Happy dances for the week of September 6th

I was happy to see this critter in our back yard Friday morning and even happier to see it before I stepped there! It is well camouflaged. I wonder what they eat? Love that they have red eyes and definitely look at you.

A lovely lunch with a friend. Always good company but what I realized made me extra happy was that we started telling parts of our life story to each other. It is so important to have friends you can share your story with.

I learned that the Friends of the Library book sale on the 6th raised $6400 for the library! That is $1000 more than we made on the sale at the same time last year.

The spot on my nose I was concerned about is a broken blood vessel and not a lesion according to the dermatologist. Since it was right next to the scar from a previously removed carcinoma that makes me very happy.

What will you accomplish this week?

Christine over at Spring Cleaning 365 suggests that today's daily task be to "Write down every single thing that you need to accomplish this week. Then schedule those things (but make sure they’re the RIGHT things) on your calendar. That way you’ll know WHEN you will accomplish those things on your to-do list." Well I do love a list and I haven't been getting much done so let's give it a shot.

Hmm .... Lose 5 pounds while eating cupcakes and ice cream? Book a trip to Paris? Magically know exactly where we will move in the summer of 2017? Guess that isn't what she meant!

I'm starting with my commitments:

Wednesday: Vet for monthly shot, Annual eye exam
Thursday: Volunteer book sorting at library, Monthly book club in evening including pick up food to take

Add in weekly chores:

Sunday: Wash linens
Monday: Clothes laundry, Clean house
Wednesday: Grocery shop at supermarket, Vet for monthly shot, Annual eye exam
Thursday: Volunteer book sorting at library, Monthly book club in evening including pick up food to take

And now exercise - keeping in mind predicted rain on Thursday and Friday and that I cancelled my gym membership as I just wasn't using it enough. I have rearranged our office to make space for at home workouts and the warmer weather will make long walks easier:

Sunday: Wash linens, Walk the Beltline with Hubby with lunch at midpoint
Monday: Laundry, Clean house, Stretch DVD, Walk dog
Tuesday: Long walk with dog
Wednesday: Stretch DVD, Walk dog, Grocery shop at supermarket, Vet for monthly shot, Annual eye exam
Thursday: Volunteer book sorting at library, Monthly book club in evening including pick up food to take
Friday: Stretch DVD, Walk dog if weather permits
Saturday: Long walk without dog

What else needs to get done? Rake leaves in driveway and courtyard and prune 2 bushes. Complete Federal and State amended tax returns due to late arriving data from inheritance. Confirm room available for annual meeting for Friends of the Library and transfer membership email list to a Gmail account. Alter a top and a pair of capris. Watch 4 Craftsy class sessions on altering clothing. Thrift shops for donation and warm weather clothing additions. Check out new to me stores for wardrobe additions. Find new groomer for dog. Wash car. Schedule bone density test and mammogram.

It was interesting to build my list this way and it includes time with friends, Hubby and pet, health, exercise, volunteering, workable wardrobe efforts, and homemaking.

The list got pretty long even though it doesn't include daily cooking and clean up! Doable? I'll let you know how it goes!

Sunday: Wash linens, Walk the Beltline with Hubby with lunch at midpoint, Rake leaves & prune, Start on amended tax returns.
Monday: Laundry, Clean house (half done), Stretch DVD, Walk dog, Alter top and capris, Confirm room availability for Friends annual meeting (left 2 messages - no response).
Tuesday: Long walk with dog,  Watch Craftsy class sessions 1 & 2, Thrift donations and shop, Visit potential new groomer
Wednesday: Stretch DVD, Walk dog. Grocery shop at supermarket, Vet for monthly shot, Annual eye exam (rescheduled due to Dr. running very late), Wash car.
Thursday: Volunteer book sorting at library (to Friday), Schedule bone density test and mammogram, Watch Craftsy class session 3 & 4 (NO, already know this unfortunately so this was a waste of money), Finish cleaning house, Monthly book club in evening including pick up food to take.
Friday: Stretch DVD, Walk dog if weather permits, Clothes shopping (postponed) & haircut
Saturday: Long walk without dog, Transfer membership email list to Gmail account, Finish amended tax returns (NO, taking to an accountant).

