Watcha doing today?

[out_of_the_ordinary]

Necie,  praying for your dad.  

[Becca_Anne]

Necie sending prayers for your dad 

[snapshotmiki]

I'm praying for your mom and dad, @Necie!  And the pup, who won't understand what is going on.

Have a safe trip @Jeepers!  See you soon.

I hope you find some sales @Littlesister!

 

We have company coming this afternoon (for the weekend)!
Will walk first.
Get guest room ready.
Sweep house.
Walk dogs.
Make a meatloaf.
And wait!
Looking forward to this visit and taking a break!

 

I will also pray for Mt Rider and Annarchy.  You are both gong through a lot!

 

[Littlesister]

Yes, prayers for Jeepers traveling, Mt. Rider, Annarchy, Necie's dad and others that are in need of prayer. Mother healing from her fall also. 

 

Today GS helped with the wood pile. Bought more wood up to the house and got that covered. Then he went with me to fill up the 4 gas cans I bought. That gives me enough emergency gas to fill up both our cars at least one time. Got the stabilizer in them also. Right now, gas prices have dropped but I keep hearing the prices in gas are going to soar again if we go to war. Though it seems to me we are already in the war in some ways. Got a few things I need to get done but will wait till early spring, I hope. If not, GS hopefully will still be here to help me with that issue.  Thinking of having electric run to the shed. But only the one shed near driveway. I am going to put a small air conditioner in the back window and a light. Hard to see up in the loft areas. Plans are in the making. 

 

Got all the Christmas bins back out into garage as the decorating was a late start but is done. Glad those 2 windows are now done.

 

Just need to figure out what I want to fix for Christmas Eve Lunch. Christmas day will just be me and GS. Don't know if DGD and her DH will stop by or not as they are spending Christmas day with his parents. Though I think they will be here Christmas Eve. 

Paid off bills and ordered checks. They went up in price again so this time I ordered 4 boxes. That will last me about a year or more. Then going to bank to take out some cash.  

Bought a large ham that will be used for Christmas and the leftovers I will use for canning beans. Just have to cut the ham in very small pieces. 

[Necie]

Did NOT get the venison finished today. I forgot how much time is consumed playing with a spoiled dog.  She’ll be 2 in May, so still very much a pup. I got 4- 1/2 gallons of venison broth canned and got the burger mixed (doing jalapeño/onion/garlic... makes awesome burgers and tacos) and the salami mixed for snack sticks. Hopefully tomorrow will get the rest of the broth canned, the burger bagged, and the sticks made and into the oven. 
Mom did go home tonight instead of staying at my sister’s closer to the hospital. Dad is still not doing well. He tested positive today for Covid. He’s got a nasty cough with yellow gunk and Mom said he woke up once today and said he had a horrible headache and was freezing. This could also explain his sudden excessive weakness. ?? They’re still doing tons of tests. The c-scan showed something on his brain and they want to do an MRI, but dad has a brain shunt that is controlled magnetically and can’t have one. I guess *they* wanted to argue with mom about it and she told them to argue with the surgeon that put it in! They’ve put an adult diaper on him since he’s immobile, but won’t even use a bedpan when he knows when he has to go. Say they’ll just clean him up... but he won’t *go* in the diaper. He’s not happy and doesn’t want to be there— that’s actually good. His dementia evaluation showed that he’s progressed considerably and they’re talking about going to rehab to gain strength once he’s well enough. Basically, everything is up in the air.  

[Littlesister]

Necie, praying for your dad to get better and for your mom, sister and you. I know this will be hard on family.  for him to recover and able to be back home soon. 

Seems you have a very spoiled pup to keep you busy on top of the canning. 

 

Not doing a lot today. Going out later to stores to look for some sales for things I want for Christmas. Still working on plans for food. Normally I would have had all this taken care of but plans kept getting changed. I am getting there though. 

 

Done with the gift shopping. Just waiting on one for GS. Got him a back seat mattress for his car. Yep, he still sleeps in car in my driveway. Ordered it from Temu. Great price on them and they seem to have some great products cheap. Yep, it is all China town stuff but great for some things that I want and not have to pay double the price.  He didn't get that lab done again yesterday and hung out with his friend all day. He really needs to get it done for Coast Guard. I think he is holding out going in. If he doesn't get it done on next day off. I am going to put the fear of God into him. 

 

Finished up on end of year things and working a little on my office. Found the things for my printer and going to remove it from the computer and then reboot it back on to see if I can get it to work again. If not, then a new printer is in order. Seems everything around here is breaking down. 

