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Wow, that would be scary! Praise the Lord we haven't had anything like that in our area - it wears itself out before it gets to the coast!
I am so grateful for the help that my friend gives me at this time. She is helping me with Mom and meals and is a lifesaver! Praise the Lord.
I hope y'all have an awesome day and are enjoying the Christmas lights and music and just anticipating the birthday of our Savior! Love you0 -
I wish I could see all the lights on your street, Kim. Wade must have a ball putting them up. There's just something magical about Christmas lights; makes me think about Jesus being the Light of the World. I had the chance to ride with a church group to see a light display in Asheville, but decided not to go because I had so much going on that day. And I'm so glad your Mom is home and doing better, Kim. You said she was patient and uncomplaining. Well, I think that goes for both of you!
How are Bill's daughters doing, Connie? It's especially hard to lose a loved one during the holiday season. You've always seemed close to them, so their loss affects you also. And I'm thankful you had no damage from all the rough weather we've had lately.
We are so very blessed to be here in Johnson City. Our new home, being close to Beth & Daniel, and our new church family - only God could have brought this about. I've been plenty busy during the Christmas season, but nothing like in the past. A few days ago, our pastor asked me to play for the Christmas Eve service and I almost lost it! This has always been one of my favorite services to play for, and it's also been a special time with Beth. That I would have the same opportunity here... well, there's just no words. Another blessing from God.
Stay close. I love you all so much!0 -
I've got a crazy question for you. Is there a secret art to making cookies that I don't know about? A small group of ladies that I'm friends with planned a cookie exchange - making enough to take to shut-ins and maybe have a few for ourselves. Granted, it's been a real long time since I made cookies, like maybe when Beth was a teenager. But how difficult could it be, I thought? I didn't dare use a store-bought refrigerated roll, so I went for the pre-packaged Betty Crocker mixes where you mainly add egg and butter. Without going into details, I wisely threw the first batch out. I made two more flavors which, while not great, they were good enough to take. Bottom line, I took the last batch out of the oven at 2:00 am this morning.
As of now, I don't plan to make more cookies for a good while. I even asked Beth about it and her reply was that "cookies are complex." Well, that didn't help a lot! So if you have any advice, please share.0 -
Carole - I am a cookie eater, not a cookie baker! Actually, I have done cake mix cookies the last several times that I have made them. They are just easy, and you can even buy canned frosting and frost them or make sandwich cookies out of them. I made red velvet cookies and sandwiched them with cream cheese icing and that was the biggest hit.
1 box cake mix (any flavor)
2 eggs
1/2 cup oil
Add in what ever you want - if you want. Sprinkles, chocolate chips (or butterscotch, cherry, white chocolate), nuts, raisins etc.0 -
So you can make cookies from cake mix? I love your ideas. I'm not crazy about chocolate chips, but I love butterscotch, white chocolate, nuts, etc. Your red velvet cookies would be a hit anywhere! That would be great when I need to take something out. Also, I think there's a sugar-free cake mix that would work great for us. Thanks for the ideas, Connie.
I'm having a lazy Saturday, very enjoyable. I'm trying to watch a couple of Christmas movies that are quickly filling up my DVR, then also address some Christmas cards. Our church has a drop-off box where we can leave them for everyone. What slows me down is that I can't just sign our names, but try to write a short note.0 -
I had all of my Christmas Cards ready for our drop box at church tomorrow, as well as gifts for a couple special people and the pastor. I got a call a few minutes ago that COVID and the Flu have been rampant in the church and they cancelled services tomorrow. There are 6 members with COVID, then their households (including the pastor) would take a chunk out of our small congregation. I don't know who all have the flu, but was told there were also several with the old fashioned flu.0
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Hi ladies. It's been busy here - two new babies born this year in our family. Between that and how busy I got with work, I've barely had time for anything.
I'm in a reading slump these days. I can't remember the last time I picked up a book.
As far as cookies, I don't often make them since I had to go gluten free, but I've had the best success with peanut butter cookies (4 ingredients I think - no flour). My chocolate chip cookies - usually from scratch, using the recipe off the Nestle chocolate chip bag, usually turn out okay, but mostly flat. My daughter's are better (more thick and chewy) and she uses the Alton Brown recipe, which uses cake flour instead of regular.
Also, I tried the Betty Crocker cookie mix a couple of steroids ago when I made sugar cookie with my granddaughters. They turned out okay, but I learned you can't refrigerate them for later. I had to throw one batch out. They became rock hard!
