister.... That's SO exciting that your dd and sil are "getting it"...  And your Exibit A = roaring fire to keep house warm....      FINALLY..they GET IT!!!     ....especially if Hooey Hits Fan...that's where you'd need to go.  Plus GS.

 

Well, my day began well.  I slept 12:30pm to 10:30am.  Going to talk about Ambien or something different with my doc.  Flexeril is working better but it's a muscle relaxant.  Don't want to take it all the time but I'll take it til I can get someother way.

 

THEN.... after DH came home from 'town' with groceries, I was lugging a milk gallon in left hand and 10# of potatoes in right hand.  Up our 15 steps to porch and 2nd floor living.  Half way up, I did what I've been doing since I was a kid.  Falling UP stairs!  My right foot hit the next step ...instead of stepping upon it!!     ......  

 

Usually when I do this trip-on-stairs, I throw my hands out to catch myself before slamming face first into the stairs.     Didn't happen this time.   I did get my head turned just enough so my nose did not take the direct hit.  But I bashed my left eye into the upper step - full force.   

 

Hit the bottom part of the occipital bone.  Immediate swelling ballooned under eye and new colors.  Aaaaugh!  Hollered for DH but he was putting away groceries in the fridge/freezer in basement.  [the man can't hear anything!!]  I was thinking it would cut and bleed like crazy but thankfully it didn't cut. 

 

Hurt like the dickens tho!  Sat on a step with milk and 'taters and waited til DH came out.  He said WHAT did you do?    It also set off the shakes immediately, of course.  Carefully made my way up the rest of the stairs....DH behind me with the milk and potatoes.  Got cold gell pack on it.  OOWWW!  The stair had either imprinted on the skin below the eye or scraped it.  Plus colorful swelling. 

 

DH was laughing when he asked me what I'll tell my grief counselor when he sees all the color it will be by Tues.  No...wasn't DH.   

  Thankfully it's mostly stopped hurting by tomite...unless I touch it.  

 

However.....there is no damage to the eye.  If I'd hit my nose that hard....ack!  Would be 2 black eyes and broken nose....and blood.  Lots of blood. 

 

 .....ya just never know what I'll report for my day, right?  Sheeesh! 

 

MtRider......  how will I wear my sleep mask?

[euphrasyne]

I am so envious of al the wood stoves.  I even gave DH puppy dog eyes and told him how much I want one.  LOL.  

 

You can preheat a cast iron pan on the stove, set the lid on the stove to preheat also.  Then put in your biscuits with the lid on and it will cook without flipping.  

[Littlesister]

euphrasgne,  keep after your DH. Hopefully he will give in and get one. Mine is not what Joyfilled has, and I would love to have one of those. But this is in my den. And was mostly for heating the house. It is doing great for heating house so hopefully. I cooked chicken on it today. And it turned out great. The top is flat so using my cast iron pans is working great. When it is just the embers in stove, I think I can set a pot inside the stove and cook something up, but not sure on that yet. Don't know what made me decide to try chicken on it as there are other things that might have been easier to do for doing it the first time. But it worked out great. Chicken was done and very tender. Need to go out to shed and get the rest of my cast iron pots. I put them in there for safe keeping during construction. Or to hide from SIL Yes, he loves cast iron pots and will one day he and GS will inherit them. Plenty for both of them. I need to find a place to store them when I bring them in. No room in kitchen for them as they are a huge roasting pan, to small Dutch oven to a large Dutch oven. I think I have about 4 different sizes. I will be using the smallest one the most. I do have a lot of cast iron of all types. 

 

Other than cooking chicken on wood stove. I have had the CD player going and just relaxing. For some reason it just feels like an Eary day. Just to quiet even with the CD player going. Did some Bible reading and just relaxed for most of the day. Tomorrow it's back to work. DD and SIL left for home later last night and got home around 9pm. Need to get ready to leave for DD's house Thursday morning. Won't be back till sometime Sat. evening. This will be my first time driving there so hope I don't get lost.  But think I will do ok. Been a long time since I drove any distance but is only 2 and a half hours away. Not the 5 or 6 hours I used to drive to grandparents' house years ago. 

[snapshotmiki]

I'm glad your family is getting it @Littlesister!  Have a safe trip for your Holiday!

 

Yesterday, set up my vitamins for the month.
Went to Thanksgiving dinner after Church and helped clean up.
Walked dogs.
Watched TV with DH.

Today, we are going to pawn shop for a Christmas present for us. Maybe a 12.
Go to Walmart for a few things and check how well stocked they are.
Come home and walk.
That may be about it!

