Good Saturday morning friends....

[timer lady]

I know it's rather early to start the GM thread, but I'm up & about. Trying to achieve some housework & menu planning while I have the energy. Believe it or not I slept 4.5 hours straight - that's a record for me. :bloodshot: :its_all_good:

kt & I are heading out this morning to replace the "beloved" Crackers the fish. kt has done a great deal of research & priced out the few fish for which she's narrowed down her choices.

It's supposed to be in the mid 50's today - good weather to get out in the yard & do a bit of work; autumn tasks like cutting back the perrineals & cleaning about the bird feeders. I'm on the lookout for a winter bird bath (heated) to keep the water from icing over for my friends in my little sanctuary. husband thinks I've gone over the deep end & I KNOW that he's begun to enjoy sitting & watching the activity out back.

Enjoy your day! I'm pretty sure meltdowns are not allowed on weekends. Hug your loved ones as they leave & when they returen. Treasure their precense.

 

[Marguerite]

G'day, Linda. Good to see you're sleeping in a bit more. What sort of fish are you getting? difficult child 3 has tropicals, mostly guppies (because they self-replicate).

I have strange visions of your heated bird bath - like the hot mineral springs in New Zealand, where it warms you to your bones. But I wonder - what if it's really cold when they get out with wet wings? Do they snap freeze?

The kids (middle two) have gone to the sci-fi/fantasy convention, Supernova, in costume. difficult child 1 dresses as a Star Wars jedi, complete with (very expensive) replica light saber. He's actually cast in a fan film being made some time eventually, on a Star Wars theme. easy child 2/difficult child 2 has gone as Susan Sto-Helit (again). If their photos make the Supernova website, I'll post links.

We WERE expecting them home for dinner, but we haven't heard from difficult child 1, and BF2 has been invited to the pub, so easy child 2/difficult child 2 is spending girl time with her friends than collecting BF2 at 10 pm. I HAD cooked some potato wedges in the pizza oven - it uses up firewood (ie fuel on the ground, coming into summer) but now we will have some left over.

husband is cooking fish to go with the spuds - fresh fish from the markets, just in off the boats. Yum! And then a quiet night, until the kids get home. Here's hoping they come in quietly!

Enjoy your Saturday, everyone.

Marg

 

[hearts and roses]

Good morning Linda, Marg and those to follow,

Linda, enjoy getting "crackers II" or whatever kt decides to name her new little friend. I hope you're pain is lessened today and that you have energy to make it through the day.

Marg, I always wondered who those folks were that go to sci-fi conventions! How cool that they went in costume! Enjoy your quiet evening for as long as it lasts.

Today difficult child is 18! We're driving down to LI to spend the day with her. We will all go pumpkin picking (me, H, difficult child, exh) and then to dinner at Olive Garden with some other family. It will be a pretty low key day for difficult child's birthday, but she can always have another party when she comes home!

It's beautiful and crisp out there today - perfect for pumpkin picking I think!

Have a great day everyone~

 

[flutterbee]

Good Morning My Friends!

I haven't been up - or conscience enough - to contribute to the morning thread lately. I've missed starting the day with you all.

Linda - I love the idea of the heated bird bath! But I did have to laugh at the image I got from Marg's question. All of the construction around here has kept the birds and little animals down and I miss seeing them. Our subdivision was built in what used to be a field, so the only trees are still saplings...not big enough to support a nest. Although I did have a nest in some siding that was damaged during a storm. I waited until they abandoned the nest to have the repair done. It was right outside difficult child's window and the noise made her crazy! Poor thing.

Marg - I hope your evening was quiet as planned! Dinner sounded yummy.

Jo - Happy Birthday to difficult child! Enjoy your day with her in LI.

I've been doing some research based on what the doctor thinks is going on and I think I found something. I can hardly wait to get to the rheumatologist to talk about it and I don't even have an appointment yet. It seems silly to be excited because you've found something wrong with you, but it just feels good to finally be getting somewhere.

As for today...a friend is coming over to change the brakes on my car. difficult child may return with him and spend the night with his daughter...remains to be seen. She's been up and down lately. Just taking it a day at a time. Then, depending on the hour when my car is done, easy child and I (and difficult child if she doesn't stay with friend) may drive up to visit my grandmother. If not today, maybe tomorrow. We'll see.

I'm having a hard time adjusting to the weather. Monday or Tuesday (can't remember) it was 92 degrees and a day later it was 58 and 48 the day after that. It got down to 33 degrees last night.

I hope everyone enjoys their day.

 

[LittleDudesMom]

:its_all_good: Good Saturday Morning!

Linda, I think I would be checking into the heated bath thing a little more after the image Marg left in my mind! The feeders in the winter are a great attractor. My mom was/is a real bird lover. She always fed the birds in the winter. I can remember her going outside on cold morings and throwing bread that she had torn up on the hard snow. difficult child is a bird lover and it's something he shares with his grandmother .

Marg, I certainly hope you and husband have a nice long period of quiet and enjoy the fresh fish - sounds good :sushi:

Jog, Happy Birthday to difficult child :princess:! It sounds like a really nice day you have planned. Great whether for a hay ride and a pumpkin search :jack:

Heather, sorry difficult child has been so up and down lately. I hope she is able to settle and perhaps enjoy an evening with a friend. I know what you mean about the weather - it was 95 here on Tuesday and last night it was in the 50's :autumn:. I'm not complaining though!

