Less Hustle More Coffee

Yesterday was pure bliss – it was my 26th day after day – postponed by 2 days. I got up and began doing laundry and there were about 5 loads I did. I also ironed pillow cases – the white ones to put back on the beds as extra pillows. The guest room sheets are washed and put back on the beds. I picked up the house a bit. I also cleaned some in the big living room where the tree is and finished sorting boxes and sacks. I’d only had time to do 3/4 of the living room on Christmas Day before I had petered out.

I began putting my Christmas gifts out and I love doing this almost as much as opening them. I look at them and experience the joy again before putting them away. I took some pics to share. Before I do that, I want to tell you that:

1. We do a lot of our annual shopping at this time of year.
2. We also use vacation time to shop for things we need and want as we have the time and we are in different than normal places with different than normal shops. And this year’s vacation time fell at Thanksgiving so we did a lot of our own shopping and gave to the other to wrap. Tops seem to be cheaper there in that little town of TX than they are here by about $10. So if I found something I liked, we bought it. Even Walmart had cute clothes there and my size was not already taken b/c it’s a small town.
3. We always buy a lot of little practical things that will last a while – just to wrap things up as you will see: rice, coffee, grits, nuts. The more to open the better – and food gifts are big in our family. Things like olive oil and vinegar – get an upgrade with better quality and things like that.
4. My big gift from George is not shown and that is the iMac. My heart swollen with love that he wanted to do this for me and he was even going to get the bigger Pro one but that was too big and powerful for what I need. We did get the big screen on this one and I plan to use this room as my SheRoom lol – as if it wasn’t before! No he can use it too of course. He teasingly told me I could not name the room a SheShed name. lol. I will take a pic of it and the office after I reorg the office a bit. I need to redo it and clean it. The bulletin board is too low to use as the iMac hides it. And I want to add a chair in here so I can watch YouTubes. So I kinda want to move some things around a bit. This is my goal today to work on this.

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So George and I discovered Plantation rice a year or two ago and it is so good. I said it is even it’s own category of food. lol Well, we only get some if we go to Whole Foods which is about twice a year or maybe three times. So he stocked up on that. What a great gift. And notice the Amish red popcorn behind it. Red popcorn is my favorite to cook up in the Whirley Pop. But the plantation brand also had peas and grits too and various types of rices so he got them all. On the right here you can see they have their place in the pantry. We will be eating a lot of grains and beans.

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Maisy followed me around yesterday. I was thinking she must just get tired as I know I probably put in a couple of miles or maybe three in the house yesterday. I was moving all day long.

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I stopped to play with her while doing the sheets on the guest bed. The closest to playing she will do is that she seems to enjoy you putting a cover over her and she works her way out. She even put herself under the cover yesterday. So whoever sleeps in the bed next may have a few Maisy hairs mixed in, lol. Also notice the new PJ’s she is sitting on. I wish I’d bought two pair. I love those Liz Claiborne’s. I can only get them before Christmas. They hold up for about two years I think, but the 2nd year they are faded, but I wear them every week faithfully. JC Penny sells them. But they will be all gone by now, I’m sure. So next year…

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Katy gave me a Tugie blanket and now Tugie can sit on my lap again. Oh that girl. I miss her so. My little Frito.

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George always gives me those Winter Spiced Nuts. I love them. You can only get them before Christmas. And one can is already gone. I have to be careful with those. I binge eat them.

I’m really excited about this one. I can’t wait to get that going in the car! Wow! That blows my mind. I’m going to have to read up on that. That adds a whole new element to the commute. Also I asked Alexa on the house Alexa, to send me a recipe for something. She will email it to you. I have not gone in to see if she did. But that is cool. She’ll read the ingredients and if you are happy with it, she will send it.

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We also got money from Mom and gift cards from Aunt Martha and Uncle Ken and Katy and Cody in addition to gifts.

So I put all these things up yesterday and worked on my wardrobe for next week and also worked on my to do list some.

Current To Do List

Not necessarily in order but here are my goals for the week:

1. Mail off some family Christmas gifts – yes it’s late. But I ran out of time b/w work and company coming.
2. Get nails done.
3. Check Isagenix – do my next order. Don’t need much.
4. Buy a hostess gift for a dinner we are going to soon.
5. Transfer over some $ from Isagenix payment to our account.
6. Back up the old computer
7. Transfer important files to new computer
8. Send a friend some RV You Tube shows that I watch that she wanted.
9. Decide what is for dinner on NYE. We are doing Julia Child’s Beef Bourguignon on New Years Day.
10. List up my Year in Review for the blog
11. Decide where to eat for my birthday coming up.
12. Grocery
13. Clean up the office and rearrange and consider decor as needed.
14. Consider my goals and targets for 2020.

Most of that really will be done today. However, not really wanting to get out today. So nails and grocery and getting hostess gift may have to wait.

