I’ve really gotten caught up on the singing contest shows this year. I never watch them live, preferring to watch the YouTube videos when I can make the time.
I’ve never felt ‘invested’ in them before, and I find I’m almost on the edge of my seat this time, regarding ‘American Idol’ and ‘The Voice.’ It really amazes me how much talent we have in our world. Something that is getting through to me is that if a person has something special, something to which people react emotionally, it doesn’t matter if they ‘win’ the contest. They may make it anyway because people want to hear more. I’m hoping there is lots of good news to come for many of these talented people.
It seems that Monday comes around at least once a week…
We got a small, dog-type soccer ball for Amber at the store yesterday. She’s been playing with it off and on happily. She hasn’t popped it, which is great, but this morning she got quiet playing with it behind me in the office. I looked back to find ‘white stuff’ all over the carpet. She was eating the cover off the ball, spitting the bits of it all over the place. This will go out with the trash we’ll gather soon to put down at the bottom of the driveway.
We’re having truly nice weather, and it’s SO welcome. My husband mowed for the first time of the season yesterday afternoon. Things grew up quite suddenly, so it was more than time. Today I’ll need to start weed whacking – and there’s a LOT – in order to make it look like someone lives here.
We were awakened yesterday by Amber barking her head off around 5am. I studiously ignored it, going back to sleep. It turned out my husband went downstairs, got the .22 and looked to see why she was barking. Apparently, two stray dogs (at least ones we didn’t recognize) were INSIDE our garage, having come through the dog/cat door. Abby, our cat, who sleeps on the wood pile in there, was upset, of course, as was Amber, who sleeps inside in the utility room that shares a wall with the garage. My husband didn’t shoot anyone or anything, but he left the garage door open for some reason he was unable to explain. I discovered this when I got up and was doing morning chores. This freaked me out.
I explained to him that I slept, secure in my belief that we had the garage door closed, the people door to the house locked, and that no one could get in while we were the most vulnerable. I listened to him telling me my fears were unfounded, waited until he was finished, and then talked to him about closing off the cat door. Our garage door is open during the day while we’re there, so the cat can go in and out as she wishes. She sleeps in a ‘cat cube’ at night and I don’t think she goes out at night as a rule. Even if she does, we’re getting a lot of ‘critters’ we don’t want coming IN the door. My husband said he would put a piece of plywood over the inside of the cat door. That way the stray dogs, raccoons, stray cats, and other strange critters, won’t be able to come in. That sounds GREAT to me. I also stressed that, ‘paranoid’ and ‘silly’ and whatever other adjective one might use to describe my behavior aside, I wouldn’t feel safe anymore unless he agreed to make sure the garage door was closed again if he opened it during the night after we went to bed.
I happened to mention that leaving the garage door open at night when I thought it was closed MIGHT result in my calling the guy with the back hoe who will dig a hole in the back yard for me…
I found some really nice “Super Girl” tomato plants yesterday. I planted them yesterday afternoon. There are six plants in this brick planter.
Here’s a closer look at some of these.
There are 4 plants in this planter. I’m going to try to keep an eye on these and keep them as tied up as possible. They tend to be calm for awhile and then they ‘spurt’ in growth, seemingly all of a sudden spreading out over everything with the limbs too large to move without breaking them, yet really needing more support. I’ll try to do a better job of getting outside each day or so and giving them as much support as I can this year.
We also got the irrigation system controller installed on the faucet that goes to the garden. It’s set to start at 3pm today. I have a timer set so I can get out there and make sure the sprinklers are working and that the flow of water is good for watering my sweet plants well in the 10 minutes I have the controller set to now.
Later on, we’ll set the irrigation system for the yard. For now, I’ll just water the tomatoes with a hand held hose.
I’ll try to check next week to see what other plants I can add to the main garden.
I didn’t SEE any going on, but I HOPE there were lots of children hunting for Easter eggs this weekend. A memory I have was the Easter baskets my parents would get for my brother and me. I loved everything about them – the cheap, cheesy basket, the fake ‘grass’, the chocolate bunny, a couple of Easter eggs, maybe a candy or two. Just wonderful. When my husband and I were out getting groceries recently, I found my eye wandering to a display of Easter baskets at the store. I KNOW. I’m WAY too old for Easter baskets, but I still love ’em. :0)
We decorated Easter eggs a couple of times that I remember. We didn’t do anything fancy – just drew some designs or wrote words in wax crayons that would show up white against the rest of the dyed eggs. I looked up Easter eggs a minute ago and found that some people have brought decorating Easter eggs to an art form. I found, though, for MY tastes, the old, simpler, kid-centered decorations were much more satisfying. I did find some cute ideas, though –
It’s still a bit cool right now (44 degrees F.) to work outside comfortably, but it’s supposed to warm up this afternoon. I’m planning to prep my two brick tomato planters and then maybe head to town to get plants so I can enjoy much of my weekend playing in the dirt.
