CHRISTMAS FOLLOWUP AND NEW YEAR'S TO COME

Well, Christmas is over.  Did you have a good Christmas?  I will tell you about ours in a little while. 

Did you find all the gifts you had bought to give to people?  I admit it, once when my youngest sister was young (she is 12 years younger than me) my husband and I forgot to bring her gift when we got together with my family for Chanukah - terribly embarrassing and of course we had to get the gift and bring it to her later that week.

I finished decorating our two main trees on Thursday.  I did the rest of the decorating, including a small tree with the brass ornaments we have received as contributors to Colonial Williamsburg over the past few decades - they were taking up too much room on the main tree, we have 2 duplicate ornaments and put one set of them on the main tree and the rest on a small tree in our dining room. 

Friday afternoon I also went to wrap the gifts.  Since we bought few gifts this should be a fairly quick process.  When I can I put our gifts to ourselves into recycled small Christmas gift shopping bags (the bags were received with gifts from others in the old days when we traded gifts with others).  I thought I had plenty of Christmas wrapping paper as I had not made any notes under “Christmas” in my “buy” shopping list in my cell phone.  Oh no!  Just a bit left on one roll.  I had plan to wrap our gifts as husband was busy upstairs and I could wrap the gift I had for him that he did not know about without him seeing it.  Plans changed due to the shortage of wrapping paper.  It was more important to nicely wrap his niece’s gifts.  I laid out the Barbie for one and DVD set for the other on the paper and cut the paper and wrapped the gifts.  I then needed paper to wrap the scarves husband had made them, which I then planned to put into two of the recycled bags.   I laid out the rolled up scarves and cut a large enough piece to go around the larger scarf, which was, of course the thicker of the two rolls.  Luckily, there was plenty to wrap both scarves.  I then went up to talk to husband about the exact wrapping and including a photo with each of the scarf while it was being made.  He got all excited as he was not ready to wrap the scarves and had to print laundry instructions for them.  I told him to calm down and not rush - but of course he did.  While he was doing so I went back down and wrapped in the paper which was left, two of his gifts and used small pieces of the wrapping paper which had been left over in the past to wrap a couple of pieces which I planned to put in his stocking.  The other items, which were small enough, I put into other of gift bags.  I put all 4 of my 4/$1 hair clips in one bag for me.  He came down and we wrapped his nieces gifts.  His gifts and my one gift when into 2 regular paper shopping bags (mixed, I did not take a bag just for my bag of hair clips) and the 4 gifts for his nieces into another paper shopping bag.  Did not want to chance forgetting a gift for a niece as I did with my sister decades ago.  The bags were set aside in the dining room out of the way.           

Saturday afternoon I got ready for Christmas Eve dinner.  I put the ham in the oven and careful read the directions for the other items I was making 3 hours before we planned to eat.

I then took out the ornament I had embroidered for my husband.  I was unhappy with it when it was assembled and decided it needed a decorative edging.  I sat and braided red pearl cotton (a type of thread).  I then stitched the braid around the front edge of the ornament - made it much better looking.  I then wrapped it in tissue paper, having run out of wrapping paper, and added it to the bags of husband’s gifts.  I then returned to my cooking.

One of the things I was making as a side dish is something called dried corn.  This is a Pennsylvania food.  Corn is dried by heat for storage.  When it is cooked it is soaked to bring it back.  In the past we had bought the canned - ready to heat and eat - version.  The one company that makes this item had shut down several years ago and finally someone had bought up the business and was making it again.  When we were in the Lancaster, PA area we had bought the canned version and also a version in a package.  We have made the canned version and it was not what it used to be.  For Christmas we decided to make the packaged version.  This version is just the dried corn itself, so it has to be soaked for use.  I had misread the package and had thought it would be soaking and cooking for an hour and then another 5 minutes after adding milk - oops, it was to soak for an hour and then cook for 40 minutes plus the 5 minutes after adding milk.  Luckily I caught it in time - and hour and 45 minutes would be just about 15 minutes longer than when we would sit down and we were having soup first.  It came out pretty close to what we had before.

We had meat tortellini in chicken broth for the soup.  Not much involved in cooking same, boil the tortellini, add to the chicken broth when same almost heated. 

We had also bought a box of potatoes au gratin.  I had never made this before. I waited until the ham came out as I wanted the ham to set a bit before slicing and eating and the potatoes needed a temperature 25F degrees higher than the ham.  I of course checked the ham with a meat thermometer to make sure it was cooked through.  I followed the instructions for the potatoes.  I took out the size baking dish needed and added the cheese mix plus butter and milk as it said.  I then was to mix with a whisk - uhhh, the size baking dish it called for was completely filled and any mixing would make it run over, so I had to take it out of the baking dish, mix it and then put it back in.  I careful added the dried potatoes to make sure I did not run the cheese mixture out of the baking dish. The box said that the sauce would thicken as it cooked, not really.  I cooked it almost double the time with no luck - and I have a fairly quick oven and the oven had been well preheated by the ham cooking in it.  We had it anyway.

Dinner in the dining room with tablecloth and cloth napkins and the good china and silverware.  3 hours of cooking 45 minutes of eating and then the clean up has to be done.  I had looked up in advance the times for mass.  Several years ago midnight mass was moved to 10 or 11 pm at most of the churches around here.  We found one that still has it at midnight and it is a pleasant church with nicer people than the others.  When I checked the times I found out that there was a midnight mass and also a 10 pm mass.  Husband decided we should go to the 10 pm mass.  (His choice as it is his holiday.)  Clean up had to wait until we returned. 

When it was time for bed husband went up and - spoiler alert -  “Santa” put our gifts under the tree from the bags in the dining room.  So Christmas Eve had gone fairly well.

We go to a family member of husband’s on Christmas Day.  We got there and gave the nieces their gifts - which were lost in the numerous and huge gifts from Santa and other relatives.  Then the host started in on the subject which polite people have been avoiding discussing, especially when they are the host and they know that their guests disagree with them - the election.  Husband got so ill over this discussion that we had to go home and he had to go to bed.  Short Christmas Day.

We are now awaiting New Years.  I am getting ready for the change.  I have made up a list of the todo’s and appointment reminders I need to put into my computer organizer for 2017.  I have some entries which are annual ones and are already in the softwear data through 2020, but the daily, weekly, monthly and so on entries I put in each year as they might change and to keep the file smaller.  On January 1 or 2 I will back up the file for my archive as 2015-2016.  I will then delete the 2015 entries.  I will then add the 2017 entries and I will be ready to go for the new year - and still have this year for reference if needed.  I keep 2 years current each time and back up 2 years each time.  This has worked great for me since the early 2000's. 

We have renewed all our prescriptions so as we start the new medical insurance year, we know that we have a start on it and won’t have to worry about any changes not made in the insurance company’s systems for prescriptions delaying us from a needed renewal.

We don’t have plans for New Year’s Eve yet.  Husband is thinking of finding out if the movie theater we go to will be open then.  Normally we do not do much.  We watch the ball fall here in Manhattan on TV.  No, we have never gone.  It is too big a crowd for us to be happy with in so many ways. 

When I was a girl New Year’s Eve was confusing to me.  I could not understand why it was a bigger deal than the change of any other month.  I would be allowed to stay up until midnight.  At that time “The Tonight Show” was done in New York City by Johnny Carson.  On New Year’s Eve they would do the show live and cut away to the ball drop.  I remember one year it was to be New Year’s Eve on Saturday and I was not sure if they would show the ball drop as the show was only on Monday to Friday.  My parents, correctly, assure me that they would show it. 

Since I am talking about New Year’s and this blog is, at least nominally, about organizing - the question of resolutions has to be mentioned.  I found that I never kept any and felt bad about it.  One year, some decade or so ago, I made my last resolution which was not to make any further resolutions.  I do think over the past year and changes I might like to make or things I might like to do, but I do not make any resolutions - they just cause guilt when they are not kept.

Think of one thing you would like to change to make your life better or easier - and try to do it.  Don’t resolve, just try. 

I am going to try to do a better job of regular cleaning of the house.  I used to be much better at doing so.  When first married in and were in our apartment, husband would come Friday night and fall asleep early after dinner from the week.  I was also working full time then outside the house.  When he went to sleep I would clean the apartment.  As we went along we bought the house and I stopped working outside the house and moved the accounting practice I had taken over from my dad into the house and was therefore in the house more, I started doing the cleaning on Wednesday mornings.  When he left work, I moved it to Wednesday nights.   I am thinking Tuesday nights might be a better choice and will see about it.  It is in my calender as a “todo” and I will schedule it for Tuesdays instead.  I spread the chores over the month - one week upstairs, the next down, repeat.

My best wishes for a wonderful New Year for us all.


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WORKING ON CHRISTMAS DECORATIONS

Well, here it is the first day of winter - and I have mostly not finished my Christmas decorations.

As I mentioned last week our reenactment unit interprets a house at the local restoration village.  The house was built in 1730, with expansions in 1740 and 1760 and again after our period.  All of the other houses in the village are from the 1800s so this house is sort of lost as the employees and volunteers are dressed and trained in the wrong period for the house.  So members of our unit volunteered to interpret it for this event.

