Life affected ..

Life got busy. We had a houseful of beautiful family who left as COVID-19 began its nastiness around the country. 

Parents who left with many plans, hopes and prayers from their family. They made it home safely and are back in their own familiar place of watching. Occasionally I get to hear Corona Virus jokes retold from their evening visits. They are as safe as can be. 

Children who made their way home across the country. They, too, are safe and sound in their own place. I was blessed to be able to send them with some food items and other things she wouldn’t take .. like 25 lbs of flour. 

We missed seeing friends who were in town but we had sort of quarantined our own home to keep our loved ones safe. There will be other visits .. other times. 

Yesterday was Easter Sunday. We ate at home with one dear friend who joined us. Due to sick little ones (normal sick), our family didn’t join us. We packed leftovers and delivered them for dinner instead. There will be other times for those get togethers as well. 

In the meantime, we are sort of hunkered down in our own way. A trip to the store when needed. Maybe a trip or two is something that others wouldn’t consider essential but who are they to tell me what my mental health requires. We have spent the last week working like dogs around the house. Do dogs really work? Regardless, we have been busy. I could post for months nonstop and yet I doubt I’ll find time for that. 

Until last week, we were both working. We were suppose to be in North Dakota for Easter but those plans are put off for another time as well. The airlines have been gracious in easily offering vouchers for travel. Let’s just hope the airline is still in business when I want to travel next! Because of travel plans, we had taken days off work and rather than making ourselves available for work .. we REALLY worked. If you know us .. we really did get stuff done around here. More on that later as well! The days I wasn’t scheduled off ... I had no hours at work. This coming week looks like another one of the same. No work for me. Hubby continues to work in a fashion that is safe as possible. Much of his work is done at home in a cool work space that we put together before visitors arrived. 

We have a roof over our heads, food on our table, good health and a gracious God who is watching over us. What more do we need in the middle of this chaos?

Belated Easter blessings to you and yours. I wish for you days that are peaceful, hopeful and filled with infusions of positive goodness. 

Be well my friends!

Dust and diamonds

Lots, and I mean LOTS, of dust.
Kids, dirt and shovels ... at least last week it was.
This week is suppose to be rain. Let's see if we have mud.

Moments of diamonds in the rough?
Lots, and I mean LOTS, of them.

Getting me ice cream

Do you try clothes on over the clothes you're wearing?
Or do you head to the fitting room?

We did it this way. Anna got a comfy shirt and I left the one I'm wearing in the store.

I have a problem with finding clothing I like. If I wasn't such a spend thrift .. it might not be a big problem. I wear black. I wear gray. I wear jeans. I have a closet full of dress clothes, but not much in the middle. I want these pants! They look so comfy and cheap!

And ... I would need to eat lots of ice cream to make them fit.

So much for that.

I'm heading to North Dakota for Easter.
They have a thrift store that treats me well every time.
Wish me luck.

not. one. single. thing.

These things were mighty tempting. 

I hauled 4 out of the pile. 

I dropped them back after 3 minutes. 

And for the 

first time ever 

I walked out of Hobby Lobby with NOTHING extra in my hands. 

I can’t even begin to understand what that means. 

Meet Herman

Have you met Herman?

I really don't know if I've introduced him to you formally.

I really don't know what his name is/was, and figured he needed one so I just named him Herman.

Herman was Bill's cat and we sort of inherited him with the house. There is a long story about him but, to make a long story short, he didn't really like people when we moved in here. He might come around for food and disappear for weeks. Then he'd show up again.

Today, this would be Herman.

He still isn't the friendliest cat you ever did meet. He will never come in the house. My rule, not his. 

He usually comes for food twice a day and eats rather well. Sometimes he thinks he needs to be fed twice in the evening, especially if he missed a meal the day before. He sits and waits for food in the morning and evening. When Jari goes in the kitchen to get his food, and leaves the door open, Herman will move so he can watch to see if he's coming back. He talks to us, occasionally he hisses at me like he's trying real hard to still be a mean thing, and we have full blown unintelligible conversations.

He eats too well now and has no need to chase a mouse or a bird. He lets the rats run around like they own the place. (another story for another day ...)

Sometimes he seriously cracks me up. Duke did this all the time. He would go in and out of the house with me. If I sat outside, he would always lay with his back to me making sure nothing dangerous was going to get me. Herman does the same thing.

I think he is finally getting use to us. Two weeks ago he got close enough to sniff my shoe ... and it was on my foot!

Maybe by July he will get close enough to touch ....

Missing Duke

I have a favorite eating spot that is a treat once in a while.
Usually on the way to visit with a certain special family.
We roll in, I get my mushroom swiss burger with truffle sauce on the side.
We head back out to the parking lot and head to share cups of coffee.

Friday evening we came out to the car and this boy was looking at us from the car parked next to ours. The back seat window was open and he was watching us. Not in a threatening manner, just watching. And ... he is a spittin' image of our special Duke who has been gone for a while now.  I didn't dare get close enough to climb in my side of car. Jari was about to back out of the space when the owner arrived, profusely apologizing. We got to meet Xander ... a spittin' image for sure and as friendly as could be. I was going to give the owner a business card just in case he needed to find the rescued dog a new home. He wasn't one bit interested.

