Back to the grind Monday

[Colliemom]

Morning everyone. After 3 days of beautiful sunshine and 40 degree temps, it’s supposed to be cloudy with a cold front coming through today, then back into 30’s-40’s withsome sun again next couple days. So it’s back to work in the basement for me today. The craft/workshop room project has been on hold with the nice weather. I’m just the opposite of a lot of you, in that I get more done in the house on cloudy, dark days than when it’s sunny. Sunny days just makes me want to be outside. So between running Errands in town, taking a ride to Mackinaw City, giving the inside of my truck a much needed cleaning and enjoying some nice long walks, that’s exactly what I was doing, one thing about this project, it keeps me from baking Christmas butter cookies which I am trying to stay away from. I dropped sweets From my eating habits last winter, fell off the wagon this summer from eating my favorite ice cream and need to get back on track. But they may get baked yet. A small batch. They have been a Christmas tradition since I was old enough to remember. Mom made them every year and I followed suit.

I’m not doing any decorating either. Nobody here but me too look at it and I’m busy doing other things. But in years past used to really deck the halls. Barbie, your house looks very festive.

Irmi, between your home in MD and your winter home in Ocala, you must have a black rain cloud following you around

So guess I will toll out of bed here and stay up. Woke up at 5 a.m. and can’t go back to sleep. May as well have some breakfast, watch the morning news, weather and head for the basement eventually. Have a nice day everyone.

[IrishIroamed]

Mornin' Sue & all that follow~~~

I'm still in Arizona, about an hour south of Tucson. Been in the cool side, but the space heater has been good enough. Fingers crossed that Wednesday will bring 70° temps for a day or two.

Sue, I think most people are like you and would rather be outside when it's nice and sunny. Cloudy days are for being inside nesting as they say, or in your case, doing remodeling projects.

I don't really have anything planned, sightseeing wise, but would like to find a chiropractor in Tucson, since i'll be close enough for the next month for adjustments. My chiro back home wrote a transfer of care form & told me how to find a chiro on her alma maters website as well as the names of the different treatments she does on me. My neck has been bothering me for a while now, so time to find a doctor. Last year when I was on the road I only needed one adjustment in California, so I'm hoping for the same now.

That's it for me. Have a good day ladies & stay safe wherever you are.

[Cudedog]

. . . But they may get baked yet. A small batch. They have been a Christmas tradition since I was old enough to remember. Mom made them every year and I followed suit.

I’m not doing any decorating either. Nobody here but me too look at it and I’m busy doing other things. But in years past used to really deck the halls. Barbie, your house looks very festive.

Morning to you, too, Sue.

Christmas butter cookies have been a favorite of mine since I was a child. My Mom had a cookie press that she made them with. No matter how many she made, they would barely last the day. When own kids were small, I made mountains of them, too, and would freeze them. One year, after carefully rationing them, we had green cookie Christmas trees until February!!

One Christmas I was at some kind of gathering that had a big tin of those Danish butter cookies that one sees at the holidays. After the gathering, the hostess asked if I would like to take what was left home with me - the tin was still nearly full. I was happy to accept, thinking that I was the only one in my family that liked these, as my kids had stated they disliked them in the past.

Wowie! A whole tin (and it was the large size) of cookies, just for me. Oops!! Wrong!! A few days later I went to my cookie "stash", only to find that there were just a few cookies left at the bottom of the tin.

I haven't decorated inside my house at all. Probably will put a few things out when my kids come for Christmas day, but, by and large, I just enjoy looking at the decorations on other people's homes, and at store decorations.

I, too, used to really "deck the halls", as you say. We didn't have much money, but I did have a sewing machine, and access to discounted Christmas fabric, so I made table covers, wall hangings, curtain valences - just whatever I could think of. Probably most of it, as in years past since my kids spread their wings to fly away, will stay in their boxes, up in the closet.

I hope that when my kids find them one day, that they bring back happy memories for them.

Anne

[BarbaraRose]

Good morning gals!

