Starting in Salina, KS, lol. Have to bring a kiddo to an event and have a week before we pick them up so we might road trip to get away (vs sending them on a flight to KS)

I've looked a little at Big Bend. It doesn't have to be hiking, but something outdoorsy/access to nature a part of the time would be great. Sedona might be too far for this trip. I'd prefer mild weather.

We are looking at possibly going on a road trip at the end of December into the new year. We are big hikers and also enjoy fishing, but would need to rent a boat or kayaks. Is there any destination or multiple destinations in one of these states you'd go to? We could camp, but would prefer at least a camper cabin set up (with a basic structure with heat and electricity and access to a restroom). I'm open to suggestions and thought what better resource to tap into than the hive.

Got stuff cleaned up in eldests room. Still more to go for that one (a bit of a packrat), I organized my picture books in rainbow order and that made me happy. I need to decide what books I want to purge. I probably could do some as a donation to my former school I worked at. I also have a handful of educational games I want to find a good home for. My homeschooling and parenting books I will offer to either my cousin or our former homeschool group. I am working on a grocery order for tomorrow so I can prepare something for our potluck Tuesday at work.

Safe travels!

Outside tasks are all done. The closet shelf was installed. Hubs got the tires rotated on his car. Nice to check those things off before winter really hits. I reset the mousetraps in the attached garage and shed since this is the time of hear they want to visit the indoors.

Running to get a closet shelf board and trim boards for windows jam boxes. Need to do some shuffling of things before winter outside (like lawn mower away, boat moved and trees wrapped). Then back to inside cleaning/purging/sorting/organizing.

Spent the day unpacking and purging. Was productive and have a good size get rid of pile. Tackled the front closet and some book shelves. Got more furniture shuffled into place. DH got the TV/speakers set up in the basement now.

I'm so sorry. Grief brings up so many things. Be gentle with yourself.

That's unfortunate. This was eldests 6th or 7th time donating...first time with passing out. They didn't eat enough with substance. Then their arm was numb so we called the donation center and talked to the on call doc. We think the wrap was just too tight so we didn't have to go to an ER for that's thankfully (non of us have ever had that happen and dh has donated a lot). They will check up with us in the morning via phone call. The lady that passed out said she only had eaten an apple all day ,(and it was 4:30pm).

It is such a challenge. Hang in there and vent even you need to.

Blood donation got exciting. Eldest passed out...I was still donating so I only saw from a distance. Then as I was in the snack area another lady came to sit down to eat and I said to her "are you ok?" And she passed out too...I reached for her so she wouldn't hurt herself. And since I spoke first, other staff were quick to be there too since they were close but doing things at the counter as is normal. The staff then helped get her to the ground. She needed some smelling salts. Eldest is just tired now, so that's good/normal. Hopefully a good night sleep will help.

Is it a really big hassle? We have a vaulted side of the living room. I am thinking about a 9 foot Christmas tree. I would get a slim one so it fits the space. But, would I regret getting one that big.

I am deciding on a new Christmas tree to order now that remodeling is done. Donating blood after work as a part of eldests senior project. Need to order doors for basement rooms, found some that could more easily be modified.

Well boo. Hallmark isn't selling a peanuts nativity this year.

Made Mrs Mungo's baked oatmeal for breakfast. Going to work on moving furniture and stuff around today after bringing tools outside to utilize our newly finished space!

This is a screenshot of one of the ones I have. DHs grandma had one. I really liked it, I sought out one on eBay. My mom, who loved vintage stuff saw mine and ended up with a full set and a partial set (I believe she probably found them on eBay as well). Time moves on, my parents passed, I ended up with the ones my mom had...DHs grandparents then started giving away things/downsizing, so I ended up with Gramma's original one as well. I do not put up three of the same one, but I guess I could, lol.

Unlit. Too many problems with prelit. And I like different lights. I have some big bulb lights and bubble lights I like to use. This year we are downsizing our tree so I decided we are getting Twinkly lights. You can program them to do all sorts of fun things.

Which one, lol. I kind of want the Peanuts one to add to my collection this year. I will have to see if I can get pics to load of the 3 I have.

I've brought a handful of plants to my classroom at school to overwinter them. I need to wrap our newish tree trunks to keep away bunnies and deer and then wrap the small arborvitaes in burlap to prevent wind burn. I need to find a sunnier window for my african violet too.

We need to hang some brackets in the garage to hold leftover siding to get it up off of the floor before another winter. Then will move some furniture back into the basement from the garage and shuffle other things downstairs from the main floor. That will allow more things to get into their proper places and the clutter to take another step towards put back away. We were going to buy doors, but we have some custom things to work around so we might end up building the interior doors. Researching that this morning as well. Hubs will watch football and we have a grocery order coming this afternoon. Today is also the last play performance (youngest was an understudy, so not performing today...she performed yesterday). The weeks will start to feel even more free with no more play practice pick ups.

Going to buy basement doors. Have youngests play at 2pm

Picking up a load of furniture and things we boxed up and stored at SILs during remodeling.

I want this, it is so nice looking, but I don't know where it's put it/how is use it/how's much I'd need, so I do not need this, I do not need this, I do not need this.

Flooring this morning... I should add to my grocery order.