Coffee Chat: Rainy Day At Home

Hello and hurry right in!  Hot Coffee or Tea?  It always seems appropriate when it's pouring rain to have a cup of something hot to drink, agreed?  I've got  fruit cake in the freezer.  I'll slice a few pieces and we'll let them thaw while the coffee makes and the water boils to steep the tea.

John is at work...Now I'm both sorry and not sorry if you know what I mean.  For one thing, I have puttered about doing things as I felt like rather than having someone make me aware that it's mealtime.   Lest you think he won't fix his own food, he can and will.  But he's very aware that I often have a plan and he is willing to work with it rather than spoil them.  I appreciate that he's rarely fussy or insistent upon a plan other than my own.

The Week Ahead: Home Is Our Weapon

I think it was Friday morning when I woke and asked myself:  "Is this even real?"  Unfortunately/Fortunately it is.    Yes, I do see it all as a mixed blessing.  I see so many saying how much they love being at home, people who normally don't get to be home.  I see many women enjoying baking.  So many feel compelled to bake: bread, cookies, muffins, cakes, bagels.  There's a sense of comfort in filling a home with the warm scent of yeast or sugar.

This morning, I woke earlier than John.  My first task each day is to open the shades and in doing so I discovered that overnight the world was no longer birthing green but is fully green.  I stood gazing out at a world that looks so normal and not in the least bit scary or dangerous.  I had coffee and had put my tea to steep when John got up.

The Week Behind: Get Wisdom

Saturday:  Sam stopped by this morning to bring us some Chocolate Chia Seed Pudding he'd made.  It tastes pretty good.  The texture is a little different, somewhat closer to what I always thought a Blancmange might have (I've never had Blancmange by the way, just read recipes for it).

We had bagels for breakfast, some of those I made last week.  They are so easy and so good.  I'll definitely keep making them at home.

Worth Sharing This Week: If Not Now...

Last week, several social influencers, as vloggers, bloggers, and instagram personalities are now called, determined to increase content in order to give their audience a respite from the news and situations surrounding CoVid19.  I admit I freely partook of their extra content and I appreciate the great amount of work that went into those added activities.  Especially the vloggers, who have a longer editing process after filming.

Coffee Chat: This New Normal

There's coffee dears...and tea if you'd like and ice, too if hot drinks seem too much on this sunny afternoon in the South.

Welcome to my second 'New Normal' of this year!  Seriously, how many 'new normals' can we cram into one year?  There was retirement with John home nearly all the time and now this self isolation thing which is necessary.

The Week Ahead: It's A Season...Bonus Tips

The last few years we've been through stuff.  Some of it was pretty doggone hard and in each bout of hard things, I got through it by saying, "It's a Season..."   From experience I know that seasons never follow dates by a calendar's markings.  Seasons last as long as they will last.  That's true in nature and it's true in life.  But despite that seeming fleeting or lasting time, the fact remains that seasons always change.   It is why, I think, I have always loved the opening verses of the Ecclesiastes 3.  "There is a time for every thing and a season ..." it begins.  And what it goes on to list is not spring or summer or fall or winter, no nor even rain or sun.   What it lists are life seasons.

The Week Behind: Blooming!

Saturday:  A lovely day at home today.  It began with some alone time.  I rose shortly after John left for the men's meeting at church.  I had coffee and sat in the kitchen sitting area in the swivel rocker.  I am very comfortable in that spot.  The sun shone in the windows, the orchids are growing and blooming and the sun fell across us both as I sipped coffee and had my crisp toast. 

I noted that one of the white Iris had opened.

Worth Sharing This Week:

I don't know if any of you read Rebecca Newman's "Reanaissance" blog.  I've been reading since way back when she had just two littles to tend to.  She has six now.   She is hosting a Community Baby Shower for a Crisis Pregnancy Center in Pennsylvania and is collecting items to donate.    Now this is something very close to my own heart.  John and I used to donate routinely to a Crisis Pregnancy Center in a nearby town and it was lovely to buy diapers, baby wipes, cute outfits off clearance racks, etc. to donate.  Often enough one of the women in the church would ask for extra donations on their birthday. 

Our Calling: Do The Best We Can!

As I have worked about my house this morning, my thoughts kept going back to the news about the virus.  I've stopped trying to follow any but the local news which has the best and most concise information without a political slant or inane headlines (How Cvd will affect the Fashion Industry Forever).  I am not slandering vloggers and bloggers who share posts of what to wear to work at home, or how to do makeup for same, or how to help children with schooling or even how to cope with being home with children full time, because they are doing their best to inform the public of what they know...but the news really should focus on passing along news and for once, if there's nothing new to say then just report what is known about current situations without trying to create sensational headlines.  Here's the deal: life at the moment is pretty sensational as far as I'm concerned and that's about all I need.

