I almost got everything prepped
Before this string of work shifts, I wrote blog posts, wrote school discussion posts, prepped food, washed laundry....but I did not get a post written for today.
And last night as I was getting ready to drive home from work, I realized this error.
Whoops.
I almost never miss a weekday of blogging, and I know some of you worry about me when I don't post, so...I'm fine!
Training is going great, and I love my job even when it's this many days in a row.
I'm learning so many new skills (I even put an NG tube in a patient this week!) and I'm feeling more and more competent by the day.
But I will be very glad to have a string of days off, starting tomorrow. I need some time to live the non-hospital parts of my life. 😉
I promise I will be back with Thankful Thursday tomorrow!
So glad you're loving your job! And "way to go!" on getting SO much prepped ahead of time! That's a lot! Have a great Wednesday. 🙂
No worries (smile and hug)
Hope your day is awesome, Kristen. Thank you for posting something so we don't worry about you!!
Thanks for giving us the brief update and hang in there.
You still managed to write something, so three cheers!
Last long day for a while! I suspect that will be in your thanksgivings tomorrow, and I wouldn't blame you.
@JD, (in response to your reply to me yesterday) the boysenberries came from a grocery store so no telling their origin. They were huge and flavorful. I could possibly live on berries (with a bit of dark chocolate thrown in for some solid nutrition.)
You are doing amazingly. You've heard the list of most stressful events...well, you're doing the number one on that list...not even counting that your job is to keep sick and hurting patients alive. You are rocking this. When this happens again, and it will, a one sentence post will do. You have created a wonderful community here.
We demoed the covered patio yesterday, so many climbs up the big ladder! The favorite farm worker rebuilt the beams and I carried the 2x6's and whatever else he asked for.
Today is installing the rest of the gutter guards and then the roof will go back on. This project has been on the big list for decades.
Our air quality has been horrible, my landscaper had to stop working. We need a strong Pacific ocean breeze to scour out the wildfire smoke.
Bottled up my first batch of apple cider vinegar, so yummy.
The local cidery asked me to put on a workshop for making vinegar as once you establish a thriving mother, you can add cider to make vinegar.
The wild turkeys are ridding the fields of grasshoppers. As long as they stay out of the garden, I'm glad they are visiting.
A gorgeous fall sunrise to start the day! Have a good one!
Thanks for letting us know. No worries. And enjoy your well-earned upcoming days off!
Kristen, with your incredible energy and drive, I am amazed you get as much done as you do. Of course, all of your devoted fans understand when you may have to skip a day here and there.
I had a wild frugal fail yesterday.
A little background: As I've mentioned before, I have a west-facing window that causes my bedroom to heat up in the afternoon, turning my room into a solar oven. My 1960s house has its original windows and they are Plexiglas and un-insulated. Needless to say, they're energy INefficient, too. The window overlooks my driveway, a grassy strip, my neighbor's driveway and the wall of their house (which has windows where they can see out to my window).
New windows are not in the budget for me, so I try to DIY insulate this problem window. My other window in the room just has mini-blinds and drapes, but this window has layers upon layers of anything and everything that'll keep the sun out. Including the blinds and drapes. I used to use heavy-duty foil until my elderly neighbor complained how bad it looked. Ditto, white posterboard. I tried that reflective stuff too, but couldn't get it on right. It wrinkled and bunched up and I had to take it down.
Attempt at a solution: I had read online somewhere that you can "frost" your windows with buttermilk instead of paint or whatever is usually used for this. So I took down my drapes, and noticed how dusty they were.
I shook them out real well outdoors then put them in the washing machine on cold and permanent press.
I went back and took out layers upon layers of homemade insulation, a lot of it just cardboard, and then got to the final layer. It was a trash-picked white window shade, which I had unrolled and put up sideways. (My windows are very wide horizontally but not all that tall. 1960s architecture.) Sadly, I tore the linen-textured plastic fabric in taking down the shade. (It had looked almost OK from the outside but there had been a place that had sorta sunk in or wrinkled, and I didn't like it. Even though it'd been there for a number of years.) So the buttermilk thing had better work!
