A weeks worth of update in Day to day life from a woman that turned 60 in Oct 2014 and who lives on a farm and Retired on January 2, 2016. I plan to do more sewing, work outside in the yard and just enjoy my retirement.

Needless to say, I’m behind again on reading diaries. I’m also writing an entry a week from my last entry. I have to muse to myself that it is better than a month since my last entry. That has and can happen.

Thanksgiving was great. I picked up Dad around 9 on Thanksgiving morning and A came down to get other things ready for me. She ended up getting the sweet potatoes in the baking pan and adding the “essentials” for sweet potatoes. She had gotten the turkey out of the oven and I put the stuffing in the oven as soon as I got dad settled. He did really good and napped on the sofa until I got him to get in my recliner. Shortly after he did, Dude arrived which was a surprise as I wasn’t expecting him until later. He had started work at 4am so he could get his work done, go home and change clothes and then head on to my house. That gave Dad someone to visit with and as he and Dude talked about how Dude’s company is doing him since returning after his surgery, Dad was Dad which even though is usually not what works when dealing with a large company, it was the old Dad for sure. I had to smile even though his “advice” on things such as this, didn’t used to bring a smile to my face. It was the real him!

Sister and family arrived next and then Brother and his family and his daughter’s family. It was time to say a blessing full of Thankfulness and eat the bounty which was everywhere. My brother smoked a ham and it was delicious. My niece fixed an apple pie which was the best apple pie I’ve ever eaten. She said it was from the Pioneer Woman’s website. I still intend to look it up. It was awesome. So much good food that everyone was miserable and most went outside to enjoy the warm and great weather. Brother and SIL took Dad back to the nursing home and I was so grateful. Brother did ask if anyone else (like sister) had mentioned taking Dad back and I said, Nope, sure not, but I could take him back if he needed me to. He didn’t he was just asking. Hmmm. Wonder how that feels.

So after everyone left, I did some cleaning, but not much as my body was reacting to the early early mornings for a couple of mornings, the stress of just hosting, and the food. Oh my. I went to sleep early and Friday was more of the same. I just felt rough and my sinuses were causing my head to feel like it should belong to a giant alien. I took a long nap Friday afternoon, ate a light supper and went to bed and had no trouble going to sleep. I did wake up early on Saturday and felt so much better. I got serious about cleaning and swept the kitchen and laundry room again and then tried out my new scrubber brush with a handle. Actually it says it is a deck brush, but my ceramic tile has a pattern in it and it is not smooth throughout. I used to scrub it on my hands and knees but my knees just can’t tolerate that anymore and I bought the scrub brush to see if it would do it. It does and I was so happy I just scrubbed and scrubbed. Then go back, find another area that could use more scrubbing or I’d missed and just kept going. I use it now every time I mop so it should stay clean. I wish it had more rows of brushes but I’m so happy that the 4 rows (well two long and two short) is keeping me from getting on my knees that I’ll replace it when I wear it out.
I did other housecleaning and don’t remember much else I did on Saturday.

Saturday night, O stayed all night and I wasn’t much fun at all since I was worn out from all the scrubbing. After church he came back down and J, O, and I got the Christmas decorations that I store in the attic down from the attic. This is the first year that I’ve let O get up in the attic and use the pulley to let them down. He thought that pulley was the coolest thing. I must admit, it is one of my better ideas. We then started checking lights and taking apart a “Christmas Ball”. It was given to me for my retirement by a spouse of one of my employees and she made it with the clear small solo cups and Christmas lights. Fifty of them. I am guessing she bought her lights from the Post Exchange as I’ve never seen lights like these. 1/2 the ball wouldn’t light any more and my intention was to find the light or lights that had burned out and replace them with replacement bulbs. Major problem arose when I finally got the lights out of the solo cup and the bulb out of the holder and realized the wire for these lights was a heavy wire on the replacement bulbs. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a miniature Christmas light bulb, replacement or not with this kind of wire. O, J, and I took all the bulbs out of the solo cup and I have bought a set of 50 lights to use, but not sure I’m going to rebuild this thing. For one thing I never knew where to put it. For another thing, I’m not sure I can reassemble it as it should be assembled. And last but not least, if the string of lights I bought are smaller than the holes in the ends of cups, I do not want to buy solo cups and start from scratch. (At least not this year).

I did spend several days of warm weather putting out Christmas lights and decorations. I haven’t got them officially “on” yet since it is still November. I have tested them and my timers and will be ready when I decide to do the “reveal”. lol I made a new thing yesterday for Christmas for outside. O had used some wood from the deck of the trailer that was replaced to make a sorta pallet. I added one more board, then painted the whole thing white. While the paint was drying I made a stencil with freezer paper using my cricut to cut out “Merry Christmas”. I measured the shortest board across so I could put Merry on one line and Christmas on another without running out of room for Christmas. Success. Freezer paper stencil and wind are not the ideal combo, but I got it done. Several coats of red on the words and such touch ups with more white and I was finally satisfied with the look. Of course I can never leave anything alone, so I came in and made “Joy to the World” with vinyl and the Cricut. Then added white lights. Then decided to cut the dead flower stalks where I wanted the sign. And this sign is HEAVY and for a reason I can’t find, is really hard to scoot or drag. It’s too heavy for me to carry but not wind proof either so the large wood pallet, with the wind, made a craft time a bit difficult. I finally got it drug to the spot I wanted it but had more to to do to secure it to the old well house. Finally at almost dark, I was finished. Ok, I was done for the night. This morning I swept the leaves and cut down more junk and have the extension cord hooked to the timer to see if everything works tonight. If it doesn’t.......well I’m sure it will.

I almost forgot, that I had put J’s Christmas on layaway a couple of weeks ago and they told me to check when the Black Friday sales came out to see if his new game console was part of the BF sale. It was!! I did make myself go to that store on Friday morning to save $150.00. It was worth the trip even though I felt crappy. However, I did seem to feel better for a couple of hours after I left the store with J’s Christmas present.

I need to get going again. I have tomato cages to make into trees. Have a great day. Take care and God Bless!

Last updated November 30, 2017