Less Hustle More Coffee

George and I headed to the Crossville area to go to Buc-ee’s. We met Susan and Kevin, my SIL and BIL to celebrate George’s birthday and have a day out excursion. So we started at lunch time at Buc-ee’s. We’d been wanting to go. It never seemed convenient when we were in Dallas/Ft Worth.

I had said if anyone was missing, you might check for them here because “everybody” was at Buc-ee’s, lol. This made me happy though to see people buzzing around in glee – excited to eat, shop, find their special something, and see what all the fuss was about – or even go and have a nice little weeeee in the bathroom because the bathrooms are nice. I loved it. We were there about an hour and a half. It’s like it’s a huge convenient store crossed with Cracker Barrel. It’s a great place to get good grub to go! Amazing good grub to go. I got the Philly Steak Burrito. And George found a Kolache (hot dog in a pastry bun). They have roasted nuts which I did not get but probably should have. They have an amazing drink center too. And gift items and camping items and convenient/needs items. They even had a clothing section for camping, fishing, and casual wear.

The first 45 minutes were the best. After that it started to get loud. lol I was ready to go after an an hour and a half, but mainly because I’m an introvert and enjoy quiet places after a while.

After that it was time to go to Red Silo in Cookeville just half hour or so down the road.

We walked around the shops of Cookeville and I actually found some sale items. I bought three oversize shirts in pastel colors to just roam around the house in and/or use as pajama tops. They were regular $26 and on sale for $10 each. They are so soft. This makes me happy. I’ve been trying to find some since spring (not very hard but I looked on amazon) and in a few stores. Everything is always expensive. I even looked at mens and bought a couple of mens shirts but they are still not what I had in mind. So I was happy to find these. I bought two necklaces to add to my collection as I seem to wear the same few over and over again. George bought some pepper.

I needed some coffee to stay awake and we spotted an ice cream/coffee shop and so I got a cup of coffee to keep me awake. It was just what I needed.

George picked out 37 Cedar Restaurant and Bar for his birthday dinner (with Kevin and Susan). We had a good time and the food was fabulous. I could have had prime rib but I had a steak with Mom the day before (Friday) at Logan’s when we went for her eye appt. So I had salmon. The outside crusting was really good and the dijon sauce on it was also good. It was served on a bed of garlic cheese grits and asparagus. I could have used more asparagus, lol.

We also went to a book store amongst the shops. I was surprised to see some pigs on the shelf.

Look at this bicycle arch. I’m sure it has a story. Or it may just simply be a work of art.

We got home about 30 min before my bedtime. We hated to leave Dexter because we like giving him a chunk of time with us on the weekends. But it was probably less than a work day.

Mom. As for Mom – we did the eye appt Friday and then ate at Logan’s as I mentioned and then I took her home. I got her mail and went back to Kroger as she had quite the list. I also got a lot of our things Friday night but nothing for the freezer just things that I didn’t have to rush since I had to unload her things and drive home. Friday night I was also very tired as I’d been up since 3 a.m. the day before. I was not just tired but exhausted. It was all I could do to haul our groceries up the stairs from the car.

Me. This morning I got to sleep til 5:15. I tossed and turned all night – just not comfortable. For a while I’ve not been comfortable. I can’t get the pillow right – and the bed is old and has body imprints. I don’t want to have to get another mattress right now but I mentioned to George the possibility of getting a new mattress for Christmas. I told him if I did I want to get an adjustable one where I can read in bed. Not that I usually get to, but even some times at night I want to elevate the bed a bit – I think that would help me at times. That really is what I want for Christmas. I can’t think of anything else I need or want more. We’ve had that mattress since probably 2005 or 2006. Maybe before that. I’m just sleepy all the time now during the day. It’s almost becoming a problem. I’ve never had this issue for more than a day or two at a time, but I’m not getting caught up with my rest.

So I have decided to take a day off Friday and have a 4 day weekend this upcoming week. Not only will that give me some time to sleep, rest, and not rush off anywhere.

I can also get some things done on Less Hustle More Coffee – blogging and vlogging as I work to finish up some training exercises, make some changes, and do a little subtle rebranding – if you can call it that, of the blog/vlog network. I also want to work on some photo/video files. I also want to get a few things done in the house. And as far as Mom, Sunday we will go to church and I will go over to her house after and cook lasagna and spend some time over there. I will also be getting our fall decorations out, and doing some fall planning (Christmas shopping excursions and so forth). I have to account that it will take longer since we have Mom into the equation of our schedule. I had been wanting to fix lasagna and she thought that sounded good so I thought I’d just fix it over there instead of going to get her and bring her to our house. I’ll take pics. I’m going to use Valerie Bertinelli’s recipe.

Over the next week – and into next year, you may notice some changes with the look of the Blog/Vlog. There should not be anything overly dramatic. However, the biggest change you may see early on may be the blog look itself. I still plan to keep the latest entry of the blog on the main entry page so there should not be any interruption to the daily reading. I also plan a few other changes that I would like to see occur by the first of the year.

I’ve been feeling the pinch of time again over the last couple of weeks as we’ve been busy three Saturdays and Sunday’s in a row. So this upcoming weekend should help me clean up a bit of debris and help catapult me forward into fall. I’m just behind on everything in my life – except work. I’m ahead of the game there for the most part.

I’m so excited to have this upcoming day off. George and I agreed we wouldn’t make plans on Labor Day weekend – except for Church. I broke the rule to have lasagna at Mom’s mainly because I didn’t want her not to have any fun over the holiday weekend, she’s been wanting homemade lasagna and I was going to cook it anyway whether I was home or not. So I’ll take a book to read or we can unpack while it’s cooking. We’ll have fun and since it’s a 4 day weekend I won’t hardly miss not being at home.

We placed membership today at church. It was a two part meeting series but we are members now of the church in Lebanon we have been going to off and on over the last few years. We will be more involved now and we are going to a Life Group tonight. We need to be heading out now so I need to go. This means we will have even less time, but it’s important to do this and to be involved in the Lord’s work again – not that we haven’t been in our daily lives – but I’m excited to work with a body of believers again and be a part of them in whatever small ways we can contribute and fellowship. We won’t be able to do life group every time but we will some.

Over and out. Have a good week. I have a lot to do this week so it maybe a while before I’m back. I didn’t get much done this weekend at home so I have to do it all after work. Mom also has a doc appt again on Thursday to go over her heart test results and so that will be a half day I guess and I’ll have to make up some of those hours but I already have some hours in the bucket from past weeks. I track it. OK See you guys later.