Daily Ooos: Thursday, December 19

[faerywings]

Will you get annoyed with me if I tell you I had a meltdown yesterday? Nothing major, but my brain was sparking and flailing like a downed electrical wire. I was close to tears. Gary was so patient and tried to help me figure out what I needed to do.

I had started to gather ingredients and make the shopping list for the food gifts when I realized that I couldn't make them. I didn't have enough mason jars of any size. The spaghetti sauce jars I saved were not a scaleable size. It was 16.99 to buy a case of Mason jars at the supermarket. No time to find them anywhere else. For the Muddy Buddies-- the Peanut Butter chips were bad. As I started to go through more and more ideas, it felt like nothing would work. Either the item needed more time/money/ingredients than I had or it was something I had already gifted to them. 30+ years of homemade gifts and not a ton of talent left me with few options.
I came up with an idea homemade bread and herb butter. That spiraled into how to make it ahead of time and keep it fresh. And: It is silly to give the family a freaking loaf of bread?
Photo of my brain in "action"

That's not quite right. Imagine a few of the ants falling off and screaming.

I finally came up with the idea of making the bread into a wreath with sundried tomatoes and rosemary sprigs. Herbed butter in a jar in the center. Scrap a quote about families and circles for each of them. Does that sound decent?

I need to go to Shop Rite first thing this morning before it gets busy. Then I'll be in the kitchen for much of the day. I have Gary's cookies to bake and if I can get the candied almonds done that would be a nice bonus. But I am not holding my breath on that. I

Yesterday I also got the 6-week curriculum done for HS. All of the topics are set: Animals/Birds/Plants in Winter, Survival Skills, Snow Science, Maple Sugaring, and Early Signs of Spring. I feel good about the topics and ideas for projects that I have planned so far. Now we just need to see who signs up.

@mimes1 Amy-- professional question for you. I want the kids to make bird nesting material holders. A lot of the project idea sites suggest using empty suet cages. But we try to use as much natural/foraged materials as possible. Would it be safe for the birds to use forsythia branches and weave them into balls and is twine safe to use to tie them together? I read that you should not add yarn/long strings to the material holders so I don't want to do anything that could potentially harm the birds. TIA!

Scrapping... what's that???
I have to work on the Week 4 AJ Challenge -- that needs to be ready to go by Sunday, IIRC.

HAGD!

 

[faerywings]

@taxed4ever Hooo boy, you have been busy! I bet the hike was wonderful and the falls must have been flowing! I hope that the sun came out enough to make the water sparkle.

Where does the time go???

For real!!
I hope that you can pack everything you need to bring to the kids. I'd suggest shipping the gifts ahead of time, but that sure isn't going to work with the Postal strike. :/

Good morning ladies. I've had a very busy week, not much time online or scrapping. I've got full days/nights until Sunday and then things slow down. Whew. I've got to get out this morning to grab another gift for our secret santa exchange at the Friday pot luck/game night at the center. I'm meeting the ladies group for coffee before rushing off to canasta and then I'm coming home to make a jewelry piece to give to a friend at our ladies luncheon tomorrow.

You and Trudy pooped me out just reading about your days
Have a great time the next few days with your friends ♥

Good Morning!
I read what everyone was doing yesterday just never took the moment to write. It felt very weird not to have written my hello and comments. Todays a busy day. Our last dinner for the year. I will have the next two weeks off and start again in January. We are making pizza tonight. Always a huge deal and super busy but the kids love it. Its so much work we only do it twice, the end of each semester. You know it will be a long day when you start with 50lbs of flour.

On the rare occasions I am not here, it feels weird and wrong for me too.
50lbs of dough....flour. Mindboggling amounts! I bet the kids love it! I hope you have time to rest during the rest of the month. Maybe a little??

Our fridge are broken. We have the milk, butter etc out on the porch. Will try and find a repairman tomorrow, but yay .... Just before Christmas, not sure anyone will have the time. And if he needs spare parts, and have to order them ........ !!!

