Valentine’s Excursion and The Busiest Sunday Ever

What a busy weekend. We had our Valentine’s excursion Saturday and it was our special day out. We will go eat again on a much smaller scale on Valentine’s Day.

Yesterday we went to Brentwood, TN and visited Total Wines to redeem a gift card there. And we then went to Fresh Market, which is a store that we love to go to when we are in that area because they have a lot of things that are different that we don’t have locally. If you have been here with the blog for any time at all, you know our love of visiting new grocery stores.

I did not buy as much there because earlier that morning, I joined Thrive Market and ironically much of the same stuff is sold on there. I will tell you more about Thrive Market later as I experience it. But it’s $60 to join for the year, but you get free gifts to join of up to about that amount. I thought I would try it out because I’m trying to eat healthier and their prices look better than some places I’ve seen. I also don’t get to peruse the health food sections when I grocery shop as we’re usually in a hurry, or with Mom or Mom waiting on us. So reading labels and taking my time is not in the cards, but I can do that on line when I order from home. They also had my smoothie ingredients for good prices. I bought collagen and protein powders to start. I also ordered my cute little smoothie ingredient jars that I’ll be keeping on the counter from Amazon. So I didn’t want to overdo our spending. Let’s not forget we just bought airline tickets and an Air BNB rental house for a long weekend, lol. Oh and I had placed Amazon orders for Dexter’s wet and dry food. And an order to Target for some cosmetic and household needs. I’m trying to get it where mostly all I need to do is get fresh stuff at the store and the rest delivered. I used to do that before.

Look at these fresh heirloom tomatoes that Fresh Market has. Oh my. I figured George would get one but he didn’t.

The cutest little dog was in there shopping with her Momma. The owner let me take a picture. I don’t know how she was allowed in there unless she was a support animal. I guess anything goes these days.

George and I also went to Starbuck’s and used up a Christmas gift card and bought some coffee’s. Our favorite is Guatemala Antigua and we don’t know what the other two will taste like but we wanted to try something different. These will last a long time I think. I’m guessing six to eight weeks. Also excited to try that Lemonade behind it. That came from Fresh Market and has Stevia in it, which is natural so I can have that.

We went to a discount store called Gabe’s while over that way. I bought these earrings for $4.99. I wear black and grey a lot so this will go with some of my outfits. Longer earrings seem to do well with my shorter cut. I’ve had several people to comment how they like the look. I’m so pleased because usually I’m scared to wear something so big, lol.

George and I spent about an hour in Cool Springs Mall waiting til our reservation time. We walked about a fourth of it and George suggested we go back and visit the massage chairs. We paid $5.50 a piece for a 15 minute massage. I looked over and George was all into it – eyes closed. I’m like We are in the mall, I don’t want to close my eyes and someone come up and snatch my purse, lol.

A few minutes later we went for our reservations at Connor’s about 30 min early and got a great table.

George got a Bloody Mary for his dinner drink. I got a nice glass of Pinot Noir.

A few minutes in to our sipping, I smelled poop. LOL. The little one behind us must’ve pooped or either someone heavily farted, one of the two. I was thinking how odd it was to smell that at our Valentine table, but such is life, lol. That family deserved to have an outing too and we all know everything poops, usually at inappropriate times. It was taken care of or wafted off somewhere else. I think it’s funny. I had to take this pic without being noticed and posted on instagram with an arrow that said “this one pooped” lol.

If you don’t follow me on insta – you should. I do stories daily on there: @lesshustlemorecoffee

But we had a wonderful day out and we were both ready to get home to love on Dexter who had to be without us all day.

Today, Sunday, we left at 8:00 to go get Mom and take her to church, then we had Sunday School, then we took Mom to get a Jason’s Deli sandwich. Then we went to our life group (late) after driving around and got lost.

We stopped at Five Oaks golf course and country club and I took a pic of the pretty view.

Our life group lasted til about 2:00 or 2:30 or so. I think. George and I both accidentally left our jackets there because it was pretty when we left, so to add to our list this week, we have to go back over and collect them. And that was amazing by the way. The life group. We were invited to go to this one that is after second service on Sunday. It was perfect to be able to get Mom something to eat and get her home and then get back. She won’t go. Socializing is no longer her thing.

