11-30-17 - Donuts and reports

redsquirrel

redsquirrel

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Good morning everyone. It looks like folks are hanging back from starting Donuts today.

I'm just staying in the office, and getting an early start on state reporting.

It is cool and damp here with rain coming later. I have on a fleece top under a fleece jacket, and I'm still cold. I guess it is time to plug in the small heater beside my desk.
 
A good early morning everyone.

It was a busy night as I finished up all decorating inside the house. I still haven't made it to purchase more batteries but that is on the list no later than after work tomorrow night. Friday night is going to be total Christmas lights, candles, music, and movies to start the weekend. Everyone else enjoys my decorating process but I finally get to sit in the rocker-recliner and enjoy it myself. Then it feels like Christmas to me.

Friday, December 1 it will be 82F here. That is a huge record breaker. I almost feel desperate about the weather turning cold here because our normal is 68-72F by now. The drought is ravaging our area. Since we used our days off and extra funds for Houston volunteering a trip up north seems most unlikely this year. BUT we are hoping we can manage a short weekend int he White Mountain Apache Reservoir come the first of 2018.

Squirrel: Squirrel the threads the last couple of days have been later than now. Thanks for starting Donuts. So sorry you are feeling so cold, even at work. Hopiing your home is toasty warm tonight.

Wishing everyone a thankful Thursday.
 
Morning all.

I can't believe it's almost December, as in tomorrow. My tree is up and still bare, outside of the lights. It's one of those newer fangle trees that can change from white lights to multi color lights. That way, depending on the mood, it can be white or mulit.

I got a fitbit for myself the other day. So I've not yet made the 10,000 steps each day. I've gotten more steps in each day, but haven't made that milestone yet.

Happy Thursday all.
 
Robin: my trees are also power-in-the-pole easy set up with both white and colored lights. We love playing with all the light color options and functions. You will live it. As for your Fitbit, your job requires sitting at a desk most of the day? You'll get those steps in on your busy active weekends. I believe in you and look at your outstanding weight loss achievement!
 
Morning Everyone,

Sorry I wasn't here yesterday. I had the day off of wok to attend Gena's fall concert at school, and then hubby and I did some Christmas shopping for her in the afternoon.

Today, Gena's tummy is acting up a bit, so I gave her a half teaspoon of Metamucil, as her system has been functioning properly again. I don't want to give her too much and have her all bound up again. But she seems to feel so much better when she's getting the extra fiber from the Metamucil.

RS - hope you can get warmed up

Noel - hoping you and Robin can get some relief from the heat.

Robin - I tend to average about 6000 steps per day on my Fitbit on work days. It's so hard with a desk job. I always do better when I have the day off. Keep up the good work!!
 
Manda: nice to know your day off was a great one with Gena's Christmas concert and shopping with hubby. Sorry to hear Gena's tummy is upset again but a small dose of Metamucil is therapeutic. Congrats on your step level.

JS: that is new information to me and one I will share with others. Hope your day is cheerful.
 
JS - I did know that. When I shop, I put my fitbit on my belt loop, so it still bounces when I walk and counts my steps. It can also be put in your pocket, on your shoe, or even in your bra (tips that were in the package instructions). :)

Noel - We're just trying to figure out the right ratio of everything to keep Gena feeling okay, until we can go to the specialist. Taking everything one day at a time.
 
My Christmas tree is still naked, no lights or decorations yet. I'm just too tired when I get home to do it. I hope to get it done tomorrow.

Saturday is the cookie walk at my friend's church, and I need to get there early to buy clothespin cookies. That's one that I don't make.

Does anyone else have cookie walks in their area of the country? Many of the churches around here have them as fundraisers.

The church has thousands of different types of cookies (made by volunteers in the church kitchen). They give you plastic gloves and boxes when you enter. You then follow the line past tables of cookies, and fill your boxes. When you reach the end, you pay by the pound. Only the clothespin cookies are separate at this one. They have them already boxed, and you pay by the dozen.
 
Yep, that's them. The big ones are called lady locks here after the huge hanging curls that women and girls had during Victorian times. The little ones are usually called lady fingers, but we call them clothespin cookies because my Mom, Aunt, and Nonna (Italian grandmother) would buy new round clothespins (not the ones with the springs) every year to use as the molds. Most people around here still do it that way, and they're advertised as clothespin cookies even by the bakeries.
 
RS: here in Arizona we have "cookie exchanges". You bake at least 13 dozen different cookies and label them by box/tin. When you arrive at church, you are given gloves but bring your own container. It is fun and my family love trying different cookies.

In Indiana we had "cookie walks" like you described. There were no issues there. Here women sometimes buy packaged cookies off the shelf or take more than they brought. So now leadership tries to patiently watch over the process and take no cookies themselves until everyone else has their 13 dozen.
 
Noel, we have cookie exchanges here, too. You sign up for a group through a church, the newspaper, or do it with a group of friends. The only difference is that you pre-package them by the dozen at home so everyone goes home with a dozen of each of the cookies that were made by the others.

That stinks that people would take more than they bring. That isn't fair to the others who go by the rules. Packaged ones off the shelf!! I could see if they bought cookies from a bakery to exchange, but if I wanted Oreos, etc., I'd buy them at the store.
 