Sunny here today with mid 60's for highs.

Sue, don't you usually head up to northern MI for Christmas?

I am one of those who is more motivated to work inside on sunny days. Cloudy, gloomy days make me want to just curl up on the couch with a blanket and read, nap, etc. Lately, tho, I haven't had much motivation no matter what it is like outside. Still struggling with that.

I need to go to the bank and to WM before heading to work later. I have tomorrow off and need to go out and do a little Christmas shopping.

Have a good day!

[Acadianmom]

I had to set the alarm so I could drop Sweetie Pie off for her X-ray at 8:00. I killed as much time in town as I could hoping they would call me to pick her up. I finally gave up and came home. I have known the vet I usually use since he got out of vet school, at least 30 years ago. If he takes an X-ray he has to take it somewhere to be developed. I don't know how much that machine costs but it looks like he might have invested in one.

I stopped by Joann's Fabric for some thread. Talk about sticker shock. A spool of thread is $5. There was probably a coupon in yesterday's paper but I never have them when I need them.

Anne, the way to make cookies last is to freeze them before you bake them. I won't heat the oven just to bake me some cookies but if I am cooking something else I bake 4 or 5 cookies. I always dry my cast iron skillet in the oven. I technically didn't cook anything yesterday but I did heat the oven so that counted.

The sun was out for a while and it was 68. It got cloudy and the temperature is dropping.

Martha

[OregonLuvr]

Good afternoon. I finally got out of the house. Had several errands to run and then a trip to Costco (ugh) was on my list. So left the house before 9am did a couple quick errands and ended up at Costco at 9:30. They dont open until 10 so just sat in the parking lot along with a hundred other people. They opened the doors at 9:45....score. Finally got a cart (stood in line for a cart LOL). I had a list so was able to just cruise around and pick up what I needed. It sure wasnt crowded once I got inside. I always buy a roasted chicken there, big ole fat chicken for $4.99 cant beat that. I eat on it for a day or two (sharing with Emma) then I make chicken enchiladas or tacos then freeze the rest for Emma. I get my moneys worth out of it for sure. Came home and put away the groceries then headed to the pawn shop I have been wanting to visit just up the street. It is very big inside. Lots of merchandise but no real bargains that I could see. I didn't need anything in particular, just planning ahead to see if it was a viable option. I will go back after the holidays and will have more time to browse.

I am waiting for there to be snow up on the hill. We got some but then the freezing level went up to 7000ft and then rain so it is pretty much gone. I like visiting the snow and it is only 20 minutes up the hill so easy to get my snow fix.

I decorated inside but nothing fantastic. Some ornaments and a fiber optic tree and a couple stocking LOL That's it. I do like my little fiber optic tree. I had a fiber optic poinsietta but it quit working last year so I just got rid of it.

[Colliemom]

Barbie, I stopped going up north for the holidays about 3 years ago after I moved to this house. It’s gotten too expensive to stay at the resort anymore on my budget. And the owners whom I’m friends with, sold the place a year ago and are actually living about 40 miles from here now. They moved back down where the kids are. Plus after going up there on and off for about 13 years, was getting kinda burned out. Time for a change of scenery and my home on wheels takes care of that.

[JudyJB]

Sunny this morning, so I went outside and dumped both of my tanks. (I leave them shut and open them only when the tanks are full.) Unfortunately, my water pump has been putting out less and less water, to the point where it is only a large dribble right now. I have had weird water pump problems on this rig ever since I bought it 6.5 years ago. Basically, each pump lasts only about a year, and then I have to replace it. This one is over a year old. (It's a long story, but I have gotten used to using only my water pump because if I use city water for more than a couple of days without "exercising" pump, it is very hard to get it primed again.)

And of course, the pumps only fail when I have just filled the fresh water tank up, and I do NOT like to drive with a 3/4 tank of fresh water because it puts me over my weight limit, so I was happy to drain it down to 1/4 of a tank by leaving the faucet on while it eventually dribbled out. So, back to city water, which is working fine and giving me a good stream. I need to call somewhere to get a new water pump installed, tire pressure checked, and an oil change, hopefully before the holidays.

