A Different Sort of Peach Days

It’s that time of year again: Peach Days. Friday night I met up with my family and we went to the Peach Days carnival. The kids still like going and it’s fun to hang out with the family, even if there are a bunch of other people. I think people are figuring out that Friday night is less crowded than Saturday. There were a lot of people. I hate to think what it looks like today. And then for the first time in quite a few years, I didn’t go up to Brigham at all for the Saturday part. My sister doesn’t have any kids in the parade this year and I just can’t see going up for any other reason. They did go up because my niece had to work at Peach City. I won’t say I’ll never go again, but the big parade doesn’t hold a lot of interest for me as an adult. I was only going to cheer on my nieces and nephew and be with family. I probably could have gone to the quilt show and a few other things and just missed the parade, but there is always next year. 

I slept in and did a little cleaning, then I drove to SL to hit up an indie bookstore I’ve been meaning to go to for a while. Lovebound Library is a romance bookstore, although they do have a little bit of general fiction. It’s a cute store and they do have a nice selection of books, though they are mostly contemporary and romantasy. I picked up 3 new books and spent some time rearranging some of my bookshelves to fit them in where I wanted them. 

It has been fun visiting indie bookstores this year. I still have more to go to than months left in the year but that’s ok. Most of those that are left are going to take some planning to get to. I’ve bought a lot of books I wouldn’t have bought if I weren’t trying to support them. And I’ve got some favorites to go back to. The biggest problem is that none of my favorites are really that close to me and it’s still easier to get my books from bookshop.org or Barnes and Noble. 

I have a little bit of cleaning left to do and I’ll be making a new soup for dinner tonight. But I’m in for the day and am planning on reading. LOL I’m having a bit of book anxiety again with all the shiny new books waiting for me to get to them, plus I keep adding to my KU list. I’ve just got to let it go. I have more books than I’ll ever possibly read and new ones come along constantly. This is just the way life is.

Anyway, it’s been a nice weekend so far. I’ll be seeing family again tomorrow for family dinner. The weekends are always too short. 

More Repairs

Yesterday when I was driving to work my neighbor called and said my garage door was open. She went and shut it for me, but it wouldn't stay down. I played around with it last night and cleaned the sensors and knew I wasn't going to be fixing it myself. 

It turns out the gear in the motor was broken and I had him install a new unit and a new rail thing that it runs on. Oh my gosh, I love it! I know I said I was going to cut down on my spending, but this was worth it. The other one was over 20 years old anyway. He also installed the remote entry for me. I already had one purchased and it was sitting on my shelf waiting for someone with a drill. Now, I have a very quiet garage door that I can open in my car, on my phone, or with the keypad. 

Hopefully, I'm done with costly repairs now. Lets keep it to the hundred dollar range for a little while, hm? Still, I'm very happy with this one. 

Sick

Well, I’ve been looking forward to September for ages and it started with a bang. I guess I can say it can only get better from here? Tuesday day was fine. I got out my fall decorations, all 4 of them. LOL And switched my candle warmer to an apple and cinnamon scented wax melt. Wednesday I woke up with a scratchy throat and the day went downhill from there. I ran to the grocery store in the morning to get lemons and orange juice and Gatorade, just in case. By the afternoon there was no denying I was getting sick and by the time I got off work, I felt awful. I worked a bit on Thursday as well, mostly because I couldn’t breathe unless I was sitting up, so why not? 

I already planned to take today off for a 4 day weekend. This was the weekend I was supposed to go to Cedar City. I have tickets waiting for me at the box office. I needed one more day to get over this. I’m over the sore throat and chills, but my sinuses are still a mess and my head still hurts a bit. There’s just no way I can comfortably do that 4 hour drive by myself. And let’s face it: I have no desire to sit in a theater feeling like this. And I want to be in my own bed with my own things when I don’t feel good. The hotel was paid for with miles so it doesn’t feel like such a waste. But there goes almost 200 dollars down the drain. I don’t have another weekend to go and one of the shows closes tonight anyway. I know I’m grumpy and I just plain don’t feel good, but I waste so much damn money sometimes. I know this one really can’t be helped. I didn’t try to get sick. I’m just….not happy about the whole situation. 

So today, I’m going to sit here and wallow in misery and hopefully take a nap, because I didn’t get much sleep last night. Hopefully, I’ll feel better tomorrow and maybe I can figure out something to do that will make this weekend not feel like a complete waste. Something free. I’ve wasted enough money for now.

