Sunday Morning Coffee Share

Happy Sunday!! Come in and share a nice hot cup of coffee or maybe some hot tea or a cup of hot chocolate. It is a rainy cool day here.

If we were having coffee today I am sure we would talk about the weather. It has been rainy all weekend. We do need rain in our area so that is not a bad thing. The temps have actually been quite nice. I would also offer you a piece of pound cake that I made yesterday. It rose nicely and looked so pretty when I took it out of the oven. But then it just sort of sank. That’s ok it still tastes delicious.

If we were having coffee today I would tell you that I visited a couple of thrift shops yesterday. Even in the driving rain it was still a nice adventure. I would show you this lovely yellow McCoy bowl that I bought. I just love yellow. I also bought an old book by Beverly Cleary. I read all of her books when I was a kid and still have several.

***I didn’t have this one and actually got it for .50. It was half off.***

If we were having coffee I would tell you that my big boy Gus is feeling much better. He was not feeling well earlier in the week. If you missed that post you can check it out here. It makes me so happy that he is back to his old self.

If we were having coffee I would look around and point out that my orchids are mostly dormant right now. This is a trying stage for any orchid mom. It makes you wonder if they will ever bloom again. I know they will, I just have to be patient. I am recording everything in my orchid journal so that when this happens I will know it is just temporary.

If we were having coffee we would probably discuss the fact that spring will be here soon. What new plants will you buy? Will you have a garden? We usually have just a few tomato plants. I am excited to see green trees and flowering plants. I hope to add several things to my yard this year.

If we were having coffee I would show you the book I am currently reading. The Shell Seekers. It is a big book, over 600 pages. It will take me a while to read this one. It is a classic and I have had it for a long time and am just getting to it.

If we were having coffee we would discuss the upcoming week. Valentine’s Day is Wednesday. Will you do anything special? I am going to the assisted living center where my mother in law lives. They are having a special Valentine’s Day luncheon and family members are invited. My husband works almost an hour away and cannot get there for lunch. I told her I was coming and she seemed happy. She may have forgotten all about it when I show up Wednesday but that is ok. She is 90. I will take her some chocolates and a Valentine.

It has been wonderful chatting and sharing coffee and cake with you. If we were having coffee what would you share with me?

Always remember

Love your day your way!!!

I am linking up with Natalie The Explorer over at Weekend Coffee Share you can check out hers and some other posts here #Weekend Coffee Share

A Long Week And A Sick Kitty

Happy Wednesday friends. This week feels like it has gone on forever and it’s only Wednesday. My big boy Gus has been under the weather and not feeling good.

It started last week when it seemed as though Gus was having trouble using the bathroom. He would go into the kitty box and scratch and scratch and come out and visibly strain to use the bathroom usually on the rug outside the door. I am going to spare you any other details than that.

He seemed to be feeling better one day and then not himself the next. I called the vet on Tuesday and got him in that same afternoon. They did an X-ray to determine if he had any kind of blockage other than a hairball or poop. Luckily he didn’t. They gave him medicine to help get him on track and he is back to his old self. He is romping and playing with Kitty Kitty again. It makes my heart so happy. I hate to see him moping around and not being himself.

Over the weekend my husband and I cut the tree that had fallen across the road a couple of weeks ago. We had cut it off of the road and just moved it to the side of the road. It still looked pretty bad. We cut all of it and carried it away from the road. It was a beautiful day to be outside.

We also put my bottle tree in the yard. This is was a Christmas present from two years ago!!!!! It has been in our garage all this time. I tried to put the tree up one day by myself but it is metal and heavy and I couldn’t even lift it. I finally talked my husband into getting his auger and drilling a hole for it. It took all of ten minutes. I guess we both thought it was going to be more of a job than it was. But it is up and I love it. I only had six bottles to put on it. I ordered a few more but I really want to collect bottles that I find in thrift stores or get at garage sales. I think this will be fun and they will be unique.

***I can’t wait to add more bottles in many different colors.***

I made beef stew on Sunday. I put it in my crockpot and let it slow cook. I had some leftover sourdough bread that we had with it and it was delicious.

