My shredding station

A post on another blog prompted this post.

My husband and I were talking about changes in our lives this morning and how we missed our old property, the land and the isolation.

But, things can't go on for ever without change. we know that. We were no longer able to keep up the work on the land or the house and we needed to be closer to medical facilities to reduce the amount of driving I had to do. Plus we needed a home all on one level.  We have all that now and our new home is quite delightful.

What attracted us in particular to this house was the sun room addition.  It was very professionally done and was made to look like a part of the house and not just an afterthought tacked on.  It has nine windows. We spent a lot of time in there when we first moved in because it was the most organised room in the house.  We needed at least one space that wasn't filled with boxes and stuff to put away.  We also set up our computers in there until we got our own studio/offices sorted out to use.

We now have our rooms all sorted.  My husband uses his as his studio where he writes and produces his ebooks and audio books and mine is where I have my computer desk, my craft desk and sewing machine cabinet plus my supplies/materials etc.  Alas, there was no room for a shredding station.  

In the old place we just used to burn our old paperwork on the burn pile, there were no city statutes to adhere to.  Here, it is different.  But, as we went through a period of drought last year, we were not able to burn as it was too risky living on a property full of trees and in a house made of wood.  So we had a lot of paperwork that we had to bring with us to dispose of.

Hence, the shredding station came into being.

I purchased a shredder , I already had the bins. Shredding to do on the left and shredded bits on the right.

I find shredding very therapeutic and when I have a pile of things to shred I sit out in the sunroom and shred away, usually with a cup of coffee to hand.  The table to the right is my jigsaw table.  I have a new one ready to start on. That room is our space to chill.  No TV in there just the views through the many windows.  We have a lot of squirrels who love to play in the trees and run around the yard and I have set up the bird feeder out there too.  The birds took a little while to find it but now they are turning up to eat.  I can also watch them from my office/sewing room.  It is a squirrel proof feeder and so far so good, they have left it alone.  I hung it on the washing line post.

Each year, for Valentine's day, my husband buys me a teddy bear and I buy him a plush dog.  We had to go to small ones as we had quite the haul of them over 21 years.  This is this year's cutie and some prior years ones.  I have a hammock to put up for some that are still bagged up, just need to find a good handyman who can put it up.

We have several jobs that need doing that we can no longer tackle ourselves so that is a priority of mine to find a good local handyman.

Happy Valentine's Day everyone!

Decision to be made!

For those who have followed my blog for years, you know I have had both knees replaced.  (2021 and 2022). The surgeries went well but the recovery period was quite painful and stressful.  But I am grateful and happy that I had them done and my quality of life has improved enormously. Prior to those surgeries I had 2 disks replaced in my neck and again the recovery was painful but the overall benefits made it worth it.

I have had left shoulder problems for years too but have lived with it.  But the pain, discomfort and loss of movement, in the past year or so, prompted me to see what solutions were available.

I saw an orthopedic PA today who has referred me to a surgeon to check out a shoulder replacement.  I have an appointment with him next week.  My shoulder is bad enough that surgery is recommended.

Do I want to go through another surgery and recovery?  Absolutely not! But will the benefits outweigh the pain and stress?  Who can tell?  So I will have to make a decision if the surgery is offered.  At the rate this has progressed I will not have much time before I have to decide.  I had X-rays last week, saw the Orthopedic PA today and see the surgeon next week.  Yikes!  No complaints about the healthcare system here, that's for sure.

Hope all is good in your worlds!

Tree removal, snow and a very nice neighbor

Along with a lot of the US we got quite a lot of snow!  The day before it started we had 5 trees taken down in our back yard and some others trimmed.

I love trees and it was a tough decision, both financially and mentally. A very large split tulip tree was vey close to the house and if it fell it would have destroyed our home.  Likewise a large pin oak tree that was leaning toward the house would have destroyed the end of the house if it fell.  Now we have had experience of trees falling down on our previous property.  Fortunately, they were not close to the house there. But we know it can happen, and didn't want to take the risk.  Two smaller trees were dead and we would have cut them down ourselves in the spring. Finally, a split oak tree along our fence-line was leaning over the neighbor's property behind us and was dead.  If it had fallen it would have destroyed the back end of their house.

It was a hive of activity.  Two large cranes, two Caterpillar bob cats, a large trailer for the logs and a very large wood chipper for the branches plus 15 men. They had to take down the new fence on one side to get the equipment into the back yard.  

The very tall pin oak leaning towards our house

The dead split oak tree back left, leaning over the property behind and the two spindly dead ones in the centre

The very tall and large split tulip tree which was very close to the middle of the house

We were devastated to have to have them removed but safety has to be our main concern.  Last year, prior to us buying this house, some very bad storms came through this area and took down a lot of trees and a lot of homes were badly damaged.  They cleared away all the mess they made and put the fence back up.  Very little damage was done.  There are a couple of dents in the back lawn we will need to fill up with dirt when the snow goes away.  They were caused by the crane's stabilisers. And one pop up cover for the excess drainage was broken.  Must see where I can buy a replacement for that!

Last night our very kind neighbor from across the street cleared our driveway for us.  This is the first direct contact we have had with any of our neighbors.  Hopefully, this has opened up the channel of communication with her.  Have to find a way to repay her kindness.

We finally got to see my husband's new Primary Care Doctor at the VA clinic here in town.  That is a relief. He was still covered by the VA but his PCP was 100+ miles away until we could get the transfer finalised.  Now all of his providers are either at the local VA clinic or the nearby hospital.

