Saturday 11-30-13 @ 1:10 PMAfternoon. This is us and we figured it was about time to write again. An entire week has gone by since anything productive written. We have been having plenty of experiences though.The biggest is that Thanksgiving is now over and we’re back to our home routines. Thom has left for DC on Thursday morning, we had he and his family and Maury and his family here on Wednesday night, did the volunteer work and spent Thanksgiving afternoon/evening at Maury’s. We did talk to Joe on Thanksgiving and we called my Mother and our sister called us. We also went over to Rich’s Mother’s and Bud’s place on Thanksgiving evening. That pretty much tops out the day … I think a couple of Rich’s kids called him so that was nice too.I have to retrace some of my thoughts this week to other correspondence we’ve written. One of the first things was that I sent out a note to the Saturday Quilt Group. I’m not sure why, but no one responded. It’s been several efforts … we probably won’t do that again anytime soon. We’re thinking we’ve lost that bond that used to be there. I no longer trust the connections. We’re holding on to a few things, but it still seems as if detached. Over last weekend plans changed slightly with Thom. He took the opportunity to go back to DC on Thanksgiving morning. I think we’d left a few notes on this before. We did really well with Wednesday the bigger day in connecting with everyone. We got to the volunteer thing on time with Maury and his family, but they were about 45 minutes later than expected due to bad traffic. We ended up splitting from the main group doing the filling and because of my mobility issues we got a job in the back warehouse doing labeling of expiration stickers to the bags for the rice meals the others were packing. We met a girl who was doing community service time, but didn’t talk too much … she was tuned into her iPod. She did come to sit with us after the event when we were getting our summary meeting to review what had happened.Strangely enough … what happened next was a group of adults with Intellectual disabilities came in to do labels too. They were from mild to severe. At first I felt a little trapped, but then soon after we started warming into the group and started to talk with people. There was one in particular – Don who was able to keep a fairly high functioning ability to talk. We also fed into their system in that like one was just collecting labeled bags and putting them in the box and another was just picking up the old strips from the label row, so we started moving our stuff so that it gave them a little more to do. By the end I’d shook hands with several and talked for a few moments with the staff. I had felt pretty positive.We split company with Maury and his girls after the debriefing period and they stopped somewhere, but in general got to our place before Rich had gotten back from shopping. I had called ahead and he had left the door open for them. In the meantime we went to pick up Thom and Austin at his Dad’s. I think they had about an hour together before we came. It just tests out over and over again, but the trips in the car with Austin are the greatest EVEN though we’ve had a spectacular time talking with Thom going back and forth from things. Thom was very comfortable and able to talk to Austin on a very admirable manner. I seemed to also be accepted between them and sometimes we talked, but more often listened and asked questions or made clarifying comments. The trips just went so fast. It was great fun to come home to a house full of people. Rich was working on dinner and the others had settled in finding paper and colored pencils and were just talking in general. I was so happy to have everyone here. Connie seemed to fit in really well and I enjoyed very much talking to her on a Gramma to Gramma level – though we didn’t really talk about kids. We did make sure she had gotten a tour and she said all the nice things that hostess’ like to hear. Austin had gone to the sitting room when he came in and he had his computer or his Dads’ not sure. He had a harder time fitting in … most likely his uncomfortableness in larger groups. He knew the others would be there, but Thom said he’d wanted to have undivided time with Thom and with others around that wasn’t going to happen. Thom went back and forth checking on him as did Nikki. He did come out for dinner – Rich had bunches of pizza and s’more cookies WITH Fluff! There was probably about 45 – 60 minutes after dinner and Thom came out and said he’d like to use my car to take Austin home. I wasn’t sure what to say – I was worried over Austin more than anything. Somewhere