[EmeraldCat]

Mt. Rider, I'm so sorry you fell like that!  Ow ow ow ow!  Hitting any of your facial bones is bad, but there is such a thin layer of skin over your occipital bones.  No protection at all.  I hope it feels better quickly.  

 

Today I went shopping and I have to leave in a minute to pick up my daughter from work.  I have to get some stuff organized around the house.  I have a little plastic shoebox of seeds going...got them organized into categories, bagged each stack in zippered sandwich bags, and put them in the box.  I have to work out some sort of seed goal list.  Right now I'm concentrating on vegetable seeds, but I also realize that I need knowledge.  For example, I have never grown a tomato plant from seed before; I have always purchased the little baby plants from the nursery.  I need to learn about my new region's planting zones, too.  We are going to build garden beds and get them filled with soil and fertilized; I want to be ready to GO GO GO when spring gets here!  I'm hoping to get enough of a harvest to have my canner and dehydrator busy.  

 

I hope you all are having a great day.  Anybody getting their plan of attack ready for Thanksgiving?  

[snapshotmiki]

I'm sorry I missed your fall, @Mt_Rider.  I hope you feel better soon!

[Becca_Anne]

(((((Mt Rider))))) So sorry you fell that sounds so painful 

Jeepers I like the idea of using velcro that might be a good option for "inside" storm windows too. Will look into it once the windows are repaired for the attic since all of them are single pane older windows

Euphrasyne - I have never been very successful at growing seeds inside. I think a greenhouse or growlights woule be the best bet to get good healthy starts to grow. I have heard good things about using soil blocks and hope to try those when I'm ready to try that. This year I'm going to try to direct seed everything outside since I have a long growing season and not a lot of $ to buy plants or grow lights. 

Littlesister glad your family is getting on board with being more self-sufficient and prepared.

Miki hope your outing was successful!

 

I raked leaves, ordered all the extended family Christmas gifts and fencing for my garden. In order to make sure I can afford the chicken coop I got a temporary style of garden fencing that I think will work well until I can put in more permanent fencing. I have been raking leaves almost all the front part of the property is raked now. The other leaves will get raked into the new garden space to compost over the winter. 

 

[Littlesister]

Mt. Rider, I also didn't see where you had falling. Hope you are doing much better from that. I know that left a bad bruise. 

 

I think I got bit by a spider or something. Finger is red and itching like crazy. And a bit swollen. Though I never saw a spider. So not sure what bit me. Was going through all my canning supplies today.  I have more lids than I know what to do with. And I think there are still more in the shed I need to get out. I am trying to gather them all in one place and have the large mouth and small mouth in separate bins. then there are the large and small tattler lids that I am separating into separate bins. To go in the pantry where I can get to them easier without running to the shed all the time. 

Not going to do much else as I will be leaving for DD's house on Thanksgiving Day. So don't want to start on anything else. Only reason I have been able to keep pushing to get things organized is because I don't have to cook this year. Usually when DD was living 15 minutes away from me, I would take some food to her house that I made. But 2 and a half hours on road would be a bit much. Don't think things would get there in the best of shape. But I do have

Christmas to contend with. So, after Thanksgiving I will be getting house decorated and start planning for Christmas dinner and finish doing the Christmas shopping. Still stuck on one GD and her DH as to what I want to give them for Christmas. But I will have it figured out shortly. As soon as I get home I need to go ahead and order for the GD and her DH in CA and the one in Washington State. Need plenty of time to get there. 

 

This has been one busy year for me with all that construction and then the cleaning up from it and unpacking stuff to get put away again. And now with Thanksgiving and Christmas there is no rest for the weary.  But will be lots of fun and I can rest up after the first of the year. 

 

[Mt_Rider]

Thanks for the condolences, everyone.  I'm pleased to report it doesn't hurt now....unless I forget and reach up to rub my eye or otherwise mess with the bruised part.  The big bulge of swelling under the eye has gone down some.  The 'color' less brilliant.  It's healing. 

 

However, I have an apt with grief counselor at the medical building tomorrow.  Ya know what folks always think when a woman has a black eye.....abusive husband or something like that.       Those that know us, of course, will be thinking "Kutz due to MS"!  So we;ll see how tomorrow goes.  I could cover the color with some makeup stuff....but I'd hate to have to touch it...especially taking the stuff off my face.  Not worth it.

