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?

Sunday Sunshine

Happy Sunday friends. How has your weekend been? How was your week? As I always say this time of year work has been busy. Well I didn’t say it last year at this time because we were closed. Our numbers and sales are going great!!! Just not enough staff hired back to help accommodate everyone.

I had a mammogram last week and finally got the all is good letter on Thursday. Of course I knew if anything had shown up I would have heard within a day or two by phone call. I always feel like I am walking on eggshells until a few days have passed without a phone call. Every time my phone rang those first couple of days I would say a silent prayer before I looked at the screen. Please please don’t let it be the breast center.

I did have dinner on Friday evening with my friends Lorie and Emily and we had a great time eating and catching up. I so needed this time with these wonderful women after the very stressful week I had had. Hearing about their lives and sharing with them is the best therapy in the world.

National Siblings Day was yesterday and I will say right here and now, I have been so blessed to have had six brothers and sisters to grow up with. I can’t imagine my life any other way. Although we have lost three of our siblings and we miss them every single day we carry on and continue to love and care for each other with a love that is strong and fierce. There isn’t anything we wouldn’t do for each other. That is just what family does.

The sunshine this week has been absolutely beautiful. Trees are blooming. The Dogwood trees have bloomed out in many places and they are stunning. The temps have been great, most days near 80 degrees. Of course the pollen count has been really high and most people are walking around with red itchy eyes and runny noses. I have always been really lucky not to be plagued with allergies but my poor husband and a lot of my co-workers suffer greatly.

Pink Dogwood trees at my mother in law’s house.
Some of the Redbud’s are still hanging in.
This was taken at our house. We call these wild forest dogwoods because they grow wild in the edge of the woods.
I tried to capture just how the water on the lake this morning looked like shimmering diamonds. I don’t think I quite got it but you get the idea. It was beautiful.
I took this shot early Thursday morning. It looks like the moon has fallen into the lake.

We are currently on our way to nearby Athens to get my nephew Tyler a new phone. His ended in an unfortunate death yesterday. He has it picked out and he is on our plan so we have to add it on. I also have an ulterior motive of stopping at Hobby Lobby after we get the phone and some lunch. I am chilling in the back seat working on this blog post while Tyler and Mark are discussing trucks and truck tires. YUCK!!! We just passed Hobby Lobby and I realized they are closed on Sundays. Boo for me but happy for them to give their employees off all day on Sunday. I knew this but I had forgotten.

Tyler got his phone we had a quick lunch and are headed home. I think some time on the deck in the sunshine is needed this afternoon. I finished knitting a sock last night and started on the second one. I will work on that as well. Heck who am I kidding I will probably take a big nap. Isn’t that what Sundays are for.

How are you and how has your week and weekend been?

Always remember

Love your way your day!!!!

Wordless Wednesday (Rome Italy)

Welcome to Wordless Wednesday. I continue sharing photos from trips my husband and I have taken. These were taken in Rome in 2017: Vatican City, Saint Peter’s Square and The Vatican Museum. The only picture I added words to was The Pieta. Because it is just so special. I hope travel will soon resume but until then I will live through my photos. I hope you enjoy.

The Pieta, Christian art depicting the Virgin Mary cradling the dead body of Jesus.

I hope you enjoyed a little time in Rome. More next week when we visit the Colosseum.

And as always

Love your day your way!!!!

Happy April, Happy Easter, And Faith Everyday.

Happy Easter to everyone. I hope you had a wonderful blessed day and was able to spend it with your loved ones.

I am so happy to see a new month. I will be honest with you. March was a rough month. A lot of things are going on.

It seems like March was the month for doctor visits. I had all of my well visits and checks in March. Sometimes it happens like that and I seem to have scheduled them all in one month. That is exactly what happened in March. I had the regular physical with my doctor including blood work, mammogram, gyno visit, and that was all just for me. Waiting to hear if everything is o.k. can be intense. All of mine were good for another year. And for that I am so grateful. But add into this mix some extra blood work for my husband, a medical procedure for my sister which has involved a lot of followups with her, some friends and loved ones having medical issues and,,, well,, it’s a lot to deal with. I am feeling a little overwhelmed by it all.

I think that having a loved one with medical issues really puts things in perspective for you. Lots of silly little things that you think are big, are not. The mundane boring day to day suddenly takes on a wonderful brighter light. If only paying those bills and mowing the yard and cleaning the house were all you had to worry about. Remember that time when it was like that? you didn’t really know just how great you had it.

Faith. I have it. I live it regularly or so I thought. I was upstairs just a little while ago putting up laundry and sort of lost in a little cloud of worry, when all of a sudden it was like I heard a voice say ” STOP IT AND TRUST IN ME”. Wow that was very powerful. I needed that. I will.

So back to the day. It was a great day!!! Although Mark had to work, he is an essential worker and we are used to him being gone on holidays, I got to spend time with family. My niece made dinner for me, my sister and brother in law and my nephew. It was delicious. I was able to visit my mother in law at the assisted living village, and this time I was able to visit with her in her little apartment. I stayed for almost two hours. It was such a great visit. It’s the first time I had been inside the apartment in over a year!!! While I was there the sweetest thing happened. Her neighbor, Mary, came over to use mother in law’s microwave and told us that is was her 67th wedding anniversary!!! I wish you could know Mary. She is always styled to the nines. Her hair is immaculate. She had on a little red track suit with a USA pin proudly positioned on the lapel. I imagine she was all dolled up because her husband had come for a visit. He does not live in the village but she does because of some dementia. She popped back in a moment later with a wedding picture and told me she had made her own wedding dress, it was beautiful!!!, and she also made her sisters maid of honor dress!!! Her husband came in a few minutes later to chat. These two are amazing. He is 90 years old and she is 87. What a wonderful testament to marriage, to life, to everything. THIS IS LIFE!!!!!

Happy Easter!!!!

How was your day? How was your month?

Always remember

Love your day your way!!!!