Day 22 of the 30 day blog challenge!! Duhm Duhm!!! if you don’t know, that is the sound when Law And Order is coming on Ha!!!  So yes up to day 22 and yes it has been a bit of a challenge but a lot of fun too.  The official title of this post is, What Are Your Worst Habits and I will get to those in a minute but really what is the fun of writing about that.  I am sure I have told you before what they are but I will have a refresher at the end of this post.

Who would have thought when I started this 22 days ago that things were going to go a little haywire, but they have.  Just when you think you are focused on something, life swoops in and says “oh aren’t you cute? thinking you know anything about anything”

I will have to say this quarantine is scary.  I am a homebody and it doesn’t bother me to stay at home when I have to especially when it is getting warm outside and things are starting to bloom.  Especially the Redbuds.   Why are they called Redbuds when they obviously look purple.  When they bud out they are red you can see a little red in the photo below.

   See the redbuds when they are first starting to bud out?

         Don’t they look purple after they have bloomed?

Spring is coming you see the signs of it everywhere.  But we still have several winters to get through.  Let me explain.  In the south, or maybe it’s everywhere, we have Redbud Winter, Dogwood Winter, Blackberry Winter and Whippoorwill Winter.   And in that order if am not mistaken if I am someone tell me.  My husband makes fun of me for believing in these winters but I find them to be true.  If you want to read more about those winters and when they show up I did a blog about it last year. Redbud Winter.

  My Irises are about to bloom.  These are special Irises.  They came from my mama’s house where I grew up.  My mama could grow anything but her Irises were amazing.  When she died back in 2003 and we sold her house I dug up several of these Irises and I have a lot of them in my yard.  I shared them with my nieces and they now have them in their yards. So in many ways my sweet mama is still with us.

So today as Scruffy, Molly and I were taking our walk I noticed that the Redbuds were blooming. I am so excited to see new growth.  It’s like no matter what else is going on in the world the earth is still producing just like it is supposed to.

My Hens and Chicks are doing amazing.  A friend of mine told me to just leave them outside in the winter and they always come back in the spring. They are a type of cactus so they are very hardy.  A funny story:  I was talking to my niece on the phone this morning and I was sitting on the deck looking at the Hens and Chicks.  I said ” Wow my Hens and Chickens are doing great!!!  I left them out all winter and they may have frozen a little but now they are coming back to life.  She said “WHAT!!!! she thought I meant real chickens HA HA!!!

O.K. O.K. so I might be stalling on telling you my bad habits.  But you have heard them before.  Probably a million times but…..  Here are some of my bad habits that I want so desperately to change:

1. I need to eat better and have a healthier diet.  I need to eat more fruits and vegetables.  I know it makes me feel better when I eat better.  I notice that my skin looks better and I feel better etc.
2. I know I should exercise more.  I committed to my husband that I would start walking two miles a day.  I am trying to keep up with that daily and make it happen. With the state of our world right now it is hard to focus on things like that.
3. My sleep is sort of jacked up.  I do not get enough sleep.  Even though I know how important it is.  I am constantly going to bed late, reading in the middle of the night, and just not making sleep a priority.
4. I procrastinate.  I am still doing it.  I try to do better and then life gets in the way.  How is this a bad habit you might ask.  Well I believe when you procrastinate it gives you anxiety and that is no good.  It makes you feel terrible like there is always something looming over you that you need to do.
5. I have a terrible temper.  I am a Taurus so I come by it naturally.  I tend to loose my cool really quick.  This is something I work on daily.  I have found that in my older age it is getting better.  I think it is because things that once held importance just don’t anymore.

Alway remember

Love your day your way!!!!

Happy Saturday friends, How was your day?  Last night I ask what made you happy?  Well tonight I will ask what makes you sad?  Think about that and we will get back to it in a minute.

Even though it was Saturday I got up at 5:00 AM.  I usually do, I love getting up early even on my days off.   I had a lot I wanted to do today.  I am trying to stay in and not go anywhere unless I absolutely have to which right now is work but that is going to change next week.  And to the grocery store for supplies if I have to. But I wanted to go to my mother in law’s house and do some work.

So this morning I got up at 5:00 AM and had coffee and snuggled with the babies just a little.  Mark had to work. I had planned to be at the grocery store by 7:30 or 8:00 to get some supplies.  I did that trying not to be near anyone, luckily not too many people there at that time.