 

 

[Mother]

3 minutes ago, Littlesister said:

If he doesn't get it done on next day off. I am going to put the fear of God into him. 

 Good for you, LS.  Perhaps he would like to park in his friend’s driveway and use their facilities instead!   

[Necie]

I got most of the venison done yesterday. Canned 3 more 1/2 gallons of broth, weighed out and bagged 30# of jalapeño/onion/garlic burger, bagged up and froze 4- 1/2 gallons of cooked meat for soup, and got almost half of the 9# batch of snack sticks done. I think I’ll wait till tomorrow to finish it. 
Today I think I’ll clean up the kitchen— this is more like putting everything back where it belongs and figure out where to put things that have been brought in.... a place for everything, and everything in it’s place. There’s a reason my tag line used to be *organized chaos*. 🙄😂 I need to do some laundry and wrap some presents. And the pampered pooch needs a bath!! When I finished the broth, I set the pan under the table (like usual) until I could get it washed... well, the ditzy little goofball stuck her head in it to lick the side and got greasy residue on the top of her head and ears. Took me forever to figure out how she got her head all wet (well, it looked wet... just greasy). I hate her fur. She gets little tangles and knots, and if you don’t stay on top of it, then matts. I’d never choose a dog with this kind of coat! 
They finally moved dad out of the ER into a regular room. Trying to figure out a rehab to get him into. Mom is sick now, so didn’t go up yesterday or today. My oldest sis is close to the hospital, so has been there with him both days. Hopefully mom feels better tomorrow and can go. If not, my youngest sis that mom stayed with Thursday night said she could take a day off and be there with him. 

[Littlesister]

Necie, still keeping your family in prayer. Hopefully he can come home soon if rehab goes well. 

 

Went to Church early this morning as we had breakfast at church and then church service. No Sunday School this morning. Came home and turned my phone back on to see GD had text me to say they were coming over around 4pm as they had a rough night last night as baby didn't sleep. Yep, she will fight it. So, they are going to a Christmas party at her church this afternoon. and coming by either before or right after church. 

 

Had a talk with GS about his labs. He WILL get it done Tuesday or else. 

Mother I think he is planning to move in with his friend and his friend's sister sometime in January to share the rent and utilities between the 3 of them. Well good luck with that as GS is not good at paying his bills as it is. I don't even want to see his credit score now. It is more than in the 200's if not less. But he knows how to fix the issue. 

 

Making plans for a brunch for Christmas Eve. DD and SIL are heading back to NC Sunday night. SIL has to work on Tuesday. GS has to work Christmas Eve. But off on Christmas day. 

 

Going to give kitchen a good cleaning and get things put away. And I dare GS to pile my counters up again. He's good for it. Putting my foot down on him in more ways than one if he messes my kitchen up again. 

 

[Becca_Anne]

Book group brunch at my house this morning was so fun. We will meet up again later this month to go to the Botanical Garden night lights on the 27th. Really enjoy this group of ladies we have a lot of laughs together. I have everything ready for Christmas except still need to wrap which I'll start to tackle this afternoon. Enjoying myself today <3 

[Littlesister]

GD came by a while ago and said the baby had to have a tongue tie but with her the lip was also involved. She wasn't latching good and causing her to get air which caused a lot of gas and an unhappy baby. So that explains the crying all the time. She is doing better now. But still healing. My GS went through that, but the lip was not involved. 

I am babysitting tomorrow as GD has a meeting for work tomorrow. That is going to be a fun time. I will enjoy it for sure. Just spoil her a bit more. 

 

They took my next-door neighbor to ER just a while ago. He is nothing but skin and bone. Things are not looking good right now for him. Though he has managed to pull through several times before when we all thought this was the end. The ambulance was quick to get him in there and off to ER. So just waiting to see what happens. Prayers for him to pull through. For the sake of the family, I don't want to see anything happen at this time of year. He has not eaten or drink anything in several days. That is not a good sign. Keeping him and family in prayer.

[Jeepers]

I had a good time in Indy but the trip was way too short. I really just went over to get G-sons presents under the tree while the weather is still good. I had to get home for doctor appointments this week and a final walk through at the house is coming up soon (I hope) and I want to be available for that. And also the weather.

 

Going over I got sort of drowsy and decided to pull in a rest area. There were only about 5 cars in the entire lot. I pulled in backwards to have an easy out. Pulled in not backed in. I was at the end of the row with only one spot to the left of me. I must have dozed off because when I looked over a camper type van had pulled right beside me facing the same way. With all of those empty spaces he pulled in beside me at the end of the lot. Creepy. I got gas and left.  

