Catching Up.....Mon/Tues/Wed......

Monday morning - or actually early afternoon - we meant to start bright and early and instead it was just bright with the sun shining. There is shade on this west side of the house until about 1:00. Then it's full sun until it goes down. Thankfully, it was pleasantly warm and not hot.

Louis Dean painted high.....

and I painted low.

While he was doing his part, I was turning some of my photos into pencil sketches for art projects.

These are all scenes from the country and the ranch.

All I need to do is enlarge them to the size of the canvas I choose.

We stopped painting after doing the wall to the right of the kitchen French doors and cleaned up for our evening activities.

I was in the bedroom getting dressed when I heard a swooshing flock of cedar waxwings arrive to eat all the red berries off the yaupon holly tree.

We were sitting in the gazebo a year or two ago when we heard them swoop down and start eating.

 They ate every single berry in under an hour.

And Monday they did it agian!

It took a little longer this time because the tree had grown back after the severe pruning Louis Dean had given it.

That was a lot of birds and a whole lot of berries.

We went to the center and did our walking before driving to Dallas to watch the quad's very first hockey game!

They were amazing!!!!

Their first game. 6 girls and 3 boys.

The coach asked for a volunteer to be goalie......and Kailey said she would do it!

She was pretty awesome!

First time she had EVER put on all that gear and still managed to skate with it.

It was hard for her to stand up so she had to hang on to the net a lot and still she did a good job. 

She stopped some scores and amazed everybody.

All the other players went on and off the ice.....but Kailey stayed.

In the second half, she left the ice for a few minutes. I think it was Logan that took over - minus all the gear. But Kailey is no quitter and wanted to finish out the game so she came back on the ice - to the cheers and applause of all the parents!

So I think that made her the MVP of this first game!!

But the REAL heroes Monday night.......

......were Amber and Mike!!

The amount of hard work just to get all four kids there and dressed and suited up is massive.

To celebrate they went to Chick Fil A along with another great couple whose daughter plays on the team. 

We tagged along and had so much fun!

I don't know who we were prouder of - the kids or the parents!!!

They went home to do showers, school prep for the next morning and Amber did the lunches, laundry and all the endless other tasks she has to complete before SHE can go to bed!

As for us - we drove home and went right to bed.

However, for some reason I did not sleep well at all.

It was 4:00 in the morning and I was still awake.

Louis Dean was up way before I was and he was getting ready to paint just as soon as we had our coffee and devotionals.

I was so tired that I decided to take a day for myself.

I unloaded a very full trunk at the Goodwill before going in to see if I could find a few treasures.

Of course, I found a few!

The cool basket was just $3.99 less 25%.

Same with the Paris can. Both were brand new.

I loved this Happy Everything ceramic platter.

The truck is attached with Velcro. Apparently you can buy other cute pieces for the different occasions. 

A new fall runner.....brand new.

Two nice place mats - new.

This is a cool high quality pillow.

As a matter of fact, I have it in the chair cushioning the small of my back.

Seems like I have been wearing a good deal of black in recent years and I found my newest top yesterday! It draped nicely and makes my stomach look flatter than it is!

I'll be wearing this in the morning.

This one does the same thing!

It just needs a tiny button at the back replaced.

I'm going to do that tomorrow.

I have a whole drawer stuffed full of scarves. 

Now there are 15 spring ones hanging in my closet making it easier to find.

From there I decided to stop at Irving Massage and get a 20 minute chair massage.

My right shoulder across and down my back, arm and even my hand has been aching.

I think I am sleeping wrong on it. The massage was nice but it didn't really help.

I'm using Ben Gay now.

Lastly,  I had a mani/pedi at Lovely Nails before going home.

I fixed us a nice salad supper with a healthier dressing.

I still need to experiment with making my own.

We were both tired and dragging but we drug ourselves to the center to walk anyway.

However, we cried uncle after 15 minutes on the treadmill and came back home.

I went straight to bed and stayed there for 12 hours!

This morning, Wednesday morning, I was feeling better so we decided to walk before we got on with our projects for the day. We stayed the course and did our full time plus some. Like 2 minutes more. Let's don't go crazy!

Louis Dean went to work painting and I worked in the kitchen.....

making potato salad, chocolate chip cookies, grilled some smoked sausages and prepped lunch for tomorrow at the nursing home. I still have to go in and make a fluffy salad before I go to bed.

The house smells good - from the cookies. I used butter instead of shortening. It made them really crispy. I'm taking cookies instead of cake this time. I am a bit tired of making cakes.

Can you believe I did not take any pictures for today?

I feel like I'm off my game.

Hopefully I will wake up feeling like my normal self in the morning.

If I don't, I'll just push on!

I'm closing tonight thinking about Summer and Mary.

Summer has been staying with Mary, a dear friend who is in the hospital with a very serious lung condition.

Summer ordered Chinese take out for dinner tonight.

Hospital food was okay but Mary has been there for several days.

I think the fortune cookies are spot on.

Mary's is at the top.....Summer's on the bottom.

God has a plan and a purpose for all of us....no matter our own state of health.....or if we're tired.

Sometimes you just have to suck it up and do the thing that needs doing....

like visiting the sick....filling the needs of others....praying and caring.

And now I'm going back to the kitchen to fix that salad and then calling this day done!!