Less Hustle More Coffee

Here is a cute Wallpaper I have as a wallpaper on my phone right now. It bothers me that the creator did not add the “ed” on the end. lol. But otherwise it looks like me, ha!

There is not a lot going on that would really be interesting. Work has been going well so far. Payroll is closed. Each week flies by and we cram as much into it as we can, knowing that time is precious.

Dexter has been both a delight and a derailment, lol. Nothing became of the pencil incident and now we hope nothing becomes of the other half of the toothpick that may have been chewed/swallowed. I only had half of one that I pulled from his mouth. Hubby chews on them and it’s a nightmare if he drops or leaves one on an end table.

He can be so good and then true to his spirit – he has an hour on each end of the day where he just goes crazy or he will be mischievous. Examples include: stealing George’s socks and not letting him put them on in the morning (he loves to steal them away each morning), stealing the dryer sheets dropped from a load or stuck to clothing and making us chase him around with it in his mouth for chewing/eating, stealing the washrags and dishtowels from the dirty laundry, getting the end of the toilet paper and dragging it through the house in a trail, then eating it. He also loves to steal trash any time he can, so everything has to have a lid or be up high. He loves q-tips – I mean they are a luxury item if he can score one. If we are not giving him attention he will tear up a pee pad into quarter and dime size pieces. I caught him with my chapstick in his mouth and I’m not sure where he got that. He has chewed on doors and edges of drawers but usually only does that when we have been gone 8 hours or so. We will have some repairs to do eventually. He loves to shred and/or eat just about anything. He is now 40 lbs at least and a growing boy. It’s keeping us busy morning and evenings unhooking him from the shenanigan of the moment. 😛

That said, he is a really good sleep partner and watch dog. He lets me know if something is amiss outside. He visits me up in the bed but has found that his favorite place is either at the foot of my bed or blocking the entrance to my bedroom door. I kinda think he wants to be available at George’s door but prefers laying on the carpet. So I think by laying at my door, he can see/hear George’s door which is closed. George has too much lying about in his room and my stuff is up off the floor. But he is a good protector and when he sees I’m awake he will jump back in bed until I go to sleep. That is some kind of sweet if you ask me. I’m not sure why he does that but it’s a God thing I think. Now if God can just calm him down some because we are too old and just need a little peace at the beginning and end of our day.

For the sake of my psyche, I started the puzzle. Puzzle time is very hard to come by, but I love them so. Once the border is made it will go quickly, a few pieces at a time. Some days I will say – ok stop long enough to put 5 pieces in! And it relaxes me and gives me glee. This is a summer scene.

I also want to find time to play a computer game during the holidays for the end of the day calming. Just 15 to 20 minutes – even that is hard to come by but it’s a goal to do on *some days* just to say I did.

I took some screen shots of the Queen’s trip from Balmoral to the church in Scotland. These were scenes that touched me in some way: The walking beside the car, and the seemingly long walk to the church, the beauty of the buildings there in Scotland, and the crowds saying goodbye to their queen, the respect, the loyalty, a shot of King Charles looking on and awaiting the walk behind the hearse. I’m intrigued at the gentlemen carrying the coffin, wondering who they are and how they feel and how they were chosen to carry the coffin – knowing this will be a day they will always remember and honor. And…the queen’s crown upon her coffin.

I was able to keep this on streaming with an earpiece as I did time sheets. I cannot allow myself to watch or listen to things while working unless it is folding checks. But since this did not have talking I could do timesheets and just look up from time to time. I was pleased to be able to see some portion of this in my busy schedule and it just worked out.

Hello Fresh continues to be good for 3 nights a week. We still love it but we are not eating much out of our freezer and keep adding to it as we find sales, so….we kinda need to offset some of our spending and we plan to “hold” a week here and there as we do that. I told George to just let me know. They let you stop it for up to 7 weeks or something like that – I’m not sure but you can certainly stop it for vacations and just when you know you want to save some $. I think that is fair and lovely.

I have noticed that in the past month or so, there are more premium meals when meat is concerned, meaning they seem to be offering less meat (beef in particular) at a regular level. The last couple of weeks I’ve seen it have better options though. I know they have to make money and their prices or strategies have to change to keep up with the prices, but it was noticeable for a while. I think they streamlined it a bit better with the last weeks they have opened up – you can see several weeks in advance and I go ahead and pick them out in advance so I can snag any deals on sale. Like Gumbo is on sale in one of the future weeks so I have it scheduled. Sale items sell out quickly.

I ordered granola bars and oatmeal from them this week out of convenience and found I love both.

I wanted to have a smoothie one day for breakfast but I could not find the frozen strawberries – darn it! I bet they are in there in the freezer somewhere. It’s easier to buy more and put them on the top. ::sigh:: This is why we need to be eating more from our freezers. So I just took the yogurt to work and threw Chex mix on top for crunch. It was good.

I also found a new tea. I think it might be new. It’s certainly new to me and I really liked it. Toasted Coconut by Bigelow. I also drank tea that day in honor of the queen.