Weekend

It was slumber party weekend. My niece had asked if they could have one before school started. I didn’t quite make that since most of them started this past week, but it was close. I had 5 of them spend the night. I feel like we did pretty good. The chaos was manageable and I didn’t yell. Seriously, I’m not sure why they like coming here. When I was younger, I made more of an effort. LOL

We started at the pool. Since some of us have a pass, I just paid for the other kids. My sisters came too and we had fun. We got out right before it closed and then went to Chic-Fil_A for dinner. We met up with my older nieces as well. Once dinner was over and we got back to my house, I let the kids play and they got out my tinker toys. I’ve had those things since Spencer was a tiny and they’ve been a good investment. About 8:30, I had them get in the pajamas and we made popcorn and settled down for a movie and treats. I rented some Pokémon movie and was bored stiff, but that’s ok. Eventually, I got them settled in bed and went up to bed myself. I told the older kids I didn’t care if they stayed awake or kept the tv on as long as they didn’t wake the twins. Evidently, they did stay up late and they did wake at least one of the twins. LOL I didn’t really hear them, but I did not sleep well. I just get weird anxiety when I’m not the only one in my house. So I ended up getting up early and took a shower and got ready for the day. I went downstairs a little before 8 to start breakfast and Rosie woke up first. Once one of them is up, there’s no way to stay quiet. 

We had breakfast and watched cartoons. I put on a few different 80’s cartoons because Katya loves watching 80s stuff. Then we got out the ancient game cube for an hour or so until Amy came to get the twins. They don’t all fit in my car for me to take home. I took the older kids home by way of Walmart for some birthday shopping and then In N Out for lunch. 

It was almost 2 when I got home to start cleaning. I got everything put away and got the floors vacuumed and swept and mopped. I started laundry and made my grocery list. I got home from shopping around 5 and just enjoyed the clean, quiet, calm of my home. I’ve been trying to make it cozy and I like how it feels. 

Then a little before 10 we had a thunderstorm. It was glorious. The rain just pelted down for a few minutes and I had puddles in my backyard on the lawn. It calmed down for a bit and then it started back up when I went to bed. I opened my window and enjoyed the cooler air and the sounds of rain and thunder. I do love a good storm. 

Today I’m finishing a bit of laundry, but otherwise taking it easy. After church, I plan on making the sweet corn chowder. I may throw in a small batch of biscuits as well. The sun is shining but the wind is blowing and it will still get hot. It’s been a good weekend though. 

Back to Life

It’s been a busy week. My first major item was an expensive one. Earlier this year when I tried to have my tankless water heater flushed, they discovered some major issues with corrosion or something because of the hard water. The guy helped me call the company, but to make a long story short, the lack of water softener made the warranty null. Which the first company never told me. They only said I needed to have it flushed every year. Anyway, it’s fixed. I have a new tank and a new water softener on my hot water only. So I don’t have to drink it and I won’t water my plants with it. Maybe it will make my tub easier to clean? What I do know is that my hot water is getting hot much faster than it did before so I’ll take it. I don’t feel like I’m wasting so much water any more as I wait for it to get hot. 

I also had my first colonoscopy today. Blah. I know what people say: it’s the prep that sucks and then its a nice nap. But that didn’t calm my anxiety. The liquid diet was probably the worst. I did eat jello too but I had a headache all day long. The laxative tasted bad, but not as bad as I was expecting. I drank it through a straw and while my stomach was rolling a bit, I didn’t get the urge to throw up. Truly, from everything I had heard, I had built it up in my head and that’s probably where most of the anxiety came from. But it truly was a great nap! LOL My sister picked me up and got me an Einstein's bagel on the way home. And the extra wonderful thing is that it’s finally raining and I get to lay on the couch and just listen to it. I have other comfort food ready to go, including a Dr. Pepper. I’ll continue to have today as a self care day and get back to work/life tomorrow. Now, after the 2+ weeks of travel, I’m happy to be at home for a while and back in my routines. 

Home! Home! Home!

Man, it's been a busy few weeks. I knew it would be when I planned my vacation, but now I'm back and I'm so happy to be home for a while. I slept in my own bed last night again and finally slept through the night. 

I've been in North Carolina for work. I had a weekend home to do laundry and repack between my vacation and work trip. 