I couldn't find the $7 little bitty paint roller kit I had bought for this purpose over at Ace Hardware (way across town). So I made a mad dash to Ollie's Outlet (closer) and bought supplies again. Then, I'd forgotten about my former roommate's powdered buttermilk, so I picked up a jug of buttermilk at HEB and used that.
Yesterday afternoon, the high temperature was 97 degrees. As soon as I took the window layers down, all that sunlight heated up my room pronto. Very uncomfortable!
Meanwhile, I got the drapes out of the washing machine. They were floor-length insulating drapes I'd bought at Walmart 8 or 10 years ago. Did you know the insulating backing melts in the washing machine, even on cold, and gets the drapes all stuck together? In other words, ruined them.
So I lowered the miniblinds and kept the lights low so that passers-by couldn't see in the window. And, as the video said, the buttermilk-y smell went away as soon as the thing dried.
This morning, the buttermilk "paint" looks good on one window panel, fair on the other --- but really streaky on the largest panel that is in the middle. The online demo said you have to do 2 or more coats, and I will paint some more today. It also said it's best to use buttermilk that has some fat in it. HEB just sells low-fat buttermilk, and that is what I used. Then I remembered I still had a container of roommate's buttermilk. Turns out the powered stuff my roommate left behind is a fat free "buttermilk blend".
Today's agenda will be to see if I can salvage the drapes; if not, I'll have to buy replacements. And to put some more coats of "paint" on the window.
Meanwhile, the cold front blew in. It's raining hard outside and the temperature has fallen so at least I won't be suffering in an "oven" this afternoon. As soon as the rain lets up, I will go outside and see what my "frosted" window looks like on the outside. I sure hope it looks better than the sideways window shade did, or else I'm going to be really hacked off.
Stay tuned for an update. We'll see what happens.
Oh, I needed to mention, even though the neighbor's wall is right across from my window, it does not shade the wall of my house. There are no trees or anything to block the sun. Hence, my never-ending battle to insulate that west window.
@Fru-gal Lisa, years ago I lived in an old house that was incredibly drafty. I needed to do something about a kitchen window, albeit, much smaller than what you described. I took a piece of thick styrofoam, cut to fit the lower half of the window with some ease. I wrapped the foam with polyester batting followed by fabric and then pushed the piece into the window. If I remember correctly, I used straight pins to attach the batting/fabric. It worked and looked nice.
You would need to purchase supplies due to the size of your window, but I believe it’s doable.
@Fru-gal Lisa, our bedroom windows throughout the house are the high, shallow and wide variety. It drove me nuts trying to find curtains until I realized a regular long panel can be turned horizontal. I don't have cafe curtain clip rings and usually have to sew a rod pocket down one long side for the curtain rod. That is hidden under the valance, as I usually sew them out of recycled sheet material.
@Fru-gal Lisa, we had single pane old windows & spray water on window then put up bubble wrap on the wet windows & held in place to make sure adhered. Occasionally a corner would come loose & if it didn't stay I would put some packing tape to seal it. That allowed light to still come through. It stayed up for many years as long as I wasn't using window. Then I put up curtains.
On current house I purchased some white window distortion (similar to rolled window stain) that I sprayed water on window & put up cut section onto window. It's thick like bubble wrap but prettier. I have blinds over the top of that & sheer curtains on a tension rod in window frame over blinds. Then I hung curtains made out of blanket/fleece (big window) or towel (small window) on curtain rod.
If you don't need to look out/use have you tried putting up clear/white plastic over window inside (under curtain)? They make shrink plastic (heat with hair drier) for inside windows. If you live in state where not snow then Ace should be able to order for you & have shipped (free) to the store.
Good Luck.
UPDATE: I went outside after the rain. The first coat of buttermilk frosting on the window looked like heck. Very discouraged, I tried again; the video I saw said it looks better after the second coat. It did. I will be putting on a third coat and then redoing the widow coverings.
