Daily Ooos: Tuesday, January 4

[faerywings]

Holy cannoli- it is cold here. 15*F, what a change from a few days ago when it was 50* I am not going to complain because at least we didn't get any snow like other parts of NJ did. And VA! I saw photos of all the cars on I95 stuck for hours and hours. The longest I had ever been stuck in traffic b/c of snow was 4 hours and that was bad. I cannot even think about the people going on 12+ hours.

I did a decent job with my to-do list yesterday. I only missed a couple of small items. I have those back on it for today. My biggest to-do is an attempt to stay warm. This would have been easier if I hadn't given the electric blanket that Liar Leah (*snorts*) gave to me for Xmas. (Apologies, I can be a child on occasion. But it feels good, so there *blows raspberries* )

Gary and I are running out to pick up the groceries in a little while. I grabbed a spot for next week already, I'll change it to a more convenient one if they open up tomorrow.

xoxo

 

[LSlycord]

Good morning. I am up and going...already working on putting away the Christmas tree. Which seems appropriate since it is now January 4. How did that happen? Anyway, I did want to check in quickly. I'm going to give myself posting as a reward when I get through specific tasks today. LOL That's how pitiful I am. I'll be back when the decorations from the tree are all in their boxes.

 

[faerywings]

@LSlycord 55* would be cold too, but how nice to be able to sit outside anyway with your friend. What did you two end up doing yesterday?
There is no way you have been off work for a month already. A month?? Really??
I am guessing that your kids' schools are in person, will they need to wear masks? There are a few schools in NJ that have gone remote, but masking is required.

@tanteva so sorry that you aren't in a good mood, maybe doing some decluttering with Urban will help a bit. I like that feeling of satisfaction when things look more organized and opened up. That is also the best attitude to have when doing so much organizing as a long-term project.
I see why the diagrams would be hard to read LOL. I guess it wouldn't be worth running it through Google Translate?
I have so many scraps of yarn, I never did a project with making squares but that might be a good way to use stuff up and to keep practicing.
How did the pizza come out?

@taxed4ever What word did you choose? I think I am the only one here that isn't doing a Word? (Prob a good idea since my word would likely be of the 4-letter variety if I chose one now )
I know that you and your Gary will do good back on the keto diet. Are the hospitals by you still doing "elective" surgeries? My mom is finally considering a pacemaker but the hospitals are getting filled up again and I know she wouldn't want to get anything done with the cases so high either. I hope that your Gary's knees feel better as he loses some weight.
Whew-- so good that you are getting boostered in a while, it seems to be making a big difference in how sick people are getting with omicron. I hope that your sister Pam starts feeling better ASAP and that you girls can celebrate together real soon.

@mom2triplets04 Maya sounds like she has so much energy- did you end up getting any snow during the day? If you did she must have been really happy to play in it.
I don't miss those nights of waiting on a call from the school district. Did they end up with an early dismissal at all?
The green beans (minus mushrooms, I am allergic) look really good.

@bcgal00 Thank goodness the back brace is helping. Does the house feel better with the tree down? Awesome that he is looking for projects to keep him busy. Sounds like you have a decent list for him already
Good luck with the WWs too.
I love the advice you have for Laura. We use halters on our dogs, but we want to switch J to a harness in the spring. I am going to tuck your advice in the back of my mind when we do that

@Cherylndesigns It's warming up a bit here too since I started this post, 2 whole degrees- currently 17* F. LOL
I am cracking up that Daisy is happy about being able to look out the window. My two are very happy that their loveseat is back in place. They had to squeeze onto the recliner to peek out the window. Can't let a squirrel run by without barking, right?
Is it a real cow skull or fake? I don't; know how I would feel about a real one, but a fake cow skull would be so cool. The friend I clean for who has all of the weaponry also has two horse skulls I have to vacuum around. I knocked out a tooth once. Horse's tooth, Not mine. heh
Ava's BF sounds like he fits right in!