within a few moments I figured that I should probably go and wanted to go with Thom and Austin if it checked out with others. Later Thom said when I asked that when he asked Austin if I could come with, Austin said he had hoped I might, but didn’t know how to ask which made me feel good. Maury and his family didn’t stay too much longer and we felt it would be ok because we had the big event with him the next day and people seemed to be moving toward the end. They left soon after we did Rich said. They had shown signs of getting ready to leave anyway, so I’m hoping that was something that worked out for all.The ride home with Austin and then back again with Thom was spectacular. It was very animated and lively. When we got to the restaurant, Austin asked his Dad if he could take him all the way home – it was 15-20 minutes from there. Thom said he’d talk to Laura who said it be ok, and then the feeling was that we’d won that much more time with him. I did ask when he’d like to come out again and he thought it be nice to come out one on one, and then he added one for Rich. Most of the time out he spends with me, but during dinners and travel, Rich gets included, but more often takes a passive role. Austin also explained that he wanted to bring his stuff just to his house and get settled down. I’m glad it worked out for him and Thom walked him in to say his goodbyes. Before he left when we asked when he’d like to come – before or after Christmas, he said absolutely before Christmas. I will talk to Laura to see when time can be arranged, but we’ll check Rich’s schedule first.Ok, just did that … it’s 2:30 pm now. We left Laura and Mike a note for Austin maybe coming the weekend of either the 16thor 23rd. Laura saw the message right away, but we are sure she’ll discuss it with Mike and Austin. We’ll see. While we were over on facebook, we also sent a note to Joe and Cari and asked them if the tentative time with them December 7th would still be good. Joe wrote a short note saying that Cari had a patient scheduled mid-day, but he would check to see time spans with her when she got home. Fair enough. Ok, good … thought we should be making some holiday plans with Maury and Nikki too. I think everyone is taken care of. I would love if Thom was connected to Internet during the holidays so we could Skype with him, but he’s planning on those days to just get settled, so we won’t hold our breath. We’re just feeling fortunate that he’s been home for so long. We went a step bolder and asked Nikki if we could take the kids around the holidays to give them time shopping or for having a night out with just each other. That’s about as happy a Christmas – New Year’s Eve as we could get J Hopefully, something works out and we have enough energy to handle it. Big part is if Rich will be here. We did check in if he had any holiday plans, but he said he had none – though he’d try to take off a Sunday to see his Grandson. No problem there ;) Ahh turn out it is going to work to see both sons and the one’s family the Sunday before Christmas.Ok, that’s about it of that. Probably go back to taking a rest from family. Love them to pieces, BUT Hehehe they take a LOT of energy!I do want to say one little thing. On Thanksgiving before the party with Maury’s family, we dropped Thom off at the airport. The conversation wasn’t AS great, but that’s mostly because we shared him with Rich so the conversations were more generic. The big part of the little part? I didn’t cry! I know that I won’t see him for 3-5 years, but it was important that we got through that transition without making a mess of it. We did sneak in a second hug before letting him go, but I know we’re just letting him find his destiny. Have to be glad about him having opportunities. We left him in better shape than we had gotten him heheheh. Good Thom!Ok, now we’re done. I have to figure out now if there were “non-kid” things going on this last week. We did get out to see Rich’s mother’s 83rd birthday 6 days ago – Sunday. That turned out pretty good. I think there were about 20 people who stopped by over 5-6 hours. That was a good turnout and was very diverse. I only stayed until about 1 pm, because I knew Rich’s kids were coming and the last thing they would want was to see me. HMPF! Enough of that. Rich’s Mother was up soon after we got there. She had one of her aids getting her ready. She had a birthday cake and people sang to her. She seemed happy, but weak and distracted. Bud was home and so that was an addition to adjust to. Still have very suspicious feelings toward him. I haven’t been around, but have learned stuff through Rich especially him