Hello Monday, It’s Vacation Time!!!

I was supposed to be waking up at the beach this morning for my first full day of vacation. But you know how plans are, sometimes they’re just not meant to be.

We decided to stay home and not do our beach vacation this year. With everything that is going on with Scruffy I just didn’t feel like going away and leaving him. He is on several different meds for the congestive heart failure and he is doing really well. But because he is still not feeling the best I just didn’t want to leave him. Taking him with us really wasn’t an option .He is having some diarrhea and a ten hour car ride for him, and us, would have been miserable. My sister in law usually keeps him for us but I just didn’t feel right asking her to handle all of that. The meds and cleaning up after him right now is a lot. I didn’t want to board him because it is just so stressful on him. Changing the dates was not a problem for me but Mark’s work has been so crazy this was the week he needed to take.

So here we are. I guess we are having a “staycation” I am not really upset about the vacation and to be honest I think Mark is sort of happy to spend a week at home doing nothing. I guess this is not the time to tell him my big plans for the week like cleaning out the garage, cleaning the driveway, painting our gate that never got painted and planting shrubs around the new gate. Yeah I will let him enjoy his coffee first. Realistically I know I won’t get those things done either but it is fun to dream.

But first I have to tell you about our great family day we had last Sunday. It was my Sister in Law’s Birthday. My niece and her daughter came in from California and we had lots of other family we hadn’t seen in years. It was a great time. I volunteered to bake the cake. I was a little nervous because I hadn’t made a really large cake in a long time. But it turned out great. Nothing fancy just colorful and it was yummy. The Birthday was held at The Fort Loudoun State Historic Area. There is lots of room to play and fish and hike and just have fun. We love this place.

***My sister-in-law, Pat and her daughter***

***Spending time with family is just the best. I love these guys!!!***

I actually started my vacation on Friday. I was scrolling through Facebook on Friday morning and saw that there was a Trade Fair at The Living Heritage Museum in nearby Athens. So I jumped up, got ready and got to the museum around noon.

There were several artist set up demonstrating their art. Such talent and great ideas. I enjoyed it so much. I think it was the perfect start of my vacation.

***The spinning and quilt making were my favorites.***

***I am fascinated by bee keeping. My dad had bees when I was growing up. I would love to have them now but Mark is allergic and is terrified of having them here.***

***This lady was demonstrating Calligraphy***

***Lots of people were trying to weave.***

I stopped in and saw my MIL at the nursing home. We had a great visit. She is still having therapy so that she can get stronger and move back to the Assisted Living Village where she was living.

Got groceries and went home and chilled. I don’t take Scruffy on long walks anymore. He is just not interested and the vet said to do what he feels like doing.

On Saturday I did some house cleaning so that I could enjoy the week off. I also read on one of my online books I have through the Libby App. I go to the app and I reserve books that I want and it seems like they all become Available at the same time. You do have the option of putting them off for a week and still stay in the rotation. I have had to do that a few times.

On Sunday I was very lazy. I worked on my Halloween cross stitch and took Scruffy for a couple of short walks. I decided to make meatloaf for dinner. I like having the leftovers for lunch during the week.

So it should be a very quiet vacation week. I did work in my flower beds today and got a lot of old and dead plants cleaned out. Mark’s grandmother had some large concrete planters on her front porch. No one has lived in the house for years. I wanted the planters and was afraid that someone would steal them before we had a chance to get the. Mark brought them home last week and I can’t wait to get them cleaned up and some flowers planted in them.

***I can’t wait to use these.*** ***They are very old.***

We finished up the day going into town and getting dinner and bringing it back home. I got a yummy chicken Cesar salad.

So how is your week going so far? I plan to have a lot of fun on my “staycation”. Sometimes those can be just what you need.

Always remember

Love your day your way!!!!

Goodbye July, Hello Monday

Goodbye to July and hello August. I can’t say I am sorry to see July go. I love fall so that means that the end of July is bringing my favorite season closer.

July was a hard month for us. We lost our precious old Molly girl. If you didn’t catch that post you can read it here: Goodbye Molly Rose. She was fifteen years old, approximately, and she passed over the Rainbow Bridge on July 7th. I was just getting over Covid and still feeling weak and loopy from it. My brother underwent open heart surgery, but he is doing very well and that is such a blessing. My little mother in law suffered a heart attack and is still recovering from that so whew!!!! Yes it has been a rough month.

And now. July was an awesome month!!! Lots of great things happened!!! My brother is doing great and recovering wonderfully from his surgery. My little ma in law is recovering nicely and still feisty and waiting to go back to her room at the Assisted Living Center. Mark did not get Covid when I had it. I am feeling much stronger. And sweet Molly is running and playing and happy across the Rainbow Bridge. We were able to visit with some sweet family members from Texas. And while it has been hotter than Satan’s breath we have had some nice rain showers and everything is a brilliant green. I guess it’s all how you look at it.

I had a lot of fun this past weekend. I went out on Saturday morning to buy groceries and decided to make a slight detour to the farm market near my house. I knew their vegetables would be crazy good right now and yes they were and very plentiful.

***This is the long road leading to the Farm Market. Last year it was totally gravel and soooo dusty. It looks like they have put some concrete or something on it.***

***I have been craving okra I was so happy to see this.***

After I left the Farm Market I drove on over to nearby Tellico Plains, the downtown area. I went to the Museum Marketplace.
This is a thrift store and antique store with locally handmade items and just a little bit of everything. I only bought one thing this little powder box. I am not sure if it is pewter. It is heavy and old and I will probably keep my earrings in it. It just caught my eye and I had to keep circling it which usually means I need to go ahead and buy it. So I did.

