Category: Home

Weekend Projects, Household Chores, and Life Updates

On By BackporchwriterIn Home, Life6 Comments

We went to church this morning and then George went on to Mom’s while we went and brought lunch home. George put Mom’s picnic table and chairs together today for her patio. The plan is to eat out there a lot when weather allows. It will be nice.

I have yet to spend a night at Mom’s but I will probably schedule a Friday night/Saturday “girls night in” lol, lol at some point so I can help her in the garage some. It might be June though. Our schedule…well you know. LOL

Mom’s Birds are pretty. She bought them on vacation when we went to Tybee / Savannah and dropped Mom off in Yulee, FL to stay at Aunt Martha and Uncle Ken’s. She found those there. They look good on her porch. And I like her peacock wind chimes.

Here’s a span of Mom’s back porch views. There are condos/cottages/villas being built behind her. The sky was very pretty today. Her mail box is not very far from the back porch. You can see them in the distance by the port a john, lol. Here is a left to right view. The grass is very pretty. It’s hard for Mom to walk on though because it is not even. There’s dips and holes and valleys where the sod was put down. We get her mail a lot for her, but in long stretches like this week when we won’t be there for 7 to 10 days, she will either walk from the front and pavement, or drive over.

I’ve always loved these jugs. Reminds me of old times in the south, mainly before my time.

We enjoyed Bellacino’s sandwiches for lunch – they are called “Grinders”. And all very fresh and yummy. I did not need the bread but it tasted like homemade bread so maybe it didn’t have all the preservatives.

After lunch George stayed and finished up and I drove home (we had separate cars) so I could do laundry, iron, vacuum the vinyl flooring (I did the carpeted bedrooms yesterday), get my wardrobe picked out for the next week (saves time in the mornings), change sheets in both bedrooms, pack a bag for Knoxville and then cook our dinner tonight. I offered to cook spaghetti. So I’m going to go do that after I get through blogging here.

Life updates…

I will try to sneak in another blog post or two this week if time will give permission. I’m having to go in early and work late. I think we will go to the store tomorrow, even if it is pouring rain. It will be late though, or I will at least work until I’m exhausted and of no good and then come home. We’ll see. I only have a bit of time tomorrow, a bit of time Thurs afternoon, and a bit of time Friday afternoon to get these 27 returns done.

My car appears to be leaking oil. I will check again in the morning and if it is, I’ll have to take the FlinstoneMobile into work again tomorrow. And we’ll have to drop the car off tomorrow night I guess before we go grocerying. I may just see if we can eat Pho or something for dinner as I don’t see us having time to cook tomorrow night.

George is still having a bout of a time with gout. He wore flip flops to church – bless him.

My elbow. A couple of weeks ago I hit my elbow. It’s one of those things where I remember the pain but I don’t remember what I was doing. I just said “crap that hurt” and went on. I could move it so I determined it wasn’t broken. I can’t even remember what I hit it on, but it was something like I was moving backwards with stuff in my hands and hit it on a door frame or something really hard that I didn’t know was there. And it’s been fine – until this weekend. Now I cannot remember what I hurt it on but it is getting worse. The odd thing is I press on the area and nothing hurts. But if I lift anything it hurts, so while the pain feels like bone pain, it may just be muscle. I have no idea. But I guess I’ll watch and see and if it gets worse I may have to have it x-rayed or something. It’s kinda getting in the way of my normal activities. I still worked my arm today but it hurt.

We talked to George’s sister about this weekend and made some tentative plans – mainly about arrival time which we are kinda playing by ear, but said “don’t expect us til after lunch” and we can do whatever in the area until they are back from a lunch event they are doing in their complex so they can meet and greet neighbors which they should do. Kevin, my BIL will pick out where he wants to eat his birthday dinner (which was in Jan). We are buying and I picked a really pricy but good place when it was my birthday (they were paying but they love to eat there too) and we are paying this time so I reminded my SIL – tell him to pick a good place as I did pricey so he gets to! Susan said she was cooking breakfast Sunday. All I know is I’ve missed them. I have thought of them so many times – (usually driving is when my brain has time to think) so I have not texted her to let her know I miss them. But I do and I am so looking forward to seeing them, spending time with them in their new place, and catching up. I will say that after our kiddo’s all grew up and away, we’ve had the best times hanging out. Not that we didn’t before but it’s just that our agendas were full fast and furious and now our time together is relaxed and comforting. Yes, that is it. We support one another in life’s challenges now more so than ever and it will be so good to see them again.

