The “Lady Bird” isn’t impressed with the feeder I put out for her. Maybe I’ll catch her using it tomorrow. I feel like I should put out a sign that says ‘Purple Finch family only!’ The starlings will no doubt find it and make a mess. We’ll see what happens. Today we had really big winds and hard rain and she sat out there all protected. I was pleased with that. This is storm season here, so it’s common to have big winds, rain, thunder, lightening and the like. I feel good about her being sheltered on the porch. We’ll use the side and back doors as much as possible to give her some peace.

I got our plans made for our trip to our family reunion in Tennessee on June 9th. We’ll go the weekend before to Mesquite, Texas for a baseball tournament. We’ll go straight from there to Branson and spend 4 nights there. Trish and her family will meet us in Branson. Then we’ll leave from there and go to Louisville, taking Tricia’s 3 oldest kids with us. In Louisville we’ll spend the night with Gretta and family and then go visit Gina and family the next day. Then on Saturday we’ll head to the Fox Family (my mother’s) reunion in Nashville. From the reunion we’ll come back home and bring Tricia’s kids as well as Garrett with us. All the grandkids are fun, but I’m amazed that as they get bigger they are developing into such great people. We love playing cards with them, etc. It’s fun to take them out to eat and they really eat instead of just picking over the food! Trish will be too close to delivering to make the family reunion. We’ll miss her, but it’s just too long a trip for her at 8 months, which is where she’ll be at that point. Last night and today is when we made all these plans, so they may change a bit between now and then, but the Branson part is a done deal. Of course if Trish goes into labor, all bets are off and we all head home! Everything will be with that rule from now until their baby is born.

All is good, here. Thank God for safe storms and rich blessings and care.

I'm so proud of the mother bird!

We’ve had storms tonight and I had the computer unplugged until now, so I’ll write a quick note. We’re fine and the storms are all east of us. I can still hear the thunder rumbling, but we can go to bed, now. I hope and pray the rest of the state gets off easy.

Today I did research on my little bird family and learned that the incubation period is 13 days. Then the babies will stay in the nest for 14 days. That means we should get to see a lot of fun stuff. I’m so proud of the little mother; she is so diligent with her eggs! Tomorrow I’m going to buy some birdseed and hang a feeder out on the front porch for her. We had one hanging there a couple of years ago but we took it down because they made such a mess. I’ll be okay with the mess because I’m so glad she’s back! I also learned today that these birds live an average of 3 or 4 years and sometimes as long as 8 years. I had no idea! That’s why she’s nesting out there; she must be the one who nested here before! I think she’s pretty smart, too, because on the porch she has to worry with us using the door, but she doesn’t have to worry with the wind and the rain. We may be rough with the door, but we are nothing like the wind out here! So, that’s the bird story.

Today’s picture on the blog is of a purple larkspur in the yard. You may have noticed some in one of the pictures yesterday. I love them in the garden for a spike of color. I like to bring them in and use them in arrangements in the house, but they fall and make a mess, so I don’t bring them inside much. The hummingbirds like them outside, too.

I worked in the yard today cutting off daffodil greens and pulling weeds, but I didn’t get new pictures. The larkspur I got the other day. Today I was hurrying to get what I could before the rains came. I hope I can get new pictures tomorrow.

Count the blessings! God is so good!!! He blesses us all!

More eggs!

I hope I didn’t worry anyone else. Ruthie called me today to check to be sure I’m okay because I had a rugged day yesterday. I’m just fine today. I think I was just exhausted yesterday from doing way too much after a full week, already, plus I was missing Grace!

Anyway, today started out wonderfully! After breakfast Don and I left for our walk. He’s tall enough to take a look into the bird’s nest, so he did that and announced that there are FIVE eggs in the nest! I don’t think I could have been more thrilled if he’d told me we’d won the lottery. I had to run get the camera and make pictures of the eggs, which are on the blog today. I’m so amazed that this little bird can even have one of those eggs in her body, let alone FIVE of them! She sits out there so diligently; I’m just amazed at God’s work, and it’s happening right on our front door. It happens all the time in our lives and we take it for granted. I can only give praise and thanks for the opportunity to watch it unfolding under my nose.

I made sure to jiggle for an hour today, so I’m in good shape. I made Essiac tea for the rest of the week, so that job is done. I have to make it about every 5 days. It feels good to have it behind me; it smells up the kitchen, so it’s good to have it behind us.

The second picture on today’s blog is the yarrow in a burst of yellow bloom. The third picture is a shot of the back flower garden with the crepe myrtles beginning to leaf. The lavender clump is to the left of the third stepping-stone from the bottom. Remember, if you click on the picture you’ll see more details.

Thanks to our Father for blessing us so richly!

Lavender Sunday.