To that end, I made a mad dash to Wallyworld. Not only do they not have the same drapes I bought from them before (well, it HAS been several years), but they don't have very many curtains or drapes at all. It seems the horde of college students have come through like an invasion of locusts and everything is all picked over. They need to restock.
Each one of my windows requires 6 panels, and the most the store had in one color/design was 4. I need a dozen. Will try at other Walmarts later on, but right now I have to get ready for my evening work shift at our store. (Which does not sell any sort of window treatments.)
Late tonight, I may try peeling the washed drapes apart to see if they can be salvaged. (I doubt it but....)
@PNW Casey,
Thanks. Great idea!
I've tried Styrofoam, but haven't found a piece large enough for this purpose, but I will ask around or rig up some kind of patchwork thing.
Meanwhile...
Getting some stuff out of the garage, I spied a very large campaign sign for a long-ago candidate. Not only did he not win, but he's gotten gerrymandered out of our district, so we won't need his sign for its intended purpose. (They had nailed it to my back fence, which overlooks a busy street, and I was saving it in case he runs again. Then I thought it'd make a dandy garage sale table if we put the backside up on 2 sawhorses.)
As mentioned, it is blank white on one side and it is made out of corregated plastic. I'm thinking of cutting it to size and putting the white side toward the frosted window pane. Might put heavy duty foil over the printed side with staples.
Then I can layer whatever Styrofoam or other cardboard I get in there, lower the blinds and then cover everything with (insulated thermal blackout) drapes.
It'd be so much simpler to just buy new windows...but I haven't won the lottery yet.
@Regina,
Thank you.
Yes, I use the old water and bubble wrap trick on the bathroom windows and back windows. It works great in the window, and I keep it on the bathroom window year around for privacy. That window faces the back of the house, where there is a roof overhang and a tree that shades it.
But this west window has the opposite problem: we're trying to keep the sun out and keep it cool. It "cooks" the room year round. No roof overhang on that side, and nothing to shade it. Bubble wrap would just multiply the effects of the hot sunlight, assuming it didn't melt. The plastic shrink wrap stuff we've put on the picture windows in winter, but again it won't help against the heat. (There are only a few days of freezing weather here so we usually don't bother with insulating against the cold. Unless we're entertaining for Xmas.)
The old standby for summer/sunlight/heat is heavy duty aluminum foil in the window but it shows and the old lady next door saw it and complained. (I'd used the white window shade, put on sideways against the pane, to block the unsightly insulation but I didn't like the fact it had gotten wrinkled. Guess I should've left well enough alone. It got torn up when I removed it to do the buttermilk paint thing. )
@Fru-gal Lisa, , another option, which does cost more, but I can attest to it’s effectiveness on west-facing windows is anti-glare window film. You can go pretty dark on it. Lots of places have it.
A couple of other ideas:
we once lived in a cold climate in an apt with a super drafty sliding glass door. We went to a big box hardware and bought a big piece of foam insulation in the thickest form they had. I think ours was purple...but you could paint or cover it if need be.
In another dwelling we had insulated drapes in all the windows to shield the 1920's single panes which were slightly wavy and beautiful! Thankfully we had woodstove heat ! I think most of my insulated drapes were from a Plow and Hearth Outlet and were washable in cold water. Maybe EBay would have those sturdier ones??
Maybe the window frosting solution from the hardware store before whatever "window trifle" you add after that??!!
Hope you get to enjoy some well deserved rest after all of those long hours!
Full-time work definitely disrupts life. But I think a work schedule is preferable to a school schedule, when you NEVER feel “off” because there is always more to study.
Thank you for checking in!
You need a day off from blogging, too. That schedule you just did is brutal. Congratulations on the successful NGT placement! Enjoy your days off!
Now that you are in the outside of home working world, you're working smarter not harder.
While I can't speak for others, after 47+ years in the working world, I don't get too het up if you miss a day or two.
Kristen, you are so kind to think of your readers' concern. However, you deserve a day-off from blogging! Perhaps keep a template post that simply says "Taking the day off" that you can easily publish when you want/need a day off from blogging?
NG tube? No idea what that is but congrats!