In The Days of COVID

Hello friends,

I have been in a bit of a funk lately. A good friend of mine has COVID, She was diagnosed two weeks ago, and I had been around her for a few days before she was diagnosed. As soon as I heard she was positive I felt that familiar worry start to creep in. I have been monitoring myself carefully. I also stayed away from Mark as much as possible. We can do this easily because we have such different work schedules. Also I got a new TV for Christmas for my upstairs den and we added HULU. I am a little ashamed to tell you how much time I have spent catching up on all the shows I have heard about for so long.

My friend who has COVID is very sick and has pneumonia. She is starting to feel a little better but the recovery is slow. It’s scary seeing someone so young and vibrant so sick.

The cold hard truth is, we are probably around many more people than we realize that are COVID positive. I wear a mask when I am out and I follow all the other precautions. I only go to the grocery store and usually do the online shopping for that. I did venture out yesterday to Hobby Lobby in Maryville, about 45 minutes from my house, to get a tool I needed for my earrings I am making. More about those earrings later.

But still we carry on because what else can we do? I was talking to a friend the other day and she said that some days she feels positive, some days she feels fed up with everything that is going on, and somedays she doesn’t really know how to feel. I think that pretty much sums up the way that we all feel. I think it’s hard to think about what we will do in the upcoming months because we really don’t know. I am a planner and it makes me realize that you just have to take life as it comes day by day, hour by hour, minute by minute.

So I have been hanging out at the house a lot. I’m trying to continue clearing out the clutter in my house. I just finished reading a really interesting book, The Year Of Less, by Cait Flanders who calls herself a binge consumer turned mind consumer. It was a really good book and I highly recommend it. It helped me to understand that I don’t need all of the things in my house just because I “think I need them”. Maybe I think I need them because I have always had them. So what? In this book Cait actually made a commitment to herself not to purchase anything for a year, other than groceries and toiletries. She put her money into saving for things that she really enjoyed like traveling. Before she made a purchase she first went to the things she already had in her closets. It has made me really mindful of what I need and don’t need to buy.

***Weeds? I don’t care I love the muted winter colors.***

***We have lots of these squirrels’ nests in the trees.***

***Walking the babies and enjoying being outside is always a pick-me-up.***

Look what I found at Hobby Lobby, 100% Merino Wool and very reasonably priced. I wanted all of it. But I did refrain because I already have a lot of yarn at home that needs to be knitted. But I may still be in trouble just knowing how close it is.

***TVA ( Tennessee Valley Authority), drops the lake level every winter. It is really low right now.***

I had the weekend to myself. I did some reading and working on a Valentine’s cross stitch. I baked some bread and walked with the babies. The usual. I like the usual. Not everyone is having that luxury right now.

***Just look what is blooming. It gives me hope and promise.***

I feel ashamed saying I am in a funk when my friend is so sick. I can’t really do anything for her but check on her every day, and try to be there for her. I continue to pray that my family stays safe and healthy and we get through this COVID crisis and things return to somewhat normal for us.

How is your weekend going so far?

Have a wonderful week and always remember

Love your day your way!!!!!

Weekends and Clearing the Clutter

Happy Monday. I woke up at 4:30 AM this morning with an overwhelming urge to knit. It hits me like that sometimes. So I got up, got coffee and started a new scarf with some of my Christmas yarn. I like to knit scarves because they don’t usually require patterns or a lot of thinking. I can just knit away and it is so soothing. There is something about making a stitch over and over methodically that makes me happy and peaceful. Lord knows we can all use some peace in these crazy times.

Do you love the odd color of these knitting needles. They are really old. They are part of about 25 vintage sets I bought at a thrift store a couple of years ago. These are size 8. I cast on 20 stitches and am just doing a straight knitting stitch. This is called Garter Stitch. The yarn is just heavenly to work with. The weight is just right for a scarf and it just seems to knit itself.

