And Then There's the Rest of This Week......

It has been a busy week and at the end of each day - I have been so ready to go to bed that I am now playing catch up here on Saturday night! Louis Dean is watching The Virginian out in the den - I can just barely hear it. I have Sara Brightman singing in the living room and the air conditioner is humming outside the sewing room's French doors. It's a good time to journal.......

I will pick up at Tuesday when Summer and I shopped a couple of thrift stores and Aldi before heading over to Dallas to have dinner with the Bells.

I have a Love/Hate relationship with purses!

I see one and think it will work and then it doesn't.

I'm not even sure this is meant to be a purse.

It's a brand new Steve Madden bag with an insert bag.

I love the pretty spring color and the fact that the bag opens up so I cannot NOT find my keys or phone! There's a strap that fastens from end to end across the bag plus the magnet snap to hold the sides together. I have been using it this week and it is WORKING for me! I am so excited!

Haven't used the insert yet.....but this would make a perfect overnight ensemble. I may use it for that after the new wears off of being able to carry everything and still find my keys and phone for awhile.

Even my book fits in it! Currently reading Sue Grafton's V is for Vengeance. Still can't believe she is gone......

Summer spied this wooden carrier and thought it would be perfect for my art brushes!

I plan to put them in their new home tomorrow!

We use coasters a lot. Mostly to cover our drinks.

This is such a cool box. The receipt was inside. It was purchased in New York for $20.

I bought it for $4.

The end side has cute paw prints burned in.

I have it on the bottom shelf in the foyer to hold the things I need to take to people.

Right now there's a poetry book to return to Nita and some of those heat patches for sore shoulders and necks for Lillian. It will slowly fill up over the weekend and be ready for distribution come Monday.

I just love this big basket with the chicken wire.

My current plan is to use it in the centerpiece for the dining room table tomorrow.

Not sure what I will be doing but the Easter setting will be put away and a spring/summer table will be set.

Our next stop was at Aldi to stock up on needed groceries and ingredients for the dishes I was making this week. We unloaded things at home and then headed to Dallas to have dinner at the Bell's house.

Amber was getting ready for her 6th Quad Mom Trip and we were so excited to meet Krista in person. Of course, we feel like we already knew her from all the years I have read her blog and followed her on Facebook.

Amber made an awesome dinner - as she always does - of chicken fajitas and beans and rice. Black beans and fancy rice. Not the re fried and Spanish rice I make. It was all really REALLY good.

The girls were supposed to have had a double softball game - but the storms cancelled them. 

That meant we could party - sort of!

The kids still had to go to school the next morning but it felt like a party with Krista there!

I totally forgot to take even one photo!

Summer and I headed home early since I do not see well to drive at night anymore.

Look what arrived!!!

My bee suit!

All dressed up and no place to go!

Dean and Sherry were picking up our bees as I posed!

Dean shared the experience with me by photos and videos on Facebook.

It wasn't quite the same as being there - but I was so happy to get to see it happen!

After my photo op wearing the bee suit - Summer gave me an early Mother's Day gift.......

A Bee Jar......and not just any bee jar!

A Rae Dun bee jar!

I am going to be filling it with our very own honey in time to come!

Thus ended a very busy Tuesday!

Wednesday was my one and only Stay at Home Day!

I slept late - so late that I made a good lunch for us all skipping breakfast all together.

Fresh roasted veggies with rosemary - my favorite!

A good healthy garden salad.

And baked tilapia seasoned well.......

plus I had baked up all the fruitcake cookie dough I had stored in the fridge.

The cookies were still warm to the touch when I sent a text to June.

Fruitcake cookies are her very favorite!

It wasn't long before Kimmy came by to pick them up and we got to have a nice little visit.

I packed a special tin full for our dear Lily - Nita's MIL and Joni's mom.

I usually bake a batch for her birthday in April but I am late this year!

That afternoon I prepared the food to take to the nursing home the next day.

Summer left to go back to Rowlett that evening.

She is in a bit of a transition stage.

Summer will be moving on from Rowlett in the near future but she's still working out her plans.

