DH has a couple of spare furnace motors so he replaced the one with the squeal and has sent it to a firm that repairs small motors - so glad it wasn't up to me to deal with that problem.

Last night was another one with disturbed sleep for both of us. Maybe we need a holiday. Just had a short nap.

Yesterday evening I got the squares made and packed some to go with some stuff that friends are taking to DS in the big city for us. Put a package of beans to soak. I've never made baked beans before.

Today:

Make baked beans in crockpot - bubbling away merrily and smells interesting, who knows if they will be soft enough for suppertime, but I have a back up if they are not.
Load dishwasher and run - DONE
Delete many e-mails - DONE
Wash hair - DONE
Take nap - DONE : )
List items to buy at drug store next week on Seniors" Day - DONE
Handwashing small items
Fetch up sheets from basement line and fold
Fetch mail
Possibly work on basement stair storage area.

Bubblegum-I made it a priority to get my exercise in today. This means I walked my dog for a good hour in a different neighborhood. It was good practice to see how he reacts to other dogs and people. He was recently adopted so I don't know all his quirks or habits. So now I'm a bit sore, as I haven't been walking that long since fall that I can think of.

Bushlady- I think I could copy your activities, as most of them apply. Went to Wally World and got personal items and health aids. Went at a late hour so it was nice, nobody there so I could stand in one isle and not bother anyone or visa versa.

I've had a busy last week, weekend and first part of this week. I'm ready to get some sleep.

Haven't had time to re-read everybody's posts right now. Sorry.

Today's JDI:
-wipe counters and stove
-wipe the bathroom
-meeting after work

Home this morning for a change like yesterday, and hoping to finish up the desk drawers I have left to clean. I started one yesterday and tossed about 10 items. Hoping to finish up the other two and the kitchen will be DONE!

Today:
Routines and ETEing
Desk drawers
Errands
Class
Crafts

Hope everyone has a great day.

Always amazed at how much many of you accomplish while working outside the home! Shames me into wanting to accomplish more myself.

We both slept well last night, thank goodness. The beans turned out well and were ready for supper with a soda bread that I made and a salad. The remainder were put into containers for the freezer.

Today:
Dailies
Run dishwasher
Write sympathy card
Go for haircut and groceries
Clear most stuff off kitchen island (it crept back on, lol)
Fetch mail
Work on basement stair storage that didn't get done yesterday after all.

Need to get going here. On a whim I switched to timeline this a.m. and bleg ~ what a time waster trying to figure that out. Wanted to wait until after the party to mess with that ~ coulda/shoulda/woulda.

Thurs JDI:
*make cake
*clear table
*vacuum
*print madlibs
*glue penguin pail

Good morning, all!

Bushlady: Did you follow a particular recipe for the baked beans? I've never made baked beans from scratch, but would like to try it.

JDIs for today:

- Bank
- Farmers' Market

Yesterday was a fairly productive day. I am happy to report that my camera worked with freshly charged batteries. YAY! I also cleaned a few more kitchen cabinets. I cleared off one counter section - what a mess! I half filled a plastic grocery bag with papers and stuff for the trash.

Since I had a working camera, I posted a few more items on the online garage sale site. So far there hasn't been much interest but like so many things, it just takes that right person to come along.

For today -
- online commitments - morning, late afternoon, evening
- take plastic milk jugs to the local recycling depot
- see if local recycling place takes dry cell batteries
- show Mom's piano to a lady that might be interested in buying it
- pick up prescriptions at pharmacy
- kitchen (ROTM) cleaning, sorting, reorganizing, tossing (baby steps)
- other tasks?

Good to hear you are getting so much done Darlene.

I cleaned the two drawers, and was shocked at how much I had in there that I could toss/donate! Filled an entire kitchen bag with papers and catalogs! Found a bunch of donations to bring to church for the nursing home. YES!

Officially the Kitchen Branch is done!

Bless, I forgot to buy the salt pork that was in the Baked Bean recipe that I planned to use, so then I started looking at various recipes in cookbooks and on-line and finally went to the recipe and tweaked it to what I thought might work for me:

I whole bag of beans, picked over and soaked overnight, then drained.
3 cups hot water
2 medium onions sliced finely
1 teasp. prepared mustard (should have been 1 1/2 teasp. dried mustard but I discovered I must have used it or discarded it)
1 teasp. salt
1 tablesp. brown sugar
2 tablesp. molasses
1 tablesp. cider vinegar
1/2 cup ketchup
Freshly ground black pepper

I cooked them in the crockpot on high for 2 or 3 hours then reduced to slow for about 5 more hours until they were soft, and I stirred them occasionally and also added more water when they seemed to be getting dry. Some recipes use less ketchup and add tomato paste. I'm still wondering if I would prefer to have half the molasses and twice the brown sugar, as we grew up with canned beans in England without noticeable molasses and liked that flavour, which is why I went heavy on the ketchup.

Was kicking myself after shopping this morning, as I could have picked up another large cantaloupe at $2 and another $2 off cheese slab or two (they keep well unopened). The specials end today. Oh well, can't win 'em all! Let's see what is on offer for the next 7 days.

I nearly ruined tonight's supper, as I decided to tackle the storage on the basement stairs, taking down plastic organizer bins and wiping them, while the pork chops were braising on the stove. Suddenly remembered them before they were beyond hope! Some days I just don't focus well on cooking and it always seems like a minor miracle that I produce a meal! Anyone else have a love-hate relationship with cooking?