It was nice to see my team in person. We were celebrating the retirement for one of my team and that was bittersweet. I will miss her but am also excited for her. Part of the celebration included a pottery class. It was so fun! I really enjoyed it and would love to do it again.

We only made them on the wheel and they will be dried and glazed for us and then I will pick mine up when I go back to Charlotte later this year. It was definitely harder than it looks, but I'd love the chance to do it again when I'm not so focused on making something. Just to learn more of the techniques. It takes way more muscle than I thought to force the clay to move up. 

Next week will also be a bit busy, but I'm looking forward to being back in my routine for a while. 

Food

I’m heading into my 3rd week of low fat and low sugar eating since I started on July 7. So far the food I’ve eaten from my freezer stash hasn’t triggered any pain. It hasn’t been as hard as I thought it would be, although I know I’m still barely starting.  The weekends and especially the off Sunday where I’m home by myself is what I need to be careful with. It’s not that I’ve eaten terribly healthy, but I haven’t had any junk food, and I’ve consciously been eating more fruit and vegetables. And every day, I’ve had a little bit of chocolate. 

Right now my biggest issue is that I feel like I’m going to get bored with my food really fast. Looking at some of my Pinterest recipes, even just the ones that sound good and I haven’t tried, they have a lot of cheese in them. 😭  So trying to figure out ways around that because soon I’m not going to know what to eat. And I think I’m going to have to learn to substitute butter and creams in some of my recipes. 

I made a veggie and pasta dish tonight (that I have made a few times) and used gluten free pasta made from red lentils and left off the cheese completely. It is fine, but would be better with the cheese. And since I’m not eating butter, I haven’t had any toast or anything like that either. On the plus side, I did realize today that I don’t eat butter on my favorite rolls. So when it’s cold enough to bake, I can freeze a batch and still get some enjoyment out of them. Hopefully, anyway. I’m still not exactly sure what triggered the pain. 

Do I feel better? In some ways yes. I think my digestive system is having to get used to eating a little less “white”. But I haven’t had the overly full feeling that I get when I binge eat junk food, that makes it hard to lay down to sleep. I’m motivated to keep going if only to keep the painful stomach aches away. Hopefully, it will eventually feel more normal. 

One More Down

I took my sister and the twins shopping today. The twins birthday is next week and they wanted to pick their own presents. We decided to hit up a mall and an indie bookstore, so we chose to go down to Sandy. Rosie got clothes and Ollie got a dress up and they both got a couple cheap things from Ulta. 

Then we went over to The Printed Garden, which is an indie/used bookstore on my list. Turns out they have a record store in the basement and they were having a big sale and the records had taken over the store and there were a lot of people in there. It was actually pretty fun to browse through everything. I got a couple books and my sister got a few records. So that’s one more checked off the list and July is complete. 

And I think I finally figured out what gallbladder pain feels like. A few months ago, I had a bad stomach ache (I thought) and figured I had eaten something bad. And then I felt a little weird last Sunday and then on Monday by the time I left work, I had the stomach ache back again. But it’s not really in my stomach (although that doesn’t feel good) and it’s a weird pain almost across my ribs. Anyway, I know I have gallstones from a scan that I got last year and the pain lines up pretty well with what I’ve been reading. 

Since I don’t want pain, or surgery right now, I started doing some digging on what I should try to avoid so I’m making some changes to my diet. It’s only been a few days and I know it’s going to be an uphill battle to figure out what to eat for the long term. High fat and high sugar are out so there goes a lot of the stuff I like to binge on. I’m hoping I can get through the leftovers I have frozen and none of those things trigger me. I’d hate to throw out that food. And then I’ve decided to try and eat by the 80/20 rule so that I’m eating better most of the time, and if I figure out what triggers the pain, I will avoid those foods. I’m thinking last Monday, it might have been cheese. Cheese and butter are out right now. And if I’m not eating butter, I won’t make bread or rolls either. (Although its hot and I’m not baking anything!)

Hopefully, I can do this. I’m not trying to be perfect at eating better, but I really don’t want a lot of gallbladder pain and if this is what I have to do to avoid it, then so be it. 

Things to Think About

We had a great speaker in sacrament meeting yesterday. I don’t know her well, mostly just know who she is. I really could do a much better job of welcoming people and saying “hi”, even with the introvert me urging caution. 

Anyway, she referenced a book I had thought about reading, and then didn’t (because I decided to ignore my questions and basically hide my head in the sand, even though they don’t really go away) but now have purchased and started reading. 