My prayers go out to all of you and your families for a peaceful Christmas.0 -
🤦♀️ ... "a couple of steroids ago" ... good grief... that was supposed to be a couple of weeks ago. What an odd auto correct.0
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I was wondering if you had to be on steroids because of gluten....thought that was odd. What a funny auto-correct.
And Cindy - just so you know, you can go back and edit posts now without an issue. I know that used to bother you about this application. Just click on the three little dots on the upper right corner of the post and it takes you to the edit or delete options.0 -
Cookies! The only cookie I make well are my great grandmother's cookies, we even call them Grandma Cookies. They are a molasses/cardamum cookie with dates and raisins and if I feel industrious chopped nuts too. Sooo good. My grandmother used to make them every Christmas. She made hers with powdered sugar glaze and sprinkles, but Wade's family found those too sweet so I don't do that with them any more.
Mom is doing well. She had her first appointment with an orthopedist and he was very pleased with how well she is doing. I thought she had broken the hip socket, but he showed us the x-rays and she broke the ball, so there is a post with the ball on top, in just the right place! He was very pleased with her incision too, at first he couldn't find it, it had healed so well!
Praying for you and your families. Carole, I'll try to add a picture of how pretty it is around our house!0 -
Just got the call that church is cancelled again for Wednesday. Now the Pastor has it as well as his wife. So many members! This is really going to be hard on a lot of families this year. I also just got a note from a cousin that has a fractured vertebrae and was to go into rehab today, but found out that they can't move her because she has COVID (for the 2nd time and after her booster shot).0
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Glad your mom is doing well, Kim.
Connie, that edit function is only good for an hour. I guess that's better than nothing.
We got a little snow the other day, so since there's no warm-up in our forecast, it looks like it will be a white Christmas here.
We've had a series of things go bad here lately. My tires needed to be replaced before winter. So I kind of got those for my birthday. My husband asked if they could be my present and I said, not the tires, no. But if he did the research, found the best deal, made the appointment and took my car in to get them - so that I didn't have to do anything - that could be my present.
A couple weeks earlier our 18 year old dryer gave out. It would still tumble and blow cold air, but no heat. My husband replaced a couple of sensors but that didn't do the trick, so on Black Friday of all days we went out and bought a dryer. I only had a couple of must-haves. It had to have a hamper door (drop down, not swinging out left or right) and it had to be in stock! My daughter waited 10 months for a couch they bought last January and my son is still waiting (it's been almost a year!) for a bench that matches his dining room set.
And to top it all off, just the other day my husband determined that our furnace needs to be replaced. It's been occasionally making a banging (sometimes a booming) noise and he finally got a little camera to check out the inside and there are cracks in 3 of the 6 - I can't remember what they're called now - but cracks aren't good. So we've had one guy give us an estimate and we'll probably have another couple guys come out. I'm grateful that our woodstove is able to heat the main floor. The furnace is 31 years old, so we definitely got our money's worth out of that!0 -
Cindy - I have edited as much as a month prior. It doesn't matter if it says one hour - just try it. And...I have the free version, so that isn't an issue.
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Oh Cindy - when it rains it pours. So sorry so many things aren't functioning like they should right now! We know that our HVAC unit isn't going to hold out much longer, but so far it has held in there! When we moved in here the house came with a washer and dryer. We brought our washer and dryer from our other house, so had those on hold. A friend who desperately needed a dryer has that, but the washer is waiting if this one goes out. So much to think about when you own a house!
Doing well. I need to work on keeping wheat out of my diet! What I've had recently has wreaked havoc with my system! LOL! At least I know how to fix it - it's just hard to get wheat out. My friend made us a macaroni salad the other night and I didn't think about it being wheat, dairy, and onion! Mom and Wade will have to finish the rest - boo, it was really good!
Mom has an occupational therapy evaluation today. She's seen her other in-home therapist a couple of times and is getting stronger. We do exercises with her every day too. I don't know if she will ever be able to function as independently as she used to though, but that's okay, she's still with us.
Oh, I discovered something the other day - if you get the double blue line or red line under a word, left click your mouse for the correct spelling. I kept right clicking and then going to whatever dictionary it mentioned. I inadvertently left clicked and there was the correct spelling!
Hope y'all have a wonderful day.0 -
Oh my, Cindy! That is my kind of luck! It seems like when it rains, it pours. We had over $11000 in expenses in about 6 weeks from late October to early December. We knew that it was coming, but WHEW it sure hurt Bill's checking account.
