Less Hustle More Coffee

Enjoying the coffee this morning. I chose a photo by Isabelle Taylor for the opening of the blog this morning. Why? 1) I like the style that is showing in the photo 2) I love the coffee cup and actually thinking about getting some black dishes. 3) I love the grey throw. 4) The pillows are cute and I love the designs together 5) This photo makes me want to dive in. But I could care nothing about Couture Wedding Gowns, lol.

Speaking of style, lol. Here’s my recent “haul” as the young ones call it. I went to Belk and to Walmart and to Target in the last week to try and find things for Mom to lounge around in. Got those to her yesterday. But while out there I looked for myself for a few things. I usually have a spring/early summer shopping day to myself. I didn’t get it until July or August last year and didn’t get to go at all this year on my regular “run”. I usually do the whole shopping experience but in my life now it’s hit or miss, mostly miss. I don’t get to do a lot of browse shopping any more unless it’s Christmas shopping. At this point of my life I don’t need much but it’s nice to update the wardrobe here and there with new pieces.

I found three long sleeve shirts and two short sleeve. All of these were on sale. I love the looser feel of them and two jogging style capris and also a pair of cropped jeans and some shorts. It was very difficult to get these photos. Dexter wants to be right in the middle of what you are doing. George had taken him outside and I was able to get most of these shot from the bed. The two hanging from the window was after they came back in from a walk. The bed no longer an option. He loves to tear the tags off things. He will jump up and get clothing from your hands and he goes for the tags. He tore the tags off my new shoes when I was trying them on from Amazon. They did not fit right. Amazon took them back anyway.

So after work last week was busy but fun. I miss shopping in the stores. But it is nice when no one is there. And I’ll say most of the stores were pretty empty with no waiting. But that was after work and not on a weekend.

I’m expecting to have to go back and swap or return Mom’s things I bought her. It’s so hard to buy pants for someone else. I bought shoes last week and had to return those. And I’ve tried to find these and I hope they fit right. But I know I may have to return to one or both stores.

We took Fancy to get her shots yesterday. Mom only wanted to get shots but they kept calling it an exam. I told them we just wanted shots. It was kindof awkward. They said they were required to do the exam that it was a state law. I hadn’t realized that. So they had questions that we couldn’t answer like who her vet was in Columbia and what meds the dog was on and George went to the car to ask and Mom and Mom said “it’s none of their business” but finally gave *some* of the info to George. The vet is just trying to do their job. I hate situations like this when you are in the “middle”. I told the vet I was sorry that it wasn’t our dog and Mom got meds from the mail from the other vet and didn’t want to change her vet but we were not driving to Columbia for just shots. It is amazing how the simplest things can become so frustrating for no reason and that is all I will say. There is this black cloud following us around for some reason. Anyway we got the shots done so we can get the grooming done next Saturday.

I loved the poodle art in the lobby of the vet. And this sign below was funny. George and I really like this vet. We are not sure why Mom has an aversion to them, but we have found them to be accommodating in times of need, and the staff is nice.

Anyway, we took George to Oscar’s Taco’s for his birthday from Mom.

After that Mom wanted to go to Lowe’s. Her energy level and ability to do much at any given time is waning. She told us she didn’t want to go to Lowe’s the day before and wanted to go to Aldi’s, but yesterday she said she DID want to go to Lowe’s and did NOT want to go to Aldi. So at any given moment things can change. But I think she was trying to maximize her time and assess and prioritize her needs. There is not enough Saturday’s to go do one thing a day, lol.

Anyway we went to Lowes. It’s getting hard to go to Lowe’s with Mom b/c we have to walk the store over and I personally don’t know where things are in there. There is usually some odd item she needs like a flag pole of a certain kind, a type of velcro she wanted in a certain shape, and some kind of flood lights, and a certain kind of bug spray that she couldn’t think of the name but would know when she saw it but she can’t see well. I was so glad George was with us yesterday. So he could help with these things. Lowe’s requires a kind of patience for all of us that most of us in our family do not have. One day maybe it will be funny. In the moment it is not. But I’m trying to make it be humorous so we can all laugh about it. For example, George asks where the bug spray is and takes off, I wait for Mom, who is walking slow. Since the sales person told George where it was and he took off, I didn’t hear where and he’s already gone. So I have to stop and ask where it is so we can find it too. Then I take off and realize ooops I’ve left Mom behind (but has the buggy to help her walk) and then she is asking someone where the bug spray is. She can see me but I guess she just wants to know herself that I’m going in the correct direction b/c I guess she doesn’t have faith that I know where I’m going. This thought in turn, makes me mad and I say “we have asked three times where the bug spray is”. She gave me a mean look but I turned and walked on wanting to avoid conflict in the middle of Lowe’s and I know Mom will show her butt in public if needed and I want to avoid that as much as possible – and she will tell you that herself. I’m not saying nothing she wouldn’t and hasn’t said. We have no pride nor respect for others apparently, lol. Also Mom does not like to use the self check out even if we tell her we want to do it for her. So we’ll wait in the long lines. That was the previous time we went. Might have been Home Depot that time. I’m just as stubborn so I let her go do the regular check out by herself b/c I didn’t want to wait in the lines but if she wanted to she could and I didn’t since there were better opportunities. So I stood at the front of the store and waited. But that time was a long time ago and you can see I’ve not forgotten it.