 

My friends have been comisserating.  D in MN ...a former housemate in college reminded me of her hovering over my bed saying "I need help!"  Whoa....bleeding from forhead that had cracked on the edge of a dresser - as she bent over to pick up a sock.  Lotta blood. 

And my mom didn't want to go out for a while after she bent over to pick up something and whacked her whole eye socket on a door knob!   

 

The only other black eye I remember having, despite a couple decades of martial arts, was in 1st grade standing too close to boys fighting.  One boy fell backwards and his skull cracked me right in the eye!  { I've gotten better at Situational Awareness since then!}    

 

CO is   each night but warms up considerably in sunshine.  I've been going out on porch at midday to catch the 'rays'.  Still a massive struggle to GET to sleep.  I suspect that will be the predominant topic with couselor....once we put away the topic of black eye.   

 

DH and I will bake a ham...maybe sweet potatoes.  Dunno....he's the primary now.  He'll be at a store on Wednesday with his home health aide client so he'll pick up whatever he wants to cook too.  He'll probably bake pie.  See....I'm quite spoiled now cuz I rarely cook.  I do   and   and walk HappyDog.  When I'm able.  We each do what needs doin' when we can.

 

MtRider   

[Jeepers]

 I've been off a couple of days and I feel way behind.

 

Saturday night I went grocery shopping. That was a rude awakening. But I did get some non food items like 2 boxes of generic Prilosec. That was $38.00. And a number of those little containers of caramel dip for apples. I need to see what else I can use them for beside apples. I'm going to put them in my pantry stash in Indy. The Campbell's 'cream of' soups were $0.99 a can. I stocked up on those. Meijers FINALLY got their creamy peanut butter with honey in stock. I've been waiting for months for that. The honey makes it go down a little smoother. It was way up on the top shelf, while there was plenty of open spaces near the middle, and no one was around to fetch it. I had to stand on the lower shelf to barely reach it. Their website said there was a limit on it but didn't say how many. I got four and they didn't say anything. I had two so I'm stocked up on that too.

 

While I was out I couldn't believe how cold it was. I was bundled up but I still about froze. Plus the wind was blowing. I was miserable loading the car up. I'm just glad I didn't need to pump gas. I was so cold and tired I decided to go to Wendy's for a chili to take home. They were out of chili. Wendy's out of chili! In the winter. Jokingly, I asked her how in the world Wendy's could run out of chili? She said they ran out that evening. Dang. Wendy's has no chili, Arby's has no turkey and our Burger King is 'temporarily' closed.  We're starving up here.  

 

I got the 8 bundles of firewood unloaded from the Jeep. That was a chore. With what I had, I have enough to get me through winter as I don't use the fireplace insert that often. Thankfully, we didn't get the big snow that was predicted. Only some flurries. But that got me motivated to call the snow plow guy. He's still plowing but as expected, he raised the price again. I knew that was coming because of the price of gas. Same thing happened last year. I expect the lawn guy will do the same this spring. I can't blame them though. 

 

I had planned to go to Sam's Club but got distracted. Son called. He and the wife are both down with a stomach virus so he was home from work. Definitely not going there for Thanksgiving! We talked for almost 2 hours. We used to do that back in the day. It was nice. By then I was out of the mood for Sam's. Maybe tomorrow. I want to pick up some more beans and rice and canned tomatoes. And some Dinty Moore Stew. I like that stuff over rice. I need to go next door to Wal-Mart for some construction paper and bubble gum. I want to teach G-son how to make one of those chains from red and green construction paper. Scissor and glue time for me. Last time I was there I tried to teach him how to blow a bubble with some chewing gum. It was a riot. I caught him in the hallway looking in the mirror practicing. He never did get it. I'm bringing out the big guns now...bubble gum.  

 

 

[Jeepers]

Mt. Rider, I'm so sorry to hear about your eye! I fall up the steps too. It helps if I go bare foot. But you can't very well do that in the winter outside.

 

You might make up a good story for your counselor. Like you were scuba diving off the Great Barrier Reef in Australia and a great white shark sneaked up behind you and started battering you with one of its fins and blackened your eye. He also broke a couple of your ribs but you don't know him well enough to show that. And oh my word, a school of jelly fish was circling around you with their stingers outstretched. Um jelly. A Narwhal was poised to stab you to death with his nose when your husband took ahold of your hair with both of his hands and pulled you to safety. You barely got away with your life. Don't worry, the hair will grow back...probably. Or I guess you could say you fell up the steps. 

 

 

                            

[Littlesister]

Seems this is the year to be busy.  

 

Mt. Rider hope all goes well at the councilor's visit.  And yes, what Jeepers said.  

