Less Hustle More Coffee

The weekend has been busy so when the eyes opened Saturday morning, I hit the ground running. Spring Break AirBnB booked. Christmas/Birthday gift cards redeemed. Shopping done. January is such a “shuffle” of moving things around, cleaning out, starting anew, making room for any new things, getting rid of the old. And one thing leads to another, which leads to another. I think we still have a Christmas box upstairs and several gift boxes that need to go down. George is getting the trash out of the house little by little as he cuts things (boxes) down, and as the trash load allows, for all the additional packaging, boxes, papers, etc.

Boxes opened and put up. New 8 place setting of white dishes out of the box washed in hot soapy water, dried, and put up. Cabinets rearranged to make everything new fit. The old dishes taken out, wrapped and packed for donation.

It took a while to reorganize the cabinets. I put four white mugs in with our other coffee cups/drink cups. It’s embarrassing to have this many beloved drink containers, lol. I put two of the new white mugs next to the Keurig in the den and then 2 were “chipped”/damaged. I had prayed they would not be broken. But I forgot to pray that nothing would be chipped. lol

The smoothie maker put in its place also. And on the 2nd shelf to the right they have a spot. There’s two smoothie glasses and a smoothie bowl.

I fixed a smoothie this morning with a small banana, 2 big heaping tablespoons of Greek non fat yogurt, almond milk and a few ice cubes. Man that motor is strong. In like 6 seconds it was total liquid. It used to take 60 seconds or more with the ISA blender I had before. I’m really gonna enjoy this. I can’t wait to work on my smoothie bar, but I’m going to do as planned and start working on it in February. Til then I’ll use whatever fruit we have, almond milk, ice cubes, etc. But later I want to add some powders and greens, etc. I know I want protein powder and maybe collagen, PB Powder – that’s mainly it for starters. I want to research what I want/need, then price it, then go buy it. I plan to visit the nutrition stores locally before I buy on amazon. If they are cheaper I will do that.

I’m in love with the Ninja! This is one with the high powered 1200 Peak Watts motor. You turn the glass over, just barely press it down and hit start and man it goes.

This was a great decision. Also I’m very excited about the smoothie bowl to make “frozen treats” OMGosh. Summertime will be delightful.

I also set the table up for next Saturday’s Northern Lattitude party. I will wait and show it all next Saturday/or Sunday when I blog after the party.

We ate dinner on the new dishes last night. I love the beaded edges.

I also put out much of the normal Nic Nacs. There’s a few things I waited on that looked springy. I’ll wait til March before putting those out. And then I’ll probably add the easter bunny things. I love decorating the house.

I went over my normal budget to order some placemats for Saturday. They were inexpensive, but I had NOTHING that even looked appropriate. I bought some silver shiny round ones that are spiky looking. Now I have to find napkins. I’d really like to find some grey ones or something with polar bears. I may stop on the way home tomorrow to see if I can find something.

We went to the carpet store to see if they could repair our carpet that Dexter ruined, but they were only open to let people look and to “sell” and the office people were not there so they could not help us. George will talk with them Monday. Til then we have a quilt over the area so Dexter won’t continue to pick at the threads.

It may not sound like we did much but I was on my feet all day. I also dusted before putting my house back together and did laundry as well as go to the store with George after the carpet store trip. So by end of day, it was nice to sit and read and then also watch Yellowstone.

Today of course, was church. It’s been a misty grey day and a little on the chilly side for our liking. With an almost 50 degree temp we wore our lighter jackets and it turns out that 49 + a little wind is quite chilly.

Afterward we went to Olive Garden and celebrated my birthday – from Mom. We all enjoyed a meal. Then we took Mom to run some errands. She needed several things from Lowe’s and we went there. Then we went to Aldi. Then we took her home but I needed to redeem her Amazon gift cards and she found what she wanted. But only after we spent 45 minutes trying to find what she ORIGINALLY wanted. Wherever she saw it, it was not to be found. Then I renewed her car tags on line. Then I signed her up with CVS where she gets so much credit every so often because of her insurance. I had never heard of that. But once we got her on, she had $160 in her balance.

I think that was it. We headed back home where I finished up the laundry, folding some towels, washed some dishes, and then reorganized a kitchen drawer. I refuse to show you the “before”. Just know it was awful. It had everything all in a shuffle. I’ve organized the drawer before but I didn’t have the right things to organize with. I bought these things recently. I forgot where I got them – oh I think it was the “home store”. And I totally love this. It’s SO MUCH BETTER.