@Kythe the corn chowder recipe sounds easy and adaptable. Thank you! I have a vegan chicken seasoning (a powder, kind of like a bouillon) that I sometimes use in soups that taste like "vegetable stock" to me. I can try it with that or just see how it does without it.
I hope that you got pics of the farmhouse and train, I would love to see it!

@BrightEyes The border challenge looks like a lot of fun, that is on my to-do list for "soon"
wow, the book cataloging is already going well- getting rid of duplicates and old ones that you won't read again-
good for you! Hope you slept well.

@tjscraps 5 hours-- you were outside, in the cold, for 5 HOURS!
I would be in a frozen little puddle LOL
I wish I knew where the new skeletons were staying. We really don't have that much room in this house eep!

 

[BrightEyes]

Here I am awake before the crack of dawn! Of course, I was so tired last night that I fell asleep by 9PM. This crazy song has been running through my mind ... "We're having a Heat Wave... a tropical Heat Wave.." since I saw the temp outside was 21*F when I got up. Compared to the 15*F and 17*F we have had the past 2 morning... it is definitely getting warmer. We might even make it into the 40's. I have a few errands that I must do today - so welcome the 'slightly' warmer weather. The mountain looks so lovely with the 13" of snow on it.

@faerywings , I nearly fell out of my chair laughing over Braxton's new family photo!!! I've never seen a 2-headed skeleton before. What a hoot! Glad your area missed the heavy snow that east coast. My DSon#2 in Maryland got plastered and lost power off and on over several hours due to the storm. Can't wait to see your LO for the Border Challenge.

@Cherylndesigns Inquiring minds want to know if the cow skull is real or fake?? Shades of Georgia O'Keefe! LOL... Know you are happy to have the Christmas stuff packed and the house back to normal. Bet Daisy is happy to have 'her seat' back by the window again.

@Kythe - it is so good to see you back posting again. You have been missed. That corn chowder recipe sounds delicious. It is similar to my veggie soup... throw whatever happens to be left over along with lots of veggies into the pot. Do stay warm and let the de-Christmas lights wait until it is warmer outside.
@tanteva Hope you are in a better mood today. Yikes... I can't imagine trying to figure out a pattern written in Japanese even with diagrams! More power to you, gal. Smart move to get Urban to support the clean and declutter movement. I think it is a smart move to switch your bedroom to a downstairs one. DH and I both agreed that stairs and getting older do not go together... so we the last 3 houses we bought were single story ones. Good luck on convincing Urban that is the best thing to do.

@taxed4ever I don't have a 'word' for this year either. Sending wishes that the Keto diet will help both of you lose the Covid weight. I am sure that Gary's knees will feel better if he loses some of that weight. Don't blame him for not wanting to have surgery while all this is going on. Smart move that the hikes have been cancelled due to the uptick in cases... and crazy that it wasn't known that non-vaccinated people could join in the hikes!

@bcgal00 So glad your DH is now retired and is willing to do some fix-up and repairs around the house. Had to LOL over you having 'a lot of shoes' - so much that the shoe rack is needing a frame to steady it. I used to have 'a lot of shoes' but when the back got bad I got rid of the high heels and that cut my shoes back to a quarter of what I did have. Glad the back brace is helping with the pain. Yes, slow is the best way to recover. <<< hugs >>>

@mom2triplets04 - think we are all gaining weight just looking at all those delicious photos of food you are preparing in your air pot. My DD#1 has one and swears by how easy it is to use. Oh, dear... that dog is quite a challenge. So sorry you are having to deal with him mostly by yourself.

Time to get a shower and dressed. Then will be hauling the bags of books out to the garage to wait until I can start donating them.