A Christmas without a fridge...... won't be any Christmas dinner then.

I'm so so so sick of everything right now.

Send chocolate!!!

No, no-- that is not enough chocolate for this situation. Will this do?

That is absolutely awful about the fridge. I'm so sorry

I was home for about 1/2 hour before I had to leave again to go to a Christmas program put on by Kindergarteners.....Mark's granddaughter, Bella, and a little girl from our church, Ellie, were singing. I could not believe how many kids there were! There must have been 5 classes of kids! WOW! It was cute! Love watching those little ones doing the motions and trying to remember all of the words! They did a pretty good job!

awwww, that is soo sweet!!

Watch yourself, or you will be getting down and out and end up missing the holiday!

I know... I do this to myself *every darn year.*
Glad that your stomach is improving.

Looks like today will be a PJ day as it is after noon now and I am still in PJs... Think it will also be a 'do nothing' but maybe watch movies (on DVDs, Netflix or Peacock) and/or read. I finished the books from the library but still have the ones from the Senior Citizen Center library. Yes, last nigh I did cook up the taco meat but was tired by then so just made soft shell tacos with guacamole. Will make the taco salad tonight.

LOL-- love how that happens, spontaneous PJ days
BTW- tacos are such a PITB to cook and clean up after. Just running the bowls of "stuff" to the table is exhausting.
I would love to check out Joyce Paul and A Whimsical Adventure's shops. I have some of their old designs from the last time they were here and I am so excited they are back

I saw this advertised as "die-hardesque". Mark and I are going to watch it tomorrow night.

Sort of OT-- but we watched Die JHard the other night (the first time I had seen it from start to finish) and I am firmly into "Christmas Movie" camp.

 

[taxed4ever]

Morning everyone, it is a very gloomy, rainy morning! What a change from yesterday as the sun came out and it was bright and beautiful for our hike. The falls were huge and the river overflowing with water! There was no beach to sit on for our lunch break and the sound of the rushing water was very loud! The last time we hiked this area we could almost walk across the river. What a change! It was a 10km hike and it was pretty muddy, but also very lovely to be out in the sunshine and fresh air!

I took this from a video I did and it really doesn't do it justice as to just how strong the current and the flow of the water was. Today I am meeting my old high school friend for coffee and then I have to drop off a appetizer to DH's work as they are having a Pot luck lunch today. I think I might finally be able to look for some new Pj's today too, how much you want to bet that I can't find any?? I bet everything is pretty picked over! If I get home early enough, I really want to try to do some scrapping, its been far too long, since I have had the time to sit down and make a page! I have a couple more things to wrap and this weekend will be busy with trying to get the packing done. DH has to work this Monday, but we will be heading out very early on Tuesday morning to catch our flight. I guess we will have to take the In-Law's their gift and Christmas Card on Sunday, as there won't be any other time to do it.

@faerywings - Yes I wish I could mail the gifts out, but even now that the Postal workers have been legislated back to work, there still wouldn't be enough time for them to get there. We might have to pay to take an extra checked bag . Sorry you are dealing with a mushy brain again!! Take time to rest and try to collect your thoughts, it sounds like you have been very busy, so no wonder you are feeling discombobulated!!

@bcgal00 - What a busy lady you are and how wonderful!! Better than sitting around and doing nothing, right?!! Are you and your DH going to do any travelling in the near future? Or are you happy to just stay put for a bit?

@AK_Tracy - That is a lot of flour!! My stomach is turning thinking about it!! I can't process white flour and haven't had bread or pizza crust for years. Sounds like you are going to be one busy woman for the next while, then hooray two weeks off!! What will you do with all that time??

@tanteva - Ohhh nooo, this is not a good time to have your fridge die on you!! But then when is a good time?? Sending you lots of chocolate and hope that it will be an easy fix!!