 

Thursday I helped son and DIL take care of some final documents for their house and Friday evening we went to G-sons favorite store. Barnes and Noble. Saturday I was sick as a dog. Stomach and intestinal issues. Fortunately it was just the 24 hour kind. I wanted to come home Saturday but I knew I wouldn't make it. Or I'd be miserable trying. But I felt so much better that night that I was able to go back to their house for a good visit. It was mostly a duty trip and too short to get anything done at the house except to get one floor lamp put together...sort of. It came with a lampshade you had assemble and it did not cooperate. I pitched it and bought a better one at Wal-Mart.  Probably could have done better but I didn't have a lot of time and I didn't want to spend a lot of money for it.

 

I did stop at Shipshewana on the way over. I went to the bulk food store. I think it's called E and S. I got a cart full and noticed, after I was at the register, that they only take cash or check. Yikes. Luckily I had my checkbook along with me. Very lucky! I got some big glass bottles of Torani French Vanilla and Caramel flavoring, some Watkins Almond and Lemon extract, Amish Church Spread (fluffer nutter) 10 pounds of Indiana Honey, 16 pounds of Powdered Sugar and 15 pounds of Cocoa Powder. I over bought on the sugar. I thought I was only getting 12 pounds. I misread. I also picked up a couple packets of Mrs. Wages Pizza sauce and Pasta sauce. Also some premixed Chicken/Corn /Noodle soup. I want to use the cocoa and powdered sugar to make a hot cocoa mix and store it in a jar. I just need to find my recipe now. I could have done better at the bulk food stores in Ohio though. I'm really going to miss them.

 

I expect my furniture to arrive any time now. I'm hoping after New Year so I don't have to go back over so soon. I'm replacing my table and chairs with something smaller. That table is way too big for my small dinning room. But it will fit in son's house nicely so my loss is their gain. 

[Necie]

30 minutes ago, Jeepers said:

I could have done better at the bulk food stores in Ohio though. I'm really going to miss them.

E&S has gone very *touristy*. There’s very few things that I get there anymore. There’s another store further up 5 in Shipshewana called Forks... not as much bulk, but, DANG, do they have sales!! It’s also where the locals do more of their shopping. 
There’s a discount store and an Amish store north of Sturgis, MI that I like too. 
I’m not familiar with anything west of 5, but I’m sure there are smaller Amish bulk stores around Middleberry, Millersburg, Elkhart, etc. that are much better priced also.

[Littlesister]

Working on what food I am going to have for Christmas eve since everyone will be at my house then.  So will need to make another grocery store trip for a few fresh things, chips, and drinks. Otherwise, I have everything else I will need. Still looking for a turkey breast on sale. Only thing so far is $1.69 a Lb on sale. Hoping to find one cheaper. The new sales start tomorrow. So, hoping to get everything I need on sale this time. Yep, I am being cheap about it. I like sales only stuff. 

 

Jeepers, it sounds like you made a good haul. After the first of year, I am going to a total revamp of my pantry though most of it is in good shape. But I have a lot of stuff just sitting around piled in places I don't want them at. Also, will start canning beans as well. I have a few items I need to repackage for longer term. As soon as GS is out of house, I am going to start painting and then buying furniture. The way my living room/dining room and then the kitchen/den is with one wall down middle of the house separating the living room from den. I am turning the den into a dining room and the living room into my den. The dining room will become a sitting room though I will put my sewing machine in there and have a couple of swivel rockers in there where I can sit and read. I like my sewing machine under that dining room window where the most sun light is. And I prefer to be at front of house when I am doing things rather than the back of house. But not doing any of that till GS is in boot camp or I boot him out of my driveway before he totally drives me crazy, and I go off on him again. His dirty handprints are all over my hallway walls. Glad I decided not to paint that yet.

 

Contractor just left a bit ago as I had a couple of warranty things to be fixed. So that is now done. 

 

GD will be over with the baby in a couple of hours for me to babysit. She has a meeting for her job. Hard to believe she is almost 3 months old already. And is already out growing a lot of her clothes. 

 

Nextdoor neighbor must still be hanging in there. His wife left real early this morning heading to hospital. She will stay there till tonight. So not sure how he is doing yet. But he always seems to pull through but never by much. He is so weak I am surprised they got him to walk down the hall at home to the front door when the ambulance got there. But he couldn't go any further and they put him on a stretcher to the ambulance. 

[snapshotmiki]

Littlesister, you always seem to have your hands full!  I truly hope you can get your GS somewhere else soon.