 

[taxed4ever]

Good Morning everyone! Fresh white powdery snow on the mountain top this morning. My DH is back at work and had to take my CRV to work once again. The roads were very, very slippery this morning! Sure hope it warms up a bit so the ice melts away! It is a good day to stay in and get some scrapping done! My back is a bit sore this morning from being down in that darn crawl space yesterday. Oh well I will try to do some stretching today, sure would love to go for a walk, but not while it is so slippery out there. It is my sister Wendy's Birthday today, I got started on a gift for her yesterday and hope to get that finished today! I still need to work on a card for her today too. I hope to be able to see her tomorrow, but the forecast is for a bunch more snow, so I guess I will see if that happens or not. I might not have a vehicle to get there if DH needs it for work again. I did manage to get a layout completed yesterday for a Pre-Release and today I hope to get a challenge page done. Starting to find recipes for make ahead keto breakfast for my Gary. He has cereal every morning and that has to stop, but he is too lazy to cook eggs for himself everyday, so I thought I would have things ready for him in the fridge/freezer to just heat up. No way am I getting up at 5:30am everyday to make his breakfast LOL. I normally do not eat anything util closer to noon, but it will be nice to have something quick to just heat up for myself too!

@faerywings - Chris sorry that you are in the cold again, too bad you no longer have the electric blanket, I am not so sure that I would have given it back LOL. Nice that you are doing so well with your to do list! I found these browsing through the shop here yesterday https://www.oscraps.com/shop/Printable-Planner-Grocery-Page.html and got the grocery list which I printed out many of, the to do list is the next on my want list! https://www.oscraps.com/shop/Printable-Planner-To-Do-List.html. However now that I printed out so many grocery list ones, my ink is very low and I just discovered that the refills I ordered are not the right ones grrr!! Now I have to order more . I am still thinking about my word for this year, but I am pretty sure I should go with "Patience". I seem to be short on that and need to be more patient with many things and people in my life. Wish me luck!! I think that so far the hospitals here are still doing elective surgery. However they were saying on the news last night that the nursing shortages are very, very bad here on the Island, so I imagine that it will change soon! Yes looking forward to getting our booster soon! FIL got his just before Christmas and it really did a number on him, sure hope we don't have any bad reaction to it. It did not bother MIL one bit.

@LSlycord - Have fun putting away the Christmas Tree, it is good to have the space back, but I always find it a bit sad to have Christmas over with. Does it feel strange to have Christmas in such a nice warm place with no snow??

@BrightEyes - You were up early, but I guess you fell asleep at an early hour also. So hopefully you got plenty of good rest! Oh great now I have that song going on in my head too LOL. Wish we were having a heat wave it would melt the slippery skating rink we have going on here. You will have to let us know just how many books you have to donate, I bet its a lot with the amount of reading that you do!

@bcgal00 - Glad to hear that you back is feeling a bit better! Nice that your DH will be busy with little jobs to do during his retirement ! Keep him busy and he will be happy! My Gary goes crazy if doesn't have anything to keep him occupied.

@mom2triplets04 - That pepper steak recipe looks pretty yummy! Looks keto friendly too so I might have to try that one!

@Cherylndesigns - You are de Christmased too, I had to re-box a bunch of ornaments this year too, sure makes for a longer process of taking down the tree! Glad that Daisy is happy to be able to see out the window again! Too cute!! Yes I agree that it was a good decision to stop the swimming and hiking, but darn it I am missing both so much! I need to find some kind of exercise videos that I can do on the TV.

Well the boys are calling to face time so I better run! Have a great day everyone!

 

[bcgal00]

Good morning ladies. Today is the first full work schedule since before Xmas...ugh. Going to pop out for a few groceries later with D who will drive and do all the carrying/lifting. I am feeling a bit better each day but its slow. Hopefully getting out for a few minutes to walk around the grocery store will loosen things up and do me some good.

Jen is going to come by later this afternoon to take the dogs out for a few minutes. They haven't been out running for 5 days now. I'm hoping to get over to the dog park at the end of the week with Jen and if I can't walk too much, the dogs can at least run up and down the main stretch and play with other dogs.

I need to get to work so better get out of here. It's going to be a long day.

 

[mom2triplets04]

Checking in. Myla got up early but luckily hubby took care of her so I could take a shower. I've been really struggling with the dog and much needed a break. I did my bible reading and now here I am checking in right at lunch time. My 2 are working tonight. They didn't close the schools. About half of NJ is now remote but we are still not closed. We didn't get any snow. (@faerywings)

Dinner is a favorite and oven one. I am using turkey chopmeat. I make spaghetti with it which my kids eat. Hubby doesn't like carbs so he will either put the balls into a salad or make a wrap. Even my dog gets some since there are no onions in it. My one daughter hates onions and she will eat this. I love that its not fried and baked which is healthier.