@vickyday - Hope that you have a good day with Ilene again today, too funny that she loves to eat so much! My MIL is the same, even though she has been told numerous times to change her eating habits! I miss watching the kids at the Christmas Concerts, but Heather sent me some videos of the boys singing their hearts out at their Concert this year! So cute!!

@BrightEyes - You have been very busy with scrapping, how nice! I really want to do something with Joyce Paul's goodies too, she has so many amazing kits!! But then so do all of the Designers here at the O!!

Ok off to the shower and then get this Appetizer ready to go into the oven. Have a wonderful Thursday everyone!

 

[AK_Tracy]

Good Morning!

I finally came up with the idea of making the bread into a wreath with sundried tomatoes and rosemary sprigs. Herbed butter in a jar in the center. Scrap a quote about families and circles for each of them. Does that sound decent?

This sounds lovely!! Fresh bread is an awesome gift. Who doesn't love bread.


47 lbs of flour! This is 18 of the 22 crusts we made yesterday. 12 packages (8oz) of pepperoni, 20 lbs cheese, it was SO much work but such a blast. It took 3 hours to make all the crusts. When we served we baked four at a time and it took us the whole 30 minutes to get them all cooked. We make sure they're are four ready at serving time, then we bake and send out as they cook. Everyone knows it takes time but they are willing to wait. They're allowed one piece then they have to go eat it and get back in line. Its the only way we can get everyone through in time.

Today, I am a puddle on the couch. But it was worth it!
Off to get more coffee.

 

[AK_Tracy]

@taxed4ever
Trudy the photo So beautiful. Looks like you caught the waterfall/downhill portion in the back of the photo and man that shows how fast that water is moving. Looks stunning.

 

[BrightEyes]

Ended up sleeping in this morning until a spam call woke me up at just after 8AM!!! I was dreaming about Bill and I getting ready for a trip... hated to wake up right then,

LOL-- love how that happens, spontaneous PJ days
BTW- tacos are such a PITB to cook and clean up after. Just running the bowls of "stuff" to the table is exhausting.
I would love to check out Joyce Paul and A Whimsical Adventure's shops. I have some of their old designs from the last time they were here and I am so excited they are back

Since there is only me here, I don't mind doing Tacos... I have the 'extras' in bowls on the island plus the cooked meat in the skillet and corn tortillas just soften on the plate. Quick and easy to put together. Ended up switching the days... did tacos first, then had taco salad last night.

broken tortilla chips, lettuce, tomatoes
Added cooked seasoned meat and cheddar cheese
and topped with guacamole
It was so yummy... and the neat thing was I used up the last of the broken tortilla chips in the bag. They were too small to use for dippers for Salsa or guacamole.

 

[BrightEyes]

@AK_Tracy WOW... that is a lot of work and time to get them all done. I get why you make rectangle shapes with the dough. Bet you were ready to collapse once they were all done!!

@taxed4ever What a beautiful photo of the river!! So glad you had good weather for the hike.

@tanteva So sorry about the fridge break-down just before Christmas... it is always bad when it happens but the holidays make getting repairs done so much harder.

@Cherylndesigns been thinking about you and sending you lots of love as you get through this 1st year...
Yes, dear friend, I still deal with hard times missing my Bill especially over the holiday season as that was when he went downhill. But I try to remember other happy times with him and treasure the time we had together.

Time to get dressed and do a few chores around here. HAGD

 

[mimes1]

@faerywings , you are correct not to bind the nesting material with anything that would create an entanglement risk. As the material is pulled out, the remaining loose strings would definitely cause a problem. (Birds are like little kids, and if there’s a risk, they’re going to mess with it. I still cut up mesh bags from produce and soda can plastic rings to keep the birds safe!!)