We treat the event as if the owner of the house (in period ) and his wife are having a “small” gathering of friends between their holiday (the family was of Dutch background) of St. Nicholas Day and Christmas.  When the event had been held between Christmas and New Year’s it was instead a large party for the X night of Christmas.  X being the day it actually is - for example on December 26, Boxing day to us in period, it is the first night of Christmas and so on. 

Some of our unit members greet people at the door and tell them about the house in modern terms - where it was, how it got here, etc.  They also show the public the parlor which is on the side of the hall and the public is not admitted to.  Then they send them into the kitchen for the party.  The public is told that not everyone they meet knows anything past the same date in 1775. 

In the kitchen some of our members play period music - especially that of Christmas - and others sing along.  I interpret the kitchen - which has an older Dutch fireplace, a Dutch cabinet bed, and items out as if the children left them out after Sinterklaus visited them on St. Nicholas Eve. 

They then go into the owner’s office which has a bed chamber to either side of it.  My husband is back there, also as someone from the period, to quickly tell them what they are seeing and then to speak with the people, especially children.

We are rather popular with some people telling us they come back each year purposely to visit us.

This year’s evenings were Thursday through Sunday nights.  Thursday night was COLD.  It was also WINDY, with many gusts of 40-60 mph.  The front door is a “Dutch door” - that it is the top and bottom operate separately.  We use a piece of wood to keep the two pieces together, and leave it just beyond the point that it would latch closed.  We could not do so Thursday night.  The wind kept blowing the door open.  We ended up latching it closed and listening for noise of possible visitors.  We had perhaps 30 visitors through the house, including a chorus that was hired by the village to wander about and sing.  After they sang, one of them asked if they could come in and we told them to, of course, and to warm up.

Friday night was a tiny bit warmer, but at least the wind was gone.  We had more people, but not big crowds. 

Overnight Friday to Saturday it snowed about 3-4 inches, following which it got warmer and it rained, so there was very little snow left by Saturday night.  Husband and I started to change into our period clothing Saturday afternoon and he suggested that I call the village and check that the path to the house had been cleared.  Good thing!  The village had canceled the event for the night.  We scrambled to call our members who were coming and let them know.  Then we went out for dinner and a movie.

Sunday night the weather was pleasant.  We had good sized crowds in the house - lots of people, but manageable in size.  There have been years, especially when the event was between Christmas and New Years, when they have had over 1500 people come through in a night and we have ended up needing to have people form a line to get in.  Altogether Sunday night was a satisfying evening for us and I hope for the public and the village.

So, not much was done last weekend while all this was going on.

Monday I got rid of the last of the stuff sitting around in the dining room.  The stuff for our RV was stored outside in the RV.  Room was found in our studio behind the kitchen for a large box with my stored plastic containers for food in it (some of which are also used for the RV in season) and another large box which is used when husband washes the pieces he weaves after they are finished. 

I then decorated the kitchen, the dining room, the front hall, and part of the living room, including a small beaded tree I made years ago.  This tree is stored decorated (glass dome over it) and loses some decorations - this year much more than normal.  I also caught up on assorted email, mail, papers, etc. not done since Wednesday.

Tuesday night I brought up the pieces of our Christmas tree and assembled it and put the lights on it.  I added the angel topper and two other angel ornaments.  These 3 items were made by us and always go on first, with the two angel ornaments sitting on the front of the tree just below the angel topper.  I also set up a small tree we set up in our studio (where it can be seen from the kitchen) as I split ornaments we have made between the two (as opposed to the ones we have purchased and put on the main tree) and I therefore work on both at the same time.  That was exhausting enough.

I did something smart this year.  Whenever I am going up and down - something goes on any trips which I have nothing else to carry.  When I went down for each section of the main Christmas tree I would carry down something, such as an empty box from the Monday decorations (2 of those to go down - 9 sections of the tree plus stand, pole, skirt, etc.) or the box from the beaded tree I set up Monday or the box from the small tree in the studio.  Each time I also took up a bag of lights and stopped to check the lights in the kitchen to make sure they worked.  This gave me a chance to breathe before running back down to the basement for another heavy section of tree.  It seemed to work.  After the top and 4 of the remaining sections I stopped and assembled the studio tree to rest a bit from running up and down before bringing up the other 4 sections.
   
Today I started decorating the two trees in earnest.  I finished one box of ornaments completely and most of the second of 4 boxes.  As I go along there is less is each box as the boxes are packed to be opened in order (and each box is labeled where it falls in the order) so there are more smaller ornaments in the first two boxes as they are the fancy ones and the latter two hold less as they tend to have the larger ornaments to fill in - such as plain balls.  Over the years I have started doing the tree in sections so I have some idea of the general area to put each ornament which helps when setting it up (and finding the ornaments to pack them when taking it down). 

I am pretty sure the trees will be ready in time.  Not sure if I will get up the last of the decorations - some fake roping over the dining room and rear living room windows - as I am not sure I can get to the rear living room windows due to the rearrangement for the weaving stuff. 

I took out one of the hams we took bought in Pennsylvania at the end of October to defrost for Christmas Eve dinner - should have plenty of leftovers for Christmas Day and even beyond.

So - a Happy and Merry to all - or as we say in the 1700s  - A good Christmastide.

TRYING TO GET EVERYTHING DONE FOR THE HOLIDAY

Well, here it is - another Wednesday night.  I feel like I got did nothing this past week as I see so much I need/want to do with so little time left before the 25th.

I managed to start putting up some of the smaller Christmas decorations, okay, I set up my Christmas bear figurines which go in the living room and this week I set up the ones which go upstairs in a little village and a small tree which goes with them which has all teddy bear ornaments.  I did not finish setting up the lighting for the village though.  We did get the outside lights up on the bushes - and the new wreath for the front door as you know.  That leaves about 8 boxes of decorations for inside the house and three trees of varying sizes to go. We don’t have much other of the holiday other than the decorations so I go big on the decorations.

I know, I know almost 2 weeks to go seems like plenty of time.  But I don’t have all that time free. I took off time tonight to take a 3 hour online test I needed to take to be able to continue to work next year - I already finished 5 smaller tests - and the reading for all 6 courses.  I managed to finish the exam with 6 minutes to spare and pass it with an 88 - 70 was needed for credit.  Now at least I have that behind me and know that I can work next year.  I promise myself, next time I will get the courses earlier in the year and get them done earlier to avoid the last minute rush.

I went to a client this week - work must be fit in also - it is very important of course, but that was another day gone from my time.

The next 4 days we will be involved with our reenacting unit for a candlelight nights event at the local restoration village.  Our unit takes over a house there from our period (late 1700s) and interprets it as if there was a period holiday party going on in it.  The event is only from 5 pm to 9:30 pm, but we have to dress in period clothes, drive to and from the village, set up the building for the night, and then close down the building at the end of the night, so the 4 and half hour event takes us seven hours plus and when we come home afterwards we first make and eat dinner - so it basically takes up the entire day for the 4 days.  Today we went out and ran our errands for the rest of the week and mailed out bill payments for all bills due between now and Monday.  It is an event we enjoy, but it does take a chunk of time.

So in between all this I will need to finish clearing out the dining room - stuff for the RV will go out to the RV and stuff for husband’s weaving will be stored in our studio.  I was pleasantly surprised today when I came downstairs after working at my computer in the afternoon to find that husband cleared out most of the living room of his weaving stuff for me to decorate the room.  The original agreement was that I would have it from after Thanksgiving - something I never expected to happen and I had planned to put all the decorations up around his loom and related items - I had even figured that at least I could use the table he uses for warping (setting up the threads to weave through) the loom to put ornaments and such on while I set up, though he has stored the table away.  I was very happy that he had the consideration not only to stop weaving, but also to make room for me. 

On Monday I received the paperwork I mentioned last week for my embroidery club to reserve our meeting room for 2017.  I filled in the papers at the table at Wendys while I waited for husband to get us lunch as the papers have to be notarized - we then went to the bank and had same done.  Later when we came home I did the rest of the paperwork needed and husband mailed it for me yesterday (Tuesday) so it is on its way.  I also had promised to write something for the chapter president and had started it a couple of weeks ago and mostly finished it today and sent it to her for her to read and see if changes or additions are needed.  I also have some questions out to members (by email) for info I was missing. 

See, I got a lot done, it just does not register as there is so much else to do.  As I sit here writing to all of you, I am also doing the laundry - one load has washed and is in the dryer and the other is washing - more loads to do, but when these 2 are done, we are okay through the weekend if I don’t get to the other loads.  Dishes are washed daily - well, three times a day, I wash them after each meal.

How are you coming along with your plans for the holiday?  Remember one can only do what one can do.  When time runs out - then one is done - by definition.  Okay, I admit it, I will keep putting stuff up until it is all up, even if that means the day after Christmas. 

CHRISTMAS LIGHTS AND THE WEEK THAT FOLLOWED

We went out last Thursday to put up our Christmas lights.  We also had some errands to run, but since we wanted to deal with the lights while there was still daylight we did the lights first.

Husband decided that the fallen leaves would catch fire from the lights and we had to rake and bag them first. This exhausted both of us before we even started with the lights.  Sunny and 59 degrees which had been expected, was actually terribly overcast and colder.

