Well, it's kind of over.

We've still got 2 Christmas parties to go to.  One this weekend and one next.  I'm very glad that some of the family parties are after Christmas, because there's just too much to do before Christmas and during the actual holiday week.  It's exhausting.  We had a nice one but, of course, several of us got sick, as usual.   The gifts were a hit, overall, I think.

This new game, Tsuro, was a hit.

Our granddog Remus, visited for Christmas.

I got to play one of my favorites, Concept.  

We made ourselves a bunch of treats for Christmas eve, including this fruit tray and dip to go with it.   

 My oldest son really loved the hoodie I got him.  It may be too heavy to wear in Mississippi, but I guess we'll see.  It might be good for early mornings, walking the dog.   With the rest of the presents, I just basically bought what they asked for, but they were pleased.   I didn't get any studying done for my course and I started back to that yesterday.  Time to get back into the pattern of work, studying, housework and trying to lose weight. 

We got several more board games and the ones we've played so far, we like.

It was a good Christmas.

Celebrating!

Oldest son and only daughter-in-law (so far) are here and we're celebrating.  The only cloud over the event is that 2 of us are sick.  Both oldest son and I have colds.  I'm off to the store this morning to get some Robitussin and cough drops.  I don't know why this ALWAYS has to happen.  When we were together in October, at least 3 of us had colds.  It's frustrating.  Anyway, despite that, we're having a good time.   We gave them the first gift the first night they arrived, it was cloaks for everyone.  I bought the fabric and my daughter made them.  They are made of polar fleece and go to the floor and have hoods, so they are great for keeping them warm.  It's also fun to think about what it would be like if they all wore them someplace and just walked in a line or something.  It would be hilarious.  It's a funny sight, seeing all 4 of my young adults in floor-length hooded cloaks, but they're warm and they love them.  :-) 

Then last night, we opened the board games that we bought this year.  So far, we've played 2, Cover Your Kingdom and another one that has a dragon on it ... maybe I'll think of that later.  We had a good time playing, but I was kind of tired from being sick and working, so hopefully, over the weekend, I'll feel better, my son will feel better, no one else will get sick and we'll have some fun.  We have an anniversary party to go to this afternoon and youngest is working today.  The work and the partying are going to be relentless for the next few days but we'll manage to have fun despite it, I'm sure. 

Its beginning to look a lot like Christmas.

We got the tree and other decorations up last night!  Mostly I sat and looked through boxes of ornaments while the kids decided where they went on the tree and arranged it all very carefully.  It turned out beautiful.  I had a little bit of an emotional time of it, because I opened a box that had all my mom's old ornaments in it, so there were a few tears, but mostly it was good. 

I think I forgot to blog last week about youngest son getting a job!  He had an interview Wednesday at Hobby Lobby and started Thursday.  He has since worked 2 days.   He doesn't hate it, so that's a good sign.  And, best of all, he (we) gets a Hobby Lobby discount!! Also, oldest son and his wife will be here in 9 days!!  Christmas time is a-coming!  I got about 75% of my shopping done yesterday online and just have to make a couple of little store trips, so this year, I have not yet turned into the Grinch.   We'll see next week when I have to do my co-worker's job again for 2 days.  I'm not ruling it out.

Feeling Blessed.

I had a good Thanksgiving weekend, despite having to work on Friday.  I got a lot of studying done on my course I'm taking, a lot of things done around the house and made and ate a good bit of yummy food.  My stuffing came out really great this year.  Yesterday, for Thanksgiving at my brother and his new wife's home, we had soup and my potato soup was really good too.  I'm a very hit and miss kind of cook, so I consider this a victory.  I had some really great conversations with people I love, played some games and sang some karaoke.  Great weekend.

It's 4 a.m. and I'm getting ready for work.  Thankfully my good mood is still with me.  I'm usually pretty grouchy on my early mornings.






Also, my Christmas cactus thinks it's a Thanksgiving cactus.

Made it.

