Less Hustle More Coffee

Well, Saturday was a rainy day and ended up being a stormy evening and also a stormy overnight. I only had 3 hours of solid sleep after 2 a.m. Sure I nodded off between 9:30 and 2:00 only to be woken up by the NOAA weather radio in conjunction with my phone, followed by a delayed notification on my iPad, LOL. All the same room. I decided that I was either going to stay up all night with the TV and phone. Or I would go to bed with the NOAA weather radio plugged in. That gave me the most comfort. But of course, there was just not much rest as when there was not a storm warning, there was a flood warning. I think I have it programed to also warn me the next county over coming from the west. It gives you more time to prepare, warn the family, get old dogs to the basement and so forth. Especially for George who is hard to wake up and get down there. He has to hem and haw and yawn and go peek outside, maybe watch the news and see for himself. And maybe he will finally mosey on down if he decides it looks and sounds threatening enough. So yeah- for him alone – we need extra notice. It gave me some peace of mind. I negotiated with myself though between fear and comfort. I would close my eyes and KNOW GOD was in control, drift off and REOR REOR REOR REOR – there it would go again. So about the time I would feel at peace there would be another reason to almost panic. I didn’t though. I was just ready to go to the basement should we need to. I felt it the responsible thing to do to keep tabs on the weather until the event was over. And that I did.

The power went out though. I had a battery ready to go that I found right before bed time. Was bad that I never put it in. I just laid it there in case I need it. Had I gone to sleep though when the power went out and a tornado came through it would have been bad. But I switched to cell power for my warnings. I NOW see what they mean about having battery back up and more than one way to get the warnings.

The big fear was the super cell development. My fears began to ease when I saw that there was a development of a line of storms. And while tornadoes can still embed the line – usually they are not the big long lasting tornadoes that keep going and going. We DID have a moment in a warned Severe Thunderstorm that got pretty rough. I went to the hallway and debated going to the basement. George doesn’t want to be awoken unless it is a tornado warning. About the time I got to the hallway it was calming down.

Despite my being awake and alert most of the night, I woke up about 5:30 and got up as my mind was racing with all I still needed to do today. I was also curious about the flooding. I knew we had a LOT of rain. It ended up being about 9 inches of rain in all and that is A LOT!

I took a screen shot of our Police Dept photo of the flooding in Mount Juliet. This is crazy. It looks like an ocean. The police department said merchandise from stores was floating down Mount Juliet Road.

Also a screen shot of Captain Chandler. I’m so proud of our police department. He was in mid sentence there, lol. But he and his department gives a weekly update. They keep us informed and safe. I’m loving their communication and their reach out to the public. This was long before election year by the way. They have always done Coffee with the Cop – pre-Covid, and they do random acts of kindness. I feel like we are lucky to be here. They are very informative. The Chamber of Commerce is the same way. They let us know what businesses are coming and going and so forth. It’s an active community and one I’m proud to be part of.

Spring Cleaning Clothes Reboot

I DID get quite a bit done yesterday before all the storms started hitting. It was mainly a RAIN event all day. Lots of household cleaning, laundry, and I decided to go through my clothes. I was going to wait until Mom left to do the winter/summer switcheroo of my clothes that are in tubs. But it seemed like it was the thing to do as I had so much of my clothes in piles in the room she’d be sleeping in. So I ended up going through each piece of clothing I own and making decisions and separating into piles or moving into the appropriate closet or container. I moved all the winter hanging clothes to my office closet where my off season clothes go. And I moved the spring/summer clothing to my current dressing closet. And I had ordered some storage bags for my clothes that are too small for me, sadly. But I’m not giving them away, I had just bought those clothes over the last two years. So I will store them. These storage bags ended up being not plastic but a breathable fabric. So I’m thinking I should put moth balls or cedar in them? Do you know? I’ll have to research. I didn’t know it wouldn’t be plastic (duh, I guess I didn’t read the description well enough on Amazon). But this will likely be stored in the basement so I don’t want any intrusions. What do you think????

I also filled up a complete THRED UP bag (a consignment place I mail my clothes to free of charge and then get pretty much yard sale prices for them – but it’s better than having my own yard sale I guess ) Anyway, I had enough items to fill up the bag of stuff I just don’t like or wear. A year or two not worn – is kinda my queue that it needs to go. I’ve prayed about this some, and God agrees, let someone else enjoy it instead of sitting unworn in your closet. Someone else can enjoy it at a discount price. I’m also thinking along the lines of “less stuff overall” and “more stuff I wear all the time and love”. My clothes last forever usually as I’m careful as to what I buy and I also take care of them. I hang dry a lot of my things. It does mean more pressing or ironing but they last forever when I do that. I spent a LOT of time on this yesterday. I also have some things for Goodwill too. The consignment place will not take certain things, that Goodwill will take.

