Returns and Recycling

 Monday night, I was so tired  that I went to bed at midnight. I slept well, waking at least five times to go to the bathroom, but went sound asleep after coming back to bed each time. I awoke about 8:30 am feeling like I had been beat up. However, we were out the door for chores by 10 or so.  That means I did get my required 7.5 hours of sleep. 

A call from my gastroenterologist was comforting. My liver enzymes are right. I got no report about spleen, pancreas, or gall bladder even though they were studied. I suppose that is good news. The liver is not in the best shape but no worse than five years ago. I have all the symptoms of gall bladder disease. Over my objections, I have had all sorts of tests, and nothing shows up. I do not encourage these tests. 

We had one thing to do in the morning and one thing in the afternoon. I took back a jacket of sweatsuit fabric and got the right size.  When I bought it, a woman was standing in front of the rack. Instead of asking her to move as she had offered, I asked her to hand me a certain size. She did and I left. Well, I put it on at home and it was tight. She had handed me a jacket two sizes too small.  Today, I could not find my size and just one a size larger. It may or may not work. I bought smaller stemless wine glasses.

We took the recycling to Publix--paper, plastic bags, plastic bottles. We will give soup/tuna cans to someone else to recycle and recycle coke type cans ourselves. I returned the larger wine glasses. 

I mailed a few cards yesterday and have one to mail right now. I no longer hold cards until I get them all ready for the mail, now trying to beat the rush of cards and packages as I can at least for a few of them. It is after 5 pm and dark, yet we have to get my med that I need for my heart health. So, I suppose we will go out again. 

Today has been chilly, dry and very dreary! But, it has not dampened my spirit. IT'S CHRISTMAS! I am not in a buying frenzy, cleaning frenzy, or cooking frenzy, just have heightened feelings right now. 

Today, I bought low carb bread that might help with weight loss or at least weight gain. A comment from another blogger made me think twice--she loves a sandwich for lunch. I do too. I don't need so many carbs since I have diabetes. 

Okay, I took a bite of the keto bread. It is the best I have tasted. I tasted two other keto breads in the past. Miracle Whip will jazz it up. This is from Sprouts--Live Carb Smart, only 1 net carb per slice. Is that good? 

We drove the few blocks in the neighborhood to find a pink bag of ads and coupons. See, we did little today. We did offer a ride to a woman on a bike with too many, too heavy boxes and bags. A woman who knows her stopped and with a car more suited to her load and she went with her. We did try. 

Tommy's flashlight and headlamp are on the way. Lynda's Kiss has fairy lights and Hershey's kisses in it and needs to be wrapped. My grandchildren will get Amazon e-gift cards. Things are coming along. A cash donation to one very worth person needs to be delivered. I am set! 

Tonight's dinner--chicken, green beans, slaw, leftover sweet potatoes. I will bake the whole green beans in the tasty juice from the pork loin. The sweet potatoes had cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg in them, but NO sugar. Green beans were not cooked, so he ate chicken, sweet potatoes, and slaw. 

We have everything we need for any possibility, anything I might fancy to cook, bake. There may even be enough milk until after Christmas. The only thing I might hurry out to get is a loss leader that might disappear like the cheap turkey breasts did.

The Tabernacle Choir is wonderful tonight!

Tomorrow should be torrential rains, maybe flooding, and high winds. We will stay in! We do need to put a plastic over the sewing machine, but nothing else right now.

Are plans at your house better formulated? Is everything coming together for you? Do you have snow or rain?

Christmas Card Problems and Fantastical Gift Wrapping

 Today, it is dreary and coolish, 41F. Plus, it is cloudy and there is a slight breeze after a rainy night. Alltogether, a good day for a nap which I won't get. 

I managed to finish half my Christmas cards, not without pain. I bought gel pens, thinking I also was getting a green. No. In the package was red, gold, silver, and white. What is more, the red is rather pale on envelopes. On the card, the red pen is a bright red. So, I am hoping machines can read the pale red on the envelopes. 

Once I found the envelopes on Saturday, I put them back in the box and put it away until Sunday. Something happened. All the envelopes were wrinkled like they had gotten damp. 

Using the gel pens was slow-going since they smudged easily. I had to let envelopes and cards opened wide lie around to dry the ink. So, the smudgy ones were the first ones addressed. 

Sure, these are first-world problems, annoying but not life affecting happenings!  Have you finished your Christmas cards yet?