Her talk was about her daughter being lgbtq+ and her struggles to remain in a church that judges instead of loves, and also how to foster a sense of belonging and listening instead of judging. It was just so good and really taught me some stuff. I can do better for sure. 

Mostly I know that I’m not alone in my questions and that I’m ok right now as I struggle through some things. Just this morning before church I was thinking (again) how I probably wouldn’t be going if I wasn’t playing the piano in Primary and had something to do there. I just show up because I’m not ready to quit. I realized today that just showing up is ok right now if that’s all I can do. Eventually, I probably need to work through a few things, but for now I’m ok with the space I am in. 

I really can and need to do better at loving instead of judging. And while I get stuck in a rut thinking it has to be in my ward, it doesn’t have to be. That’s only one space that I am in. There are others. I could even love in multiple spaces at the same time. 

I spent the rest of the day with lots to think about and this is one Sunday, I’m glad I was there.

Lazy Weekend

This was one of those weekends where I didn’t really have plans. Those are always nice. I went for a long walk on Saturday morning and then planned my menu and grocery list. And since I didn’t spend as much money as normal on groceries, I headed over to Trader Joe’s as well. I didn’t do laundry or clean much of anything. I did a puzzle and I read and cooked. Sunday was the same thing. Hard to believe we are halfway done with June. 

Summer Plans

I finally figured out what I’m doing for my summer vacation! I didn’t have any set plans, and nothing was sounding good. I had already marked off the time on my work calendar and figured that I would just head down to the Shakespeare Festival and spend some time at home. I had also already ruled out a trip with WTT because it was just really expensive. I mean a tour is always more money, but this one was just more than I wanted to spend on a trip (that didn’t leave the U.S!). 

Then on Wednesday, I logged into my email and WTT had sent an email about trips that were almost full and closing soon. And wouldn’t you know it, but Nova Scotia and P.E.I. were on it for the exact same days I already have scheduled off. Prince Edward Island has been on my bucket list since I made it. L. M. Montgomery’s books were a huge part of my childhood and I’ve always wanted to go there. I’ve halfway planned a trip there before, but didn’t truly want to go by myself. 

So I jumped on the internet to see what kind of flights were available and as soon as I found something I could handle, I signed up for the trip, and then purchased my flights before I even knew I was in for sure. This trip is about $2000 cheaper and even though I told myself I’d never share a room again, I’m doing the room share. It’s one week and I have those great noise canceling headphones now. 

This trip does a little bit in Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick, plus one day at PEI. If I were planning it myself, I’d do an extra day to take in the Anne of Green Gables musical theater show, but I’m ok not doing that, especially since I don’t have to plan any of the transportation, which includes a ferry. I’m just super excited to be walking around and see the coast up there, as well as some AOGG stuff. 

So I’ve got my vacation sorted aaaannnnddddd…. I also planned for a 3 day weekend in August to head to Cedar City. I can hit up a few of the shows in a long weekend and that will be great for this year. Next year, I’ll see if any of the girls want to do another bigger trip. 

So this summer is shaping up to be a nice one so far. I’m sure June will be over before I know it. I also have a work trip to NC in there and we want to do something as a family, maybe head up to Bear Lake for a day or something like that. 

I’ve been walking again and I’m still going to water aerobics. I still love it, although last night I did not want to go. I was so tired but I went anyway and I had a great time. Plus, the instructor was a substitute and we did a different workout, which was nice. It helps me use my muscles in a different way. I am starting to notice that I’m getting stronger in my legs. Getting up off the floor is getting easier. Reminds me of what I already know: little changes done over a period of time will add up if I keep with it. 

So yeah, summer is here and it will be over before I know it. Still not looking forward to the heat (although I have not turned my A/C on yet, but it’s coming) but I can handle it. And after summer comes my favorite months of the year. 

Rainy Saturday

Last night when I went to bed, I heard a few raindrops and then they stopped and I really hoped that wasn’t all the storm we were getting. Luckily, it wasn’t. It started raining again sometime early this morning and didn’t stop until about noon. 

I wanted to get out of the house and my sister said she was heading to Valley Nursery for a cucumber or something so I said “pick me up!” We actually went for a drive up the canyon and over through Mountain Green and back down to Uintah first.  The mountains are stunning. Truly so beautiful. And we were driving in the low clouds and I just loved it. 

