A Week of Shopping, Seeing Friends, and Enjoying Ourselves

Tuesday, April 7, 2026

Sharing our wonderful little Grands. River is playing baseball and really good at it. It might be t-ball – I’m not exactly sure. Trace, it’s been told, also thinks he is on the team, lol. Trace is getting to be so big as he’s chasing after big bro. They have had a fun Easter filled with all the Easter Egg hunts and Easter baskets – from home, church, and school and/or daycare. Oh the joys of childhood!

News from Texas is great with our daughter’s career going well and so is my SIL. Both work so hard. Katy’s title has Assistant Principal in it now. She is over a certain area. She is going back to school online for Master’s and has been asked to be on the team to design the new school being built in their city. And Cody just got a bonus from the ranch. On the downside, River got excited, swung the bat and put a dent in the new (to them) car while practicing at the house. It’s not really funny but it will be one day I guess. The boys and their zest for life is a good thing. The ranch life and small TX life has been good for the boys.

I don’t talk about them much or share much on social media. There’s just so much that goes on in our world. But I am so proud of my TX crew. And I miss them so much. I’m so glad Katy keeps us connected. We let her call us when convenient either call or FaceTime and she does an excellent job of remembering us and calling us when it’s a good time – usually around dinner time when they are home or sometimes in the car as that’s a good time to talk and use the time.

I know some of you have kept up with my blog since Katy was a little girl. So I figured if those are still reading (Sybil, Donna, and others) will be happy to read an update finally.

As for us, Easter was fine. As an adult, it’s more about Jesus resurrection (not that my daughter didn’t drive that point in at her house as well) but we still had some Bunnies about the house here. On Monday I collected them all and will be putting them away today for another year.

We picked up Cracker Barrel – a family meal of fried chicken, fried okra, and Mac and Cheese. It would not have been my choice as a personal meal but the other two (Mom and George) are fond of fried chicken and I said “twist my arm” as I’m not turning it down. But yeah, had I ordered just my own meal it would have been healthier. My normal is grilled chicken as theirs is REALLY GOOD and pintos and probably still would have had fried okra though. But we had enough chicken to all get another meal off of it. And we had biscuits for breakfast the next day and another meal as well. We were trying to make Easter a little more special than an average Sunday for Mom. And she even got out china plates for us to eat on. She was happy about that.

Monday was a relaxing day at home. Mostly I worked on my video as we have a very busy week planned on other days. I did get the appointment times we needed for Mom’s appointments next week. She has FOUR, but thanks to the staff at Centennial it has all been arranged for the same day. There’s two tests which include another Echocardiogram of a certain kind, and a CT scan – related to Mom’s heart valve. Then she meets with a surgeon and a heart doc in two separate appointments. So we’ll know next week if she is a candidate for valve replacement as her original replacement is no longer effective. I saw in her health records that this valve was originally damaged due to strep throat which if left untreated can damage the heart valve. This to me is sad but a wake up call to make sure strep and sore throats are tended to quickly. To think this might have been prevented years ago and might not be an issue for her if a simple doc appt for antibiotics had been seen to.

I really should not be blogging and should be working on videos, vlogging, and getting ready to go as we are going out today. But in a way, I decided it would be healthy for me to blog and see what comes out of my psyche. Honestly I have not been in the mood much to write. Mainly because my creative outlet is spent in other ways. I’m enjoying the serenity of cleaning kitchen, doing laundry, making biscuits, and learning about bread making – I still don’t really have time so that is why it’s a slow process, but I’m trying to lean more into the serenity and daily processes of starting up a bread making routine. There’s something peaceful about it – like working with the dough. It’s like a retired person’s play dough, lol only I’m not making characters or items with it, lol. But I’m scared of it because so many have become masters at it. I suspect they have discovered the peace and serenity that comes along with it, along with a little contentment of being able to accomplish something on your own like they did in the older days. It’s just a nest making kind of feeling and I’m having a hard time describing it. But I’m not there yet as far as the how to’s and not there yet as far as vlogging it. I don’t mind sharing it but I’m enjoying the learning while NOT vlogging and worrying about camera angles and such these first few “go rounds”. It’s something I’m enjoying doing by myself for now.

I’ve been enjoying reading an old book by Arthur Hailey called “Airport”. Oh my. It is really good. I like seeing behind the scenes of working scenarios – it reminds me of all the experiences I’ve had in retail and in manufacturing. So I’m about 1/4 of the way through the book and it talks about the various people that are running the airports, their work, their families, their thoughts and plans and this author is very descriptive. It’s a book from a long time ago so obviously outdated as far as how airports are run and even how daily lives are lived but it is written so well that it seems I’m looking upon each scene during each chapter through a glass window beside the character. It’s as real in my mind as if I was there.

