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. 

Another Sunday in May

We’ve got a storm moving in. Right now it’s a bit windy outside. Wind not being my favorite thing, I have my noise canceling headphones on with some instrumental music playing. Not sure if we’ll get any rain out of it, but that would be nice. The temperature dropped so I am having a cup of cocoa as I get ready to read in my library. It’s a nice, relaxing Sunday afternoon. 

I really need to be not lazy this week when I’m not at work. I’ve got to get some stuff done around my house and I have a few small projects. Like very small and I need to just do them. LOL That’s the goal for this week. I’m only at work 4 days and then having a 4 day weekend, since Memorial Day is coming. It’s the end of spring and transitioning into summer. I do love the change of seasons. 

Yesterday, I took my niece to her soccer game since her parents were out of town. My sister and the twins met us there. Then we went to eat at Iceberg diner and to this month’s indie bookstore: The Hollow, located in Syracuse. It’s a cute little store that just opened up about a month ago. I bought 2 books for myself and 1 for my niece. I didn’t think she was much of a reader, but she said she’s recently read some books she likes. Her birthday is coming up and she said she’d love a trip to Barnes & Noble. LOL She doesn’t need to ask twice. I’ll take her for sure. 

Still trying to decide what my summer vacation is going to be. I’m absolutely fine heading to Cedar City but trying to decide if somewhere else is on the horizon. I decided against any trips with a tour and think I’ll just stay closer to home and spend less money. Prices being what they are, it doesn’t hurt to get my savings account stacked a little more in case of hard times or things breaking. 

But for now, I’m going to go read and take some time out of this world for a different one in a book. 

Mother’s Day

Hard to believe this is my 3rd Mother’s Day without my mom. Time has flown and yet it hasn’t. It’s going to be a beautiful day and we are having family dinner later and then we’ve got flowers to take to the cemetery. I made grandma’s rolls today. They are rising now and after church I will cook them and take them to dinner. 

I spent last week in Charlotte, NC for work and then took Friday off for a 3 day weekend. It’s been really nice. Very warm. I’m not quite ready for the heat, but I guess I don’t have any say in that. I’ve had my ceiling fan on at night, although it’s still cool in the morning. It won’t be long before I have another fan running all night just to keep me cool enough to sleep. It’s ok. I can have a good summer and then be happy about the fall. 

My flowers are doing well outside and I have a few projects for the inside and of course, there are always books to read. The pool is closed for maintenance or something for 2 weeks so no water aerobics. I need to see about the summer schedule. I’d like to keep going because it feels good, but I need to start walking outside as well. Take advantage of all the light in the evenings. 

Life is not without problems, but there are also a lot of good things. I’m so grateful for all that I have, especially for the parents who worked hard for our family. I wouldn’t be where I am today without them. 

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! 

May!

I can't believe how fast the year is going. Month five already? 

I am ready to plant flowers. We had some good rain Sunday and Monday and my flower garden soil was so nice and wet. I got in there this week with a shovel and dug out the vine/plant that keeps growing. Hopefully, I got a lot more of the roots. Now it wants flowers. So probably a trip to a greenhouse this weekend. My sister knows of a new one we've never been to. I also want to do a little spring cleaning and clean my windows. The goal is to get up tomorrow and not be so lazy in the morning. 

Last night as I was driving home from water aerobics, it started to rain on my car. It was one of those weird, spotty rains that comes down in one particular place and only lasts a few minutes. Because of the clouds and the sun and the rain, I saw the most beautiful rainbow. It was so vibrant and pretty. I do love this time of year. 

Indie Book Day

Saturday was Indie Bookstore Day. I went with my sister and the twins. Even if I had gone by myself, I knew I wouldn't get that many stores in, so I did not print the map for the book crawl. And that's ok and we totally had fun. I got a couple books for the twins and a couple books for myself. I had a list of books that I wanted to purchase, hoping that would make me not impulse buy a bunch of books, but I didn't need to worry. It was too crowded and I was distracted with the kids so I didn't do a lot of browsing on my own.

Our first stop was The King's English in SLC. I only get there about once a year or less and it's just so much fun. Lots of people there and the space is small so we spent most of the time in the kids section. I did find a book on my list and got a few things for my sister-in-law's birthday. 

Then we went to Weller Bookworks in the old Trolley Square Mall. Even if there's not many retail shops in there any longer, it's still a fun, old building. I did not find anything I wanted to buy in there, but my sister got a few books. I did find a store with stationary and fancy soaps so I finished my sister-in-law's gift shopping. 

We took a break and ate lunch at Liberty Park. It was such a nice day to be outside. 

After lunch and playing around outside, we started for home and made our last stops. The first was the Bountiful D.I. because the kids love going there and getting cheap toys. Then our final bookstore was The Book Garden. It's actually one of my favorites. Again it was busy and I didn't get to browse a lot, but I did get one more book and a candle. I want to go back there soon with a bunch of books I've purged from my library and see if they will buy them. You get store credit and I do like to shop there. 

And then we came home. It was after 5 when I got home so a very full day, and we didn't even get to the indies in our own city. It's ok and they are on my list and I will get to them eventually. 

And today I stayed home to work. I didn't sleep well, but also its raining and I'm loving sitting where I can see and hear the rain. Even if it got warm really fast a couple weeks ago, we've had a few cold days as well. Spring is really glorious. Maybe this coming weekend, I can finally plant flowers!