After I got my groceries I went over to my mother in law’s house.  Her house has been empty  for almost two years since she has been in the assisted living center. Well I mean without anyone living in it.  Her house needs to be cleaned and lots of “stuff” needs to be gotten rid of.  I am not saying she is a hoarder but she did like to keep things.  I guess that is where my husband gets it.  I will tell you someday about a funny story of him stock piling Pringles cans in the basement.  Let’s just say I had to quit buying Pringles because he couldn’t part with the cans.  They make great storage containers he said.  Maybe one or two I said not 50!!!!!!!.

Anyway I am getting off track.  So after I went to the grocery store I stopped by my work and redid our schedule.  We devised a plan where only one person will be on the property each day.  This means I will have several days off next week or days I will work from home.  This should be interesting.  I have never really had to do that before.

After stopping in at work and revising our schedule and taking care of some employee issues I went over to my mother in law’s.  I had a really productive morning.  I cleared out a a lot of things.  Her house is really big and to try and take care of everything at one time is over whelming.  So I am taking it one room at a time.  My nephew came over and helped me bag garbage.  I stayed for awhile and changed out light bulbs and swept up and things like that.

I got home around 2:00 PM, a little wiped out. I carried in my things I had gotten at the grocery store and walked the babies and took a little tiny nap.

 Let me say walking in the woods is a wonderful way to just chill and relax.  Poor Molly has an ear infection and she has been on antibiotics. 

  Scruffy loves his walk.  He is really looking scruffy I may have to cut his hair myself if his groomer stays closed.  Yikes!!!

So here I am on Saturday night.  I am watching another of my favorite movies, Bohemian Rhapsody.  I hope you have seen this movie it is ahhhhhhmaaaazing!!!!  Especially if you love Freddie Mercury and Queen.   How is your Saturday going?

So back to the question what makes you sad?  I will tell you a few things that make me sad:

I hate to see people being mistreated that makes me so sad.  Or being treated unfairly and  not taken care of or neglected.  I know this is probably more than one thing but it all sort of goes together. 

The state of our world right now, nuff said. 

Estranged families.

Thinking about my loved ones I have lost. Living or otherwise for whatever reason. 

People who cannot be comfortable with themselves. 

Not spending more time with my loved ones.  Time is something we only have so much of.  We shouldn’t take it for granted.

I hope this Saturday night finds you well and you are hunkered down with your loved ones or just yourself.  Please take care of yourself and be safe.

Always remember,

Love your day your way!!!

 

Well it’s Friday and what a long week it has been.  It has been a strange week for everyone.  I read something this morning that said fear and anxiety is being experienced by almost everyone right now.  In a strange way this makes me feel better. Not because so many people are experiencing this but because I know that I am not the only one worrying about the state of thing right now.  I’m not in this alone.

So today, and this may not be the best time to ask, I ask what makes you happy?  All of this other stuff aside, what do you do that makes you happy?  I will tell you some of the things that make me happy, then you can tell me yours.

I like to take pictures.  This morning it was a beautiful morning.  The sun was shining and the wind was blowing just a little, and the air was soft.  You know what I mean?  I don’t know how to describe it except with the word soft.  On my way to work I stopped three times to get pictures.   I just saw the light in some amazingly beautiful ways and I just had to stop and get a picture.  When the lighting is right you never know if it will look like that again.

    I love this cherry blossom tree.  This is road I travel every day but I’m usually going the other way and miss this morning sunshine.  I saw it in my rear view mirror and turned around to get a picture. 

This precious farm I pass on my way to work.  I love to see it in every season.  Check it out below when it snowed just a little a couple of months ago.

 

     If you follow me on Instagram or Facebook  you know how much I love church steeples.  I love the way you can see this one through the Bradford Pear trees.  This Is Watson’s Chapel Church.  Very close to where I work. 

  This is the lake near my house and I never get tired of taking pictures of it.

I like to read.  O.K. I am going to tell you that I have gotten into the Elin Hilderbrand books.  She writes books that are set in Nantucket. She writes a lot of those beachy reads you take on vacation with you.   And she writes them in series.  I just finished a series of three books.  I started another series and and I am listening to my second audio book.  These are not really what I would call romance novels or I wouldn’t be reading them. I don’t get into a lot of that.  Most of these have a bit of mystery to them in one way or another.  I am happily hooked and reading  away.  All of these, luckily, I have been able to get through he Tennessee Reads, online, program.  FREE!!!!

