Hello friends and happy Monday. I can’t believe we are in the last full week of October. It seems as though this year has flown by. The leaves are falling fast but the trees still hold a beauty that somehow is more noticeable in the fall. Well to me anyway. Leaves are everywhere. I took a short walk through the woods yesterday and just enjoyed the sunshine and the colors, they are magical.

How was your weekend? I had a busy day on Saturday . We had a family reunion. We’re big on those in the south although our extended family with aunts, uncles, and cousins haven’t been together in years. It was so good to see everyone and catch up. It was a fun time. As we were putting the food out on the tables I couldn’t help but think back to years ago when it was my mama, my grandmother, and my aunts getting all the food prepared. I remember we had a big reunion once a year and it was usually around my grandmother’s birthday so it was in August. It was always hot as blue blazes and humid. My mama would cook for days getting ready for it just as I assume all the other aunts did too. We prayed for good weather and as best as I can remember it always was. Although we usually had a terrible thunder storm late in the day.

We would usually arrive around noon or a little before and unload all the food from the car. My daddy would immediately head over to his brothers and brothers in law and talk and talk. Mama would be with all of my aunts getting the food ready. Me and my brothers and sisters usually chatted with our cousins. A few babies were added every year and we would spend time getting to know them. We had cousins that we sometimes only saw once a year. So we were always a little shy at first noticing the changes in them, oh my goodness look how much he/she has grown. It was such a good time. The best part, when you’re a kid anyway, of course was the food. If you have ever been to one of these get togethers in the south then you know what good eating is all about. The food was amazing but the desserts were to die for. I think every cook tried her hand at something new, or her tried and true recipe, to make sure that her bowl, cake pan or pie plate, had the most missing at the end of the meal.

Saturday as my cousins and I helped put all the food together I couldn’t help but smile and could almost hear my mama and my aunts saying, ” no don’t put that there put it here, that looks so good I have to get the recipe, well I didn’t know she was bringing that or I wouldn’t have made mine, I always bake mine a little longer than that”. Such wonderful memories were stirred up. But at the same time new memories were made.

After lunch my nephew and his wife and I took a long walk around the park. There is a cemetery next to the park with some very old tombstones. Some of them date back to the seventeen hundreds. It was a good and much needed walk after all the food.

Sunday was a much quieter day. I worked on the temperature blanket, read, made some muffins and took another walk in the woods. It was a nice weekend.

Have a wonderful week.

Always remember,

Love your day your way!!!!!

Hello friends how was your weekend? I had big plans for my weekend big plans I tell you. But in typical “me” fashion when I plan too much I get totally overwhelmed and wind up not doing much at all. But oh well isn’t that what weekends and days off are for.

Let me just tell you the weather here has been pretty much perfect. Cool mornings warming up to toasty, but not too hot, sunny afternoons. The leaves are falling. When I am driving down the road I have to stop and get a picture of all the beautiful colors. Sometimes I get caught in a swirl of falling leaves and I just have to stop and watch them. Luckily, I live on a road with not much traffic.

On Friday night the moon was almost full and Mark and I went out to try and get some moon shots. He was using his big camera with a tripod so his shots looked better than mine. I just didn’t want to drag everything out and I used my cell phone. I wasn’t really after a detailed shot. But I didn’t think my little cell phone did too bad.

Saturday was a beautiful day. The kitties were playing by the lake. They love the cooler temperatures with the warm sunshine. They are so active during the day. They roam everywhere. We always bring them in at night because of the bastardly coyotes.

I spent some time out on the deck reading and maybe taking a short nap. It was so nice. There was a slight breeze just enough so that the sun didn’t get too warm.

I worked on the temperature blanket. I am getting a little behind on it. I have heard some people say once they get so far behind they don’t feel like they can catch up so they just stop working on it. Remember it is one row per day so if you get a month or so behind you have a lot of catching up to do. I am not that far behind. Yet. Lol.

I also worked on my Halloween hats cross stitch. I probably spent more time on this than anything. The going is really slow on this. I’ll be lucky to have it finished in time to put it out for Halloween.

Sunday afternoon my nephew and his wife brought over this large bench. This bench has been in our family for a lot of years. My sister first had it in her house for many years. She then gave it to my nephew and his wife, and they had it for several years. They decided to get rid of it and I hated for it to be out of the family I said I would take it. So, they brought it over and we put it in our upstairs hallway. I think it fits there just perfectly. I have always loved this bench. I was really glad to get it. I have a thing for benches. The only problem is they take up a lot of room.

So that is about it for my weekend. Grocery shopping and laundry and the usual also. A lot of down time and that was just fine. So how was your weekend?

Always remember

Love your day your way!!!!!

Hello friends and happy Monday. I hope you had a wonderful weekend. I had a bit of a whirlwind weekend and am currently in San Antonio for the week. I always hate leaving my husband and kitties behind but knowing my husband is there and taking care of everything makes my being gone so much easier. I am still emotional thinking about Scruffy not being with us and I will miss him forever.

I took part of Friday off because I knew I had several things to get done before leaving on Sunday. We also had a visit scheduled with the staff at the nursing facility where my MIL is staying. We do this every two weeks to determine how she is doing, what progress is being made etc. and most importantly when she might be able to return to the Assisted Living Village that she knows and loves as her home. It went pretty well and the plan is still to get her back to the Village.

Once I got home I started rummaging through my closet. I’m wondering what on earth I am going to pack for five days of mid ninety degree weather in Texas. The weather in our part of Tennessee has been so lovely. And the coming week is cooler weather and definitely fall temps. Oh well I will enjoy when I get back.

So I dug out several things I could take with me that won’t make me have a total meltdown on the streets. I am such a procrastinator when it comes to packing and I knew realistically I wouldn’t even start until late Saturday night. And I didn’t.

Saturday morning I did a grocery pickup. I also did laundry for the upcoming week. I puttered on some projects, full force packing procrastination was real, I cooked dinner, I even watched the end of the UT and Florida game. Finally I drug myself upstairs to start packing. I don’t know why I hate to pack I guess it’s because I never know what to wear.

I had to get up at 4:00 AM Sunday morning to get everything ready to go. My flight didn’t leave until 10:00 AM but I had an hour long drive to Knoxville to meet a couple of other people going with me. I like to get up really early anyway and chill for a few minutes while I drink coffee. And no matter how much time I allow I am a big rushing mess getting out of the house. Thankfully Mark was there when I left and he helped load my very heavy suitcase, it weighed 43 pounds, and get me on my way.

Our flight was very uneventful and we made it to San Antonio by 1:00 which was actually 2:00 for me because of the time change. We are staying downtown near the Riverwalk. After stashing our bags we took a short walk near the Riverwalk and got something to eat. Events were planned for later that evening so we went back to the hotel to prepare for that.

More pictures of the trip in a few days.

Always remember

Love your day your way!!!