What's on your Saturday menu?

Hi everyone and good morning.

No big plans for this weekend really. My niece Rachel is staying the night Sunday and my niece Riley and nephew Randall will be staying the night Monday night. At least that's the plan as of now. We have them Monday and Tuesday so it makes sense to do it then. I have some crafts for them to do. They may want to make their mom something for Christmas I'm thinking of them making a waterless snow globe for my brother...maybe with their picture? Not sure. Feel like we should make him something at least. We'll see. I'm going to see if they want to make chainmaille out of paper chains. Found some construction paper so if they want to we will.

pain is high already so I'm hoping it'll be an easy day...ha ha...

qotd: what's your favorite hobby or thing to do to burn time?

I think everyone knows mine lol

b: egg beaters, chicken sausage and coffee

l: cabbage and ???

d: prob cabbage nd maybe some chicken breast chunks

s: popcorn, chai tea and ???

I used to read all the time, but as my eyes got older, I went to Kindle, then to audio books, and now mostly Netflix. My weird hobby is home organization. I remember as a teen reading articles on how to keep things organized. I used to make things like a magazine holder out of wire coat hangers. I was always taking boxes and covering them with contact paper to make fancy looking storage containers.

When p-touch label makers came out in the 1980's, I bought one and made labels for everything. I bought organizer drawers and boxes and put a label on everything. My medicine cabinet had a designated place for each item with a label to make sure it stayed in its own "home". My desk tray still has it labels for stapler, pens, paper clips, rubber bands, binder clips, ruler, and post-its.

I love watching how other people organize and really love Pinterest. Part of that comes from growing up with twelve brothers and sisters. With fifteen people in a house, if everyone leaves one item out of place in a room, it looks like a junkyard. Dust and dirt in a house do not bother me as much as clutter does.

Last year I was really into Marie Kondo. This summer it was Home Edit. I look at everything now and arrange things in "rainbow order". I watch old seasons of Hoarders and think how much fun it would be to take a hoarder and convert them to an organizing freak. My husband used to complain about my having to "put everything in a little box" and would sometimes rebel by putting things in the wrong place.

Sometimes I think about turning that passion into a business.

Would you like to come for a week or 2 and help me? I'll feed you ...

That would probably be fun. I bet you make things like pierogi and haluski.

Good morning friends. Yesterday went as well as I could have hoped for. It was a touching send off from a tiny group. 8 in all. Crystal clear day overlooking the ocean at Ft. Rosecrans National Cemetery. Freezing wind whipping through. The playing of Taps nearly did me in. Then we moved to our outside patio and I had some food brought in. Gourmet tacos from a shop in our village. Delicious and supporting local. That was a win. I did not eat enough food of any kind yesterday and did have there glasses of wine. At least I didn't go off the deep end too much. Back in the saddle today. Lots of at home time this weekend to try to finish my to do list. And one run to grocery store.

QOTD: reading. No question about that!

menu

B: cottage cheese and chicken

L: left over taco innards and ranch beans

D: not sure but it should be leftovers to clean out fridge to accommodate the incoming meats for next week's holiday meals.
Peace Everyone!

Military services are very inspiring. I am glad you were able to go.

I'm SO OVER the misconception that we " can't b normal" .

Good 4 U for coping successfully w deep emotional pain ....

I GET that people around m and maybe M myself would feel more comfortable if I never had another glass of wine ...

but having had MANY years sincerely participating (and being abstinent ) in twelve step groups ... I can say that the levels of helpless inertia, depression and even suicide are LITERALLY thru th Roof in " abstinent " alcoholics .

After picking up alcohol ONLY after WLS ...in basically middle age ... well, I can look at my experience and say I learned that I'm a problem drinker ... but NOT a chronic have one drink and end up on skid row kind of alcoholic.

I really have an issue describing myself as an alcoholic AT ALL considering I never stepped into a liquor store( or bar ) pretty much NEVER before my WLS . I simply transferred my excess food addiction to alcohol for a while ...

But now I'm learning to live NORMALLY .