I get to see a nephrologist next week here in town who will take over my kidney disease care.  I think it is stable and as long as I continue to remain stable, all is good.

We have to go outside this afternoon to blow and sweep the snow off of the vehicle. The sun is out even though it is below freezing so some snow is melting slowly.

Hope all is well with you all and you are keeping warm and safe...

Making life a little easier

Our new home, now we are mostly sorted, is much easier to keep clean and tidy.  It doesn't get as dusty and dirty as our country home did and I was finding it difficult to keep on top of things when we lived there.

My daughter and her family usually club together and send me some cash for Christmas, which I really appreciate.

On a visit to our favourite fish and chips restaurant before Christmas I noticed that the person cleaning the tables was using what looked to be a motorised carpet sweeper to clean the floors. It was made by Shark and he said it was rechargeable,  It was doing a great job of picking up the bits from the floor.

I googled it when we got home.  It is what it looks like, basically, a motorised carpet sweeper and it claimed it was great for pet hair.

Maggie our white American bulldog, who we have had since she was 5 weeks old and is now in her 11th year, sheds little short white hairs all the time.

I took the plunge and purchased one from Walmart which had them on sale for $49.99.  The regular price is supposedly $69.99. I used some of the Christmas gift money from my family.  We put the rest toward a new hard drive for my husbands MAC mini which freed up his old one so I could use it in my MAC.

I have to say this thing is amazing.  It is lightweight, has a long handle, picks up all the bits and dog hairs and I can do the whole house on one charge.  I am not being paid for this review, just wanted to let other folks know how good it is. And, no cords to trip over.  It is a pleasure to use. Much nicer than using the vacuum cleaner.

On other fronts, we had our furnace/cooling system extended into the sunroom yesterday.  The furnace people came and put another ducting run under the floor into the sunroom.  During the daytime we leave the door into the sunroom open and the heat from the house and also the heat from the sun coming through the windows keeps it nice and warm but in the summer it isn't enough to keep the sunroom cool.  Also we close and lock the door into it at night, for added security, so it gets very cold in there overnight this time of year.  Hopefully, this will be the answer and nothing else needs to be done.  We had discussed putting a mini split ac/heating unit in there but that is a lot more expensive.  Fingers crossed this will be the solution.

Finally got caught up with all my chores and washing so planning a reasonably easy weekend and will watch some play off games.

Hope all is good in your worlds.

Not tempting fate!

 Every year I pick up something from the Christmas stuff on sale, at much reduced prices, ready for the following year.  This year, I had gone through all my Christmas stuff and downsized it because of lack of storage space in our new home.  So I really didn't need any more!

I was discussing this with my husband, when I thought, 'Am I tempting fate by not sticking to tradition?'  We both agreed it was better not to do that, so I dropped what I was doing and hi-tailed it to Walmart.  I got a nice haul of wrapping paper and some nice sparkly bells to hang on our walls.  Now I had bought a set of these bells before Christmas for nearly $7 and was happy with that price as they are really nice and sparkly, and I love sparkly! They were now $1.75 a set, so 3 more sets jumped into my shopping cart.

The wrapping paper fit into my wrapping paper container so no more space needed but the extra sets of bells needed a tote of their own.  But my Christmas stuff is now really nicely organised and I hope the totes will all fit nicely back into the shed. And I kept up with my tradition, so all is good.

The house is back to normal. I miss the colourfulness of Christmas though!  Only another 10 3/4 months and I can get it all back out!

Take care everyone!

What will 2026 bring?

2025 was a year of big changes for us.  We sold our wonderful country property and moved to the city. After 20 years of living in the middle of nowhere, with no traffic coming past our home, we moved to quite a busy road with lots of traffic.

It has taken a lot of getting used to I can tell you! But there are lots of advantages too.  In the early hours of Christmas morning, my husband went into another neuro crisis.  I had to call the ambulance as he couldn't move or talk and was having myoclonic shaking.  They arrived quickly and took him to the hospital ER which is just a mile or so away.  They stabilised him and had him under observation for several hours. When they were satisfied he was responsive and able to move and talk, they released him.  A five minute drive and we were home.

We went to bed and slept until the late afternoon so Christmas dinner and gift unwrapping were put off until the next day and we spent the rest of the day not doing much.

I have spent the 'twixmas' period transitioning to a new to me Mac mini 2020. My husband had upgraded to a newer and bigger capacity Mac Mini 2024 as he needed it for his writing and publishing.  My old PC was so old it wouldn't upgrade to Windows 11 and was no longer supported and was beginning to do weird things like just shut down in the middle of doing something.  I didn't want to go to Mac but it made sense to do so.  I got an nice new bluetooth wavekeys keyboard and bluetooth mouse for Christmas and now I am all set up on the Mac.  I did some re-organising in my office/sewing room and now I have more room on my desk to work.

The old PC is set up on my other desk which I want to use for crafting but I am still copying files off of it onto an external hard drive so I can access them on this new one.  I have to get another external drive to go in the caddy as the Mac doesn't have as big a drive as my old PC.  When I have all the files I need I will clear the other desk and will be free to use it for card making etc.

We are slowly getting settled into our new home and life. 

The house is lovely, it is much more practical for us as it is just one level.  Albeit smaller, we have made adjustments with furniture and belongings, and it is no longer cluttered.