Then of course, being surrounded by plants and trees and flowers is always a good time. I had 2 plants that were either dead or dying and wanted to replace. I ended up with 3 houseplants. Ha! Two of them are succulents and they will probably die on me. But I do love having plants in my home. They make me happy. Just walking around the nursery is nice. We stopped in the rose greenhouse and just wandered. Roses are lovely, I just don’t want to grow them. 

The rain has stopped and the sun came out and now it’s cloudy again. I’m in for the rest of the day. I am doing a little cleaning, a little reading, a little laundry. I made black beans and rice for dinner and my house smells fantastic right now. I don’t even like when it smells like food but very excited to try this new recipe. 

I’m calling this week a win. I worked from home the entire week since there was an electrical project going on at the office. I did try and get out a bit every day so I didn’t get too stir crazy. I walked 3 miles and also went to water aerobics on Tuesday and Thursday. There were a few instances of rage at my job, but I handled it. There was also a problem that I solved and that felt good. So yeah, this week is a win. 

Long Weekend

Thursday was a bit of a rough day. I had some peri-menopause emotions going strong and everything was making me upset. After work, I picked up 2 mums from Smiths and my first stop was the Wellsville cemetery. The canyon is stunning right now and the drive was so beautiful. Plus, once you get to Wellsville, the mountains on that side are also simply gorgeous. The cemetery was empty on Thursday early evening so that was also nice. Then I drove back home and before I went home I stopped at the Ogden cemetery. Not many people there either. I put some flowers on the grave of my great, great grandfather: Roy Ernest Hull. His headstone is almost entirely covered by a huge bush and I’m not sure if anything can be done about it. I mean, I didn’t even know he was buried there until a few years ago. It’s just an extra thing I like to do now.

On Friday I used a day of vacation so I didn’t have to work. I got up and went for a 3 mile walk. Then I got ready for the day. I picked up Ollie and we got lunch and then picked up Rosie from her last day of school and we went to the park so they could play and eat lunch. Then I ran some errands and did the grocery shopping. I met up with my sister and the twins again at the pool. It’s open again after a 2 week closure so I’m going to be going back to water aerobics this week and that makes me happy. 

Saturday I got up and went to the church to help with the weekly cleaning. I got to vacuum a lot of classrooms and hallway. Then the fun started ha ha. I had in mind to do some deep cleaning and rearrange my bedroom and office, mostly to give the carpet a break and get the groves in other places for a while. Man, that was a project. I got it done though. I can move everything by myself as long as the dresser drawers are taken out and the desk and cedar chest are mostly empty before I do it. The one thing I really had a problem with was my mattress. That sucker is heavy and doesn’t have good handles. I was very sweaty when I finished. It feels good to have that done though. I also put together a slow cooker meal in the morning and then made a loaf of peasant bread as well as doing laundry. I spent the evening reading and watching tv. I was tired. LOL

Today was church and then family dinner. We ate at Anna’s and went to the Brigham cemetery after. It was a very nice evening. The temperature was perfect for a walk around the cemetery. If summer stayed like this, I would like it a lot better. We tried to tell the kids a few things that we know about the really old graves we leave flowers at. It’s a little hard sometimes since we didn’t know some of them ourselves. But I guess that’s what family history is for. 

Tomorrow I want to take another walk and then do a few more small projects around the house. One of the projects may require a quick trip to Hobby Lobby. ;) I’d also like to clean out my car and go through the car wash. Other than that, I have no big plans for the day but it sounds perfect to me. 

Flowers

Amy and I did get to the new greenhouse this afternoon. It’s called Plant and Grow and is a smaller mom and pop type of place. They still had plenty of greenhouses to look through. The plan was to not do any extra pots this year in an effort to save some water and I had written down what I wanted : 2-4 coleus and enough colorful flowers to fill the rest of my little space, allowing for 1 impulse item. 

How did I do? Well…. I did ok. I got Shasta daisies as my impulse buy and they went into a pot. I bought 2 new perennial shade plants that I put towards the back and then probably 1 six pack too many. There are A LOT of flowers in there. Of course, they don’t all survive or thrive. As for the coleus…I ended up with 6 of them. So 3 went in the flower bed where I was planning to put them and 3 in a pot. I just love them so much. They are probably my favorite plant, so bright and colorful. 

Seeing the flowers in my little garden makes me so happy. I love flowers! 