The Week Ahead: Keep Calm and Carry On

The world looks a bit different and all the same at once, doesn't it?  I can't seem to get away from all the news about the virus but I am amusing myself.  I don't mean that in a smarmy way.  I spent Saturday watching vlogs as various ones stocked up.  Seriously...some people have no clue.  There seems to be two camps: buy ALL the things regardless because the apocalypse has arrived and  the opposite camp that buys just enough food to feed two for two days and consider themselves well done.

Worth Sharing This Week: A Little Different

I had a post started but somehow it just seemed silly to put it up.  However, there's plenty worth sharing this week all the same.

Take some time out this week and read a good book, or watch a good movie. 

Spend time with your family...

And finally, know that this too is a season and it shall pass. 

The Week Behind: A New Path

Saturday:  A few changes afoot here in my week behind posts.  I'm going to be sharing more than just how I saved money but including thoughts and reflections that I might have had during the week as well.  I get too unbalanced when I'm all about being frugal.

A couple of months ago I asked John, before he retired, "What are we saving for?  Death?  Or do we try to continue to save but also spend wisely in getting some enjoyment from the life we're leading?"  It changed our thinking entirely about how we'd retire.  We'd never  really planned for what we'd do in our retirement years.  We just had a vague 'some day' idea of retirement.  With it looming on our horizon it was time to think about what we did want to do. 

I Don't Wanna Work! 10 Methods for Busting the Mood

One morning not too long ago, I could see my house needed work...but I was so not in the mood to attend to my home needs at all.  I wanted to sit in my chair and watch YouTube or read or go back to bed instead of doing what needed to be done.  I had one weapon though:  I have a whole list of things to do when I don't want to work.   So I pulled it out and found the inspiration to get busy and get the jobs done.    Would you like for me to share?

#1.  Get up a little earlier.  Often when I've gotten into the habit of sleeping to a certain hour each morning, I tend to take up this sort of vacation/holiday mood.  I ease about the house not getting a lot done and the next thing I know it's 10:45 and I've not even begun the day.   One thing I've found really helpful, if I know I need to tackle tasks, is to set my alarm and get up just a little bit earlier.  It's surprising how much more energy I have and how much more I can accomplish in a morning if I just get up an hour earlier.   I don't even have to do it every morning but I do find that if I do it once, I'm likely to wake just a half later than the previous morning and suddenly I'm back into my higher energy working mind set.

The Week Ahead: A Little Sun!

It is these sunny weekends that fuel me for the weeks of rain we've had of late.  We've got rain coming in again this week but hopefully there will be more of a mix of sun, as well. 

As we headed out the door on Friday I immediately experienced stuffy ears.  I'd had my allergy meds, too, but then I noticed that the region on my bottle was completely different from the region I'd thought I was ordering...Phooey!  No wonder I'm getting only mild relief!   I sat down on Saturday morning and ordered from another company and yes, I did indeed order the right one this time around.

The Week Behind: Getting Ready for March

Saturday:  Easy approach to meals today.  Bagels for Breakfast with fruit (banana for us both) and for lunch, I cleared stuff from the fridge and we ate what we had.  We'll have Stew and Cornbread for our supper tonight.  I'm more and more coming around to cutting back on my cooking time on weekends and making it all as easy as I can.   It's a nice break for me.   Funny thing, when planning for retirement I hadn't realized how very much I appreciated those two days a week that I didn't have to spend in the kitchen and I've missed having that extra bit of time!

Worth Sharing This Week: March

Our first week of March was supposed to be sunny...If February is fickle with weather, March is just as much so.  In all the years of my life, we've had snow more often in March than any other month.  We've also had March days that topped 90F.  There is really no telling what may come from day to day.  What has come thus far are inches of rain.

Coffee Chat: Reverse

Come in, come in and just pop your umbrella there in the corner atop that towel.  It's been raining steadily since Monday afternoon...And no, it wasn't meant to rain but there it is. It said plainly we'd have a sunny week but I've yet to see any sun.  The sky has lightened up a bit but it hasn't stopped raining and then the sky darkens all over again.  John got a little blue yesterday.  He's been longing to get outdoors and mow but  it would rain. And rain.  And rain.

This Week's Menu Revamped

When I sat down to plan meals this weekend, I thought I did a pretty good job.  Saturday and Sunday went along just fine.  However, I needed several items that weren't in my pantry/fridge/freezers.  I thought I'd pick them up at the grocery store and then I didn't.   So Monday night's menu became something entirely off the cuff, using a recipe I've made many times and revamping it to what I had just purchased.

Today (Tuesday) I put my fridge in order and discovered I had leftovers that I hadn't planned to use.  Rather than freeze these things and use them later, it would be more convenient to use them NOW, since I had to re-plan my menus anyway.