I probably have 2.5 to 3 years of books to read on my shelves, but I went ahead and ordered Arthur Hailey’s “Hotel” as well today. It was just under $10 on Amazon as I had to pay shipping for it which was more than the book itself. George thought it was old enough we might have a hard time finding it in thrift stores or thrift book stores, so I ordered a hard book used through Amazon. I don’t really like reading paperbacks as much anymore since I’m not at a pool, beach, or carrying books in my purse. I considered doing Kindle unlimited but just have too many books on my shelf to do that. I kinda prefer a book anyway, but I have also enjoyed having a book on iPad at times. But holding my iPad makes my thumb shake the next day or two and making me think I have Parkinson’s. Luckily a couple days w/o holding the iPad, it stops.

George is home from prayer breakfast so I guess I need to get my shower and get at the day so we can do our Lowe’s and thrifting today. I’m vlogging the thrifting and shopping this week. That’s what my subject matter is, lol. We will stop at the post office for my PO Box account. I see I finally have some Less Hustle More Coffee mail! Yay! Feels like Steve Martin getting his name printed in the phone book. I’m somebody now, lol. While mainly a business PO, it’s nice also to get cards from viewers. I’ve not opened it yet but can see it’s from Albany NY. I’ll vlog it if it is from a viewer but it likely is. I saw the preview in my incoming mail email from the post office. We will also grab lunch out. I’m just moving slow today because I woke up in the middle of a deep part of sleep and it makes you sluggish for a chunk of the day. Over and out for now.

Friday, April 10th.

Well, Tuesday, George and I went to Lowe’s and went thrifting and I video’d it for the vlog. It was a fun day. Wednesday, was a stay at home day. Thursday (yesterday) I had lunch with my former Co-Worker’s at the Olive Garden near the office. It was fun seeing them and hearing about things there at the plant under the new owners. Lots of changes as you would expect. Afterwards I went shopping at Belk and found a great 75% off sale bought some good name tops for wicked cheap, plus a good percentage off of some white capris and khaki capris – dressy updated versions than my old pair. My khaki pants had a bleach stain on them but I kept wearing them, lol. Now I’m going to let them go. I also found an outfit for my nieces wedding. I was hoping for a dress but I’m going to wear a nice top that is light green and white in design and white pants that are ankle cropped and have a design cut at the bottom. I ordered some silver sandals and white sandals that are dressier and have a “strappy sandal” look to them which dresses it up to look more formal. I will wear a strand of pearls and pearl earrings also. Anyway by the time I got home I was so tired I couldn’t do anything productive, so I read and watched vlogs on YouTube.

Today George and I got up early and went yard sailing. I found some toys that can be put in the magi boxes. I also really want to get back into the Magi packing soon, as things have calmed down with Mom but I have a feeling they will be easing back up again once we hear about this procedure after her testing next week. Next week will be busy for sure. We have a whole day at Centennial Hospital coming up where she will do testing for a heart valve replacement and also talk with doctor and a surgeon. So four appointments in one day but at least they are sparing us four separate trips to Nashville. George is driving us, thank goodness b/c I don’t drive in Nashville anymore.

Today my Arthur Hailey book arrived. I’m so excited because I’m half way through with Airport and I really liked it.

Well, I have a host of things I want to do that I’ve been thwarting off. Here’s all the things I need to do:

*Clean up video files

*Print some apple receipts that are business receipts for next years taxes (I’m trying to stay on top in case we need them).

*Check email

*Do software updates in the App

*Update my Amazon Store Front with recent purchases

*Plan next week’s vlogging scenarios

*Continue working on my Bitwarden Password App – it’s mid-progress after I ditched LastPass

*Weekly Recap: Have a weekly meeting with myself regarding my latest videos

*Mom’s financial analysis for March

I am sure anything beyond this won’t get done but reading and check with Mom, but I need to work a puzzle, and would like to watch some shows.

We are currently watching Bridgerton, Jury Duty (everyone is an actor but one guy and he thinks it’s real – it’s pretty funny and very absurd, lol. I’m thoroughly amused by it). I also want to watch the one about the Company Retreat that is done the same way. And also want to watch Virgin River and The Bear which I forgot to watch that last season – til I looked at a list – which is why I have to keep lists and remind myself to watch shows. lol.

Alright, over and out! Will post the video tomorrow.