A Few Moments in Time this Week, Photo Style

The deer have been more prevalent in our yard. And spring is almost knocking on the door. The temps are fickle and can’t decide what to do. The storms will settle it out next week with severe storms mid-week.

Our Black Cats

Someone was very interested in seeing the cats. I’ll be able to include them more now that we will be outside more with them. I’ll have more opportunities to catch them. In the winter, we are in and out quickly. And yes, they stay in the basement on really cold nights or they have their Styrofoam houses with blankets if they want them. Here is Elmo below.

And Little Bit is in the pic below. As you can see, it’s a bit hard to tell who you are dealing with, lol. Little Bit has to be 13 or so. And Elmo, I’m not sure. I thought he was pretty young. He’s quick. He’s a little shy unless you have food in your hands or he is hungry. Elmo is long and very sleek – I wanted to call him “stretch” b/c he reminded me of a long black limo. lol. But George didn’t like that name.

Spring Decor

I put out the rest of my normal decor this weekend and also put out the spring decor and Easter decor. After Christmas I left up just winter decor and then in February took that out and added splashes of red and pinks. But finally this was the weekend to kindof “turnover” the house by dusting and retouching all the surfaces areas with favored decor and nic-nacks.

I laid it all out on the table to start. I love doing this by the way.

I also brought some things up from the basement that I used for decor down there, to find a spot up here for them. We don’t use the basement except for storage, so I decided my favorite things down there, might have a chance to be used up stairs.

It seemed like my Easter and Spring Decor is minimal as it turns out. And here I’ve filmed a whole video on it. But it is what it is. lol

I sat out one of my favorite cook books from the Columbia restaurant in Jacksonville, FL. I thought maybe we might be a bit inspired from it.

We went to the store and stocked up on a few things. I had to laugh at the fruit and veggies corner.

I brought this book up from the basement stairs, as seeing it brings me joy and reminds me of mine and Katy’s trip. I miss our girls trip. I’ve been looking at cruises tonight just for fun. 😉 I think it will be a while before Katy can go on a cruise. But maybe one day we can have some fun cruising. I’d love to go. George doesn’t want to go. But I might be able to talk him into an Alaskan cruise. I would even go on a cruise by myself and have a good time. I wouldn’t want to have to do that though.

This blue/turquoise glass was elsewhere in the basement. I brought it up. It’s amazing how just little things can give you glee. These changes are inspired by the Marie Kondo book I read. I think I needed to be reminded that surrounding yourself with “things” that bring you joy – really does do that. I need all the joy I can get.

Oh BTW, in case you have been reading or watching lately.

The plumbing is fixed. That suck the joy right out of everything. But laundry is done and the restoration guy comes Monday and George is getting our taxes done Tuesday. He has a full week this week. He meets his buds for dinner Thursday night. Mom invited us to her house that night but I told her he’d be gone and we could go out. I was kinda looking forward to having a night on my own but I guess I won’t have that now. I should have been honest and said I was needing some down time but I also was having to figure out when to take Mom to iHop so we’ll just go then. That made me decide to plan an extra PTO day for March. If I don’t get some additional down time at home I’m going to combust. It’s just been a long stressful quarter. Easter and Good Friday is coming but we’ll likely be in Texas around that time. Unless baby comes early. I think I have enough to take the extra day and then take the TX vacay later in the month. I think it will be worth it. I also won’t be needing to roll any PTO over into the next year. So I can use all of the accrued PTO before I retire.

George fixed a fabulous turkey Panini in the George Foreman grill. It was so good.

And he fixed us a salad. I took a pic of his as mine was more plain. I don’t eat tomatoes anymore because of the seeds. I wanted spinach, cheese, red bell pepper, and avocado, and olive oil and pineapple balsamic vinegar in mine.

He then surprised me with an apple caramel tartlets and ice cream. We have been buying —ok I’ve been buying ice cream by Mayfield in the little cups (less than a scoop) mixed – with vanilla and chocolate. We sometimes have a little snack and it’s not very much. So that was perfect with the tartlets that had been toasted in the oven. I’m so glad that BJ’s sells these now. You used to only get it from Omaha Steaks.

