We've chosen a house paint color (dark dark green) and now to choose the roof shingles. We decided on a roofing company so they will bring out larger shingle samples to compare with paint so we can choose and put money down on materials. Prices may go up after new administration gets to Washington so we want to lock in on price of materials now. We would have roof done in April/May and schedule painters for early summer, hopefully. Biggest project will be done if we can get it scheduled and completed.

Haircut this morning and may go to nursing home to see Sarah this afternoon. Hope Covid has not gotten to her. I need to get a lot of rows done on Ellis' poncho today too.

Hump day!

Gargling with hot salt water always helps my sore throat. Icky but effective.

I did a little Christmas shopping for the littles this morning after swim class.

Rainy day here. Hope you feel better soon.

I hope you feel better and have a good weekend. Rest and watch Hallmark movies or something lazy.

I'm working on Christmas gifts for the grand kids. Next week I will go to a great book store in Traverse City and choose some books to put in the Christmas box. 29 rows left to knit and then I sew the poncho pieces together. Very possible I will be done by early next week.

Deer season with guns began today. I've been hearing lots of gun shots. I haven't seen any deer around here in months. I did see two on the other end of the county when driving. They get good at hiding I think. Does Bernie or the boys hunt? Do you?

I got Russ to give up some of the Thanksgiving food and let the guests bring dishes to share. We will have 8 adults at our table on Thanksgiving. Russ will roast the turkey, make stuffing, mashed potatoes, Rory and Hannah will make the sweet potatoes, Hannah and I are making desserts, and guests are bringing vegetable casseroles, rolls, cranberry relish and wine. I will only have to set one table.

Gray, cold day!

Russ doesn't hunt. David does up in AK and Rory really hasn't hunted either. Lots of gun shots around here too.

I volunteered for Power Book Bags today for 3 hours. They gave us pizza while we worked. I will go back tomorrow afternoon for my usual time. I also visited Sarah at the nursing home. She was really slurring her words. I assume that happens when she is tired because it isn't always the case.

Busy week getting ready for Hannah, Rory, Christmas boxes for grands, Thanksgiving grocery list and going through more boxes in the pole barn. I got through half of them yesterday. Mouse poop in many of the boxes. Gross! Those suckers can get into anything.

I may try planting garlic in my garden tomorrow and see if it comes up in June.

My niece took my grandmother's china! Yay! It is in her car, not my pole barn. She is interested in my Mom's punch bowl and cups. I just need to get it out of it's box and see its condition first.

Abby, my niece, and I hiked a trail outside Suttons Bay I did not know existed. It is preserved land by the Leelanau Nature Conservancy. Quite the hike up and down hills. I'll go back there again.

I'm chilled right now and am watching Hallmark movies. I need to go out to the pole barn and tackle a couple more boxes today. Tomorrow I have Christmas errands to do.

How is your week going?

Zach has an interview on Monday! Thank you God for the opportunity. If you are of the mind I would dearly appreciate a prayer for Zach. It’s at BD again. The department that he interviewed with a year ago and was moments away from an offer before they had to give it to the closed plant person. The place that Zach was so excited about (I can see myself doing really well there). Please God let this be the time and the place

Ooh manicotti sounds good. I remember Caleb wanting it during the pandemic and it was one of the recipes we tried out. I think it was just a recipe off the internet. Filled with some sort of ricotta filling. Hmmm

Oh yeah, Friyay

Great day for Huskers yesterday. Volleyball swept Wisconsin for the second time this year. One more ranked game in conference play and then tourney starts. We should stay hosting a regional bracket until the semifinals. We’ll see how it goes

Tomorrow is one of my least favorite days getting all the scanned hours ready for payroll extra early due to early cut off because of the holiday. Extra anxiety on a Monday that is always stressful anyway. And anxiety for Zach too. Phew. I need to go to church tonight and bump up the prayer. I know God hears me at home too, I just know I need to do it anyway. It gets hard to go if I don’t get there monthly

I hope Z gets the job. It must be so discouraging. Is he doing any other work right now? Prayer always helps!

