The Old Typical Morning

Honestly, I have been laughing at my last post of a typical morning.  When we finally get them on the bus on weekdays, we feel such a sense of accomplishment around here, lol. We are old and a pair of sissies. 

In the old days Mr Merry would be up and out of here by 5:30 a.m.  

5:30 a.m.  I would get up, shower and get dressed. I would plug in my electric rollers. 

5:45 a.m.  Wake the oldest daughter to shower

6:00 a.m. Wake two boys who showered the night before so they could get dressed for school and put in hair curlers. 

6:15 a.m.  I would pack lunches for school and put together a casserole or crock pot meal for supper.  If I had time I would try to run a load of wash when the shower stopped. 

6:30 a.m.  I would wake the last two kids (we called them second shift) and get them started on dressing, bathroom, breakfast and brushing.  

7:00 a.m.  The first three left on the bus. 

7:15 a.m.  I would move the washer load to the dryer, take the curlers out of my hair, slap on some make up, gather the youngest, book bags and lunches and we would wait in the car in the driveway. 

7:30 a.m.  The elementary bus would arrive and I could leave for work. 

By 8 a.m. I would be at work, have coffee made, flick the switch on the phones and start working. 

3:00 pm.  Mr Merry would leave work and hopefully follow instructions on baking the casserole if necessary. 

These days we are a bunch of slackers. I am putting only 3 kids (who arrive dressed for school) on a bus while wearing my bathrobe and I think I'm Super Woman! 

Meanwhile - today I was dressed and left the house at 7:15 am to be a guest at Main Street School's Fourth Grade Family Breakfast! We enjoyed "Apple Toast" which was actually delicious. Mr. Merry put the boys on the bus. 

Typical Morning

This morning I got up at 6:30. The first two grandchildren arrive at 6:45.  

I started breakfast orders, two pancakes on the griddle, one bowl of cereal, 1 regular scrambled egg and 3 scrambled eggs and toast for grampa. 

7:05 third grandchild arrives, orders eggs whites and toast.  First grandchild sneaks a snack cake to go with his scrambled eggs, I pour juices and milks. 

7:15 breakfast diner is complete. I start to scramble 2 yolks and an egg for Mimi's breakfast.   

7:30 we start to convince the younger generation to visit the potty before the bus comes. 

7:45 is when we head to the bus stop across the street from our house.  Grampa waits on the porch watching them while Mimi picks up the breakfast dishes. 

7:50 the kindergartener decides to jump over a block of air, trips and lands on his knee. His sister's watch thing calls Mimi and says he fell and there is blood everywhere. I grab a towel and slip on my slippers and run.  Grampa is carrying him across the street. 

7:52 the bus arrives and two get on the bus. 

7:53 I mop up the knee, it isn't too bad. Luckily I have a fancy large bandaid. I comb my hair and put on real shoes. I also grab my insulated bags and egg cartons. 

We drive to the elementary school on the other side of town and get in a long line of parents dropping off children.  Eventually it is our turn. The kindergartener enters school walking like he has a wooden leg. I am sure he will be the hit of the class room. 

8 am we head back to our side of town, turn south and take a long detour to the egg farm. 

8:30  we are packing up five dozen eggs, deciding if we want a peck of green beans (we didn't) and I bid on the silent auction for a JFK and Jackie Kennedy commemorative plate. The egg lady's granddaughter is raising money for her school.  

9:15 arrive home and wash dishes, then eggs. 

9:30 pour my first cup of coffee. 

9:35 find five minutes to write on my blog. 

I do try to visit everyone during the day, evening and night LOL.  HAPPY FALL 

Vaccinated.

We were able to get the flu 65+and Covid vaccines last week with no problem. My daughter (the nursing professor) said she had seen a delivery at the CVS in her city that Monday. I got online at the Walgreens in my town and snagged the first two appointments on Thursday, the day vaccines were released in my state.  