Another week, another 52 projects and accomplishments update

More projects completed:

23. Sprayed yard for mosquito control before they hatched. Hope to stay ahead of the problem this wet summer.

24. Altered two pairs of shorts so that they fit better and I am happier wearing them.

25. Hubby washed the front entry and siding. He also touched up some paint chips around the door using paint on hand.

Other accomplishments & all seem to be food related LOL.

- Made a coleslaw dish to take to the neighborhood potluck and summer party with what was on hand (green & red cabbage, green onions, red pepper, carrots and a vinegar dressing). It was a hit.

- Used up extra ripe bananas, applesauce and walnuts to make muffins

- Had 5 people over for lunch before a play matinee. We had fallen out of the habit of having people over to eat and are trying to get back to doing that more.

- Made a menu plan and followed it. No dinners out again this week.

- I am trying to break my going out for coffee & a treat every afternoon habit and managed not to do it at all this week.
 

Making the effort to socialize more

I am trying to be open to and act on opportunities to socialize more instead of spending my days happily alone. At the end of a week I always wish I had spent more time with family and friends.

We are going to a play Saturday afternoon along with our fellow season subscriber. Two other friends also bought tickets to this one and our cousin was planning to come for a long weekend visit. Her trip had to be postponed due to her mother's illness so I invited a single friend from up the street.

That would be good but in my effort to invite people over more often I invited everyone to lunch before the play. We cook for ourselves all the time but are out of practice cooking to entertain so I have be spending (too) many hours looking for ideas on food blogs!

Here is the menu for Saturday - what do you thing? Any suggestions?

Curried chicken sandwiches on croissants
Tomato salad with balsamic dressing
Watermelon mango salad
Cookies and gelato

And then we are off to see what should be a fun show - Cowgirls - at the Horizon Theatre here in Atlanta.

Taking the initiative for friendship

I am always ready to say "yes" if someone else asks me to do something with them - eager even. I tend to not reach out as much as I could to initiate spending time with friends and possible friends. This topic came up in my recent discussion with the Med School student I am mentoring. I decided to be more proactive and as usually happens each call/ask was met with a "yes" from the other person.

As a result I had lovely visits with friends two days this week - one over coffee and one at a holiday lunch. I need to do a lot more of this!

Do you tend to be the one to reach out to spend time with friends or do you wait to be asked?

Kick starting a new week

After rainy and gloomy weekend weather coupled with Hubby coming down with a bad cold I am looking forward even more than usual to the start of a new week. I predict a lovely week because -

No rain predicted for days - yeah! In fact it is supposed to warm up so I bet I'll get some longer walks in with the poodle princess who is looking mighty cute after her trip to the groomers last week.

Plans with friends 3 days this week - coffee today, book club party tomorrow and lunch on Thursday.

We sorted out the dates for our February trip to N. California in a nice long chat with our younger son this weekend. Now to start shopping plane tickets. This past weekend we bought plane tickets for our early April trip to Key West and reserved a car for our January trip to S. California (plane tickets purchased earlier).

I already found one item for this week's decluttering as we finished cleaning the upper kitchen cabinets. An old scratched acrylic serving tray is on its way out. If I clean any of the lower cabinets/drawers this week I imagine something else will pop up. I am on the fence about whether or not to keep a thermos and wooden salad bowl/servers so I put them back for now.

Discovered some great thrift shops

Today I had lunch with a friend and them she took me to her favorite thrift shops. In talking with her recently I had learned she liked to go to thrift stores and asked if she would like to give me a tour. She suggested lunch too and it was fun to deepen my friendship with her.

We went to 4 stores and I would definitely go back to 3 and check out the clothing only sister shop of one of them and another consignment store that only handles furnishings. 

