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?

Decisions Decisions

Hello friends, Do you know what absolutely bogs me down, stops me in my tracks and causes me to second guess every little thing I do? Decisions. Maybe you’re like that maybe you’re not.

During the course of my work day I have to make hundreds if not thousands of decisions. No I am not a doctor and no one’s life is hanging in the balance but yet decisions must be made. Little things that you don’t even think about. That’s a decision. It can be exhausting: Deep in your brain thousands of decisions are being made.

Some decisions will require more thought than others. Some will make you stop in your tracks and consult with someone else. God? Your spouse? A co-worker? I always turn my decisions over to God unless I forget and arrogantly think I can handle them on my own.

Did I make the right decision?
Did I make a mistake?
Did I give the decision enough thought?
Should I hold onto the decision and nurture it and pet it and name it George?
Will someone’s life be affected by my decision? Not life threatening but you know what I mean.
Will this decision lead to, GOD FORBID, another decision!!!!

You see where I coming from here, right? Case in point. My husband and I are trying to plan a beach vacation for maybe a week. What month?, Which days?, who will stay with the fur babies? the fur baby decision is a biggie. We either have to have someone come and stay at the house for most or all of the time. Molly has gotten so old and feeble we have to have someone here at our house just to get her in out of the heat in the middle of the day. And she stays in all the time now. We can’t take a chance on her being outside especially at night because of the C word. Coyotes, shhhhhhh. And now we have all the new kitties. What days can we both be off together?should we drive or fly? How many days?

WHEW!!!!! I am tired just thinking about it. Is it worth a few days on a sandy beach watching the ocean waves crash gently against the shore and if your lucky gently lapping against your toes? HECK YES!!!!! So I plug on.

I was never a parent, except to my fur babies. So I think when you are parenting you deal with about a million issues and decisions a day. That is what I have observed from my loved ones who are parents. So maybe I didn’t go through all of that and now decisions seem to overwhelm me. Yes I think that is it. Or maybe as I have gotten older I just don’t give a frack about what I do or what happens most of the time. Yes I think that is it. Or maybe it isn’t really important at all these decisions I think I “must” make. Yes I think that is it. Maybe. I don’t know. I can’t decide. And on that. I don’t have to because it doesn’t really matter.

Always remember

Love your day your way!!

In The Blink of an Eye

Hello friends and happy Sunday. In the blink of an eye is how fast last week went flying by. I wonder if there will ever be a time when I say “wow, this week has lasted forever”. Probably not. I secretly hope not because what would that mean? I don’t really even want to go there.

I am preparing for a meeting with our Southern Highlands group. We try to meet three times a year and this time it is our attraction’s time to host. We have a lot of fun things planned for them. The meeting will start tomorrow and go through Wednesday. I have been stressed making sure that all of the places we will visit will be something that everyone will like. Plus making food arrangements for three days. We will have about twenty five to thirty people at the meeting.I know it will all go fine but I will breath a lot easier when it is all over. This is a great group of people and I have become good friends with many of them so it will also be great to see them again.

I had to work late Tuesday night and once I got home Mark was very worried that Molly wasn’t getting around very well. When I got home I gave her a pain pill. Her arthritis is so bad and it makes her old legs really stiff and weak. By the next day she was back up and going on the walks with us and back to her old self. I know there will be a time when she doesn’t rally back. She is such an old girl with a lot of problems. We refuse to let her suffer. For now she has a bad day here and there but then she is back to her old self. For that I am thankful.

On Wednesday I had to go to nearby Townsend for a quick meeting to make food arrangements for our upcoming meeting. I went to work, went to Sister Lunch and then ran by my house to feed babies because I wasn’t sure how long I would be in Townsend and it was Mark’s late night. I will have more on the restaurants after all the festivities so that I can add pictures. Townsend is about an hour drive for me and it was at the worst possible time of day for traffic. After the meeting I decided a quick trip to Hobby Lobby was needed. I did buy a little yarn and have already started a soft squishy scarf. Knitting therapy is the best.

***Look at that big size 18 circular needle. I can’t wait to try that out on some chunky yarn.***

***This is some of they yarn I got at Hobby Lobby and the needles. I didn’t really need another set of size 8 bamboo needles but look at those adorable green ends.***

Thursday, another long work day then going to the assisted living center with the hearing aid tech to adjust my mother in law’s hearing aid, home, taking care of the babies and then crashing in front of the T.V. with Scruffy by my side and knitting on my lap. I am currently re-watching Grey’s Anatomy. I am on season seven. I am pretty sure I can now diagnose just about any medical issue that comes up. I am also watching a new season on Netflix called On The Verge. It is about four women who are good friends but lead different and sometimes strange lives. So far there is only one season of that.

Friday was a day full of details. Fortunately I had slept well on Thursday night and I was ready for it. I think that was the night I dreamed that we hired Jason Aldean at work. I don’t know why Jason Aldean would leave his multi million dollar country singing career to work with me but hey!!! a girl can dream. I can tell such a difference when I don’t get good sleep the night before a big day. Like I said the day was full of details for our upcoming meeting. Lots of things had to be finalized with about a million phone calls, messages and emails.