Of course 3 of the 8 strands of lights only had half their bulbs still working - although they had been tested before being stored.  We figured we would put up what we have and then go and buy replacements while running errands.  The lights go on bushes and 2 small trees and a strand of red bulbs with white cords go around our white mail box post (which is at our front door, not along the road) which gives it a candy caneish look.  Hooked up the extension cords, plugged it all in.  I went to the basement and turned on the breaker for that circuit and turned on the timer - no lights.  Husband comes in and checks to make sure I did it right.  (I would say because he thinks I am an idiot who cannot turn on the breaker and timer, but I won't.)  He decides that maybe the breaker is broken - it feels funny.  Just in case it is the outlet (which hangs oddly since our siding was replaced - but worked fine last time we mowed the grass in July) he decides to disassemble the outlet and check the wiring.  It is now dark out and getting colder.

He cannot disassemble the outlets as one of the screws stripped .  He then spends an hour attempting to take out the outlets.  He then gives up and spends another hour and a half trying to put the front plate (which covers the outlets as they are outside) back on as the entire assembly now is loose due to the stripped screw.  We finally give up and put tape around the box - figuring we will be calling an electrician to deal with it all.  It is now 6 pm.  He goes back into the basement in frustration and finds out that we turned on the wrong breaker!  When we bought the house there was one outside set of outlets in the back yard.  The breaker was labeled "outside outlet".  We later had another one added in front of the house (mostly for Christmas lights) which is labeled "front outside outlet".  Yes, I forgot which one was specially labeled and turned on the back yard outlets!  I showed him which one was correct.  He labeled the other one as “rear outside outlets”. We had disassembled the extension cords to prevent problems and will have to  plug everything in again and see if the lights come on - on Saturday.  No he did not get mad or yell at me.  I was crying too hard from being so stupid and making the problem and wasting so much time for him to do so.

We normally would put up a wreath on each door and swags (all artificial) from the lights on either side of the door - but that would wait.  (So far we have put up one wreath - it is new.  We put battery operated lights on it and it fits between our front door and the storm door and is lighter so it can go up with magnetic hooks instead of having to run fishing line over the front storm door to hold it outside the storm door .  We still have not put out a wreath on the side door or the swags - not sure if he will do so or not.)

We then set out to the PO and the bank.  As we approached the corner where the PO is located there were police cars and their lights all over at the corner to the PO.  There is a very small "town center" in a pool park there and apparently this was the Christmas tree lighting ceremony.  We managed to get through the mess and had to go aways to get a parking space for the PO.

We then had to pull into a side road and turn around, back into the mess, which now also had fire engines with lights and sirens on, to go to the bank.  When we left the bank husband was going to go in a different direction to avoid the mess, forgot to and we were headed back there.  Instead we kept going to a different main street which goes to our house.  There were police cars all over with police directing traffic and apparently we could not turn towards our house - the street was closed either for an emergency or to put up Christmas decorations as there were "bucket trucks" with men in the buckets.  We had to drive back to the bank a different way, drive past it and then go the way he intended originally.  15 minutes of errands took over an hour, so it was now 7 pm.

I then made dinner and called him and he had gotten a work online conversation and was on for an hour - to 9 pm.  Just as I finished reheating the soup for dinner (and the rest was still reheating) my mom called and I had to tell her I couldn't talk.   If you think I write a lot - a call between mom and me can run 2 hours.

Friday we went to Lancaster, PA area for a day trip - mostly Green Dragon Farmer's (and merchant's) market and dinner at Dutchway buffet - owned by and adjacent to their supermarket.  Picked up the needed Christmas lights during a stop at Walmart there before our trip home.

Saturday we took the snow blower out of the box and assembled it.  We then put up the rest of the lights after making sure that when we used the correct circuit breaker the other lights came on. 

We bought gas for the snow blower on Monday and also filled the tank in our van - we don’t drive it a lot, so we don’t fill it a lot, so we figured we would do both at once.  On Tuesday we started it and it started fine.  Unfortunately we found out over the weekend that we cannot get the small shed we wanted.  It would not come for 3 weeks and by then it would be too cold to assemble it.  For now the snow blower is in the garage - sitting just inside the door, ready to go.  But if it snows we have to shovel our way out to the garage.  One idea husband has it to pick up the snow blower and put it in our tiny side porch (really just a covered entryway) - which means I have to clear it out - but we don’t know if we could carry it that much.

Today was my embroidery club meeting.  As I was getting ready last night for the meeting it suddenly dawned on me that this is the last meeting of the year.  Why is that significant?  I never got the paperwork to reserve the meeting room for 2017.  I called this morning and found out that the person in charge of the room reservations changed and I was not on the list she was given for who had to have renewals sent to them - “everyone else will call for them”.  Luckily this room is not in great demand and there should be no problem - she is sending me the paperwork to do.

I also got rid of 2 months worth of soda bottles today and made about $2 in returned deposits - which I then spent plus more on a few grocery items we needed.  I went to Goodwill and donated 3 of our suitcases - more to go there in the future.  I also donated my good coat.  I love this coat - it comfortable, nice fabric.  It is the only piece of clothing I have ever heard my mom say I looked good in.  Why did I get rid of it?  It was a hard decision, but I have not worn it since 2009 when we had the bed bugs.  It is a bit on the long side and I would worry about picking up bed bugs when walking on stairs in NYC if I wore it to work.  When we go out to dinner for holidays or such - much rarer now - I sit on my jacket and the coat would be too bulky, so I decided it was time for it to have a nice life with someone else who needs and will use it.  I kept it in its bag until the last minute so I would not change my mind.  I added to all this a rotating CD rack husband has not used in years and said we should get rid of.  Oh - don’t forget to go through all pockets in clothes and suitcases - I did and found copies of our driver’s licenses in one of the suitcases.

So another week is gone.  I have put out a minimal amount of Christmas decorations - but I did put RV stuff in our RV to get it out of the dining room until next spring - more of it to go out yet.  I also put away all of the various items that were out loose of our reenacting stuff - the dining room is on its way to being ready to decorate.

What did you get done this week?  Even a small amount of things done is something done.  Jump in and do something. 

THANKSGIVING IS OVER - CHRISTMAS IS COMING

Well, Thanksgiving is behind us.  Now we move on to the December holidays.  While due to differences in religion, we celebrate both Christmas and Chanukah, 99% of the decorating is for Christmas.

Normally we would have put our outside decorations up this past week, but due to running around to find a turkey and shop for Thanksgiving dinner at the last minute, we did not get a chance to do so.  We are currently having rain.  We plan to put up the outside decorations on Thursday - it is not suppose to be raining then and it is suppose to go to a relatively “toasty” 59 degrees Fahrenheit. 

We put strands of lights on our larger bushes and 2 small trees in front of our house. We put a wreath (artificial) each on our front and side doors.  We also have swags (again artificial) which we hang from our light fixtures on either side of the front door.  Last year we added a strand of red lights around our white mail box post - gives the look of, sort of, a candy cane.  We used to have wreaths on our lower front windows and swags under them, but we cannot do so since we had our windows and siding replaced.  The outside lights are controlled by a timer.  We have one in our basement for the outlets that they are plugged into - since they are on their own circuit breaker this is a heavy duty timer, which works for the circuit.  We also put battery operated candles in our front windows which go on for 6 hours a night automatically.  We used to have plug in window candles, but when we replaced the windows, we found that there was a ledge of plastic on the inside of the window which meant that the candle had trouble staying on the window sill and leaned against the window blinds and would have melted them - so we replaced them with these LED candles -no heat so they do not melt the shades.

This past weekend I took out my Christmas dishes.  These are not fancy china to be used for company.  They are everyday dishes.  I use them for dinner during the holidays.  I also have Christmas glasses - they were a “spend this amount and get a gift” that I got when I bought a baby gift for a friend decades ago.  I keep the dishes and glasses in their original boxes in the gas meter closet in our basement and wash them before I use them each year.  I have only 3 glasses - the fourth one broke - and I keep a small 2 piece nativity set in the 4th space in the box, so the nativity goes out when I take out the glasses.  I only take out 2 of the glasses and 2 of the cups to the dishes as I am the only one who uses them. Husband has certain plastic glasses he prefers and I put one out for him as it not worth insisting that he use the holiday stuff.

Husband, as I have mentioned before, got a loom last Christmas.  It is a good size piece of furniture, 32 inches wide and about the same size deep.  It is set up in the living room as are various related items, including a small table and large plastic boxes of yarn/finished pieces.  It does not fill the room, but since it sits in the middle of the room, it takes up much of the floor space.  When husband set it up last January, I told him that I expected the living room back after Thanksgiving until January so that I could decorate.  I never really expected same, and I will be decorating around the loom etc. when I decorate as I got a blank stare when I asked when the loom was being stored for the season.  Our dining room has additional items for his weaving, mostly items used to wash the woven items after they are made (to draw the threads together into fabric) which is done in our kitchen.  At some point the items other than the loom will have to be moved somewhere - my guess is the walkways of our studio behind the kitchen.  The nativity mentioned above goes into a display case in a corner of the living room - normally it is the center of the shelf.  Right now it is on a corner of the shelf as I could not open the door to the cabinet due to the weaving boxes stored adjacent to the cabinet, but managed to get it open enough to put the nativity just inside the door.  I will move it when I move the boxes elsewhere - really, they have to moved or no tree.