You could however take some wire or zip ties or pipe cleaners, and take a trio of branches and tie them together at the base. The birds won’t mess with that because it would be the base of your holder. Keep the top open like a bouquet. Then stuff away inside those three branches. Like an upside down teepee. The birds could easily pull out material from within the three branch bouquet. You wouldn’t need anything to hold it together. IMO. We used to take little squares of burlap, say 4 x 4, and pull
Them apart strand by strand. That makes great nesting material. You could send the kids on a hunt for spider webs and twirl them onto a small branch that has little branchlets on it. Palm fiber ( like you’re going to have palm fiber in winter in NJ? ) is a great nesting material. Moss. Just hunting for the material alone would be fun for the kids! They would be able to find all kinds of things!!

Let me know what you think! I’m at work but wanted to answer right away so you could be thinking on it.

 

[tanteva]

Decided to be positive. Better the fridge broke now than in the middle of summer. Now we can store it out in our "shed" (I don't think shed is the real word, it's attached to the house, but it's where we store our wood pellets for the boiler) in plastic containers. Bonus: you don't eat as much since it's a bit of a chore to get to the stuff. For some reason it's way harder to go through the boiler room out into the "shed", then what it is to go out to the kitchen. Bet it's the same amount of steps. The brain is a funny thing.

photo of my new fridge:

 

[AK_Tracy]

@AK_Tracy WOW... that is a lot of work and time to get them all done. I get why you make rectangle shapes with the dough. Bet you were ready to collapse once they were all done!!

Yes, was about done in by the time we were done and clean up was over. Today is PJ day. I sauna-ed, showered, and put PJs back on. Now I have my feet up and hubs planned dinner. I'm playing slug today. Not moving.

Decided to be positive. Better the fridge broke now than in the middle of summer. Now we can store it out in our "shed" (I don't think shed is the real word, it's attached to the house, but it's where we store our wood pellets for the boiler) in plastic containers. Bonus: you don't eat as much since it's a bit of a chore to get to the stuff. For some reason it's way harder to go through the boiler room out into the "shed", then what it is to go out to the kitchen. Bet it's the same amount of steps. The brain is a funny thing.

Way to be positive. I am thankful its not summer for you and you can keep the foods chilled. We use the front porch in the winter (mainly thanksgiving time) to hold extra foods that wont fit in freezer. We have to put it in a cooler on the porch if we dont want it to freeze too hard LOL

 

[vickyday]

Will you get annoyed with me if I tell you I had a meltdown yesterday? Nothing major, but my brain was sparking and flailing like a downed electrical wire. I was close to tears. Gary was so patient and tried to help me figure out what I needed to do.

I had started to gather ingredients and make the shopping list for the food gifts when I realized that I couldn't make them. I didn't have enough mason jars of any size. The spaghetti sauce jars I saved were not a scaleable size. It was 16.99 to buy a case of Mason jars at the supermarket. No time to find them anywhere else. For the Muddy Buddies-- the Peanut Butter chips were bad. As I started to go through more and more ideas, it felt like nothing would work. Either the item needed more time/money/ingredients than I had or it was something I had already gifted to them. 30+ years of homemade gifts and not a ton of talent left me with few options.
I came up with an idea homemade bread and herb butter. That spiraled into how to make it ahead of time and keep it fresh. And: It is silly to give the family a freaking loaf of bread?
Photo of my brain in "action"

That's not quite right. Imagine a few of the ants falling off and screaming.

I finally came up with the idea of making the bread into a wreath with sundried tomatoes and rosemary sprigs. Herbed butter in a jar in the center. Scrap a quote about families and circles for each of them. Does that sound decent?

I need to go to Shop Rite first thing this morning before it gets busy. Then I'll be in the kitchen for much of the day. I have Gary's cookies to bake and if I can get the candied almonds done that would be a nice bonus. But I am not holding my breath on that. I

Yesterday I also got the 6-week curriculum done for HS. All of the topics are set: Animals/Birds/Plants in Winter, Survival Skills, Snow Science, Maple Sugaring, and Early Signs of Spring. I feel good about the topics and ideas for projects that I have planned so far. Now we just need to see who signs up.

