dsmith
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Posts posted by dsmith
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Do you intend for the leftovers to be heated in the storage container? I use Pyrex glass containers. They stack, but I like to put one those felt dish separators in between. They still take up a bit of room though. I like the rectangular 6 cup for about 2 servings, the 11 cup for 3-4 servings, and I think it's a 3 cup for individual meals. We've also been saving the plastic containers from when we order food, similar to these:
I'm not crazy about plastic and usually use glass for my own food, but at least they are being re-used.
I also use this to reheat the larger family sized meals, especially in the summer: https://smile.amazon.com/HOTLOGIC-Food-Warming-Casserole-Carrier/dp/B07JQ6WPZD?ref_=ast_sto_dp&th=1&psc=1 I avoid the oven as much as possible during the summer!! That one fits up to a 13 x 9 or more than one of the smaller sizes. I also have the small version for myself.
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We have been serious about keeping a very stocked pantry since Sandy. Not just the pantry though - we also keep a lot of extra batteries, long storing kerosene in case we need to break out the kerosene heaters (which we have had to do twice since) and multiple ways to cook food and make coffee. We have always shopped sales and bought extra sale items. During the pandemic dh really focused on making things homemade, so now we have increased our stocks on essentials like flour, sugar, salt, etc. We prefer to find good prices online and do pickups when possible, and Walmart has been great for this, as well as BJ's. We also rediscovered Aldi this year. We weren't impressed the few times we went years ago, but they have really helped us save some money, even after the recent increases. We joke about the zombie apocalypse but having extra on hand has been so helpful when finances are tight. At the moment we don't have a car and are waiting for our mechanic to receive the parts he ordered for the repair. We've been able to feed everyone with only going out when brother-in-law has his car available to us. Those trips have been for one or two perishable items. These are all stocks we have built slowly, using sales, shopping around for the best price and doing pickups, using Subscribe and Save on Amazon, etc., so nobody would accuse us of hoarding if they saw us shop, but if they saw our food stores they may wonder about us, lol. Now there are a few items for ds that have been hard to find, and I will buy an extra one or two if I find them even if it wipes out the stock. He's on the spectrum and is difficult with food although better than he was. He's also trying to lose weight (50 lbs. down so far!!). When I see the Tyson air-fried chicken breasts or nuggets I'm buying at least 2, possibly 3!
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We have our laundry in our basement, in the unfinished area. We have two washers and two dryers, although one washing machine is out of service at the moment. I like it down here because I spend most of my day in the basement. We have a rec room down here, as well as my husband's office and my office nook off the rec room. The only downside is that we will run loads during the day and drape the clothes over the back of the couch, as we are both working. By the time we are finished working (do we ever finish?), cooking dinner, running errands, etc. we don't always get to the folding part, so there may be laundry draped over the couch at any time.😳 Also, our bedroom is on the third floor, and three flights of stairs to bring up laundry got to be too much, especially after a severe MS flare a few years ago. We have two recessed areas with small windows at the top and a bench at the bottom, so we bought storage cubes to put in there for our clothes, and covered them with heavy curtains. Nobody knows our clothes are there and it saves us from dragging our clean laundry up to the attic. Some people think this is very weird, but it works for us.
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The only thing I've had trouble finding lately is organic frozen kale or spinach, although I can find a blend of the two in BJ's. I only use it in my smoothies/smoothie bowls. In experimenting with other veggies, I discovered riced cauliflower tastes so much better in a smoothie!!
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Pants wearer. And the laundry doer gets to keep all money found in pockets. I usually make a buck or two a month, and occasionally get a $20.
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You're not being a jerk and I think SIL should pay for half of the cost but I don't think it's something that should cause strife at home, it should be let go. And not everyone throws things out from the funeral. Our local funeral home donates whatever flowers are left to a local senior home, as long as they don't look like obvious funeral arrangements. I took home a beautiful plant from my dad's funeral and managed to keep it alive for 10 years, which is pretty amazing for me. And although many people ask for donations at funerals they do expect to receive flowers and plants, and many people look to make sure certain close relatives or employers have sent something. (I have seen and heard this at wakes, comments being made about someone not sending any flowers, family looking to see who sent what and being very appreciative for the kindness, even though donations were asked for.)
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I ordered mine last week and they came 3 days later. I didn't necessarily need them as our stores are well stocked but I'm not saying no to free stuff.😊
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We love Pi day here! Dh even bought a banner and balloons this year and guests had to bring a dessert pie while we supplied the dinner pies. It was a lot of fun! And I ate 7 different kinds of pies.😊 So yeah, basically an excuse to eat a lot of pie now that ds is older and we aren't doing any educational activities to go along with it.