talking to bud’s kids. He’s become very mean and quick to judge. I don’t think he’s always nice to his wife. But, nothing to do there, they seem to want to be together, or at least they both want to be at their home. I think Bud is going to be there ten days and then he has to go back to one of the kids for more doctor appointments. For the record, for their sake I hope they can work things out, but the bottom line is that neither will probably be here much longer. They are both hurting physically and mentally and without her eating … just hard to sustain that kind of life. I don’t know if he then is figuring she’s slowly killing herself. I know that is very harsh way to put it, but the fact remains, if you don’t take in food and water, your bodily systems shut down. I know she’s drinking ensure, but I’m not sure if that’s enough. Nothing to do, but wait it out. She is very dismissive, just said “stupidly” – “I’m not hungry. She refuses to go into it any deeper than that. Maybe she wants people to worry about her, more than she’s worried about herself. It’s almost like she can defy life or die trying … doesn’t matter to her, but IS going to matter to Rich. He’s very invested into her well-being and her behaviors hurt him the most.It’s now 3:32 pm and Rich stopped working in the workroom about 30-45 minutes ago. He’s watching something on TV and had some left-over pizza. He said he has to be at his mother’s at 4:30 pm and the chances are that he’ll be home about 7 pm after he gets her ready for bed.Not too much Ann and Rich time, but the majority of our time is between 7-10 pm if we’re getting any time at all. Again, time for back massages is our BEST time together. I like to touch him JHe’ll have to take a shower and that’s been the problem of the week. There was one night he refused to take a shower after being at his mother’s for a couple hours or more. He smelled really badly of the smoking and he refused to take a shower because I was saying it was something he had to do. That was Monday and he’d planned to go out to play poker with the guys after he’d worked/seen his mother … so dinner was the only time we were getting … and he wouldn’t shower which made him offensive to us. Our closeness to Rich has always depended on sharing physical space like touching when we pass each other, or smooching out of the blue, or in doing the back massages, but I didn’t feel I could be in the same room with him. I think it’s because in part because it is a terrible smell – stale cigarettes, but I can’t separate him smelling that way from his mother, and also because I think when we were hypnotized to stop smoking now 7 years ago, we were given messages in that smoking smells of others would always be very offensive. We had gotten so upset that we thinking … what did we have to do? Our worst solving of the problem became to get some cigarettes and let him know he’d smell less offensive if we smelled too. That’s OBVIOUSLY a TERRIBLE plan, but we couldn’t stop being angry. When Rich had finished making dinner, he said it was ready, but by then we were back in the sitting room and we told him we weren’t hungry. He got mad then and left early to his poker game. We were more relieved he was gone. It’s a lousy reaction, but the tension was very difficult. I just couldn’t think of any good reason he couldn’t take a shower and be presentable again. His best excuse was that he’d have to take off and put back on his knee brace, but I didn’t think that was a good enough excuse. It was like he was saying it doesn’t matter if you don’t want to be in my space. That was making us a little crazy. It wasn’t that I didn’t want him around, I just wanted him around and closer, and he was making it impossible. Well, at least that is our perspective.Just as another little marker of the week, we went through a little splash with angels this week. Rich had come home one night and said, “did you see Don’s place?” I hadn’t so we went out on the front porch to look and it was REALLY decorated for Christmas. WoW! Forgot all about that kind of thing. So then we started thinking about what if anything we would like or be able to do. I knew the old owners left hooks for lights, but knew it was too much for either Rich or us to put up even if we could afford the money part. After thinking a bit, we thought of a decoration that we’ve always really liked … basically, we like the decoration of putting electric candles in all the windows, and spanning that thought pretty quickly we LOVED the thought with our longer narrower house to put lights all along the open windows. We figured that we had ten windows we could do considering just one