A Long, Long Week!

Yes, it's been that here -again!

A long, long week and by the looks of things, my weeks ahead keep getting longer and longer with more and more things packed into them too!

It's been over a week since my last post and I've thought from time to time of topics to post about but have been feeling more than a bit overwhelmed too of late and therefore, somehow, just never got around to doing anything on the computer besides checking e-mail and responding where necessary, surfing my Facebook and keeping -or trying to -my Reader fairly up-to-date and cleared out.

Anything else took precedence over the time necessary to sit and actually write a post!

Why?

Well, for openers, the medical community here has pretty much taken control over my life, that's why?

Over the past two weeks, it seems every time I turn around and find five minutes of free time, some doctor has decided to usurp that little smidgen of time by requiring my presence for an appointment, for blood work, or for more tests and even taking up a whole day this past week by having me confined to the out-patient surgical area for the bulk of the day on Wednesday!

And let me tell you, this stuff is getting old -like me -and doing it just about as quickly as I am aging too.

Next week does look like it might hold a little bit of promise though as right now, I only have three appointments on two different days. Monday a.m., I have a checkup with my family doctor followed that afternoon by some kind of scan (with dye inserted) of the heart. I think -if I heard them correctly -this one is called a Mug scan and is a test I've never even heard of before.

Then on Tuesday, my day will be lost as they will try -again -to run the first chemo treatment on me using the new port that was inserted in my upper chest this past Wednesday. And even if the treatment goes off without a hitch, because the chemo I will be receiving takes at least 3 1/2 hours to run through, that will take up the bulk of my time on Tuesday anyway! Just can't seem to get a break here, ya know!

One other minor detail too pertaining to the blogging scene. I have close to 200 blogs that I either subscribe to on my reader or that I follow and which then, if there is a new post done to any of them, they show up on my Reader. That's a lot of work to try to keep the Reader up-to-date and cleared out just in the reading portion there. But to comment on each blog post I've read -well, that's just plain impossible to begin with and this week, it's been made even more difficult for me because unless the blogger uses Wordpress to compose the post, I am currently unable to leave any comments to other blogs because for whatever reason, I get this lovely 503 ERROR message left behind when I try to comment on Blogs that are on Blogger or Blogspot! Now that is really frustrating to me to get that error because it is just that much more time that has then just been wasted!

Just wanted to let those of you know why I haven't commented on your posts if you are using either Blogger or Blogspot and if so, you also know too how much response one gets when you try to register a complaint/problem to either of those entities too. Like NONE! Pretty much the norm there is to just read, sit back and wait until they might eventually get around to seeing what the problem is and getting it resolved. (Remember about 18 months or so back I had issues with this thing called "Feeds" and logged a complaint/problem question about it to BLogger and I'm still waiting for an answer to that problem! Yes, I did get things fixed but no thanks to Blogger for getting it all worked out and even then, that took me well over six months to resolve anyway!)

So, besides being busy running back and forth to all these doctor/test appointments and such, I did manage though to complete yet another tabletopper and this morning, I did manage to remember to take a couple of pictures of this latest creation too. They aren't the best pictures -for sure -but anyway, use your imagination and visualize them as having much better lighting available on a couple of these pics anyway!

Here's one -with the lousy lighting factor -in which I tried to get Maya and Kurtis to help me showcase this tabletopper. Well, at least the kids are cute, aren't they?
Here's the Christmas Trees Tabletopper shown on the table -not the best picture either but at least the fabric looks white -which is what it is -instead of looking a bit yellowish on the photo above this one.
And here's a closeup then of one corner of the tabletopper that is sort of decent I guess. By the way, see those red ribbons on the tree -holding up the ornaments? Those little suckers took almost as much time to embroider as did the whole tree and the ornaments! Talk about boring -and frustrating -and time sucking!

But anyway -this project is now completed and I'm about 1/3 of the way through doing yet another Christmas themed tabletopper now.

Now that leaves me with the one family related job I have here in the household -cooking supper for the grandkids, Mandy and me and that job has now been extended somewhat too.

My son took a new job -started it yesterday with a day of training which consisted of watching videos of the work he and other new employees will be doing as they work for the gas/oil company currently working in this region, clearing out woodlands, laying down cable and such for testing for the company. He began the actual job then this morning -having to report for work at 6:45 and be transported then out to the forest to start the manual labor process that will keep his scrawny butt busy, busy, till about 6-7 p.m. tonight and he will get back home then somewhere between 8 and 9 p.m.

How, you ask, does his new job affect me? Well, because he won't get paid for close to a month and of course, he is stone-cold broke right now, that means Mandy, his older sister and I will be helping him wherever we can with money to keep gas in his truck to get back and forth to work for openers. And, because of the type of work he'll be doing -outdoors, no restaurants to go to for a quick coffee or for a lunch break, he'll have to pack a lunch. And, also, because he's (as mentioned above) currently stone-cold broke, that means that I will be trying to figure out meals every day for our supper that will also provide enough to feed him when he finally returns home from work AND also, that might possible leave something too that he can then pack in his lunch pail to take with him for the next day's work so he won't starve to death waiting for that first paycheck!

Ah, the joys of motherhood just never end, do they?

No, I don't mind fixing the extra food to feed him -actually I do like doing that. But trying to figure out what to fix that will cover an extra mouth times twice (lunch too, ya know) and that the kids will also eat so I don't then have to fix a separate meal for them too at the same time, there's the rub, ya know! Last night worked out fairly well in that I made meatloaf -which the kids surprised me by actually tasting that and then eating the portion I gave them too (a miracle, in itself, that was!) and it provided enough leftover meatloaf then that my son was able to fix a sandwich of it to carry for his lunch today.

What the heck to fix tonight though -now there's a quandry so I'm gonna have to free up a bit more time now to surf the recipe sites I have bookmarked on the computer and try to find something to cook for tonight that will work as part of his "brown-bagger" special then for tomorrow.

And so it will go forward from that point now. Any suggestions you might have for easy to cook meals that can then be packed in a bag for the next day sure would be welcome about now!

Anything that will give me a little more time then too so I can still work on the tabletopper I'm currently embroidering and get that puppy done then toO!

Isn't it wonderful being kept busy, busy, busy though?