I made it through my week, 40+ hours of working for my co-worker and trying to do my job as well.  There was some crying, some whining and some throwing up - I was seriously stressed, but I survived it.  The time does pass, thank goodness.  I haven't got my report yet on how I did.  My co-worker will come back Monday and probably will let me know what I did wrong.  Oh well, whatever.  I did my very, very best.   I have no doubt of that.

One interesting thing that happened as this paper fell out of the fax machine and stood up on end for several minutes - long enough for me to go around the desk, get my phone out of my purse and take a couple of pictures.

Onto next week.  Another one of our team has put in their resignation, so I don't know what the future may hold.

Getting ready for the crunch week.

We've got snow and pretty fall leaves at the same time right now.  

Next week, my co-worker is going to be out for the whole week and I have to cover for her. After that, it should settle down to once a week, but it depends on how she feels. I hope it's not a horrible treatment for her. She's been through enough. I'll be fine as long as I can keep my anxiety in check. This job has taught me what an anxious person I am. Whew. I feel like I need to get back to working at home. I don't know if that's the right course or not, but I've been out there, stretching myself and getting way out of my comfort zone and now I want to get back in it. I found out yesterday that my hospital (I'm VERY disappointed in them for this.) is going to transition all of their transcription to Voice Recognition software and make all of their transcriptionists take coding training or become secretaries. I've already started studying inpatient medical coding, so I have a little bit of a head start, I guess. It doesn't change anything for me. For the last few months my plan has been to study coding, hopefully pass the coding exam, become a certified coder and get out of this job. The only change is that now, the job as I know it is going to disappear? I guess. I don't know what it will look like.




Meanwhile, I'm trying to deal with anxiety, which I do by playing the Sims 4, Words With Friends, exercise (mostly just at PT) and binge-watching Mike and Molly. It's fine. I've adopted Kelsey Impicciche's slogan (from Buzzfeed's Sims 4 100 Baby Challenge on Youtube)

What's been going on?

We've moved to post wedding mode and I don't know about anyone else here, but my thoughts are turning towards Thanksgiving and Christmas.  I'm actually excited about the holidays this year.   My daughter and I went last weekend and hit a fantastic sale at JoAnn fabrics on polar fleece and my daughter is going to be making some of the gifts this year.   It feels good to have something started in that area.  I have some other Christmas ideas too, so that's part of it.

Give a high five to Mr. Miller, our stray-turned-permanent resident.  He's so cute.  

I've been working a lot.  My co-worker, bless her heart, has been having a very difficult time so I've been doing her job.  I hate it, but I'll do it for her.   I guess.  It's kind of killing me.  I feel like the child in the edge of the pool, quietly drowning with nobody noticing, but I'm trying to keep my head above water and hang in there and hold the fort.  (All the metaphors or analogies, or whatever).  Anyway, I should have a decent-sized nest egg for Christmas and hopefully, post-Christmas home improvements.  :-)  My husband says he'll do 1 major home project once a year and a new year is coming!  I have a lot of plans.  Now we need to (again) renegotiate just how big a "major" home project is.   This year, he only replaced the upper boards on the back deck.  There is some question in my mind if that is "major", but not in his.  He says it is.  (It only took 2 days and cost not a lot, so I'm saying it doesn't count!). 

I did get the day off on Tuesday, went with my daughter to her migraine doctor appointment (still no changes in the migraines, despite all the things we've tried.  :-(    )   and got some cupcakes, as is our tradition.  These are all gluten-free and amazing.   Chocolate, carrot, lemon, and chocolate-strawberry.  

Last night was a fun night for all of us in 3 separate areas.  I met a friend and went to a fantastic Micah Tyler, David Crowder, Mercy Me concert, my husband went to guys night at a local barbeque restaurant and the young people had some friends over for a day/night of hiking in the beautiful fall woods, eating chili, making smores and playing video games.  I don't know about everyone else, but I had a fantastic time.  Those artists really, really bring their A-game to their concerts.  I feel uplifted and on a high even though I ingested no substances and I am exhausted from all the working (8 hours) and then walking and stair climbing and concert dancing.  It's a very, very good tired.  