in the bedroom, two in the living room, one in the guest room, two in Rich’s workroom, two in my sewing room and two in the sitting room. We were starting to add up the cost and we knew that our sunroom windows didn’t really have the same kind of ledges as the regular house, so we stopped at the ten for the majority of the regular house. There were a couple more windows toward the south and southwest parts of our house, but they had windows covered as to not be seen from the outside. It took a lot of shopping around on Amazon and other. We were looking for some kind of candle and we found quickly some good attributes were the color of the light, battery or electric, and timer. After a lot of looking and comparing cost, we decided to switch over to something other than a candle. We saw all kinds of things, but in the end found a wax candle with batteries, nice light, and five hour timer. It was heavier and steadier although only 7” tall. I wanted a rush put on them so I could have them up when everyone came over on Wednesday so with the extra shipping cost, we got them in on Tuesday for the average cost of twelve candles at just under $10 apiece. We knew that it was a lot of expense, but we thought the value was going to be worthwhile. They would last many years, and it would really be other than maybe an extra couple strands of lights – the only Christmas decoration. I had told Rich the day we ordered (after ordering) that we’d gotten the angels, and he didn’t seem to be upset. We had talked about it before and he was a little frustrated we didn’t just get something cheaper at Walmart, but we were very sure of what we’d ordered after looking at a LOT of product. It wasn’t until the next day that Rich asked for the actual cost. We told him the price at $116, but he heard $160 and was frustrated because he knew how much was in the account, but he calmed down and was appreciative he’d heard the number wrong. When the candles came we opened one of the four boxes (they came in threes), but waited until after Dr. Marvin’s before we opened all the boxes. On the way home from Dr. Marvin’s we had stopped at the drugstore for batteries, and by the time we got home, Rich helped me by putting in all the batteries as I unwrapped the angels, and then we both put them in windows. I went outside for a few seconds to look at them, but it was pretty cold and we were barefooted. I know could have figured that out differently. We did get out again later and were able to see them and have looked at them a few times since in coming home or going out when it was dark out. They are timed to go on from 5:00 – 10:00 pm. Rich is like me … We LOVE THEM! I know it’s a silly thing, but we feel really good about it as if it were almost the totality of Christmas. Rich says that Don next door and us have the only decorations in the park of about 36 homes. We’re thinking its still early, but whether they decorate or not, we’re happy with our contribution. JßHappy smile!I don’t know when we’ll get the Christmas tree up. I hope sooner than later. Rich says that the tree should go in the SW corner of the living room in front of the small built-in china cabinet. He says that we can use our tea cart under the tree, but we’re thinking that we really like the tea cabinet right next to us on the couch because we need that place for drinks and all … we’ll have to check again around the house to see if there isn’t something else. Maybe we could use the drafting table. It’s a little bigger and I like to see it out in the sunroom, but it would be a good table to use. I don’t think the table is any wider than the actual tree. It’s a good spot … we could see it from the bedroom AND the living room.I’m afraid not too much toward presents this year, but we’re moving that along. I think we’ve discussed this in the past and we don’t think there is much change. I think the general gifts will be cash and about $50 each. It’s not a lot, but will still be nice. My gift has been agreed with by Rich as to getting $300 toward fabric for the bedroom curtains (two windows, plus bathroom window, plus shower curtain, AND plus window seat. I really have to figure the numbers again, but we’re feeling pretty good about it as THE gift. Rich hasn’t discussed what he wants yet, but usually its something toward fishing. He has stated the money he borrowed for his taxes, he will pay back so I can give Christmas gifts and the money my Mother usually gives will be put in the savings as both our gift toward money needed to repair the roof. All around it will really be enough of a GREAT Christmas! Not much to put under the tree though Hehehe. I’m not sure yet