Robin's Nest

  This week has been one of remembering... not the things I need to get done. Just remembering the past. Days gone by. I am probably the most technically challenged person I know so trying to get into old accounts and retrieve pictures is especially challenging. However, I did manage to retrieve a few. (344) After having many of them printed at Walgreen's I brought them home and have enjoyed watching the girls as they admire their baby pictures and tell what "they remember". The youngest is 8 and she had vivid stories to tell me about each picture. Which for her they started at about 6 weeks of age. Amazing the tales she had! Now it has been a challenge in another way in that I ran over my phone. Gorilla glass is not strong enough. The real challenge came in trying to make a claim. They require you get information off of the phone. Some little number called an "IEMI" I think is what they wanted. Well, hello, I can't. So I spent an afternoon looking through b

Yes it is true there are but 10 days until Christmas 2020. I am not even stressed yet. I must have the virus. Today an email arrived stating that half of my order for "Santa" is delayed. Still no signs of being stressed yet... I was able to obtain red and black soup mugs today. Yay! They will go nicely with the buffalo plaid soup cozies.  Did I say soup cozies? Yes, yes I did. What are they for? For the person who has everything else of course! I can hear the kids fussing about an internet game as I type. Still no stress. Perhaps in 7 days I will be so stressed that I cannot stand it. For now, I'm good. This year my daughter and I really resolved that handmade gifts would be the theme. (This is where soup cozies come in) Neither of us had ever considered them to be a thing, but her 16 year-old has an ongoing battle with the microwave and hot cups. Also my son-in-law, different family branch, has the same trouble. His became a $1200 problem because he dropped his hot cup o

  Remember the song "12 days of Christmas"? I believe this traditionally starts on Christmas day but don't quote me. However, my 10 ten-old decided to start yesterday. Her gift to me was "one fractured wrist". I can hardly wait to see how the rest of the song plays out! Last week was busy, so busy in fact the birthday wishes were late. So, Happy Birthday! Just in case they were overlooked once given. Now to finish up the holiday shopping I finally ordered two of the requested items for the girls. Hopefully they will arrive before the big day, but if not life will go on. This past year I resolved to do a craft each month. It was not a total fail. Several hats were made, two blankets and one was started but the yarn color went out of stock. There is still time to make a replacement on that and I might. Two pair of slippers were finished and homemade Vaseline gifts were made for Maddy's baby shower. So all in all I almost covered each month but not on a monthly

Holiday traditions are something that we remember for a lifetime. Even if those traditions are not always positive. Growing up candles, bowls of hard candy and people coming over were things I could count on. My folks had friends that would come and play cards till the wee hours of the morning and we would have candle burning and holiday lights every where. As my own little family grew and we started our own traditions. We experimented with some of those held by my family and some by their dad's folks. The biggest one became that we travelled to the grandparents' homes and stayed till the wee hours of the morning. Of course we regretted disrupting the sleep schedule of the kiddos and there was all kinds of stress the next day, we still did it. Once I left for the army I was somehow exempt from the madness (why I did not go sooner, I'll never know!). When I could I would fly the children back to Michigan to visit family. I myself would stay where ever we happened to be assig

Wow! We are nine days into the month and I cannot get motivated to get any of my list done. Our plans to travel right after Thanksgiving changed and still we haven't left our area. Family matters have changed our travel dates to later in the month and maybe even into the new year. My sister has misgivings about us visiting our mother lest we bring the germs with us. So I have thought long and hard about that, then my son-in-law had an event that has delayed us even longer. I don't feel right leaving my daughter at this point until things settle a bit. In light of all the extra time to get things ready you would think I would be more motivated to get things together! Alas, my motivation ends by 0800 each morning. That said I have made a list and I'm checking it twice... because that is easier than getting off my chair and doing the items on my list!  One thing on the list was to create a space to sew in. Say good bye to the guest room and hello to a creative space. It is rea

  Good morning world! It is day 2 of December and I stayed up late last night... for me anyway. At 10:15 pm I turned off the television and to my surprise everyone had turned in before me. The first day of December had been unusually cold and windy, really windy. So other than feeding the chickens and getting a folding table out of the truck I stayed inside.  As the wind whipped around and caused the trees to moan under the pressure I watched the birds pecking at some seed I had put out for them. It really seemed as though they needed more, but I did not want to brave the cold. Within a few minutes I decided to give them more seed and stop being such a wimp about the cold. Then I remembered that I had put a tray of seed on the "Genny" stump. I'll explain in a minute what that is. After retrieving the tray it was pretty obvious that they had not really touched the seed. So I placed the tray on the ground and went back inside to watch the birds again. The "Genny"