I’m enjoying the fact that we don’t have any errands we NEED to do, no appointments, no chores we HAVE to do, no bad weather, no schedule. Ahhhhh. We can do what we like WHEN we like. Sheer luxury.
When I was a child a hundred years or so ago, I always looked forward to Easter weekend. Sometimes we went to an Easter egg hunt. One time our neighborhood had one.
Easter was one of the times of the year I got new clothes – something special to wear to the church service. One year I got my favorite sweater EVER – a light-as-air pullover fuzzy pink one that made me feel pretty. My mom got me a tweedy wool skirt to go with it. I still remember how special I felt when I got black patent leather shoes with straps then went over the top. They were so shiny I could see my face in them. :0)
Sometimes we got chocolate rabbits. I always ate an ear off first. A few times we dyed eggs as a family. We had some wax white crayons we used to draw designs or write words on the eggs before we dyed them.
Some Easters, before people really thought things through, baby rabbits and baby chicks were sold at stores, usually dyed pretty pastel colors.
My parents had had actual rabbits as pets (we had two – one named “Peter” and the other “Welsh” – for Welsh Rarebit.) They didn’t like the idea of getting a dyed one, but one year all my friends and I got dyed chicks. No one thought about whether it was a good idea or not, or thought about the actual chicks, who, if they made it through, might not make wonderful pets.
Luckily, we had one mother in the neighborhood who was my idea of the PERFECT mother. (She was always welcoming to her kids’ friends, baked chocolate chip cookies, let us run a ‘camp’ one year, etc. – who adopted the chicks as they grew up, lost the dye, and became actual chickens as the newness wore off and more active care was needed.
Our church service was beautiful – filled to the brim with spirit-lifting music. Children would walk down the center aisle to sit at the front if they wanted to, carrying small baskets of fruit. We had a really good organist while we lifted our voices in song. My heart would nearly burst with the beauty of it all and the joy spilling out of me.
While playing in my art room, painting some note cards to give our waitress at the Pizza Barn for her birthday, I caught the bug to do more. I haven’t painted note cards or stationery in quite awhile, but ideas are swirling around in my head now, so I might steal some time today to get back upstairs and play.
These are the ones I did for Mikey’s birthday present. They’re a combination of pastels and acrylic paint. I really enjoy experimenting with the combination of different media, so I’m going to play with more of that – including alcohol inks, bleeding tissue paper, and more.
I’m feeling very lucky these days to be able to spend my time reading good books, listening to music, playing in my square foot garden and other flower planters, experimenting in my art room, and finding fun things to share with you here on the blog.
Now, if I could just arrange for more time in each day – and the energy to keep hopping between fun things to do – my life would be complete! :0)
Running out of excuses for not doing my yoga sessions lately, I did a session of careful stretches yesterday, trying to straighten out, stretch, relax into old lady poses, and generally give myself a chance to heal.
Why I need to convince myself from time to time that it really HELPS me to do this practice remains a mystery. General laziness, I guess.
I had been feeling creaky, sore, stiff, etc. from yard work, helping my husband change the tires on our truck and more, and I was basically doing the minimum movement needed.
Being dumb is not something I cultivate, so now that I’ve proven it to myself once again, I’ll try to do at least half an hour daily, no matter what else I’m doing.
Even after sleeping well last night, I’m struggling to wake up. I just finished a cup of coffee, but it seemingly hasn’t affected me. :0(
I’m looking forward to seeing as many of my Friday Lunch Bunch friends as possible today. Tomorrow is our waitress’ birthday, so I’m taking some hand painted note cards and a birthday card to her. I’m hoping she like them. I’m planning to take some pics if we have a ‘full house’ at lunch because that is happening less and less often. I want to take advantage of the opportunity to capture the joy we feel on meeting each week.
After lunch my husband and I will hit Walmart and the local grocery store for supplies. I’m planning to get out this afternoon and prep the tomato planters so that sometime during the weekend we can go buy some tomato plants.
I’m very thankful we’re not facing any awful weather today. It’s supposed to be sunny and 67 for a high. I’ll sure take that!