Yes I need to get my nails done. I’m going tomorrow. I just didn’t want to go Monday for some reason, which escapes me now. Tomorrow is not really convenient either but I’m going to go because other wise it will be next week. ::sigh::

I’m taking Mom out to eat Thursday because I think she needs to get out of the house. I also realize her furniture could come that day but we can improvise. If the new recliners did not deliver yet I can just bring food over and we can eat, but if the date changes or the chairs have already arrived, we’ll go out to dinner. I found a new place (not new but new to her) to take her. Somewhere I’d forgotten about. And they have prime rib on Thursday night for $20 bucks which is a steal in today’s world.

My right knee has been bothering me. Mainly when I straighten it out – it makes me yell in pain. So I don’t straighten it out anymore. lol It is ok mostly when I walk on it, I just cannot stiffen it up. It has given out on me though 3 times in the past few weeks. I will take note of it and may have to be seen. I feel like a baby getting it seen right now as I’m able to walk and for the most part it is not causing me issue. But it is likely going to work itself into a problem eventually. So I have not exercised this week. I need to get back at it but figure I should wait a bit (?). Yes, I know I know – I will get it seen to when I feel it’s time. It’s not serious enough right now that they would do anything about it but tell me to put heat or cold on it, etc. They will avoid doing testing until absolutely necessary – says the insurance company!!!!

The Grandson is talking and has been calling us a lot. He has a rabbit on the ranch he loves to see morning and night.

So how am I feeling these days and what’s up with me? Sometimes lately I think I have been giving you pics of what we have done or Dexter did, or what we have eaten but haven’t really had time to focus on my feelings, which is really kinda why I got into blogging so many years ago – to tell the truth.

I am not sure I even take note of my feelings anymore really. I’m not sure I even have time to have feelings. Does that make sense? Like early in the year I know that I kinda felt blue – but it was mainly b/c I quit having interest in things and didn’t want to do anything but rest and sleep and was quite frankly just a robot going from one thing to the next.

So as far as time is concerned, I sometimes think that we are still robots. We have so much planned and so much on our to do lists and it has almost become a challenge to just see what all you can get done. As the year ends, I feel some slight pressure to work on and complete a few things I wanted just so I will not be disappointed in life or myself. But I have to accept what it is we DO get done. Like the jewelry project and the basement project. I’ve focused on videos and doing that and trying to grow it more than I have doing these projects. I’m trying to be consistent at getting the videos out but then there are a lot of things I did accomplish this year. So I have to be mindful of that.

But I feel ok – just feel a little bit of pressure that I put on myself, a little bit of anxiety as the last quarter of the year approaches knowing that it is our busiest time. I have to remind myself that it is also the time of year where we have so much fun.

I sat down today to list a few things in order to prioritize. You know I had to ask myself “what is it you really want in life Sonya?” I answered myself of course. And I will save that for another blog post. I promise I will. I’ve got it right here by my keyboard and I will do a special blog post on it.

I’ve been pondering what my phrase is for next year – my theme of sorts to help me cope with the year. This year it was “accept what is and forge forward”. Nothing is popping out at me yet for 2023. It doesn’t have to yet. I have time. Maybe I don’t need a phrase for the year anymore. Maybe I just do some quotes by the quarter. Who knows. No pressure.

I also have been thinking on my goals for 2023 too. I need to pick them carefully because I will drive myself to the grave working on it. Maybe I should put relax more on my list. 😉

Our whole family is starting to ponder Christmas too. We are all gathering up our ideas from one another. I started shopping Sunday from Amazon. I need to plan out when to get everything done on a sooner timeline than normal because last year I was really struggling to get time to get Christmas pulled together on time. Family was in town early and we hardly had time to spend with them for getting ready for the big days.

George and I have our anniversary day out coming up soon.

And we have a day with our friends Don and Lisa coming up. It’s always a spirit of refreshment getting to see them.

And with all those things, I’ll let you go. I need to do all these things on my list. A bit of laundry, grinding the coffee beans, working in the kitchen, checking on Mom, finding a card for Mom to send a gift card in to someone, giving Aunt Martha our Christmas list ideas she asked for, putting Bela Fleck in Africa in my iTunes, watching a YouTube video and looking at a Blog SEO checklist, and upgrading to the new iPhone 16.

I keep rescheduling some of these things for future dates because I never have time in a day to get to them. But I keep rolling them forward til I get tired of seeing them and then pick another future day, lol. It’s kindof annoying really until I finally just get tired of seeing them on there and ignore something important just to get it off the list and quit looking at it.

I badger myself to death but if I don’t I will never get done what I want to or more importantly I will forget. So if the important things go on the list the non-essential things have to go on there too or I’ll never get them done b/c my lists get all the attention. That is how bullied we are on time. Seriously. George keeps the lists too. I could not survive properly with out them though. They keep me organized and on the straight and narrow! lol

Oh and the next video will be out Saturday as long as I can finish up a few things and get it scheduled. I’ll be back probably Friday to pop in if I can’t sooner. So ya’ll take care.