whether we will get the fabric before Christmas or just to be here AT Christmas. I will be eager to change up the curtains. They just don’t work. Rich is saying he’d like a green or blue curtain where we’d rather have a pink. Those are the three colors in our wallpaper. Don’t think we’ll then get our pink. It wouldn’t be fair to Rich.AHA! Not sure how long I’ve been away, but its probably been a long time. We have been working on our Christmas present with the Master bed/bath project. Wooohooo This is where it is at … the only thing ordered at this point is the sheers, but hopefully very soon we can order the rest.I think all the details are pretty clear. Including the sheers and the big love seat cushion we’re going to put a cover on, the fabric – sewing project is going to come to $380. I’m afraid to remind Rich that we’re going to need some different window hardware too. Better wait on that a bit, hmm? The flower print is on two of our four bedroom walls. The other two have a medium dark faux panel. The off-white sheers are going on our two windows in the BR. One for the front wall and two for the side wide wall. It will fit under the dark green fabric on the bottom left side of the picture. And, then the 2 x 7’ window seat will have also the darker green fabric. And then the top left picture is looking at the wall outside and inside the shower/tub – and the lighter green fabric in the lower right corner will be the shower curtain, and then the lighter green will also cover the window in the bathroom. We’re going to make it just one panel, but we’re going to make it as tall and long as the shower curtain. I’m thinking it’s ALLLLLL going to look GREAT!All through the planning process we’d build fabrics … test them out, and then call Rich so we could get his opinion too. Back again … one more thing … we were thinking through … well … we’re back. It’s 5:35 pm. We took an hour some nap on the couch wrapped up in a blanket, our feet had gotten cold. Now the angels are on and the fireplace too. Funny how such simple things can provide so much delight. Anyway … in general the one more thing was the measuring … we decided to make three of the panels 84” to match the sheers. The other double window is cut off shorter because of the love seat. I’m not sure if we should now raise the master bath to meet the living room height. It’s 9” difference. I got an extra ¾ yards on the light green WITH allowing for 12” … that was a hard part … looked at three different sites for deciding how much over on the length you should go … One said 8”, another 10”, and another 12”. I didn’t want to take a chance so when with 12”. I guess 9” x 3 panels would be 27” and 27” x 1 yard (36”) = ¾ yard. Perfect … I won’t have as much extra left over, but still have an extra yard between the three that I’m going over for the 12” over. That will be fine. AHA! I did the figures again … I made the bathroom curtain height 84” too, and we took off some of the extra when I was rounding up numbers. Now on the things I measured they have just 12” for top and bottom hems, but only ½ yard extra for the BR windows, cushion and Bath stuff. I was able to cut out a couple yards. I’m thinking if I were in my “linda mind” I’d cut out at least anoter ¾ yard, but that’s only about $7 and I’m not going to go crazy with this here. You never know when making cuts for tops and bottoms – gotta be straight off the bolt and that can’t always be guaranteed or if we need to recut Figured out the people we would like to give Christmas money to. JJillChrisNattyJonChrisChrissyJaxsonLauraMikeAustinDuyenThomJoeCariMauryNikkiJadeAmeJasmineIsaAnn’s Christmas Present - Master Bedroom Curtains, love seat, Master Bath Curtain and shower curtain
Dk Green Fabric- Long Master bedroom window - 96+96+ Wide Master bedroom window – 70+70+70 = 402” = 33.5= 11.25 + ¾ yardsDk Green Fabric -Window box cushion 96 +96 = 192” = 16’ = 5 ¾ yardsLgt Green Fabric - Shower curtain 96+96 Master Bath window 96 = 288” = 24’ = 8 + ½ yardsJinny Beyer 6342-11 - Dark green – 17.5 yards Jinny Beyer 6931-24 - Light green – 8.5 yardsJinny Beyer = 26 yards X $9.50 = $247JCP + 3 panel sheers x 52” x 84” = $60Cushion Express - Product ID : FM-REC-SEAT FOAM 3” x 24” x 84” = $54$247 + $60 + $54 = $361