And when I leave Friday my chances at quarter end will be over. I don’t see how it will be done as I normally have two weeks left to do all the unemployment reports for both plant and transport. I only have one now. So I am only human and I will work long hours and do what I can and it will be what it will be. And if I’m not finished then I guess they’ll need to hire help for our department in the future. When I told my boss I was behind, I was told that they were too and so it just is what it is and I refuse to worry over it. I’m just going to throw time at it this week and see what I can get done. I still have to do payroll, and there is just not much time left after that. But at least after this Friday the time will be past. I’ll do what I can to finish next week and it will already be late at that point. I will at least try to make decisions to do the highest penalties first as a courtesy to the company, LOL. What else can you do when you are only human. I am not sure what made this quarter so different from the rest but we’ve just all been really slammed with work, with issues, with auditors, with other departments needing help or having inefficiencies, we have taken on extra coaching and helping and doing things that other departments used to do – every little bit adds up. Anyway, all that is about to end and I can live a normal person’s life for the next eight weeks until it’s quarter end again. lol.

So I’ll pop in if I can during the week and let you know what happens this week! lol lol. It might be at night time but you’ll see it the next morning I guess. And if I don’t get to blog until next week just know I am doing the best I can and will check in when I can. I can’t be away long.

All I know is that we did not get much time this weekend to relax. We have been moving and shaking all weekend long. George just go through mowing the yard and spraying weeds. I’ve not had time to do any spring planting. I may just go buy fake flowers and stick in the mail boxes garden box. I’m just over this not having time to keep my house up. I am happy though to sleep in clean sheets tonight and glad the kitchen and living areas are vacuumed. Now I have to go empty the dishwasher and cook. ::sigh:: lol. After a weekend like we’ve had on the go, I think we should eat out tonight, lol. But I’ll cook. George enjoys it but these days it is a chore for me. I just have a thousand other ways I’d like to spend my time. But he has cooked for me many days so I will go cook for him.

I saw this on Instagram yesterday and I had to save it. I think it is about my life now, as I am just trying to move with the flow and whatever happens just happens and I deal with it and try to find my way from there. I always have said “bless her heart” (in my head or to others) about those that have a hard time in this life. And I think I’m about to start “blessing my own heart”, LOL LOL. It’s a southern thang! It’s usually in place of some other thought like “she can’t help herself” or “she don’t have it all together” or “she’s losing her scruples” or “the world ain’t on her side at all”. And that would all be about right these days. Some days I’ve wondered if I’m losing my marbles as I try to figure things all out. In the South here people are passive aggressive about everything. So you spend half your time wondering if what someone said was a “jab” or had some underlying meaning. We are all walking around like “what did she mean by that?” and analyzing every word. It’s so tiring. lol And ya’ll wonder why I’m so sensitive? Oh it’s in my Southern blood. Born and raised that way and defensive as H- E -double hockey sticks to protect myself.

Bye til later!

Weekend Relaxing and New Video Coming

On By BackporchwriterIn Home, Weekend2 Comments
Photo by Harper Sunday on Pexels.com

Hope you all are having a great weekend! Just relaxing here today (wrote this on Saturday). I’ve been able to get my normal stuff done, but I have decided to try and focus on getting things done that were important to me to accomplish personally – in the way of fun. So while laundry is done, sheets changed, kitchen cleaned, I have finished editing the next video, set up the puzzle I’ve tried to work since before Christmas, watched a video how to style a layered bob, watched videos on how to do a few things in Final Cut Pro, watched a video for fun too, and ordered some prints on line I have had on the list since before Christmas – so I have everyone in the family in frames for sitting around.

I also ordered my filing cabinet for the office since I gave Mom’s back to her that she had given to me. I have picked out one that will (hopefully) match in here. And it also has shelves. So I’ll be excited when it comes in, but it has to be put together. It’s engineered wood. The darker parts of the wood will go with my walnut colored desk and the black will match the black bookshelf I just added there.