Many years ago, at the same time I was a vendor at craft shows, I also bought wholesale and sold retail picture frames. Since I always helped my best friend buy gifts for his family, I offered this deal to him--only pay wholesale + tax. He did not like the idea since I would be "making money off him."  This idea would be so much easier than helping him buy. 

He finally got it that I made no money from this sale. I ordered dozens of frames and we chose his from the order that came in a week later. He thought maybe buying frames for everyone was not creative and showed no thought. Well, this floozy who helped him buy one year thought a platter with a turkey on it was perfect for his wealthy cousin. I was appalled at the things she picked out. Oh well. 

On to the gift wrapping.

All the picture frames were white and from different manufacturers. I chose white boxes and red tissue paper to go inside around the frames. Then, I wrapped the white boxes in red glossy paper. 

The "bow" was the stunner. 

I used all white: 3 kinds of curling ribbon, lace in two widths, lace with wire in the edges, strings of pearls, feathers, charms. A glue gun brought it all together. The lace with wire in the edges was spiraled around a pencil for a fanciful shape. Each of these were fashioned on a piece of white board from a shirt box and then glued onto the package. 

When held up, the curling ribbon extended from my chest to the floor. Each completed topper was over six inches in diameter. John reported how much everyone (15 people) loved them. After gifts were opened and paper thrown out, various family members were trying to get others to trade them their white fantasy topped. I called them toppers because they were more than a bow. 

Through the year various family members I happened to meet out and about mentioned the wrapping. The funny part was that John thought giving frames two years in a row was too much, that everyone would not have anything to put into another frame. I questioned a few family members who confirmed my thought that two frames was NOT too many.  They loved the second round, too. 

I love to wrap gifts! 

Do you like or love to wrap gifts, no matter whose gifts they are? Have you pulled off spectacular gift wrap? 

Almost Finished

The last three cards went to PO today. I only need to wrap one gift to send. Of course, it will be late arriving to the recipient. So will the card overseas. I had the addresses of other bloggers so I could send cards. Some went into the dump. Some are just lost around here.

After I got Tommy a new doorknob for his birthday, he did not install it. Finally, he said it would have been better to get one with deadbolt and a doorknob and both used one key. I may have said that. Today, I have been so ill, getting the same sinus infection as last week that cleared up with antibiotics. Allergies do this to me. I awoke from a long, long nap, feeling awful. He asked anxiously if I wanted to go to the doctor. That will come after I have the blood tests done that two doctors want done.

I told him I wanted to go to Lowe's. We did as soon as I could get ready. He did not realize he was going to go in and get the lock set. He found what he wanted and paid for it, bemoaning the fact we did not bring the other to exchange. As it turns out, the deadbolt lock does not use a key on the inside. It has a twist thing to lock it.

Then, we went to get another baking pan. The one I have has a small lip, about one inch. I figured the huge turkey would flip out of that since both of us would have trouble handling the pan with a turkey in it. I also got a coffee scoop since I like to have a scoop of some sort in the flour and sugar. I had bunches of them, but they are in the dump! Even a small plastic coffee-type scoop is good to use.

I did get Tootsie Rolls to pull out fillings! I keep it in my pocket prior to eating to soften it some. And, I forgot Vicks Vaporub for my head congestion. Two jars of Vicks is in the dump.

After ruining my stick-on light switch when it fell off the brick next to the front door and landed in water, tonight I bought a 4-pack of the tap lights. One is for the front door and one for the laundry room. So far, Tommy is not kicking about lights or locks. I have simple needs, so far. And, I did not buy batteries for the lights! Yes, my batteries are in the dump!

Today, he finally changed the filter for the furnace. He had to lower himself to the floor and lie down flat to lift the heavy grate and place the new filter in the space. It hurt me to see the way he had to work. He would not let him help because the grate was too heavy and the filter too dusty. I doubt this will have a great affect on the dirty air blowing around, but it should help a bit.

Tomorrow, I may get up the pumpkins from the porch and throw them in the garbage can. I wish I knew someone with animals that would eat pumpkins. Tommy might hurt himself bending that far and falling off the porch. I think I feel to awful to try to decorate at all outdoors.

We are watching "A Charlie Brown Christmas". This is so much fun from 1965. Snoopy, Charlie Brown, and whole Peanuts crew were my son's favorite. He slept with a Snoopy dog. I just love Snoopy dressed as Santa and the little boy confronting him because he did not bring the right things for Christmas last year. So funny!