36-66” Double Rod - $2566-120” Double Rod - $2528-48” Single Rod - $1260” Curved Tension Shower Rod - $50Amazon - Hardware = $112Total $361 + $112 = $473Back again … it’s now Monday, December 02, 2013 @ 1:54 pm. Yes that’s right … we’re going on a three day entry. Pswhoo! We did a lot and a lot of shopping around including stores like JCP, Walmart, Target, Lowes, and Home Depot amongst other private stores, and still came up with the best deal for hardware at Amazon. It helps with no shipping or taxes too. We can wait the 3-7 days from whenever we place the order. So far It’s now $473 with the addition of fabric for five projects (three windows, shower curtain, and seat cushion), the cushion itself, three lace sheers, three assorted size curtain rods and one shower curtain rod. I think that’s about the whole project. We’ve been working on it what 2-3 days? Pswhoo… It’s a tough one, but we’re very happy with the results.AHA! One more thing accomplished! This is how we are going to make the cover on the seat cushion for the window seat. Seems easy enough Jhttp://crafts.creativebug.com/make-box-cushion-cover-1726.htmlby Rebekah Martin, Demand MediaBox cushions are square or rectangular and typically sit on top of a bench, chair or window seat. The cushion is made from foam cut to the correct size and covered in fabric to match the decor. The covers are simple to make, and can easily be changed with the change of seasons, or change of decor. You do not need a lot of sewing know-how to create these simple covers for box cushions.Things You'll Need· Fabric· Foam cushion· Measuring tape· Scissors· PinsMeasure the area where the cushion will be used.Cut a piece of foam to fit the space. Box cushions are typically 2 inches thick for a bench and 4 to 6 inches thick for a sofa, but this is arbitrary, you can use whatever thickness suits your design.Cut two pieces of fabric the same size as the top of the foam plus half an inch on all sides.Cut one piece of fabric long enough to wrap around the entire cushion. This is equal to twice the width and twice the length of the cushion, plus 1 inch. Cut this boxing strip width equal to the thickness of the foam plus 1 inch. This is the boxing.Lay the top piece of fabric on a table, right side facing up.Pin the long edge of the box fabric to the perimeter of the top piece, right sides together. Align the raw edges.Sew the two pieces together using a half-inch seam.Sew the bottom cushion piece to the remaining long edge of the box, making sure to put the right sides of the fabric together. Leave one of the four sides free for the cushion insertion.Trim the seams and turn the fabric right side out.Push the cushion into the cover, making sure the foam fills all of the corners. Hand sew the opening shut.Linda had asked this morning and we hadn’t come up with a way to do this yet, but knew it would be on the Internet. This set of directions is about as easy as it comes. We’re not exactly sure on the part of sewing around the corner, but we’ll figure that out as we go.Hmm, we’re coming along … just cleaned up a few more things. We emptied the dishwasher, then loaded it and cleaned off our surfaced, and then we put the white load in the wash. Maybe a little bit of a late start, but if it all gets done today then there is no harm done JNext part will be to straighten the rooms – like cushions and blankets, and then after that we’ll make the bed and make sure everything is ready for the second load in the washer, hmm, we should clean up this floor around the computer now … sometimes we have a little problem with popcorn. There we go … did the popcorn, so that will probably take 2-3 trips for the other, and then there will just be the folding – AND Rich wants some of the folded clothes hung. Guess that’s gotta go back on the agenda. AND THEN, maybe shower, and then do kitty litter and garbage and we’ll be done for the day … ALL good! Whoops one more – REALLLY have to vacuum the sitting room carpet too!It’s already 2:30 pm and I think Rich will be around 5 pm. SOOO, we’ll probably have everything done except to fold the last load of clothes – the second one. I think we’ll feel pretty good about that. That clears up some time for tomorrow before we go to Dr. Marvin’s. Beside that on Tuesday and Thursday, I don’t think there is anything else pressing unless Joe and Cari would like to come out during the weekend. I haven’t heard from them yet, so not sure how that is going to go. We’ll see. Good good … just read up. I guess there was so much time spent in figuring, we didn’t get as much writing done as we would have liked. Pswhoo. Just was up and around again … we got the kitchen table and sitting room picked-up but not vacuumed and we weren’t able to do the living room blankets and cushions. Next. I put the nice flowered table cloth back on the kitchen table. Usually it’s reserved for company, but it seemed really nice the other day when it was on and it didn’t stay on for dinner so wasn’t dirty – YAY!!!! We put the extra angel on the Kitchen table and