Author: Lisa -Southern Patches

Hello everyone, my name is Lisa I am a southern girl born and raised in East Tennessee. I love discovering new places and things to do. I have a lot of favorites, shopping, traveling, knitting and photography are all at the top of my list. I am married with my fur babies my only children. This blog is actually named after my beloved basset hound Patches. She passed away a few years ago but will always have a huge part of my heart. Come with me and we will explore some wonderful places and discover some really fun things. Are you ready?

Goodbye January

Hello friends, how are you. How was your January? can you believe it’s February? I think I blinked and January was gone. You know that happens more and more the older you get. My parents used to tell me that and I just didn’t believe it until it started happening to me.

My work has been closed for the past week because we have been doing some renovations. I still had to go in to work but no customers to deal with except on the phone. Lots of hammering and sand blasting and cleaning. I mostly stayed in my office and did some catch up work that I normally don’t have time for.

I also had a couple of Zoom meetings with my Attractions group that I meet with several times a year. We haven’t actually gotten together in person in over a year. All of our meetings have been by zoom. Hopefully we will be able to have some in person meetings soon. I so miss seeing everyone.

It seems like January absolutely flew by. I am trying to remember everything I did in January. The weather was actually pretty good, no snow, just a little rain. But other than work and home I didn’t really do a lot. If you read my last post you know we spent a lot of time moving furniture around, HA! Check out the post if you get a chance.

I did read four books and most of them were good. If you are interested:

Moral Compass by Danielle Steel. I don’t read a lot of Danielle Steel’s books. I find them to be a little too unbelievable but I do like to read one occasionally just to take my mind somewhere else. This one was a little darker than she usually writes. All in all it was pretty good.
The year of less by Cait Flanders. I loved most of this book. The author got a little side tracked in the middle of the book but she did explain that it all pertained to why she was the person that she was. This book has been a big part of getting started with de cluttering my house.
All Summer Long by Dorothea Benton Frank, No, just no. I finally got through this book. I kept waiting for something to happen, it didn’t. Because I had invested a lot of time in it I hated to just put it down so I continued reading. It had a couple of cute things in it but no.
Keep Moving by Dick Van Dyke. Yes Yes I loved this book. I watched an interview withDick Van Dyke and he was talking about his book, Keep Moving, and I just had to get it and read it. This man is 95 years old!!! He attributes his longevity to MOVING his body. He is an amazing person.

I have a few books set aside to read this month or whenever I get to them.

I did a lot of knitting and working on a Valentine’s cross stitch. It’s hearts and I actually started it last year. But I decided I love hearts so it doesn’t matter if I have it finished for Valentines Day or not I will probably keep it out all year anyway. I love hearts, heart earrings, necklaces, pillows, you name it I love them. They’re happy.

I have also taken about a million pictures. I stop on the road and take pictures, I take pictures of the babies and just about anything else you can imagine.

***Working on my Valentine’s Cross Stitch with Scruffy by my side.***

***We had a little snow Sunday night it was very pretty but not a lot of it.***

Snow on the mountains. Look at the white caps!!!

I guess one of the things I did in January that I hope to continue the entire year is decluttering my house. Every week I take several bags and boxes full of “stuff” that I have cleared out of my house. Clothes, household items, books etc etc. It makes me feel so good to get rid of clutter. Clear the clutter and clear your mind. I have become very mindful of what I am bringing into my house. Unless it is an absolute necessity I don’t bring it in. This saves both space and money. I know you are going to laugh at this statement if you have read the blog about all the tables. HA!!! But we did give our old TV, that I mentioned in my last blog post, to my sister and we donated the other tables. I think that is a fair exchange.

We are staying in a lot. Only going out for groceries, and to work and I go to Sister Lunch once a week. So I guess a rather uneventful January but a great month over all. Just the kind of month I love.

How was your January?

Always remember

Love your day your way!!!!!

