Nothing to Say -- Hard to Believe

It has been a while since I have posted but I have found myself in a very strange position -- I have nothing to say.  Most of my friends/family would find that ridiculous since I usually have a lot to say about almost everything but not right now.  Life just seems to be on hold and I don't know why.  So, I will do bullet points to catch you up on what has been going on -- trust me -- not much.

 + still reading "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil"  -- seem to have hit a block with my reading

+  bought new twin beds for the house and thought about making new quilts but no -- I still don't have any interest in quilting

+  I have survived the heat wave of North Texas but I am beginning to be a little stir crazy staying in the house 24/7 but between the African dust and the heat outside isn't very interesting

+  I have sewed MANY Girl Scout patches on a certain little vest

+  I am still unpacking boxes

+  We are still trying to get all our stuff moved out of our old house.  It is getting very annoying

+  My husband has taken to sleep walking, or something equally as disturbing and I am not enjoying that.

+  I took facebook off my phone because I spend too much time on it.

+  I am now spending my time playing electronic solitaire

+  I have bit my lip several times in the same place and I think I have an infection but my dentist is out of town until Tuesday and by the time the girl in the dentist office told me to go to my GP, he was closed for the day.  So, I am doctoring it with apple cider vinegar.  It actually feels better.

+  I am not very happy right now, there are lot of not great things going on and I can't do anything about them.

+  School is starting really too soon.  It doesn't even feel like we have had summer -- just a lot of heat.

+  I have been binge watching "Hart of Dixie" on Netflix.  It is fun!

+  My crockpot died and I bought a new expensive model -- not sure it is worth is -- the roast turned out good, the pork chops not so much.

+  That is about it.  Hopefully I will have something to talk about soon or I will have to shut this blog down.

Survival of the Pantry

I have a reasonably large, albeit odd shaped, pantry.  My granddaughters love it.  They play Survival of the Pantry.  Right now all three of them are sitting in there with pillows and blankets and books reading.  I am sure they are hot.  But......







I
   have
     
           mopped

                          them


                                       in!


They can't come out until the floor dries.  Hee hee.  Nona is so much fun!

The End of June!

How in the world has it gotten to be the end of June?  This month is just flying by and I have to say I have accomplished nothing.

So, what have I been doing since I clearly haven't been here much?  Well, I have been taking care of my knees and hobbling around.  Taking care of my knees means exercising, massaging, stretching and NOT sitting.  Sitting seems to be my nemesis.

Yesterday was a reasonably functional day and today seems hopeful.  With any luck at all at all I can actually get a few things done.  Fingers crossed.

Also, my husband has decided to spice up our senior years by becoming a sleep walker.  This is not for the faint hearted.  After a few changes in our schedule things are going better but it has been a testy few weeks.  My sleep has been wrecked and I am feeling it so between sleep deprivation and painful knees I have not been my usual, sweet, laid back, perky self.  I have morphed into some sort of a she-demon -- no sleep will do that to me!

Hopefully things are getting back to normal.  I slept last night and feel a lot better.

Now off to get something accomplished!

June? Already?

I can't believe it is already June! What happened to May?  I guess I blinked.

We have had some really early really warm days here in Texas.  We don't usually have 100+ days in early June but yet, here we are.  A lot of people complain about the heat -- the same ones that complain about the cold -- but I am not one of them.  I don't do well in extreme heat because of medications that I take that make it worse but I am blessed that I have air conditioning and I have the freedom to stay indoors and enjoy it. 

How do I enjoy it, you might ask?  Well, I have several hobbies that I enjoy -- reading, needlework and drawing -- the drawing is new.  I also do my exercise indoors. And there is the ever-present housework to keep me busy.

The other thing that I really enjoy is watching the birds.  We have positioned the bird feeders close to the breakfast area windows and we are always entertained by them.  We have a large dove that likes to sit on the top of the hook from which the feeder hangs and when he takes off in flight the whole thing springs back and forth!  Lots of activity out there right now.

We have a cardinal family that has been around here since we moved in and they are so lovely.  A brown thrasher family has joined in the neighborhood and they must have babies because the male just paces the yard catching bugs for their meals.  He looks rather frantic as he paces -- maybe we have more birds than bugs?  It is a very active yard and so much fun to sit with a cuppa and just watch. 