Yesterday my husband ‘disappeared’ for a time, scaring my hair off. The Vette was gone from the garage. His phone was in the office. He showed up about half an hour later, having filled up the Vette with gas. I reminded him that it would be really nice if he would let me know where he’s going, and that he take his phone so we can communicate, if needed. I THINK I got through to him.
No big plans for the day. Just enjoying the weather, trying to get a few things done around the house, enjoying our friends, gathering supplies for the next week, and enjoying the fact that we’re still around and able to appreciate all we have.
I think I told you that I recently found some JD Robb “In Death” series novellas that I didn’t have. These were in-between the normal numbered series that includes 57 books so far. (I have 55 of them. “Encore in Death” is out in hardback now. I’ll wait for it to be available in paperback. “Payback in Death” will be available in hardback in September of this year.)
I read the JD Robb parts of each of the groups of novellas I bought in paperback. I’ve just finished going back and reading the novellas by OTHER authors in each of those books. I found one author who intrigued me. Her name is Elaine Fox. I bought three books and had them downloaded on my Kindle.
I don’t use my Kindle much. I mainly use it for cookbooks, since I HATE buying an expensive cookbook and only finding a few recipes we like in it. Buying them via Kindle makes them affordable and also DELETABLE if we aren’t happy with them.
I just tried to access the three new books I bought via Amazon. They weren’t showing, and then I got a notice my Kindle wasn’t connected to the Internet. The problem got worse from there.
Since my patience runs out like water from a cup on technological things, I quickly got frustrated. My husband is now trying to help me get things straightened out. Between the two of us, we can figure things out most of the time – eventually.
I’m thinking of advertising for a teenager to come live with us to help us with all things electronic. I’m also thinking of advertising for a big, hunky guy with a great sense of humor who will come live with us and help us with all the heavy stuff inside and outside the house that have become a challenge for us. Between the two “adoptees” we ought to be able to smile and enjoy life. :0)
It’s hard to believe, but it’s not raining. It’s cloudy and 49, but nothing is falling on us. The wind isn’t blowing. No flying hairballs. Just cloudy, cool, and quiet. I’ll take it. :0)
My new veggie plants are looking happy this morning. It’s supposed to start warming up a little bit each day, so when it gets more comfortable outside, I’m planning to prep the brick tomato planters.
We’re planning to have a quiet day today and stay home. Tomorrow, we have Lunch Bunch, and then we’ll hit Walmart for groceries and then see if we can find some good tomato plants.
My brother-in-law sent a video to my husband this morning of their new dog, Jasmine, fetching a toy and bringing it back to him. Our Amber will go fetch a thrown toy, run it back to you, but won’t give it to you. She teases you with it, and when you ask for it, wants to play tug-of-war with it, or decides to shake it to break its neck, dancing away from you. I got her to do it once, but that was it. Jasmine is already doing better than Amber.
I ordered three books from a new author to be sent to my Kindle recently. I just tried to access them and had trouble getting the Kindle connected to the Internet. My husband is looking at it now, trying to help me. Fingers crossed.
GOOD NEWS: My husband got online, filled out a form for propane fill up, and actually talked to the lady at the office. Today the truck showed up. I asked my husband to monitor the fill up while I was doing other stuff.
He came inside a bit later, saying the guy had started to leave after filling up the small tank behind the shop. My husband stopped him, telling him we had ordered a fill up for the larger tank for the house, as well. The guy didn’t have a ticket for that. He called the home base and was able to arrange for a 2nd ticket so he could fill up the larger tank.
When my husband told him he had ordered fill ups for both when he talked to the lady, the guy said, “She’s difficult to deal with.” I praised my husband to the moon for saving the man a second trip and me the hassle for calling the lady back and ordering a second trip.
BAD NEWS:
One of our lawn chairs didn’t survive the propane truck’s passing. He obviously didn’t see it. It was old and on its last legs anyway, but I just spent about 15 minutes separating the metal from the plastic and making a pile for the next recycling trip and adding to the next burn pile.
I gathered some of our twice-blooming purple iris yesterday afternoon, since the weather was forecast as threatening yesterday afternoon-into today.
Mother Nature is sliding between making the weather forecasters warn us about severe thunderstorms and then tornado watches with lots of red flashing lights on my weather thingie. Since it was hot in the house this morning and much cooler on the outside, we’ve opened our doors to air things out plus cool things off between rain storms. We’re under the gun until this afternoon, I think. It’s pretty dark outside right now.
I’m doing laundry, hoping to be able to finish as soon as possible in case we lose public power and have to rely on the generator. It will run everything in the house except heat and air, but I don’t want to tax the system.