We each have our own room.  My husband uses his as his office/studio for his writing and as stated above, mine is my office/sewing room.  We only have three bedrooms so no spare bedroom.  We could put a blow up mattress in the sunroom if needed.

So 2025 bought new home, new computers, new to us furniture, and disposal of a lot of clutter.

Someone said that if you want to make God laugh, tell him your plans.  So I don't have plans, just preferences.

I prefer that our life settles down now and there will be minimal changes in the year to come.  That's it!

So my blogging friends, I wish you all a happy, healthy and peaceful New Year and look out for more comments from me as I can comment now on Blogger on this Mac! That makes me so happy. I always felt like a stalker when I read your blogs every day but never commented.

Yay, I found the missing Christmas tote!

We were sorting out empty totes to put on the sidewalk for free, as we had way too many to store, and lo and behold, there sitting at the bottom of the pile was the missing tote.

But, (there is that word again!) the bag with the homemade tree ornaments wasn't in it. Now that is a mystery for sure!

But here are some of the things that I am so happy to have found.

Merry Christmas everyone and a happy and healthy New Year!

XXXXX

And here it is.....fully dressed!

 

I don't know why photos of Christmas trees never look as nice as they do in reality, but it really is pretty. I have a tree skirt for it, but I can't get down to put it around.  The presents will sit there when I get round to buying them and wrap them! The floor had been damaged at some point in its history.  The previous owners had it completely carpeted, and they discovered it when they removed the carpets.  They did a temporary repair to it, but at some point in the future, we will get it done properly.

The house came with a stove, fridge, and dishwasher, and albeit older ones, they match well and are good brands.  The stove is a Kitchen Aid.  The dual front burner switch needed to be replaced, as the burner(s) would only heat up on high and the indicator light was permanently on.  I have managed without it up until now, but decided it was worth paying to get it fixed, so I used Chat GPT to diagnose the problem and check out local appliance repair people.  It did a great job and recommended an excellent repairman. My stove is now fully functional, and he even took the oven door off to tighten up the handle.

My knitted nativity scene now has a star!  I bought it for the Christmas tree, but it was top-heavy, so I sat it behind the nativity scene.

I dug out some of the Christmas Santa's this year and scattered them around.  This is just three of them.  

That poor baker's cabinet has been resurrected.  It sat in our shop for 15 years, as my husband had given it to his son many years ago.  He didn't have room for it, so he put it in storage for a few years, then he moved it to us to store for him. It was in sad shape. When we were in the moving process, it was either restore it or throw it out.  I did my best with it, and it now sits proudly in our dining room.  It is a pretty piece of furniture but I don't think it would take another move, so, this is it's last home.  As long as it holds up, it will stay there.

Christmas decorating is done for this year, now onto gift buying!

I broke with tradition this year!

Finally, I have started on Christmas!  In the moving process, downsizing was my main concern.  In the heat of July and August, Christmas was the farthest thing from my mind.  I had a lot of stuff stored in our workshop, and I went through that and culled a lot of it, and sent it to auction.  I kept what I wanted.

In the house, however, I had Christmas stuff stored that I definitely wanted to keep.  It was clearly marked keep and where it was to be put when we got here.

Having sorted through all the Christmas stuff I have here in the past few days, there is at least one tote missing.  It had lots of handmade things in it, made by both my mother-in-law over the years and myself over the 20 years we have been married.

It is nowhere to be found!  Did it get left behind in the house or in the moving man? Who knows? I hope whoever has them enjoys them and they make their Christmas as special as they did ours.  Thankfully, the nativity and Santa made it here so they are now out on display.

In the culling process I let my Christmas trees go.  I wanted a new one and saw this one on a flash sale at Walmart.  It is white and artificial, but it is lovely.  Never had a white one before and I have been doing Christmas for 60 years now!

I put it up this morning and got the ornaments we have ready to put on it but I have to go and buy some lights for it.  They went missing too!

But, here it is in all it's naked glory! I need to titivate it a bit but I am really happy with it and it cost a wopping $24.  I do so love a bargain!

You can just see the cactus that just started flowering on the right of the picture.  Not sure if it is a Thanksgiving or Christmas one but it sure has beautiful blooms.

One of the pitfalls of moving to the city!

Being close to everything is great. Unfortunately, that means we are closer to people. And it is cold and flu season, and yes, I caught a really bad cold, and then my poor husband caught it from me.  This was inevitable as we are 'joined at the hip.'

So I have spent a lot of time resting and watching TV.  Today I am feeling a bit better, so I caught up with some chores and cooking.

We postponed our Thanksgiving meal until Sunday; hopefully my husband will be well enough by then to enjoy it. If not, we will postpone to the following weekend. 

Here it is in situ!

 Here is the dresser we bought for a TV table.

 Such an improvement. Very happy with how it fits right in.

Trying to find some Christmas spirit!

I am at that time of year again when I need some Christmas enthusiasm.  I am like this every year and then I usually find some inspiration from somewhere.  So far it isn't happening!

Maybe it is because we have the house almost sorted now and I want a break.  I don't want to mess it up by getting all the Christmas stuff out.

Tomorrow, if all goes to plan, we will be purchasing a beautiful oak dresser that we will put in the living room to put the big TV on.  We let our other one go when we moved and have the TV currently sitting on two bedside tables.  This actually looks okay, as we have a nice little table sitting between them, and it kind of resembles a unit, but it was only meant to be temporary.

I found this oak dresser on Marketplace, and it is beautiful.  In it's day it would have cost a fortune, as it is a very expensive brand.  Their current furniture prices are astronomical!