I've started trying to fill in my schedule with trips between monthly doctor appointments. I'll be taking one trip in March and April to Las Vegas while it is cold north of here and then fly back for my one-day appointment, leaving motorhome in Las Vegas overnight. They have cheap flights to here from Las Vegas and special hotel rates for patients. Then in May, will be heading up to Washington State to explore an area in the middle of the state and follow the Columbia River all the way to Canada. Want a couple of weeks or so at the coast, also.

And, as far as cookies go, I was lucky when my kids were growing up to have a chest freezer in the basement. I discovered if I put stuff like ice cream and cookies under the packages of vegetables, ABSOLUTELY NO ONE EVER FOUND THEM!!! This was when my boys were teens and the life expectancy of a half-gallon of ice cream in my house was less than 24 hours. It was the only way I could keep certain items around.

[snowball]

so I have to ask what is butter cookies?
did get my tree up and decorated today still need to put the bows on though...
and have a table to put items on but the couch is coming on Weds and hesitated put them out for fear of being in the way of couches going in and out so it will wait till Wednesday. Tomorrow Alice and I are going to Havasu was there last week only to forget something important so back we go again....
Need to think of something for the parent... no idea's at all so going to be late she never but never volunteers ideas but used to get mad at us for not doing it either... I have bought clothes for her in the past never see any on her she doesn't read much any more got her a couple of subscriptions to magazines she enjoys last summer one suggestion was to pay for meals on wheels for awhile or order Freshly set to the door but one of the comments I read on that brand is the veggies were spicy, and the box was heavy...
but it sounds good glorified tv dinners...
need to find a home for stuff that has not been put away yet...and sometime tomorrow need to vacuum up the fall out from the tree... oh yes going to Havasu
sheila

[snowball]

so I have to ask what is butter cookies?
did get my tree up and decorated today still need to put the bows on though...
and have a table to put items on but the couch is coming on Weds and hesitated put them out for fear of being in the way of couches going in and out so it will wait till Wednesday. Tomorrow Alice and I are going to Havasu was there last week only to forget something important so back we go again....
Need to think of something for the parent... no idea's at all so going to be late she never but never volunteers ideas but used to get mad at us for not doing it either... I have bought clothes for her in the past never see any on her she doesn't read much any more got her a couple of subscriptions to magazines she enjoys last summer one suggestion was to pay for meals on wheels for awhile or order Freshly sent to the door but one of the comments I read on that brand is the veggies were spicy, and the box was heavy...
but it sounds good glorified tv dinners...
need to find a home for stuff that has not been put away yet...and sometime tomorrow need to vacuum up the fall out from the tree... oh yes going to Havasu
sheila

[BarbaraRose]

Sheila, butter cookies are the same as Spritz cookies that you make with a cookie press. My mom made those when we were little and I loved to just eat the dough! I could still just make a batch of dough and eat that!


My dad was hard to buy for as well. He loved blueberries so I would give him a fresh blueberry pie for Christmas, Father's Day, and his birthday. He loved it and it made shopping for him very easy!

Hope you have a nice time in Lake Havasu!

Barbie, I stopped going up north for the holidays about 3 years ago after I moved to this house...

Sue, where have I been?? Somehow I wasn't aware of that.

I picked up my new tent today. It is a 6 person Instant tent. I like bigger ones that don't feel so claustrophobic and that I can stand up in. I hope eventually I can get that trailer I want, but house issues come first right now.



My bike was also delivered to the local Walmart but I asked them to put it together for me, so I will be able to pick it up later. I told them I don't need it before Christmas since I imagine they have a ton of them to get put together before then. I like that this looks like a cruiser bike but also has hand brakes and 7 speeds. It was less than $100 too! I need to buy a lock for it. Already got a hitch bike rack.



Off to bed soon since I have a headache tonight.