Today was the end of my first week in my second round of 16 weeks of aggressive meds. It was the day that I leave everything except one medication off, so I was expecting a good day. I was pretty ragged, though. I got up and did too much before church, so that might have been the reason the rest of the day was rough. I did 3 loads of wash, gave Don a haircut, made breakfast and unloaded the dishwasher. Unloading the dishwasher is really hard on my back; maybe I should wash dishes? Probably. Anyway, after church we went to the Mexican restaurant for lunch and came right home. I shuffled the cards from last night’s games, so they’ll be ready when we want to play again and cleaned up the floor from last night’s popcorn while I let the 30 minutes pass after eating so I could jiggle and ‘fix’ my back. I love that jiggler!!! After jiggling I crawled right into bed and slept 2 hours. I guess I needed that. I’m not sure how the meds affect me. I think they make me sleepy, but I didn’t have most of them today, so I’m confused about that. Maybe the total of the week hit me today? When I went through this before I was in Tijuana with few responsibilities, so it’s different at home with lots of responsibilities. Anyway after my nap I felt much better.

I went out and cut some lavender and made 5 lavender wands while we watched TV tonight. Don went on to bed because there was nothing on local TV except the weather alerts. We have tornados dropping across the state, and lots of storms, but all of it is north and east of us, so we’re out of danger. It only sprinkled here.

The pictures on today’s blog entry are a close up of my lavender as it grows; a shot of the 5 wands I made; and a close up of one little wand. Don asks, “Why do you do those?” You’re probably asking the same thing. I don’t know a good answer except that I just love to do them. I like to give them to folks. Tonight when I sat down to put them together I couldn’t remember how to start and I felt like I’d had some great loss! I fumbled around until I figured it out and felt very relieved. I don’t know what that means except that I feel pulled to do it. Don would say it’s OCD (obsessive, compulsive, disorder), and he’s probably right, AGAIN! Whatever; I love to do it and I think doing it is good for me and not doing it would be very stressful. It’s really cheap entertainment for me, and I can do it while we watch TV. (I’m no good at just sitting and watching TV; I like to have something in my lap happening or I go to sleep.) It doesn’t hurt my back and it’s not costly like shopping. It’s a natural sort of thing and I love it, so now you know that quirky thing about me.

God is so good; trusting Him is all joy; He blesses us so richly, and I give thanks and praise!

We miss Gracie's sunshine!

We decided to take Grace home today instead of tomorrow. She was missing her family, and we didn’t want her to be homesick. I had the tea party planned for her and the girls next door for this morning, but then we figured she’d rather be home after that. We have the group coming for canasta tonight, and then we’d go to church in the morning. She’d rather be home to go to church with her family where she is comfortable, I think. Yesterday she was looking at the picture on the wall of her brothers and sister and calling their names with teary eyes, so we thought it would be better to take her home today. Trish met us about 30 miles this side of OKC, so that we didn’t have to make the whole trip and could get home in time to greet the canasta gang.

Now we’re home and MISSING GRACE!!! The tea party was fun and I managed to get a couple of pictures, so those are on the blog today.

I’m going to go jiggle and get some time in my kangoojumps before everyone gets here.

God bless us all!

Exploration Station and Grace

The mother bird is still sitting on the eggs. She flies away when we use the door, but I guess she sits there enough to get the job done. She’s still at it, anyway. She keeps us entertained.

What entertaining she doesn’t do, Grace does! We took her to Hobart’s new Exploration Station today. The community raised the funds, bought sort of a kit and then built Exploration Station last week. Today was our first day to take Grace and she loved every bit of it. I also took her to the park near our house and she enjoyed feeding the crusts from her sandwiches to the ducks. (Of course I’d been saving them; can’t throw away anything!) I had the camera with me when we fed the ducks, but I was too busy to use the camera. You’ll have to imagine that. I got lots of pictures of Grace at Exploration station. She’s really good at playing! She knows her way around playground equipment; she’s a professional, I’d say.

Don played basketball with her after dinner. She’s watching TV and he’s mowing the yard. As soon as he comes in he’ll shower; then she and I will get our baths. She loves blowing her hair dry. We love her haircut; it’s so easy to fix and seems to suit her personality so well.

Today Grace and I made cookies (easy, cut them up and bake them kind). We’ll have a tea party here in the morning with Grace and Sonia and Sasha from next door. (I hope I remember to get pictures!) Then we’ll have cookies for canasta tomorrow night. We’re celebrating birthdays for two of our canasta crowd and Grace’s birthday the 25th of April. We’ll run through with a sweeper and duster and we’ll be ready!

Weather is great, here; tornados north of us. They move east and north, so we’re safe from these. We count our blessings!

God bless us all!

Joy with Grace.