It is just the size we need for our TV and the drawer space will be very useful. It will hide all the cables and speaker wires behind it, unlike the existing setup.  

This era of furniture may not be to everyone's taste, but we love it, and it complements everything else in our home.

The cost is very reasonable but as we don't have a means to pick it up we have to hire 2 guys and their truck to pick it up and carry it into the house for us, bumping up the price.  But we are still very happy.

This will be the last thing we buy for the house for a while.  It is finally beginning to feel like home.

Although, after looking at the existing picture, I think a new doggy mattress is in order, the camo just doesn't go in this house lol.

what are the odds????

It has been 9+ weeks since the move.  It has been a very stressful time but we can now see a light at the end of the tunnel.

The actual move was disastrous.  We did not choose wisely when it came to movers and a lot of furniture got scratched or damaged and some things never even made it here. We went for cheap rather than quality, our own fault.

But we have gotten past that now.

We needed a couple of bookshelves to replace our old ones, which we had discarded before the move.

I found a set on FB Marketplace that I could get in the back of our vehicle so I went and bought them.  The problem was they were from a smoking home so we had to leave them in the garage for several weeks to keep cleaning and polishing them to get rid of the smoky smell.  Then we bought them inside but, alas, we had too many books for them.

I had been keeping a lookout on Market place to see if I could find a similar set to go with them.  Nothing was showing up until Sunday night when an identical bookshelf came on sale. And very reasonably priced.  I messaged straight away and asked if they were from a smoke free home.....and they were.  I went first thing Monday morning to get them.  

I couldn't believe my luck!  What are the odds of finding two identical bookshelves in the same city?

I am happy!

Still alive and kicking…….well maybe not kicking lol

 We are still here. Moving has been very stressful. But we are very slowly getting unpacked and set up.

Will post more soon, just wanted to let you know we are still in the land of the living.

Hope all is good in your worlds.

XXXXX 

It's all go here

Haven't had time to post lately. We are in process of selling our property, buying another house, clearing out 20 years of clutter because we are downsizing and all in the heat of summer.

I will be back at some point!

Back in the hospital

 My husband had another neuro crisis and is back in the hospital. Recovery is slow this time but he is improving.

No news on the property sale yet.

We are hoping it will be third time lucky

Yes, we have done it again. Listed our property for sale, that is.

The mowing has become too much for me to do as my husband is no longer able to do any.  Plus the weather isn't helping.  So much rain so the grass grows thick and quickly.  I can't keep up.  Last time out I beached the mower.  We were lucky it was in a place that we could get the vehicle nearby and tow it out.  The ground is so soft from all the rain.

The travelling back and forth is also becoming a real chore.  A 300-mile round trip in a day for a doctor's appointment at the VA hospital is just too much driving for me now. We need to live much closer to the hospital.

So let's hope third time is a charm.

Please send us good vibes.

I am reading blogs just not able to comment

I read my Blogger every day to keep up with everyone.  I do it on my PC.  For some reason or another, I can not comment.  It drives me nuts.  I can comment on my phone but where we live we do not get good service, so unless we are out, our phones are not much use.

So please know I think about you all and feel it when things go wrong for you.

When we go out I am the driver so not able to use the phone and we do not go out that often anyway so time to post comments is really limited.

The fault is with Google on my PC, when I try to comment it tells me to sign into my Google account.  Which is very annoying as I am signed into it! It just goes round in a loop and keeps telling me to sign in. And when I go to sign in, it tells me I am already signed in.  aarrgghh!!!

The excitement this week was our wedding anniversary.  We drove 90+ miles to get some good battered cod and on the way back we took a tour of The Fantastic Caverns.  It is a huge cavern system that you can only tour in one of their Jeep and trailer thingies.  There are only 4 caverns in the world that are big enough to do this type of tour so we are lucky to live reasonably close to one of them. My husband got to ride shotgun and I am right behind him.

We are enjoying the current milder weather, it is lovely to see evrything outside spring into life.

Take care everyone. XXXXX

Unfortunately, since then my husband has been having more heart problems.  He is scheduled to see his cardiologist later this month so hopefully they can get it settled down again.

For Ivy of the blog 'The Happy Wisk"

 In my last post I mentioned the folding pet stairs we bought for our dog Maggie to be able to get in and out of our vehicle.  We got them from Amazon. The brand is Petruna.

They are perfect for us as I am the one who has to set them up for Maggie to go in and out and they are easy and light for me to be able to do that.

I also picked up the two tires on the rims yesterday complete with inner tubes, so hopefully they will stay up now.  I hope to have them put back on either today or early next week.  We really need to mulch the fallen leaves.

Still very warm here and today is very windy. It is warmer than it should be for this time of the year. It is going to cool down a bit for a few days then warm back up into nicer, more moderate temperatures.  The daffodils have come up and I noticed the flowers coming out on the forsythia bushes this morning.  Spring has arrived!

Have a great weekend everyone. XXXXX

Lovely weather finally

We are having some really nice weather right now.  Such a change from the long winter cold we had.  I believe we will still have a few cold days to come but not many.

Had a lot of hospital and doctors appointments between us but other than a scare when I had to go back for a repeat mammogram, all is good.  The first mammogram had an 'artifact', their word, but it was perfectly clear on the second one.

We try to keep as busy as we can with our limited mobility, and having the aide come in has been a great help for us.