  This holiday week started with a bang or a crash or however you want to say it. A flat tire started the pre-Thanksgiving week forcing me to drive the alternate van. No worries, no back up camera, no movie player for the kiddos, no leather seats to mess up like I said no worries! Until the day after Thanksgiving. While driving to town to take the littlest baby to her mama for "lunch" some goof ball driving rubbish to the dump apparently didn't care that his load wasn't secure. As we approached each other on the highway I could see something large lifting off of his trailer. Unfortunately it was unavoidable and it slammed into the front end of my van.  After it hit my vehicle it became a lump in the road and the car behind me high centered on it. Both cars were significantly damaged and the offending driver and all those behind him just continued on with their day. No one stopped at all. To make matters worse the state patrol said unless we got a plate number there wa

Today is Thanksgiving. We all have things to be thankful for. Some more than others, but if nothing else we have our lives. Family, is a given for most but not all. We cannot fix the world alone, and that's where we have to turn it over to God before he turns us over to Satan.  I joke about procrastinating but this is not something we need to joke about. Actually, I take my procrastinating very seriously! This was my answer to using spiral notebooks to organize the school day...  When you get up this morning imagine where you came from. Were you just an accident or a plan between your parents? Do you really know what your life is about? What your purpose is? I thought I did.  I know now that I didn't.  When I get up each day whether it be 0300 or after 0700 my first thought is not to thank God for my upcoming day, it should be. But usually I am scolding a dog or two as I trip my way to the door to let them outside before they piddle on my carpet. Today was no different. They ch

  Two days ago we were planning a trip across country. Today I was emptying the closet in the Master Bedroom. Why you ask? Because to take a trip across country I must have someone come and stay in my home to care for all the animals. That someone has 3 children and two of them are boys. All boy, boys. This means what one doesn't think of the other one does. Therefore I need a gun safe, beings we did not get the home I had in mind I need to make room in the one we did get. It has been a week of rearranging and donating stuff. It may turn into two weeks of this. There is that much more to do! I am still a hoarder after all that burned some habits don't die easily. Mostly I am a procrastinator... that makes me a hoarder by second nature not first.  You see I like to sew, therefore I buy fabric. Then the procrastinator takes over and says let's do that project later. Then another innocent trip to the fabric store to buy something... anything, results in more fabric coming home

  This request should have been turned down, but it wasn't. It seemed an innocent request.. I mean really what could happen? We will never know. As the day requested came and left without the arrival of an extra dog. About noon I sent a message to my neighbor asking if I needed to come get the little darling or was she bringing him over?  I received a reply that their appointment was cancelled so the puppy would remain home. The reason for the request in the first place was that four of their female dogs were in heat and the puppy had no pants to keep it in. So I offered up our largest kennel as a solution. I was rewarded with a plate of homemade cookies! That's why you don't turn requests down! This week has been full of things to do, like fish the cover of the pool out of the depths of the water. Place more inner tubes in so there is more lift. Tighten the cover after all this is done and get more leaves off the surface of the cover. Go to the bank find out if the check f

I don't know about you but for me a list is essential! It's like underwear... almost. You can go without it but why would you? I personally forget at least one thing that I go to town for without a list if not more. Sure if you live right next to say... King Soopers it is not that big of a deal but when you live 22 miles from the nearest King Soopers it becomes more essential to carry a list.  Last week I made a trip to town just about every day. Of course, every day I forgot to buy "C" batteries. The new otoscope that I had purchased required that size where my old one took "AA". We always seem to have that and "AAA" batteries scattered about so remembering this one size shouldn't be that big of a deal. I finally remembered the batteries when I ran to Costco on Saturday. Starting the list the night before is helpful for me also. It contributes to getting things off my mind. Lately my mind has been jam-packed with "to-do's". With