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/279293614379588529/

Going to eat lunch now.

 

[tanteva]

@mom2triplets04 I always make my meat balls in the oven as well, so much easier. No onions in mine either. Here in this post: https://oscraps.com/community/threads/what-is-a-must-have-on-your-christmas-menu.34575/post-609749 I shared my recipe for Swedish meat balls.

@faerywings The pizza yesterday was YUMMY even though I only had no fancy cheeses at home. Used one cheese spread and one grated one. On a pizza bianca = no tomato sauce. I used the cheese spread as sauce, topped it with the grated cheese, black pepper, oregano, sliced onion, bell pepper, halved baby tomatoes and kale. In the oven & then I served it with olives and chopped walnuts. I cannot imagine how good it will be next time, when I will buy some better cheese. (Or my working class taste buds prefers cheap cheese, what do I know??! LOL)

Urban worked yesterday, but have taken the rest of the week off. I'm totally lost. Have no clue what day it is. Well, I know now that it's Tuesday, but it could really be Thursday, Saturday or whatever.

Been kinda lazy today. Cuz I can. But at least I'm in a better mood today.

 

[Kythe]

Good morning all.
We noticed a couple of hummingbirds nosing around the frozen Rhodos so we bought a feeder. This particular hummingbird variety has started to range further north. There have been several articles about the wee things needing winter food sources. We bring the feeder in at night so it doesn't freeze and wrapped it in foam to help it stay warm during the day. Once we get the boxes of extra lights out from the crawlspace we will wrap mini lights around it to keep the nectar warm. It will be a pain to wash and refill but that is the deal if you start to feed them.

Christmas wrap up will take days. Normally I like to have it done by Jan 2. Hubby would have it up until Feb if he had his way. This year he just might get it. I am not feeling like doing a whole lot. I think maybe the winter blues along with COVID fatigue, is getting to me. There has been far too much stress in my life the last 5 months or so.

@mom2triplets04 Thanks for the meatball reminder. I almost forgot to stick my head in the freezer and extract something for supper. Hubby loves spaghetti, me not so much. One of these days I am going to get a stand up freezer. I hate that chest thing. I really do not know what is in the bottom of it and a bit scared to find out.

@BrightEyes I hate when I get a song worm stuck repeating itself especially when I am trying to go to sleep. Thanks for the welcome back. I have scaled back on all but 2 CT responsibilities which has helped. The issue with the complex is on-going but it has settled down a bit for now. I am sure it will raise it's ugly head again but for now we just wait in limbo. Between that and the huge prices for homes,($1.8 million average in metro Vancouver) we are stuck here even if we wanted to sell and move out. We could move to the island where it is somewhat less expensive but my family and medical care is here.

Time to scrap and maybe take a walk. It is only 2* C ha ha

​

 

[Cherylndesigns]

Good afternoon lovelies.

We really ARE having a heat wave - a tropical heat wave Kay @BrightEyes thanks for planting that song in my brain. LOL It's currently 47 degrees! These last new days of the teens have kicked my butt! Have any of you seen "Liar, Liar"? It's one of our favorite shows in the whole world. Our favorite scene is when Jim Carey (as the attorney) is kicking his own butt. "What are you doing"? - "I'm kicking my own ass"! I've been mentally kicking mine for leaving the REAL tropical weather. Ahhh, this too shall pass. It seemed like the right thing to do at the time. Ask me how I like it here and I respond "ask me on a given day". I hate these bitter cold days!! Our hose didn't get removed (our bad) but the cold snap just shocked us! It ruptured last night and was running all over the ground. It emptied the well, temporarily, for about 2 hours and it was not a pretty sight. Another joy of living in the country. We've all done it at one time or another. The pipes have already frozen at "the big house". Fun times. I was NOT happy last night and all I could think about was moving back. Thanks for letting me vent - I've really not been doing well with this cold weather.