Our dog Maggie turns 10 this year and she has always been a very strong athletic dog.  She is an American bulldog.  We noticed, however, on our last trip out with her that she was having difficulty jumping into the vehicle.  We purchased some fold-up steps for her made specifically for dogs and vehicles.  She was a little hesitant at first but with a few treats as bribes she is getting the idea.

We got some help to take off a couple of wheels from my riding mower and our little pull-along trailer and we will be taking them in to get new tyres and/or inner tubes put in them.  Mowing season will soon be upon us.

After we get these ones done we have a couple of other tyres to have tubes put in on the bigger riding mower.  They do manage to stay up a while though unlike the ones we will be taking in tomorrow.  They are as flat as pancakes!

That's about all our news for now.

Hope all is good in your lives. XXXXX

Snowed in and bitterly cold

 We had a big snowstorm and now we have a good 8-10" of snow on everything. It will not begin to go away until the weekend because the temperatures are frigid.  Tonight it will be -9F, that is -23C.  Brrrr!  Even with the heating on full blast there is a chill in the air.

We have a parcel out for delivery by USPS but our mailbox is at the end of our driveway which is 1/3 mile long.  I will have to venture out when it is delivered. But at 5.34pm it is still saying out for delivery and the current temperature is 8F or -15C.  If it gets much colder I will not go out tonight.

Our vehicle is parked under the lean-to, which is away from the house so I have to wade through the snow to get to it. It is not crucial to get it tonight. It is too far for an old lady to walk so I go to the mailbox in the car.

It's been a funny few weeks!

The past month has been strange, for sure. First of all, this winter has been very, very cold, and we were snowed and iced in for a week or more. 

We had to go to the VA hospital twice for appointments, both days it was freezing.

Some not-so-good news, the central apnea my husband has is getting worse.  There is talk of tracheotomy tubes.  My husband is vehemently against that, so we have to wait and see how it goes before making any decisions.  He might qualify for an implant that makes him breathe but further tests are required to see if he does.

The breathing problems are taking a toll on his heart, and he now has heart block on top of all his other heart problems.

My health is not doing so well either and my right hip is giving me a lot of problems, but I am putting off seeing the doctor.  I can't face another surgery right now.

Now for the good news.  VA is providing an aide to come in for 10 hours a week to help with bathing and chores.  The guy has been a godsend, and it helps lighten my load.

Overall, life is what we would expect of two folks our age, so we are grateful to still be around to enjoy it.

Santa arrived in England very early January, although he was late to the party the great grandsons loved him.

Hope everyone is doing OK and it warms up a little soon.XXXXX

Time to hunker down!

We are forecast to have a nasty winter storm with lots of icing!  That's the worst thing because it downs power lines.  We just managed to get the tractors moved so we can park the car underneath so it doesn't get covered in ice and snow.  One last trip up to get the mail around 5pm (our postman doesn't deliver until late in the day) and then it will be time to hunker down.

I hope we do not lose power because we haven't been able to bring much wood up from the woodshed and we don't have a big stack anyway.  Our ability to cut and split wood is no longer viable.

We have enough for about a day up by the house.

The power supply is fully charged, so we should be able to run my husband's bipap machine for a day or two.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it doesn't turn out as bad as they say. The car had already started to ice as it was parked just outside. Now, it is underneath the lean-to, and the icing has been cleaned off the front and back windows.

We have flashlights and candles and the gas grill we can use to cook on outside if necessary.  Today I made a big pot of beans with smoked sausage and veggies and lots of cajun seasoning.  I will cook a big batch of rice and we can eat that over the next few days.  I can heat that on the side burner of the grill if I have to.

Yesterday I got all of Christmas put away, that was a bonus.

addendum:

We decided to bring up a bit more wood, now we can have a fire for a couple of days if need be.  Hopefully, we will not lose power and can continue to run the heating.

Hope everyone will be able to keep safe and warm.

XXXXX

Days 21 to 24

 Well, the big day is almost upon us so I wish my blogging friends the best Christmas ever and a Happy and Healthy New Year.

XXXXX

Click the link below to se my Christmas card to you all

Merry Christmas everyone

Days 19 and 20

 I know it is cheating to do days at a time, but it's this or nothing, as my days are very busy.

I am still not fully feeling the Christmas vibe, but I am trying, I really am!

Yesterday I had to go for a follow-up appointment to my dermatologist.  All is good right now.  No precancerous patches and no excema. Great news. 

I also had a urine test and no signs of the UTI, so more great news.

Most of the presents are wrapped, just have a couple more to do.  Trying to get all the jobs done so I can enjoy Christmas and the days after.  Having the aide come in is really helping.  

Christmas baking will get done over the next couple of days.  Fingers crossed I don't need to shop again until after Christmas as I picked up a grocery order yesterday while I was out for the hospital appointments.

Hopefully back tomorrow with some baking photos.

Hope you are all getting sorted and are feeling the vibe.

Off to watch my favourite Christmas music video, that does help

Drifters I'm dreaming of a white Christmas cartoon video newer version

And here is the original version:-

Drifters I'm dreaming of a white Christmas original cartoon version

Grateful thanks to the creators of these videos.

Today's photo.

Blogmas Days 16, 17 and 18

The young lady aide is a godsend.  She helps out with anything we ask.  Today she did a bit of housework and then we sat down and wrapped Christmas presents. She helps my husband shower too.

She did a great job on the Christmas wrapping.  For me it is enjoyable to have some female company for a change.