We have a beautiful day here in central va. It's going to be 70 and the sky is a lovely "crystal" blue - you know, when there are no clouds and it is that endless blue color? We think we are going to do the folk festival tomorrow instead of today. easy child and her boyfriend want to do some shopping in one of our little historic districts. He'll be here aroud 11 and I imagine they will shop for a few hours. I have dinner planned for them tonight - a taco bar - so I think the plan is to head to the National Folk Festival tomorrow. A bunch of easy child's friends want to go so we are going to take the shuttle down. Parking will be a pain with that many cars and a shuttle stop is five minutes from here.

So, difficult child and I will try and stay out of trouble during the day today. I know we will be going on a bike ride here shortly. After that - who knows!

Hope you all have a great Saturday and find some time to relax with your family.

Sharon

 

[SearchingForRainbows]

Good Morning Everyone :coffee:,

It was so nice to read this thread today because it sounds like all of you - Linda, Marg, Jo, Heather and Sharon are doing well!!! :autumn: It makes me want to do the "Happy Dance" :dance:!!!

Today it's off to the library so easy child and difficult child 2 can return some books and pick out some new ones. Then I have a few errands to run, and a trip to the mall with the kids. Nothing special planned this evening. I'm hoping to relax and finish the book I've been reading :reading:.

Hi to anyone I missed. I hope all of you have at least one reason to laugh or at least smile today... :flower: :autumn: WFEN :autumn:

 

[SnowAngel]

Good Morning!!

Linda, I love your bird bath idea, but Marg's thought of their wings snapping is sad. Can you get a bird bath that is a water fountain? We used to live in MN and I thought the water didn't freeze if it was moving? I guess it would still be cold, however a nice cozy birdhouse with some warm materials might help. I dont know to much about birds. We have hummingbirds that hang out in our yard, very strange when we dont have plants.

Marg, enjoy every minute of your peace today. My kids love fish but I cant seem to cook it right. Guess I need to work on that. Sounds like you should have a lovely day.

Jog, Enjoy your drive, safely I pray. I would love to go to a pumpkin patch. Sounds like a good day. I can almost smell the pumkin seeds roasting. Happy B-Day to your difficult child.

Heather, Enjoy spending time with your friend as those moments sometimes rarely come uninterupted.

Sharon, Sounds like you planned a great weekend. Sorry about the weather. Here it is 85 today, and no sight of the 70's. The taco bar sounds good. Maybe I am just hungry after everyone talking about all this yummy food.

I spent the night up off and on with Ducky who was having night terrors. Now I am off to a parent support group for ADHD. My sons counselor really wanted me to go and offer other parents my advice and experiences. He seems to think I am really smart and that I keep good records for the boys. I have never been before and my anxiety is kicking in a bit. I sure hope I can help someone else, but if anything I will probably get a chuckle out of something funny. Not sure what will happen after that, however I know I am not cooking. I am on strike since the 7 kids in the house leave all the dishes,clean up and cooking to me. I figure a week of doing it all and they will realize that cleaning up their own mess isnt that bad.

Enjoy your day!

 

[susiestar]

Good morning to all. I am spending the day resting. husband brought me a wonderful omelette he cooked in a platic bag!! Fun cooking with the kids is bcoming his specialty. Today he and Jess are going to make Pasta Fagioli from the Top Secret Recipes Light book - the Olive Garden recipe. YUM!! I may have them make olive garden salad dressing from the book. We all love it!!

This evening we will have dinner after husband gets back from Mass, then we are going out for ice cream. A family activity that doesn't revolve around a big screen (or a lillte one) is our goal. I am not up to much, but I can tough it out to sit with the kids in the afternoon and read or whatever.

Hugs to all, have a great day!

Susie

 

[timer lady]

Ladies,

A heated birdbath heats the water just enough to keep it from freezing - it's not spa temps or anything.

Enough for the birds to drink - I've yet to experience a bird taking a bath & it's wings snap off.

 

[Marguerite]

Sorry, Linda, it's just my strange mind, it keeps throwing up weird images. I saw a comic book once, a a series of cartoons on what happens if there's a snap freeze. Things like a dog being frozen to a tree, for example... and the way the Rainbow Lorikeets bathe around here (enthusiastic is one word that comes to mind) they were an especially interesting image. Our neighbour puts out 4 litre square containers full of water for them to bath in, and they fight with each other over whose turn it is to get in. And they fly right past our door, still dropping wet. I've never had one hit me but they come so close that when their wings are still dripping, I get a shower.

The lorikeets do drink the water, but watching them bathe is an absolute joy. The neighbour finds each morning after the birds have bathed, the containers are at least half-empty.

Enjoy the bird bath, it really is a brilliant idea. I'm wondering if you can get a solar-powered version? Or does it need too much power?

Marg

 

[timer lady]

Marg,

I'm looking into the solar powered bird baths. The one I found that was affordable had to have approximately 6 hours of daylight; it doesn't take a great deal of energy to keep water from freezing.

http://www.drsfostersmith.com/Product/Prod_Display.cfm?pcatid=18100&N=2005+62731

The non solar powered one I'm considering is:

http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod_display.cfm?c=9089+8776+11847&pcatid=11847

We'll see - it's all about the birds.

 

[LittleDudesMom]

Linda,

I like the solar powered one! I may purchase that myself. I always close down my bird bath in November/December, depending on when it gets really cold and we have our first overnight freeze. But, in our climate we do have a lot of birds that stay for the winter and ones that migrate here from further up north. We enjoy watching them and I could just drop that solar one right in my current bird bath for the winter!

Thanks for the link.

Sharon