3 Good things for today:

pam: So sorry to learn of that death of the good friend's father passing. My goodness. Prayers sent.

-Picked over HUGE amounts of Christmas decor DH wants to give to his sister. Really thought could not get it done, but DID!
- Some vintage over 100 yr old decor we are keeping!
- Decorated Christmas tree.

Hey Captain: Those cinnamon rolls sound so good with potato. Reminds me of an Easter egg recipe my sister in law had - chocolate eggs made with potatoes.

Daughter and her boyfriend are coming to eat dinner with us.

Will eat at one of our favorite restaurants.

No cooking or washing dishes!

Here's a good thing for me for today. My husband and I put up our fake Christmas tree and swept up its fallen fake needles (it seems to lose more every year). Then we decorated it with electric lights, glass baubles, and ornaments collected over the years, some of them made by our children, now in their thirties. Also we reminisced about Christmases past. It may be a stupid tacky tradition, but we enjoyed it. I believe it's a much better way to celebrate than murdering toddlers, no matter what anyone in Australia thinks. ;)

good cinnamon rolls . you cant go wrong with potato flakes in pastry .
i could have probably chosen a better beverage than beer to wash em down with but ( homer simpson ) " whatta ya gonna do ? )

got the 52 beers done . decided to take a break and have ( a previous cold ) one .

i let the dough rise twice just to buy time . its also part potato flakes . probably be some good fluffy cinnamon rolls . bout to find out .

got my dough rising , vacuumed the floors and have gotten 36 out of 48 bottles washed . be one heck of a good day if my energy holds out .

i achieved my two loads of firewood from the forest this weekend and not much else yet .

the plan for today is to start some cinnamon roll dough , bottle up my latest batch of beer , and vacuum the floors .

last weekend i extended the height of my kitchen faucet by about 11 inches so washing up jugs after the bottling should be a breeze .

1.) Attended a Winter Market in a nearby city. Lovely setting & beautiful holiday decor.

2.) Explored more of that city on foot. It’s decked out for the holidays. Made me smile.

3.) Been living at my own pace for the past 3 days. Loving every minute of it.

A friend and I went to two local Christmas fairs today at fire departments, free admission and parking, and they were quite nice. We have always gone to a huge show in past years .. money to get in, money to park,, giant messy crowds. And the past few years we only really paid more $$ to eat! So this year we tried this and got some nice things! Then we went to the local outlets.. OMG !! But we did get some good deals.. so I feel like my shopping is well on its way. ( well, plus the Amazon shopping) Mom did fine by herself most of the day.. hubs was hunting but came home at lunch to check on her and eat. ( not that she ate) Not so good news, another good friends father passed yesterday unexpectedly. This has been a hard holiday season so far.

continued......

so the last few days I’ve been thinking about this whole thing and feeling very sad for these boys. They became friends on the team. The other boy couldn’t invite the whole team so he had to choose a few boys and he chose my son. He’s a good boy, he’s very polite and well mannered and you can just tell he’s a nice kid. I have absolutely no problem with my son being friends with him. But their dads come from 2 very different worlds. And while I don’t know anything about gang culture and I don’t know whether it’s a fact he’s still an active gang member, after lots of thinking, I realized it is probably in his best interest NOT to have a cop at his son’s party. I know my husband’s coworkers would probably frown upon it too. But to me, these are innocent kids and I just think.....how can we fix things and make this world a better place if we all can’t get along? What kind of message are we sending our kids? I don’t want my kids thinking they are different or better than anyone else, I don’t want them thinking anyone is better than them. And seems to me, the cops and gangs being at war with each other isn’t helping anyone either.

So I think my husband and I both honestly felt the invitation to the party was rescinded and the text wouldn’t be coming. However yesterday the dad sent my husband the invite via text and my husband thanked him & said our son will be there. When he first told me about the party he said I would probably have to take him and I was fine with that but now he’s saying he will take him.
So this is very very good! And I wasn’t upset that my son was going to be uninvited, he didn’t even know about the party. I was upset over the fact that 2 boys might not be able to be friends because of who their dads are. It’s not right. So I guess this thanksgiving miracle 3 & I’ll take it!!!

—It’s a thanksgiving miracle! I woke up again feeling like crud and seriously contemplated cancelling Thanksgiving. I got up at 7:30 when hubby left for work because I had a headache and the heater was blaring and I was hot. Had a 102 fever so I popped some Advil for the headache and went back to bed. Don’t know what I was expecting when I did that but I woke up at noon and couldn’t believe I slept so late! Got off to a slow start but i’m feeling better and it’s now 5:30 and despite being hours behind schedule, I managed to clean the entire house and shampoo the carpets in the kids rooms.