My husband is in the middle of writing another book, so is pretty much up in his office most of the day.

The procedure on Monday worked and for now his heart is back in normal rhythm. I am so glad for him.

Yesterday I made a big crockpot full of ham and bean soup with corn muffins.  Plenty left for today and there will be some to freeze too.

This guy went off to England with Santa in his sack.  Hope it makes it in time for Christmas.

Blogmas Days 13, 14 and 15

 It has been an interesting few days.  My husband was recently assessed by the VA for some home care which was approved, and the first visit from them was Friday, day 13.  A very pleasant young lady who will help him with showering etc. and will do some light housework.

Day 14 was the usual Saturday type day of watching some sports on TV and meal prep. Nothing Christmassy happened. I took Maggie to the boarding kennels as they do not do intakes on Sundays.

Day 15, today, we are packing up to go to the VA hospital.  We will go today, stay overnight and he gets the procedure done tomorrow morning, which hopefully will work and put him back in regular rhythm.  

The young lady will come next Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday.

It is doubtful that I will be posting tomorrow as we will be in the hospital part of the day and on the road for the rest of it.

Today's picture is Christmas tree photo ornaments of the grandkids through the years. There are another 2 on the other 2 corners but you can't see them in the photo.

Blogmas Day 12

 We were contacted by my husband's cardiologist yesterday as he has a loop recorder implanted in his chest which records his heart rhythms and transmits any bad episodes to them.  We have to go on Monday for them to shock his heart again to try and get it back in rhythm.  Last time they tried that they did it three times and it didn't work.  Then he had the ablation surgery and that lasted 2 weeks before the afib came back.  They say there is more chance of success this time because of the recent ablation.  We will keep our fingers crossed. We have to be there at 7.30am on Monday so we will go the night before and stay in the Fisher House.

On the Christmas front, not much done today.  Yesterday I ordered gift vouchers in little gift tins to be sent to all my family in England.  Today I am scouring Amazon for ideas for the family here in the US.

We received a very nice fruit cake in the mail yesterday from one of the family, so that was appreciated.

No need for lights on when the sun is shining on the Christmas tree, it glistens in the sunlight.

Days 10 and 11 combined and ho ho ho Santa is on his way!

Day 10

Tuesday was a better day, I completed the online form and took it and the parcel to a different Post Office.  The clerk was a heavily pregnant young lady who really should have been home resting but she was a treasure.  I gave her the parcel and the form, and yes, you guessed it, she said you have to fill out this customs form here and handed me the form I had requested at the other Post Office yesterday.

I told her about my visit to the other PO and it seems that person just didn't want to process the parcel.

Day 11

Today, I have to do some online shopping for gifts.  Thank goodness for the likes of Amazon and Walmart who deliver to the recipients.  In the good old days I used to buy, wrap and deliver or mail the gifts myself.  That is not cost effective anymore.

Bit of a late morning today, we slept in.  It's going to be quite cold today so I am glad I don't have to go anywhere.

We are up to date with our chocolate advent calendars and I just opened the Jacquie Lawson ones for today.  I have three of them on the go, 2022, 2023 and 2024.   I had no idea you could reset them from previous years until I read it on another blog.

Day 9 was a disappointment

I took the parcel with Santa in to the Post Office today to send to England. The post-person asked if I had attached the customs form. I said “No, can you give me one please and I will do it.”  To which she replied “You have to do it online, and print it and attach it then bring it back.”

I was gobsmacked, I have been mailing things to the UK for years and always got the form at the post office. Not to mention the 70 mile round trip to go to the Post Office. What would happen if I didn’t have a computer and printer?

It wasn’t a total wasted journey though as I picked up some groceries and my medication.

I also got some more lights for our Christmas tree.

I will be back tomorrow….

 

Day 8

I made it back for day 8, and I have written my Christmas cards and packaged up the new Santa to send him off tomorrow. I did not send any cards to my Canadian friends and family, though, as they are in the midst of a postal strike. Even if it gets resolved, they will be so far behind that there is no chance they will get there in time. They have been on strike for several weeks, apparently.

Elfie showed up on our Santa's lap, I guess he has a wish list too. The smaller Santa is one my mother in law made many years ago.  He comes out every year too.

We are up to date on our Choceur advent calendars; the chocolate is very nice.

Going to make a big pot of chile next, which will be most welcome in this cold weather.  We will eat it for a couple of days, then freeze the rest in single servings for other times.

We are enjoying the cheery lights, Christmas tree and decorations.

Be back tomorrow.....

Day 7 of Blogmas

I made it to day 7! Go me!

Every year I buy something Christmassy in the Boxing Day sales for the following year.  A decoration of some sort, and usually cards if I haven't made any.  And this year I have not made cards.  Things have been too hectic with our health issues and slowing down due to age.

My 90% off purchase last year was this Merry Christmas bunting.

Not sure if bunting is the correct word as the letters are actually metal.

Be back tomorrow.....

Day 6 and I am here to post!

 I am pretty amazed I am still posting and only missed one day.

And,🥁🥁🥁🥁🥁, tada, I finished Santa last night.

He will fly to the UK in the next day or so, hopefully arriving in time for Christmas. My two great grandsons will love him, I am sure.

We got the lights up completely yesterday around the room.  Now we have our cheery lights back.

I put up the tree, it does not look as good as I remember from last year.  I still need to work on it.

Will be back tomorrow......

Day 5 and here I am again!