Easter Decor

I did manage to get my Easter decor out. It’s not much but I added a few touches here and there for Mom’s sake. Found this little green bunny which seemed appropriate for the bathroom.

This little plant seemed “springy”. A little $3.99 purchase at the Home Store. And here’s the whole mantle area.

I had bought a couple of dogwood flowers thinking it would be pretty on the mantle. But after all, just decided to plunk it down in this vase with the ones that were already there to make it fuller. I think it would have been a bit overkill on the mantle. Might pluck one out for the dining room table though, lol. We’ll see. I didn’t get a chance to work on the table yet. George’s things are all over it still plus I didn’t have time anyway.

I didn’t get done with everything I wanted. I never do. I have more pics to show as well of a few pics I took this weekend. But will have to put those in the blog later. Running out of time. All of these above of the decor were taken with the camera.

I’ve Met my Matcha

We went out yesterday to Starbucks (drive through so I could get my Matcha drink using Starbucks cards Aunt Martha and Uncle Ken gave us). Being that my cards will run out soon, I did some research on Matcha and found some recipes and have ordered some Matcha from Amazon as well as the little emersion blender – well it’s a frother actually. One with a stand I can keep on the counter. I figure I will make it on the way to work and instead of drinking an extra cup of coffee, I’ll fix my iced matcha tea drink. It makes me feel so good for like two hours after. You just feeeeeeel good. Like refreshed, relaxed, and it’s hard to explain. It is supposed to be good for you and it can help you lose weight and helps your metabolism and can help with blood pressure and I believe blood sugar but I’d have to check on that last one. I looked up recipes that were similar to the Starbuck’s recipe. So I will be using the little cans of pineapple juice, unsweetened coconut milk and the matcha puree, and will add honey as a sweetener if needed. I considered agave but after doing some research discovered that may not be the best option as a sweetener. I don’t like really sweet drinks anyway so if I add any, it’ll be just a little honey. It’ll be an experiment really to see how I like mine. I’ll start with their recipe and tweak from there. I’m very excited about it. Maybe I’ll film it, lol! It doesn’t look appealing, but I’m craving it now!

Little Roo Cuteness

Here he is with his Daddy as they all did a little fishing yesterday.

Love my little cuddle buttons and I cannot wait to get my hands on him! I just want to hug and squeeze him and tell him I love him.

So several things I’m working on and thinking about. But the house is in good shape for Mom’s visit. I worked on the sun room and dusted some. There are a few more areas that need dusting most likely if I looked real hard but if I can’t see it, Mom probably can’t LOL. I can’t clean every inch but it’s presentable anyway. I’ll change sheets Wed night. I think we have to go to the store also Wed night, or George may go on Thurs while I’m bringing her back. I also would like to have the table set for Easter as well this week if George will clean off his mess on the table, LOL.

I have a couple of blog entries I’m working on. One is a personal one – well my weight loss plans (my own version of what I plan to do) and the other one is really just a fun one. There is just never enough time to do all I want to do. The weekend is over and we are here on Monday and I’m left to take all my “undone” projects and list them all to be done another time. Some scattered across the week and then probably after Easter weekend. Probably won’t get to work on the Texas video any until after Easter.

Prayer Request

Well, please say a BIG prayer for me. I began having pain in my left abdomen last night. It feels kinda like the diverticulitis issue I have from time to time. So I’m having to go on a liquid diet today until I know for sure. I have prayed that God will spare me this. It’s Easter, and a time to celebrate with Mom and to eat good meals. I have been looking forward to this and I don’t want to be eating jello when the time comes. So I request your prayers. I want to lose weight but not like this. I’ve asked the Lord please not to make me lose weight like this! Anytime I ask for weight loss, this happens, lol. Not this time Lord! I’ve taken Acetaminophen (I don’t take Ibuprofen due to my BP meds). Sometimes Acetaminophen and a day or two of liquid or soft foods will kill the problem. If I can have success doing this, I will be able to squeak through. If not I’ll have to call the doc and be seen and get antibiotics and go through his week long regimen back to normal food again. I also will have to have another colonoscopy again. Ugh. I absolutely have been avoiding it. I wish I knew my triggers. I didn’t have popcorn but have had some tomatoes. I’m not sure what the deal is. I’ve not been able to pinpoint any one thing. So I quit trying to identify the cause. It’s so hard to tell. Stress? Maybe as I was stressed over the storms and loss some sleep. I forgot my Probiotic pill one day. Surely that wouldn’t do it. I was on my feet all weekend. That shouldn’t do it. I eat the same stuff all the time so nothing really changed. But about once every 2 to 3 years I’ll have a flair up. Dang it. I wonder if it is the same time of year? I kinda think it is. I’m just not sure. Like I said, it’ll drive you crazy trying to figure it out. So I just focus on getting better!

It’s taken me two days to get this blog entry done! Happy Monday!