The dining room also has stuff which needs to go out to our RV.  (This is all the stuff I had to move to use the dining room table last week.)  The last chance we figure to use the RV is this coming weekend and we are pretty sure we will not - then all will go out there for winter storage.  It is stuff that is used seasonally in the RV - mostly for cold weather travel - and has to be stored in the house when not being used in the RV.

Why does the dining room have to be cleared out to decorate the living room?  Because there is a good sized wooden box piece of furniture in the living room where the tree goes.  Husband made this some years ago.  It looks like what was called a “hope chest” for a young woman to store the items she made for when she got married.  This one, however, holds DVDs.  Instead of the top lifting the front drops down and drawers come out to hold the DVDs.  It is on wheels (we knew we had to move it back and forth to the dining room once a year) and is rolled to the far wall of the dining room (where the table normally is and all the stuff to deal with is now) and stays there for the season with the table in the center of the room where normal people put it all the time.

I admit to still having Thanksgiving decorations out.  I have a small light up “house in a tree trunk” which I painted some years ago and also painted a ceramic bear family and their guests coming to the house.  I have since added some small purchased bears.  Every year I set it up with the bear family at the house and the other bears coming there.  This year after the holiday I had the idea to turn the visitors around and they are now “on their way home”.  There are a few other small items to be put away also - it all fits in one box.  I plan on it all being stored by the end of the week - it only took 15 minutes to put out.

I have large plastic boxes of stuff to put out for Christmas in the basement.  We used to keep it in the garage, but we are getting older - hard to climb up and take out and store the boxes - and the boxes are getting heavier, so I found a spot in the basement to store them.  There are decorations for the living room, front hall, dining room and kitchen as well as the ornaments for the trees and my teddy bear Christmas village figurines, buildings, etc.

More on all that in future posts - or I would have nothing to post.  We bought a new snow blower Monday.  We cannot find anyone who does “residential snow removal” and have to be able to do it on our own.  Our old snow blower is probably around 30 years old and is large and heavy.  We tried starting it over the weekend and it did not start, although it did last summer when we tried it.  We had planned on buying this one anyway as it is hard to get to the other one in back of the house and this one, being smaller, we figure we can store it in a small plastic shed in front of our side door.  We still have to get the shed and assemble and try out (at least that it starts and moves) the new blower.  Husband is researching on what may be wrong with the old one as he wants it as a backup.  They were surprised at the (large home big box) store at which we bought the snow blower that we were buying one.  I guess everyone else waits until it snows - when it is too late.

I wanted to talk about holiday shopping.  Did you go running out on Black Friday or even Thanksgiving?  Visit your local stores for Small Business Saturday (started by that so warm hearted American Express credit card company)?  Sit all day at work on Monday for Cyber Monday?

We did none of these things. With the exception this year of a TV which husband thought was a good deal (not that we bought/are buying one) which is still on sale at that large box store everyone hates, we have never seen anything worth running for the deal.  In addition we don’t buy large amounts of gifts - or stuff for ourselves - for the holidays or otherwise.  Are we grinches?  No.  Husband’s 2 nieces (under 20 years old) always get Christmas gifts from us which we buy.  My niece and nephews are in the mid 20's and we mail them checks for Chanukah.  Some years ago we agreed with my family not to exchange gifts between the adults.  Every year I bought my sister a sweater at a reasonably priced department store (the one with the tool department)  with the return card from the gift she had bought me the year before and she would buy me something there also - I was pretty sure with the return card from the sweater I had given her the year before.  Gradually this mostly happened with husband and his small extended family also - which was an exchange of cash for check any way.)  Husband buys himself a few small items which catch his eye - I then wrap them and Santa puts them under the tree.  Generally I don’t get anything.  If I do it is a book or a bear item we found on sale during the year and put away until Christmas (one year I forgot we were doing so and read half the book before I remembered).  In case you have not figured it out - I have a passion for teddy bears and some of their friends.  I believe that a gift should be a token, not an overwhelming “LOOK AT THIS”.  The spending of more money for a bigger or more expensive gift does not mean that one is loved or appreciated more - just that someone spent more money, which chances are means they are further into debt than they should be.  Plus, more and bigger items mean more clutter in the house!

Speaking of clutter - this is a good time of year to pass along by donation items you no longer need or want which are taking up room in your house.  I am planning on donating my winter coat - I have not worn it in years and due to weight loss, I am not even sure it fits anymore.  I plan to add to it some dresses I never wear and if we get a chance to go through them - most of the luggage we have as we don’t use luggage with the RV.  We will each keep one suitcase and will also keep a rolling backpack.  The backpack and a soft bag should fit in the other bag. 

So as you are start getting ready this year - remember, whatever you buy or get has to fit somewhere in your home.

ORGANIZED THANKSGIVING?

Thanksgiving, as I sit here and write is tomorrow.  Thanksgiving was very important to me growing up.  Since my family (and I) are Jewish most of the mainstream family holidays (Christmas, Easter) were not our holidays and we did not observe or celebrate them.  But Thanksgiving was different - it was for all Americans (and any one visiting the country also).

When I met my husband (who is Roman Catholic) and as we progressed through dating to marriage we started celebrating each other’s holidays with the each other’s families.  That left Thanksgiving as the only holiday both families wanted us for.  We tended to go to his family, but sometimes went to mine.  We got married and this continued.  Then came the year his sister got married - a week or so before Thanksgiving.  We did not want to go to dinner with just his parents and grandmother, but did not want to leave them alone and go to dinner with my family.  What to do? 

I then made a suggestion that shocked and surprised my husband - “Let’s have both families here for Thanksgiving dinner”.  I then found the real difference between the two families.  It was not being from different “old countries”.  It was not the difference in religion.  It was - his family ate out for almost all holidays and mine ate home for almost all holidays.  The concept of making dinner for and having 10 people shocked and scared him.  My mom used to have that and more for family holiday dinners and to do so was what I expected out of life.  He was further concerned as we lived in our apartment then - “Where would we put everyone?’  We had a long living room and I figured we would get (we ended up borrowing from his parents) folding tables and set them up end to end to make one long table. 

Both families agreed to come.  We were a little rocky that first year.  We overreached.  Luckily we started the night before.  We planned on making our own stuffing which used chestnuts - I never knew that under the shell chestnuts had a skin, which also had to be removed - it took forever.  We put together some food dish or other and had it on the counter.  I dropped a glass - the food was covered in glass and had to be thrown out.  But we did it.  Lack of serving space?  Cover the portable clothes dryer with a table cloth, push it in the corner of the living room - bar.  People had a problem walking past each other at the table, but it all worked out.  I even saw a different side of my, always seemingly austere, grandfather - someone made an inadvertent double meaning comment (meaning off color in the unintended meaning) and my grandfather laughed like crazy with everyone else and so did husband’s grandmother. 

It was so successful that we continued for 25 years to make Thanksgiving dinner for the combined families.  We got much better at it.  The year we moved to this house we moved in October.  I promised that we would make Thanksgiving dinner - even if we ate off of paper plates.  (The china was on the table for the dinner.)  The problem we found we had was that the dinning room was square, not long and we had to deal with fitting in tables.  Until we bought a dining room table some years later we came up with plywood pieces which clamped to our old kitchen table and made a huge square table and had to be assembled and disassembled each year. 

The only thing that stopped us, finally, from continuing to make Thanksgiving dinner was bed bugs.  Since we no longer feel comfortable having anyone in the house we no longer have people in.  Since then my family eats dinner at my sister’s house and his family goes out for dinner.  We eat alone. In the 8 years since then we have eaten Thanksgiving dinner in a chain buffet or made dinner for the two of us.  (One has a lot of leftover turkey when one makes dinner for two.)  The chain buffet closed this year.  That left us looking for an alternative.  There was one possible place that we could sort of afford, but we had never been there and reviews online were not the best.  So this past weekend it was “officially” decided that we make dinner at home. 

Now to keep organized over the years I made lists.  Starting the second year we made Thanksgiving I wrote them in a spiral notebook.  At first it not only included a list of what we would have, but also lists of what each item would be cooked and served in.  Over the years since the menu mostly repeated I knew which items would be used for cooking and serving.  I knew that, as odd as it sounds, the first thing to start cooking when we got up Thanksgiving (late) morning was the potatoes for mashed potatoes.  The first year we had found out that there was a large local deli which was open on Thanksgiving and we could order the turkey cooked and ready for a hot pickup in the afternoon - my sister and her husband (and children) would pick it up for us on their way here (we paid) as they went past the place anyway.  Over the years the place shut down and we started getting the turkey from their other location - closer to my sister than us.  Not having a turkey in the oven left room for everything else.