Yesterday we got the outside lights and ornaments up.  It was a bit warmer.  Today it is bitterly cold.

I have another tote of Christmas decorations etc. to bring down and sort through, I am looking for a new set of lights I bought last year.  The sticky hooks are great except on two of the walls which are log-sided, and the hooks do not stick to them very well. They were stained and I guess the adhesive on the hooks just doesn't stick to it. We compromised and strung the lights around the curtain rods and paintings.  I was a little disappointed but it's OK.

Today I hope to finish the inside and bring down the tree.  

Then maybe I can start on cards......

Day 4 and yay I am posting!

Well, day 4 is here.  The antibiotics are kicking in and I am feeling a bit better.  Yesterday, between us, we managed to get the sticky hooks up on the walls.  Today I will hang the lights.  I hope I have enough as I broke one set when I took them all down earlier this year when we had the house up for sale.  I may have an extra new set stashed somewhere.

This guy will make an appearance today:

It has warmed up a little and I will put up the outside decorations and lights.

The Santa I am knitting for my great grandsons is near completion.  All the knitting is done and I have started sewing it all together.

Christmas cards are running late.  That is unusual for me.  I may not be sending any to Canada this year as they are in the midst of a postal strike and they are unusually slow at the best of times, even when they are working!

I can pop some of the English ones in the parcel when Santa is finished, and it shouldn't take long to do the rest.

So Christmas is now underway here, albeit a bit behind.....

Not a good start

 Well, it is day 3 so not a good start eh, missing day 2.

I have recently been diagnosed with chronic kidney disease. It seems I have had it quite a while. A recent test indicates a UTI so I am on antibiotics. I haven’t been at my best but hoping the meds kick in soon.

So yesterday I had to go into town to pick them up and I also found some stocking stuffers, so some Christmas things done. Today I will try and get some decorations out.

I am even 2 days behind opening my Jacquie  advent calendar.

Not really having a good start to the season.

Upwards and onwards!

Can I do Blogmas???

 Can I do a post every day?  Not likely, but I will try.

Christmas is my favourite time of the year. For a few years, I was a tad disillusioned because my husband didn't enjoy It, but over the years, my enthusiasm has rubbed off on him, and now he quite enjoys it.

Today, for the first time in our twenty years of marriage, we started on chocolate advent calendars.  I opened the Day 1 windows, and we each ate our chocolate treat.

He has not been very well for some time.  Nearly three weeks ago he had another heart procedure to try and stop the Afib.  The first one worked for about three years before it came back.  He was on the table for 4 hours this time while they scarred his upper chambers to try and prevent it.  It worked for just over two weeks!  He has been back in Afib for a week now.  Last night he had a really bad session but it calmed down eventually.  It doesn't go away but it gets to a tolerable stage. This surgery really took it out of him, it would have been worth it had it worked. 

When we put the house on the market last year, we took down our Christmas lights, which we had strung all around the living room. They were hard for us to put up, so we left them up year-round, and on dull, dreary days, we would put on the 'cheery lights'. This year, I have bought some sticky hooks to put around the top of the walls, and we will be able to put them up and take them down much easier now.

Well, that is it for Day 1.

More tomorrow, hopefully....

Ceramic Christmas trees

I do not usually shop at Aldi.  For some unknown reason recently, an 'Aldi Isle of Shame Community' popped up on my Facebook feed.  Why, I have no idea.  However, I decided to follow it and saw folks posting about the Christmas things that Aldi was selling this year and one of the most sought after items seem to be the retro-looking ceramic Christmas trees.

I remember these  from years gone by but was never a fan of them and never bought one, despite being the Christmas lover that I am.

People posted photos of them and said how fast they were going off the shelves.

Our localish town has an Aldi and has just built a bigger store just across the road from it, which had it's grand opening today.  I was in said town yesterday for a hospital appointment and to pick up a few groceries so thought I would drive by and see the new store and noticed it was actually open.  Curiosity got the better of me and I went in.

There on the 'Isle of shame', (not sure why they call it that!) sat some of the Christmas trees.  Three traditional green ones, three pastel pink ones and one pastel blue one.

The girly girl in me wanted a pink one so desperately, the practical girl in me said 'don't be daft it won't go in our house'.  The practical girl won out and a green one was placed in the shopping trolley.  I was just about to move on and I spotted a mini pink one.  Well, the girly me grabbed it so quickly and it went into the trolley too.  It was the last mini pink one.

So, here they are in all their glory.  I have decided to leave them out until after Christmas to enjoy them.  At our age we have no idea how many Christmases we have left so I will enjoy them for as long as possible.  They have a timer switch on them and use batteries, so no need to find an electrical outlet to plug them in. The green one is about 15" tall.  

They really are delightful.

It doesn't take much to make me happy!

I think the treatment is worse than the darned Covid

My doctor did prescribe Paxlovid for me and I started taking it Monday afternoon.  From the offset, I felt weird.  Good job I got home before the effects really kicked in.  It upset my stomach and I almost passed out.  I didn't take the second dose.  Yesterday I took both doses and today I have taken one so far and my stomach is still upset, it leaves a horrible taste in your mouth and the nausea comes in waves but it is not as bad as it first was.  I will persevere because I want to get this virus out of my system and I don't want Long Covid.

We have our son coming in on Sunday for my husband's 80th birthday next week.  He is fully vaccinated and just recently had a booster so he feels he should be OK.  He has also had Covid so has some natural immunity too.  