she looks pretty there. We’ve still got an extra 1 ½ hours before we can turn the fireplace on. Just remembered too … tomorrow, I think we will need to put in one more load of clothes. I would like to wash the sheets and pillow cases – especially, because we had a guest over. That can wait until tomorrow though. We have time in the morning.I’m thinking at least one – fold blankets in LR & make bed, two – change laundry, three – vacuum, four – change laundry – fold towels. We should be able to do all that in two hours – leaving a half hour between for everything. Maybe we can even work faster. Hmm, remember kitty and garbage too - five. PLUS shower - six! That’s going to mean twenty minutes between everything … I still have 10-15 more minutes sitting! I remember the old days when we used to be just zippy. We would have been able to do everything within an hour or two. Trying not to feel sorry for ourselves, but it’s still hard. Hmm, clothes stopped so we folded blankets and puffed pillows and picked up any loose clothes and started the next load, plus cleaning around the desk area. That’s all we could do … We will have to make the bed the next time. Ok, you … stop complaining. It’s just gotta get done. The place is otherwise looking pretty good.Thinking we’re going to skim through the Yahoo groups area to see if there was anything that came up there to explain our last week. We have to check Dr. Marvin on the podcast. He said last time it wasn’t any problem, but he just hadn’t shook enough moments free. It looks like we made a few updates to our blog – especially including getting the Multiplicity Podcasts through 101 to load from our side bar.We talked to Joe about doing a Multiples’ podcast too and although that’s really sketched in lightly right now – he has accepted the offer. I don’t think Jazz has said anything about it, but it’s a good time to be reviewing the group notes. Maybe it will be in there.It looks like we’re still having problems worrying over our presence and what we would like to be doing. Today, I guess, is a bit of a catch-up on normal household tasks. I don’t have the excuse of Thom being around now to slow us down on what’s going on in our day to day life. We loved having him here soooo much! Maybe if we start off with the house clean tonight, we will be able to do the little stuff after our shower, and THEN maybe do something Multiple related before leaving at 11 am. I think the key is going to be just getting ourselves ready and the house re-picked up so that it doesn’t make us feel dismal. This weekend we spent it seems a lot of time on Christmas thoughts and writing, but not much else. Have to give ourselves our own confidence things aren’t going wrong – it’s more a matter of just jumping in where we are at. I was glad that Thom was able to do a little shopping before he left here apparently, because he had quite a bit of stuff in his new suitcase. Good Thom!Ahh … took care of that too. I’d forgotten Astraea had asked to promote the store for our Plural Activism Group. We just put a picture/link toward the top of our sidebar in our regular blog. Maybe that will help? At least it can’t hurt! AHA! We put up a picture and link for the store too in our Mind map … Good Ann. When we went back to the Plural Activism Group, a Café Press ad was up on the right side of the group page. It had four items between cups and shirts, and one of the pictures was for our Plural Activism logo. NICE! I left a picture in the group pictures. I know its all about algorithms, but is nice to see anyway. Hmm, looks like we had some problem accepting the house situation again this week. Something must have reminded us of our ex. Maybe because we were comparing houses and we remembered the loss of our big house and unfortunately compared that to our mobile home, which isn’t fair. At this point, see back to the part about ANN GETTING CHRISTMAS WINDOWS!!!! WoohOO!! It’s really a strong feeling to make something up for your own environment. I can see why Jim and Marcy get into it so much. Everything feels like part of you and your spirit. That’s a GOOD thing!There were a lot of compliments in this last week and everyone was included. It’s harder to read them, but we’re trying to hold onto the thoughts and not disbelieve them. I think we could tie it to something that Jim said in a group note. We are a REAL family. Maybe that is just part of right now … believing that we are for real and that what we do with our day really impacts others. We had lost touch with that. I’m going to be really happy when Rich comes home and he sees a nice place again. Reminds me, we should go make the bed ;)Good