While it is hot outside we have had a great time planting our little fairy gardens.  I am not sure if the fairies like them but we did our best.  I am planning out the next one that is going to be a beach scene in a galvanized bucket.  My husband thinks I am a little crazy but I think I am creative! And nothing like keeping Hobby Lobby in business!

So, we are expecting a cold front (haha!yes, the term the weather wizards used) later today but for now we are experiencing the hottest day of the year so far so I am watching PBS -- a lovely documentary on Italy -- looks lovely!

Summer -- the Beginning

Summer began for us, as a family, early this year and both my daughter and her daughter were out of school last Friday. This is the first time my daughter has been done with school before June. 

In addition to school being out, things at church have wound down as well.  The choir is on summer hiatus and Sunday School is done for the summer.  Our Sunday School program for the littles is The Catechesis of the Good Shepherd begun by Maria Montessori.  It is a wonderful program and the children just love it.

I am continuing to read toward my Goodreads goal.  Right now I am reading "Midnight In the Garden of Good and Evil".  I bought a copy while I was in Savannah but I am reading it on my Kindle after checking it out on Overdrive from my public library.  I am nearly done and will review.

The Hubs has had a couple of projects to deal with.  One involves shimming up my bookcase in the bedroom.  It is a large bookcase and I never had a problem with it leaning before but the carpet in my new bedroom is very thick and the bookcase just leans and honestly, it pretty much scares me to death because it is tall and heavy and the thought of it falling isn't pretty.

And, I had an idea for a knock-down play house for Hubs to build out of PVC pipe and cover with sheets.  This is it.

I found the plans on the internet and it works well.  It is rather huge though.

And then, the Fairy Gardens have been planted and here they are -- ta da!

this one isn't quite finished

this is the main one

We did this quite early this morning as it is really hot right now in North Texas.  The mosquitoes almost carried us off and the heat got us really quickly.  So, by 10 a.m. the gardens were planted and dressed, we were showered and ready for a quiet day indoors!

Tonight -- we will work on a puzzle! We haven't done that in a while and it seems like a nice thing to do after dinner!

Summer is getting off to a nice start.

New Old School -- AKA Old Dog Learning New Tricks -- for me anyway

I have a love/hate relationship with my crock pot.  It is a good crock pot.  I can brown meat in it on the stove.  It cooks a mean pot of beans.  The crock is removable so cleaning is relatively easy.  So what is my problem?

Everything coming out of it tastes the same.  I recently made a recipe of orange chicken.  It was dreadful -- and I couldn't tell the chicken from the roast I cooked last. 

I prefer the oven but......what if I leave the house.

My mother would have never left the oven on and left the house so, as a result, it never occurred to me.  I do remember one time that I programmed the oven to come on and heat a lasagne while I was at church but that was walking on the wild side for me.

So, I want to cook a roast.  I don't want to put it in the crock pot.  I want to slow cook it in the oven.  I am going to be brave and put in on low (300) and then go get the g-daughter from school.  I am going to leave the oven on. 

This is ridiculous -- I am sure it will be fine. 

I think I am too old a dog to learn new tricks!

Little Women

Did anybody watch the Masterpiece Theater (PBS) adaptation of "Little Women" last night?  I waited for weeks for it, I was so excited!  Seems my neighbor decided to talk on his ham radio last night which caused a good deal of interference with my antenna so it was a dicey viewing.  I was upset.

Aside from that, however, it was very enjoyable.  It was much different than either of the movie versions I have seen multiple times in my life.  The casting was was well done.  None of these girls looked like glamour queens (i.e. Elizabeth Taylor) -- they all looked quite representative of young women the ages they were playing.

I am always interested in settings when I watch anything.  I like to look at the backgrounds of photos as well.  It was filmed in Wicklow, Ireland which I find to be a bit strange.  To be such an "American" story, I would have thought it would have been filmed in Massachusetts where the book was set.  The setting is gorgeous, as you would expect, but the viewer (if watching such things) gets the feeling that the setting isn't quite right.  It is beautiful however, so no points lost there.

Angela Lansbury does a bang up job as Aunt March.  She defies her age.  It was a treat watching her in this role.  I still watch re-runs of "Murder She Wrote" so I am a big Lansbury fan.