Today I'm watching Youtube with plans to play the Sims later and maybe take a nap. 

The Wedding.

My brother's wedding was such a wonderful time!  The groom was handsome, the bride was beautiful, her/their grandchildren made the cutest ring bearer and flower girl.  :-)   We had such a great time and she is such a fabulous addition to our family.  The song I had to sing went well, even though I had a cold.  Actually 3 of the members of my family in attendance had colds and the other 3 will probably have it next week because my youngest 2 kids went and babysat their 4 young cousins last weekend and picked up some virus.  We didn't let it ruin our time.  We took cold medicine and carried around hand sanitizer and celebrated big!

Today, though, after church, I'm going to lie about doing nothing and get some rest.  Tomorrow I have to be at work at 6:00 a.m. and it's an hour and 10 minute drive.  So that's great.

The wonderful whirlwind weekend of celebrating and having my son and daughter-in-law here is over and now we're prepping to get back into real life starting tomorrow.  It's kind of a let down, but I have concert tickets for a couple of weeks from now, so I'll start looking forward to that.  And Christmas, which is just around the corner!!

The Zombie-Like State.

I'm still working all the time and the end, which was in sight, may have moved, so I may not be getting any time off in the near future.  I'm frustrated by it, but I don't know what to do about it.  I haven't gotten any work done on my book about kids and homeschooling and I haven't been able to do any pre-studying for my coding class that starts on November 1.  I'm just working and coming home and being sort of in a zombie like state.  It's so much fun.

Speaking of fun, this time, not sarcastically, my brother is getting married on Friday!  We're all excited.   We've been shopping and getting our outfits ready to go and I think we mostly have everything.  I need to contact the pianist today and see if she can get together with me to practice.  I'm singing the recessional.   It's going to be fun.  I'm so happy for my brother and his future wife!

I've been decorating my notebook at work, with my work pens and highlighters.   

Nothing much has changed around here.  We're kind of in a holding pattern it seems like.  Youngest son hasn't found a job, daughter is still studying coding and doing a good job disciplining herself to study. I'm proud of her.   It doesn't make for an exciting blog post though.    They are still playing D&D and board games with their friends several nights a week, shattering the myth that homeschoolers don't have any friends. 

It's silly, but it helps me get through the day to take tiny little drawing breaks.

Fall seems to have arrived here at last with temperatures dropping this week from 98 into the 60s.  It's glorious.  I love it.  I am going to make some coffee and sit outside on my porch and drink it. I'm just trying to savor my off day today.  I desperately need the break.   I won't have another one until Tuesday after next and that is IF my co-worker's medical tests come back good and she's back to work.  It's very iffy.  Please pray for her if you're a praying person.

I feel spend a lot of time these days in the car, but sometimes the sky is really pretty in the early, early morning.  My phone doesn't take good pictures though.  

Still, here are a couple.  

  100 reasons to homeschool your kids.

Craziness.

I'm sorry I haven't blogged.  My schedule has been crazy.  I've been working 5 days a week, 8 hours a day, with an hour commute each way, volunteering at the same place on Saturdays and teaching Sunday School on Sundays.  I feel like I'm exploring new levels of fatigue.  On top of that, this week, my mother in law has had surgery and been in the hospital and I had a doctor's appointment, had to work for my co-worker and last night, spent quite a bit of time shopping for a dress for my daughter to wear to my brother's wedding, so two nights this week I've been out late, in addition to getting up at 5:30, burning the candle at both ends.  I've been very lax with my food allergies diet the last few days and very lax on doing my physical therapy exercises and I am feeling bad because of that too.   I'm sitting here this morning trying to decide if I can drag myself down there to volunteer.  I love the babies, but just getting there is a huge effort.  I don't know if I can do it.  :-(   I'll give it some time and get fully awake before deciding.  It recharges me emotionally, but I think my goal today might be to do something that recharges me physically, like eating right, resting and doing some gentle PT. 

