My Summer Bucket List

Yes summer is quickly passing us by. Here it is nearing the end of July and school will be starting soon. It’s crazy how fast that happens. We’re starting to see all the back to school items in our local Walmart. I can still smell pencils from first grade every time I walk down the school supply isle. In tourism we are in the heart of summer but we know it is slowly winding down. Labor Day is on the horizon and that usually ends the especially larger crowds for us. I am always ready for the slow down.

I wanted to share with you some things I still have on my summer bucket list, as well as some summer fun that I have had so far. I think the summer flies by so fast we have to make it count. First off are some things I have done this summer. It’s not a lot because I don’t get a lot of time off in the summer so I have to make every weekend count.

1. I went to the Lavender Festival in Oak Ridge. I would love to find more festivals like this. They are so much fun. Here is a recap of the Lavender Festival of you missed my post.

2. Go to the beach. We did get to go to the beach last month and we had a great time. The weather was good all week and the crowds were not bad at all. We love to go to Wrightsville Beach in Wilmington NC. Here is a recap of that.

3.Plant and grow beautiful flowers or ummmm pretty flowers. I love flowers and I love to have them inside and outside. Marigolds are my favorite but sadly my marigolds didn’t do very well this year. It could be because of all the rain we have had. It has been the rainiest summer I can remember in a very long time.

4. Growing fresh tomatoes. I myself do not eat tomatoes but I love to grow them and give them away. We had several tomatoes from our one little container pot. They didn’t get really big but Mark said they were delicious. We also had plenty to give away. Something has been eating our tomatoes and I’m not sure if it is a deer or some other critter. We have a lot of them hanging around.

5. Eat Ice Cream. What can I say. It screams summer time. I try not to buy too much or I will eat it every day. Sweetwater Creamery in local downtown Sweetwater makes ice cream daily and it is delicious. I will work my way through every flavor this summer and give you an update. If you are local head on down there and get you some ice cream.

6. I also love cooking and eating lots of fresh vegetables. We have a Mennonite community close to us and they grow the best vegetables. The vegetables are so fresh and very reasonably priced. That’s where I got my tomato plant.

7. Cherries!!!! I love them so much!!! This is the best time of the year for them. I’m not fond of cherry pie, I just eat them one by one.

Here are a few things I haven’t done this summer that I would love to do. Most of them are quite simple but that’s how I role. I will give you an update on some of those things hopefully before summer is over.

8. Go on a picnic. Picnics are the best The food always tastes so much yummier when you are eating it outside. When I was a little girl we would take picnics to a local lake or the mountains. And it was sooooo good. We always had special treats when we were on a picnic and I guess that’s what made it even more special

9. Visit a sunflower field. We have one close by and I want to do that maybe this weekend. The flowers are beautiful right now and sunflowers are some of my favorite flowers. You can actually pick the flowers, and there is also zinnias which is another favorite of mine.

10. Lay on a blanket in the backyard and watch the clouds. Maybe take some pictures of them. Just another thing we did when I was a kid.

I guess I’m seeing a pattern of wanting to go back and do simpler things, fun things that don’t require a lot of thought, time or money. You just do them. When the world gets a little crazy I think simple is the best. Take a break.

What are some things you are doing this summer? or maybe have on your summer bucket list?

Always remember

Love your day your way!!!!!

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!!!!

Friday Favorites

Oh Friday I am so glad to see you. It has been a really long week. Here are a few of my favorites from the week:

I listened to two audio books this past week: The Whittiers by Danielle Steel. A sweet story about a large family who came together after the death of their parents. And though they are all a bit dysfunctional they make living together work out. I know Danielle Steel can be a bit predictable but sometimes that’s just what you need.

The next book was Moon Shell Beach by Nancy Thayer. It was pretty good. Again a bit predictable. When I am driving I don’t like to have anything too heavy to listen to unless it is a long drive.

I needed a new pair of sneakers for work. I like black because they go with everything I wear, imagine that. I love New Balance so I ordered these “fresh foam”, that sounded intriguing and comfy. And they are!!!! They are so light weight and just what I need when I am running all over the property at work. These were on sale for $52.92 marked down from $84.99. I just checked and they are still on sale. I love them.

I wear reading glasses and I have a pair in every room of my house as well as in my car and a pair or two at work. If you’ve ever had reading glasses most pairs are not very attractive. I found these through an ad on Facebook. I ordered them through Amazon. I love them. Only $16.99 for the set. And each one comes with its own little case.

I actually got this new orchid from my friend Lorie last week but I just had to share it with you this week. Isn’t she a beauty. I named her Kalliope. She is doing great and adjusting to all the other orchids and her environment.

My husband and I love to see the musical CATS. We’ve seen it several times in different places. Maybe it is because we love our cats so much. But even before we had cats we loved seeing this. When we heard that Cats was coming to Knoxville to The Tennessee Theatre we knew we had to go. And Wednesday night we went. It was awesome!!! Just like always. Check out the Tennessee Theatre here for more information.

What fun things did you enjoy this week???

Always remember

Love your day your way!!!!

Feel Your Feels

A few weeks ago I was at a meeting that I attend a few times a year. I spent some time with a friend that I don’t get to see very often. When we do get together for a few days we have a lot of talking and catching up to do.

This woman is one of the strongest women I know. She has been through so much in her short life. Her husband is currently sick and facing cancer for the second time. They are in their thirties. She is always very positive and upbeat and smiling and never hesitates to ask what is going on in your life and then she listens to every word and remembers it months later. She is a very special person. But she told me something the last time I saw her that has really stuck with me even more than usual. I asked her how she could stay so positive and happy all the time. She said you just have to feel your feels. You can’t push them aside and pretend they don’t exist. If you do then your feelings will become overwhelming You have to feel what you are feeling when you feel it. Don’t bury it. Wow!!! I had to let that sink it.

Webster’s dictionary has several definitions for the word feel(ing) a few that stuck with me : A consciousness or vague awareness, The general state of consciousness considered independently of particular sensations, thoughts etc, a physical sensation not connected with sight, hearing, taste or smell. After reading that, you can see consciousness and sensations are of course a large part of feeling what you feel. That’s scary.

I have always been the type of person that never wanted to feel my feels. When I was growing up we were never supposed to show our feelings. My dad didn’t want us to cry or be upset about anything. I am not sure why. Maybe because there were seven of us kids and if we were all showing exactly what we felt at the exact same time it could have been a little crazy. I do tend to be a bit dramatic but when it comes to feeling hard core emotional feelings it is something I try to avoid. Ways to avoid feelings are not always good for you: overeating, indulging in things you don’t need, too much screen time, zoning out on Netflix, scrolling TikTok and Instagram for hours are all ways that you can block having to feel anything. All of this can also lead to hypertension, anxiety, depression, and the list goes on and on.

So what is so scary about feeling what you truly feel. Will you cry? scream? be bitchy? hard to deal with? be sad? SO WHAT!!! Isn’t that what life is about anyway. Some of those things I can easily give in to but some I can’t. It’s hard for me to say that I am sad or disappointed or scared. I guess I think I will appear weak or unlikeable but at my age I care a lot less about that than I used to.

So to wrap all of this up and put a bow on it I guess what I am trying to say is this: If feeling what you feel when you feel it, or as my friend so eloquently put it, feel your feels, can help you to deal with reality and just life in general then why don’t we do it? Maybe you do. I hope you do. I will too.

Always remember

Love your day your way!!!!!