When I woke up this morning, Summer was already up and going!
I could immediately tell she was feeling better by the sound of her voice.
She said she was feeling much better than she thought she would and we have all the prayers prayed to thank for that.
Thank you, all......so very much!!
She and I worked like two mad women with their hair on fire!!
We finished up the laundry, floors and went to work on the guest room.
Summer even cleaned with a Q-tip the crevices of the lamp figurines.
I jumped into the shower at 1:00 while Summer spirited our car off and had it washed, then vacuumed it out and wiped it all clean!
We were on Mockingbird Lane headed to the entrance of Dallas Love Field when we saw the Southwest Airline plane holding my brother swoop down for a landing. We knew it was his plane - the timing was right on schedule.
Summer was driving and she found a parking place while I went in to find Buster!
This was such a happy moment for me!
We walked hand in hand out of the airport .....
this was when Summer met her uncle for the very first time.
It was nearly 3:00 and we were all hungry so we decided to go on over to Arlington to Campo Verde where we were meeting up with son Jesse and Sam, Faith and Levi.
We decided to order drinks and appetizers while we waited for the others.
We had a wonderful time as everyone met Buster and he met my son and my oldest grandchildren! We talked, laughed, told stories and talked some more and it was everything I had hoped it would be. The best thing of all is - we will all be together again on Saturday along with my other children and grandchildren - except for Rayne with whom we shall Face Time!
This was FUN!
Summer drove home by way of the AT&T Stadium and the ball park.
I kind of liked having a driver while I sat in the back seat with Buster.
I'm loving having my youngest brother sleeping under my roof tonight.
What's even better is that our sister Rita will be here tomorrow afternoon along with her husband Thomas.
I'm going to bed now with such a happy heart!
Thank you, Lord, for Summer feeling better and for my brother arriving safely,and for the fellowship of family tonight . Please bring Rita and Thomas here safely tomorrow.
Our last day of preparation for my Kansas City Siblings' visit!
Louis Dean is - has - and always will be - my Knight in Shining Overalls - to use my sister Nita's phrase!
The front yard is far from done but it is presentable so Louis Dean decided to start in on the deck area next to the kitchen French doors.
His least favorite job is cleaning he ponds but he stepped up to the plate and DID it!
At least this kitchen pond.
The dreading of it is often worse than the doing of something and this proved to be thecase with him today.
He had planned to go with me to get mani/pedi's but opted to stay and do more clean up in this area.
That didn't stop me!!
I had a 2:30 appointment and I had such a wonderful time!
A glass of wine and a good chair massage and an excellent manicure and pedicure from such a wonderful manicurist! I go to Hollywood Nails and the staff there is awesome as is the clientele. Everyone visits and talks and it seems like we are at a party together!
When I finished, I shopped Texas Thrift which is in the same strip mall and I did, indeed, find some Tuesday Treasures!
Less than $25 for all plus another thing or two I forgot to document!
The Anne Taylor top was a real treasure as is the brand new handbag!
From there I shopped Aldi for food for my Sibling weekend!
I bought a big bill of groceries and I noticed the guy behind me was buying two ready to eat snacks and a drink.
When I was on my way to the car, a young man asked me if I could give him something to eat. I don't carry real money and all I had was a quarter for the Aldi grocery cart.
That's when the guy came out that was behind me in line and handed the young man the food he had just purchased! I just imagine he had already bought his groceries and when the guy asked for food, he must have gone back in and bought him something to eat.
What a blessing it was to me to witness 'the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living."
Next time I am going to be a blessing like this man was.....
I came in and put groceries up and vacuumed wo rooms. emptied the dishwasher and changed out the laundry and then folded and put it up.
I'll be up early in the morning cleaning the guest room and preparing for my brother Buster's visit.
Summer is still here and I didn't mention it last night but Summer fell on the driveway in the late afternoon and really aggravated her piriformis problem.
She falls for seemingly no reason and she falls often.
I am hoping the doctors will address this problem.
While Summer is so much better and can live a more normal life now - she is not pain free by any means. She is able to cope with the pain better and is not in a pain fog all the time.
I would appreciate any prayers y'all could offer up to the Lord for her.
She is hoping that after medicating and staying in bed all day and tonight, she will be better in the morning.
That's one of the things Louis Dean dearly loves to do!!!
Digging in the dirt!!!
We dug up all the liriope in the very front flower bed near the front door so we could 'divide and conquer' by lining them up along the driveway flower bed.
As soon as I woke up this morning, I walked out to admire what we had accomplished yesterday and found Summer already working!
I made us a bowl of cereal and we ate that before I got dressed and went out to join her.
Digging up the 'debris' was not too hard but breaking up the ground and getting it ready to plant required Super Man Labor!!! He swooped in and made it happen!
We worked until after noon when I cried UNCLE and went in to do laundry and housework.
Summer and Louis Dean worked on until 2:00 when I insisted they come in for a salad and pizza lunch.
There's shade out there around 4:00 but we didn't go back out until 6:00 and worked until after 8:00.