@mimes1 Amy-- professional question for you. I want the kids to make bird nesting material holders. A lot of the project idea sites suggest using empty suet cages. But we try to use as much natural/foraged materials as possible. Would it be safe for the birds to use forsythia branches and weave them into balls and is twine safe to use to tie them together? I read that you should not add yarn/long strings to the material holders so I don't want to do anything that could potentially harm the birds. TIA!

Scrapping... what's that???
I have to work on the Week 4 AJ Challenge -- that needs to be ready to go by Sunday, IIRC.

HAGD!

The bread wreath sounds very nice!
So sorry you had troubles yesterday, but sounds like the HS curriculum came into fruition nicely!

 

[vickyday]

Decided to be positive. Better the fridge broke now than in the middle of summer. Now we can store it out in our "shed" (I don't think shed is the real word, it's attached to the house, but it's where we store our wood pellets for the boiler) in plastic containers. Bonus: you don't eat as much since it's a bit of a chore to get to the stuff. For some reason it's way harder to go through the boiler room out into the "shed", then what it is to go out to the kitchen. Bet it's the same amount of steps. The brain is a funny thing.

photo of my new fridge:
View attachment 436162

Better to be positive about things you cannot change! I agree if it had to happen, winter is the better time! Love the new fridge!

 

[vickyday]

Good evening,
Busy day with Ilene.
Had to buy some Almond Joy candy bars so I could get cash back at the grocery. . Yeah, that's my story and I'm sticking with it!
Had to buy oil at Advanced Auto and then go to Mark's work for him to add it to the car.
Headed to Ilene's. From there we headed to Olive Garden, which was already packed with the lunch crowd. It took forever to get our food and then forever to get our boxes for leftovers!
Next stop, COSTCO.
Next stop, take the cash I got from the grocery store to my daughter for a calendar she got for me and also give my grandson his birthday gift.
Next stop, Ilene's. Carried in her stuff she got at COSTCO and settled in to play some Rummikub. Played 7 games very quickly.....much quicker than Qwirkle!
Nest stop, HOME!
We are getting ready to do our devotion and then I am going to scrap the night away! I brought supper home from Olive Garden for Mark plus leftovers.

Have a great evening!

They're allowed one piece then they have to go eat it and get back in line.

Who are "they?"

 

[AK_Tracy]

Good evening,
Busy day with Ilene.
Had to buy some Almond Joy candy bars so I could get cash back at the grocery. . Yeah, that's my story and I'm sticking with it!
Had to buy oil at Advanced Auto and then go to Mark's work for him to add it to the car.
Headed to Ilene's. From there we headed to Olive Garden, which was already packed with the lunch crowd. It took forever to get our food and then forever to get our boxes for leftovers!
Next stop, COSTCO.
Next stop, take the cash I got from the grocery store to my daughter for a calendar she got for me and also give my grandson his birthday gift.
Next stop, Ilene's. Carried in her stuff she got at COSTCO and settled in to play some Rummikub. Played 7 games very quickly.....much quicker than Qwirkle!
Nest stop, HOME!
We are getting ready to do our devotion and then I am going to scrap the night away! I brought supper home from Olive Garden for Mark plus leftovers.

Have a great evening!


Who are "they?"

Sorry for the confusion. THEY are the people we feed on Wednesday. When we do pizza they have to do it a bit different then when its casserole night. "they" made sense to me cause I knew what I was talking about.

 

[AK_Tracy]

God Is So Good!!!! Just heard that I was approved for surgeries!!!! First is in February, the doc held a date for me when someone cancelled. Now to stress I mean plan and arrange everything. I was expecting May not February. But God is good and he has a plan.

 

[vickyday]

Sorry for the confusion. THEY are the people we feed on Wednesday. When we do pizza they have to do it a bit different then when its casserole night. "they" made sense to me cause I knew what I was talking about.

Gotcha!