I took a minute to fold up some t-shirts kinda like Marie Kondo suggested. I kinda like that. But I have way too many t-shirts. I have some more in the closet I have not folded. I have to go through the closet and get out all my purses and do the Marie Kondo cleanout with them and when I make more room I’ll fold the other t-shirts and add these up there. Then I can pull out the trey and pick which one I want. She says folding them like this gives them the respect they need, to be in view and treated appropriately, lol.

I spent the day yesterday filming as sort of as a “Spend the day with me as I decorate for spring”. So I’ll be editing that this week and will post it for Saturday. The Marie Kondo video seems to be doing pretty well (as far as my little videos go, lol). I can remember when I was happy if 30 people watched my video in a day. Now I’m happy if I get 100. This one got 262 for the weekend so far and 2 more subscribers. I’m at 412 now. I think I get more perks at 500 but my goal is for 1,000, but not rushing for that though. It’d be nice to hit that as I am retiring so I have time to deal with that. There is a lot I want to do before I hit a 1,000, lol. But if it happened tomorrow – I’d TAKE it. I just get so little time to work on anything but video edits and filming. Anything else is icing on the cake.

Frustration

I also spent a bit of time in frustration today when we didn’t get back from Mom’s until 4. We went to Sonic after church so she could use her gift cards. Then we went to the grocery store. We couldn’t get her TV to working and had ATT on the phone for an hour, and still no luck. I also had to throw some old food away out of her fridge. My goodness. Yuck. And tried to hook up this digital reader she bought on Amazon, but it didn’t work very good for what she needed so I have to return that tomorrow after work. While I’m out I’m going to get some blank pants. I don’t have any that look nice. I tossed the last two pair, but I wore them for many many years.

I had so much to do when we finally got home. I had to change sheets, finish the laundry, pay Mom’s bills. I worked on cleaning my office some. I only got through 1 of the 4 piles I needed to get through and didn’t get to dust. But I DID get the video set up ready for editing in the next few days. And I gave up our movie watching time to get this blog done. I want to read a chapter in my book but will have to give up sleep to do it. And I just keep forwarding over heaps of “to do’s” in the upcoming days. It’s so frustrating.

Stiff Hips and Pain

We turned my mattress around where I’d be sleeping on the other side today, when I changed my sheets. My hip has been stiff, then it hurt for 2 or 3 days – I was getting concerned. Never did figure out what that was really unless it was a nerve ending that was hurting in 3 places (radiating). But that finally went away and now I’m just back to being stiff and it’s kinda hard to walk on still.

Glass in My Foot

Oh and then last night I stepped on a piece of glass. I thought I got it all picked up as it landed on the fire place. I normally also wear shoes in the house but it’s the one time I didn’t and I stepped in the one place that had the glass. It was a tiny piece so that is good except it was really hard to get out. I didn’t know it was glass until this morning. I thought I stepped on a little rock or something. But it was excruciating when I stepped on my foot so I took a look (which was hard). My foot is usually never brought up to my face, lol. So I got a cramp trying to do that. lol

Then doctor George had to help. He brought a brighter flash light than my iPhone’s light. And I finally got it. That is how we started our morning, and all before coffee, but after I took Maddie out, while hopping on one foot.

Meanwhile in Texas

Katy used River to test her “swaddling skills” as the baby comes soon – another 4 weeks or so. Yikes! He looks so cute all swaddled. I said he looked like a burrito!

And he has his favorite donut. lol.

George caught a happy moment with me and the dogs on the bed. Are you laughing at me in my lemon PJ’s? They are cute. I love them. My sister gave them to me. And the dogs are being good and getting along. They don’t fight, but Maddie gets mad and barks at Dexter if he approaches. But this time she let him up there. It’s been hard to try to get her to stop doing this. I just love a WHOLE lot on Dexter and work in moments for us to spend time together. So this pic is special in that I could love on them both at once and us all be a “pack”.

And with that note, I’m going to bed. It was going to be a very chill week but after today I have two more things to do this week messing with my schedule, so I’ve had to stay up tonight to do things I needed and wanted to get done. And I’ll be in a bad mood tomorrow for missing sleep. So it’s always robbing Peter to pay Paul with time. Anyway, over and out. At least the house looks better and I got some things done. And I’ll take my PTO day and catch up on “things”.

Sorry this was long. Trying to squeeze a week worth’s of entries into one. And forcing it through and missing sleep to get it done. ::sigh::