We enjoyed the life group a whole lot. I’m an introvert and worried I’d be too shy and would stick out or be too different. But everyone just enveloped us in and welcomed us. And we all hit it off and conversation was easy and we had a few laughs and a lot in common. It almost makes me cry to think about it. It’s been a long time since we’ve been close to people in a church setting. Mom didn’t want to go though and she was disappointed that she wasn’t going to get to go to the store with us after. We got her list at church – which she added to it through the morning. I think I got it (her list) and a pen out of my purse about 3 times, lol. I supposed that is my punishment for not actually taking her to the store. lol

Anyway, after life group we went and got her groceries and a couple of things we needed for the soup George was making later. And we dropped Mom’s groceries off to her. She has said next week she wants to go grocery shopping with us. But today we had to get it done quickly and get back to the Super Bowl. Had she gone to life group she could have gone with us. But time was limited today.

So Mom’s recliner came in and she says she likes it but the remote was taking some time to get used to. She is giving me the other recliner – it’s a small one – and will fit in my office. I’ve offered to buy it but she says no. I loved having a chair in my office but I moved it to my bedroom, where I love having it even more. But sometimes I miss having a chair in here. I can watch YouTube’s and shows on my Mac or just read or write comfortably.

Ok so life has been so busy. I should be more excited but I just have had so much going on. The vlog and blog have been getting more attention somehow. And I ended up getting 100 subscribers which has been a goal for like two years. I thought I would get them quickly but no, they say the first 100 is the hardest. And I’m having to smile now because as I look currently I’m back to 99 – so I got a congratulations email from YouTube but a few hours later I’m back to 99. I’m told you can’t let it get to you. This last video seems like a flop – it is a flop honestly, as it doesn’t have a lot of views – as I really didn’t have a lot to video about and it’s really only entertainment only – not so much of a helpful video. But I don’t blame myself because I have not been in a position to be creative at creating my content. I don’t get enough time at home and it gets put on the back burner a lot. I only have a few hours a week to do it. The New Year reset and New Year Goals really brought me a lot of attention via the YouTube algorithm and I guess they tested me out by throwing me out there. So the watch time hours are up like several hundred percent. I can’t remember exactly. Subscriptions are up 800% in the last month. So I’ll take the forward momentum. I know what I could do if I just had more time. Anyway, that was just a nice reward because just a few weeks ago I was stuck at 81.

And my life is about to get busier. It’s February and that is the month I told God and a lady at Church that I would begin working the online Bible school and being a helper on line. This is my way of being able to reach others and share God with them – through this online source. I have been sent the link to register and to do a tutorial. I promised I would do that tomorrow.

I will also work this week to get the next video out which has our Valentine excursion on it. I want to pull in all the video footage for that tonight before I go to bed so it’ll be ready to edit each night after work. I’ll have to figure out how to do the Bible study info. My mentor said to start by taking one and adopting them through it. I will let you know how it goes. I’ll have to put that first every day before doing videos or blogging. This is my commitment to God to do this. I want to do this and will just have to figure it out.

Oh, once we got home today, Dexter was so glad to see us. George took him for a walk. He’s scared of the vacuum so I did that while they were out. I worked on a couple more loads of laundry, changed sheets on both our beds, and wrote in my Grandma’s book for Little Roo. We got to face time with him today although we didn’t know we were face timing, lol. We just thought it was a phone call. Toward the end we figured out it was a FaceTime. I was on the phone when she tried to call me as I was talking with the host about our jackets, so she called George and he answered on his car controls. lol.

Here is the little fella in his truck on the ranch. Looks like he got him a deer LOL. Oh me.

Busy week this week. Continuing to close year end. Another Valentine day out. Need to get to Publix to pick up my blood pressure meds. Need to iron and finish washing sheets and blankets. Dexter goes to Doggy Daycare one day this week. Supposed to have bad storms around Thursday. My thrive market and Amazon orders will come in to set up my smoothie bar. But then Saturday I have a whole day at home and a whole day of to do’s to do too, including some filming for future videos.

Ok gotta get my footage pulled and reboot Final Cut Pro to get started if there is to be a video Saturday. Ya’ll have a great week ahead. At least I made progress on a few things (not much) this weekend. But steps taken toward the Bible group, went to a church life group, steps taken toward a healthier lifestyle and cheaper too through Thrive Market and ingredients on the way for the smoothie bar, and worked in River’s book – so at least I’m moving in a forward direction. I have to take it.

Everyone have a happy Valentine’s and have a great week ahead.