Shucks.

we are still at it!

The attic has been emptied of insulation.

That was a huge accomplishment! 

We had a moment's intake of breath last week when the temps in Phoenix dipped to the freezing zones. All of a sudden we had a frightening thought that now none of our water lines were covered in insulation. The lines survived.

Do you just love the lighting up here? The lights are moving out to the front patio when they're done up here. Love the multi-purpose thinking he has.

I got home from work one day last week to this. Water line was going in. The lines across the attic are in. We aren't running new lines down the walls until we redo bathrooms. They will sit up there ready to hook up when we are ready.  

Facetime is can be a serious time saver. He tells me what he needs me to do down below and I can show him exactly what it is I'm looking at. Works perfect and saves him a million and two trips up and down from the attic.

Almost done with that. The rest of the line is stretched out in the yard trying to get it unwound before he carts it up there and sets it in place to be hooked up later!

I use to think (when the kids were small or when I'm trolling Pinterest) that an attic room would be so fun! Not anymore!

On to the next thing!
Can you believe this room?! It usually doesn't look like this, but I started cleaning out the closet on Saturday and trying to organize my creative space. Why is cleaning out things such a mess??!! Donation piles, trash piles ... all that good stuff.

In between cleaning that space, I was running to help him out. Electrical was next up on the list. The wires in the attic look like my Christmas lights usually do. A mess. One breaker runs different parts of multiple rooms. A nightmare if you're trying to figure things out. It will all make sense when he's done with it! We haven't redone the front patio ceiling, so handy little holes for running line are lifesavers.

Rolls and rolls of this good stuff.

I know how fortunate we are.
First, he has the ability to do all this stuff and we aren't paying someone else to do the work.
Second, we enjoy doing it together and seeing the progress.
Third, we appreciate the final result so much more!

Electrical in the guest room and garage are redone and labeled.

That room I was working on cleaning? You should see it today. Oh my goodness.

We can almost fly

Getting ready for the October deadline of different license required to fly.

We have passports, but don't really feel like carting that thing around all the time.

I went to a 3rd party ... or is it 2nd party ... who does DMV business here to get this done. One of the perks of city living. Of course, I had electric bills in Jari's name and not mine. I always need to change things up a bit. Don't do that. Make sure the mail is in your name with your address. Apparently it doesn't matter if it is junk mail, a medical bill or anything with your name on it.

While I was emailing them medical bills (handy that I could do that and not go home to pick up junk mail), this gentleman was at the counter attempting the same thing. He was really proud of his social security card. Got it the year they started the whole social security business. Guess he has a right to be proud of that. 

I listed brown for my hair color. Wonder how many years I can get away with that?

Fun times. We should be good!!

What's on your agenda for the weekend? I have a feeling I'm going to be helping run electrical wire or something like that.

Laundry poll or line or whatever

I ran a poll on Facebook and Instagram the other day.

If your laundry is not put away yet, but is all washed, can you still cross it off your list?

Here are the results:

Instagram 50% YES and 50% NO
Facebook 60% YES and 40% NO

I think I might need to go back to the list making of old to comply.

• Wash laundry
• Fold laundry
• Put laundry away

Serious.

For real tho' ... as long as it has run through the dryer (and all of my clothes are folded straight out of the dryer) I count it done!

Now I really need to get the the dinner dishes cleaned up, the trashes emptied and the dumpster run to the street. I planned to do a workout when I got home but .... it ain't happening today.

Krispy Kreme kind of lunch

We were on our way home from church on Sunday and I was flipping through Facebook as is my habit in the car sometimes. Came across this post that included this thing by Krispy Kreme. I read it to Jari and he didn’t take his usual turn on the way to our breakfast place. Breakfast being at nearly 1 o’clock because we were late at church. He headed instead to Bell Road and off toward home from Cave Creek.

Then he proceeds to ask me where Krispy Kreme is.

Apparently we were skipping the Village Inn 2-2-2 breakfast and going straight to Krispy Kreme for lunch instead.

Love it!

I didn’t notice the top of the box until we were home and found that one of the favorite people in my world shares a birth year with Krispy Kreme. I wonder if  Krispy Kreme opened on the same day he was born. Happy sugaring up!

I checked 'cuz the google window is right next to the blogger window. Krispy Kreme has 3 months of age on my favorite person.

solo on a sunny day

A day alone in the carwash line.

Pure.

Joy.

spider webs

When was the last time you played like a little kiddo?

A little while back, I tried to introduce the grands to something our own children enjoyed doing. I had some yarn sitting in the going to the thrift store box. Grabbed it out and started building webs. You just string yarn all over the place. Perhaps this was a little too low and should have been higher. I think we used to use a lot more than this, because the cleanup was always a bit of a challenge.

Simple. Easy. Fun.

Sometimes that is all it takes, isn't it?

working toward the fall

October is around the corner and November not far behind.

August is almost over.

September is booked full of goodness.