One Thing Leads to Another (Table)

It all started before Christmas. I was thinking ahhhh this story is similar to The Gift Of The Magi. Yeah, right, if that story was twisted and smoking crack maybe.

It all started when my husband told me he wanted a 3D printer for Christmas. I asked where we were going to put it and more importantly what about the one he already had in the basement that has barely been used. He said this one was new and improved and we would give the one in the basement to my nephew.

I ordered the printer. He told me he already had my Christmas gift but it was on back order. The 3D printer came in and it was delivered to my work place. I could barely get it into my car, well it actually took a couple of people to wrestle it into my car. I could not lift it. I started worrying about the rather small table in our office that it was supposed to fit on. My nephew had to follow me home and help me get it into the house and wrapped for Christmas. After opening it on Christmas morning my husband said it would never fit the table in our office so table one was ordered.

A few days later my Christmas gift arrived. It was a TV for my den I have upstairs. When we started to put the TV on the table where the old one was the table was too small. So table two was ordered.

Since I now had a new Smart TV upstairs we decided to cancel our Direct TV account, which had gotten ridiculously expensive, and get HULU and Netflix. By doing this we cut our Internet TV bill in half. We couldn’t do this until before because we didn’t have high speed internet. We recently got fiber optic cable installed in our area and now we can stream HULU. We ordered HULU and I was in heaven with my TV upstairs. The only problem was our downstairs TV where my husband watches TV was so old it didn’t do very well with the streaming and kept freezing so bad we couldn’t watch it. A new TV was ordered.

The table for the 3D printer arrived and it was quite large. When Mark put it together and put it in the office there was not enough room for it and our old desk. Table three, a smaller desk, was ordered. It arrived and it is still in the box in our office at home. I’m not sure if this one will be big enough because I was actually able to lift the box.

The new TV came in. Once again it was delivered to my work and it was wrestled in by two men in an Amazon fulfillment truck. Again I had to have a couple of people load it into my car. I took it home. We got it partially set up and realized the positioning of the legs on the base were different. You guessed it. It didn’t fit the table that we were using. Table four was ordered. Luckily it came in within just a few days and it has been put in place and fits wonderfully.

So. Things I have learned from this costly experience.
1. Use a tape measure and measure before buying.
2. Tell my husband I have already bought him a Christmas present.
3. Next year tell my husband I want a pair of earrings for Christmas.
4. I need to work out. I need more upper body strength.
5. Possibly get a second job before Christmas next year to offset any additional costs.

See? Gift of The Magi, sort of. Maybe I could sell my hair next year, hmmmmmm.

Always remember

Love your day your way!!!! (and always use a tape measure)

In The Days of COVID

Hello friends,

I have been in a bit of a funk lately. A good friend of mine has COVID, She was diagnosed two weeks ago, and I had been around her for a few days before she was diagnosed. As soon as I heard she was positive I felt that familiar worry start to creep in. I have been monitoring myself carefully. I also stayed away from Mark as much as possible. We can do this easily because we have such different work schedules. Also I got a new TV for Christmas for my upstairs den and we added HULU. I am a little ashamed to tell you how much time I have spent catching up on all the shows I have heard about for so long.

My friend who has COVID is very sick and has pneumonia. She is starting to feel a little better but the recovery is slow. It’s scary seeing someone so young and vibrant so sick.

The cold hard truth is, we are probably around many more people than we realize that are COVID positive. I wear a mask when I am out and I follow all the other precautions. I only go to the grocery store and usually do the online shopping for that. I did venture out yesterday to Hobby Lobby in Maryville, about 45 minutes from my house, to get a tool I needed for my earrings I am making. More about those earrings later.

But still we carry on because what else can we do? I was talking to a friend the other day and she said that some days she feels positive, some days she feels fed up with everything that is going on, and somedays she doesn’t really know how to feel. I think that pretty much sums up the way that we all feel. I think it’s hard to think about what we will do in the upcoming months because we really don’t know. I am a planner and it makes me realize that you just have to take life as it comes day by day, hour by hour, minute by minute.