Hannah and Rory have been here since Saturday. We are having a nice visit. Hannah went with me to Aquafit this morning. She and Rory are doing errands today. Russ is brining the turkey, I will make my gravy base, and Hannah and I will begin baking holiday dessert tonight.

We have had gray, rainy days for several days. It is so dark and gloomy outside. There was a dusting of snow on the orchards and farm fields on the way to the Y.

Do you have to work through Wed?

Happy Thanksgiving!

It sounds like a nice Thanksgiving all around. Ours went well except my middle sister Becky sat down on a dining room chair and it collapsed and she fell and bumped her head. The chair is a goner too. Luckily she is ok as far as I know. She has fallen off her bike a few times when she continues to ride on rough, gravel roads or goes too fast. She doesn't learn from these incidents. She was cutting the pumpkin pie I made for everyone to pass out pieces. I have that Pampered Chef pie cutter that has a plastic protective sleeve. She did not recognize that the sleeve needs to come off and cut the first slice with it on. It got all clogged up with pie inside and out. Later she was carrying Lynn's bag of salad stuff she had brought out to her car and dropped the bag. Not sure if anything in there was broken or not. Then she was suppose to let Lynn follow her home because Lynn has poor night vision. We got our first snowfall yesterday evening and it accumulated fast so roads were slippery and snow covered. Not a good situation for Lynn at night. Becky took a shortcut home on a hilly, curvy road knowing Lynn was following her. Lynn chose not to follow Becky on that road and took the main roads instead. I don't know if Becky is having issues with coordination and/or cognitive stuff or if she is just unaware and all about her. Very weird to watch my sisters age. I know I will be their age in 6-10 years but I hope I age better.

I am making turkey stock from the carcass. Eventually I will use it to make soup. Tomorrow Hannah and I go to the holiday boutiques in each village in the county. We will also go view the gingerbread house display and do some soup tasting at the end of the day (restaurants are submitting soups and the public can taste and judge).

I have heard of those carrot bars but haven't tasted them. I'm glad you are enjoying your visit with C.

Did you use Elfster? We did that the last two years but aren't exchanging gifts/choosing names this year. David is in Guam and Japan for work over Christmas, Karah is due any day with the baby and they are trying to stay low key, but we did exchange gifts with Rory and Hannah this past week which was fun. Getting the boys and DILs to complete their wish lists took lots of reminders. I was tech challenged with Elfster and Hannah had to help me access it last year.

Hannah and I had a nice day shopping the holiday boutiques and soup tasting. When we were done at the last boutique we texted Russ and Rory and they met us at a restaurant for dinner. We had a nice time and bought a lot
of stuff. By the time we got to the last village the gingerbread house viewing was done for the day. I will try to make a trip there another weekend.

They leave for Mpls in the morning. It was a fast week. We won't see them again until Spring. I've heard removing wisdom teeth is an unpleasant recovery.

oh dear, car trouble is the worst. I hope they made it back without any snow issues or car issues.

Having five days off last week sure was nice. Made coming back even harder. I could happily have a five day weekend every weekend.

The app we used is just called drawing names and they picked that because Caitlin said that is what they used with her husbands family.

I honestly don't get why Caleb is all fired up to get his wisdom teeth out. I think the dentist must have made him think he should do it. Caleb has never mentioned having pain from his teeth and that is why I had mine done over the years, but both Bernie and Zach still have theirs because they never had issues, so I thought Caleb would be the same since his face/jaw is like theirs. I think he is going to regret it in the sense that it will be a lot more uncomfortable than he anticipates.

I keep praying for news, good news, but nothing yet

Sending healthy baby wishes. I wasn’t fully induced, my labor had started but I guess it didn’t progress like they wanted so I did have to get hit with whatever that drug was, pitocin?

Grinding through the week