I left the description in there on the photo so you can see it. It’s not the quality of the other one but I’m totally ok with this one. I will have plenty of space to put my camera equipment.

I’m feeling really unorganized in my office right now so I’ll be glad to get it all back together. I’ve kinda been disheveled since last year in here. But the bed is gone and the empty spot awaits. Now to sweet talk George into putting it together. I’m horrible with any kind of DIY project.

Here’s Little Bit and I watching The Wynn’s (Gone with the Wynn’s) on YouTube. Last night instead of coming home and attacking my “to do” list, I grabbed a blanket. I had chills, aches, and felt bad.

This morning I was all stopped up. I mixed up some of my Amped Repair (something for your muscles after working out) since my muscles were hurting all over. Felt like I’d been hit by the bus. I guess it helped as I began to feel better. I love that stuff. I’ve discovered if I really want something I can order it from Amazon. I really like that stuff as sometimes my muscles really act up. I don’t have a clue what does it. Stress maybe. Or it could have been from trying to help lift the filing cabinet. My right arm has been screaming at me most of all. I probably tried to overuse it. It will heal and then I’ll over use it again. It never hurts until the night or the next day. But I do feel better now so that is good.

I didn’t get finished with this blog entry….now it’s after dinner and I’m going to bed and will finish in the morning, in case there was more I needed to say. lol Nite Nite.

Ok morning again, and I have a surprise. The video finished loading and I was able to get it up and published. It’s live. I’ll post the link shortly.

Today we are headed to church, will check on Mom and then come back home and see what we need to do here. Nothing exciting going on – other than month end – the last half of the month gets rushed. It’s a 4 day week this week also with holiday of Good Friday coming up. George and I have some plans that day to do a trolley hop of various breweries that day. I suppose that will mean for me, being a designated driver as we are not staying in a hotel. I can’t drink much of it anyway these days. Too many carbs that turn to sugar. So I will do some photos and videos of our excursions and have a blast doing that while George enjoys himself, lol.

This week we have a trip to the hair salon as Mom gets hers cut Tuesday. One night we’ll need to take her to AT&T to get her phone set up. I think she wants us to do it today but George suggested one night this week so he can do some yard work today that he can’t do during the week. Fine with me.

Also need to prepare grocery lists and gather recipes for Easter dishes for this upcoming weekend’s meal. And I need to check and see if there are any doc appointments but I think they are all the following week. I am hoping to make some quarter end progress because if not, as always, it’ll mean some pretty tough weeks the next couple of weeks!

Ok over and out. Gotta get you all the video up in the next post. Let me know what you all are doing this weekend!

Things Lost and Found, Productive Weekend, and Feeling Accomplished

On By BackporchwriterIn Decor, Family, Food, Home5 Comments

What a weekend! It was productive on all fronts and we enjoyed it as well. Time well spent. All the normal weekend things happened such as laundry and picking up the house and vacuuming. I began working on the sun room, vacuuming it, washing the sofa covers and pillow covers and will continue this week/weekend to get it dusted, windows clean etc. But I went to get the easter things to decorate and I could not find them. I decided on a whim to do some organizing in the basement. Organizing is something I am good at. And I decided to do some things I thought my help us get started in cleaning out the basement some. While doing so, the whole time, looking for my Easter decor.

I began by putting all the empty cardboard boxes together, folding the moving blankets neatly, starting a Good Will pile, throwing away trash, and putting like things together. While doing so I discovered a box I’d brought home from the office when our office moved. (Thinking about this time in my life makes me cringe. Moving Mom during the holidays and trying to shop, family coming in, wanting to spend time with them, and then our office up and decides to move as well. I about lost my marbles and it’s still kinda up in the air whether I did or not, quite honestly). But I found this box. I had to buy more plants from Amazon. And I found my little turtle bobble head I kept on my desk. I missed him too. I will take a pic of him later. I am so happy to find this box.

George came and helped me look for the Easter items and said they might be at Mom’s but to be aware – she had sent a lot of stuff to Good Will.