We are going to have to do some expensive work inside the house this winter. I am hoping that Bill and his brother are able to do a lot of it, but we have to replace flooring in Kip's apartment even if they do the rest of the work (we got our 31 years out of the inexpensive carpet on that floor!). I'm thinking that when we do the flooring in his apartment that we might just do flooring upstairs, too. I want wood throughout the house (except our bedroom), but Bill is adamant about carpet in the living room. So, hard floors in the hall, entry (if we can't match current wood), two bathrooms and maybe the two guest bedrooms, carpet in the great-room and our bedroom.
Kim - Praying that all goes well with Mom. Therapy can do wonders, but sometimes that body just refuses to cooperate.
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Mom met with her physical therapist today and he mentioned that her left hip was actually weaker than her right hip. I knew that she didn't get as extensive rehab after that hip as she did with this hip and it just shows how those three hours five days a week make so much more difference than the one hour five days a week she got on the other. She is getting stronger every day, Praise the Lord for that.
OOO, new flooring. We have wood throughout and want that because of our allergies and mom getting around easily with her walker. Our floors are very old and scarred, probably from when they were originally put in in the 1940's! LOL! They are also hilly. We had the underside of the house redone when we moved in but that didn't help with the unevenness of the floors throughout the house. We are just going to be happy with our lumpy floors for quite awhile!
Going to work on getting our Christmas presents bagged today and under the tree so at least we have that lovely "full" feeling for at least one day. We are going to have a pizza party at our house and have invited the two single ladies we have in our Church since their families aren't in the area, then on Christmas day, in the afternoon, we will have a dinner for whoever wants to join in. We are going to try and be there with Mom for a little while.0 -
Thanks Connie. It doesn't say an hour anywhere, and I have edited this post like crazy within the hour (finding typos and adding screenshots) but the 3 dots go away for me after an hour and aren't there to be edited on either my computer or my phone. There's no way to try it.connierandel wrote: »Cindy - I have edited as much as a month prior. It doesn't matter if it says one hour - just try it. And...I have the free version, so that isn't an issue.
How odd that it's different for us.I can still edit this one from about 40 minutes ago
No dots - I can't edit this
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I have dots to edit on posts from four days ago (which is the top of this page). That is so weird!
I hope y'all are having a very good and happy Christmas Eve. We are going to have a pizza party later on with our Pastor and his wife and at least one of the single ladies in our Church whose family is out of town. Our other single lady had a bit of a scratchy throat yesterday, so we are hoping that clears up and she is also able to come. Can't wait. Tomorrow we will be having dinner around 4 with the Church. Wade has to work at 2:30, but he has today off!
Hope y'all have a very merry Christmas!0 -
Hope y'all had a good Christmas. We had a very nice day. Friends came to visit since Mom isn't able to get out. It set her back with her dementia though. Any kind of "confusion" or change sets her back, the past two days have been very difficult. I would appreciate your prayers.
We have been having very warm weather the past few days. It was 75 the day after Christmas! I can live with that!
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I hope you all had a great, restful Christmas. We had our kids and their kids over on Christmas Day. I think I told you we have two new babies this year. Plus we invited my dad to join us. It was really nice.
We're planning a quiet New Year's eve here.0 -
We just got home from my Mom's. I am totally exhausted! Bill hasn't slept well for a couple nights, so neither have I. And my mom's memory isn't great and that worries me and wears me out. For example she kept wanting to make another pot of coffee this morning....I think 5 or 6 times we told her that we didn't want more coffee to take off on a 4 hour drive.
I am needing to get back on my regular regime.0 -
I'm glad y'all are home safe and sound. Mom had a bit of a set back after the holidays but seems to be doing better this morning. We have a doctor's visit this afternoon and I want to see how she handles that. It seems that she doesn't do well with her dementia if she has a lot of things going on around her. I'm hoping this doctor's visit won't be a set back for her since she is doing so well this morning. The first night since she's been home where I only had to get up twice! The other night it was 12 to 13 times I was up! Praise the Lord for a very loving and kind friend who stays for a night here and there to give us a chance to catch up. She is our pastor's wife and has become Mom's best friend.0
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I hope things get better for both your mothers. The other day I was thinking how much enjoyment my mom would've had with my newest granddaughter. She loved babies and was partial to girls for some reason.
Back to the one hour editing thing, I just saw another woman ask if they'd be changing that and the response was no.