So I have been hanging out at the house a lot. I’m trying to continue clearing out the clutter in my house. I just finished reading a really interesting book, The Year Of Less, by Cait Flanders who calls herself a binge consumer turned mind consumer. It was a really good book and I highly recommend it. It helped me to understand that I don’t need all of the things in my house just because I “think I need them”. Maybe I think I need them because I have always had them. So what? In this book Cait actually made a commitment to herself not to purchase anything for a year, other than groceries and toiletries. She put her money into saving for things that she really enjoyed like traveling. Before she made a purchase she first went to the things she already had in her closets. It has made me really mindful of what I need and don’t need to buy.

***Weeds? I don’t care I love the muted winter colors.***

***We have lots of these squirrels’ nests in the trees.***

***Walking the babies and enjoying being outside is always a pick-me-up.***

Look what I found at Hobby Lobby, 100% Merino Wool and very reasonably priced. I wanted all of it. But I did refrain because I already have a lot of yarn at home that needs to be knitted. But I may still be in trouble just knowing how close it is.

***TVA ( Tennessee Valley Authority), drops the lake level every winter. It is really low right now.***

I had the weekend to myself. I did some reading and working on a Valentine’s cross stitch. I baked some bread and walked with the babies. The usual. I like the usual. Not everyone is having that luxury right now.

***Just look what is blooming. It gives me hope and promise.***

I feel ashamed saying I am in a funk when my friend is so sick. I can’t really do anything for her but check on her every day, and try to be there for her. I continue to pray that my family stays safe and healthy and we get through this COVID crisis and things return to somewhat normal for us.

How is your weekend going so far?

Have a wonderful week and always remember

Love your day your way!!!!!

The Mountains Behind Us

Are you a mountain climber? Of course you are!!! I am speaking metaphorically of course. You may have actually climbed real stone mountains but I am talking about those things in your life that you have accomplished or overcome or struggled with, etc etc. They are just as hard to climb.

Sometimes I get overwhelmed by things in my life that I feel that I need to do. You know those things you feel like you should do or feel like you have to do etc etc. It seems like when we look at the big picture with everything that needs to be done it looks like a mountain. I usually stare up at my mountain at around 2:00 AM on the mornings I can’t sleep. That mountain seems so ominous!!! It’s usually better once I get up in the morning and have had my coffee, it doesn’t seem quite as hard to tackle. But it’s still there.

But have you ever stopped to think about the things that you have already done in your life? The mountains you have already climbed? I don’t think we give ourselves enough credit for those things. Think about it with me for a minute:

You were born, you have learned so many things. You have helped so many people during your life whether you realize it or not. You’ve applied so many of those things that you learned to your life and to other peoples’ lives. You’ve climbed a mountain.

You have had relationships. Maybe you’ve married, had children, grandchildren, You have been a son or a daughter, a sibling, a partner, a mother a father, a lover a friend, you have loved. You have hurt, you have been joyful, you have lived. The things you have learned, mentored, and taught the people you have known and loved is astounding!!! There is no measure. You’ve climbed a mountain.

You’ve nurtured, fed, clothed, cuddled, survived. You’ve climbed a mountain.

You’ve overcome obstacles that limited you in many ways, physically, mentally, emotionally. You’ve climbed a mountain.

You’ve worked, supported yourself and your family. You have given your knowledge, earned money, helped your family, friends and co-workers. You have grown and matured. You’ve climbed a mountain.

You have been happy, you have been sad, you have mourned, You’ve lived. Each day that you are here is in and of itself a mountain that must be tackled and taken step by step. This is a mountain you have climbed and continue to climb.

So I say when you are lying in bed, or wherever you may be, and you have something weighing on your mind. Think about all the things you have done in your past, and all the things you are doing right now, and know that you will get through you are climbing a mountain.

And even though you still have a lot of mountains to climb you have so very many that you have already conquered. Those are the mountains behind you and they are to be treasured.

Always remember

Love your day your way!!!!