Today

So I spent this evening doing something out of my comfort zone. It’s no surprise the work makes me a bit grumpy at this stage of my life. I’m not trying to be mean on purpose, but sometimes I can come across that way, evidently. Well, someone at another division thought I was very helpful and has been very nice over Teams. She came to my state for a training and asked if I was able to meet up for dinner. 

Meeting people I don’t know for dinner is absolutely not something I want to do. But I gave myself a talking to and said yes. We don’t live close enough to have to become good friends or anything like that, but it is really nice to know someone in person and to be friendly with them when you have to work with them. A guy from an Arizona division was also at the meetings and needed someone to eat with so it turned out to be the 3 of us. I drove up to Logan and we went to a hibachi grill. 

The food was good, and we shared our table with a family with 2 young kids and it was a nice time. I didn’t feel like the conversation was too awkward and I ended up having a good time. Much better than I had hoped. So a lesson to me to try a little harder to be friendly and that it is ok to sometimes get out and do things I don’t want to do. 

The drive to Logan was stunning. It rained today and snowed in the canyon. The green and white contrast and the moody, cloudy sky was just amazing. I’m glad I went. 

Nice Weekend

It’s been a really nice weekend, after a kind of stressful week. I worked from home all last week since I had a bunch of training meetings at a bunch of different times. On Wednesday night I went to Barnes & Noble and bought some books I didn’t need. It was just nice to get out. For the first time since I started going to water aerobics, I decided not to go on Thursday only because I was tired. Turns out that was a good decision, since they called and said it was canceled. And by Friday afternoon, I walked to the gas station and bought a Dr. Pepper because I was stressed. I’m not going down that road again, so I told myself to enjoy it. But it was a really long week. 

As for the weekend, Friday night I went swimming with my sister and the twins. Then we walked down 25th street to get boba’s and stopped in a local chocolate store that I knew was there, but had never been in. I tried an orange caramel and then bought a couple of them dipped in chocolate. The dark chocolate dipped was my favorite. And now I think I need to get some orange flavoring since I love making raspberry caramels. Orange would be fun to try too. 

Then on Saturday we went to the library for their Earth Day activities. I got a packet of marigold seeds and a packet of ladybugs, which I took home and put on my outside plants. I haven’t planted flowers yet, but my few perennials are growing and I put them on those. Half of the ladybugs always die, but it’s fun anyway. For a few days, I can see ladybugs outside. It will be a few weeks still until I plant flowers. I mean, we got snow last week. I think the cold snaps are probably about gone, but I’ll wait just a little longer. I’m going to scale back even from last year, I think. I just don’t want to be using water on a lot of extra plants since we didn’t get much this winter. I could argue they are necessary for my mental health, but just filling in my flower bed gives me enough joy there. 

Saturday afternoon, I took my sister and the twins to the movie. I texted my brother too and he dropped off  my 9 year old nephew and a friend and I took them as well. We went to the Mario Galaxy movie, whatever it was actually called. I didn’t think it was great, but the kids had fun. Alex’s little friend can put away the popcorn. 😆 And after that, in the evening, my 21 year old nephew came over and made me watch The Amazing Digital Circus so that I can go to the movie with him when it comes out. Or comes out  again? Anyway, it was actually a lot better than I thought it would be. 

And today after church I made tacos for lunch/dinner and then a cinnamon loaf. I went up to my library and did a little purge project and dusted all the shelves. I have a nice pile to donate and I have some gaps in my shelves again. I’m sure they will fill up fast. This coming Saturday is indie bookstore day so my sister and I are doing a book crawl. It will be fun. I may give myself a budget though. Ha ha 

Ug, Adulting

I got up early this morning to get some stuff done. I got some of it done. Now I’m tired and I just spent almost $200 on gas and groceries. That’s so crazy. I paid tithing too so there went my paycheck. It’s fine. I have money and I’m blessed in a lot of ways by paying tithes and other offerings. I don’t mind that at all. But man, crap is expensive. I feel like I need to make another donation to the food bank or something because I shouldn't complain. At least my paycheck covers my expenses. It’s just horrible how many people struggle to get by. 