Squirrel, that is my sentiment too. Some ladies dropped out of a friendship group exchange. Mostly it is young women who show up with Keebler, Nabisco or Little Debbie cookies off the shelf. They have a lot to learn.
 
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A sunny day here. High close to 60 today.

A good morning at the school library. The librarian and I figured out what
needed to be fixed in the computer so the books weren't show up for
the kids. When I put the books, there are two tabs of info I have to put in.
One tab I was marking not to search for copy, but I needed to mark on
other page too, don't search for title. It was easy to fix all the books at
once. She just needed the start and end numbers and they were fixed.

Next week, is cookie exchange with my circle group. I'm trying something
different. The church my friend belongs to has a cake walk.

manda, sorry to hear Gena is still having problems. Are you keeping track
of what food she's eating? Maybe they will help figure out what she can
and can't eat.

I hope everyone enjoys the rest of their day.
 
Kat - glad you were able to figure out what was going on with the books. I haven't been keeping track of what she's eating. It's challenging to do when she eats lunch and breakfast at school through the lunch program. This year with hubby not working, we qualified for reduced meals. She gets both meals for $.70 per day total. $.30 for breakfast and $.40 for lunch. I can't pack her meals for that price and I'm grateful for the help.

I get menus of what they are serving, but it can change at anytime and then there are the choices each kid gets to make, like do they want steamed broccoli or raw carrots. Truly the Metamucil seems to help her the most and since I have a huge container of it, and the doctor prescribed it, I'm on board with giving her that. I just reduced the amount by a bit.

As for cookie exchanges, I don't participate. I hate, hate, hate baking cookies, it's so putzy and time consuming. I will gladly buy cookies from quality bakeries to feed my family. We have a wonderful bakery about 6 blocks from my house. I usually buy my cookies there, or from my Girl Scout. :rotfl:
 
Squirrel - it is cold & damp here too. I had never heard of the clothespin cookies (thanks for the picture, JS). They look really good! I've never heard of the cookie walks either, sounds fun. My sister and daughter come over on a day we have chosen together and we all bring at least 3-4 different kinds of Christmas goodies we like to make and make plates of goodies for our friends and neighbors.

Noel - I bet your house is gorgeous. I'm like you, I work hard putting it all up and then I love to sit and look at all the decorations around the house and remember certain memories of each. I do the inside and hubby does the outside. Sorry your're still warm. I truly would trade in a heart beat. We're expecting snow all weekend.

Robin - I will never forget when I got my Fitbit last year and I went on a 12 mile bike ride and got home and pushed the screen and nothing. I laughed so hard. Also, when I work in the yard, you know, down on your knees. Again, no steps but it does track your work out. I'm always at 12,000 - 13,000 steps a day because I do 3 loops around our warehouse in the morning after I have ran my reports for the day. And then during my lunch I do 12 laps. In the evening I do a 2 mile walk with Leslie Sansone. Does yours track work out time, calories burnt, and mileage?

Manda - Hopefully Gena is having a better day. I feel so sorry for her. Kids just don't understand when it's internal.

Enjoy your day.
 
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Kat: how great you could help the librarian organize and label the books. Enjoy your cookie exchange next week.

Shan: nice to know I have a friend who enjoys Christmas decorating the house and reminiscing about Christmas past memories. Every decoration has a memory tied to it like a shimmering bow.
 
Noel - my aunt & uncle have my Grandma's little 4 foot Christmas tree with what remains of her ornaments. They put it up in their bedroom every year at Christmas (to protect the fragile ornaments from their grandkids), but they open the room for Christmas day, so we can go in and remember. Her nativity is always out on their dresser.

My aunt said someday she will pass the nativity on to me as I'm the oldest grandchild. I cherish the day it becomes mine. It's old and discolored and delicate, but it holds a special place in my heart as Grandma always let me put Baby Jesus in the manger on Christmas Eve. Oh jeez, I'm getting all weepy just thinking about it.
 
Good afternoon, had to run a few errands today. Things are in such disarray still, I cannot begin to think of decorations. You just reminded me of the nativity, I have two, one was my mom's, the other was my sister's. Both have passed away, so I do treasure them both. Always surprised me my sis's daughters did not want her Nativity. I don't have any place now to put it up. Egads.

I used to decorate like mad, but as the years went by, living out in the super boonies, it just was not worth it. Hubby seemed to like it, but never did a thing to help, Eventually went from live tree to fake one, small, just 3 ft. So, also have a couple boxes of really old ornaments that I do not use. I do have a bunch of snowmen.....well, we will see. Am still unpacking, and we really do not have a place for the tree. And we do not have a front window. So I guess it can go anywhere, lolol. (there is no one to see anything for me, kids all far away, except my one son who lives back near the old house, who really doesn't care about Christmas. :)
 
Manda: well I just got teary eyed reading about that precious nativity you will inherit one day. I have some treasures like that: fragile, vintage gently used by family I miss every year. I always feel like a child at the Christmas dining table waiting for beloved family to come but their chairs remain empty. Those memories are my heartbeat.

Poirot: the only reason my parents had Christmas decorations up past 65 was because I came to do it for them. It was my joy. Somehow younger generations in my large extended family do not feel that way nowadays. After all your packing/unpacking it is easy to understand your not having time to do it this year. Maybe next year?
 
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