Does anyone's else life look like this?

Oh my goodness.

Does that mean Christmas is also around the corner?!

I was so blessed to only work one day this week. Not because anyone was out having a good time, rather one of our physicians had surgery and the other is across the country with his ailing mother.

The upside of their downsides is that I got stuff done!!

I've worked on market for just a few hours in this week and managed some things around the house as well. Making myself mop the floor is almost tantamount to torture. Like, seriously, I would much rather be spreading paint, cutting wood or zipping along with the sewing machine.

I don't need to be frantic. That is my own doing. Completely.

I just want stuff done around here!

Use it up is my motto.

Okay. 

Maybe sometimes a box shows up in the mail or a bag comes home from some favorite star starting with an H which requires me to use up some more.

Being as September is full of fun events, I'm not really counting on any crafting time.

The beginning of October has me scheduled for a brand new hip.

Unless you've been where I am .... you probably can't understand my joy.

Today I realized that I've not been on here this week.

Oops.

I do love my chiropractor.

Muscle work to keep me moving at least a little helps.

I am so very bad. I need to be doing yoga. It helps keep those muscles lose and not pulling on that hip as much. But, honestly, the mental therapy of crafting might do just as much good as far as I'm concerned.

Today, right now, I am sort of done in. Yesterday at work wasn't kind to my challenging body parts and it is time to stretch things out for a bit. 

Right. 

Now.

Just for a bit.

this is real

I usually craft on the back patio, but it's hot out there.
And, to be honest, I really don't feel like hauling tools that way.
Double honest ... I really don't want to be lifting things too far right now.

Friday I had appointments.
In between those things I spent hours outside in the garage.
It wasn't exactly cool, but it was under 100 degrees!
Maybe a wee bit humid, but who really cares.
I have things to get done.
Quickly.

Does your garage look like this?
I actually park in here every day. I do.

Saturday was hours of this business.
Oh my gosh but it feels so good!
I have 3 pieces of furniture that need to be finished in relatively short order.
All 3 (well ... really there are 4) are going to Market in the November and are going white.
I've done many colorful things and find that white sells best.
At least I hope it continues to do that.

Meanwhile, Jari is inside working on the guest room.
We have visitors coming in several weeks so now he has a serious move on.
They are very special people, but the room was on the August To Do List anyway.
No baseboards or flooring is being changed anywhere in the house at this point.
This room lost the popcorn off the ceiling, outlets got moved up to 12" from the floor, texture and paint are in the works.

While Jari and I were both busy doing our respective projecting ... my angel Alyx came over with the boys.
The yard got raked and bagged.
I just did this about a month ago and she had 4 huge trash bags full when she was done!
Bless her heart!

My hubby does not like taping and mudding. Serious. He really doesn't like it at all.

The project is to the point of first coat of mud drying when I have an epiphany.

My epiphany's are equivalent to his "I was thinking ...." moments.

This one went like this: would it make sense to move the closets before we finish the walls and paint?

I'm not sure he's fond of my epiphany's. 

He assessed, measured, did some serious brain wave action thinking and ultimately decided to wait.

We are learning.

Every quick project lately turns into a huge can of worms once we start.

The ultimate plan is to move the closets (this one backs up to another in the 3rd bedroom) into the rooms a bit.

This will open up a hallway and entry from the house into the garage.

Presently, access into the garage is through a side door on the other side of the garage or through the big door.

It may take a bit more time than he ('cuz I'm busy doing my other stuffs) has in the next couple weeks .... it will wait.

Do you have any idea how blessed we are to have Home Depot a mere 1.8 miles down the road?
And ... 1.8 miles in each direction on top of that!

week of simple joys

simple joy might just be using up scraps at the sewing machine

it might be the satisfaction of seeing paint leave a dresser as the temperature rises and the sweat pours

i find it in the blooming of cotton plants

joy is the falling of rain on fields that are so very dry

the joy of His promise to end a day and a week

where do you find simple joy?

July is cooking

Nothing good cooking in the kitchen over here other than the eggs these girls are laying.

Jari fixed them up right proper before we went to Minnesota. It is hot outside. Summer has come and it is downright intolerable as far as I am concerned. These little gals were getting a wee bit toasty. So ... they now have a sprinkler that wets their shade cover and a good chunk of earth beneath it every 12 hours. They're happy ladies and I'm pleased to see them looking comfortable.

I have taken up guessing what the temp is outside when I  leave work. I can certainly tell you when it hits this hot. I did send a text to my coworkers Wednesday evening saying that being as I'm the sensitive sort, I might just have to stay home and indoors on Thursday. That didn't work out so good.

Leftovers for lunch nearly every day. 

That blessed sun. I gauged that if I parked in one of these 6 specific spots, my car would be shaded when I left after work. Apparently, if you leave at 6pm .... the sun has moved over to the next 6 spots. Will need to make some minor adjustments next time I work.

Have you every been so tired that it is easier to wash the dishes by hand than to unload and load the dishwasher? Couldn't quite believe it myself but 'tis the honest truth.

Here's to a fabulous week!