Or at least TRYING and EXPERIMENTING

I think I'll get this ... belatedly, eventually .

I'm REALLY looking forward 2 finding Balance and being able to creatively WORK

B- coffee w skim milk n 100 bananas, low-fat meatloaf

CLEANING APT !

L-FF lasagna n fixing my windshield wipers and reading my car 4 th drive 2 NY

D-m TBD but LF home made lemon n fruit topped cheesecake is def on th menu

Mornin' Weekenders!

I just finished a zoom Zumba class and have some more reasons to run by the board of one of my organizations of why we should broadcast our presentation in January using Webinar mode rather than Meetings mode. My other co-chair insists she wants it done in Meetings mode, but I think it's mostly because that's what she's used to (from being the "host" of online presentations for other organizations). Webinar mode is FAR superior in settings like we're going to have. I was more tuned in to the zoom Zumba session this morning - or at least to the technical side of it - than usual because of this discussion going on in my organization. First, there was all the explaining he had to do re: muting yourself (although whoever's running the software can do that part of it en masse), turning off your video camera, "pinning" the host's video so he was the main part of the screen and there'd be no flipping back and forth every time someone's dog barked if they simply clicked on "speaker view" rather than pinned the host's video, etc. Then on top of that, people kept sending these chats that of course everyone can see. There were about a dozen splashed across my screen during the hour-long session. "Hi Wendy!". "Will the lady in red PLEASE turn off her audio???" (this one popped up about three times). "That was great, thanks!!" "The music sounds muffled - not sure if it's on your end or mine". And then there were three or four during the last 15 or 20 minutes, saying "I have to go now - thanks everyone!!". This kind of thing might be tolerable (though distracting...) in an exercise class with 15 students, but not during a professional presentation that 100 or so people are attending, and which is being recorded and livestreamed to youtube at the same time. So I think I'm going to put my foot down, esp since I'll be the one running the software - we are going to do our presentation in Webinar mode!

nothing on the agenda for today - although DH wants to get started on cleaning the combo living/dining room so we can have Christmas dinner out there at the dining room table instead of our family room (where we've been having our small family get-togethers lately - we just use TV trays there as our "tables"). UGH. But....we gotta do it some point, so it might as well be now..

QOTD: I usually get on the internet when I want to kill time. Email, Facebook, OH, news sites...or just looking things up on Wikipedia or whatever.

TSS: 5y6m

B: vanilla Greek yogurt with 1/2 diced mango and a few raspberries, coffee with half & half

MS: Fit Frappe

L: probably turkey chili

AS: L&F, 1/2 protein pumpkin muffin. Maybe some fruit.

D: turkey breast slices and small sweet potato

have a great Saturday!

I no longer serve any meals at the dining room table. It is just like a piece of art work these days. Plus a place to put the grocery bags while I am putting groceries away. I have fold-up tables in the living room. I used to put them away, but now just leave them up as I eat all my meals there.

I am getting new tables for the family room and buying a lift-top coffee table to make it easier to eat meals there.

Sometimes, I think I should get out table linens and good china for a holiday meal at the table, but end up using the Fiestaware and the fold-up tables. I think it is great that your husband wants to eat at the table. My husband always preferred to be in front of the TV.

I'll probably use the Fiestaware for Christmas dinner - we use it all the time. Although I have several Hadley place settings, which is more-or-less my "good stuff" (even though it's about as casual as the Fiestaware!)

we probably only eat at the dining room table twice a year. It usually just collects "stuff", like yours - but it's nice to use it once in awhile. Since we never eat there, it seems sort of "special".

here's the Hadley I have - I didn't realize they have more than one collection. Mine is "Country" - it's mostly farm animals. My aunt collected Hadley dishes for YEARS, and I always loved them, so my mom started buying them for me when I was in my 20s or 30s. When my aunt died a few years ago, I was so sad that her kids gave all of her Hadley stuff to their church to sell at a rummage sale. I would have loved to have taken it over!!

https://hadleypottery.com/collections/country-pattern-1