 

Well, my plans changed for today and tomorrow.  GS came home at around 3 am.  He works in food distribution.  I now have a 15lb. turkey in freezer along with a pumpkin pie.  Opened up the fridge and I have 10 lbs. of white potatoes, a huge bag of fresh green beans. Looks to be maybe 5lbs. and 5lbs. of sweet potatoes.  Plus 2 boxes of stove top stuffing. So, I will be canning today and tomorrow. That is not what I had in mind, but free food and a lot of it. Will call DD after I talk with GS as to what he wants to do as it is all his food. But he doesn't eat much of it. So, will can up what he likes and the way he likes it for him to take with him to his apt. when he moves. That is if he wants it. He doesn't eat green beans and doesn't know how to cook regular potatoes unless it's baked in a microwave. Same with sweet potatoes. He doesn't know how to cook a turkey for sure. But he can follow directions for the stove top stuffing, and I haven't ever known him to eat that. But at least he brought it home. I think this might happen again at Christmas. But hoping they will give him a ham as he does love ham and I can fix that up for him with no problem. He does eat turkey but only the legs. So, my mind is twirling as to how to can all this up so he will eat it. Got jars in dishwasher now. And waiting on those to finish. And I really want to talk with him before I start on it. So, waiting for him to wake up. His company seems to have supplied Thanksgiving dinner for us. 

 

Mt. Rider, I hope your son and his wife get over that virus fast. Not the time of year to be sick.

[snapshotmiki]

Well, no walking for now. Wearing shoes that I ordered and didn't fit real well. now have painful area on side of small toe. Sidelined! New shoes should get here next Tuesday and am hoping sooner. I don't know what to do with myself first thing in the morning now. LOL Easy Sprits don't need breaking in if they are the right size. Sometimes, I think they are marked wrong (like jeans).

16 hours ago, Becca_Anne said:

 

Went to local grocery for DH, Post office and drug store. That was enough walking for right now.
Not walking dogs today either.
Did laundry.
Will put down rest of quick crete this afternoon.

 

Miki hope your outing was successful!  Yes, and thank you @Becca_Anne!

 

 

[Jeepers]

Free food is definitely a gift! 

 

Hope your foot heals quickly Miki. I know what you mean about sizing. I'm having that issue with jeans too. I have some size 12 I can wear. They are a little tight but stretchy. I found a size 16 that I had here and put them on this weekend and, while I could get them on, sitting down and breathing was an issue. I could do one or the other. How is it I can squeeze into a 12 and barely fit into a 16.  I hate to try on clothes but it looks like I'm going to have to from now on. Sweat pants are starting to look good to me these days. 

[Littlesister]

Miki, I hope your foot heals fast. Nothing worse than having your feet hurt no matter how it happened.

 

Got 10 pints of green beans out of that bag. it was a 5lb bag.  So, all of that will go toward GS's food preps. He said he didn't want any of it, but I think if things really get bad, he will start eating some of it. Pressure canner is going now.  I have a spot in pantry set up for his special foods and this will just help to stock him up for emergencies.  Going to be a long night. 

[EmeraldCat]

This morning I decided to spend some time picking up and bagging the leaves and pine needles we’d raked up into piles. “Some time” turned into an entire day— from 10:30 to 5!  I took a few short breaks, and my kids came out to help their Mama, and we got a LOT done. We burned some and bagged a ton. But now I’m very sore and very stiff!!!  I guess I’m not as young as I used to be.  It still feels good to have accomplished what we did! 

[Jeepers]

I finished my errands today. Went to Sam's Club. It was kind of a bust. I only got 30 pounds of rice and they were out of Great Northern beans. They had Navy but I prefer Great Northern because they are a little bigger. They taste the same though. I forgot all about the beef stew. I only have a few jars of the home canned and need to make more. I like both. Dinty for the stew-y and mine for the soup-y. Over to Wal-Mart for canned tomatoes, construction paper and gum. Construction paper was hard to find. They only had 2 packs left. I almost accidently bought colored printer paper. Not good for little hands I think. I found plenty of Halloween/Thanksgiving paper. Brown, gold, tan, green etc. Got one pack of that, Guess I'm ready for next year.   

 

It posted before I was ready 

 

I ended up at Meijers for two more jars of peanut butter. It was so nice out, compared to last weekend, that I didn't want to come home. So I went and washed off the Jeep again. For some reason it looked like a salt truck blew up on it. We haven't had any measurable snow so I'm not sure where it came from. But seven minutes and $7.00 and it was washed, rinsed and a wax seal protectant on it and I was done. 