good … finished the bedroom and master bath, AND we washed the chip bowl too big for the dishwasher. There aren’t enough dishes now, but we’ll turn on the machine after we have ice cream tonight J YAY!!!!Hmm, did we mention that too? Last night … Umm with Rich? … It was ALL GOOD! Hehehe just like to leave a few notations!Next time we’re up we’ll vacuum the dining room, and then next time we’re up we’ll fold clothes. I’m thinking though the dryer might have stopped. Maybe I should progress that right now. BRB.Whew! Wobbly legs. Machine was still going, couldn’t hear it over the sound of the heater. We put away the laundry bags, got our shower ready, and then just picked up the dining room floor by hand. Mostly it’s the cardboard pieces from the cats scratch box. AND, we threw away a stray bottle we’d finished. Yup, yup … all the points are getting added up!Think we got almost everything caught up … now just after 4 pm. When the dryer stops we’ll use the washroom, fold the whites, put in the colored – to dryer, and take shower. Then we can do the litter/garbage AND then we can turn on the fire, until the last load is done in the dryer, we’re all good! Yay! We haven’t heard from Rich all day – thinking he still will be around about 5 pm or so. He had a lot of running to do today, and I think he was stopping by at his mother’s. There is a chance he’ll be home later, because he reminded us that we have rice and or turkey for dinner. Good for us!Ahh … ok, many minds one brain. Someone didn’t want to wait until after clothes were dry to take our shower, so we did that and are sparkly clean! WooHOO!!! We also turned on the fire because it was only 8 minutes early. Good girl. Now NOTHING to do, but fold and put away clothes. Back again … must be in a real work mood. We called Rich and found out he was 35 minutes away, but he had to stop at his mother’s and write a check to one of her aides. And just to check on them in general. It’s just past 4:30 now and he said he’d be home in an hour, AND THEN, I remembered it was after our shower and we had to do litter and garbage. Good Ann!Wow cruising into the end here. We just got back and then realized the white load was dry, so we put the last load in the dryer, folded and put away the white load. STILL feeling pretty good.Hmm, back again … we seem to be doing a lot of that. We had a rest period where we had a little cake, AND THEN just rested/cuddled with Missy on the recliner looking at the fire. It was a good thing to do and made us feel much more relaxed. We’re going to try being calm when Rich comes in again, but if we are having trouble, we’re going to try taking our 7 pm medicine early. I think usually it starts where we’ve done a really nice job of cleaning up and then he comes in smelling like his mother’s cigarettes and is tired and crabby, and puts his stuff down in the dining area where we have just finished making it pretty again since the last time he was through. I think other people go through it too in that the first flat space gets all kinds of stuff dumped on it from wherever the person was. It’s important to do the five minute hot spot checks on it during the day to make sure its staying cleaned off, because when it is – there’s a much better chance someone’s going to sit down for a relaxing dinner/talk in front of the fire. That’s what we’re going for. Wondering. I have a bit of a head ache now. Just spotted it … probably from the extra sugar. Maybe we’ll take our medicine early anyway … that way it has a chance to work within a half hour. Now it is 5:30 pm though and time for Rich to come home. This is going to be a good thing, right? Sometimes we get to really missing him, and then are over-startled by his presentation. Should be a good way to ease into things, right?Done! And, we brushed our hair out from the shower. Nothing much else to do now. I should probably post this entry, but we’ll wait a few more minutes and do it after he gets her and finds his space … usually in the kitchen cooking or at least heating things up. I forgot we hadn’t finished skimming the Plural Activism Group. Lets see if we can finish that off so we can start with a clean slate.Hmm, that’s a note. Kairu & co. left something about our mind map. Apparently, he was over there which is SUPER nice! But, he wasn’t really in favor of the “Super” Multiples. I didn’t think that was going to last long, but he put it very nicely as to there being better tags. I understood the logic and so changed up that heading. Now by his suggestion, we are using the term, “Meta-discussion.” It works a lot better and sounds more professional.He’s HERE, He’s HERE!!(42,985/8,876)