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We use Instant Ink for two businesses and personal use, and we love it. I have one printer at $2.99/month, and the other two are on a $4.99 plan. I can bump it up if I know I will be printing more than usual, and lower it if we are printing less. Many months I have a rollover and rarely have to bump my plan up. I always have ink on hand when I need it. It's saved us a ton of money and aggravation, and I highly recommend it. When I see people buying ink cartridges at Staples and other places I wonder why they still do that lol.
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We have some freeze-dried fruits and veggies for extreme emergencies, as well as rice, beans, lentils, etc. I'm ok with certain canned foods so we stock what actually gets used. I also grow microgreens from Hamama and have quite a bit of extra seed mats. We have a lot of freezer space and stock up well, but if we didn't have power we could only keep running them if we can get fuel. During Sandy that was difficult and we lost a large and small freezer full of food, probably about $500 - 700 worth.
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4 hours ago, MercyA said:
@dsmith, very cool! Thank you so much for sharing your story with us. I have a few stories as well.
The first story needs some background. My grandma (one of my favorite people in the whole world) was a heavy smoker. Whenever we went somewhere in the car, she had Tic Tacs or gum in her purse instead of cigarettes and would always offer them to us. "Want a Tic Tac?" was a phrase that all of us heard often. 🙂
At the time my grandma died, my mom had been planning an overnight trip with my sister and her family. They postponed it and went a week or two later. While in the hotel, my mom was lying awake in the middle of night thinking of her mom. She prayed something like, "Please, God, send me a sign to let me know Mom is okay." She got up to go to the bathroom. Sitting right on top of her open purse was a container of Tic Tacs. Her first thought was, "Why in the world did my husband go out and buy me Tic Tacs in the middle of the night?" She woke Dad and he knew nothing about it. Miraculous Tic Tacs. 🙂
Another hotel story! My mom and dad were on another trip with my sister and her family. My grandpa had passed away not long before. My sister woke my mom up at 6 AM, frantic, saying that she couldn't find her one-year-old son. My BIL was supposed to be watching him, but, as toddlers do, my nephew had managed to open the door by pulling the lever and slipped out. They found him one floor down, trotting along the hotel hallway. Thank God. He'd gone down a cement flight of stairs.
When my parents got home from the trip, my mom checked her answering machine. She pressed play and heard my grandpa's voice. She was so shocked she didn't even listen to the message, but ran to the garage and said, "DH, my dad's voice is on the answering machine!!" They came back in and listened together. My dad agreed that it was my grandpa's voice. There was static, then Grandpa said, "Is he alright? Is he inside?" I guess he was concerned for my nephew, too. ❤️
My mom also finds dimes from my grandpa. One instance: my grandparents' house had been all cleaned in preparation for being shown to prospective buyers. Everything was out of the house, carpet swept, etc. My mom showed up at the house and unlocked the door to wait for the realtor. Right in the middle of the empty hallway was a dime. She also often found white feathers in odd places with no explanation in the few years right after her parents died.
Another story: my grandparents were famous for saying "Call and let it ring twice when you get home" when anyone left their house. After my grandpa died, my mom was praying for a sign that he was okay. She was lying on the couch in the living room late at night. The phone rang and she got up to get it. It cut off after the second ring. She laid back down and didn't think anything of it. It rang again, twice, and stopped again. Then she was like, "Oh! Okay, Dad." 🙂 She did whatever you do to trace the number on a landline phone (is it *69?) The number was from Aurora, IL, and was out of service. My grandpa was from Chicago and often told the story about how he and the neighbor kids in Chicago once saw the aurora borealis and thought aliens were invading. (Also, Aurora is only about 45 minutes from Chicago.)
I loved reading these stories, thanks for sharing!
I personally associate squirrels with my mom. When I was driving to the funeral home to meet my family to handle her arrangements there must have been about 12 squirrels running out onto the road (not all at once) forcing me to slow down. I had been wishing there was some way she could let me know she's ok before I left to meet everyone. Now I always slow down when there is more than the usual squirrel activity in case she's warning me of danger ahead. My sister knows this story, so we were joking about what my reaction would have been if she dropped a squirrel on the counter lol.
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After my father died, my mom had a thing with pennies from heaven. She'd be in the bathroom and a penny would be on the floor, or getting in the car and one would be on the dashboard. She would always say they were pennies from heaven, from my dad. It was a big thing for her! Fast forward to today, I'm having a terrible morning, crying hysterically about some health issues, probably the worst I've cried in years. I manage to calm down after a while, and I'm thinking to myself how much I miss my mom and would love to be able to talk to her about this. I decided to make tea, and I'm standing in the kitchen waiting for the tea pot to whistle, looking in the general direction of our coffee maker. Suddenly a penny lands on the counter right in front of the coffee maker!! I didn't see it fall, just land. There is nothing over this area except a closed cabinet that reaches to the ceiling. I just stood there, stunned for quite a few minutes. I'm still kind of in shock.
