Not a lot happening this weekend - just working at the odds and ends that are endlessly on the to-do list.

We helped out my inlaws around their house. My husband and I are starting to see a need to schedule a bit more time over there to keep things up better, as their health keeps limiting them more and more. All I know is that I had visions of my mom's house and the endless stuff she and my dad had collected. It took me a long time to clear out things from her house when she entered the nursing home, and the long-term storage ruined so much of it. My inlaws have organized their stuff into an endless sea of plastic storage boxes, tucked into corners everywhere. They're finding out that their three kids and families are just not really wanting any of it. The stuff has meaning to them, but not to their kids. It's kind of sad. Oh well, it helps motivate my husband and I in limiting what we think we should store away (a small house also helps with this.)

I went with my oldest and youngest to visit my mom. She's doing well, though conversation is a bit confusing as usual. We were joined by a talkative gentleman who managed to share his life up to the point where he and his wife had their six daughters. He was interupted to go to dinner, but I'm sure I'll hear about the second half (or more - he's 93) of his life. My mom enjoys the company of men, so she mostly giggled, laughed and made the occasional odd comment throughout his story. I always leave there with a smile.

I baked some vanilla chip cranberry bars and used up the rest of the package of chips into some chocolate vanilla chip cookies. After the obligatory 'testing of the recipes' by my family who came out of the woodwork, I bagged up and hid the treats in the freezer for the lunches this week.

Over the summer I had talked to the girls about our use of bottled water for the lunches. They were all willing to carry reusable bottles - yay! The environmental reasons spoke to them more, while I was definitely hearing the monetarial ones as well. Either way, it's all good!

To-do list odds and ends that got crossed off include my husband and girls washing both the vans in the driveway. I cut my husband's hair with the clippers (on the patio - you'd think we were doing this only to embarass our kids!) My husband turned his time sheet in online with 30 hours OT from last week (he was out of town two times, and gets drive time.) I sprayed the new athletic shoes with Camp-dry, so dew, rain and snow wreak less havok on those new shoes. Starting to go over a new budget with my husband so that there is no mindlessly expanding the spending to fit the pay increase. Otherwise, we're all getting ready for school's start tomorrow.

Happy Labor Day...take care!