Necie, I know you have a lot to deal with, also.  You are doing great with all the canning and freezing.  It sounds like you could actually use a freeze dryer.  For me, the cost is prohibitive.

Jeepers, I am glad you are back safely and hope your walk through and inspections go well.  Sorry it was a short trip!

 

I've been offline since early Friday morning. Walked every day. Company was wonderful and relaxing.

Back to real life today.
Will walk in a bit.
Laundry.
Phone calls to make about doctors.
Set up DH's pills for the month.
Fill out some legal paperwork.

[Littlesister]

Just got the bad news about my neighbor. They are working on putting him in hospice. He is in hospital and on feeding tube, 3 antibiotics and has pneumonia. He said this was his last trip to a hospital. So, he seems to have now given up. He has been through a lot over the past 5 years and was facing surgery to rebuild the bones in his jaw as the cancer had eating away at those. He had throat cancer over 5 years ago and had surrey for that, but it has taken its toll on him. I figured this was coming but was hoping he would hold out till at least after the first of year for the family's sake. 

[Jeepers]

I did make a pretty good haul at the bulk food store over there but it was really too expensive. I could have bought more stock up things. I'm going to make a list before I leave this area and do one last run over here before I move. Should probably do the same for Lehman's too. Although I pretty much have what I can afford from there. Would love a clothes wringer. 

 

I saw Butterball turkeys last week at Wal-Mart for .50 a pound. They were the whole ones though. I only buy the breasts for me too. I don't care for any dark meat. It's too strong tasting for me. Although, I would get a whole bird to make stock. 

 

I have lots of canning I want to do too. I need soups and stews mostly. I live on that especially in the winter. I was concerned about the chunky tomato sauce I canned in Indiana last October. I had trouble with two lids not sealing. I still have 11, I think, quarts left and I checked the seals on them and they are still fine. I did some Great Northern beans and some corn and peas and the lids are all sealed on them. So far...so good. My pantry room is in total chaos. It has even spilled out into another bedroom and the hallway. I still have to put shelves together. But no time. But I do have food, medicine and crafts in that room. I really need to sort through things and get some of the craft things out to the garage, if only temporarily.  Also some blackout curtains on both windows. There are already blinds in that room but I want it dark for the food. 

 

Prayers for your neighbor. Poor guy.  

[Littlesister]

I can really feel for my neighbors. DH and I along with them used to go on trips together. Then later the health issues came up for first my DH and then my neighbor. We all had some good times together. When my DD was a teen, she used to babysit their kids. My GS used to cut their grass before my DD moved to NC. 

 

After the first of year, I am going to revamp my bedroom pantry. I need to make a few changes in there and I need to rework the closet, so it works better for me. I think I do have about 100 to maybe 130 lbs. of sugar so that should hold me through the shortage though once these next shortages hit, we may not have a comeback from it. From what I am hearing it is about to get harder for the ships to get to our ports making for some very bad shortages next year. I am also hearing that while gas is going down in price right now that we need to be prepared for a very high spike in gas again and it will be much worse. So, time to buy low and fill your tanks and any gas cans you might have. Right now, I have 36 gals. in reserve. But don't think I will get anymore cans now. 

 

[Jeepers]

I'm pretty set on gasoline. Especially since I don't use it in the riding mower and trimmers etc. in the winter. 

 

I read where another merchant ship was attacked in the Red Sea today and BP announced today that they are suspending their ships from going through the Red Sea. So that could effect gas prices.  

 

I had a doctor appointment today. He raised my BP medicine again. But only by half a pill. I thought I was going a lot better but the nurse said the wrist monitors read much lower than the arm ones so I guess I wasn't doing as well as I thought. Sigh. As long as I don't pass out like before, I'll try it.

 

It is snowing here today. Supposed to get 3 inches tonight and 3 inches tomorrow. Then warm up to 40 Wednesday. I really miss my garage in the winter. Haven't heard any more about a walk through. I stopped at the house and it still looks like it did the last time I was there. I think that was last Wednesday. It didn't look like there was that much to do then. But the garage is still full. 

[Necie]

VENISON IS DONE!! 

[Littlesister]

Necie, I know you are glad of that. You have really been busy putting all that meat up. 

I heard also that Russia is going to try to send their merchant ships through Iceland if they can melt the ice there. Not sure how that will work. But not sure that will help us here or not. I don't know if we import merchandise from them or not. Seems most of our stuff comes from China and India. 

