Less Hustle More Coffee

Oh the coffee this morning! It is heavenly and the fact that I have about 4-5 hours at home this morning to do whatever I want to do or need to do.

We bought a new Starbucks coffee last week with Aunt Martha and Uncle Ken’s 2021 Christmas cards they gave us – yeah I’m behind. Well this morning was the first morning with the new coffee. It’s the one on the right here, Casi Cielo.

It’s a Guatemalan coffee too. The Guatemalan coffees are the best in the world and after 40 years of drinking coffees from nearly everywhere- I figure I have a right to say that. George and I discovered that we liked the Guatemalan Antiguan coffee from various kitchen and/or coffee shops that we would find it in –about 30 years ago. And we have favored that since. We were delighted when Starbucks kept their Guatemalan Antiguan coffee as a regular staple in their stores. So we have a new favorite and I don’t know that I don’t like the Casi Cielo better.

How to describe Casi Cielo? Well, it’s difficult for me to describe tastes of wine and coffee – or anything for that matter, but I will say it is smooth, lighter and crisper, but yet at the end it still has that earthy dark taste that Guatemalan Antigua offers. It’s listed as a “medium” coffee. I’ll give it that but it still has a dark taste at the end. I will say this. It’s just what you want a cup of coffee to be. It’s the most perfect cup I’ve had in a very very long time. So I’m enjoying my Saturday morning sips. I very highly recommend you try it. Probably have to go to Starbucks to get it.

What can I say about what we have been up to?

Pretty much the same. Working, keeping up Mr. Dexter, some household chores, laundry, working on blogs some and movies, and Mom’s Doc appt day – more on that here in a minute. We also have been planning our charcuterie board to take to friends Don and Lisa’s.

It was my suggestion to do a board. However, it’ll have more of a seafood type of twist. We are having marinated shrimp and also smoked salmon. I suggested that we have the makings of smoked salmon with the cream cheese, jelly, and crackers. I also suggested to have pistachios and candied pecans on the board. So this George’s “thang”. He took it all and ran with it!

Our friends our making/grilling a variety of meats. And most of all we will enjoy seeing them for a few hours. We are leaving the dog at home. One day maybe he will be mature enough to get to go. George wanted to take him so bad and I told him it wasn’t a good idea. He asked if we should bring him or not. (We are close enough that he felt comfortable asking since we had brought dogs before.) They also said it was probably not the best idea. Men don’t listen to their wives, right? I told him but he had to ask. lol. He wanted me to ask and I was like “no b/c I know we shouldn’t take him and I know it’s not the right time”. I get a silent smile when I’m right. Because he really should give me more credit on these types of things I just know. But George is so dependent and doesn’t like a woman telling him what to do. I laugh thinking what if Momma and George had married one another. LOL LOL LOL. Oh my gosh – I think both would be dead within 30 minute from killing one another with each wanting their way and fighting to get it.

Bottom line…we get to relax and have fun with our friends today.

Mom.

Her new recliners arrived. I really like them. They are pretty comfortable. The color works as it ties in with her granite that has black in it. And off sets the white kitchen.

So yesterday was my half day (the other half worked an hour over every Tuesday to cover) for Mom’s eye injection day. I took her the bacon I bought earlier in the week that I had kept in a cooler on ice. LOL. I also installed the phone holder for her car which had pitiful instructions. We got the eye appt done and took her car in for a wash at one of those drive thru places. It was very dusty as she has been in a construction zone with houses being built behind her. We also needed to get gas. And also we went out to eat at Double Dogs in Gallatin which is a favorite of mine. They have a great menu. I was planning to get a burger but ended up getting a country fried chicken salad with honey mustard and it comes with a croissant drizzled with sweet cream honey (magic dessert). Mom got a burger with onion rings.

After we got back to Mom’s she wanted me to figure out a recall issue with her fuse box. So I dealt with that. Mom’s was recalled. It was a pain in the butt because where the manufacturing number was, another sticker had been placed on top of it and I had to read through the numbers and it’s backwards.

Mom’s fuse box was in the recall so I had to complete the form on line and I guess someone will come out to inspect it. I made sure it was official and Goodall and the manufacturer had sent the information. There was a YouTube on how to check the numbers. They were not asking for money or anything so all looked legit and pretty formal.

I waited until almost six to leave so that traffic would die down some. It was still pretty heavy and ladened with impatient drivers, none of which I was in the mood for. I prayed for patience for those impatient drivers so I can imagine how their week is going to go, LOL. They say never to pray for patience. I view that as kind of a secret voodoo doll way of getting back at someone. Buahahhaha. It works. It’s better than giving a finger right? Or getting mad. Just pray the prayer of patience on them! ha!

