Things and Thoughts for Monday

It was a beautiful day in North Texas!

 Sun was shining and birds were singing and Louis Dean and I both slept so well last night.

Waking up rested makes any good day even better.

Plus I woke up knowing I was going to have company for lunch!

It has long been a tradition for my friend, Brenda C and I to have lunch together once a month.

In recent times that hasn't happened as often as we would have liked.

Brenda has lost both of her parents within the last year or so and her husband, Billy,  has lost his dad. I lost Mother and life just keeps us all so busy that we had to seriously say, "Wait a minute!"

We purposely marked our calendars and on today's date in my kitchen planner I had written -

'Lunch - Brenda - Here - 1:00'

If we plan it and write it down - it stands a better chance of happening.

Sometimes we have to reschedule but that works too.

I fixed baked potatoes and salad and mango tea.

It was really good!

I put everything I can find into salads and today I used a few sliced strawberries, a half of an orange, avocado, crispy popcorn shrimp and the usual lettuce, carrots, cheese and tomatoes.

Plus I opened up a bottle of Ken's Steakhouse Lite Sweet Vidalia Onion Dressing.

It was really really good!

I am so blessed!

I visited with a friend on Saturday night over supper and now today with Brenda for lunch.

The hour flew by and she had to go back to work and I did the dishes and rounded Louis Dean up to go walk at the Senior Center. It actually felt good to get back to our routine. I feel like we got plenty of exercise while we were at the ranch. We walk a lot when we do Critter Chores.

When we see the cardiologist on Wednesday, we can honestly say we have been doing our exercise.

We are home the rest of this month and there are some projects that we need to do.

One was caulking some cracks in the ceiling where Louis Dean had fallen through the dining room while he was in the attic several years ago. He repaired this using new Sheetrock and did a good job but the house has shifted and I could see tiny dark lines outlining the repairs. It helps that we have acoustic ceilings so now the dark lines are gone and white shows up. No matter. I'd rather see white than black when I look up. And in time it will probably not be quite so white. I am easy to please.

We did this last 'Honey Do' last night.

So moving into the afternoon, I removed all the debris from the table in the sewing room and took down the curtains and things on the wall. A long time ago, Summer and I found a long heavy sturdy box used to hold nails and such sitting on a curb in the neighborhood. We stopped and put it in the back of the van. That's how long ago it was! I still have my old Chevrolet van.  The box fit perfectly above the windows in the sewing room and I have enjoyed looking at it all these years. However.....the house shifting and all those small earthquakes we used to have caused the box to slip down on one end. It got worse and worse until it looked like it was being held up by a big heavy book at one end.

It was a pretty easy fix for Louis Dean. He thought he was done when I asked him to help me move a big trunk. You can barely see it in the picture but when he moved it, the bottom came loose. The flash flood that happened when we were on our road trip home from the cruise had done more damage than we realized. I bought that trunk in 1964 when I was 15 years old at a flea market on Hemphill Street in Fort Worth, Texas. It was an antique then. We paid $15 for it and Jesse (my ex-husband) restored it and lined it with cedar. Several years later when I started painting, I decorated the top with tole painting. It's a goner now and we are taking it to the curb in the morning.

All the denim that I had stored in it was ruined and all that is in bags at the curb for trash pickup in  the morning. The only thing I redeemed in the whole trunk was a baby quilt I made for Amber before she was born. It's in the washing machine now. I just couldn't bring myself to throw it away.

Speaking of 'throwing things away'.....I have an entire trunk full of things to take to the Goodwill in the morning! I have been doing some purging!

There's a lot to sort through in the sewing room in the coming days.

I already found this cedar box on the bookshelf above my desk.

Doug (Reaoma's husband) made this one for Benjamin, my son.

Amber has one just like it.

I sent Ben a picture of it and a text.

He knew I had it and it was safe but we just didn't know where it was.

I found a small book on horses to take to Logan and a cute little notebook to take for Kailey.

In the morning I will shop the shelves and find something for Trystan and Harrison.

I'm going to meet up with Amber for a movie tomorrow and stay and see the kids after school.

Yesterday I was thanking God for Dr. Bloom and that I no longer suffer from bladder infections.

This photo came up from this day on 2008 when we went down to Houston to attend the Launch Party for Houston Brides. Amber was the editor in chief and it was such an exciting time.

See my bent right leg? I could not make it straight. That summer I had a complete knee replacement and it was amazing! That's been 11 years ago....

So while we are busy here in the city doing all the homeowner chores and getting projects down......

I'm missing the country. But we will enjoy it better when we get back down there knowing that we have been good stewards in keeping our property up and taking good care of what we have.

Tonight we hauled the table and chair that was in our bedroom - and had been sitting outside the back door since last Wednesday - out to the gazebo. We have a job to do in there but it must wait until we get the elm tree cut. Louis Dean wants to get it topped off even with the gazebo. It's dead so it won't be growing any more and this way there will be nothing to fall on top of it.

I used to have this urgent desire to get everything done!

All the repairs. All the improvements. All the updates. All the decorating. 

I still want to do what needs to be done. But it really is the journey - the very doing of these things - that count. 

I am thoroughly enjoying the journey!