Prayers would be very much appreciated.

Thus ended our Wednesday!

Thursday morning I had to wait until the storms passed through Irving before I headed to Fort Worth to the Trail Lake Nursing Home to see Lillian.

I have learned it's best to go on in and set up lunch before going going to see Lillian.

That way we go right on in to eat.

The staff usually have residents pushed up to the table - and I cannot figure out why.

The TV is to the right and the table is in the corner.

Anyway, I push them away from the table and adjust their covers and make sure they don't feel like I am being rude. In truth, they really do not understand much of what's going on anyway.

Next time I do this - I am going to use the bigger living room up by the entrance. It's prettier and cleaner and I think it would make for a nicer ambiance.

I served a watermelon salad.....made with feta cheese and mint.

And a corn/cucumber/cherry tomato salad.

I forgot to take a pic of the homemade Cheese Manicotti!

It was delicious if I do say so myself! Lillian and Margaret agreed!

I also had garlic bread and fruitcake cookies for dessert.

The storm clouds were gathering over the Fort Worth skies when I left the nursing home Thursday afternoon. I managed to get home with only a few showers and no trouble using the directions on my WAZE direction thingy!

I arrived back at 5:00 just in time for wine on the driveway with Louis Dean.

I called this 'dinner' that night.

Worked for me. And for him.

Win! WIN!!

Thus ended our Thursday!

Louis Dean was up before I was Friday morning and he was knee deep in The Virginian when I got up. He brought me a cup of coffee in bed and said he would stay to visit but he had to help the Virginian because he was in a tight spot.

When I finally got up and we had done our reading and prayer time - he said he had a special Virginian that he had recorded and saved just for me......

He knows I love Robert Redford!

It was a really good show and Robert Redford was really REALLY young and beautiful!

He has not aged half as well as Louis Dean has!

Just saying.......

Amber was on her Quad Mom trip and I wanted to spend some time with the quads so I was headed to Dallas once again......

I snapped this pic before I left!

Louis Dean had hired the MG Tree Service of Irving to top off the big elm next to the gazebo.

I left him to it.

Mike did the school pick up so I made a trip to Hobby Lobby.

I love that place.

I picked up supplies for a Mother's Day gift the kids were going to make for their Mama.

They had been at school all day long - and it IS a long day!

So they wanted some time to run around the neighborhood and play and get some of the kinks of sitting at a desk out.

The sanitation workers are all heroes in the eyes of children and their parents.....and this MeeMaw!

They rode their razors up and down the street until they saw the trash truck.

Then they followed it.

Such fun!

Especially when the 'jaws' of the trash pick up squeezed so hard the trash container broke!

NOT our trash can.....it was one further up the street.

Yes, the kids followed the trash truck as far as they could.

The kids played and I sat on the front porch and watched them.

I even napped a few minutes and then I read my book and sipped my tea.....and all four of the quads sipped it along with me. I am famous for my tea and I never fail to share it with them. They have been sipping it from a very early age.

We finished the project for Amber's Mother's Day gift and Mike served us all up Pizza, Popcorn, Coke and Movie on this Friday Night Tradition!

I got home after dark so I couldn't see the missing tree branches but Louis Dean and I sat out on the deck smelling the honeysuckle before the storms came in again and we went to bed

I took pictures this morning!

No dead limbs over the gazebo or the power lines.

Unfortunately, one limb fell and bent the frame of the gazebo.

No worries.

Louis Dean can fix it!

He told the tree man, "I can fix the gazebo. I COULD NOT take down that tree."

Then he said, "But back in my 60's I could have!!"

So he has been busy today doing what he does......

and I have been busy doing what I do.

I redid some of the wall around the kitchen table.

I set up the place setting in anticipation for lunch this Monday with Brenda.

I have been redeeming the house room by room.

So far the den, laundry room, kitchen, foyer and living room are all clean.

I'll move on to other rooms tomorrow.

This was cause to stop and enjoy a happy hour moment.

We even had snacks.

Now I am going to go back to the den and close out the last few minutes of Saturday night with him.

Sleep well and wishing you a blessed Sunday!