My sister had a doctor’s appointment in Knoxville on Friday. I went with her and we did a little shopping afterwards. Look at these bunnies and Easter decorations at T.J Maxx.

I had hoped to find some cute things for Valentine’s Day but they had nothing. Of course they did put their Valentines decorations out before Christmas so I guess they sold out.

A fellow blogger mentioned a poem by Ted Kooser. I loved the poem so I ordered one of his books and I am so loving these poems. While I was at the Vet with Gus I had to wait almost two hours for everything they were doing. I sat in my car and read almost this entire book. It so helped calm this kitty mama’s nerves and take my mind off of worrying about my big Gus.

This is my favorite poem in this book, so far. I haven’t quite finished the book.

So yes it feels like a long week. Knowing my Gus is feeling better is wonderful. But still a bit of a crazy week. I think I need some down time to reflect and just chill. I think that may have to come from within me though. One of the things I most enjoyed this week was watching a man with his three dogs. I was parked at the vet clinic. A man at a house next door opened his front door. Out bounded three of the most beautiful big dogs I have ever seen. They almost looked like popcorn popping up and down and all over each other. They were so happy. He had a fenced yard and they ran and ran and played until they flopped down beside each other. I could see their tongues lolling out. They were just precious. You never know when you are going to catch a glimpse of something that will stick with you always.

How is your week going?

Always remember

Love your day your way!!!!

Goodbye January

Well here we are with the first month of January into its last hours. It’s hard to believe that one month of the year has gone already. January has been a bit of a crazy month. Both long and short at the same time. We said goodbye to 2023 and got ready to start a fresh new year. Lots of snow and ice for us. I read 4 books and listened to 2 audio books. I will have a rundown on those for you in an upcoming post. I finished several knitting pieces and the heart cross stitch. I had a lot of winter snuggly time at home and that is fine with me.

Last week we again had the taste of rural living. Remember I told you the week before, that we had the downed tree and we had to cut it off of the driveway before we could get out. Last week we lost power for over two hours. It went out around 6:00 AM Thursday morning. When we lose power we also lose our water, because we have a pump, and our phones because we have to have power for the internet. So there we were.

We always like to report our outages to the power company and not just hope that someone in our area will do it. To do this we have to go to the top of our driveway and get a cell signal to call the utility board. We then get a recording and we report the outage. The driveway was very dark because the outside light on the driveway was out as well. And I forgot to mention it was sooooo foggy. Oh and we have to back up the driveway because we always pull down the driveway when coming in.

My husband and I both went to the top of the driveway so that one of us could get out and open the gate. It was not easy backing up the driveway with no lights except the back up lights. The fog made it even worse. I had left the house without my glasses. That added to the difficulty, because I wound up behind the wheel doing the driving. We finally made it to the top, we have a very long driveway, and got the outage reported. It had already been reported by a neighbor. But you never know.

***This is what it looked like at 6:00 AM***

The power was out for over two hours and I was a little late getting into work. We never found out what the issue was. It was a widespread issue on our road. Several houses were affected. We do have a small generator that we can use if the power is out for hours or days.

Over the weekend I felt like I was running a bakery. Secretly this has always been a dream so it was actually a lot of fun. It started with my nephew requesting sourdough bread. I make this from a starter that I have had for probably fifteen years or more. It stays in the refrigerator until I feed it. He also requested some peanut butter pies to take to his coworkers. He just moved and started a new job a couple of weeks ago. It was also my brother in law’s birthday and I wanted to bake something for him as well. If you want to read more about the sour dough bread and how I make it, visit this post I did a few years ago. It is definitely a process.Making Sour Dough Bread

I made six loaves of the bread, 20 small peanut butter pies, and about 2 dozen cake pops. The cake pops were just something I decided to do at the last minute. I had never made them before. They were okay but I definitely need to work on those. So I did a lot of baking on Saturday morning and delivered bread, and pies and cake balls all over town in the afternoon. I finished the evening with a visit to my little mother in law at the assisted living village.

The peanut butter pies were a big hit.

I also spent some time over the weekend cleaning my silver bracelets. I am ashamed to say that I haven’t worn them in forever because they looked so bad. I bought some cleaner and got to work on them. I feel like they are new again.