I didn’t have anything to cover the new veggie plants with overnight, since the warnings were for everything from gusty winds to tornadoes to hail to flying hairballs, so I’m crossing my fingers that my sweet new plants make it through this.
I’m grateful for a dry home today, hoping we make it through this intact. Stay safe everyone.
I think I told you that a ‘sign war’ is going on in our town of Greenwood, Arkansas. Apparently, the local Subway Sandwich place posted a sign saying, “Sign War, Anyone?” and the fun was on. I’m enjoying every minute of it.
Here, the signs are centered around the reason for the business; such as, “I’m so excited I wet my plants” in front of the hardware store where veggie plants are being sold.
Greenwood Veterinary Hospital – “Give up. Your signs are all bark and no bite.” And, “You’ve got to be kitten me. You call this a sign war?”
Lights and electronics – “Sign war has reached us. Can I get a Watt Watt” and “Sign war got peeps throwing shade? Don’t worry. We’re here to light it up.”
I’m not sure I’m a ‘safe driver’ during this war, but I’m grinning from ear to ear. :0)
Yesterday we loaded the back of the truck with metal trash plus regular trash. We left the regular trash in the can and left it ready for emptying today, then drove to the recyling place and left the metal trash. We got a flat of spinach plants and a flat of head lettuce plants on the way home. I planted those before lunch. After lunch we changed our snow tires for regular tires on the truck.
I was stiff and sore by the middle of the evening. I SHOULD have done yoga to try to stretch things out, but I was exhausted and just didn’t. I’m paying the price this morning, feeling as if I were run over by a truck.
Thankfully, we don’t have any big errands today. We’ll get our mail, maybe hit the local grocery, and tether the emptied trash can to the pole toward the bottom of the driveway on the way home.
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We’re due for severe weather this afternoon, tonight, and tomorrow morning. I have all my appendages crossed, in spite of the creakiness, hoping we come through the storms intact.
Meanwhile, I’m glugging coffee, trying to wake up.
When we got back from errands this morning, I went right out to the garden with the flat of head lettuce and the flat of spinach. I got them planted before lunch. I’ll set up the automatic watering system tomorrow, but I THINK it’s supposed to rain tomorrow afternoon and evening, giving my new plants lots of water. (I hope not too much!)
My plan is to prep my two brick tomato planters next and get them planted, and then figure out what else will go in the main garden.
After lunch and a rest, we went out to the shop to get the snow tires off the truck and put on the regular tires. We had a hard time. I insisted we come in and rest after we got the tires on the front. We drank water and rested a bit and then went back out. We got it done, but it was a close thing.
My husband surprised me on the walk back from the shop after we finished. He has finally agreed that when the snow tires need to be put back on, we’ll put the tires and wheels and lug nuts in the back of the truck. I’ll make an appointment with the tire place so they will change the tires for us, air up the tires and put the others in the back of the truck. The only thing we’ll have to do next time is get the tires in and out of the back of the truck and into the shop. This has been a long time coming, and I had almost given up hope on getting him to see reason. I’m relieved.
We will do some serious relaxing this evening. :0)
Sorry I’m late getting to my blog today. We just now came in from working in the yard a bit. My husband used the chain saw to cut down some really big evergreen branches that were hanging down between the house and the shop. So our trash pile (to be burned when safe) grows again.
We gathered our trash and also put the metal we needed to get rid of in the back of the truck. We drove it all down to the bottom of the driveway and got the trash can set up for emptying tomorrow. Then we drove to the recycling place and a nice man helped us empty the truck. Amber was flirting with him, trying to get him to come pet her. He finally did that, laughing. The way he easily threw the metal way up to the other end of the metal bin there, “I” told him we would really appreciate him on the OTHER end of our trip. At least we made him smile.
I wanted to go to the Co-Op to see what plants they had and we hit the jackpot. My husband’s favorite lettuce is head lettuce. Usually we MIGHT find one small 6-pack. This time we got an entire FLAT. The spinach was also looking stellar, so we got an entire FLAT of that, as well. I’ve JUST now come in from getting what we bought planted. I’ll take some pics to share later. Right now I’m breathing a bit hard and over-heated, so I’m relaxing, writing this, and drinking a big bottle of water.
Later my husband wants to change the truck tires. I know I told you we were planning to do that yesterday, but we got distracted, and ‘somehow’ I forgot to remind him. :0) So, now I’ve said that we can do it after lunch and after we’re rested.
Since we were BOTH looking pretty bedraggled on the way back to the house after our yard work, I took the opportunity to remind him that we’re not 30 anymore and that we both need to keep our work sessions short with lots of rest and water in-between. He seemed to listen and agree…
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