Upcoming To Do List After the 1st

• Get a bluetooth printer
• Reschedule dentist appointment cancelled due to work needs
• Schedule doc appointment for BP meds
• Make the April grooming appointments (she books quickly)
• Make plans with Richard and Kathy
• Confirm plans with Don and Lisa
• Ring cleaned and prongs checked
• Make a Texas video – I may just not do one this time as I’ve deleted most of my videos and time has passed. But I’m leaving it on the list b/c I might use it to practice making videos on the iMac with iMovie.
• Use Walmart Card (work gift)
• Make a Bucket List for Winter (Jan/Feb/Mar)
• See how we did on the Fall Bucket list (Oct/Nov/Dec)
• Buy dishrags for the kitchen – some cool ones, lol
• Buy my lotion body wash for winter
• My 7 books of all time that impacted me. This intrigues me so I’m keeping it on the list. I want to do it and share it on FB.
• Magazine project. Time to organize all those recipes, travel spots, and ideas and plan to put them in action and “bring them alive”.
• Picking a Bible Study
• Working on a writing project (one of them finished by the way on Christmas Eve as we sat in the living room – it was a book for my daughter and I gave it to her on Christmas Day. It was a book you fill in called “Reflections from a Mother’s Heart”)
• Upload my Apple gift cards (George and I split them as they were a gift together). I will use them for apps as I do the monthly iTunes thing that is paid and you have access to any song at any time. But I’ve started buying apps at times if it is something I will use.
• Plan a trip with Katy
• Plan and book our Amelia Island Trip
• Carve out some days for fall to take George to the mountains and get a cabin and some time away.
• Fix a casserole – I’m thinking something tomatoey like a “Beefy Mac” kind of thing!
• Fix a pasta salad with my spinach bow tie pasta
• Make orzo salad.

I’d say I have enough to keep busy eh? And at work it’s also busy:

• Month end of December taxes due to by Jan 15th
• Weekly taxes for this upcoming payroll and make sure all paid for last week as it was such pandemonium
• Quarter end withholding taxes for states we file quarterly.
• Quarter end Return Filing for WH taxes by Jan 30th
• Quarter End Unemployment taxes and returns due by Jan 30th.
• Most states have year end reporting that have to be done once per year aside from the above. I have a list.
• Reconciliation Report for WH and Unemployment – internal report.
• Do any filing of returns if anything is amiss and I know we have to do one for 1st and 2nd quarter of last year for one state.
• PTO forms, finish filing them for 2019 and put them away.

So there is no shortage of anything anywhere as far as where to spend time. lol

It is supposed to rain 2 to 3 inches today. So – I think I’m staying put today. However, we may actually have to get out in it. But I hope not.

I will likely not blog until New Year’s Day so that I can get in to work early and get payroll related items done. It’s going to be a very rushed payroll and there is a large amount of things that have to be entered and changed – it’s a holiday week so HOL pay added and subtracted for those absent the day before and after the holiday and new hires. A lot of things to enter from advances done last week so all comes out in the accounting/payroll records. And a tractor trailer load of PTO’s to enter for last week. Some for two weeks. So yeah, busy everywhere. I like it busy but not insane. Friday was insane, but hopefully this week will be better. I think what makes an insane day hard is when you want to help and do but you know you only can do so much and I knew Friday was coming to a head before Christmas but you can’t stop a train on a whim. I was hoping it all would work out. It did kinda mean a group of people had to pow wow and get it done. If not for that it still wouldn’t be done, but grateful that even the insane days are doable. I didn’t freak out. I was panicked and had tears in my eyes b/c I knew I couldn’t please everyone at once and it was frustrating. But with help we were able to please most. I just hope to not have a repeat of THAT. You provide instructions and prep and hopefully people will comply. You can only do so much without setting up a 24-7 living area. Someone said it was not pleasant getting urgent messages at their lunch time. I replied with “at least you GOT to take a lunch”. ;-).We laughed. It was a pleasant conversation not one of ill will. But it’s all good. I’d have taken a lunch but an hour worth of work would not have been done which would come to a head again later, by making payroll late this next week. So no lunch time for me. Oh I’ll eat! Just at my desk or thrown down quickly. And I probably won’t get lunch until we have a full week b/c a Holiday for me means having to work that amount missed to be caught up again so I don’t really get to feel the effect of a HOL since the hours are tacked on the other days of the week but it is nice to at least have the day off – I wish that happened every week so we had more balance. It is what it is and I’ll gladly work the hours and through lunch to keep from being eaten alive by the masses. It’s kinda like keeping the dogs favorite Fresh Pet in stock. We pay if we fail to go the store. They will eat us alive and bark til we get it. Only in the case of payroll, I often pay for someone else’s choices. lol

Ya’ll have a good New Year! Back in 2020! Unless I get a sneak one in!