At the height of our hosting Thanksgiving I would start cooking on Tuesday having already cleared the dining room as much as possible - including moving small pieces of furniture to our studio on the other side of the kitchen.  I baked Venetians (aka rainbow cookies).  They had to be baked and put together with the jellied centers on one day, left overnight with a heavy book on them and then chocolate melted and frosted it on another day.  I would make beef vegetable soup (PA Dutch recipe) on Wednesday and bake an apple pie and brownies (brownies were from a mix).  Wednesday night we would put together the sweet potatoes (no marshmallows, Colonial Williamsburg recipe) and bake the pumpkin pie.  Thanksgiving day we would make the rest of the items and bake the sweet potatoes.  A couple of times I made and baked rolls from scratch and once a baked a tea bread (CW recipe again) from scratch.  Sometimes I made biscuits instead.  Nieces and nephews however like the can popping open however, and we mostly made rolls from refrigerated dough.  (These rolls are no longer made by the popping can company or any other.) 

Each year I would look at my list of dishes from the year before.  We would discuss it and possibly make changes - Would something new work?  Do we need more of less of something. More of something? Did his sister want salad?  Was my sister vegetarian that year?   Did my niece decide she was kosher that year and would bring her own food? (Did not last beyond 2 years.)  We would adjust the menu.  But year to year it remained organized.  My sisters, mom and I were used to working together on getting out the food and clearing up and husband’s sister made her best efforts to help.  As nieces came along they helped - young children like to help - but nephew preferred the living room and playing.  I would do the dishes, etc. after everyone left.  In the apartment by hand and here in the dishwasher.  Here in the house I would also wash and dry the tablecloth and napkins overnight.  Since we stopped having the family in, the dish washer has broken so I am back to washing by hand.  When we went to/go to sleep at night on Thanksgiving everything has been washed (or was being washed in the dishwasher).  It does take a few days or a week to put it all back, but all is always cleaned that night.

Our guest list would change - it got smaller when my dad died, larger with each niece or nephew, a boyhood friend of husband’s who lived out of town, was down for the holidays a couple of times and joined us for dinner.  Husband’s sister’s mother-in-law was added to the guest list for several years before we stopped.  We first heard that his sister and her husband were going to adopt a child at dinner one year.  My niece had her first “food” - applesauce - at Thanksgiving dinner one year.

I have the recipes in the computer.  I used to use a cookbook program, but it needs a parallel printer directly hooked up to the computer on a specific port, so it is no longer usable.  It used to be great, it would resize recipes and calculate the revised ingredient list and had a shopping list feature.  I had put in the location of foods in our supermarket and I would have a shopping list printed out in the order I needed to find the foods.  When I saw its life coming to an end I printed all the recipes and scanned them back into the computer as pdf files so I would not lose the recipes.  I have to calculate ingredient quantities for changes in servings and make my own shopping lists, but I still can print the recipes out.  One advantage to this when making an assortment of items, is that when an item is done being prepared, the recipe is tossed out.  Helps keep track of what is done and what needs to be done.

So if we have been so organized and good at it, why has this year been such a mess?  We did not decide until the last minute that we were making dinner for ourselves.  (We had kept waiting for the magic restaurant to appear for us to go to for dinner.)  On Sunday while in Costco we saw turkeys for 99 cents a pound.  We were not going straight home and did not want the turkey sitting in the car for hours so we did not buy one. 

Tuesday we had a list of what we would make and needed ingredients. - some our traditional ones, some husband picked to make it easier for me.  We set out to food shop.  In my mind we would buy items which did not need refrigeration (since they were more Thanksgiving related they might sell out) and then get a turkey at the Costco near us.  Husband had planned to buy the turkey first in case we had a problem finding one - but did not tell me why he was buying it first, so I pushed to get it later.  We bought stuff at Walmart and the supermarket next to it.  (I may or may not have mentioned that our Walmarts do not have the supermarket Walmarts commonly have and there is a separate, unrelated supermarket next to the Walmart we normally go to.)  We then set off, not to the Costco near us, but to the one we normally go to (which we like it better than the one near us) to get the turkey.

Horrors! There were no more 99 cent a pound turkeys!  The only turkeys they had were $3.29 a pound as they were organic.  Panic!  My mind went to what we could have instead of turkey.  I remembered we bought 2 ham portions - one for Christmas and one for whenever - when last in Lancaster, PA and I figured if stuck we would have “French Turkey” which is ham.  Husband drove to a specialty food store located near Costco which had opened here this year - a chain from Connecticut.  We had been very disappointed when we went to see this store after decades of hearing about it - very expensive, but I followed him into the store.  He moved so quickly that I lost sight of him before I got to the store.  I kept thinking I was seeing his red winter jacket - but when I got to where I thought I saw him it would be an employee in a red apron.  I finally caught up with him at the turkey case.  They had LOTS of turkey - even better and - important at this point - was that the turkeys were not frozen.  We picked out one that is probably too big for us, and brought it home. $1.69 a pound, not the 99 cents we planned, but not $3.29 either. 

Today Wednesday we went to the supermarket to buy the items which we did not buy yesterday as they need to be refrigerated and we did not want to drive around with them yesterday while getting the turkey.  We ended up changing the menu while there.  I had planned on baking him a pumpkin pie.  He decided we should buy one instead.  I make it for him with less sugar and no pie shell (believe it or not the latter part - no pie shell - is from Libbys and uses its basic pie recipe).  He decided it was too much trouble, so we bought a pie and I ran around putting back things such as eggs which we were buying to bake the pie.  What had settled the matter was a free apple pie for me with the purchase of his pumpkin pie (or vice versa).    Both treats for us which will be eaten over many days as we are limited in eating sweets.   

I had planned on clearing out the dining room yesterday and today - in particular the items for the RV which sit under the dining room table in RV season and get stored in the RV for the winter, but did not have a chance due to the running around shopping.  We keep our dining room table,  without the boards to the table, against the wall when not in use.  (This was done in the 1700s and is very convenient allowing use of the empty space in the middle of the room for other projects.)  I will pull it into place in the middle of the room and stack the RV stuff (and any weaving stuff, etc. stored in the dining room) against the wall out of the way.

I did polish the silverware we will use.  It has been some years since it was polished and the heating of the house to kill the bed bugs did not help.  I have been picking out for us the less tarnished looking pieces. Surprisingly it did not take as long as I remembered to polish what we needed - and I put the pieces in a zip bag to keep them relatively free of tarnish.  Perhaps I will finally get around to polishing the rest of the silverware and lining the drawers they are kept in with the special fabric to prevent tarnishing to protect it.  In the meantime, the pieces I have polished will be returned to the sealed bag when we are done with them.

Somehow the dining room will be ready.  I will get up tomorrow and put the turkey in the oven and go back to sleep.  Everything will come out okay - worse comes to worse, it is just us.

My best wishes to all of you who are in the U.S. for a wonderful Thanksgiving.

GETTING EXTRA TASKS DONE - SOMEHOW

This week I wanted to talk about fitting in things that have to be done now and then.  One can set up a routine for the week to help one get the house cleaning and other tasks done, but every now and then (more now than then it seems) other things have to be done.  Some are planned, some just pop up.  Some are fun, but some are just things to be done - some even are things one dreads doing.
           
I have on numerous times mentioned our RV.  The weather is getting cold.  Before the weather gets freezing we have to winterize it.  If you live in an area which gets cold in winter you probably know that if water freezes in your pipes they will split and you will have a problem.  This is more likely to happen if the house or the area of the house where the pipe is located is not heated.  (With the huge snow storms here the past few years this has happened to people who lost their electric power and had no heat.  Husband worried about in our basement as some of the pipes are attached to the inside of the exterior walls as it was much colder than normal here and ran an electric heater in the basement to keep the pipes warm.)  Winterizing the RV is, basically, getting all of the water out of the pipes, valves, etc. and replacing it with non-toxic anti-freeze.  Sounds simple.  It is not as that simple and there is an entire process that needs to be followed to do it - we have it written down, but still manage to always forget something.  Today we winterized the RV. 

My husband has started weaving on a loom this year.  So, every week or so I help him do what is called “warping the loom”.  This is putting the threads on the loom to weave through.  It is a relatively tedious process.  He needs my help to bring the warp threads out to a dowel to measure them out and then when all the threads are on the dowel, I bring the dowel to the loom - v e r y  s l o w l y - and I keep tension on the threads, as he winds them onto the loom.  When he finishes weaving a piece I know that he will soon be looking to warp the loom again.  So, when he finished a piece, I knew that he would be looking to warp the loom.  After we finished winterizing the RV - which took most of the afternoon, I saw him walk into the living room (where the loom is) and look around and sort of sigh.  I knew what was going on.  He wanted to warp the loom, but did not want to ask me to do so after spending the afternoon with the RV.  I made the offer and we spent most of the rest of the time before dinner warping the loom. 

So this afternoon was mostly used up with these two chores.  I managed to check my email and that was about it.  (I am writing this at night after dinner.)

I have worked as an accountant most of my life. (I started helping my dad add up columns of numbers when I was 12, so I do mean most of my life.)  I have reached a point now where I have a couple of regular clients for whom I do their books on a regular basis and a handful of income tax clients.  Unfortunately there is no exemption by IRS for a practice this small and I have to take annual classes and exams as the same as if I worked full time and actually made money doing this.  While I can take the classes and exams as home study, it still is something else which must be fit into my time and takes about 20 hours in total.  I get nervous every year about fitting time to take the exams into my schedule.  I managed to do some of the smaller classes last night, which helped me get a bit less nervous.  I still have some more of the smaller classes to do.  I also have a large class and a 3 hour exam I have to take which I have not taken before.  This scares the heck out of me.  Not only do I have to do well on the exam to keep working - I also have to find a 3 hour block of time to take the exam.  Somehow, I know I will do so - special things always manage to somehow be fit into one’s schedule.

