Tuesday's Treasures.....

Tuesday morning Louis Dean and I took our coffee and Bible Basket out to the kitchen deck as is our custom. We sit with our first cup and admire the comings and goings of the side yard....

From dragon flies - aka snake doctors - to bumblebees, honeybees, and butterlies.

It's such a busy place for all the tiny little flying creatures.

We watch as a bumblebee crawls inside this trumpet vine bloom and marvel that they do this every day!! I want to call out that someone's already been in there - but who knows?

It may have an abundance of nectar in there so it's like a buffet line.

The other day we say two dragon flies mating in the air!!

We couldn't believe it!

There's always so much to see and so much activity right there in front of our eyes.

After our morning routine, I decided to go Goodwilling for a little while.

I had not been to a thrift store in a long time.

It wasn't a truw jack pot but I did find some treasures.

I pretty much missed pool time with the grands but I saw these torpedo swim things and bought them to tuck into my swim bag in case I get to go one more time before the pools are all closed for the season.

Louis Dean is going to hang the Hook and Ring game up on the outside wall to play when we have guests. It's not an easy game! I played this with Rayne a couple of years ago and I didn't even come close to scoring while she ran away with it! She has skills!

My two favorite thinsg are the pretty lamp and the brand new Victoria's Secret bag!

The candle lamps with go in the den - I shall set one in each window facing the driveway and in the two bedroom windows as well. Good thing I have an extra candle light since this box came with 6 brand new ones and I have 7 windows.

In the lower left hand corner is a double set of picnic tablecloth weights. Clever!

Goodwills are great places to buy lampshades. Less than $2 each and I needed one to replace a shade that had torn. I noticed it the other day when I was cleaning the sewing room.

I've been reading books by naturalists lately and John Muir was one of the greatest.

I'm not sure if Gladys Tabor is classified as a naturalist - but if not - she should be!

Arlene mentioned her to me and she is one of my favorite authors ever.

Which author would you read if you could only choose one?

I do believe my choice would be Gladys Tabor.

Her writings just make me feel good.

We woke up to rain this morning!

Louis Dean had planned to go on down to the ranch earlier this week but one thing and another delayed him and now the rain. It's rained HARD down in the Waco area - so much so that Dean and Sherry missed attending the Hillsboro bee meeting yesterday. We've decided to just go down together on Sunday afternoon instead of him going on alone. It was always my plan to drive down in time for  the Waco bee meeting next week - it's the honey tasting event and I can't wait! 

The mail came today and as I was on the front porch after getting it from the box, the mailman came back around the front yard and said he had two packages in his bag for me. Actually, one was for Summer but one was for ME!

What a nice surprise!

Apretty card, a Save the Bees sticker, a Majesty bee bag and a pair of the cutest bee socks!!!

The box was from my friend, Marilyn in Michigan.

It's such a blessing to have such sweet friends!!

Louis Dean has been busy since we got home from Snyder....

he put a deck in along the east side of the house....just a 4 foot wide one to hold the deck storage boxes he bought. He also planted some landscaping bushes and flowers for me, put a new doorknob in the kitchen French door when the old one fell off in his hand, and intsalled a new light in the laundry room.

And he wonders why he's tired!

So today with the rain, he's worked on his music and watched back to back episodes of Gunsmoke.

I've stayed busy cleaning and then gilding each room in gold - in the form of fall decorations.

Pumpkins and the colorful fall garlands of foliage are the two staples used in every room from the bathroom to the sewing room to the bedrooms and the kitchen.

Now I am working in the foyer.

I use the same decorations every year until they look too trashy even to me.

It's like welcoming old friends when I pull out the ceramic pumpkins I made so very long ago.

Every decoration seems to hold a memory for me and they are all good ones since I have always loved fall best of all.....

The thing is, I don't put things back in the same place every year. Or even in the same room.

Last year I featured all the Halloween decorations in the sewing room.

The year before that, they were in the gazebo.

2018 they were all gathered on the front porch and foyer.

This year they will be in the den - but I haven't made it in there yet.

It's nice to have these quiet days here at home to fluff my nest.

We are both taking naps and rests thoughout the day and then staying up late at night.....

or not. As in tonight. Louis Dean has already had his bath and is in bed. I will follow shortly.

I get the room ready for him by removing half of the 10 pillows piled up on the bed - and that's not counting the two we sleep with -  and turning down the covers..

 I turn the AC on and the little lights off - except for one. Fill the oil diffuser for the night and am thinking I need to get a larger one that lasts longer. Finally, I turn on the sound machine to the Ocean setting. He will be sound asleep by the time I crawl under the covers.

But before I go.......I love seeing all the back to school pictures on Facebook!

Leigh Ann sent these of Faith and Levi on the family text Monday - their first day of the new school year!

Faith is in high school and orchestra plays a big part in her life.

Music is in her soul and it's a real gift to hear her play and sing.

Levi started high school on Monday!

He is the coolest kid. Super sweet. Super smart and super COOL!!

I print up my blogs by the year and they can already go through the ones I've had done and see themselves back when they were little. I want to make sure they make an appearance in every book I print! Whike they look so grown up to me today, in time to come, we will look at the pictures and think...'they were so young!'

'To be able to watch your children's children grow up is truly a blessing from above.'

Byron Pulsifer