Monday Daybook

Good morning, friends. Another week has passed since my last visit here. Thank you for all your comments on my previous post about struggling to keep up with every single post on my feed right now, and thank you for understanding. I'm behind again after the weekend I've had.

Outside my window... It's currently 56 degrees and a bit chilly inside. It's forecast to be a sunny day with a high of 72. Perfect weather!

My weekend... Friday evening, the whole family attended my granddaughter's preschool Christmas recital. It was so adorable, I wish I could share photos. We went to dinner afterward at a fun little place with good food, great service, live music, and an open area that served as a dance floor right next to where we were seated. The singer was excellent, and they played rockin' Christmas music in between sets. We danced the night away with the girls - and by danced the night away, I mean until 8pm, lol. We all had a great time.

The rest of the weekend didn't go nearly as well. Get a load of this - my washing machine sprang a leak, my ice maker stopped working, one toilet won't stop running unless I open the tank and jiggle things around - no, just jiggling the handle doesn't work. The other toilet is leaking slightly around the base. Then my oven died. It looked like only one little inch or so of the bottom element was heating, and it was white hot with sparks flying. If I hadn't been right there in the kitchen, I probably wouldn't have noticed and likely would have had a fire. 

As if that wasn't enough, I started my car to go to the store, and the engine was making a clicking sound. I recognized the sound from when I had an oil leak many years ago. I turned off the car and checked my oil. It was almost completely empty - way too empty to attempt to drive it, even just around the corner to the gas station to buy more oil was too risky.

*Insert a loud sigh and throw in a WTF here*

I was grounded for the weekend and still grounded now until one of my boys can get over after work to put some oil in my car so I can try to figure out if it's leaking or what's going on. I'm not sure what to do with all the other stuff at this point. My older son is pretty handy, but it will probably be after the holidays before he has time to deal with such a long list of things to see if he can even attempt to fix them or not.

This morning... I'm having a cup of coffee and chatting with you. I'll be getting some beef stew going in my slow cooker in a little while. 

I am wearing... Yoga pants and another concert t-shirt. This one from Rockville, Daytona Beach, 2021. I have my robe on over the top to keep myself from flipping the heat on. It will warm up quickly now that the sun is coming up.

I am cooking... The beef stew will last me for the next couple of days. After that, I'll probably just use up some leftover freezer meals. I still need to plan some fun holiday meals and snacks for my girls for Friday. That will be the last regularly scheduled day I'll be watching them until after the holidays.

This week... Today, I'll be putting together a doll crib and highchair that I got for my girls for Christmas to go with the lifelike baby dolls I got for them. I think they will really love all of it, especially with their new baby brother or sister on the way.

I need to come up with some holiday activities for them for Friday, too. I had planned to bake cookies with them, but no oven, no cookies. I'm glad I hadn't purchased all the ingredients yet. Maybe I'll buy some store-bought sugar cookies for them to decorate instead. Other than that and giving them a few of their Christmas gifts, I'm not sure what else we'll do yet. Either way, I want to be sure it's a fun and festive day for them.

I still have a few gift cards to buy and a couple of gifts to wrap. I did a good cleaning while grounded over the weekend, so that's out of the way. We still need to figure out a plan for the actual holidays, too, which is difficult with my new grandbaby due on Christmas Day - not to mention the lack of a working oven. 

I think that just about covers everything for me this week. How's your holiday season going?