Weekly Catch Up & Memorial Day

Hello and happy Memorial Day to everyone. Especially our veterans who gave all for us. Let us never forget them and what they have given for our freedom.

The weather here has been chilly. I’m not sure if this would be considered Whippoorwill Winter or as some of the old timers call it, Woolen Britches Winter. Whippoorwill Winter usually occurs middle to late May so that is what I think we are actually experiencing these last few days. Woolen Britches is the last winter we have before late spring or summer temperatures hit us. I know my jacket felt really good this morning.

Being in tourism the days leading up to and including Memorial Day is very busy for me. People have started vacations and traveling is on everyone’s mind. My work has been so incredibly busy. I actually worked part of the weekend. Memorial Day is our kick off to summer and the Labor Day sort of ends the busy tourist season. All of the days in between are busy.

Because I only had one day off I had to cram a lot into it. This included visiting my mother in law and taking her supplies, buying groceries, doing laundry and trying to get some time in to chill and do a few fun things.

I had a few minutes to catch up on a book I was reading and have some coffee and a muffin.

I made a blueberry cobbler. I love to make one of these on Sunday and have it for the entire week.

I also wanted to try these lasagna cupcakes that I had been seeing all over Facebook and TikTok. These are made like lasagna but instead of using pasta you use wonton wrappers. This makes them very calorie friendly. I will trim the wonton wrappers on top next time because they stuck a little bit. I used a muffin pan. I made my usual lasagna sauce for regular lasagna. You can use whatever you want. You can also use grilled veggies or anything you might want to chop up and use. But you don’t have a lot of room in the muffin tins. I used ricotta cheese, parmesan cheese, and mozzarella cheese. I layered a wrapper then ricotta cheese then my sauce, then mozzarella and parmesan. I then added another wrapper and repeated the layer. For the sauce I used marinara sauce with ground beef but you can use ground turkey or whatever you would like. Basically you can make them just about any way you want to. They are delicious.

I finished the sock I have been working on a cast on the second sock. The second sock is never as much fun to knit as the first one. I can see the striping will be off a little but that will just make it interesting. Nobody will notice when they are inside my shoes. HA!!!

Other than working all I have had time to do is SCRATCH!!! The poison Ivy is slowly starting to dry up. I told you about the IVAREST I had been using. It really does the trick. It is so soothing. I think it has calamine lotion in it or something like that. I listed it on my Friday Favorites last week. If you missed it you can catch that blog post here But the problem was the biggest area affected was on my wrist and it easily spread to a few other areas.

So how was your weekend? Did you do something fun? Have a wonderful week!!!!

Always remember

Love your day your way!!!!

What A Weekend!! (Two Wonderful Things)

Hello friends how are you? How was your weekend? Another long weekend for me. I took Friday off to take my sister Sandy to the doctor and to get her sixth and final Chemo treatment. Her appointment was at 8:00. We left out early around 7:00 AM. Her doctor is in Knoxville and that is about forty five minutes from us. You never know what the traffic is going to be like.

We got to the hospital right at 8:00. She had to check in and get blood work and then see the doctor and then start her chemotherapy. All of the testing and seeing the doctor often takes over two hours. Then it can take a little while for the pharmacy to get the chemo cocktail to the infusion room. She didn’t start the chemo on Friday until almost 11:00 AM. It takes about an hour and a half to two hours for the treatment. Because this was her last one and she “graduated” she got to ring the bell signaling that her treatments are over. We were so happy. We even decided to stop and have lunch and then do a little shopping. I remember when she started the treatments back in January if felt like this day would never come. Here she is doing great!! So this was the best thing that happened this weekend or all year I guess I should say.

As we were leaving the stores we had a little issue with my sister’s car. I was driving and as soon as I pulled onto the road the dash lit up like crazy with several warning lights. We pulled over and she called someone she knew from the dealership. Luckily we were very close to the dealership and we took it in. One of the service techs looked at the lights and said it was a faulty sensor. He said it was completely safe to drive and for her to bring it back Monday and they would replace it. Wow, that was a little scary.

Saturday I pretty much chilled. I picked up groceries, Mark and I went to visit with his mom. She was very confused as she sometimes is now. We picked up dinner on the way home. I went back to Granny’s flower market in town and bought a few more small flowers for some flower pots I have. I love this little market. Every year she has the most beautiful flowers.

The second great thing that happened: On Sunday I finished the temperature blanket!!!!! I have been working on this for so long. I actually started the blanket last year. You can read about it here I recorded the temperature every day. Usually I did the average temp for the day. Each crocheted row indicates a color pertaining to the temperature. I have never been so glad to finish something in my life. I got really behind last fall. I still recorded the temperature every day, keeping the figures in my phone’s calendar. I will have to be honest with you I got really sick of this blanket it grew and grew and grew. It was so heavy I couldn’t really take it from room to room to work on I just left it in one spot. I guess I just didn’t take into account just how long that many rows would be. I only did a single crochet for each row but man it is massive. It will be great when winter comes and I can snuggle under it. But for now It is finished and I am so happy about that. I felt like I couldn’t get into any projects until this one was finished. Well nothing big anyway. I have done a few small things. But now I can’t wait to get to some of my other projects. You know how it is when you finally finish something that has been hanging over you. This is how it felt with this blanket. I’m glad I did it but I am so glad it is finished.

