Embracing Our Winter Weekend....

 What a busy week this has been!

First of all, I'd like to wish Mike a birthday that is as wonderful as he is!

Amber made this collage and it is so 'Mike!'

Next is a pic Amber sent me of Harrison's goal he scored to tie up the game.

One of the dads on the team took it.

While Mike was with Harrison, Amber had taken all of her three daughters to Florida for Trystan's tournament.

Amber + Mike = Best Hockey Parents EVER!

Back here at home....

I put a turkey in the oven on Sunday night...

and spent a good part of Monday making turkey and dressing....

company mashed potatoes....

and candied carrots.

Sometimes cooking is good therapy and it's always nice to make enough food to share.

Tuesday Treasures with Brenda!

I felt like it was safe to leave the house for a few hours as Louis Dean was totally absorbed in repairing a bird feeder. I checked on him multiple times using the RING app and knew he was okay.

I made sure he had taken his medicine and had eaten a good meal before I left.

I admit that thrifting is all about the thrill of the hunt - and spending some time with my best friend.

I have - literally - hundreds of coffee cups - and yet I bought this Pioneer Woman cup just because I could. And I have enjoyed sipping coffee from it for the last few days.

The fake ground cover will join a spot where I have a couple of other patches. You can't kill fake!

And I'm so grateful for that! The same goes for the fake plant.

At this point in my life, I do not want to water, feed, or care for anything but the ones who are important to me. As in Louis Dean. He is my highest priority.

I'm getting a glimmer of how I want to decorate for spring and the lemonade sign will fit right in.

I bought this table runner and packed it in with all my fall things.

By the time I open up the tub - I will have forgotten all about it and it will be a nice surprise.

I'm a sucker for pillows!

I bought this yardage not knowing what I will do with it.

BUT - I will find a purpose!

These brand new warmer slippers from Bloch were less than $5 with my discount and when I googled them when I got home, I found they cost $69!!!

I felt foolish for buying them but not so much now...

Brenda found this Soma PJ bottoms - and even if I didn't need them - I bought them anyway.

I left Texas Thrift and dropped off some things at Goodwill and then did a quick run in to see if there was a treasure waiting. I love these clip earrings and have worn them many times this week.

Also this lamp shade has an overlay of metal and I could not resist.

I simply replaced a worn out shade for this one.

I shopped Aldi on my way home and stocked up with everything we would need for this coming winter weekend!

Wednesday was Louis Dean's appointment with his neurologist and we always enjoy seeing Dr. Shahdad and her sweet assistant Shanna.

A selfie in the doctor's waiting room is a tradition.

I think we are some of her favorite patients as we always laugh and make them laugh, too.

As when I told her about seeing Louis Dean get matches from the kitchen on my RING while I was out with Brenda thrifting. I headed home immediately but he'd already discovered a bag of paper trash I had hidden and proceeded to dig a hole in the back yard and burned it.

By the time I got home the deed was done - so we put a couple of firelogs on the smouldering pile and I poured us each a glass of wine and we sat on the deck and watched night fall around us.

Lemons to lemonade.

It's important for Louis Dean to eat and he simply forgets!

How do you DO that??

Maybe I did back when I was young and skinny but it's not safe for him to not eat what with taking meds and his glasses of wine at night.

Thursday evening we went out and inspected all nine of our outdoor water faucets.

I had a stack of work pants given to me to make quilts from and we used them to double wrap all the faucets.

Our sweet Samantha!

What cat doesn't love a good box??

I look forward to watching movies here with Ilene and I was afraid if we didn't have a movie date on Thursday - it might not happen until next week.

Our movie of choice.

It's time consuming even FINDING a good movie to watch.

I would love it if any of you have suggestions....

The cold rain started on Friday and I decided to make firestarters from the sawdust Louis Dean saved when he cut up firewood for us earlier in the week.

He put the sawdust in a bucket...

and I melted candle wax that no longer worked.

You know when you burn a candle down and yet there's still a lot of good wax left?

I usually burn this on a candle warmer and add it to the candles where the wick is long instead of cutting the wick off. Waste not! Want not!!

I lined my cupcake pan with paper liners, added a big spoon of sawdust and maybe a piece of bark before pouring the melted wax over the top.

I found a metal can in Louis Dean's room when I was bagging up trash the other day.

He is a hoarder and it makes him happy to fold up packaging and wrap it around with tape.

It doesn't matter since I gather at least two to three black trash bags full every week.

It's his therapy and he has never missed anything I have thrown away.

As long as he is happy, I am okay with it!

These make great fire starters and Ilene joined us for another movie date on Friday since we knew we would be housebound from Saturday to maybe Tuesday.

We had leftovers from the fridge for dinner but fancy cocktails before with pepper poppers and cucumber salad for appetizers.

We struggled through finding a movie and settled on a BritBox program 'Bookish.'

Louis Dean had joined us for the last part of the program but when he got up to go to his room, he lost his balance and fell into the fire screen and bounced onto the floor.

Which was a blessing as he landed on the carpet instead of hitting the stones on the fireplace hearth.

He fell even though he had a cane.

He bloodied himself up a bit but no major damage.

I'm so grateful he did not hit his head!

Praise God that Ilene was here as she is such a calm presence and support.

God greatly blessed us with her friendship.

This morning we woke up to a winter wonderland.

Louis Dean felt fine but I did bring in a metal walker from the storage building just in case he needs it.

He has several canes and two of the 'quad' ones but I am ordering a few more so there's always one easily accessible.

It's been a peaceful day here...

I've spent the day organizing my earrings, routine housework

I've gone out a few times today just to enjoy the quiet of a winter day.

I close this journal entry tonight with a guilty confession.

When Louis Dean fell last night, it was an emotional moment for me in knowing how fast things can change. In the blink of an eye or the beat of a heart.

The thing is - I needed a day.

A day of peace and quiet and not having to 'deal' with things.

So....I needed some 'me' time and I gave Louis Dean a basket of pecans earlier this evening - knowing he fixates on shelling them and then picking the meats out.

I've been in the den all evening vacuuming, cleaning, keeping the fireplace going and watching BritBox programs....and writing this journal entry.

Next door neighbor Mark brought over a bag of salt and left it on our front porch yesterday.

This afternoon Stephanie dropped off a container of beef stew and rice for our supper tonight.

I'm about to close this entry and heat up the stew.

I'll collect Louis Dean and entice him to the den where I promised him I would put on the DVD of CATS.

Can you relate to this?

I do....