-it’s either another thanksgiving miracle or my kids are sick too—for the first time EVER they both did everything I asked of them today the first time I asked and without giving me an attitude or a fight! My 7 year old also helped me clean, he vacuumed the couches, some areas where the robot vacuum doesn’t reach and scrubbed some walls!! And cleaned his room without whining and asking me to help. This NEVER happens! Ever. I am shocked. My daughter always argues everything and asks why her brother doesn’t have to help when I asked her to do something but today, she just did whatever I asked. I usually have to tell my son to do something multiple times & Threaten to call his dad before he’ll do what he’s told. But not today. Today he did it the first time and kept asking to help me!

-the weekend ended on a heavy note but has taken a big turn and I am so happy! My husband is a cop. His department has been at odds with a certain non-profit organization that receives federal funding. This organization fought against putting school resource officers in our schools and were successful & the dept lost millions in grant money. Then, a few months ago when the dept was in contract negotiations with the city, this organization attended city council meetings and encourage the city NOT to agree to the contract the officers wanted. There was a $20k difference in the contract the city proposed and the contract the officers proposed. City wasted more than that on consulting fees and ultimately forced/imposed their bad contract on the officers. So my son started football this year and one of his teammates father was one of the heads of the non profit that kept going against the police dept. he is also a gang member (he says former, police say he’s still active). at one of the practices, my husband heard him bragging about costing the city millions of dollars and my husband was really irritated by that. Everything has been fine though, both dads have talked at games and it’s been fine. However.....shortly after the city imposed their contract, the police officers association released video of the dad/non profit guy at a party with known gang members, dressed in gang apparel, talking to a gang member current in jail on murder charges. They put the organization and the guy on blast and asked why they have a known gang member heading their organization and why they don’t denounce gangs. This organization is supposed to be helping former gang members I think. This caused him to step down and quit his job with the organization. So this whole time he hasn’t known my husband works for the local police department. A week ago at one of the practices he invited my son to his son’s birthday party. This weekend was the last game and we all went out for a pizza party after. And my husband and the other dad talked a bit and he again invited my son to the party and said he would text an invitation with all the info. There was lots of drinking going on and I know the other dad was drunk. At the end of the evening, my husband spoke to the other dads wife and said he’s a cop and he’s not trying to be dirty and I don’t know what else was discussed but I wasn’t expecting him to send the text invite. My heart felt very heavy.
To be continued....

-Caught up on Thanksgiving greeting cards.
-Heard from cousin - Praise the Lord!
-'Bout ready to mail out Christmas cards.

I slept better last night, only woke up once when mom was talking in her sleep., figured out she was OK, and didn't get up ( for once) Took Mom for her shot, she is more lucid today so it was all good on that front. My BFF sent some undergarments ( depends) for mom that she has stockpiled from her hubs, they fit fine, so we are good on those for a LONG time.. LOL She has a lifetime supply.. My house got cleaned yesterday ( BFFs DIL is a godsend to us, I may hire her for mom now that her FIL has passed, she gets mom to eat a bit, and she even did all my inside windows.. God bless her) And my hubs did indeed do all the prep work and cooking for tomorrow,, giving me a break to regroup. Stuffing, cauliflower casserole, corn casserole you name it! I only had to make the Danish for breakfast, and he helped with that too! I even got to spend an hour watching TV in my private TV room ( spare bedroom.. LOL ) with my puppers. I am feeling more optimistic today

i bumped up another mortgage payment setting me good till april 1 .

had a good day at work .

off for several days and have a batch of beer to bottle up .

going for a couple loads of hickory firewood tomorrow .
im going thru all the motions of survival till my sons killers get those cuffs slapped on them . that eventuality drives me like a one man army .

-Daughter colored my hair. Went to Hair Cuttery for cut.
-Got hostess gift ready for sister in law - ready for Thanksgiving.
-PC Doc called wanting me to come in for Fosamax - told her NO WAY.

1.My mother had an appointment with her urologist today and no more weekly bladder washes for the time being. Follow-up once a month.
2. Finished my Thanksgiving shopping today.
3.Sunny day.

Oooh, what a great idea for a thread!!

1.) Went to take care of hospitalized aunt's cats and really enjoyed them - they're both really good pets. Her bird feeders were lovely when I filled them up.

2.) Then went and got some organization done in my storage unit which I needed to.