 

Babysat the baby most of the day. DGD worked from my house. I thought she had to go to a couple of meetings, but they were online meetings. She is the manager so she could do them anytime she wanted. So, she was here after lunchtime and worked in the dining room. She did have to stop twice to nurse the baby, but other than that the meetings went smoothly, and baby went to sleep for a bit and then I had her playing on floor. She is grinning a lot now that she had her tongue and lip clipped. Seems that was not caught at birth and doctor caught it a few days ago and clipped it. Now she is having to learn to latch on again at feeding but doing good. Seems she was swallowing a lot of air and causing gas and that is mostly why she was crying a lot. But she still fights sleep. She is 10 weeks old today. And they are planning for baby number 2 come June. Said they will start trying at that time. They want the kids to be close together. So, by the time the second one is born the first one should be out of diapers. 

[Phoenix]

On 12/11/2023 at 8:40 PM, Jeepers said:

I got the fridge as a package deal from Home Depot or Lowes.

I have heard, you don’t need a receipt, to return something to Home Depot, they can look up your account and the item # and verify the purchase.  IDK if Lowe’s does the same thing.  

Edited December 19, 2023 by Phoenix
Spelling error

[euphrasyne]

DH was sick a bit this weekend and yesterday, so the double batch of spinach nuggets got made last night and sent to work today.  I filled a mason jar with marinara, put it in the middle of an oval crockpot, then piled the nuggets around it in a doughnut like shape.  I told him to run it for an hour or two before serving it on low.  They turned out pretty good and even DD3 likes them.  I made more than would fit, so we have some for the house regardless of if he returns with any.  

 

DD15 has an art club party tomorrow.  She wants to bring a sweet.  I have a plethora of oatmeal atm and also some frozen diced apples with cinnamon & sugar.   So I suggested we make apple cinnamon oatmeal cookies and that is the plan for tonight.  

 

Deep freeze 1 is almost empty.  It only has some popsicles, ice-cream, and 2 loaves of bread left.   By January 1, I should be able to downsize it and move deep freeze 2 to its spot.  That will open up more space in the sunroom for shelf stable, appliance, and non-food storage.  

[Littlesister]

I am working on my freezer next year. Going to hopefully have it totally emptied. Then I am going to work on an upright freezer for things I use a lot of. The deep freezer, I will move my flour to. I want to freeze that for a while and then move it to mylar bags and buckets. I have already done some of and put in canning jars but have just about used all that up. 

 

The house is really cold today. Got up this morning and GS came into house to use bathroom and left the kitchen door to garage wide open. He had bought his friend home with him, and they were not allowed to come in house. It was after 11pm last night. He thinks he is going to fully move back into my house. Nope, Nadda, it's not going to happen. He is still sleeping in his car. So, I am going to have a talk with him right after Christmas and let him know to get his stuff together and go sit in his friend's driveway for a while till, he decides to get his life together. Although his friend's house is also his mother's house. But not my problem. I slept on the couch last night because I didn't trust GS to not bring his friend in the house. I don't know this guy. He is 19 years old, and GS just met him a few weeks ago and doesn't really know him all that well either. Glad he has made a friend from work, but they seem to be sticking together like glue. On their days off GS picks him up and they hang out together all day and half the night. 

DD tried to change plans for Christmas again. She wants me now to come up to her house on Saturday. I had already told her that GS was working Saturday and couldn't come up with me and I was not trusting him enough to stay by himself here. Sleeping in car or not I still don't trust him. She said he told her he was off on Saturday but told me he was off on Friday. So, either something is in the wind, and he is lying again to one of us. So, the plan still stands. They will be coming in on Sunday. DD and SIL are off work Christmas day and DD is off on Tuesday as well, but SIL has to work on Tuesday. So, they could stay over for Christmas day as well and leave to head home in the afternoon. But she doesn't want to do that. Her choice. So, I am preparing to have Christmas on Christmas Eve. But hate that I will miss the candlelight service at church. Hopefully next year everyone will get their act together and I will be free to come and go as I please. 

 

Need to head to bank in a little while. Then home again to check the store adds. Still looking for that turkey breast. Hoping to find one cheaper. But will see what happens. 

My arm and shoulder have been killing me the past couple of days. I think it is the arthritis and the rain didn't like each other. 

 

I was texting back and forth with my GD in Washington and forgot to shut down the computer and log off this site. And I slept on couch which didn't help my shoulder any. 

[Mother]

 Phoenix.  Nice to see you posting!  
 

And you are correct, Home Depot does look up your purchases even a few years back.    They did that for us recently when our freezer needed repairs to see if the warranty was still valid.