To make things worse our Microwave gave up the goat yesterday. Thank goodness for Amazon, a new one is currently in transit. You don't realise how much you use one until one is not available!

My husband is doing OK, the steroids have kicked in.  It is only a short regimen though so only a few more days of taking them for him.

So we are just plodding on here the best we can until we test negative.

Onwards and upwards!

It has been quite the month!

 My husband has atrial fib, he goes in and out of it and his last episode was quite severe so they took him in and gave him cardioversion.  They shocked his heart three times and it made no difference so home we came.  Whether it was delayed reaction or he just went out of it, we don't know but he came out of it and so far so good.  He does, however, have to go back in for ablation surgery again on his heart next month. They will keep him in overnight to monitor him; if all is well, he can come home.

But!, that flipping word again!

He contacted Covid, we assume from when he was in the hospital for the cardioversion.  Last week he became quite poorly and after being told by his primary care physician, I took him to the ER on Thursday evening.  We didn't even think it might be Covid but he tested positive and had pneumonia.  Because of all his problems they admitted him and gave him Remdesivir infusions and steroids.  I stayed with him Thursday evening in the room but I came home because if I stayed I couldn't leave the room and I was beginning to feel a bit rough.  Joy oh joy, I tested positive with a home testing kit on Saturday.

On Sunday they said he could go home so I had to drive three and a half hours to pick him up and three and a half more to get home.  I was on adrenaline. We got home safe and sound and crashed for the night.

I called my doctor this morning and she has prescribed some Paxlovid so I am now waiting for the pharmacy to call and tell me it is ready.  Hope they can bring it out to the vehicle.  I do not want to infect anyone by going into the store.  I can open the back of the vehicle and they can throw the pills in there.

Not bad for a couple of oldies!

Last Friday my husband and I set about assembling the grill.  I can only remember seeing it done once before many moons ago. It was  complicated back then, even for a couple of mechanically minded young men.

Bearing in mind I am 76 and my husband will be 80 in a couple of weeks I was a little reticent to embark on this challenge.

But slowly and methodically, following the reasonably good instructions it came with, we got most of it done on Friday and finished it off on Saturday morning.

We now have a beautiful fully functional BBQ grill with side-burner sitting on the cooking pad on our screen porch. 

We were very proud of ourselves and hardly any swear words were spoken in the process.  We could have got it done all in one day but it got quite hot outside on Friday afternoon plus we were both worn out.

We tried it out Saturday night and grilled a couple of burgers and some hot dogs.

Off course, it being new I was a tad fanatical about cleaning it afterwards.  I quickly realised that I should have lined the tray underneath with foil.  After I cleaned it and dried said tray, I did just that, ready for next time.  I know in time the cleaning frenzy will die off as grills are messy things by nature but the foil should help and I can just replace it when necessary.  The burner tent covers also got quite messy so I cleaned them too then made some foil covers for them also.  It was a lot of work for 2 burgers and 3 hotdogs lol.  I liked the old-fashioned grills where there were briquettes over the burners that heated up and the fat just burned off on them.  Much simpler!..... After a little investigation it seems you can still get lava rocks for grills.  You have to get another set of racks to sit over the burners to place them on and you take off the burner tent covers.  More research needed but I am leaning towards this idea.

Anyway, it is ready again for our next cook-up.  It also came with a heavy griddle tray that sits on the grill, and using that will be a lot less messy. 

Weather wise, (us British are known to talk about the weather lol), it is still very hot here and very dry.  We are in desperate need of rain.  Usually by now we have had a lot of rain and the grass shoots up and we are mowing like crazy.  This year we just can not mow as the grass is all but dead.  I am hoping for some rain soon to save it. 

Onwards and upwards!

XXXXX

Wednesday was a good day!

 Tuesday, I went to get some groceries and some potting soil and pebbles.  Whilst looking for the pebbles and soil I noticed that the pavers we have been buying for our front porch were getting really low and we needed another 30 or so to finish the job.  I could only get 4 in the vehicle as I already had groceries in the back.

I came home and put the groceries away and we put the 4 pavers down.

I said to my husband that we needed to get the rest of them before they were all gone so yesterday morning we set out quite early, got breakfast in McDonalds and went over to the Ace hardware store to get the pavers and to see if they still had the birdhouse feeder they had advertised in their flyer.  They had sent a flyer with their sale items and 2 x $10 coupons if you spent more than $50, even if it was on sale items.  Well they only had 21 pavers which didn't come to $50 and yes! they had one birdhouse feeder left.  Original price was $44.99, reduced to $29.99 in the flyer and I had my $10 coupon so I was so very happy.

This birdhouse feeder is supposed to be squirrel proof and I believe it will be better than all the others we have tried.  

It is solidly made from all metal and the perch for the birds is spring loaded so if anything heavier than a bird gets on it it will close the entry to the bird food.

So then we went to Walmart to get some bagged compost and went in to pay and we saw this magnificent Cuisinart grill on sale.  Reduced from $492 to $178 dollars.  We couldn't believe our luck.  We have been looking for some time for a new grill as our existing one is over the hill.  3 out of 4 burners do not work and all the burner covers have corroded away.  In fairness we have had it a long time and it has been well used but it was time for it to be replaced.

But the prices had gotten so high we couldn't really afford to replace it, but when we saw this we couldn't pass it by.

The old one is in the background.  Externally it looks great but the workings are shot.

Just waiting for a cool day so we can assemble it and use it.

Hope all is good in your worlds.

XXXXX