I have lived in this house since July 1967 so we have very 'established landscaping.'
It has been upgraded and changed often throughout the years but the last time was shortly after I married Louis Dean in 2005. It was time. Time to redo a few things and we are on a roll!
But that roll has stopped for now.
We have finished up what we were doing and cleaned the driveway, put away all our tools and are now regrouping.
Brother Buster will arrive here in less than 40 hours with Sister Rita and Thomas driving in 24 hours later! I am so excited!
We have stopped on the yard work and tomorrow will be an errand day - getting the car washed, grocery shopping at Aldi's and mani/pedis all around!
We can't wait for them to get here!!!
I am so grateful for every single one of my siblings...
Sundays are so special and it felt good to be in church again.
We watch services online when we are at the ranch but we try to worship together at Fellowship when we are home. I'm so thankful to have a home church. Ours is a large one and there are so many opportunities here to serve. The greeter who is at the door where we go in to be seated is such a sweet friendly lady. Today she was all dressed up like she was going to a wedding and I told her how beautiful she looked. I would love to be a greeter someday. As it is now, Louis Dean and I arrive slightly late as he is a heart patient and the music is loud enough to cause him discomfort so we come in shortly before the message.
This morning Louis Dean drove us in his truck. I say 'us' since Summer is spending the week with us. From church we went straight to Home Depot's Gardening Center which proved to be a popular place! People milling around looking at all the plants and flowers and bushes.
Louis Dean loaded up 10 big bags of the red cedar bark mulch we like so much and then several bags of garden top soil. I bought two different kinds of gardenia bushes - one that climbs and one 'normal' one that already has a bloom on it and it smells fantastic!
Marigolds and some lettuce and a pepper plants rounded out my purchases.
We had good sandwiches and potato salad for lunch......
with a sweet dessert!
Vanilla cream filled brioche from Aldi topped with Cool Whip and fresh strawberries and blueberries.
I don't know what Summer and Louis Dean did this afternoon but I went to bed for a nap - a really GOOD nap complete with sound machine and earplugs - and slept deeply for three solid hours! I was tired!
Louis Dean was sitting outside on the driveway at the big table waiting for me to wake up.
My goal was to do the bed along the driveway and I succeeded in finishing one quarter of it!
It got dark on me and he put up some lights so I could see what I was doing.
Look what we found earlier this weekend when we were digging in the front yard.
This was one of Benjamin's shoes from maybe 1995 when he was just 7 or 8 years old.
He always did like to play in the mud and this shoe has been in really DEEP mud for a very long time!
We are in and will continue our work in the flower beds tomorrow.
For now Louis Dean is going to bed early after taking a nice long, hot soaking bath.
Summer's doing some work on her computer and I am about to do some mending and sewing. Maybe I will pull up something to watch on Amazon Prime Video.....
Tuesdays are always special to me! If I'm at home in the city - then it's the thrill of the hunt at the Goodwill and thrift. stores. When we are at the ranch - then it's Bee Meeting Day!
Tuesday morning was a perfect day to sip Texas Pecan coffee from my bee mug and enjoy my honey scented candle from Amber!
When the grand quads were here on Thursday morning, we collected a sum total of two eggs.
One small and one large. They meant to take them home with them except one egg cracked slightly in the walk back up to the camper and they carefully wrapped the smaller one - amd then forgot to take it with them!
SO I used them for our breakfast!
Along with some fried potatoes with onion - it made for a fine meal.
Dean and Sherry picked me up shortly before 5:00 on Tuesday afternoon.
We need to get that crack in the truck windshield fixed!
We met up with our friend, Rosey, and a new couple who are just starting out on their beekeeping adventures. These potato nachos are the BEST!!! The margarita was every bit as good!
There's not a lot of photo ops to our bee meetings but tonight we had a guest speaker who talked about qualifying for AG.......agriculture use tax exemptions.
Dean and Sherry already have theirs but keeping bees is another option.
Wednesday morning we were packing up and getting ready to go home.
Sherry gifted me with some paintbrushes and this clever holder.
I thought it looked pretty on the front room table.
I always set it up for our next visit!
The Buffalo plaids are gone and a spring/summer floral is in place.
Look who came down to tell us goodbye!
And to get a handout!!
I may have given him a small piece of perfectly seasoned and cooked steak!
And a couple of hot dogs and a bit of lunchmeat.....
I'm a sucker for a pretty face - when it comes to Rufus.
We stopped at HEB in Bellmead where I was shopping for all things TEXAS!
Two of my Kansas City siblings will be visiting me next week and I was getting things for a goodie bag for them. Finding this local wine was perfect! It will finish off the bottles I bought at the Red Wing Dove Winery last week! Next week is showing Rita, Thomas and Buster the best of Texas wines and more. They showed me and Nita and Mike such a great time when we visited them in Kansas City last May that we have been thinking of how we can honor them on their visit to us!
We were home before dark and then the work of unloading, putting things away and an enormous of amount of laundry had us working late into the night.
We slept late Thursday - since we had been up until the wee hours of the morn!