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I hope that your mom will be able to continue to live independently. It makes me sad to see other 82 year old's with all their faculties and my MIL struggles so with hers. Her physical limitatons wouldn't be as bad if she didn't have the brain problems that she has. We saw another "side-effect" of her brain shrinkage, the left side of her body isn't as responsive as the right side. In every day life it wasn't very noticable (although I know she would reach across her body with her right hand to get something on her left side), but during therapy today it was very obvious. Praise the Lord she has improved over the past couple of days and is more in touch with her surroundings and responding to us more normally. You continue to be in my prayers, Connie! Thank y'all for your prayers, it means the world to me!
I can't believe how warm we are. It's been in the 70's for three or four days now. I think we are due for some rain though, a little bit earlier than we expected. Hopefully it will come in tomorrow and be gone by New Year's Eve when we are having a Church get together. Not sure Mom and I will be able to go since she didn't do well after Christmas and that was getting together with just one family at a time. Her poor brain just can't process right where there is a lot of activity around her.
Get some rest, New Year's Eve is just a couple days away! Love y'all.0 -
Cindy - how sweet to have the new grandbabies. Mine is 24 years old, now. I am more likely to get a great-grandbaby than a grandbaby....and of course, they are from my step daughter.
We went to a dinner theater for a matinee yesterday. I expected less crowd and thought it would be easier for Bill during daylight. The daylight was a great idea and we had a wonderful meal, but the place was totally full! We have learned the theater and know the row to use (no steps on that row) and so everything was great. The show was good (about Johnny Cash, June Carter and Minnie Pearl). The music was really good, but Minnie Pearl was the best part.0 -
It was cold here this morning - 3 degrees! Thankfully it's up to 27 now. 3 degrees is just too cold!
Tonight is my exercise class. My oldest daughter meets me there sometimes but isn't available tonight. I'm hoping not to use that as an excuse to stay home.
I cleaned out a bookcase and have boxes and boxes of books. I checked online at some book buy-back places and the most I could get for a $17 Karen Kingsbury paperback (for example) in like-new condition is 15 cents. It's ridiculous. So I'm donating them all - I just don't have the room.
I hope you're all staying warm and healthy.0 -
I could love to get rid of a bunch of my books. My Mom's church will take them, so that's probably what I will do with them. I have about a dozen that I won in 2021, or that are signed by the author. but I would be willing to get rid of all of the rest of them.
When I got up at about 7:30 this morning it was 8 degrees. I agree that it is entirely too cold. It has gotten up to 32 now, so it definitely making a bit of progress today. I just hope that it melts some of the ice on our front steps. Right now they are too frozen and too slick to try to get cleaned off. We can come and go through the garage and that is okay, but grocery delivery tomorrow comes through the front door (13 steps!).0 -
This is what I woke up to this morning... my first east Tennessee snow! I hated that it fell during the night, so I didn't get to watch it come down, but I'll take this anyway. When I stepped outside, there was such a feeling of quiet and peace. There's nothing like the quiet after a new-fallen snow - no people, cars, sirens - just total silence. It melted some as the temperature got above freezing this afternoon, and the roads seem clear. I'm pretty sure it will be gone by tomorrow, but I enjoyed a lot of snow watching today.
I also finished my first book of 2022 today. Hoping to do more reading this year. I didn't sign up for a reading goal on Goodreads or any challenges because I just want to read whatever interests me at my own pace. Did any of you enter a goal?
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I entered a goal on goodreads of 500. I was at over that this year, and rarely put anything in it - just let my kindle reads go there. I don't take any time with it.
Your snow is beautiful. We were supposed to get 4-7 inches on Saturday, but we only got about a half inch over ice. It was over freezing today, but didn't do much to help our steps since they are pretty much shaded all day. It is supposed to be nice tomorrow, so hopefully it will melt a bit more.0 -
I'm so glad that we didn't get any snow here on the coast and our temperature didn't dip into the freezing range. Last night was supposed to be down to 33, but the rest of the week our nights should be in the 40's and days in the 50's and 60's! We did get a lot of rain though.
I am going to need to start doing my inside walking, just so tired all the time I can't seem to find the will or the strength to do it; but last night my feet were quite swollen and I know walking helps with that - so...
I don't know what my goal for this year would be. I haven't been able to read as much as I used to so I will have to give a smaller number than last year. I did make that goal. I made a goal of 300, we'll see if we can get that done!0