3.) Remembered I have some really cute holiday decorations, brought some home from the storage unit to put around the house.

Hope everyone else is doing OK.

pam: Glad the service went as well as to be expected. You gave me an LOL on your mother thinking that a 25 year old could be coupled with an 80 year old! Oh, my! Too funny!

- Dexa scan completed.
- Christmas cards completed and ready to mail - the earliest ever!
- Reason why I like to be early for this holiday - in 1972, I thought daughter was due to be born on Christmas, but she came on December 4 - I hadn't listened to ob/gyn and was NOT ready for Christmas AT ALL.

We attended the service for my BFs husband today, and it was lovely. The meal and fellowship at her house after were lighthearted, and I got to meet some of the relatives I had never met,, we all got on great and I feel like I've made some new friends, as it were. We have all heard about each other for about 15 years.. so nice to meet more of them. Moms memory has taken a huge slide downward in the past few weeks, but most of them know and treated her like a queen, even when she was "a bit goofy". ( She asked the 25 YO grand daughter if her 80 YO grandfather in law was her husband) All in all a bittersweet day..

so far ive drove to the winery and scarfed up about 80 nice beer bottles . they are 16 ounce , heavy gauge and would probably cost a buck each if one could even purchase them online .

when law enforcement wins their murder case im going to have plenty of beer for whomever would like some .

1)got our Costco rebate check (if you have an executive membership you get 2% of the total amount you spent all year back)

2)after realizing thanksgiving is a week away and that l I better go buy the prime rib & turkey asap so that there will be time to defrost & brine, I used the rebate check to buy a 6.5lb prime rib and a 20lb turkey, plastic dinner & dessert plates and Costco’s homemade macaroni & still had $30 left.

3)husband is on his way home after a 3 day work trip, as I type this.

- Husband's birthday
- Dexa scan postphoned
- Fosamax is confirmed - no good for jaw - never plan to take it, even though nurse at PC doc didn't know about this!!

good day,
my freedom challenged helper and i completed a signage project at the forest -- copped ( fairly earned ) some great points with the foresters .
sitting at home having chili and got an email -- my beer malt and ambien scrip are in my mailbox .

got tomorrow off . if it rains i'll make beer , if it doesnt i'll cut a load of firewood at the forestry . either project amounts to good economics . ( 30 cent beers )

2 good things today. Number 1 - I’m still alive Number 2 - My Mother is still alive

Way to go WorriedinCA. I need to get moving more so I can shake off the slump feeling I have too.

-I did not get my night of uninterrupted sleep because I drank too much water before bed AND I was woken up twice by my daughters cat who decided that since hubby is gone, he would sleep with me and that is a very good thing! Its been 19 months since my cat Toby died and he slept with me every night so I am so happy Frankie decided to sleep with me! He won’t dare get on the bed when hubby is home, he doesn’t like hubby (the feeling is mutual) and is afraid of the cpap machine. It was nice having a cat snuggled up to me last night!

-sharing this one in case it helps someone who has been in a slump too. And by slump, I mean low engergy, feeling very down, no motivation and just feeling worn down & making poor eating decisions. 2 weeks ago I finally couldn’t stand it anymore and took control of my situation. I’ve made a complete dietary change-cut back on coffee, down to 1 cup a day instead of 3. And I’m mostly eating meats and veggies & complex carbs and really focusing on portion control. I’ve replaced one meal with a whey protein shake. I’ve also started excercising again after not going to the gym for over a month. But I’ve switched it up and it’s helped so much. Instead of lifting weights, I am running sprints on my treadmill. I tell you, positive endorphins are wonderful for the mind & body! I sprint for 2 minutes and then jump off and stand for a minute and then jump back on for another 2 minutes until I hit the 21 minute mark and then I walk for 5 minutes to cool down. It gets the heart pumping, burns fat and leaves me feeling great! I’m thankful I can still run!!! I’ve started doing my sprints at around 9:30 in the morning before breakfast, which helps burn more fat. I weighed myself last Monday and Friday and am down 2lbs. Don’t really need to lose weight but I would like to lean out, thanks to bad genetics I carry weight in my hips & thighs so i’d Like to burn some fat there LOL! Anyway i am kind blown away by how much better I feel and it’s only been 2 weeks!

After 5 hours of sleep according to my fitbit, three good things today are 1) delivery service of supplies since I'm housebound with mom today, 2) I finally ordered a new washer, and 3) the magnificent colors of the sun setting when I finally got a chance to just sit.