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Maybe the pee didn't soak all the way through? I know the cardboard can be very thick and coated on the boxes Christmas trees come in. That's a tough one - I don't even know how to go about cleaning an artificial Christmas tree beyond blasting it with Lysol....
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I'm addicted! Dh and I used to play Jotto in our younger years and it reminds me of that game. I like that I can't be tempted to play it all day, because I would if I could.
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I haven't been able to find good doctors at all since moving to our current area 12 years ago. I keep my neurologist only because she is cheap and prescribes the meds I need but she is from where I used to live and a long drive. The ones where I currently live are even worse. I stopped bringing up any diet related issues, like increased numbness when eating gluten. Thankfully I have an awesome neuro for my son, and he follows his patients into adulthood. Not many do, so we were lucky to find him. When I was diagnosed with MS he became very proactive in recommendations for prevention in ds. His other doctors shrugged it off. I'm currently trying to get my elderly neighbor's doctor to refill his prednisone so he can taper off instead of suddenly stopping at 20 mg a day. He has psoriasis, and could get a severe flare from tapering too quickly or not tapering at all. He's been on it for 12 weeks, so it will also be a shock to his adrenal system. And this guy's a doctor?!?!?
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Just now, KrisTom said:
I haven't been seen in a long time, either. 😞 I'll have to find out if there is a safe way to do this.
I only use N95 masks for any in-person visits. I was shocked when I got to her office and nobody was masked except me! I figured if 3 people stayed with my father-in-law for 5 hours as he was dying from Covid and nobody was infected then a 15 minute doctor visit would be ok. I wasn't happy about it though!!
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36 minutes ago, KrisTom said:
Thank you all for your very thoughtful responses. I think this is what I need to do right now. I know mental health has been a big concern with the pandemic, and I already know for myself, that I have the perfect personality to make it even worse on top of how bad things feel for everyone. I am wondering if a primary care doctor would be willing to prescribe it over the phone or via a telehealth visit?
My neurologist was ok prescribing Prozac over the phone, but I had to go see her for a refill for Xanax. She couldn't refill as I hadn't seen her in over a year, and by law I had to be seen first.
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I ended up going back on Prozac. I also have a prescription for Xanax. I found my anxiety lessened a good deal after each vaccination and the booster shot, but it started increasing again with Omicron. It hasn't been as bad as it was in the beginning of the pandemic though. I take stress and anxiety very seriously because it has a negative effect on multiple sclerosis. Stress and anxiety combined with illness are the perfect recipe for a relapse, so I wanted to be very proactive by going back on Prozac and not being afraid to use Xanax when I need to. I also use meditation and various breathing exercises as well as exercise to help manage the anxiety. They do help! I hope you find some relief.
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Our state is offering free Vault testing. It's a saliva test and requires a zoom call. Maybe your state is offering them too? Otherwise I think they are $80 including shipping both ways. It does detect Omicron but it's taking a bit longer for results with the current situation.
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On 1/7/2022 at 12:20 AM, chocolate-chip chooky said:
The more I think about it, the more I want something hot. Even if there's no evidence of Covid transmission via food, I know this will make me feel better.
I have a large and small Hot Logic for home and a small one for the car for when we are traveling. I love them: https://hotlogic.com/
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Dh makes them with either a buffalo sauce or a piccata sauce.
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Another vote for HP Instant Ink. We've saved a ton of money for both personal use and two businesses. They have many plans and they can be changed as needs change. We've used the service for at least 6 years I think. I don't need to think about ink at all anymore, which is worth it just for that!
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On 12/28/2021 at 1:27 PM, mom31257 said:
I'm going to use a bullet journal this year, and I'm working on planning out the type of pages I want to use.
How do you arrange your pages if you include weekly/daily pages along with yearly, monthly, or goal pages?
I found this article that lists three ways, but I wondered if others might do something different.
All of those ideas look pretty, but they are exactly opposite to what a bullet journal is for me. I do the original method without all the fancy additions. I just need to keep my brain organized, not add more work for myself. I'm not an artistic person though, so that may be why I'm turned off by some of these bullet journal ideas. For me they defeat the purpose, which is rapid logging to stay on track. I can make a page for anything I want to record, but it's going to look very basic, with a title for whatever it is I'm using the page for, and whatever info is relevant for that page. I'm not going to pre-date any pages or add pages before I actually need them. This method helps me to counteract the MS related brain fog that I deal with every day. I'd be lost without it!!
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Glad your mom is doing well after her surgery! Sending prayers for swift recovery to her and your dad, prayers also to your family.
KN95 recommendations please
in The Chat Board
Posted
The only KN95s I use are the Powecom. I always check the sticker with the website to make sure they are legit. They were having a problem with counterfeits about 6 months ago maybe? The quality is very good compared to others I've bought. The straps are very secure. I've had straps from other KN95s come right off on the first wear.