Then I know that later this month the other big special things to do will start - Christmas decorating.  Somehow no matter how busy we all are, we somehow manage to fit in decorating the house and the tree and buying and wrapping gifts.  And then somehow, when it is all over, we find the time to take it all down and store it away.  Okay - our decorations tend to stay up longer than they should - but the year they stayed up until April, it really was only because it was a freezing winter and our garage door froze to the ground and we could not get out the storage boxes to store the ornaments.  So rather than take off the ornaments and leave them about, the tree stayed up. But for now, let us just think of the fun of decorating and how nice everything will look - if we can just find the time to decorate.

So, in between the normal daily, weekly, monthly tasks we all somehow manage to fit in these other tasks. How we do it varies from person to person and time to time.  I just “found some time” I hope to keep available to get things done.  On Monday nights I read comics online.  Mostly I was reading the entire week of each comic’s strips.  Some (most) weeks this reading ran over to Tuesday.  Two weeks ago I  decided it takes too much time.  I looked through the strips as I read them.  I dropped one strip.  Five others I decided I will only read the Sunday strips.  I like the characters, but can do with just a quick visit to them.  (Sunday strips generally have nothing to do with weekday strips so I won’t be missing any “plot”.)  Over time I may drop some of these strips, but I will see what I decide.  The remaining strips are ones which I like the most and want to keep reading.  This has cut out over an hour of time that I spent reading my comics and I now seem to be able to able to finish them on Monday night, leaving Tuesday night free for whatever else I need to do.  (Hence, why I was able to take part of the classes I need to take last night.) 

How do you fit in things which need to be done to your busy schedule? Do you need to fit in making Thanksgiving dinner next week?       

HOW CAN SOME WEEKS BE SHORTER THAN OTHERS?

Wow, another week gone by already?  It seems too soon.  Again I did not write tonight’s post in advance - the election yesterday took up my attention last night.  No opinion being published on same.  This will be, again, a short post as a result. 

I managed to finish unloading the RV.  We let the remaining water in it out (there is a valve on the bottom with a cap - remove the cap and the water runs out and down the driveway - it is clean water so this is not a problem).  I went in and stripped the bed and disassembled it back into 2 seating benches as I need to clean the bedding, as well as we will be going in and winterizing and will need access under one side of the bed to the water pump.

I dealt with the mail from our short trip - it being the end and beginning of the month there was not much from the 3 days.

We dealt with a telephone problem.  We still have copper wire phone service at our house.  We have a cordless phone with an answering machine in the kitchen.  The last 2 times I talked to my mom on it (and we can go for hours) the battery ran out within an hour.  Husband looked to buy new batteries - discontinued and therefore very expensive.  So a new phone was needed.  Telephones have changed dramatically since we last bought one.  We have an additional problem that the phone hangs on the wall - so we need a wall phone - and the basement door is located across from the phone so it has to be able to open past the phone, and most of the few wall phones with answering machines we found would not allow this.  Luckily we found one, but the cordless phone sits in a separate charger elsewhere in the kitchen.  So far it seems to work well.  I will have to have mom call me - when I call her I use my cell phone.  So a lot of time this week was spent shopping for the new phone and then installing and testing it.

The reason we need one with an answering machine is that we screen our calls.  We tell everyone we know who might call us about this - “When you call me back about this problem, you will get our answering machine.  Leave a message for us; if we are home we will pick up when we hear you or we will call back if we are not home.”  This is a bit of organizing.  Our telephone number is rather similar to a Domino’s pizza (actually several of them, but one more than others), an optician, and a doctor’s office.  In all these cases the last 4 digits are the same and the 3 digits before them are similar when one looks at them and reads the numbers wrong. Add to the wrong numbers for all of these (This is Mrs. Jones, I want a cheese pie - I am timing you.  This is Mrs. Smith don’t tint my eyeglasses.  - would be nice if they left a call back number or an address to deliver the pie) the robocalls and other spam calls we all get and it is a major time saver not to be dealing with the phone calls.  We have 3 answering machines on the same line.  The one in the bedroom answers on the 3rd ring and is always on.  The ones in the office and kitchen are individually turned on and off depending on where we are and answer on the 2nd ring.  This way we can screen the calls in any of the 3 places in the house we generally are.

Managed to finally reach the person at our doctor’s office, so hopefully the problem we are having with the billing on our lab work - last June - will not need more attention.       

Ah, yes, managed to finally convince my husband that the shoes he actually wears should be on his closet shoe rack (on back of door) and the ones on the rack which he does not wear and keeps only because he wears such a hard size to find, in case he ever needs them, should be stored away.  I actually only needed to store away one pair of the shoes on the rack to fit all but the shoes he is wearing and his slippers on it.  This is a discussion which has gone on for years.  Now I can actually clean the floor in the bedroom as I no longer would have to move all the shoes.  Did I clean it?  No - it was a short week.  But I will and will do so more regularly.

Had to spend some time on my embroidery group this week.  I missed the meeting due to our trip last week and had to do some followup on business I missed as a result.

So, the week seems much shorter than it was.  I am now catching up the laundry, which of course, I decided not to do for the part of the week last Wednesday (I do the laundry Wednesday and Thursday nights) so I am doing lots of loads this week.

Hopefully this will be a more organized week and I will get more done.  Don’t you hate short weeks?

RV WATER AND FRIDGE PROBLEMS

This will be a shorter post than normal.  I am writing it on my old Palm Centro phone, which I carry as a PDA on trips.  We are driving home from a trip.  We planned on staying 2 more days so I planned to write today’s post on my laptop tonight & then post it, both in our RV, which technically I am doing, but I am writing while riding at 65 mph on the Pennsylvania Turnpike!  (Obviously husband is driving,)  From this we learn in terms of organizing, not to put things off to the last minute.

Everything on our trips takes organizing, even more than at home.  Going home 2 days early (on a 4 night trip) changes lots of plans.  We carry at the start of a trip 25 gallons of water with us in 2 tanks,  We know from experience that we can easily get by on same if we conserve water for 4 nights.  We learned on a recent trip that if we are very careful, we can make it through 5 nights.   Now on the other hand, we need to fill the outgoing tanks at least 75% or they will not dump properly.  See the organization needed to manage the water.  Uh oh!!!

Back again,  drive needed my attention.  Road construction & the cones were in our lane making it rather narrow.  About 10% of them were knocked down by vehicles ahead of us.  Glad we are not in an 18 wheeler.  Needed to help husband avoid them.

So since we used so little water as we expected to need it to be used over 4 nights, we had to add enough water - gallons and gallons - to the outgoing tanks so each had enough to dump them before we did so.

This was our last trip of the year with running water.  We will be winterizing the RV soon so that there will be as close to no water in its systems as possible so there will be no damage from water freezing in pipes, valves, tanks, etc.  If we travel again this year we will get a space near the bath house.  But that is a story for another time.                   
                   
We had a problem this trip with our refrigerator.  It is a small one about the size of a dorm fridge.  It is different than same, however, as it can run on regular household current or 12 volt car battery current - it switches on its own.  It is harder to keep it at the correct temperature than the refrigerator in the house.  It is affected more by the temperature outside, as well as also by the temperature in the RV.  I can usually get it to the range I want - about 38 or 39 degrees Fahrenheit and then I work at keeping it at same.  Sometimes it behaves and stays in range, other times it can take days of playing with it until it is correct - and even then it can need an adjustment.  I have been known to jump into the back to play with it when stop for gas if it is going too far off.

This time it was going too low.  I raised the temperature and it was too high and would not get lower no matter how low I turned the thermostat in the fridge.  We have an electronic thermometer which reads the temperature in the fridge and sends it to a device outside the fridge so we don’t have to open it to read it.  I also have a mechanical thermometer in it.  When I looked at same it was about the correct temperature.  The problem was the electronic thermometer, not the fridge - good thing as it is much cheaper and easier to buy a new thermometer.   We took out the batteries and played with it and eventually it was working, seemingly, correct again.  We will have to keep an eye on it.  Thank goodness I had kept the original mechanical thermometer in the fridge just in case. 

Please remember if you are in the US where there is daylight savings time to "fall back" an  hour this Sunday (Nov. 6)  and VOTE    TUES - whether you vote for the same candidate as me or not - Vote!

SCANNERS AND PRINTERS - AND HOW TO USE THEM TO ORGANIZE

There are several people I have been speaking with who do not have a scanner or a printer for their computer.  This amazes me - as well as makes problems for them.  My scanner and printers are vital to me. They are very useful for getting things done quickly and great for helping deal with keeping paper information without needing as much file space or time to file and look for files.

The first person I heard this from is my mom.  Mom has used a computer for decades including back when she worked.  Mom is also an accountant.  (Ok, fair notice - dad was also and one of my sisters also has a degree in it and works as a bookkeeper.)  Mom is 87.  Mom had a printer and a scanner - I know this because we bought it for her.  She has had another printer since, but has been told that she can no longer get the ink for it and/or the heads would be bad by now.  (The latter makes no sense as in an ink jet printer the heads are replaced each time the cartridge is replaced.)  Mom goes out and prints or copies things at the library when she needs to.   