[Mt_Rider]

Well....counselor didn't make a big deal over the black eye..    ..other than wince a little.   But {as expected} he's very concerned about my wacko sleep schedule.  That I'm actually getting into bed at a decent hour and still lay awake.....taking a combination of muscle relax and Unisom....and isn't working.  I have a phone call appt with my doc in couple weeks.  She's so busy, that was the earliest...and only way I could get in contact.  Zoom calls don't work well at our house. 

 

Then with the MS kinda on high flare-up right now for a lot of reasons including the bashing eye incident, I couldn't move my legs hardly at all at the end of our session.  I do bring the wheelchair cuz of this but I couldn't initially even lift my feet ......I never use/bring the foot pegs cuz I mostly propel with my feet.  Not today.  So counselor...after overseeing the process to finally get a doc appt set...rolled me down to the car.  I could barely transfer to car seat.     Only thing I could grab was HappyDog's body harness to pull me up and in.  I've done that with the two previous larger dogs but haven't with her cuz she's "only" 80#.  But she backed up as I torqued myself up and in.  Yeah....that worked.  I'll have to work with her on the command "HOLD".  It's a handy one for me.

 

So....I need to get to bed...again.  On time.  I'm TRYING!!   Oh, my folks house closed yesterday.  It's sold and closed......no longer ours.  Another loss to deal with.... 30 yrs of Thanksgivings ....Christmases....all the holidays were there.    A little sad but I think it's ok.  Glad for my mom to have the $ available now. 

 

MtRider    ...try again!

[Becca_Anne]

Glad your mom's house sold Mt Rider I know it's emotional to say goodbye to the place but sounds like a real financial blessing for your mom. I hope you can get some rest soon and start to feeling better.

Miki sorry about the shoes always annoying when they don't fit well and give blisters. My new tennis shoes need breaking in but so far seem to fit ok. I have such wide feet it can be hard to find ones that don't pinch my toes.

Emeraldcat Great job on the yard work! Feels so great to get that done. We've been raking leaves and they vacuumed them up so I just have the back yard and one corner of the front now to do. We'll keep workng on it. Yesterday I raked up 10 big bags and put them out on the curb. It hardly made a dent in that section of the yard they are so deep in that part! Big old leaves about as big as a dinner plate 

Jeepers glad you found some paper. I just bought a pack of construction paper the other day too for our homeschooling art supplies. They had nice big packs at our Walmart hope yours restocks

Littlesister if your GS likes ham you could always can up the turkey for yourself and buy him a ham to take to his new place  

 

I am getting excited to bake pie tomorrow Making apple and pumpkin and if I'm feeling really ambitious maybe chocolate but that might wait until Christmas

[euphrasyne]

The Ecuador thread has me a bit nostalgic, so the toddler and I are watching a travel/exploration show about lost cities on National Geographic. 

 

I'm working up some menus and recipes for the week and have perfected the maple Dijon sauce to be equal amounts of maple and Dijon with garlic, salt, and pepper. Not DH's favorite, but the teen and I LOVE it.  I divided the sheet pan into 2 equal pans and put the maple dijon on one sheet and did fajita seasoning on the other.    It had a lot of veggies and chicken jalapeno sausages cut up.   That worked out very well and everyone was happy.   I have decided on a turkey pattern this year of celery, onion, garlic inside and butter, cajun seasonings, and mango chutney on the outside/ injected.  My turkey's are never 'pretty', but they are always fall off the bone tender --and since we would rather eat it than look at it....that is ok.  

 

I'm starting to swing into Christmas mode, so cleaning, cookie baking, and craft making.  I'm digging up things for the 2 year old to work on.  She is barely 2, so skills are still in the heavily supervised /help stage and more about getting messy and giggling.  

 

I'm feeling a bit of mental overload with everything, so I am trying to carve out some peaceful downtime just for me to process and create in the evenings.  Dh is very supportive.  

[snapshotmiki]

I found a roll of homemade sugar cookies in the freezer, so will bake them this morning.  I'm feeling like baking more lately, too.

Looked at local grocery flyers and they were not impressive.

Didn't do the quickcrete yesterday.  Will do it this morning since it will be much warmer.

Going to visit a friend and his mom.  She is on hospice and DH knew her during his childhood.

Will thaw Thanksgiving dinner items.  

I really have little to do today.  Maybe put up nativity.

I hope you all have a good day!  @Mt_Rider, I hope you get help with your sleep!