***The yarn is a light weight and you can see it is made of several different fibers. I think that is what makes it so nice to knit. I love the color.***

I am also STILL working on this cross stitch for Valentines’s Day. I started this last year for Valentine’s Day and didn’t get very far with it. I picked it back up last month but I still have a long way to go. Maybe one of these years I will finish it. LOL

I had a good weekend. On Saturday morning I finally took all of my Christmas decorations down. I put my Santa collection away for the year. Of course as I was putting the things away in the basement I was reminded of how badly cluttered my basement is. Well it has been that way for a long time. It’s not like I just noticed it. It seems like through the years it has become a catchall for EVERYTHING!!! I have the back of my basement organized by holidays, Christmas, Thanksgiving & Fall, Easter, Valentine’s, etc. So I started working on that. Two hours later I had five garbage bags, the big ones not those kitchen sized ones, full of junk ready to go to the dump. Since the convenience center closed at noon on Saturday I had to get going.

I took the garbage to the center on my way to buy groceries. I also had a few things to pick up for my mother in law so I did that and drove them over to her. I got back home and did a little more in the basement. I decided that the basement will be an overwhelming challenge and if I’m not careful that might cause me to procrastinate. I am going to try and work on it a few hours a week until I have it back in order.

The basement isn’t the only place I am trying to clear out. Clearing clutter is on the top of my list to do for this year. Every Wednesday for the past two weeks I have been taking two huge bags of clothes to a local area ministry. The first week you couldn’t even tell that any clothes had been taken out of the closet. That’s sad. The second week you could see a difference. So that is a bit of an accomplishment. I hate clutter it makes my brain hurt. I fell like clutter makes life unrestful.

Last week I lost my glasses. Well a pair of glasses I should say. But they were my all time favorites. I have several pairs of glasses because I like to switch them out and wear different ones. I am also very hard on glasses. I fall asleep in them, I drop them, I sit on them, I lose them. I usually order them from Zenni Optical and they are fairly inexpensive. But the glasses I lost were my favorite wire frames that I wear around the house all the time because they are so comfortable. And of course they were an expensive pair I had gotten from my eye doctor. I had been outside taking snow pictures and I had my cell phone in my pocket and my big camera in my hand. I was grabbing the cell phone out at times to take pics and I had my glasses in my pocket and well you can probably see where I am going with this.

After I got back to the house I missed my glasses and started looking for them. I need them for distance since I am nearsighted but I can still see pretty well without them. I looked all over the house. I went back outside and retraced my steps where I had been taking pictures. I even went through the garbage and no luck. I figured they would wind up somewhere strange one day when I least expected it. Well they did. Mark actually found them a couple of days later, on the road at the top of our driveway. The snow had melted so they were easier to see. It looked like they had been run over. At least I know what happened to them. I will quit looking for them everywhere.

I you haven’t ordered from Zenni you should try them. You can load a picture of yourself onto your computer or phone and then choose to try on as many glasses as you want. You will need your prescription and there will be step by step instructions on how to place the order and fill out the order form with the prescription. I have never been disappointed by them. It is a great way to get to switch out your glasses and try several different ones. I got both pairs for under $100.00. I don’t have bifocals but ***those are also an option. The cost may be a little more for those.***

How was your weekend? Have a wonderful week.

Always remember,

Love your day your way!!!!

We Had A White Christmas

Hello and how was your Christmas? I know that many of you had a quieter and simpler Christmas and so did I and I sort of loved it.

On Christmas Eve I was at work and at about 2:00 and it started snowing. I knew we were supposed to have a chance of light snow later that night but I don’t think anyone expected it to move in as fast as it did. I was supposed to meet Mark at my sisters for a chili supper around 3:30.

By the time I left work at around 3:15 the snow was really coming down. It was crazy how much snow was on the cars and driveway. I wasn’t too worried Mark and I both have All Wheel Drive vehicles. But it still makes me nervous driving in snow. You know we are southerners and not used to driving in any amount of snow. Plus the temperature was steadily dropping and I knew what that meant especially on our backroads where we live.

So we spent only a short time at my sister’s before heading home. A much smaller group of us this year. And though we only spent a short time with each other it was fun and loving and I’m so glad we were able to spend some time together. We have about a thirty minute drive to get home and it was starting to get dark. I was worried about the backroads at our house. We did pass a couple of snow plows scraping the main roads but our roads never get scraped.

This is what our road looked like. I took this through the windshield. My car did fine I didn’t slide one time and I knew Mark was right behind me in his truck if I did. Unfortunately he had to leave for work the next morning at 5:00 AM and the roads were still pretty bad.