Another person I just heard this from is a friend in a club I belong to.  I just made up revised membership lists as we had a group of new members.  I told her I would email everyone the new membership list.  She told me to print some and bring to the meeting in case others, beside her, cannot print the list out.

I have heard this idea also from others and, as I said, I am amazed.

Printers -  I have never been sure of the value of a computer without a printer.  Yes, I know we all email everything to everyone, but we don’t (well, I don’t) really. 

I find that I still need to write actual letters.  Not all businesses respond to email - no, don’t laugh, it is true.  In addition actual mail stands out when received differently than email.  I am not sure if I have mentioned this, but I do not do anything financial online.  Okay, you may think me old fashioned or laugh - but when my bank was hacked it was their online accounts which were hacked and mine was not.  I started working with main frame computers in the early 1970's and there are two things I know about computing which are absolute - “It is not a question of if, but when, a hard drive will crash.” (hence my need to backup and keep data off the hard drive) and “There is no such thing as a secure website.”

I had to write a letter to the bank we have our RV loan from about a problem we were having.  I had been trying to telephone the bank for some time with no luck. I actually went to their Facebook page and posted, anonymously, about needing a way to reach them - no luck.  Letter to the CEO of the bank - received the information I wanted and needed.  There is no way that the CEO would ever had have read my email, but a letter to him - even if he did not actually see it, his staff took care of the matter.   Letters work.

Have you ever had to mail something or other to a company?  A cover letter explaining what is enclosed and why - and what you want done about it - makes sure the recipient understand what is being sent and why.

I can also fill in forms which have to be done on paper (yes, they still exist) or are more convenient to do on paper and print them out.  My handwriting is terrible, but even if yours is lovely, printed information tends to be easier to read and read correctly than hand written information.

A printed letter, like the typed letter that existed before it, is much more presentable than a hand written letter (other than personal letters to friends and family) and is more likely to be taken seriously.  I have a client who hand writes her business letters as she does not use a computer - it looks terribly unbusinesslike.  When I can I write them for her while there.

Oh, I almost forgot - envelopes!  You can print envelopes when sending something by mail - and even add the computer coding for the address.  Less chance of the envelope and its contents going to the wrong place if the address can be easily read and even more if the sorting computers can read the address coding on the envelope!

Scanners - One of the best things ever invented.  In terms of organizing - one can scan in all manner of papers which take up room in the house, get lost, or get confused and get some space back.

I need to mention here as I have received several of these, taking a photo of a document is not the same as scanning it into a computer and is a major problem for the recipient to use, in addition to making a HUGE picture of the document which is hard to deal with it. 

When I do tax returns - for myself or clients - I scan in the form after I do it.  Yes, I use a computer to prepare the returns, but an error can result in accidently changing something on a page after the fact, if I only have the returns in the program they are prepared in, as well as there are always added schedules (pages) not prepared by the tax program.  I scan in the return after it prepared and save that as a separate pdf file and I have an exact duplicate of the return as filed.  I also scan in any of the notes, etc. I used to prepare the return.  I also scan in copies (front and back) of the checks I sent to pay the taxes - estimates as well as the final payment - and of any documents which show amounts withheld for taxes (W2s, 1099s, etc.)  I actually keep a hard copy of the return until after the following year’s return is filed, as it is easier not to have to go back and forth on the computer, but have the hard copy for reference while preparing the next year’s return.       

If I fill in a form I scan it into the computer to have a copy - less room than keeping a paper copy and it will not get lost.  If you prefer to keep a paper copy you can scan it in and print it out - or often just use the scanner as a copier.  More on this idea later.  For example, I take the membership forms received from members of our reenactment unit and scan them in, then (after backing up the data) shred them and throw them out - no need to keep another 30 pieces of paper a year in a file drawer. 

I think I mentioned in a past post about a project to scan in the most instruction booklets from the assorted things in our house.  If there is a large instruction book I am keeping it, but small instructions of say 15 or less pages I am scanning.  Remember one does not need to scan in the instructions in other languages, only those in one’s own.  I then (after backing up the data) put the booklets with the recycling.  So far I have gotten rid of 3 file folders of instructions.  Similarly I plan to scan in the paperwork from some car accidents we had in the past and the receipts from items returned to our cable company. (I can just imagine one day leaving them and being told that I never returned a cable box I was given in 2001 and the charge will be $500 for it not being returned, so I have kept the receipts for returned equipment.)
           
Now there are papers I do not do this with. I don’t scan in all our credit card receipts - too much work and they are stored away in a year.  Anything you need an original for - you can scan a copy, but the original must be kept (marriage& birth records, titles to car and house and so on).

What papers could you scan into your computer instead of keeping them and having to store them?

Now combine the two - scanning plus printing.  Even better.  Scan in a form and use software to fill it in and then print it out.  (See software below.)  Again, my handwriting being terrible it is a great way to make sure that what you fill in on a form can easily be read. 

One can buy an ink jet “all in one” unit for around $50.  This will let you scan in items and print out pages.  One can usually use the machine directly as a copying machine, but if not one can use it as same as one can scan in an item and then print it out.  Today after starting to write this post yesterday we were in a major discount chain store.  They had 4 all in ones which print and scan from $50 to $60.  Sometimes the all in ones are also a fax machine - yes, one sometimes still needs to fax something. At least one of them said that it was ready to be used with tablets and cell phones, solving the problem of printing with them. 

Yes, one can go to the library, Kinkos (Fed Ex these days), Staples, OfficeMax/Depot (if you still have one near you  - all the ones in our county were closed, nearest one now an hour away), work, etc. and make a copy if you need one.  Did you know that when you do so the copier/printer keeps your document in its memory and that when the machine is disposed of, often that information is still in the machine?  Who knows what happens to the machines after they are disposed of - and who has access to them.  Copy something with your Social Security number or bank account information and it will stay in the copy machine - much safer to make copies at home.

The scanner will generally come with software to do scanning.  You will need software though.  If you already have word processing software you can, of course use it with the printer.  There are freeware programs to make the printer/scanner do even more.  While I have nothing to do with the following programs and have no responsibility for them or how they work, I have found them to be very useful.  (I must give credit, husband told me about them and to use them.)  In addition I am running Windows computers and the software may not be made for other computers or for tablets.

Foxit PDF - this allows one to scan in documents and forms as pdf files and work with them.  One can use the “Type” function to fill in blanks on forms.  One can attach notes to the documents. There are assortment of other features which I have not even gotten to yet.  There is a freeware version of the program and that is the one I use.  One can print the pdf files made.

Cute PDF and Primo PDF are two of several programs which allow one to print what one has written directly to a pdf file.     They are will show up (at least in Windows computers) as alternate printers when you go to print and you select them and print the pdf - without needing to print the document out and then scan it in.  This lets you write a document and then email it to others who might not have the same word processing software to open a written document. For example, I like to use Wordperfect instead of the standard Word program.  I either must save the file as an rtf file (rich texture format - can open with many, if not all or most word processing programs) or I print it with one of these programs and send it as a pdf.  The only problem I have had doing this some of the tax forms generated when one files online in my state for some reason will not print this way (sales tax, employment taxes).  For these forms I need to physically print them out and then scan them in to keep a pdf copy of them.

LibreOffice can be used instead of Microsoft Office.  It is free.  By the way, if you have an older version of Word and can’t afford to upgrade and people keep sending you docx files - this will open them.  According to my husband this program will work on all “platforms” meaning it will also work with Mac computers, Ipads, tablets, Linux, etc.

Open Office is similar to LibreOffice, but husband says that LibreOffice is better.  Open Office will work only on Windows computers.


Now there is one problem I don’t know about.  (Yes, despite the fact that my friends think I am a “know it all” I don’t.)  Generally printing with a computer is not a problem.  However tablets and related use a different way to print as they do not attach or use wifi to work with printers.  This involves “cloud printing”.  I asked husband how this is done in anticipation of writing this article. After looking up how to cloud print I got dizzy reading as it seems to vary for each device being used and each company that one has their cloud account with.  He looked it up and could not figure it out either.  I know there is a way to do it.  If you must print this way, check with your cloud server to find out how.  Unfortunately it seems to sometimes require you to have a computer also.               


   

ONGOING PROBLEMS RESOLVING, WELL, PROBLEMS

I have been dealing with something I find terribly annoying.  Contacting someone and not hearing back to resolve the situation.  I seem to get into periods in which I have several of these situations at once.  I am in one of those periods now.

First, a serious problem is one for a club I am in.  We decided to do a craft project and want to get kits for those members interested in the project.  Unfortunately the kits for this type of project are not sold in the U.S.  We found someone in Australia who makes the kits.  I have been in contact with the designer several times by email.  I made sure at first that there would be no problem shipping them to the U.S.  I checked what method of payment would be accepted.  I followed up a month ago with a partial list of the kits we want, pending hearing from a few last members.  The designer has been extremely nice.  Over a week ago I sent an email with a final listing of which kits we want and asked for an estimate of the shipping and kit costs - (and asked about insurance because it is comes to about $500 - and I mean U.S. dollars).   I mentioned that I need an estimate as one of our members is letting us use her Paypal account and I have to deposit an approximate amount towards the charge in her bank account so she can transfer it to Paypal and pay for the kits.   I have not heard back from the designer. I sent out a second email today, just in case the first one went astray - while also acknowledging that she might be busy and hoped that all was well with her.  Now I wait.