In other news, we're getting a new mattress today.  My husband and I got it for ourselves for our 31st wedding anniversary.  It's being delivered today in a few minutes.  I'm very excited to lie down on it and hoping that it will help my back.  My sciatica has just about made me lose it this week.  It's been very difficult to sit in the car for 2 hours a day.  So, new mattress, yay!

Updates on my young people, former homeschoolers are about the same.  My daughter is working hard on her medical coding course, finishing the medical terminology part as a prerequisite.  She's still doing the art classes one night a week and she had some of her paintings made into prints.  We picked up notecards with the prints on them yesterday.  They're very cool.  Youngest son  has not found a job yet so he's been helping his dad around the house and playing a lot of games with friends, along with his sister.  They hang out with the same crowd, something that happens with homeschoolers, I think.   The oldest and his wife are still in Mississippi and we don't see them very much, sadly but they're doing good.  My daughter in law is going back to school to get her masters and my son is working 2 jobs.  They'll be back here for my brother's wedding next month, which we're all very excited about.  That coincides with the end of me working full time and finally getting a BREAK.

I have not been working on my book on homeschooling these past few weeks for some reason ... so there's no update on that, unfortunately. 

So that's it for us.   It's almost fall!

Okay, now it's pretty much gone.

As usual, the pictures are random.  This is our raccoon who steals cat food.  The cats are used to it by now.

August, that is.   Some good things have happened this month and one is that my daughter has decided to do a medical coding course.  I'm going to do it too.   I loved my job at first, but now my duties have evolved and now I'm a medical transcriptionist/receptionist.  I don't want to be a /receptionist.  I just want to do my job and not answer the phone.  I also don't like the unpredictability of my job.  Some weeks I barely work and some weeks I live there.  I've been basically living there for the last few weeks I am exploring new levels of exhaustion.  I'm so tired.  I sleep 8 hours and I'm still tired.

Anyway, I'm very excited that my daughter has chosen a career path and is getting some training.  This has been a concern of mine for quite some time.

I think the grocery store was trying to tell me something.  "Don't go nuts!"    "Think!"  

Okay, now August is almost half over.

It's crazy how fast the time is zooming by.  I've been at work.  Work.  Work.  Work.  I both hate and don't mind it.  I hate how much I'm gone and how tired and sore I am, but my workplace is a pretty good place.   Today I'm off and I'm thrilled about that though.  I'm exhausted.

We've also been trying to deal with a huge bunch of fresh produce this week.  Our peaches on our peach tree got ripe and we picked them before the woodland creatures got them all and I've been trying to eat as many as I can, freezing some, making some into smoothies, etc.  Also, my father-in-law sent us a bunch of tomatoes, apples, beans, onions, watermelons, and peppers and we've been trying to put those in everything we eat and get those used up before they go bad.   It's been stressing me out, to be honest.  Huge bags of everything all over the kitchen has seemed messy and breaking finding time to do all that peeling and cooking has been difficult.  Today, we have an apple crisp and green beans cooked and in the fridge and a bunch of peaches for smoothies in the freezer.  There's still a lot more to do, but we're making progress.  I realize that this is a particularly first world problem to have.  Too much!  Too much paid work and too much free food.  What a week and what a weird problem.

Peach smoothie~!

Other than that. I don't even know what's going on.  I haven't talked to my family this week as much as usual.   Hopefully, this weekend will remedy that!  The young people here are going to a new game store in our small town now and they're going tonight, so maybe not.  I'm glad they are getting out.  I can remember when we were homeschooling and our homeschool group split up and socialization was a problem.  It's not now, thank goodness, and also, this is the best part, not my responsibility.  They're grown up.  I don't have to make arrangements for them.   I'm both happy and sad about that.
Like I said, it's a weird week. 

Yesterday we had a sale at the gift shop of the hospital where I work and I bought myself the most ridiculous, over-the-top sunglasses that they had.  These made me and my co-workers smile yesterday!

It's almost August!!

Back in my homeschooling days, I would be happily looking at the Rainbow Resource catalog and having a great time picking out a curriculum for our school year, which I would then probably change out in December and start something new in January.  It was always so much fun planning and ordering and getting out supplies.  Sigh.  I miss it.