This week we’re back in the 70’s. Grace is so much like Trish was that I feel like I’ve stepped back in time. What a sweet trip. She is so much fun.

She and I went to the park today. We have a wagon and I pulled her there in the wagon. The exercise and sunshine were good for me. She’s been coloring on the computer a lot today. She’s pretty amazing. She couldn’t do it at all at first, but she’s learned to do it very well. We use a trackball instead of a mouse, so it was really challenging for her with her tiny little hands.

She slept on a cot in our room last night, and went to sleep the minute her head hit the pillow. Me, too, and I think we’ll do that again tonight!

Enjoy these pictures of Grace and get the feel of how much fun we’re having.

God blesses us so richly!

Bird saga and a snake enters!

Today flew! We went to Oklahoma City and picked up Grace to bring home with us to stay 4 days. She’s wanted to come home with us for months and we always had a schedule that was too busy. As we went to bed last night we thought we didn’t have anything scheduled for the rest of this week, so it would work for us if Grace could come. We called this morning and made the arrangements. She’s a dear, so we’re having a great time.

When we got home she wanted to go to the park, so Pop took her to the park. While she was gone Dorothy called and said, “Let’s go to the Little Hacienda and get a bowl of beans.” I told her I was already cooking a hamburger for Don and had a pot of beans made for me, so why didn’t she and David come share with us, and they took us up on it. So, that made our dinner even more fun. David does Donald Duck better than Donald himself, so Grace thought he was too cool.

I got a picture of the bird sitting in the nest, but it’s hard to see. You have to look really close. Click on it and see how it looks. I’m so proud of that bird! Grace loves it, too! While we were at Tricia’s house, Grace and Mason took us up to see Gabe’s new pet, Kurt; a snake. A friend gave him to Gabe. My brother used to bring snakes home to keep, too. It seemed only appropriate to take his picture. They have a dog and a cat; I’ll have to remember to take their pictures sometime. The cat, Sugar, is too cool; she has 6 toes instead of 5 and has lived with them since I can remember. Rigel, the dog is a pretty good little dog; dogs just aren’t my favorite things since a dog attacked me when I was 15 and another did when I was 16. They say dogs can tell if you’re afraid of them, so it takes a lot of energy to act well enough to sell them on the concept of me not being afraid. What a concept! Anyway, today on the blog are our bird, Gabe’s snake and a beautiful iris from Tricia’s yard.

Grace is going to sleep on a cot in our room tonight, so we might be having a slumber party since she slept all the way here. It’s okay; what greater joy can grandparents have? I’m thinking Don probably helped her burn up a lot of energy at the park, unless it was the other way around. Ha! We are blessed and giving thanks! God is so good to us all.

Pictures of Grace tomorrow!

Tuesday's delight!

Ira and Barbara were here for a couple of days and nights and it was a wonderful visit! We shared everything from meals, games, and Bible study to treasured memories from an 18-year friendship. Meet them on today’s blog, pictured with Don.

As Ira and Barbara were leaving I was standing around the front door and noticed that there was a bird nest in the wreath on the door! Remember, I’m so easy to delight and that bird nest does it. I used to have a wreath on the door that I made with artemesia that grows in the front flowerbed. Bits of artemesia would fall onto the floor when we opened it, but I kept it because the birds loved it and I loved the birds. Little purple finches would build nests in the wreath and then they’d sit out there and sing great songs. I loved them! I found another wreath that I liked, though, so the artemesia wreath went by the wayside. I missed the birds, but I enjoyed the cleaner floor. The birds started pulling artemesia from the flowerbed and taking it across the street and building on my neighbor’s porch. She hated them and shooed them off. I just missed them and figured I’d lost them, forever. Every year I put cotton outside for the chats that build nests out back, and we enjoy watching them. Bird watching is a joy to us, and we gave up 29 different birds when we moved here from Tennessee. So, what seems like nothing to most folks is a big deal to me. Anyway, today when I saw that nest it was sooooooo cool! I went and got a stool so I could watch the nest from our front window. I also took pictures of the nest and was especially thrilled to see that they are using my cotton, too! I didn’t know they use the cotton, too. The three little eggs in the nest really warm my heart. I hope all the attention we gave to the nest today doesn’t scare off the birds! I’ll keep you posted. See the pictures of the nest and meet Tuesday’s delight!

God is so good; He blesses us so generously!

OOPS; too much fun!

Wow, we had so much fun yesterday that I forgot to do the blog. I went to bed wondering how I got to bed so early (10:30).

Barbara and Ira are here visiting and we're having a great time. This is Tuesday and they are packed to leave after lunch. I'll get back online with the blog this evening.

Love you all; thanks for checking in on us.

God bless!

Life is uncertain.