We normally do not do both vaccines together, but with the uncertainty of even getting a vaccine, or the possible requirement of a prescription or the uncertainty of whether Medicare or our insurance covering the cost spurred us on. Side note, you know you are old and have too many prescriptions when you walk to the pharmacy counter and the employees look past the long line and say "Hi Mr & Mrs Merry, you can sit right over there".  Yes, we are known by sight. 

It was a double whammy. Body aches, site pain, headaches, chills and sweats. But the side effects only lasted a day and we are good. Or rather, we were good. We have both come down with a fall cold and had a grandchild home sick yesterday with a high fever. And this assured us that we were smart to get vaccinated early with all the school germs that will be shared in my house. 

Meanwhile I had a long list at my church charity yesterday.  I will just mention one woman, almost 70. She received a letter from Social Security that they miscalculated the amount of her Medicare payment since her original application and that to pay what she owes her September Social Security check will be $1 and her October Social Security check will be $12. In November will return to the correct amount of $1246.  

This is not the first (or twentieth) time I have seen these letters over the years. And I mean years as decades, not just this administration.  Our clients are people that live paycheck to paycheck, or social security check to social security check, and receiving $1 to live on for a month is reprehensible. There is no system to have a payment plan. The letter is the law.  Maybe our lawmakers could focus on this, but then again it only affects low-income people so why bother. And don't get me started on the donut hole. 

Our organization is pairing with some others to help cover rent. She was current on utility bills so she will not be shut off if she misses one month. Hopefully in October we can help her negotiate payment plans with the utility companies. 

Thank you for the accolades for the charity work, but I don't really deserve them. I am part of a volunteer group of great people who all bring something to the table. I am the secretary only because I have the most readable handwriting and I do work one of the four days we are open. I am lucky that I have the time (due to Mr Merry at the grandchild care center) that I can cover other days when necessary. We also have some retired businessmen whose skills lie in fundraising which is what keeps us in business. We have a retired bookkeeper who keeps track of the money and payments, we have a newly retired investment counselor who "invests" when we have the money and also has a niece who is a tax lawyer and files our tax forms.  We have a former government aid worker who keeps us updated on available programs and implausible applications. We all attend the weekly board meeting and I can honestly say we have never disagreed on evaluating applications.  We sometimes have to vote on disagreements about amounts of help. We find the women's votes are a little more sympathetic (lol) and we do have a special spot for grandparents raising grandchildren. But I have never been a part of an organization that is so cohesive.  We all play a part and mine is a small one.

We attended a soccer game out of town last night, tonight I am attending a football game two hours away. Tomorrow morning is the retired library lunch and Sunday we are attending a Celebration of Life for one of my husband's former co-workers. Monday is my Murder Mystery Crime Podcast Club at the library and Tuesday I am going out to lunch (for the day) at a place a couple counties away. I had never heard of it, but I guess it is a collection of barns; one is a restaurant, one is a bakery, one has "stalls" which are independent operators with cute things for me to spend money to buy. And across the road is a factory that makes a well known brand of candles.  This is my monthly lunch with high school friends. And I won't be driving. 

I had posted this on Facebook and had a large collection of comments from friends, family and former co-workers and 4H advisors who verified the facts in the case. 

Shopping Trip

 We went to Walmart today to replace my husband's sneakers. He had bought a pair in June and likes them and wanted the same pair. 

They had the same shoes. They did not have them in his size. I looked on my phone and I could order them. But I am having phone issues and we went home to order them. 

When I got online Walmart said they had two pairs in the store and I could order them for curbside pick up.  We did not believe them but placed the order. Thirty minutes later I received a message that they only had one pair and it was ready for curbside pickup. We still didn't think it would be the right size, but when we picked them up - the pair is his size! 

I got back online when we got home and ordered two more pairs to be shipped to my home so that he will be stocked until Spring. 

Meanwhile - I think they are selling burlap bags as dresses. 

I also noticed a lot of clothing with prairie ruffles, cowboy boots, denim ruffled jumpers. Are we repeating Urban Cowboy again?