I had a dentist appointment and then shopped Aldi for a few things. I LOVE that store!
When I got home I went straight to work cleaning the den. It had been the longest time since I had actually cleaned in there and I was ashamed!
I turned the stereo on tuned in to a country music station and when I heard Pat Green singing Wave on Wave - I sat right down and listened with a big smile on my face!
I LOVE this song by Pat Green - a local Texas musician from Austin - that came out in 2003.
That was the year my life was changing in huge ways and,
for whatever the reason, this song really spoke to me!
Wave on wave - changes swept over my life just like giant waves. It would become so much MORE!! God had saved the best for last for me and it was starting to happen - even though most of what I felt was extremely painful during this time. I was 55 and had no idea what a wonderful life was ahead of me. I hope to see Pat Green in concert - maybe this year!
Thursday night Louis Dean and I sat out on our front porch and he read some poems by Jimmy Driftwood - who was a personal friend of his from the summers he spent in Mountain View, Arkansas.
Friday morning was such a perfect weather day and we had our coffee and reading out on the kitchen deck.
Once again, we had stayed up late and slept in so we had breakfast for lunch!
I worked hard and finally finished cleaning the den while watching back to back episodes of Law and Order! I'd never watched that before but the actors are really good and I may record some of the other episodes. These may be old ones - I'm not sure.
Now it's Saturday and we were up at at 'em working in the front flower beds!
Isn't he the cutest thing ever???
That's so good - because he sometimes tries my last shred of patience - but it's totally worth it to be married to him!
Summer came in Friday night and is helping me get the front yard all ready for when my siblings visit next week!
The gardens and area on the kitchen side of the deck as well as the gazebo will just have to wait. My sister and her husband have an RV and we have full hook ups on the drive way so I think the front yard will be where we entertain them. Thanks to our friends, the Barons, who gifted us the amazing table and chairs we have out there!
It was a long work day but it felt good to get so much accomplished!
To top it off, Summer ordered us pizza for a late dinner!
Here we are visiting with our sweet neighbor, Ilene, from two streets behind us.
That catches me up with my journal entries!!
I knew when we came home, I would hit the floor running because there was so much to do.
Keeping two places is a lot - a city home and a country home - and they are both so very important to us!
The most important thing about my siblings visit next week is not how things look around here but that we are getting to spend time together and that they can see my life and where I live.
I just want to honor them in making everything as nice as it can be........
My friend Jutta lives in Finland and when I am waking up to start my day, she is on the tail end of hers since there's a 7 hour time difference between us.
I pray for her as she is praying for me.
And today we heard each other's voice.
I woke early - for me - before 8:00.
First I pray for a few minutes before looking at my phone.
I know in my heart that God is the very first one I should speak to in the mornings.
I nearly always have a text from Jutta to start my day.
She and I met for the very first time in Galveston on Sunday, November 22nd, 2015 after having 'met' on my blog. We have been friends for a long time now and she has visited us twice now. We talk and plan for when I might go to Finland someday to visit her and her family.
So it was so special to talk to each other this morning for a few minutes - she in Finland walking home from the store and I in my girl bunk at the ranch. It's like magic!
I was up before Louis Dean and was so surprised to greet a chilly rainy Monday.
I did not look at the weather forecast so there was a change of plans for today.
We bring our Bible Basket with us from home with all our reading and devotional books and a Bible, of course. We just finished reading through Genesis to Revelation so for the next month or two we are reading Psalms and Proverbs.
Instead of bringing one of my large heavy Bibles, I brought one of my mother's.
It's smaller and obviously well read and it makes me feel good to hold it in my hands.
The one I've been using for the last 2 years and 3 months is one I gave to her in the 70's.
She bought this one herself.
I love how she wrote the dates on the front page.
She read this Bible well and used a red pen for most of her markings.
I also found a photo of Summer and Trish together as well as a few other pieces of ephemera.
I have many Bibles and I suppose my favorite one is an old Scofield Study Bible. I still read it sometimes but it is fragile now after all these years.
All my Bibles are old now and I will be buying a new one when I turn 75 - which will most likely be the last Bible I will 'break in.'
No gardening work for us today!
When it wasn't raining, it was storming!
A good day to do some art!
I started out with some rock painting ......
before I based in a canvas board with a hummingbird scene for Louis Dean.
This is from his calendar and he asked me to paint it for him.
(Too bad later on this evening as I was setting it on a shelf to dry, I dropped it paint side down on the dirty rug! )
I'm painting a sunflower and honey bee on Canvas paper.....
and now it's all based in and will be ready to paint when we get back down here next month,
My last project was the flag and cross for my friend, Tim.
I struggle more with paintings for others......for myself I do just fine but when it's something specific for someone else....it's like I forget how to paint.
We were under a tornado warning tonight and severe thunderstorms and lightning and WIND but I painted my way through it.
All is calm now and the art table has been cleared away.
Instead of fighting my paint, I scooped up what I could save and stored it neatly on palette paper in the freezer and it will be ready to paint when I come back in April!