George knew that removing the bed in here was important to me. I thought we’d have to both move the mattress but he did it without me even seeing him. I’m not sure how he did that without breaking things with such a flimsy bed. So now I have room to redo parts of this room. I sat in there a while considering the best look for it all. I have a wooden filing cabinet for files coming up and a black bookshelf in the basement which I intend to put camera equipment on. I’m not sure how the room will be rearranged. I’ve considered rearranging the entire thing to have a different look and feel, but that is more involved. I will have to play around with it and see. It’s cramped right now the way it is. But I will figure it out. The main thing is that the bed is gone. I’ve wanted it gone since November, but we had so many other fishes to fry that was more important. It’s taken a pretty minute to get Mom settled. She is not there yet but close. And we’ve had to pry away some to get some stuff done that we wanted done so that all our spare time is not spent over there.

The bed being gone is big for me. It’s a huge representation of getting my life back, my office back, some time back. The box being found is big with my plants in it. It made my day. And when we went to Mom’s yesterday, I found the Easter box. This has truly been a real life Easter egg hunt. For in the Easter box were these guys. I would have been very sad to lose them.

I’ve had these quite a while. And their presence made me smile! So happy these didn’t leave for very long. George had moved them to Mom’s thinking they were her Easter decorations. He did not know. I bought most of my Easter decor last year when Mom was coming to the house and spending the weekend and I wanted to make it festive for her. Matter of fact, I don’t think George believed me that I had Easter decor. He quizzed me strongly about what was in them to see if I knew. I knew then he doubted me. But why would I make that up?

I had forgotten about this little bunny though. I honestly don’t remember it and wondered if it was Mom’s and she didn’t want it or if I had just picked it up somewhere last year when buying last minute easter decor as last year was such a blur!

So I began putting out some of the Easter things last night as George fixed our beef stew for dinner, which was out of this world.

We will be having Easter dinner here. I encouraged George to go ahead and buy the spiral honey ham while we were at Aldi’s. And it is time to plan the menu! I want some salads! At least two! Like maybe a layered salad, macaroni salad and then a couple of hot sides and rolls and I want to eat off the leftovers for a few days! I’m looking forward to this meal! We’ll go get Mom and Fancy and have them over.

An Easter Bunny, River’s Books for us to read to him on FaceTime whenever he calls sometimes and there is my niece and nephew who we have so missed growing up these last few years after my Mom and sister’s last and final argument. It’s just so sad.

I hope my niece and nephew know we love them but they probably forget who we are at this point. My sister banished both Mom and her Mom-in-law from her life. And with all that strife and dissension that makes it hard for the family to all get together. I tried the first year but my sister was not happy with the timing and said we didn’t really want to see them and said to just forget it. So we did. My guess is from that conversation is that they really didn’t want to see us. And that is ok. You can’t make people like you. Especially if you don’t try, lol. I’ve missed my niece and nephew but my sister sent me updated pictures and I’m grateful for that at least. And that is all I will say. I don’t want to sin against my sister by judging her. It is what it is and I try to stay out of their relationship or lack thereof, but ultimately a permanent family division can’t help but have ripple effects on the whole family.

Where it has impacted me the most is what I’m having trouble with. We could have really used the help with Mom’s move. And I always thought that my sister and I would be close while taking care of our parents. We lost Dad early on, unexpectedly and the family seemed to ravel apart after that.

But I just have to pretend that I’m an only child. When I don’t think about having a sister my anger goes away and I don’t sin and then I don’t have to go through a forgiveness cycle all over again. You can love a person and not like their actions. You don’t have to accept it. But having to take care of so many things on my own has really made me angry at times. And I don’t want to be that way. I don’t want to let the actions of another person have ownership of me. So I choose to put it all away and forget all of it. It’s easier that way. The past and everyone’s anger in this situation has taken a toll on everyone.

My sister would tell you she “got out” for her sanity. So I guess I’ve chosen the insane route and it does feel like I’m going insane sometimes. But I feel like I’m doing what God wants me to do in serving Mom who is not only a parent but a widow and cannot do all the things for herself she once could. I would never turn my back on her. I guess I should never say never. It would take a lot for that to ever happen. I would have to fear my life was in danger. And while our relationship has also been a strained one across my life – she still put clothes on our back and saw that we were safe and I intend to do the same for her.