Saturday was grocery day and cleaning house. I wanted to go to a nearby quilt show but I just didn’t make it. I also did some work in my flower beds. With all the rain we have had the weeds are going crazy. I cooked spaghetti for dinner. I think my husband could eat spaghetti every day of the week.

The kitties continue to be a source of great entertainment. They are the funniest things. We are so worried that mama cat will get pregnant again. We are going to have her spayed very soon. If you have ever seen the production of CATS you know just how well the performers imitate real cats. They are such interesting animals. They have very special personalities. I have had Kitty Kitty for three years and she was actually my first experience ever owning a cat. I have always had dogs. It is hard to believe we now have six cats and two dogs. I told Mark we need a few more dogs to even things up. He does not agree. We are still planning to give two of the kitties away but we would like for them to go together.

Today was a quieter day. Scruffy and I did spend some time out on the deck this morning. I took my knitting and coffee and it was quite nice. I did laundry and I will pack for the meeting we have this week. It is being held about thirty minutes from where I live but, because I will be spending a lot of time both night and day with our group I will stay at the hotel with them. So it is always hectic getting ready to be gone for a few days. Mark will be in charge of all the babies, lord help us. Just kidding, he is very good with them but he can’t always make Molly take her meds like I do and he can’t seem to get her to eat as much.

So yes a busy full week. I don’t think it will slow down for me for a couple of weeks but that is o.k. I am off to pack and then get some sleep. Who knows maybe Jason Aldean will make another appearance.

Always remember

Love your day your way!!!!

Wordless Wednesday 9-8-2021

I hope you enjoyed the black and white photography.

Always remember

Love your day your way!!!!

Hello September

Well hello September how did you get here so fast? It seems like only yesterday it was Memorial Day and the summer season was just getting underway. If you work in tourism there are two important dates. Memorial Day is the kick off to summer and Labor Day is sort of the last big hurrah. I am so ready for slower days and fewer crowds.

There is a change in the air. You can feel it. It’s not just that the temps are a little cooler, although it was what I would call chilly this morning, there is actually a shift in the air and the slant of the sun is different. Shadows look different. I love it!!! I love the fall season. The days are getting a little shorter and the sun rises a little later. I love it all!!!!

***Doesn’t the sun look a little different?***

***Corn fields are everywhere and being cut daily.***

I think there are several reasons I like fall and winter.

I am a big girl and I don’t feel comfortable showing so much skin. Especially when my skin never seems to tan and it remains stark white no matter what I do.
I hate to sweat. If I am working out I fully intend to sweat, I even welcome it but not just from walking into the Walmart or around the yard. I love cold weather because I don’t seem to sweat quite as much.
I love winter clothes. This sort of goes back to number 1. but I do feel more comfortable covering up. And I love sweaters and boots they are my favorite things to wear.
I love all the holidays in the winter. Thanksgiving and Christmas and even Halloween. Great times to get together with friends and family.
I love fall decorations.
I sleep better when it is cold and I can snuggle under the covers. And it’s more comfortable having your fur babies sleep with you when it’s not 90 degrees.

So there are just a few reasons I love the fall and winter.

On Wednesday afternoon we had to take two of the kitty babies to the vet. They both had some serious eye gunk going on. I was not sure if it was pink eye but I suspected that it might be because two of them had it. We found out that the little orange cat is a male, we named him Milo and the light gray cat is female we named her Izzy. We are still not sure about the other two. Milo and Izzy are doing much better after getting meds. I told our vet that retirement would never be in our future because of vet bills and fur baby medicine and food and kitty litter. Oh well, working keeps you young right?

I took Thursday off. I had to work some over the Labor Day weekend and I knew it would be my only chance to have a day off. I did have a zoom meeting that morning but the rest of the day was so much fun. I met my sister in Madisonville and we went to nearby Tellico Plains to have lunch at Iron Works. It is a restaurant on the river and part of the building at one time was an old Iron Works factory. Check out the site here The weather was beautiful and the food was fabulous. I had the breaded rainbow trout and okra. I had been wanting okra for some time and theirs was amazing.

***Who could resist this beautiful spot to hang out after dinner***?

After we left the restaurant we went to a small used book store in town. I have been on the look for the Little House books by Laura Ingalls Wilder. I love this little book store and they have such a variety of used books. They are neatly arranged by category and author. I didn’t see any of the Little House books so I asked the lady at the counter. She said they sold out almost as soon as they came in. Just my luck and you know the funny thing is I had all of them when I was a kid. I have no idea what happened to them probably sold at a yard sale or something. We did find one book by Laura Ingalls Wilder and Rose Wilder Lane who was Laura’s daughter. I snapped it up.

I was off today and I finished the blue striped socks I had been working on. And guess what? I had just enough yarn and didn’t have to add another ball. YAY!!!!! But man I was sweating it. I tried knitting faster and of course that didn’t help a stitch is a stitch no matter how fast you knit.