Category: Making a better Me

A Lovely Lunch

What does a perfect lunch look like to you? A nice restaurant, friends to eat with, maybe co-workers. Or maybe you just like solitude and a time to breathe and re-group. I say make the best of your break time when you can. Especially if you are working whether it be at home, office or otherwise.

I have gotten into a very bad habit at work and that is eating lunch at my desk. For a few weeks we were so slammed and short handed I had no choice but to grab my lunch out of the break room refrigerator and eat it at my desk while I answered the phones, took and changed reservations put out small fires etc etc. So I didn’t really get much of a break at all. And I could tell the difference. It sort of made me a little cranky. Well maybe a lot cranky.

My work place is a little out of the way and not close to any restaurants. We have a small restaurant on site but because of COVID it has been closed since last year and we’re not really sure about opening it this year. I do go into town occasionally, like on Wednesdays when I go to Sister Lunch or when I have a lunch meeting. My co-workers and I get takeout sometimes and bring it back to work but that still leaves the issue of going to the break room or sitting at my desk. The break room is pretty full right now because we have a lot of workers this time of year.

After a few weeks of craziness, work slowed down a little and we had a little breathing room. I decided one day to go out to my car and eat lunch. It was awesome!!! I know this is not rocket science and I have done it before in the past but it was just so relaxing. No phones to worry about, no one coming in to ask me a question, It was great!!! For just that thirty or forty minutes of down time I was able to regroup and re-energize.

The next day I returned to the car and ate my lunch in the warm sunshine and even had time to take a fifteen minute nap. I felt so rested and ready to head back into work. I started putting a book in the car to read and I brought some knitting. My husband always says I have the ability to build a nest anywhere that I am. I guess he is right.

Whatever you do don’t deny yourself the downtime that you need in the middle of your work day. You need it!!! Take it!!! It will make you much more productive and ready to face the rest of your work day.

Have a wonderful weekend

Always remember

Love your day your way!!!!

May Days

Happy Memorial Day to you!!! I had to work today so no lake time or cook-outs for me but that is fine. That is not the reason we recognize Memorial Day. It is to take time to honor our fallen soldiers.

We have been having Whip-poor-will winter here in the south. If you missed my post describing the times of the different “winters” that we experience here in the south you can check out my blog post about them here. Whip-poor-will winter is usually around the end of May. It is when you first start hearing the whip-poor-wills late in the evening or early mornings. True to form Whip-poor-will winter arrived Friday morning and it was only about 45 degrees F. All weekend we enjoyed the cooler temps.

It is so hard to believe that May is coming to an end and June is here. Almost half of the year is gone already. Christmas will be here before you know it!! O.K. I will reign it in. I mentioned Christmas at work today and got a couple of angry glares. It’s not that I am rushing the seasons or anything but this year is marching right on by at an alarming rate.

I had a bit of a crazy week last week. I took my little mother in law out for a ride for the first time in almost a year and a half. She lives in an assisted living center and they have pretty much been on lockdown since March of 2020. We have been able to visit lately but only last week did they tell us that we could take her out of the facility. She always loved going to get a hamburger and take a ride. So that is what we planned for our first outing.

We planned the trip for Tuesday evening. It was about 90 degrees and blistering hot. I arrived at the center at around 4:30 to pick her up. It was a bit of a nightmare. We had to use her back door which involves using her walker on concrete and that really slows it up and her down. It also made her quite frustrated and hot with the stifling temps. We got to the car and I had trouble getting her into the car. It was almost like she had forgotten how to maneuver herself into the car. And she probably had, like I said it had been well over a year since we did this. After much sweating and praying we got her into the car. She didn’t like her seat adjustment and I told her I couldn’t change it until we got to the drive-in where we were getting a hamburger. Once we were there it took 30 minutes to get the burger. She did not want the car running while we ate so I turned it off and we sat in the evening sun while sweat dripped into places it shouldn’t have. After the burgers we went for a short ride. She just didn’t seem to enjoy it like she used to. It was disappointing and scary to realize just how much frailer she had gotten during quarantine. But we will plug along and try it differently next time. I am not sure what we will do different but if she wants to go we will make it work. She is 87 years old and if she wants a hamburger and a ride we will find a way.

Wednesday night we took some pictures of the “Flower Moon”. It was beautiful. The night sky was clear and for just a brief time the moon turned a pinkish color. Luckily it happened for us about 9:30 PM and we caught it just before going to bed. We also sent the drone up but not very good pictures with it.

Later in the week we had major internet issues at work. Our online ticketing went down and as one of my co-managers said, we were dead in the water. We finally got it resolved and all was o.k. but a very stressful day.

So when Saturday rolled around I was ready for some down time. I picked up groceries on my way home on Friday. I watched some movies and crocheted on the afghan I am working on. I did some laundry and me and the babies took some walks. It was wonderful. I finished up the weekend making a Birthday cake for my niece and baking some bread for co-workers and my nephew. Mark had to work all weekend so it was just me and the babies.

I think our rain gauge has seen better days but it is one that Mark’s dad used for years and years and we just can’t part with it.
My co-workers have come to love my sour dough bread and now expect it regularly. Ha Ha!!!

