Unpacking and washing clothes after an awesome busy week in Branson.

Just relaxing a bit. Finally finished with all the decorating, had Wine and Dine here last night and I'm tired today. Will get some baking done and have about 20 gallons of spaghetti sauce to package and freeze.

I'm wrapping packages and watching the rain. We don't get rainy days very often here in the desert and even tho' it nixed my shopping plans, it is a welcome sight!

I'm plumb wore out. For the past 4 or 5 days I've trimmed back the plumbago, raked, mulched and swept. There are 10 huge trash bags of trimmings and debris to go out in the trash Monday.

Tomorrow I'm relaxing, DS is coming over with my grand baby and we will watch a movie. Then I have to start the project of cleaning and staining the picket fence.

I love being retired, but I stay busy!

I don't think homemakers ever retire :)

Sue

I've been out chopping up the fall leaves for mulch. I use my mulching mower and do it in the driveway. It's the second time to do this already and there will be one or two more jobs before they are done falling. The 21 oak trees in my yard are beautiful, but drop something in the yard every season.

Grocery shopping this afternoon, maybe.

"I don't think homemakers ever retire :)"

Maybe not, but everyone is different. The way you do and cook and bake all the time, you are a superwoman.

Got stitches in my hand yesterday, so not doing much of anything. Watching old movies on tv.

What happened KathyG?

I stayed up until 3:30 with my party so I am a little groggy today. We are suppose to get rain today so I got dh busy with cleaning a clogged downspout which included two trips to Lowe's and we ended up cleaning all of the downspouts out while we had the big ladder out. I'm finally having lunch and then my youngest dd has a dance tonight. It's called the Snoball dance but we all know it better at the Sadie Hawkins Day dance where the girl invites the guy. I wanted to finish up Christmas shopping but I think that will wait until tomorrow.

Took the dog to run, he was a muddy mess so had to be cleaned up, ran errands, laundry, delivered a card and small gift to a friend who lost a loved one, went to the library, now a little gift wrapping listening to Christmas music.

Yes, Kathyg, what happened?

Thanks for asking, I was using my rotary cutter to make some tickets for the Senior Center party yesterday and rolled it over part of my hand. It involves the right index finger. Can take off the splint tomorrow, but it sure is hard to use the keyboard and mouse. While I was cutting I told myself I was not in the proper position to cut, but was too lazy to move to the kitchen table.

Hope it heals well, and your hand is good as new.

Right now my ole tired butt is on the couch with my legs propped up. Had a busy day. Washed two loads of clothes, shopped for candy & cookie makings, finished the outside decorations (will post pics tomorrow), then I opened a handful of Christmas cards. Had a bite to eat, vacuumed the livingroom, and just finished the first batch of Cranberry White Chocolate Fudge. It's cooling now.

Marilyn......

Glad to hear your husband is home from the hospital. What an ordeal. Bet he's glad to get all that home cooking especially after hospital food!

I am trying to wrap all the presents for the 10 who will be here this year. DD is moving to Texas on the 27th, and her household goods leave for Texas on the 18th, so her sons, DH and she will be with us for that 9 days. With the grandsons here early, I am wrapping all the gifts this weekend. The house gets cleaned on Monday, and then I can put up the tree and all the other decorations before they come. Sons come in the following week.

Big party was today. I foresee another nap tomorrow...

On my way home from Pittsburgh. My sisters and I drove out Friday morning and met one of my nieces who was in town on business. Went to dinner, shopped a little, drank a little, then Saturday went to visit our aunt (our mom's sister).

Up early this morning to drop niece at airport, she's flying home to Massachusetts. And the 3 sisters are in the road again. Love all the girl time I can get, we don't get it often enough.

Yesterday I spent some time trying to flatten the tracks of my neighbor's cattle with my riding mower. While the neighbors were out of state for a few days, the cattle escaped (at night) and used my yard as a thoroughfare to the other neighbor's hay field. When they became bored with that, they wandered around through the rest of my yard.

Later I picked up branches from a small box elder (trash tree) that was taken down, and picked up more rotten boards from the barn repair, and hauled them to the burn pile.

Today I will dig the dirt from under my fingernails, put on a nice outfit, and attend a ballet. :)

My daughter has tickets to The Nutcracker. I'm hoping it will help me forget about this:

What a mess Mama Goose! Did you enjoy the Nutcracker?

Marilyn, you'll spoil him with all of his favorite dishes! I am sure he's as happy as you that he's finally home.

Yesterday was a Christmas party with my late husband's family. Today I am going to do a little mending and laundry. Tomorrow I am going to drive to Ikea (120 miles each way) to get some furniture for my soon to be born grandson's nursery. My son and his wife live 180 miles in the opposite direction. They will get the furniture when they come to my house for Christmas.

Enjoying the 3 inches of snow we got yesterday. Not cold --around 35 today NO wind. Put bird feed out. Am glad most of the roads are good.

I'm so happy to hear your dh is home, Marilyn! I've been watching the posts but didn't want to call you out again. :) I hope you're on the mend too.

AAA, you must be feeling much better too! So glad to see you up and having a little fun. Can you have your doggy back soon?

I'm still shopping; we got the news that a very dear relative, (of my dh--she's been like his mom in this country,) passed this morning. Even though it was expected, it still makes me terribly sad and unable to think very well today.

Today is a rainy dreary day. We haven't had snow yet, and I'll take snow any day over this weather. I hate it.

We watched UP the animated movie. I cried, and hubby said the movie made him feel good. We both loved it. Dinner was a quickie of taco salad. We'll have some cookies in a bit, that I made this morning.

PKponder, I did! It was presented by a local Performing Arts Group, aged from older teens to preschoolers. I should have suspected that it wouldn't be a traditional version when my DD invited me. It opened with an aerial number done to an instrumental of Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah, and the aerial finale sounded like a Moog version of Pachelbel's Canon in D. The original dances were more traditional ballet, though, with beautiful costumes.

The older performers were very good, and the little ones were cute, including one who stopped mid-song to give her neighbor a couple of pointers. ;)

Forgot to mention--watching grandson enjoy the performance was the best part!

Yesterday was about 75 here so the wife and I went fishing for a few hours, I caught this small crappie and she caught one that was bigger( and legal) today just as warm but no fishing , shopping for groceries and now got a homade pizza in the oven for my dinner

I spent most of the weekend, building, testing and installing a timer device for the horses paddock. (Last weekend was researching, planning, and ordering the parts that would be needed)

The reason the timer is needed is when the horses are fed, one of them gets quite a bit more food, but since it eats rather slowly, the other horse finishes eating, and comes over and eats the other horses food.

In the past we would lock the gate, and then return 20 minutes later to open it. But if we have pet sitter caring for them that would mean they'd have to hang out for 20 minutes while the horses are eating.

As of 5:00 P.M. last night I installed and tested the new device, and it worked like a champ. Close the gate, and the latch is triggered automatically to lock the gate, a timer then starts and counts down for about 17 minutes, and the unlatches the gate and turns itself off.

That sounds great. I really enjoy having an automatic opening and closing door for the chickens pop door opening.

Sue