Second, back in June my husband and I had blood work taken at our doctor.  The doctor’s office forwarded the blood to the lab.  Now, the past 2 years we have had a problem with our medical insurance due to the doctor using the wrong lab.  In 2014 we had blood work done and our insurance company denied the claim from the lab the doctor sent the blood to and we received bills for the full amount of the lab work.  It was rejected by our insurance as it was not an approved lab.  We checked, the lab was on their list.  I telephone and the insurance employee agreed with me that it was a covered lab.  After several months it was resolved and the lab was paid in full. In 2015 we went to the same doctor and again blood work was done. It was sent to the same lab and again it was rejected.  That time we were told that the lab was not on their plan and that it was not on their plan in 2014, but since it was mistakenly on their list then it had been covered and, despite never being told this in 2014, we should have known this and not gone to that lab.  I was confused by this as we had not gone to the lab.  Apparently because we go to the doctor for the blood work a week before we see the doctor, the insurance company thinks that we are going to the lab itself for the blood draw.  Managed to get that fixed also.  Both years the blood work was covered in full.

So now that we knew the story, before we went to the doctor this year for our blood work, I called the insurance company first and got the list of approved labs.  I then called the doctor’s office and found out which one on the list they deal with.  When we went for the blood work I wrote a note that our blood work had to go to this lab.  It apparently did.  Now we have been billed for a copay, which did not exist last year.  I telephoned the insurance company and spoke with a pleasant fellow who actually tried to be helpful.  He told me that was our copay.  I pointed out that the past 2 years we did not pay anything.  He said that we have a different plan this year - well, technically yes, but really no.  I cannot find the copay in the plan book.  The closest copay I can find is for $20 (each) less than we are being asked for. I pointed this out to him.  He insisted we have the copays.  Blood work is only covered if it is for preventative reasons.  Huh?  Well, I explained why we had the tests.  They are covered and he was going to call the doctor’s office and tell them to resend with a corrected code.  I thanked him.  After I hung up I realized that he was probably not going to tell the doctor’s office to do this for my husband’s work, just mine. 

I have trouble making telephone calls as we live off schedule from everyone else - we get up around noon and go to sleep at 4 am.  I tried calling the doctor’s office the next day to check if they had been contacted and make sure they knew about husband’s lab work also.  I found out that the office closes at 4 pm, not 5 pm.  It was about a week before I had a chance to call again.  It was again late in the day.  I was told that I had to speak to “A” who handles the lab billing and she would not be in until the next morning.  I was put through to the lab line and left a message explaining the situation and asking to be called.  The next day at 1:30 in the afternoon I called the lab line again as I had not heard back and left another message. 

Yesterday I tried calling again - left another message on the lab line.  This morning I got up early (for us) and tried calling as “A” seems to only be there in the morning and I hoped to catch her in, but no, I got the machine, so I left another message.  I also called this afternoon at 4:30 when the office staff had left so I could leave a message in the general “mail box” so someone else would know what is going on.  Hopefully that will get me a call back.

Yesterday I wrote a letter to the lab explaining what is going on and asking them to take no further action until the matter is resolved with the doctor and insurance, just to cover us as the bill due date is coming up.

At the same time I received another mailing from the lab asking for a copy of my insurance card as a followup test was done and the info they were given was incorrect.  That was also sent, but somehow I know when it is processed I will have the same problem as I am having with the other lab work.   

Third, we have several problems with our supermarket.  I finally had enough and wrote, online, to the corporate office.  I did not contact the store management as the problems are not within the store problems, but, as they say, “above the manager’s pay grade” and based on decisions by corporate.  Last Sunday I had a message on our answering machine from someone who identified himself as the manager of the store and he said he would call back on Monday.  No one called Monday or Tuesday.  Yesterday (Wednesday) I received an email from corporate saying that the manager had tried, but could not reach me and I should call him.

I replied.  I explained that I had contacted corporate not the store management as the problems come from them - not the store management.  They redid their self-service registers so that they hard to use in terms of accessing them, there are arguments among customers as to if there is one line or two for same and their software in same (I am not using an unacceptable word which comes to mind) is terrible. I pointed out that store management had tried to resolve one of the problems caused by the changes from management by putting up a small handwritten sign explaining there was one line for all 4 registers which no one sees.  I have had to go to the service desk on several occasions to get a “rain check” for items in their circular that they do not have - generally the same item, they should know by now to ship more of it to the store if it always runs out right away when there is a sale.  Despite numerous people in line waiting for help, the one employee (and the person varies depending on the day) at the service desk takes people who have just walked up to the counter to buy, check or redeem lottery tickets first.  I am not talking one or two tickets - I am talking 20 minutes worth of purchasing, checking or redeeming tickets - and then if the lottery ticket person has a purchase - that is rung up for them while the rest of us wait. It is bad enough for someone who has decided to return something, but I am (as I explained) on the line because they did not have in stock what they advertised for sale.  Lastly, we get a  weekly circular delivered to us for this store which is for a different store in the chain.  When I last asked why this was true, someone at corporate mailed the correct circular to me for about a month and that was the total resolution of my question.
                               
At the same time I have emailed several printing companies about orders and they emailed back the next day with the information requested.  How come they can do this for a stranger, but the others don’t contact back a customer?                   

So I am dealing with all 3 situations, while dealing with everything else life needs to have dealt with.  I am so aggravated from not being contacted back.

Does not being contacted back bother you also?

A New Year?

Today was Yom Kippur - this is the holiest day of the Jewish calender.  10 days ago this holiday period started with Rosh Hashanah - which means “head of the year” and is generally referred to as “Jewish New Year”.

Okay, so I am vamping a bit as I don’t have anything written.  Monday was Columbus Day, We went to the eye doctor last week on Friday and husband’s niece’s birthday party on Sunday so I have had a busy week. 

Last night I normally would have written my post for this week, but could not as Jewish holidays start the night before the day of the holiday.  (There is a biblical reason for this, but I am not teaching bible class here - feel free to post back and ask if you want to know.)  We have a huge lists of things we cannot due on Jewish holidays, most of the time I tend to ignore the list and do the things if they arise, but I try to set these two holidays - Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur apart from other days due to their significance, so here I am, with no idea of what to write at the last minute (sound familiar to you).

As I mulled this over tonight I thought the significance of this period - the two holidays and the time between them are a period of reflection and its relation to becoming more organized and less cluttered. 

Huh?  This was the time of year when Jews take the time to think about the past year - what they did wrong, what they would like to change, how they could have improved their life and the lives of others.  One is suppose to apologize for wrongs they have done in the past year to those to whom the wrongs have been done - whether spouse, child, boss, employee, friend, foe, the annoying teller at the bank, the sales girl who was too slow, the customer who could not give you their order properly, the neighbor who thinks you play your guitar too loud, your dog - you forgot to walk him, and God.  By making these apologies one is clearing up the past and getting ready for the future.
                                   
We also think about the coming year - what can we do to make the coming year better for us and those around us.  Sort of like regular New Year’s resolutions but not exactly.  I will call my mother more often.  I will be more generous to charity.  (This period is to Jewish charities similar to what Christmas is to general charities, people are more generous and several of the charities have their donation campaigns during this period.)  I will try to get my blog posts written ahead of time and have them make more sense.  I will try not to annoy my husband with stupid things so often.   I won’t lie (as much?). I will actually clean the house when it is on my to do schedule.  And so on.    

I offer you this holiday period (albeit after it has ended - another thought for next year, offer it when it is about to occur) to help you.

Take the time to apologize to anyone you have wronged.  They will probably be surprised and will feel better about you.  You will feel better because instead of thinking “I wish I hadn’t told John he shouldn’t eat so much and I wish I can take it back” you will know that you have let the John know you are sorry you said that.  Do this even with someone who has passed on if you feel you have wronged them.  It will clear your mind and your heart of past errors and let you start over.

Do this with your self also.  Apologize to yourself for what you have done to yourself.  Don’t be angry with yourself any longer for things left undone or things done incorrectly or things you have done wrong.  Let it go - forgive yourself.  This will also clear your mind and heart and let you start over.

Set aside time and think about what you would like to do in the coming year.  I am talking not only in terms of organizing and decluttering, but in general.  Try to sort out your thoughts and ideas.  Try to make some sense of them.

I have not made a New Year’s resolution - secular or Jewish New Year - in decades.  My last one was not to make resolutions - I have kept it.  I do try to get some idea of what I would like to do in the coming year and try to make some plans towards doing same.  It is a general plan - I might have some specific ideas, but I never think “I will” or “I must”, I think “I will try to”.

When I was a child I could not understand what the big deal was about the New Year (either one).  Every day starts a new year.  I could not understand what made one starting point more  important than another one.  Try letting go of what has happened in the past year and think about the year to come.  If today is not good - then tomorrow or next week - because every day is the start of a new year.