Wow, this post took an unexpected turn, lol. Anyway, I try to keep my mind focused and forget all that has happened so that I don’t form awful opinions, hold on to anger, and then sin. It’s also very cathartic to let these feelings out here that I have harbored and pushed down for so long. I see no harm it mentioning these things on the blog because anyone that knows us pretty much knows our family is divided. I don’t think it is much of a secret anymore so no family secrets are here. It’s all public knowledge. And these are my feelings anyway so…..yadda yada. You know my motto anyway – ya’ll not want to be news worthy tomorrow – be nice to your fellow man today! Lord knows many lips have flapped about me over the years by ALL!

But yes, every bunny needs some bunny! In a big way. And God fills in the missing gaps when other people are not present in their God given duties. A dog would help too. lol

We had a great weekend of getting things done and finding things! We ate well too. But not too bad. The chips were the worst thing I ate. I fixed chips and salsa and a turkey sandwich, also with chips because I like the crunch.

On Sunday we took Mom to church. And went to Ruby Tuesday’s after and had big salad.

I piled it high and it was so good! I could do this every Sunday. I love their salad bar! This holds me for a long time. But last night we had beef stew and it was excellent. We need to have it more often.

We also took Mom to AT&T to get her TV streaming live TV. We spent about 45 to an hour at the store and got her box and then had to figure out how to get it all started up at the house. It was a little confusing but each thing prompted us on and it was hampered by Mom forgetting and not knowing passwords but we got those changed (I can’t keep up with my own passwords either – so no judgement there). Between the three of us we got it figured out. It took all afternoon. Once we got her signed in we had to get the google microphone set up so she could speak what channel she wants as she can’t see well enough to pick the channels on the guide. (And she says she is going to get out and drive soon. :-O).

I did get to spend some time with the cat. I love it when he nestles on my lap. But mostly he doesn’t stay there long. George and I watched a movie Saturday night about 9/11 with Tom Hanks and Sandra Bullock. Last night we watched Law and Order but I didn’t really like it. Not my bag.

I’m pleased that we were able to get things done here and also Mom set up with TV and streaming. She missed her Hallmark Channel. So hoping that keeps her happy this week. I was even happy that by Saturday afternoon, I made significant progress on the next video and I think you will like it much!

The Week Ahead

So I get my hair cut Tuesday night. Storms Wednesday. :-O. Thursday to Mom’s for dinner. Sunday to church. I suppose Saturday we will continue to work on things here. I was thinking of getting a pedicure. Might do that Friday night or might wait til next week depending on how busy next week is.

  • Finding my lost pink jacket. I have one place to look. At work. If not there I’ll order another one. ::sigh:: It’s not here, not in our car, not at mom’s. The last place I remember it is in my car. Or at home in the chair. Not either of those places.
  • Finish ironing
  • Fix my google credit card expiration date which will hamper this blog if I don’t get the card updated for the annual renewal of my domain.
  • Check out the candidates for voting so we can early vote.
  • Set my annual physical with Dr. Pare for August.
  • Finish sunroom cleaning for the warmer temps and early summer evenings. By June’s end it’ll be closed off again until fall unless we have some rainy days.
  • Measure my patio table for an example of finding mom a table for her back porch.
  • Order Pics from Shutterfly – will I ever get this done?
  • Set up my puzzle
  • Work on my videos.
  • Learn how to do GIF’s in videos on Final Cut Pro. I thought I had this one figured out but something didn’t work for me the other day. So I’m trying to learn this and also learn a new trick each week.
  • Shop for Mom a cabinet for her laundry room
  • Read some
  • Cannon Camera lessons. Bless it’s heart it gets put off last.

So is this enough to keep me busy this week? I feel like we are getting into a routine now, thanks to God who I have yelled at, begged, (bless him for understanding as He does) and so I think we are settling in with a routine that works. If we can get some important things done as well as some hobby/personal time in, we’ll be good. We all have to be patient which is what our Sunday school lesson was on. I noticed that neither George, Mom, nor I offered any advice on that subject less we end up judging one another and saying “why you giving advice to others about patience?” LOL Yeah we all sat there with are mouths shut! LOL

Meanwhile in Texas

River said “Poppy”! It’s so cute. He’s learning to TALK ya’ll!!!!!

Y’all have a good day! Anything accomplished or fun you had on the weekend????