This is just one of those “catch all drawers”. It’s the main one. I’m pleased. I’m being true to my word about blessing my house. It’s blessing us in the process.

In the mean time. Dexter, has been a little upset with us when we don’t give him the attention he seeks. He still loves us being home, but here he is, in the hall keeping one eye open and two paws to the wall. I’m not sure what that is about, lol.

You can see the price we pay for allowing him to roam the hall when we are gone. He chewed the wood work, despite us having plenty of toys. So those will be on the agenda, but we will wait longer until this is not an issue for him anymore.

Also he’s chewed and scratched on the wall. I think George and I also have a plan for that. We discussed repainting it the same color and then also painting the den that color. The den is the only room besides the laundry room that is still paneling. I think I’m ready to change that and paint it. It will lighten up the room so much. I can’t imagine how we will do it though with Dexter around. We’ll have to block him off and keep the doors closed. I’m thinking that could be a spring/summer project. Oh can you imagine if he got loose the damage he could do with a bucket of paint. Oh dear heavens I hate to think of it. Maybe we should do doggie day care that day. lol

I’m getting so close to working on videos again, but I just have to get things wrapped up here and kinda back to normal and in a groove. I get so close but I still have a few things I need to work on. I did some vlogging this weekend. So I’ll catch up quick I think once I get started back again. No six month behind stuff going on though.

I do have the following I’ll be working on this week:

• The Northern Lattitudes party with friends on Saturday (be looking for the food and decor pics)
• Getting the house ready and making my recipe Friday night, and we go to the store mid-week for the fresh stuff.
• Work on the Bucket list for Winter into Spring. Gosh darn if I don’t hurry and get it done Spring will be here, but I keep running out of day and other things were more important.
• Writing in my Grandma’s journal. I have a quota to get a two page spread done every week. If so I will be through with it before things get stupid busy again (as if they don’t stay stupid busy).
• Signing in to my old Blogs accounts so I don’t lose them.
• Fix/cover up Dexter’s markings with the brown magic marker.

Much of this will probably end up moving to next weekend, if I can’t manage to get to it this week.

• I have some office work that will probably wait til next weekend. I need to get some goals/plans on my Focus app which is where I park way off future things until I can infuse them into my to do list – otherwise I’m just always having to forward them to another date every day on my regular to do list which is annoying. I do enough of that as I over plan my days always.
• I need to hook up the Echo show and figure out where it is going to go. I researched it today to see what all it would do.
• I need to research more on the weather station and see where we want to put that to get the most use out of it. I need more electrical outlets, lol.
• I need to work on some paperwork in my office and organize a few things and get it work worthy for doing all the things I want to do. I still have my birthday gifts sitting in my office and need to put those up.
• I need to set up my new message board that I hang in my office with the new motivational phrase of the year.
• Then I can get going on the videos and doing my work for the blog/vlogs that I want to do.
• I’m also looking forward to setting up a puzzle table again, watching and catching up on some videos of others on YouTube. One of our sailing people we follow just had a baby, another two couples have just got new sailing vessels. Many are coming back from a break where they took the holidays/new year off too. I’m not that big but at least one person said they missed my vlogging and can’t wait til I come back. Made me feel so special.

And that ought to keep me busy. Not to mention for work I’ll be working on Quarter End processing. I’m finished with month end taxes finally. But have to more toward getting our reconciliation done this week. So that is my goal. I plan to work a little over each day if I can. I just have a lot going on – like I have to make a stop tomorrow after work and Weds, and then cook on Friday, oh and we have to pick my car up on Wednesday as it’s getting an oil change. So yeah, lots going on this week. But I might work a little over – 30 minutes or so, lol. Dexter goes to doggy daycare on Thursday. I think it’s gonna storm that day. So that could impact whether I work over or not. I don’t drive in storms nor heavy rain either. So I’ll do whatever to avoid THAT. I’ll just pray over it all and the Lord will help me get things done.

Have a great week ya’ll. I will be back as I can this week. We are busy but happy. For the most part. There was that ONE moment when I really just wanted to break down and cry. But I didn’t. I tapped into the Spirit and He helped me get through the moment. There are just some very difficult times right now that are frustrating, but I try to hold it all in check and move forward.

Oh and I have to contact Amazon to see what they can do about the two chipped mugs. (Insert rolling eyes here.)

Have a good week. I’m ready for PJ’s, and a book! I’m off to that next!