Chris @faerywings Daisy is SO happy! She can look out the front window but I know she gets bored with that view. LOL

Trudy @taxed4ever it IS so good to get it all down. The boxes are still sitting around, though. I haven't had the energy to even care. Our housecleaner comes tomorrow, so I need to do something with them. She's such a doll though, she just says she'll clean around stuff.

Kay @BrightEyes to answer your question about the euro mounts, I THINK they're real - I'm just starting to learn about this stuff. I had NO idea how complicated it was. In regular taxidermy, the "insides" are NOT real - that blew my mind. They take "everything out" in euro mounts, though. The antlers, etc. are real in both though. Chris @faerywings LOL about knocking a tooth out of the skull. In taxidermy, the teeth aren't real - they "build them". I don't want to gross anybody out, but Ava's bf is a taxidermist. I have gotten a real education on all of that. They are true artists!! It's totally fascinating and again, I had NO idea how much was involved. That's why it costs SO much! On turkeys and birds, all of the feathers are placed, individually, by hand! It takes hours and hours. Ava's showed me some videos that are crazy - they really are artists. Euro mounts are WAY cheaper and a lot of people opt for them. OK - sorry if this was TMI for some of you. LOL

I need to do something and get out of my funk. This dreary weather doesn't help - I forgot a had that SAD light - I'm going to pop it on right now! Maybe I'll turn on the news channel and get myself into an even deeper funk.

 

[LSlycord]

Decorations are down and the tree is ready for Brian to put it away. It is pre-lit, and we leave the garland on, but it is too heavy for me to dismantle on my own. I hate that but I have accepted it.

@faerywings we did nothing yesterday. Jeonia and I sat around and talked and watched TV together. Very laid-back time. The kids are back to school tomorrow. They won't wear masks unless they are in very close spaces. That didn't happen last semester. Unlike the high school, there seems to be plenty of room at the college. Or, at least with Sydney, it might be that not many people want to take the courses she takes. This semester is only 15 hours instead of 17 but it includes Advanced Bio with Lab, Advance Chem with Lab and Calc 3. Who does that? She is required to take a class to get her AA degree where she explores what she might want to do for a career. Shaun took that first semester and he thought it was an easy A class.

@BrightEyes I have some books to donate. When we moved, we just threw away a bunch of books. We didn't have that much time between deciding and moving so some things were just shortcuts.

@taxed4ever I think part of the reason that I am not ready to give up working is because my kids are now starting to get so independent and that's kind of crazy to not have to take care of them so much at the same time that I wouldn't have work. Those are two pretty significant life changes...I think I may need to do them one at a time. Brian and I are both starting a reduced carb diet tomorrow...very determined to get 20-25 pounds off before Europe.

@tanteva glad to hear that you and Urban are spreading your clean up throughout the year. I think I fail so often because Brian and I have very different paces...his is fast and mine isn't.

@mom2triplets04 I'm sorry that the puppy is still causing some trouble!

 

[LSlycord]

@Cherylndesigns our weather is still dreary today. It was so cold when I got up this morning that I put on a hoodie, wrapped in my blanket and then sat beside the fire on the lanai. I was going to stay in but Brian convinced me to go out.

Hoping that your SAD light helps. I know that I need sunlight to be happy. Didn't get much of that in the winter in Iowa.

 

[mom2triplets04]

@tanteva - thanks for the meatball recipe.

@Kythe - I know what you mean about that type of freezer. This summer my hubby bought an extra freezer for the garage so we could stock up on meats while we are dealing with covid here. Sometimes I don't even know what's in there.

@LSkycord - wish me luck tomorrow. I'm putting the dog in a puppy day care. She is going for orinentation and I hope that she passes so I can bring her there more often. She needs to play with other puppies and bite them instead of me LOL. She will go from 10 am to 3 pm tomorrow. So I may not pop in as it will be her first time and I have to get her lunch and breakfast prepared. Then food shop is my top priority while she is there.