I wish I could say I was in my right mind when I made an appointment for the youngest at 0740 in the morning, but I couldn't have been. Really , who would make one that early for an 8 year old if they didn't have to? Apparently, I would and did. We made it on time and early for once. A miracle to say the least. It was a good appointment or in the 8 year-old's own words "the best appointment ever". For months we have had to raise our voices at Little Miss to get even a mild response, now I know why. She failed her hearing screening on the right side hearing not even one sound the machine gave and missed two of the sounds on the left. Add these to significant vision challenges and it's no wonder she doesn't like schoolwork. We left with lots of follow up appointments and an inhaler in response to our "coughing fits" description among other symptoms elicited during the exam. The rest of the afternoon has been spent trying convince another occupant o

  It has been three weeks since the hip surgery. A very busy 3 weeks I might add. On one hand it seems like forever and on the other it seems even longer! If I could turn back time I would and make sure all the little things that should have been done prior to surgery, were done. The most difficult things for DH to do are the things he took for granted prior to the surgery.  Today we go for a follow up visit. The original post-op visit that was scheduled the day of surgery, that has been pre-empted by several other visits for minor flare-ups, is today.    He also gets the wound VAC taken off today. Hopefully this will be the end of the pain that has plagued him for years and the beginning of more activity for him. I ordered some new equipment and I tried out the thermometer on him and this is what I got for a reading. Talk about giving me a scare With another surgery in his future for the other hip it should be interesting to see how the surgeon feels about a timeline for it. In the me

It was supposed to be another quiet day today, it wasn't but that is becoming the norm around here. My chickens don't even recognize me, the dogs think they live here alone, the neighbors are getting used to hearing me fall and that is just the beginning. This time the fall hurt worse than on the 9th. of the month. I think both caught me by surprise but I was moving faster before this fall than the last one. Falling contributes to disorganization in a way that can only be experienced first hand. When you ache all over you move less and have less desire to get things in order. Add to that having others (2 and 4 legged) that do not keep things neat. Presto! Disorganization takes over. Today DH had a wound vac placed over the surgical site, tomorrow we go in for a needle aspiration of the site to remove the fluid that has built up and have it tested for any signs of infection. Praying there isn't any as it would mean going back in and cleaning it out. Did I mention anesthesia

  I am not sure where the time went but it is gone. Our fun at the hospital is in the past or so I think. Tomorrow I take DH in for bloodwork and his wallet has been missing for a week now. Trying to replace documents is a pain. As I sit and write this post I realize that I do not know where my ID card is. So this will be a very short post as I will need it to get either one of us on base. Frazzled is the term that comes to mind when I think of how I feel this week. Nothing is done that should be. Not only do I not know what day it is most of the time, I cannot stay focused as I am pulled left and right by the people I love and they do not even realize how stressed I am. In fact, I am not sure I even know! Well instead of writing about all this frustration and frazzled state I am in I must close and go find the documents that I am missing. Good night blog and rest well... someone needs to.

This morning everyone slept in a bit. It was relaxing even though we were all up by 0630. That was my birthday present, sleeping in. Now that DH is home we are looking forward to less running around and more progress on things around here. After his shower last night I discovered that the dressing the nurse gave me to put on the surgery site was definitely the wrong dressing! It wouldn't come off without pulling on the surgical site covering that isn't supposed to come off for 2 more weeks. So I left a message with his surgeon's post care nurse. I just received a call back from the nurse asking if I could bring him in. Of course! This way I can get some instruction on what they want done for real. Before we leave I need to feed the chickens and gather eggs. And the usual check my garden stuff. His appointment is for 1:00 this afternoon.  So instead of relaxing on this my birthday I shall get some "you know what" done! It is beautiful outside so it is a good day to

 I feel like a ten o'clock scholar today. A quick recap of the weekend, Friday DH ran a fever, hallucinations were vivid and more frequent. His skin was very dusky in color and his lips were bluish. Pain was worse and he started having tremors or spasms call them whatever you want but he was twitching about like there was an electrical shock poking him every few seconds. So when my son-in-law arrived to pick up his kiddo he took mine also. I requested his help to load DH into the car to go to the ER. We spent six hours in the ER at the hospital where the surgery was done only to be told they could not accommodate his level of care. At 0230 he was transported to their sister hospital. AMR arrived and tried to transfer him with stretchy sheets and no slide board, they dropped his newly operated on hip onto the rails of the gurney. Then when they arrived at the receiving hospital they dropped the whole operative leg onto the floor while moving him onto the bed from the gurney. The new