We're getting ready to celebrate our daughter's 23rd birthday.  Oh goodness.  It doesn't seem possible.   No back to school for anyone this year as our youngest has graduated college.  So it's weird. 

I'm waiting for the peaches on the peach tree to be ready to eat and hoping that something else doesn't eat them before we get them picked like they did one year.   I'm also pondering whether to apply for a full-time position that's come open at work and trying to lose weight (that never ends, but I have lost 30 pounds this year through intermittent fasting!) and casually shopping for a dress for my brother's wedding which is in October!!  I'm very excited about that.  My brother is going to get married for the first time to a wonderful lady that we all love.  I'm going to have a new sister-in-law!

I'm also working a little (very little, sad to say) on my book about homeschooling and playing the Sims 4 hundred baby challenge in my spare time.  I need to play less Sims and work on my book more.   Some things never change.   By that, I mean me.   :-) 

Summertime!

I've been doing summery things.  I've been swimming in the pool most days and I love it.  We went to see Shakespeare in the park, which was fantastic again.  It's funny, Facebook notified me that we went exactly a year ago on the same day.  This year we saw As You Like It which was excellently performed, but it turns out, is not my favorite of the Shakespeare plays I've seen so far.   I've seen 4.   In order of my favorites, they are 1.  Comedy of Errors, 2.  Julius Cesar, 3. A Midsummer Night's Dream and 4.  As You Like It.  The Comedy of Errors production that we saw last year was the absolute best.  It was fantastic.  In a couple of weeks, I'm going to get to see Joseph and The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, which I'm also excited about. 

Also in summertime things, I made my daughter go try and pick blackberries.  We didn't apparently have very many blackberries on our property this year so she only got a very few.  It was 1/4 of a cup.  So what did I do?  I made a tiny vegan, dairy, gluten-free cobbler.  It was good!

I'm working on writing a book about homeschooling and raising kids and trying to work on that a bit every day, hoping to have my rough draft done in December.

My husband is working at home at lot this summer, which is nice.  He's getting to be here and not do the long, long commute 3 days a week.  

The young adults who live here are still doing gaming and D&D, hanging out with their friends.  My daughter's job is out for the summer and hopefully, my son will find his first job soon.  

That's our summertime update, which admitttedly, I am writing mostly for myself.  If any blog readers are still reading now that I've stopped homeschooling, hello!  

  

Homeschool printables.

Great homeschool printables here. 
5 Js Homeschool.

A little better.

I just passed the 3 month mark after my surgery and I had a really normal day yesterday.  Nothing was particularly hurting and I was able to get a lot of stuff done.  It was wonderful!  I hope to get to the point where most days are like that.   I cleaned.  I cooked.  I got in the swimming pool.  Yay, normal life!

I made it.

Of course, I made it through working 4 days this week.  It was a little hard on my knees and hard on my back, but honestly, at this point, I'm used to working through the pain.  I got a lot of work done and it was fine.  I wish I'd been more on top of the cooking and meal planning, washing dishes and other things around the house, but I was pretty much wiped out every evening after work.  I was off on the fourth and used that time to get caught up on the laundry and dishes, but still, for some reason, didn't cook anything.  I've been eating a lot of oatmeal this week, so I guess that's good for me.

Last weekend, we met our oldest son and our daughter-in-law in Alabama and had a couple of relaxing days visiting and hanging out.  We had a lot of good gluten-free food and played a lot of games and enjoyed the company.

Youngest son is now officially on the hunt for a job, since he graduated and now we're back from our tiny but expensive vacation. 

For the fourth of July, we didn't party or do fireworks this year, we just went to the movies.  We saw Yesterday, which was a really fun movie.  I highly recommend it!

How it feels.

I'm back to work and kind of back to a normal life.  My husband and kids still have to do a lot for me as they did before the surgery and I'm thankful for it but I am not even back to where I was before the surgery.  I don't think.  That last week before the surgery was pretty awful, with my knee sliding out of place and having to miss work, so I'm not sure if it's better or worse now, I just know it's not great.