I completely enjoyed this show -- despite the interference from the annoying neighbor --and am looking forward to the second part next week.  All of this and the Royal Wedding as well!  It will be a good weekend.

Homebody or Recluse?

I am noticing that, as I am aging, I am changing in ways I never imagined.  Oh yes, the obvious things like the hair, the waistline (or lack of ),  the newly acquired purple Hurrycane....

"

These aren't the things I am talking about.  I am talking about my change in interests and habits and such.

When I was young and when my children were young, I enjoyed all the things younger people enjoy.  I liked going shopping and chatting with the neighbors (sort of, I am an introvert after all) and I absolutely loved going to bookstores.

Well, now the kids are grown, I don't care for shopping anymore, don't really know my neighbors yet (that might be ok!) and the bookstores are all gone.

Online shopping has squelched any desire I had to shop -- I mean, why bother when you can just click a button and it arrives at your door.  Maybe.  Or is dropped by a drone.  Speaking of drones -- we saw one in the neighborhood across the street spying on the traffic at the intersection.  It was scary -- on the same level as those big white wind turbines. 

I digress.

So, have I become a homebody or a recluse?  Seems I don't really want to be anywhere but home.  I like my house to be clean, quiet and sort of dark and cool.  It isn't always that way because of the g-kids who come around but for the most part, I really like it to be serene. 

In our old house we had plantation shutters on the windows.  In this house we have venetian blinds that need to be replaced.  Hubs wants more shutters.  I like the blinds.  They let in more light and they remind me of my youth.  My mother was an ace at making our house seem peaceful and serene and a lot of it had to do with those
blinds.  I am afraid a lot of my reading about minimalism has stuck with me.  I like these minimalist blinds. But, I want new ones, I want my OWN blinds.

I have a routine these days.  It is rather slow and deliberate.  It is almost imperative because of my gimpy knees but it makes me feel like I am in control.  Not much gets set around on the tables and such.  I don't buy magazines anymore so I have eliminated the clutter of that.  The bookstores are all gone, for the most part, so I buy books or check them from the library on my Kindle.  I absolutely love that.

It just seems like I have settled into this odd existence.  So different that it used to be.  But, I like it.  I like the quiet.  I like the world being "out there" with the dreadful traffic and the horrible problems we see everyday in the news and on social media.  I like me being "in here" to keep things simple and serene. 

I wonder what is wrong with me.

Made In Savannah -- Cozy Series by Hope Callaghan

I have just finished the last available book in the cozy mystery series "Made In Savannah" by Hope Callaghan.  There were 9 books in the series with a 10th due out soon.  I am looking forward to it.

This series was delightful to read and held my interest, clearly.  The books are clean yet not squeaky --they do involve the Mafia, after all! They are not long books and are really quick reads. 

The characters are not as fleshed out and complex as they could be but it is very easy to identify with Carlita's plight trying to keep her children on the up and up -- pretty difficult for a Mafia wife! And Elvira -- what a character -- the kind of you love to hate but end up really liking -- just because.  The character of Mercedes could have been developed more but I suspect that is going to come in the next book. 

If you have any knowledge of Savannah, Georgia, you will be able to identify places with changed names, events and activities that are associated with the city, and the architectural descriptions.  However, I think the settings could have been expanded upon.  If you don't have a good working knowledge of Savannah, it would be hard to develop a mental picture of the area.

The plots are good but could have a few more twists and turns.  They are safe and straightforward but would be more engaging with more intrigue and complication.

With all this said, however, I do recommend these books.  If they hadn't been good I would never have stayed through the entire series.  I am looking forward to book 10 and hope it is out soon!

Doodling Again

 In case anybody is wondering, it is supposed to be an iris.  My husband said he didn't know what it looked like.  Blah.

Made In Savannah Series by Hope Callaghan

I am just beginning the last book in the Made in Savannah Series by Hope Callaghan. I have really enjoyed this series even thought it is very simplistic and predictable.  It is enjoyable to just sit and read and not have to over think the plot.

Do I recommend?  Yep. 

Did it satisfy my desire to go back to Savannah?  Nope. Still want to go.  Right now.

Ok, that's all.