***This is what I awoke to on Christmas morning. It looked like a winter wonderland.***

A much quieter day on Christmas Day snuggling with the fur babies and watching movies and enjoying the snow.

***Luckily the snow melted quickly off of the roads.***

***What a difference the next day made. So much sun melted a lot of the snow.***

I am joining the weekly smile at http://www.trentsworldblog.wordpress.com. The snow made me smile and we the fact that it was on Christmas Day was extra special. What made you smile this week?

Have a wonderful week. Always remember.

Love your day your way!!!!

It’s Beginning To Look a Lot Like Christmas

Hello friends, how are you? Things around here have been really busy. I have been taking a couple of extra days off from work each week to try and use all of my vacation days by the end of the year. I am now a firm believer in the four day work week. Many studies have been done and it proves that employees are much more productive working only four out of five work days. I know that when I have that extra day off I get so much more accomplished at home and am usually ready to head back to work. Oh well. That is my opinion.

Can you believe that tomorrow is Christmas Eve? How is that even possible. It seems like this year, as crazy as it has been at times, has absolutely flown by. Our Christmas will be really low key this year and that is fine by me. Mark actually has to work Christmas Day so I will be on the couch snuggled with the fur babies watching movies. I already have a supply of snacks and popcorn and several movies picked out. I think this may be the first time in my life I have been alone on Christmas Day. I really don’t think it will be too bad. With many families choosing not to gather in large groups this year I am sure I won’t be the only one. I just remind myself that next year will be better. My family is not having a really large gathering the way we have done in previous years. We will save that for next year.

Back to work issues. My computer at work died last Monday. I had been having problems with it. I have had it for about ten years or more and it definitely served it’s purpose. Unfortunately I was unable to get a lot of things off of it like old pictures and some documents from years ago. Usually there is a way around getting what you need and I will do that. As far as the pictures you know me and I take about a million pictures so I have copies everywhere and since I have a MacBook everything is stored in the cloud anyway. It will be fine.

I haven’t done a lot of Christmas shopping this year. I bought some things online, did gift cards and gave cash to some of my nieces and nephews. I hate giving cash but considering that I didn’t get out to shop it will be fine and they love it so yes I am good with it. I knitted quite a few things this year for different people and I always enjoy giving those things, scarves, socks and hats. I made approximately one hundred and fifty chocolate peanut butter balls on Saturday and I will have a post later about how to make those. They are really simple to make and people love them. I make hundreds of them every year. I made most of them for my nephew, he was having a small get together with his friends and asked me to make them for him. I also made banana bread and cookies to give to a few people. Tonight I am making cake pops and I will let you know how they turn out. O.K I have been running back and forth working on the cake pops while I am writing this and I can tell you they are messy!!!!

The weather here has been really cold the last few days and guess what? we may even have snow on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. I think with a lot of people staying in it will be the perfect time for snow.

So just the usual busy time before Christmas, bake, clean the kitchen, shop, work, bake some more, clean the kitchen, pick up items from the post office, take items to the post office to be mailed, wrap gifts and enjoy the merriment. You get the picture. How is your Pre-Christmas shenanigans going?

***Merry Merry Christmas from me to you!!!!***

The other morning I woke up rather late and as I was walking down the stairs I looked out at the lake and the most beautiful sunrise was happening. I grabbed my camera and ran out the door in my pajamas. Scruffy was right on my heels although he looked a little confused as to why we were going all the way down to the lake. The skies were red and a perfect reflection on the lake. If you turn the picture upside down you can hardly tell which is the reflection. Only the growth from the tree branches give it away. I went back in after getting a few pictures and my husband is just shaking his head. It’s only 27 degrees you know that. I really hadn’t noticed. He just shook his head, he is used to my wild racing around to capture the perfect picture.

***Red skies in the morning, Sailor take warning.***

It seems I am in continuous prayer for someone who has COVID-19, has lost someone from this or is having to be quarantined because of it. Please stay safe and be careful, life is so very precious. We lost an unforgettable man in our town last week that served as our City Mayor. He was a wonderful, special man and we are in shock that he is gone. Our city and county and many many people will forever remember his smile, dedication and just genuine kindness that he portrayed in his everyday life.

Merry Christmas to you and all of your family. Be safe, be happy and always remember

Love your day your way!!!!