Open-Ended Day! YAY!

Today is one of those ‘RARE’ days when I actually don’t have ANYTHING planned – no places to go, kids to pick up, chores/errands to run; what a blessing! I know it might sound strange, but this ‘relaxed’ atmosphere is just what I needed to begin spending time CONCENTRATING! You see, I have lists for both my special needs group and my knit/crochet group – these are lists of names, addresses, phone numbers, email addresses, birthdays, group homes, etc. It seems like at least twice a year these lists MUST be updated because people move, phone numbers change, etc. Today is JUST THAT DAY! Finally completed a totally newly updated list of the people in my knit/crochet group; that might not sound like a difficult task but some of the names on the list I don’t even recognize – and I’m there almost every meeting! I just sent out an email to about 12 people ‘on the list’ whom I don’t recognize at all, asking them to please email me if they still want to continue receiving emails from our group. (I know if it were me, I’d sure get tired of all the ‘stuff’ I mail to our members, that is – if I didn’t want to get it!). It helps me pare down the list some which gives me a feeling of having some control over making sure everyone’s needs are met (YES, I’m a “Type A” personality!). The special needs group list also needed updating: some of our ‘kids’ moved, some have new roommates in their group homes that are now attending, etc. Let’s see-Knit Group: 40 ‘fairly regularly attending’ members (plus the 12 or so I just emailed who are questionable) Special Needs Group: 51 members – so now you can sort of see the magnitude of this task. I’m very grateful for a day like today where I can direct all my thoughts towards making sure these numbers and facts are correct. To give you an example of the urgency of this updating: This past Wednesday we had an ‘occurrance’ – our group is done at 8:15 p.m. and usually by 8:30 all of the kids have been picked up. One young man was not – it got late – 8:40, 8:45 – I began to worry at bit, checked my sheet and “Oh, NO!” NO phone numbers!!! You might think he knows that information, but this is one of our lower-functioning ‘kids’, so that was NOT an option. This young man used to attend years ago then his mom got sick and he stopped coming – we hadn’t seen him in a good 6-8 YEARS! About a month ago his older brother started bringing him and gave me his cell phone numbers for contact – I had them written on a loose-leaf sheet of paper which I sort of tossed in my folder – totally forgetting to transpose that information onto our attendance list! (this wouldn’t be so dire except our other ‘leader’ is currently in Tennessee with her parents, her father is dying, so I couldn’t rely on her for that information, either). I finally called my husband and asked him to go check through my desk for the ‘blue folder’ – this took a while; finally he found THE sheet of paper and gave me the numbers. I phoned both – no answer, so I left messages at both numbers – and waited. We’re talking 9 p.m. by now, which for my ‘kids’ is late! At last his brother picked him up (I didn’t get to speak to him, but wished I could have – oh well-he’ll have my messages on his phone when he gets home!). IF I’D ONLY HAD THAT SHEET OF PAPER! So that, my friends, is what I’m doing today – going over all that data and making sure there are extra copies for everyone and some extras ‘just in case’! WHEW!

It’s another nice day out – 46 degrees and sunny. Yesterday it was 34 degrees with FROST on my windshield as I left to go to my radiation (9:30 a.m.) – Winter is on it’s way! This Sunday is the Time Change – remember the old ‘ditty’ – Spring-Forward, Fall – Backwards as in “Move your clock Forward an hour in the Spring, and back an hour in the Fall – which means we lose an hour of sleep tonight – ugh! Will have to remember that and get all my ‘organizing for church tomorrow’ stuff done earlier (get out clothes/jewelry/shoes, etc., shower, lay out hair dryer & curlers, etc.).

Almost done with the shades of pink chemo cap – was thinking of knitting a scarf for my friend who’s going through chemo, for her Christmas present then last Sunday another friend wore the ‘Trellis Lace Ribbon” necklace (pattern on my blog here:)

https://grammiepammie.wordpress.com/crocheted-necklace-from-trellis-ribbon/

and my friend who’s going through chemo noticed it and really liked it so think I’ll crochet her that for Christmas! It’s nice to know when you make something that the person receiving it will LIKE it! Going to be a FUN surprise! (the good thing is that necklace is really easy & fast to crochet!)

Not much else going on at the moment, dinner is leftover enchiladas (still have something like 9 left). This coming Monday evening is our church’s Ladies Fellowship and the requested dinner item is SOUP. I’m going to attempt to make my friend Jackie’s “White Bean & Chicken Chili” recipe. Now, she calls it chili – but in my house it ain’t chili unless a spoon put in the center of the pot STANDS UP! My guys like their chili, soups & stews to be REALLY THICK. This is a pleasant tasting recipe but reminds me of a soup: chunks of chicken, chicken broth, a jar of chunky salsa (medium if you like the heat), cumin, and cans of northern beans! I vaguely remember it also had corn and black beans in it, but those could have been from the kind of salsa she used (she didn’t have a recipe, per se!) We’ll see how it all comes out when I ‘concoct’ it Monday!

That’s what’s going on around here today – have a great weekend!

Hugs;

Pammie

OOOOOOOOOOOPS! Guess I’m definately getting old – I had it in my head that we LOST an hour tonight – but I’m wrong – we FALL BACK, meaning we GAIN an hour! YAY!!!