Robin's Nest

 It is Saturday and that means only two more days off of school for the kids. This snowy weather makes me appreciate the privilege of homeschooling. We are currently not homeschooling; I just appreciate that idea in this kind of weather. I am not impressed with their current school, but I can tolerate it at this point. It will be interesting to see how the rest of the year goes.  Other areas of my life are getting less attention when they deserve more. My Great Aunt went on hospice this week. She is working on 104, she is not quite there yet. A recent respiratory situation has prompted this change, I think it is totally appropriate as it gives her live-in caregivers some extra support. In other news to report, there is nothing.  I made bread this week and tomorrow it will become French toast Stix, breadcrumbs, Italian breadcrumbs and maybe more if I can think of anything else, did I mention the loaf was never even cut? I will make a fresh loaf later today or maybe even as late as tomor

 It is the day after Thanksgiving and the ground is covered. Black Friday shopping is not something I normally do, so this is not an inconvenience for me. We went to my daughter's home for Thanksgiving and a much smaller group of friends and family were there. My son was not feeling well so we took him some leftovers on our way home. Because the meal was not here, I do not have to deal with the leftovers or the post meal drama of what to do with all the leftover food. But that means no snacking foods either... it is a no-win situation. I get to make fresh food though and that is a good thing. I just tried to go out and return a medical device and the roads were very icy. I decided it was unlike Dunkin' Donuts, not worth the trip. Not to waste getting as far as the General Store I did buy the kids some soda for movie night tonight. We already have lots of popcorn and still some candy available. Now to find a good movie. the dog is being lazy Instead of a good movie we found that

 It is the day before Thanksgiving and our plans have drastically changed. We will not be going to my daughter's home, and we will not be having turkey with her. I did manage to find a turkey and it looked smallish to me. Turns out it was only a pound smaller than the smallest one at the commissary. We will go for the bone density test this morning, and I will drop the dog off for groomer at my daughter's this morning on the way to the density test.  It might be a ham thanksgiving this year if anything at all. I am not complaining. I don't want to clean or cook as no one in this house even eats all the stuff. That was all yesterday and like everything in my life it changes hourly. We made it to all of our appointments and with the kids in tow! We did not get to any stores, because I do not do stores with kids if I do not have to. The dog got dropped off, the bone density test was done, the equipment for the sleep study got picked up, and 5 D tanks of oxygen. We even managed

 It is an exciting time of year and scary! Especially with kids who believe in Santa. While we do not want to ruin things for them the stress level for us is off the charts. Well for me anyway. How do you keep the fun in "Santa" as the kids get older and have friends that don't "believe". When do you tell them? Or do you? I do not remember anyone "telling" me.  I am sure with all of the siblings that I had someone must have told me. Or maybe not getting that Easy Bake oven that was so popular did it. I did eventually get it, but it was years later. I do remember my parents being so disappointed that I was not as thrilled with the brand-new bicycle as they were or as my sisters. The pictures they took told the whole story for 3 years. Eventually I must have realized it at some point. Moving on, the Thanksgiving holiday just days away, leads me to testing recipes looking for a crescent roll that is tasty, easy and foolproof. Mainly because I am the fool

 I have never had much of a Monday thru Friday work life, even much of my Army time was not a typical schedule. "Retirement" is parading around no differently. It is Friday and it will prove to be my busiest day of this week.  May Heaven help the first kid to ask to go to town over the weekend. At this moment I know what my part is and what needs to be done to make the day work. Oh boy did things turn out way different than they started out. The morning was on track, even DH was up and ready to go to town with me. Plans change by the second here in my world. He had stated he was not going to go with me, so I got ready quietly and headed out to warm the car. I came back in and there he was totally dressed. Picking up meds at the base took a long time. We arrived home about 30 minutes before I had to leave to take the neighbor to her appointment in Aurora.  On the way to her appointment, I received a call from DH that he was having some kind of episode. After about 5 to ten min

 To say bah humbug would be inappropriate in this case I would think, but I feel that way. The report is interesting but there was no definitive diagnosis, no concrete it is this or that, just as many questions as there were before the testing. It did reinforce what I already suspected, so there is that. Perhaps this is how things get done... very slowly. On the way home after the meeting I gave DH three options. First, have lunch; second go home; and third go to the sheriff's office and file some paperwork that he had been wanting to update. The initial request was to go home, after a prompt that the office to file paperwork is close by, he elected to do that. I knew where I was going so, I started in the correct direction and when I was in front of the building, he abruptly stated why are you here?! I replied this is the office to get the paperwork from. He became agitated and stated that it was not the correct office and he had never been in there. I pointed out the lettering fo

 It has been a hard decision to convince myself that I can be patient. Mostly because I cannot. I try but mostly I am trying. Today I baked bread because we were out of bread and as I have said in the past, I can bake it faster than I can drive to town and buy it. I called my "cousin", and we talked as I baked. Three loaves of bread and an exchange of recipes we ended the call, and I sent pictures of the finished loaves. Yummy!! Sandwich bread and cinnamon raisin They smell so good!!  they may not be purdy, but they are tasty!   You might think this is a stance to try to be grounded and happy in my space, you would be correct. I need to do the things that are part of me. Baking, sewing and crocheting are things I enjoyed in my life. Other things are there too. I miss working, being on call, being a soldier... weird that I would miss that, but I do. This evening the dogs started picking on the youngest dog, I got mad and yelled at them and made them all go outside, except the

  I say this week but really it is this month for me, at least so far. I lost the drive to blog and not doing this simple task has led to weird dreams. For now, I am blaming a lack of blogging for the dreams. If you have read this blog for any length of time, then you know we had planned to move. If you haven't read it, then there is still time to catch up on what you may have missed. Or you can let it go and start from here.  A few days ago, I decided that I was not going to write about things for a while. The everyday craziness of my world was in overdrive and there was just too much going on. Things have not changed very much it is still way too busy and it is clear that isn't going to change anytime soon. With the first of November behind us and multiple appointments ahead of us, there is little time to ponder what is next. Yet, I still find time to do just that. Of course, it happens when I am asleep, and it comes out in my dreams. Last night my dreams found me travelling

 Oh, my goodness this week got off to a rough start! My cousin who lives in Florida, has a podcast that I like to try and catch this month she is doing a month-long podcast. Okay I mean every day for a month. I do not get to catch her live very often, but this is Tuesday, and I am getting to listen and watch while she is live. I am excited! (this was started the 3rd week of October) Now it is election day in the next month. To no one's surprise I misplaced our ballots. Luckily that was taken quite well by my DH. Even more lucky one of our neighbors was willing and able to come and stay with the girls while we drove back to town to vote in person. So, vote we did. Of course, I had to make it complicated and sign my ballot the wrong way. My voter registration is in my real legal name not my sort of legal name, which both are legal, just ... oh never mind it is a long story. Just know that voting took place! Yesterday, someone played with the electric and today that someone was sent t