I really was a big spender $2.07 for a big bag of bows, 9 Christmas cards and a roll of wrapping paper. I was almost out of all 3 and have enough to wrap gifts for several Christmases now and bows that can be used for all occasions. Not what was on my list but then I never thought that thrift shops would have them.

My favorite shop is the one that raises money for pet rescue organizations and has a store dog. I have been wanting to go there and was happy that the quality and variety of items was great. That will be my first return stop.

As a bonus, my friend was looking for cloth napkins for her Quaker Meeting's hospitality house. She'll take the 11 I am decluttering so they have a good next home.

Heading out for a weekend of fun

My book club is off on another out of town trip in the N. Georgia mountains early tomorrow morning. I've picked up a pre-made casserole from Casseroles in Virginia Highlands shopping district

which has this cute interior where you pick up your order.

Add bagels from a deli next to my gym and a bottle of wine and that is my contribution to the food.

We are heading to Parker Ranch which is operated by two book club members. We were there in the Spring too. This time we are hoping to take an afternoon hike and enjoy the fall color before heading in for a relaxing dinner and socializing time.

We decided to each read something by Alice Munro for our discussion. I have "Open Secrets" on my Kindle and hope to read it tonight. Right now I'm finishing up the week's laundry and getting ready to make ratatouille for dinner before packing my overnight case.

Enjoy your weekend!

Best laid plans - NOT

Earlier this week I posted my schedule for 5 days that included a lot of exercise for me at least. Well, I started off well by doing my new, harder workout at the gym on Monday morning and then felt "off" - not quite sick but not well - on Tuesday. I cut back and have just been doing what needs to be done, slept for 10 hours last night and finally woke up feeling great.

I'm off to the gym again this morning and hoping that it was some kind of virus and not my body rebelling against working out harder LOL. I am heading to the N. Georgia mountains with friends first thing Saturday morning with a hike planned in the afternoon. I don't want to feel poorly while out on a fun weekend.

Not much else to report. I did decide to return the new cable modem Comcast sent us as it won't do anything my current set up doesn't do. Although the modem is free you have to buy the backup battery while the current one came with a battery. We had already added a wireless router so it works fine. I just don't have the interest to go through changing things once again. I hope I don't regret it; the current modem doesn't fail as then they will probably charge me for a new one!

Going easy on food to take for the weekend too. A friend suggested we order a casserole from a take out place instead of someone trying to cook. I offered to split the cost and pick it up as she works full time still. Add in buying some bagels for breakfast and a bottle of wine and my contribution is done.

We are trying to figure out how to make our visits to family in CA work now that one son and DIL are in N. CA while the others and additional family are in S. CA. I should say, we are trying to figure out how to make it not cost twice as much as our usual trips! I'm sure it will work out.

Off to the gym now with high hopes that it wasn't my body rebelling against the workout that made me feel ill.

Line dancing and the week ahead

Our across the street neighbor invited us to her 40th birthday hoedown last night and we had fun learning to line dance and chatting with others. We even bought cheap cowboy hats to wear - I got the white one and Hubby the black.

This morning is a brisk fall day and I have already been out raking some leaves and walking the dog. Not sure what the rest of the day holds but it should be good.

I have decided to focus on exercise, volunteer work and routine homemaking/yard work this coming work week. Fortunately for her, exercise includes some nice long walks for the dog!

So here is the exercise and scheduled activities plan for the coming week. The house and yard work will get fit in.

Monday - gym, follow up on board duties for volunteer work
Tuesday - OLLI classes, walk in park with dog
Wednesday - gym, grocery shopping
Thursday - volunteer work, walk in park with dog
Friday - gym, prepare for book club weekend away

Which leads to the weekend and a trip to the N. Georgia mountains with some members of my book club. Another fun girl's weekend.

It is a pretty basic life at this point in retirement but I am having a good time.

Time with friends - priceless

I had a really lovely weekend spent with some of the members of my book club at the St. Simon's Island vacation home of one of the members. Yes we talked and ate a lot (and drank our share of wine) but we also built deeper friendships while walking on the beach, taking a ghost tour, shopping, attending the Shrimp and Grits Festival and generally enjoying a lovely island weekend.