I like to knit.  I like nothing better than starting a knitting project and winding the yarn and picking my needles and starting to see something slowly start to take shape with my own hands.

I like to write.  This is something I have been doing more of since I started this blog and I have so been enjoying it.

But what I like the best, most and absolutely makes me my happiest of all times is my precious friends and family.  I love spending time with them.  Whether it is going out with them or getting together with them at one another’s homes or even just catching up with them on the phone, I love it.  I feel like my home is my quiet zone.  My husband and babies make a wonderful sanctuary for me at home.  My happy place is with my loved ones and there’s no better place to be.

 My Happy Place

So what makes you happy?

Always remember,

Love your day your way!!!

Today I want to tell you about my favorite movie. Coal Miner’s Daughter, starring Sissy Spacek, is my favorite movie of all time.  I guess I saw this movie for the first time when it came out around 1980.  This is the movie of Loretta Lynn’s life made from her biography that was published in 1976.  So this movie actually brings into play a favorite actress, Sissy Spacek and a wonderfully talented country music artist Loretta Lynn.

Loretta Lynn knew immediately that she wanted Sissy Spacek to play the title role in her movie.  However Spacek was less than thrilled with the idea.  She had just earned an Oscar nomination for her role in Carrie and just didn’t think she would be interested in playing the role of Loretta Lynn.  But as Spacek was on her way to deliver the news to Loretta Lynn she heard the song Coal Miner’s Daughter and she was convinced she had to play the role.

I remember the first time I watched this movie I thought Sissy Spacek was only lip syncing the words to all the songs, but no she sang them all herself.  To be honest with you  I like some of Loretta Lynn’s songs but I can’t say I own every song or album she has made.  I admire Loretta Lynn so much because of how much she has accomplished in her life and during an age when female country performers had to work extra hard just to be heard on the radio.

Loretta Webb was born April 14, 1932 which means she will be 88 years young this year.  She married Oliver Vanetta “Doolittle” on January 10, 1948 when she was only 15 years old.  They had met only a month earlier.  Loretta and Doolittle “Doo” had 6 children. Doo bought Loretta her first guitar in 1953.  He paid only $17.00 for it.

Loretta became a part of the country music scene in Nashville in the 1960’s.  She focused on blue-collar women’s issues with themes about cheating husbands and persistent mistresses.  Her music was mostly inspired by the issues in her own marriage.  Her music pushed boundaries in the conservative genre of country music at that time.  Country music radio stations often refused to play her music.  But that didn’t stop Loretta and she became one of country music’s legendary artists.

 

Loretta Lynn has written more than 160 songs and released 60 albums.  She has had 10 No. 1 albums and 16 No. 1 singles on the country charts.  She has won 3 Grammy Awards, 7 American Music Awards, 8 Broadcast Music Incorporated awards, 13 Academy of Country Music awards. In 1972 she was the first woman named “Entertainer of the Year” by the Country Music Association.   WHEW!!!!! you can see why I am so impressed by this woman.

Sissy Spacek, as I mentioned before, was not that crazy in the beginning to play the role of Loretta Lynn but she earned Best Actress and the film placed among the top 10 film of the year for 1980.   The film was nominated for 6 more Oscars. I thought her acting was amazing!!!!

Born on Christmas Day in in 1949 Sissy Spacek was raised in Texas and initially had a career as a singer.  The singing career didn’t go far and she turned to acting.  Her first major role was her portrayal of Carrie White in Brian De Palma’s Carrie.  This was in 1976.  She received her first nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actress.  In 1980 she won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her role as Loretta in Coal Miner’s Daughter.  I love Spacek for the role she did in Coal Miner’s Daughter. I have seen her in a few other things and I just think she is an amazing actress.

A few other actors in this movie that have to be mentioned.  Beverly D’Angelo who played Patsy Cline and did an amazing job. Tommy Lee Jones who played Doo, and Levon Helm who played Loretta’s Daddy. Some amazing actors.

So tell my what is your favorite movie of all time? A movie that you can watch over and over and never get tired of?

Always remember

Love your day you way!!!