Yesterday I had some things on my mind I had to get off and onto paper so I could work. Just so you know sometimes I have to do a mind dump. George does it every day too but his are not in circles. Sometimes mine are not either. But I do LOVE mind maps til I can get them sorted and on my to do list in a timeline fashion.

These were things I didn’t want to forget and/or things that were on 15 little scrap sheets of paper and I put it all on one. These have to do with Christmas, our Amazon orders this weekend, some notes I want to keep in my YouTube/Blogging/Vlogging/Planning/Training /Notebook. And some things I wanted to look up on the internet and/or YouTube, and some Dexter things on my mind. Once Dexter is snipped (2nd week of October I believe) we will have to work fast to get him approved and reserved for boarding. To top things off there is a canine flu going around our area (insert rolling eyes here).

I’ve also been working on our Fall to end of year Bucket List over a period of time but I added a few things. Here this weekend I’ll put it in poster form and hang it and will take the summer one down. I really meant to start the fall in September but I gave us a chance to get more of the summer things done. We didn’t really. But it’s ok I’ll float them over. These are just ideas and some fun things too and also I throw goals in there just to keep them in our heads. I also started the 2023 one as well behind it.

I’ll show you the summer one with the check marks and the fall official new bucket list in a few days. There’s a lot more on the back of this after I talked with George. We love doing our bucket lists. This doesn’t stress me out so much but I truly was hoping to squeeze a few things in on the fall one but we just ran out of time.

Which To DO List to USE? Yeah I know what you are thinking, a day after I do an entry about relaxing, I come on and do a entry on tweaking my “to do lists”. But, one, I’ve slept since then, and two, this is a more relaxed method I’m about to share of getting things done.

First of all, I absolutely love the Reminder to do list that comes with the iPhone. With the latest upgrade you can even take today’s to do list and have it go to Morning, Afternoon and Evening – which is great. The downside is that if you don’t get it done it shows up first thing tomorrow, lol. You have to reset the date and time to get it to go back to an afternoon slot. Drove me crazy til I figured out what was happening because it would let me do it at the time but then rearrange it on me back to what it was when I went back> :-P.

But I’ve been wondering in times of just being horrifyingly busy should I not to switch back to the Eisenhower or Four Quadrant method of to do list?

That way I can see it coming! I mean with sooooooo much that we need to do I figure this might be a better way for me other than hopping up one morning and I’ve suddenly got 40 things listed that I thought I might do having stuck them there way ahead and not considering priority. Having the quadrant method will help me with priority. I did have an app I used but it pretty much went defunct after the apple iPhone upgrades – it just didn’t work well anymore. I’d like to have an app but I could just use excel or my mac’s version of excel. Or just use a note pad and hand write it but I’d have to keep writing things over and over.

BTW, don’t get too caught up in today’s to do list. I’ve added a few things on there I’ll likely not get to, but hope to. I will likely spend a lot of the time cleaning up and doing laundry, restocking, etc. I don’t put every little housecleaning project on there unless it is something I have to do that I didn’t get done on Saturday and I’ll have to do it after work. That way I don’t forget. lol

Anyway I’m thinking I may use both because there are some things that the daily lists reminds me to do – like take my BP meds or check on Mom. Sometimes I get so wrapped up I forget to call. I know that is bad but that is how focused I get on things. Or it’s on my mind but time passes by and it’s bedtime already when I think I have got a few more hours.

So I guess that is the ticket. I’ll use both just so I can throw all the later stuff in a section of it’s one and be able to see what is coming up!

And NO, I can’t just NOT USE to do lists. I would lose half my brain and nothing would ever get done and I would play computer games and work puzzles and watch TV all evening! Mom wouldn’t have groceries, we’d wear dirty clothes, you would never get a blog entry or video again, I’d die because I would forget to take my BP meds, we’d never go anywhere b/c we’d forget where we wanted to go (lol), and the dog wouldn’t eat his good food b/c I’d forget to order it on Amazon. We wouldn’t have near as much fun.

More than anything though we just need to clear out some time “to do the things”! That is why I’d scheduled it on my to do lists. But I keep rolling a bunch of things forward. It’s fun in a way to reschedule it, lol. It’s fun to open up today’s list to see what popped on it. But in reality – this time of year is not going to allow much of any personal goals. Personal goals from October on won’t be able to be worked on until about next February and February will be so crammed with plans for catch up that I’ll be doing those “oh my gosh I’m depressed videos”. But life is what it is and we’ll just keep trying to hang on to that end of the whip lash. And I will do my best to get rest and relaxation in there too.

Have a great weekend! What all you gonna do?