These were cute at Lowe’s yesterday.

So then we took Mom to Publix. Kroger was too big. So we got Mom’s things. She had a buggy full. We also stopped at Houston’s and got her a roast to cook this week. And then we took her home and unloaded the Lowe’s and groceries. Mom told George to put up the bulbs in her outdoor lights and he got the ladder and did that. She had told him he was going to do it in Lowe’s. But at the house she was nice and asked him if he would. Sometimes she commands instead of asks nicely but she turned that one around. So that was good. Please and thank you and honey and lace is so much better than demands and finger points and criticism and negativity. Honey and lace, lol – I kinda like that term. Gentleness and sweetness is a good thing. Kinda removes the dark cloud syndrome of “nothing is going right” today in one’s world. I may use that more often.

So most of Saturday was for Mom – the other part for George. In the afternoon we got home about 3 I think or 3:30. George worked in the yard, I did laundry and fixed some mid afternoon popcorn. Dexter loves pop corn.

Then we went to eat Greek.

I did not eat all of my rice or tabbouleh, and earlier in the day I did not eat all of my tortillas of the fish tacos so I was a little hungry.

When we got home we had Birthday Tiramisu. George had the Tira and I had the Misu.

Thanks for those of you who watched the video I posted yesterday, not too many viewings but that is ok. If you want to watch it, see the previous day’s entry. The previous video on YT had 236 viewings which is more than I’ve ever had on a video in the shortest amount of time. Nothing compared to others out there, but it was a first and I also had the most subscribers in a single period of time than before. I think it went from 66 to 71, lol. Also nothing, but it means the world to me. Growth on a small scale. For someone who hasn’t narrowed her niche, and has not much to offer in “help” to others on the channel yet, not bad I guess. The competition is fierce for just a “follow my life” or “lifestyle” vlogger. And for someone that works FT and doesn’t really have much time to work on it – it’s ok. Slow growth is better than no growth. As I morph and change it’ll get better if I don’t give up first.

I also learned how to do the thumbnails in Canva last week. The thumbnail art will help. Posting every two weeks has helped. I wish I could get to the every week point but that will be very difficult while working, and with all that we are doing these days.

On the to do list for this week?

Other than work a FT job this week with a commute:

Monday I’m getting my nails done.

Wednesday Mom is fixing a roast and having us over.

Thursday morning is Mom’s early morning 7:15 Echo – well Register to Check in the Hospital for testing and then the test is at 7:45.

Friday at lunch I have an appointment to go and get my REAL ID so I can fly next year and avoid the last minute crowds to get said REAL ID.

Friday afternoon at 4:00 after work we have a baby shower for a coworker.

Saturday morning is Fancy’s grooming and she needs it bad. Mom asked if we can go every 5 weeks instead of 6. Sure why not. lol. After dropping her off I’m taking Mom to breakfast and we will go get our toes done. Mom feels like her foot is good now and she can get it done.

Today’s to do’s are impossible. We were gone all day yesterday. And we are going to church today but as afore mentioned, Mom is dropping out of the church scene. She is doing her own church on line. This makes Sunday’s a bit easier for us and less time consuming as we don’t have to go out for lunch and run errands after and can get back home to the dog and get things done here. Especially important if we have been gone all day the day before.

As you can see this list is quite challenging for a Sunday afternoon after church. The list is not prioritized yet but I will do it on the way to church while George drives. And much of it will be sent to “another day”, which is one of the things I love about using the iPhone Reminder list. I also plan to do video segments and screen shots of why I love my iPhone to do lists and things like this in upcoming videos for 2023, if not before! It’s actually 3 pages long and most of these things keep rolling forward to the next Saturday or next weekend. And have been for months. Also need to get started on the next video but needing to do a bit of a photo dump and reorg first of 2021. I may pause THAT project to work on video if it takes too long. I kinda like to have the next video started before Sunday is over as it’s easy to just edit the content from there. Right now I have to select the data and put it together in a files as I’ve gone through all the files I’d staged already. Since I’m kinda changing up my strategy some, I may actually stop creating files ahead of time. Sorry, I’m thinking out loud here, but it might be time to start changing some things up NOW instead of 2023. We shall see. But here is the list of things for today until I move some of it over and prioritize it. Now I need to go get in the shower and get ready for church!

I’ll see you all midweek or so unless I have time to throw in a canned post (meaning previously bullet point written thoughts on certain subjects that I want to blog about) but most of those turn out to be long, drawn out and time consuming – all of which I have no time for right now. But I love to write.

Anyway, off to the races. lol The race of life – to see how much I can get done today and still be pleasing to those who know me and get life’s responsibilities done and be found with favor in God’s eyes while I go round with whiplash. LOL.

What you got going on this week?