We had read "Lighthouse" by Eugenia Price to tie in with the weekend to of course we had to pose in front of the (rebuilt) lighthouse shortly after arriving.

 

Then we walked on the beach.

 

The next morning we headed over to the Jekyll Island Shrimp and Grits Festival.

 

 We didn't stop in this shop but later some of us wandered around St. Simon's little village in a successful search for ice cream.

 

  And our drive home, complete with traffic jam, was cheered by this sight!

How do you offer condolences after a death in this age of email and facebook?

Recently I have needed to offer condolences after the deaths of parents of others. One was for the mother of a neighbor; the other for the grandfather of my DIL on the other side of the country. In both cases I decided to use email as it was prompt. My Mom would be appalled but then she is a determined Luddite.

I also placed a phone call to my DIL while her grandfather was in the hospital to offer support.

I'm not sure how others are handling the changes in communication. The bereaved have posted things on facebook. Odd to "like" a comment about a recently departed loved one.

I do know that when my father died a few years ago I would truly have like to have heard condolences in any form as so few were offered other than by immediate family.

How are you handling this?

Off on a girls' weekend in the mountains and then to a wedding

I have wonderful friends in my book club and some of us are heading off for a fun overnight outing in the North Georgia mountains. Two of our members have leased a "ranch" to run as a retreat/workshop center and they invited any of us who were interested in going to come up for the weekend before they officially open. I'm really looking forward to having fun with this amazing and kind group of women.

Once I get back we will be on countdown to my younger son's wedding. My baby (ok, he's 30 but still ...) is getting married May 4th to my fantastic soon to be DIL. We head off to CA later in the coming week and have a busy wedding weekend. It will be so wonderful and we are very happy for them.

No more travel or big fun events planned in our lives until we head to Tahoe for my nephew's wedding in mid-July. We are turning that into a mini-vacation so it will be extra fun.

Do you have any fun trips or family events planned for this Spring or Summer?

Reconnecting with "old" friends

Every few years I have a wonderful time reconnecting in person with the woman who was a very close friend in middle school and high school. Neither of us keeps in touch with anyone else from those years but we have made sure this connection lasts. What is remarkable is that we just get together and pick up the conversation like it was yesterday. Of course there are some emails, etc. between in person visits but still I think having that ease of long term friendship is marvelous.

She is at a conference in my city so I picked her up and brought her to my neighborhood to see some of our favorite local places. I picked a Thai restaurant for dinner as I knew that on a Wednesday night it would be quiet enough for us to actually talk and linger over dinner. The food is always great too. Then we walked around the corner to my favorite and local coffee place and chatted more. Hard to believe we met 50 years ago when she moved to my home town! We've both moved around the country since then but find ourselves in each others location occasionally and take advantage of that.

How long have you known your "oldest" friend and do you see each other in person still?

February mini-goals

February is a short month and my goals list is short too. 

I am really going to try to make exercise a priority and habit. 

-         Exercise and stretch daily

o   Do shoulder exercises 2x a day

o   Pilates session, walk without dog, or exercise dvd daily

o   Walk dog daily if weather permits

-         Eat lots of fruit/vegetables and healthy snacks

-    Alter pants that no longer fit

-    Create Spring outfits from what have using inspiration board and Project 333 list as a guide

-    Invite friends over for a meal

-    Visit art museum

-    Buy only what food/household products/toiletries actually need for week

Another cute poodle

When we picked up our very own poodle princess from her pet sitter (who was also her rescuer and foster Mom) I was given this adorable belated Christmas gift. She definitely has the princess confidence that ours has LOL. I'm not one to collect figurines, but I do still have the little fox terrier one my Mom gave me when I was a child and had a miniature fox terrier as my first dog. This girl will join it on my dresser.

By the way, thanks to the wonder of the internet, I learned the technique is called spaghetti glass and the it was sold as a lipstick holder. The eyes were originally blue as well. Cute.