What's on your Thursday Menu?

Hmm, I am under 5' tall and I prefer to stick to those main food groups... I think my issue is that I am an elf. Makes perfect sense ;)

I reread my post from yesterday which said I was going to relax all day and not do any more cookies. Lol, nope. I baked 4 dozen more cookies and then found out that we had a change of plans and my parents are coming tomorrow for mom's birthday (yes she is a Christmas Eve baby!). Ahhhhhhh! So after making the cookies, I had to emergency clean the house. So, not a restful day at all!

I have a lot more cleaning to do today. I swear that since the pandemic we have gotten so much messier. Partially because we get deliveries all the time and aren't swift about putting things away when they come, and partially because with no visitors, there is just no urgent incentive to be so neat. We are sooooo not ready to host guests--especially my mother, who has veryyyyyyy high standards. I also have to drive a few hours to pick up the catered food we got for the birthday, and then tonight Grim and I are going to dog-sit for our neighbor. The dog has cancer and our neighbors haven't left him for any period of time, so we offered to go over so they can have time with the grandkids for the holiday. I am sure they are going to have a billion treats for us to say 'thank you', so that will be a minefield to navigate.

QOTD: Have you ever changed a car tire? I was watching A Christmas Story where the dad could change it in under 8 minutes. I remembered that when I was learning to drive, it was still practically mandatory to learn how to do it, and it was part of our driver's ed course. I never really did had to do it, though! Thank god for cell phones, right?

B: Protein Coffee

S: Balanced break

L: Caesar salad with Chicken

D: ?? (need to find something to bring to the dog-sitting adventure!)

Good mornin everyone!

I got about 4 hours of sleep that was broken up but at least I got some rest. I'm in a lot of pain. I miscounted the staples, instead of 38 there is 39...LOL. The pain med isn't touching most of it and moving hurts so bad. It does take the edge off for a couple of hours then I have a few hours of misery. It seems I metabolize pain meds fast...the only fast metabolism I have ha ha. Honestly I'm really in a lot of misery. I had my mom take a pic of the incision...yuck.

Unless I have a miraculous moment of feeling better it'll be a day at home resting. My mom needs to go to Walmart. I was hoping to get out but I just think it's a bad idea. We're doing Mexican food on Christmas...she just needs to get some tomatoes and a few other things. I'll stay home.

QOTD: I knew/know how but never had to use it.

Food is just whatever. I've not been eating great but it could be worse. Since my mom is sidelined as well I just eat things that I've put up in the freezer.

When I was really newly married, I took the car downtown one snowy winter morning. I hit a patch of blac**** and the car ran into a curve and flattened the front passenger side tire. I had to call my husband to come and fix it. He was working and I knew he would not be happy.
He wondered if it still had enough air for me to drive it home. When he asked if it was all the way flat, I said, No, just on the bottom. He had to laugh about that observation and he came and changed the tire. That was back when I had to find a payphone to call. I never thought to change a tire and it was not part of drivers ED in the 1960's.

There was always my dad, brothers, or male friends to do that. After my husband passed away I was worried about not having enough air in the tires. I did not know how to put air in the tires and thought they would blow up like a balloon if I put too much air in. One night my brother called and asked if there was anything I needed. I asked him to come over after supper and put air in my tires.

He sighed and said that I wanted him to come all the way from Dallas to put air in my tires. I thought it was another brother on the phone. One who lived a few blocks away. They did not let me forget that one.

The Flylady has a one hour emergency home cleanup podcast that works really well. It is for emergencies like have a mother-in-law call and want to see her grandkids. An hour is enough time for crisis cleaning. Then do details later.

http://www.flylady.net/d/br/2016/02/24/crisis-cleaning-podca st/

Thanks! It's not really the "cleaning" part we need - more the decluttering and finding homes for the stuff we keep accumulating with no place to put it! Yikes. I need to stop ordering crap from Amazon every day...

I have a stack of cardboard on my kitchen table now. Just waiting for daylight, then I will take it to the garbage can. All from Amazon deliveries that happened yesterday.

In the one hour make the house look great for a guest podcast, she says to put all the clutter in a basket and hide it in a bedroom. Then lock that bedroom door is you are afraid your guest will walk in there. You deal with that clutter after the guest leaves. The one hour podcast is to make your house look spotlessly clean. Not to actually get it spotlessly clean.

Good Morning!

I might almost be done at this job (4 shifts left) but the way we are dropping like flies with this new variant it means I've been busting my ass short staffed to make sure we can still provide our vital service to the community.. I hope the people on call this weekend remain healthy as I personally don't want to be on call.. but one does what one must do!! I understand that people are realizing that this new variant is less severe - however it is highly transmissible.. and if you get sick you have to stay home. We are a group of 9 and 3 of them are off now for the next 14 days and 3 of us leave (two of us to new jobs, one going on mat leave).. it's the same in other departments.. the crisis continues. I stress baked more whipped shortbread and snickerdoodles to give away to people last night.. baking calms my anxiety.

QOTD: I have. My dad made sure to teach me

how to change a tire, oil and breaks on a car. I've always paid for road side assistance as an adult.. as I think it's worth it not to have to change a tire on the side of the highway..

b: coffee w sf hazelnut creamer, egg whites, salsa, cheddar, avocado

S: yogurt w protein powder and blueberries

l: brussel sprouts, peppers, onions, ground beef & honey mustard

s: mini babybel

d: ground beef quesadilla

My dad was the same way, before we could take our drivers test, we had to change a tire, change the oil and change the spark plugs (this was the 80s). He said he knew I'd just pay someone else to do it but at least I'd know what they were doing. When I was in Missouri over thanksgiving, my sister's bestie was working on my old car that I gave to her years ago, and when he showed her the spark plugs he had pulled out and replaced we both yelled "I know what that is". He just shook his head at us.

I had to learn to drive a stick before my parents would let me drive an automatic. The thing my Dad made me learn was to balance the car at a stop, headed up hill, using only the clutch and the accelerator. I used to think he was so mean for it, but I've thanked him in my head many times since then. I haven't driven a stick in years, but I'm pretty certain I can jump and go if I need to!