***I am not really sure how to clean this if you have any ideas please let me know. It is heavy.***

This little group of music makers travel all around downtown Tellico playing in lots of different shops. Today they were set up
at the entrance to the Marketplace and I just had to stop and chill and listen for awhile. They have been playing together for ages
and they are just amazing.

I bought potatoes, cucumbers, okra and a huge cantaloupe. The prices are so much better than Walmart or anywhere else in town and so delicious and fresh.

I bought a spiral ham at Walmart and was planning to cook the ham and veggies on Sunday and maybe do spaghetti on Saturday night. Mark suggested I cook the ham after I got home on Saturday and we made sandwiches and then just reheated the ham on Sunday. That way we only had to do the veggies on Sunday. So that is what we did and it worked out great!!!

I cook okra the way my mama always did. I don’t know how you do yours but this is how we ate okra when I was growing up and I just love it this way. I wash and cut up my okra. I could’t help but laugh as I was cutting the okra. It is a little slimy and sticky inside the stalks. My brother Joe and I used to get the ends and stick them to our heads and pretend they were horns. HA!!! My mama never found that as amusing as we did. Anyway back to the okra. After I cut it I roll it in a little flour or cornmeal, whichever I have on hand, I used flour this time. Salt it. And then I put oil in a medium sized skillet over medium heat and cook it until it is nice and soft. Then I drain it and put it in the oven and finish it by baking it. It makes it nice and crispy. I cannot stand soggy okra. It is so yummy this way. How do you cook okra?

It rained most of Sunday and I worked on the temperature blanket. I was a little behind but here it is through June. If you don’t know, I started crocheting the temperature blanket in January. You crochet a different color, which corresponds with the temperature, for each day. I used blues for the colder months and I have been using red and orange for the warmer months. The last couple of months have been totally orange and red. I think orange goes to 88 degrees F and anything above that I am using the red color. If you want to check out all the colors and the temperature chart just check out this blog post from a few months ago:
I am making a crocheted temperature blanket.

***It really is growing and this is only through the end of June!!!***

How was your weekend?

Always remember

Love your day your way!!!!

Hello Monday

Happy Fourth of July!! Happy Birthday America!! Are you celebrating today? I know a lot is going on in our world. Things we don’t understand or agree with but somehow seeing our beautiful American flag makes all seem right with the world. We have come so far and we are a pillar of strength for it.

All has been pretty quiet around here. I feel like I am still getting over Covid. I went back to work at the end of last week but I still don’t feel 100%. I am weak and get tired so quickly. Just picking up groceries and doing a little laundry over the weekend absolutely wiped me out.

Mark has still been Covid free and I am so thankful for that.

Our old girl Molly is not doing well. She refuses to eat and she hasn’t eaten anything substantial in several days. I can tell she is getting weaker. The poor girl has such stomach issues and she has had a lot of of diarrhea. We try to feed her and she just turns her head up and won’t eat. Molly is about fifteen years old and I know her time is limited. She has done this before and always rallies back but I just don’t know if that is going to happen this time. When I left for work this morning I watched her sleeping. She wouldn’t even get up for a last quick bathroom break before I left. All day I kept thinking the worst. When I got home I ran in the door and yelled for her. She looked up like she was saying “what’s all the fuss mom?” She is not suffering and she went on our evening walk with us. All we can do is be here for her and love her as long as we can.

Since I didn’t have a lot going on this week other than some work and hot hot hot temps. I thought I would share some of the books I have read lately. I enjoyed all of them. I really liked Grown Ups and Make Your Bed. I hope you enjoy some or all of them. So here goes:

Have a wonderful week.

Always remember

Love your day your way!!!!!

Hello Monday

Well last week was another busy week over here. The temps were in the high nineties. WHAT???? Technically it is still spring here in East Tennessee but you just never know what kind of weather you are going to get. The last few days have been cooler and it was only about 56 degrees F here this morning. That felt wonderful.

Work has been its usual crazy self but that is just to be expected when you work in tourism in the summer time. I just take it a day at a time. I have had this job for many years and I have seen a lot of things and a lot of people. I think that is what makes life interesting. That’s how I try to look at things anyway. Well most of the time. HA!!

We realized last week that the outside kitties were going to have to have a cooler spot to come into at night. We bring the three outside kitties in at night and close the garage door. Now with this horrible heatwave the garage at night is just too hot for them. It’s probably really not but I’m not taking any chances. Since bringing all three indoors was not really an option we decided to buy a small upright air conditioner for the garage. I stopped at Home Depot last week and picked up a small unit.I am terrified to see just how much my monthly utility bill increases because of this. But The garage was so hot at night I just couldn’t leave the babies out there. Leaving the door open a little is not an option since that is how Milo and Buster got out and disappeared. We know there is still a coyote problem in this area.

So I got the little air conditioner and Mark and I got it set up. It doesn’t make the garage as cool as the house but it is so much better.

On Wednesday I had Sister Lunch with my sister and sister in law. We caught up with each other and solved some world problems.

On Saturday my friend Lorie invited me to a campsite that her and her husband have in the summer. The site is beside a beautiful creek it’s actually called Steer Creek. We floated and talked and ate wonderful food she had made. It was just the best therapy ever.

Sunday was quiet. We stayed home all day and ran into town for take out later in the day for a special Father’s Day Dinner. We may not have any human children but Mark is a perfect dad to our babies.

A few years ago I wrote a blog post about a favorite memory of my daddy. He was so stern and strict but he had a huge heart and would do anything for anyone. This special memory was when I was six years old and a first grader and I thought I was way too grown up to carry a book satchel like all the other first graders. You can read it here. It is a special memory of my daddy.

And look what happened one of my orchids bloomed. This one I named Saffron. I was so happy to see this precious bloom.