Monday Musings, December 14

 As I begin this missive on Monday morning I am sitting in sweats and a sweater under a blanket (with no bra, mind you, sorry guys), and am fine with that. Between overdoing it yesterday (by standing for many hours) and the Texas winter of a sunny 49 degrees, I've decided I will eventually get dressed properly (I always do for my own health), but it ain't right now.

Yesterday I took on the project of rolling out and decorating a few dozen sugar cookies in my much smaller kitchen. Twas an experience, and I ended up with four dozen sugar cookies or so and about three dozen peanut butter finished to send up north after my own various "tastings"  Hopefully they, and the stocking stuffers, will travel in a somewhat timely manner and arrive mainly intact.  I'll be  make more sugar cookies and of course some Mexican wedding rings sometime within the next ten days, but now I'll have a more streamlined kitchen, and reorganized space (which was going to happen anyway as I slowly learn how to make use of said kitchen on the days that I actually cook).

Today we have the first vaccinations for Covid-19, as well as the Electoral College verification of Biden's win. The latter should be a final nail, but of course we all know there will be some brief Republican shenanigans on 9 January that will make no difference other than showing how far the party has fallen in it's worship of the Orange One. Let's just say that for now I'm happy to only be living with streaming services and the occasional glance at CNN or BBC News online. My sanity thanks my budgetary choices, lol. And as for the vaccine, I'm watching happily, although I have no idea when I or my essential employee offspring will actually feel the needle

Of course, we also have our first (that I know of), passive aggressive sexist article at the front, not about our new VP mind you, but rather about the first lady actually having the gall to use the honorific for which she is entitled that, in my experience, she probably busted her you know what to get.  And so it begins.

Covid aside, while I may rail about doctors and the medical field as much as the next guy or gal, occasionally I am reminded full on of the humongous strides certain areas of the medical field have made. My husband died in 2007 of Hepatitis C, and the fact that there is now a what is essentially a cure for most people (and has been for a long time) is still kind of a shock to me. As with many others, I'm embracing a little more football than usual (or as much as I can get through all my streaming options and my laptop), even as I root for the best team in the worst division in football.  I'm amazed that Alex Smith, who had a life altering injury, 17 orthopedic surgeries and almost died more than once, is now once again a franchise quarterback (who beat the undefeated last week). I also wonder what Joe Theisman thinks about him every time he watches.

For the current moment I seem to be fine with so called pandemic life. I'm walking every day, zooming a few times a week and keeping myself busy with knitting (throws and cardigans), quilting (mini quilts), TV (watching Dead Beautiful at the moment) and reading (trying to decide if I really want to start another John Grisham tale) along with the other assorted Christmas, cooking and housekeeping and general lifestyle stuff going on.  This may be because in Colorado I would be nesting during the cooler weather and staying at home everytime there is precipitation and because I wrote my quarterly "Everything I can think of to do with stuff on hand or that is free nearby list" and tell myself I have plenty to work on. Of course, I've been talking about writing that family history memory stuff to go with the genealogy as long as I've been making such lists (perhaps longer) and it's still not done.....

I'm attempting to eat down the freezer and leftovers,  which probably sounds odd when your freezer is as small as mine is now. But I want get a "real feel" for the grocery budget post Christmas (including pantry items still needed) and see if the budget goal I've set for myself works. I need to decide whether to pull a storage container of baked ravioli or minestrone out of my little freezer.

Oh, I'm gonna have to adjust that budget a bit for the new year (good things it's a living/moving/adjustabile document) as I just signed up for the good dental insurance, the good federal vision insurance, and committed to a local charity of choice. I'm gambling that by the second half of the year I'll be totally comfortable having folks nose to nose with me pretty much literally during the new denture process.  I'd like to set aside a small amount of money monthly to commit to local small local independent businesses, but as my daughter says, right now my favorite charity is myself and immediate family, so we shall see.

Meanwhile, I'm off to face the dishes from yesterday, have a glass of eggnog, and quilt one of my minis so that I can get it on the wall.