Have a great week and always remember

Love your day your way!!!!

Saturday

Happy Saturday friends. What a great day it has been. The sun is shining and it has been about 85 degrees F most of the day with sun sun and more sun.

I started the day frying bacon. We don’t eat it a lot but sometimes when Mark and I are off on the same days I will cook up a bit. I love frying bacon in my flat cast iron skillet it is just the best.

After breakfast we had a lot of plans for the day. I wanted to clean our little office that we use and move some things to the basement. I know how quickly a day off can go sideways with not a lot of things done. That is o.k sometimes but I want the office back in use. Remember when we were buying all the tables and desks and T.V. stands a few months ago? well if you don’t remember, and you want to, you can catch up here So during this time we added a couple of tables for the office. One of the tables has remained in the middle of the office and we have to move our file cabinet out before we can place it. So for about two months the table has been in the middle of the room very much in the way. It is totally messing with my Feng shui.

I decided today was the day we were going to get that organized. And guess what We DID!!!! I also scrubbed the deck and the stairs on the deck they were covered with pollen. The pollen this year has been worse than I ever seen it. The lake a couple of mornings ago looked totally yellow.

Look at this pollen can you believe it???

After we got the file cabinet moved to the basement, where it took an unbelievable amount of time trying to decide where to put it because there was no space, I realized just how badly I had failed on my clearing the clutter project. I started off great in the early spring. I was taking at least one bag or box of items to the Goodwill every week and at least that much to the landfill. I don’t know what happened but I just stopped. But seeing that clutter in the basement today made me want to get back to it even more. We started today by loading the truck with several items that needed to be hauled to the landfill on Monday. Wow, I feel lighter already.

We walked the babies and I did a little crocheting and reading. It was just a great day overall. Very busy but productive and happy.

I don’t crochet a lot but I am working on a special project right now. I always forget how much I enjoy crocheting.
This book is the best!!! The movie based on this book is called 5 Flights Up and stars Morgan Freeman and Diane Keaton. It is about an older couple who live in Brooklyn in a 5 story walk up. They are trying to decide on selling their condo and moving somewhere with an elevator which will make it easier for them. But the only problem is they love where they live and they don’t want to move. This is a great book and a great movie. Read it watch it you won’t be disappointed.
And the honeysuckle are blooming and they smell amazing.

So just a wonderful Saturday at home spent with hubs and the fur babies and getting a lot of much needed things taken care of. But also having some fun time just enjoying the little things in life. How was your Saturday?

Always remember

Love your day your way!!!!

Count Your Blessings

Count your blessings count them one by one. Do you remember that little song?

Last week was a week of blessings. Some were big and some were small but blessings all the same. The beginning of last week was pretty uneventful except for Molly, I’ll explain more about that in a minute. And then on Thursday we had the trip to Nashville for the hubs to get additional blood work for the kidney. I mentioned in one of my last posts, he has had some elevated blood levels and the doctors were being cautious and rechecking everything.

You know it is amazing how your mind can go wild with the what ifs. What if this happens and what if that happens. I hate to go there but my mind goes there so fast it would make your head spin. So I have spent the last month in a state of unease about this blood work. I stayed really busy doing things that I could control because this blood work was something that was so out of my control. But no matter how busy I was or how much I tried not to dwell on the upcoming tests I just couldn’t put it out of my mind. I think that is probably a normal reaction anytime you are worried about a loved one. One part of me wanted the tests over and done and then another part worried about what would happen if the outcome was not good. Jesus take the wheel!!!

So on Thursday morning we took off at 5:00 AM for the three and a half hour drive to Nashville. The labs were done fast and before we could turn around we were headed back home. We usually get the results about an hour after the labs are done.

We stopped and ate breakfast. We were both on pins and needles waiting for the results. Finally the results came in and the blood work was normal. WHAT A RELIEF!!! I messaged one of my sisters with the good news and said now I have to go and cry and puke. We felt like a ton of bricks had been lifted off of us. Blessings.

Another blessing this week is about our sweet Molly. At the beginning of the week she was moving so slow I just knew she had had a stroke or something really bad. She would not eat anything for a couple of days. She is a very old girl and I know our time with her is limited. I woke her up last Monday and she would not get up. When I finally did get her on her feet I noticed she was so stiff she could barely move. I helped her down the steps into the garage. I scrambled her some eggs and put in her bowl and she still wouldn’t eat. I went to work and when I came home she was still moving slow. I worried all night and went into her room the next morning preparing myself for the worse. But she jumped right up and trotted outside and even went on the walk with me and Scruffy. Thank you Lord. We were so happy she was back to her old self even if it is for who knows how long. Blessings.

Sometimes we just don’t realize that to be able to go about your day in a way that you may have thought boring at one time is really a blessing in itself. Normalcy can be one of the biggest and greatest blessings of all. Blessings.

I had lunch with the Sisters last week and my good friend Lorie. I also got to visit in person with my Mama in law, and go to an estate sale and do my job and live my life and love my people and appreciate it a million times over. Blessings.

Blessings are all around us, count them, use them, love them, and never forget to be thankful for them.

And always remember

Love your day your way!!!!!