Yesterday I had to work, so I went to bed at about 10:00 p.m. the night before and tried hard to sleep, but my knee and my back were working against me.  I've aggravated my old back injury this week.  So, I can't really sleep on my sides because it hurts my knee and I can't really sleep on my stomach because it hurts my back and I've never been a back sleeper.  I just can't do it.  So, I got some sleep, but not enough.  When I woke up, my knee was stiff and I could barely walk.  I got it into the shower, barely, and took a shower, got dressed for work and got (with difficulty) in the car for my 45-minute commute.  About half an hour into the drive, my knee feels done with it, but I can't really stop there and rest - I gotta go to work.   So I get to the parking garage and start my walk.   It's quite a ways.   I manage to make it to my desk, but at this point, I'm pretty tired and hurting and want to go home, but I'm too sore to do that, so I stay and work for the next 6 1/2 hours.  I'm lucky I have a light schedule right now.   I spent a lot of that time with an ice pack on my knee and one on my back, doing my medical transcription, which, fortunately, is pretty sedentary.  It was hard putting the hours in, because I was just plain hurting, but I did it.  Then I had to commute home, 15 minutes walking and 45 minutes driving, only there was a traffic jam and I ended up doing an hour and 15 minutes of driving.

Today, I'm so sore I can barely walk.

Next week I have to work the whole week because a co-worker is taking vacation days.  Do I feel ready?

Um, that would be no.

This is the third-to-last hallway.  Almost there. 

Back to Work.

I've been back to work 2 days now and though it makes my knee hurt to walk in and out of the building, it's good for me to get out and talk to other people.  I got really tired of being home and it was not good for me.  When I was unemployed and being a housewife, I had goals and plans and lists and I got things done, but this time recovering from surgery, I goofed off a lot more because I was, well, recovering from surgery and it was hard to walk and all that.  Anyway, it's nice to get back to my normal-ish life.

I did get some things done, like Mr. Miller, the stray cat, got neutered and given a rabies shot and treated for ear mites.  I think he'll be looking fat, healthy and happy like the rest of our cats soon.  

Case in point, ever photogenic Duncan.   He has been hovering around while the other one has not been feeling well, "helping".  

How cute is he?

This is what the weather has been like EVERY DAY for as long as I can remember.  Okay, maybe I'm exaggerating a little.  But it's been very stormy and I am tired of it.

I've been doing a homeless single parent Sims 4 challenge - speaking of goofing off.

Fun!

The girl and I set out for a fun day yesterday.   We went to Louisville, which is the nearest city to us, and tried out the new gluten free exclusive cafe.  Everything on the menu is gluten free which is a treat for us.  We tried a club sandwich and some kind of strawberry shortcake pudding dish.  The strawberry stuff was just okay, but the club sandwich was very, very good.  We enjoyed it immensely.

This is half of the sandwich.

The strawberry pudding dessert.

 Then we headed to our favorite gluten free bakery.  This is something we treat ourselves to every 2-3 months, and dream about the rest of the time.  We each got a gluten free big soft pretzel and a cupcake, both of which we had to bring home because we were so full, both of us, from our half of a club sandwich!  After that, we went to Hobby Lobby to look at art supplies and they had canvases 50% off, so we each got a small one and started working on masterpieces last night. Hers is probably going to be, mine not so much, but its still fun trying.  I get frustrated with myself when my I try so hard and my work looks primitive and childlike.  Still, I persist because I enjoy the process.

It still needs something, but I don't know what that is.

Fun times.

How long does it take to clean up my kitchen?

Here's the mess.  I was busy Saturday and then my husband did quite a bit of cooking Saturday afternoon. 

After 9 minutes. Clean dishes put away.  One sinkful of dishes washed and sink refilled with dishes to soak.

First break while they soak.  Not feeling too great today.  I actually took a short nap, then came back and got all the dishes washed, countertops wiped and microwave cleaned.  This all took a total of 25 minutes.  It will take another 5 in a little while to put the clean dishes away.

It really doesn't take that much time. I don't know why it feels like it does.