This is not my cat. Well she sort of is I guess. She lives at work. She is feral and we haven’t been able to catch her. We are trying to get one of our team members to agree to take her home. We named her Anthe. Isn’t she beautiful? We feed her and take care of her the best we can. She has been with us for several months. I hate to trap her but that may be the only way we can get her to someone’s home where they might be able to tame her.

How is your week going?

Always remember

Love your day your way!!!!!

Friday Favorites

Hello and happy Friday. A full week back at work was a little rough but I left early today to have a late lunch with my friend Lorie. So that was definitely a favorite. We hadn’t seen each other since before Christmas and hadn’t even gotten to share Christmas presents. So we took care of that today. It’s always so good when we get to catch up and solve all the world’s problems.

Here are a few other favorites I want to share with you.

I just had to show you these shoes. I actually bought them last summer. I was in Knoxville with my friend Lorie, yes same one I just mentioned, and we stopped at Ross. Ross is a discount clothing store sort of like T.J Maxx or Marshalls. I found these in the clearance section and I couldn’t believe they were like $13.99. Just my size too. I wore them a couple of weeks ago for the first time. The hearts are just a plus and quite appropriate for Valentine’s Day. They are so comfy and great in wet weather. My husband is not always a fan of my shoes. When I showed him these and told him I had only paid $13.99 for them he said “I can see why”. HA!!! It doesn’t stop me from wearing the shoes I love. I guess that’s what 33 years of marriage does to you.

My favorite Valentine candy is out in the stores. You can pretty much find it everywhere. I had to have a couple of bags. I often place these little candies around the house so my husband will find them. They have really cute sayings. Although some of the sayings on them are quite different from what they used to be, bae, goat, what??? I guess I’m old school.

Isn’t she pretty. I got her from my mother in law’s house. I probably told you that my MIL has moved into an assisted living village. She has her own little room and kitchen area and bathroom. She has been there now for several years. She has never wanted a lot of her things with her. I don’t actually think she remembers now that she has a house. Her dementia is slowly getting worse.

This swan sat on her hearth for as long as I can remember. Probably even when my husband and I were dating. I never really paid much attention to her. She was just always there. Last week we were over at the house doing some things. I told my husband I wanted to bring the swan home and put it on our hearth. I cleaned her up. My niece suggested that I fill her with the yarn balls that I had made at Christmas. I did and I think they look great. I named her Gracie.

You may remember a couple of weeks ago I went to one of my local thrift stores and bought a couple of things. I saw the most beautiful flower patterned platter, that’s a tongue twister. I looked at it, examined it, I walked by and gave it a few sidelong glances. I went back to the same spot in the store several times. This is usually a good indication to me that I should just buy whatever it is I have been looking at. It was only $5.00 but I just didn’t know if I needed another platter. It was sunny looking and reminded of spring. I left without it.

Last week the snow and ice came and left us pretty much snow bound for several days. I don’t know why but I kept thinking about the platter with the flowers on it. As soon as I was able to get out last week I returned to the thrift store. I just knew I was going to march back to the spot and find it. I was already thinking about what I would serve on it. Probably my homemade bread. I went into the store and went back to the spot where the platter had been. It wasn’t there. I looked around and around and around thinking someone had moved it. It wasn’t there. I looked for that platter for several minutes before I admitted it was gone. That’s why you should buy it when you see it. Lesson learned. With all of that said. I did find these four little green vases that I thought were really cute. When I bought groceries today I picked out a small bouquet of fresh flowers. I think these look like spring and sunshine.

I will place these in several areas around the house. I put the bigger one on my table with the kitchen clock. The fresh smell of these flowers are so nice.

I am in the middle of this book by Ann Patchett. It is a collection of essays by her, about her, her family, her writing and a lot of day to day things. It is so good. I am loving it.

I am also loving:

That we are having warmer temps, it almost feels like spring.

That my nephew still loves my homemade bread and wants me to make it for him and his friends.

The way the rain sounds on the metal roof when I am at work.

Crossword puzzles.

Having kitties sleeping on my lap while I read a good book.

Catching up with my husband after a long day at work.

So what are some of your favorites this week? Have a great weekend.

Always remember

Love your day your way!!!