We’re getting a little rain today, which is really nice. And there’s a local indie bookstore doing a “re-opening” because they moved locations that I may stop by. I didn’t know they existed before this location so it could be fun to check it out. Or I can go sit in my library and read. Ha ha that will for sure be something I do today at some point. I did finally make it through the library books causing me anxiety and now I have a new stack to read. This year has been different from recent years in that I’m reading a bunch more library books (I even browsed the stacks for a bit the other day). Over half of my books read have come from the library. It’s early in the year, but still…

Yeah, maybe I’ll get some lunch and then go check out the bookstore. Then I can come home and get cozy, whether it keeps raining or not. I’m going to cook dinner and do some baking sometime this weekend. I’ve got buttermilk to use up. Baking does sound nice right about now.

Reading

Wow, I have made it through a lot of library hold books. Seven of them so far. I have 1 more checked out that hasn’t been read and 3 on hold. I feel that 3 is a manageable hold list LOL. I even snuck a book I own in there. That’s 11 books and it’s just past halfway through the month. I think I need to take a breather and slow down a bit. I’ve neglected some other things and have eaten like crap over the last week. 

Tonight after work, I’m going to clean my bathrooms, do the dishes and practice the organ/piano for Sunday. I have to play 3 songs I’m not completely comfortable with. Once I do all that, plus my eye mask, I can read something if I want. But also I could do a puzzle or finally get started on that Easter wreath that’s sitting on my table. Choices, choices. 

Birds Are Back

I woke up yesterday morning to a bird singing. In general, I don’t object to the birds, although I could wish they didn’t start so early. :) But they are back and I heard them again this morning. The other night, the batteries in my electric flickering candles went out, so they are finished and put away until the fall. The 2 that I left out are off their timer and they don’t truly flicker. They will get turned on when I want them, but not on a schedule. And with the time change, I have flicked my switch as well, and I’m ready to start embracing the springtime, even if it’s technically not until the 20th. Although when I have to wake up tomorrow and go to work, I will be cursing the time change. It’s a world of difference from today where I could wake up naturally. Also yesterday, I cleaned the leaves and dead stuff out of my flower garden. It’s way too early to plant, but with all the rain and snow we had, it was nice and wet and easy to pull the stuff out. 

I can see the buds on one of the trees outside my kitchen window. The other tree is always a few weeks behind. In another month, my library will not get the direct sunshine it’s gotten all winter, with the leaves on the trees being gone. Time passes and we all adjust. 

I did make caramels yesterday. I added some raspberry flavoring and dipped them in chocolate. I’ll have to take them to next family dinner, but I had been wanting to make them for months and didn’t want the cream to go bad. After all the reading I did last week, I’ve slowed down and started being productive around the house again. I got my final rag wreath stuff out so I can start working on it as well. It’s Easter themed so maybe I will finish it in time to hang? It will be good just to finish it, even if it’s April before the last part is tied. I even did a puzzle and got out a couple more 300 piece ones to do. It all goes in waves and that’s just the way it is. 

Random February Thoughts

How is February almost over? I know it’s shorter, but still. I have definitely enjoyed being cozy through the dark months and am getting to the point where I can welcome spring. I hope it’s a rainy one, since we didn’t really get a winter and need the water. Rainy days can be cozy as well. Plus, spring brings flowers. 

I’m going to put away some of my electric candles once the batteries run out. I’ve decided to leave 2 of them out, but will turn off the timer. I have my scented wax warmers on all year, so there’s no reason why I can’t have a candle on here or there. And when the summer gets really hot and bothersome, I’ll just close the blinds, turn on candles, and put a rainy autumn day ASMR scene on the tv!

I’ve been doing a bit of reading this year. Twenty books and over 4,310 pages in the 2 months. I think I will take a bit of a break (or at least read only one book at a time) for a little bit and try and finish some craft projects and maybe catch up on some podcasts or something. I need to get some more walking in as well, although with water aerobics, I’m not feeling quite as much pressure to get out. The warmer, longer days will help that though. Leaving the house for 1.5 hours 2 days a week makes me feel a little bit like I’ve lost some time at home. And technically, I have, but it’s still “me” time and it's doing me a world of good. It feels good to move my body, and talk to people besides my family and co-workers. Plus, I love being in the water, and so far, the chlorine is not bothering me or making my skin or hair drier. I’ve got a routine down now. 

Last week was a high sugar week, with the birthday, so I’m trying to get back on the less sugar eating plan. It’s hard since I’m addicted to the sweet stuff, but I’ll keep going. I am sneaking in one more gift to myself before the end of the month, but then birthday shopping is over and done for the year. And I have too much stuff as it is. LOL Maybe March will be a clean-out-the-closets month.