I actually have a few moments to stop in and say hello to everyone. Things are going great for me lately though I could use my family helping get the house clean because we are trying to see if we can refinance our house. Our loan is through rural development currently and because of how our income fell during the first few years we were in the house we had assistance with the amount of our payment going to interest on our loan. This is money that will have to be paid back when DH or I are no longer living in this house be for any reason so we could stay with paying our loan to rural development and we would not have to pay that amount that they call a recaputure until we either sold the house, went into a care home teif that was needed or both of us passed away (in which case our children would have to take out a loan if necessary and pay it). The amount paid is not directly the amount that was paid in assistance dollar for dollar but is based on the difference of the assesed value of our home at the time that we are no longer living in it or if we refinance the loan with another lender (it's considered a sale but we are both the buyer and the seller) and what it was when we moved into the house. The house is a mess and I am not getting much help for getting things done. With my chronic fatique and fibro I am putting myself in a situation where I am getting injured or am wearing myself out so I am only able to do a little bit and then am requiring a couple of days to recover. I also have to schedule the cleaning times so that I am not down when there are other things going on such as 4-H meetings, holiday get togethers including my father in laws 80th birthday this past Sunday (I had one taco, a piece of cake and one scoop of ice cream with a glass of water to drink), and still being able to semi function on my recovery days beyond barely being able to walk to the bathroom.
Christmas shopping is just about done. My oldest and I are planning to go out on Friday (when DH will not have to go to work later in the day so we are not rushed for time) so that we can finish up shopping for DH along with getting a few things for the cats. I am thinking they might get a new scratching post this year as their one with the sissle rope has been totally destoyred and their one that is rope and carpet is looking pathetic. DH will go out on Saturday to finish up shopping for me and he and I both will go out next Monday to finish up getting gifts for the girls (we are 1 gift short for our older DD and need some stocking stuffers for both girl). DH is on vacation once he gets off from his Thursday night shift early Friday morning until he has to go on shift the Sunday afternoon between Chrismas and New Years. While I am out shopping he can get some of the cleaning done and I have also said that I want some done on Saturday as well. I have absolutely no decorations up this year (again) and damn it I want to have some decorations even if I don't get my larger tree set up again this year. We inherited my parents old but still in good shape tree a few years ago after what I thought was going to be a single year of no tree due to the one we no longer staying up (it was the one that my parents got when I was either in middle or high school-can't remember when they went to artificial instead of a live tree and I graduated in the early 90s). I have yet to have that tree put up. The first year I was able to have all my non tree decorations put up the first year including my smaller table top tree that stays decorated year round (it just goes on a shelf in the basement store room when not out for a decoraton).
I got on the scale this morning and I am only .2 pounds away from so far loosing 10% of my top weight as of this morning. It is nice that I have found a natural product that works for my thryroid which I have gotten no help from the medical profession with because all they care about is that my lab numbers are normal irregardless that I have just about every symptom with the exception of those that only pertain to males. I am not following a specific diet plan other than watching the amount that I eat so if I want to have something that is not considered a diet food I can I just have to choose to not do so all the time. I am trying to go with a higher protein diet with plenty of fruits and vegetables for the majority of my eating along with drinking mostly water.