Here are the different colors for the daily temperatures. It started at the top with the darker blues and then the orange and reds as we got into summer temps.

Here are the different colors of yarn I used for the blanket. I did have to have two colors of each skein of yarn for most of the colors.

That is what I have been up to. I have a full week coming up. Five days in a row. I love having the three day weekends. I think all work weeks should only be four days. I am sure people are more productive that way.

May Day May Day

Hello friends and happy May. How can I even being saying that? A third of this year is over!!! April was an especially busy month for me and that is why I didn’t post anything last week. Work and life took over, just the way it does, and it was a little crazy.

Going back to a week ago, I went to an estate sale and although it had been going on for a couple of days there were still lots of good items. The drive through this neighborhood on the lake was beautiful. The houses were just unbelievable. The yards immaculate. I am sorry to say it made me a little judgey about my own house. When I went home and started to complain about my house and how the yard looked my husband quickly reminded me that most of those people have gardeners who tend to their yards and decorators who decorate their homes. I guess he’s right.

Everything at the sale was 75% off and I did find this platter that looks really old. I just liked the design and different colors.

I also found these two metal spoons. They are heavy and very well made.

Last week was my Birthday and my thirty third wedding Anniversary. I got married on my Birthday. I know, I know, why you may be asking did you do that? I thought it was really different and yes it has proved to be. My husband and I sort of share the Birthday as well as the Anniversary and we have a double celebration that way. We had Birthday cake at work and then my family had a small birthday party for me at our local favorite Mexican restaurant.

Me and hubs. Sadly I didn’t get to keep this hat HA!

***This is me and my niece Michelle. I am wearing the Tiara my sister got me. We have a joke about me thinking I’m a queen. So she got me the Tiara. I love it!!!***

I made my husband one of his favorites, Peanut Butter Pie, it is full of Reese’s peanut butter cups and lots of other good things.

So lots, too much actually, of great food and treats but I guess that is to be expected at Birthdays and Anniversaries. I have been over indulging lately. Too many late night work hours and having to grab whatever is handy to eat. That is a bad pattern for me and I know it.

I also had a dental appointment last week and I saw this adorable basket in the reception area. My dentist had gotten it at a craft sale. I love it!! I think I will try to make one. I love all buttons and have a couple of jars full. I think this is such a cute idea.

Work continues to be so busy. Almost never a minute of down time. It is always like that this time of year. It’s hard to come home late and try to be creative. I just haven’t even had the energy to put a blog post together.

Over the weekend I did a lot of yard work. I bought some flowers and a couple of rose bushes. I got all of them planted and cleaned up some of my flower beds that were looking really bad. Of course then we have really cold temps, this morning was only 40 degrees F here. I guess this could be Dogwood Winter but I heard someone else mention Locust Winter so who knows. I do know I am ready for some warm weather. Consistently.

So what have you been up to lately?

Always remember

Love your day your way!!!!

Hello Monday!!!!

How was your weekend? I had a long weekend. I was off on Friday to take my sister to her chemo appointment. She has only one left now. She is doing great!!!

On Saturday I went with a friend to Athens to eat Chinese food. We also went to Dollar Tree. They had all of their Easter things 50% off so I bought some extra plastic Easter eggs. I like to make baskets for Easter and I will put these up until then. I buy so much of this stuff when it goes on sale. I don’t think I have ever had to buy anything for a holiday at the actual time of the holiday.

I have a large bush in my front yard. I am not sure exactly what it is some type of boxwood but it is over twenty years old and it is mostly dead. We, my husband and I, decided to cut it out and put something else in its place. But when I cut all of the dead branches away there was still a lot of greenery left. I read that older shrubs like this can be more susceptible to disease and bugs and things that can cause them to decline. I noticed that it hadn’t been draining well so I cleaned out all the dead leaves and rot from around the roots. I am going to give it some time and see if it starts growing again.

***So you can see quite a bit of green. We will give it some time and see.***

I got out my mini chain saw I got for Christmas and used it on some of the other shrubs and trees around the yard. To be so small it is really quite powerful. Well to me anyway.

While I was working in the yard I noticed the kitties were quite fascinated by something in the yard. I went to see what it was and it was a huuuuuuge snake. Only a black snake but he was big!!! The kitties would not leave him alone so that he could get away. I finally distracted them enough that he was able to get through the woods and head down to the lake.

Over the weekend I made Watergate Salad or Pistachio Delight some people call it. It is so light and fluffy. Only a few ingredients are needed; pistachio pudding, canned pineapple, cool whip, and miniature marshmallows. You can garnish with cherries or add additional walnuts if you like. I hadn’t had any in years. It’s a favorite dish for family reunions and church socials. I don’t think it’s just a southern thing but I ask my friend from Ohio if she liked it and she said she had never heard of it. I love it!!!!

And finally my irises are blooming. I was afraid they weren’t going to bloom again this year but they are. My nephew and his wife took the entire bucket full I had thinned last week. I was glad they took them. As I mentioned they originally came from the house where I grew up. My mama planted them. Now they are spread out among several family members’ homes. That would make my mama so happy.

How was your weekend? what plans do you have for this week. It’s my Birthday week and my wedding anniversary. I actually got married on my Birthday. But that’s a story for another time.

Always remember

Love your day your way!!!!