Well, it’s been a really full day. We had to be at the ballpark for the first game at 8 and the boys obviously weren’t awake, either. They lost, so we were out of the tournament immediately. Bruce did a great job, but it takes the team working together. We’ve never seen Bruce’s team lose their first game, so it was a new experience for us, but it was good for us because we were able to get home in time to greet our guests from Oklahoma City. Our ride home was beautiful as it was on the way down there. Wild flowers were blooming all along the road. I took some pictures on the way home, but I’m not sure how good they’ll be. If they work, I’ll put them on the blog. We see mostly yellow paintbrush around here, but we saw lots of red on this trip, so that was a treat. I’ll put on a picture of Bruce pitching, too.

I had some items listed on ebay that sold over the weekend, so I’ve just packaged them up to get out in the morning. No restaurants are open on Monday, so I’m cooking tomorrow. Our Kozy Diner is usually open, but they’re putting on a new roof, so I’m cooking tomorrow. God will provide! It’s going to be whole-wheat biscuits and gravy; I can do that!

I just read my emails and found that my cousin’s wife passed away early this morning after an extended illness and fight for life. I know that God has a plan, but I’m sure He also knows that we hurt with losses like this. It’s kind of hard to be upbeat, knowing that there is a huge loss in our family. I do thank God that this struggle is over and that He is in control of everything. Our memories we can always treasure and Dot was always a part, so there are lots of great memories.

Life is uncertain. Enjoy it in every way that you can and count the blessings and thank God with me!

From Wichita Falls . . . win some; lose some . . .

It was a beautiful day for baseball and the guys did a great job. The first game they won 15 - 2. We loved it! Their second game they lost , 1- 0. It was a great game, we just came out on the losing end. We'll see how they do tomorrow. They are a great team and we are so thrilled to be here watching them, again! I love it every year when it's time for baseball. These guys are so serious about it; it's fun to watch them.

Our Mason, who is 6 is playing baseball for the first year and his team won in OKC today, too. He might be playing softball? We haven't seen him play yet, so I stand to be corrected. The important thing to him was that they won today. We're proud of him, too!

Don and I got to have a date tonight. We went to Chedar's to eat. It's one of my favorite places, so that was nice. I didn't bring my computer, so I'm using the one here at the motel. I hope this works for the blog. I just wanted to drop a note, so if you check, you'll know we're having a great weekend. The weather is PERFECT! I'm counting blessings and I'm up higher than I can count!

God is great!

New iris, yarrow, crepe myrtle, deer and bridge . . .

You must be tired of my irises, but I’m not! I’m enjoying a new one, so I’ve pictured it for you. I’m not sure of it’s name, but I’m sure it is beautiful! There is a picture of it with Roney’s Encore right beside it and then one of it all alone. The next picture is of my sweet little deer nestled in the ground cover at the base of the crepe myrtle that is beginning to grow leaves after Don pruned it Tyler, Texas style. I love that deer. Don’s mother had it in the garden here, when she lived here, so it’s special to me. Every now and then the wind blows out it’s antlers, but it always survives, so I know it wants to live here. The last picture is my yarrow just beginning to bloom. It’ll be a beautiful burst of yellow next week when it is in full bloom. The bridge is a thing Don bought for me about 5 years ago just because I wanted it. I couldn’t think of any way at all to justify it, but I loved it and wanted it, so he bought it. He’s my hero for things like that and lots more.

This will be the last blog until Sunday night. That means I’m skipping Saturday. We’re going to Wichita Falls to watch our Grandson, Bruce play in a baseball tournament. I’m not taking the computer, so I’ll take a day off from the blog. I’ll catch up when we get home Sunday night.

We’ve got friends coming to visit with us for a couple of days Sunday. They’re coming from Oklahoma City and will be here when we get here. We believe the boys will play until the end of the tournament, so we’ll see them through it. I’ve got a light sandwich supper in the fridge for our good friends Barbara and Ira. Ira managed the building where we officed when we had our business in Oklahoma City, and Barbara was the one who really ran things in the office. It went something like that. Anyway, they were both there and kept the building great for us. Our office was on the same floor as their offices, just down the hall. We built a great relationship and never gave up the friendship when we all later retired. Anyway, they’re coming and we are very excited to see them . . . second only to seeing Bruce’s team win their tournament!

I’ve got to get our bags packed, but that’s pretty simple. Have a great weekend and count blessings with me! God is so good to us!

New iris, yarrow, crepe myrtle, deer and bridge . . .

Okay, I hit "publish" when I meant to hit something else. Anyway, I can't make this disappear. Sorry; it's just a mistake and I can't fix it. Good night! I love you for letting me make mistakes and still hanging tough with me.

Meet our neighbors, Sasha and Sonia.

Today was a good day. I got up feeling good, so I did my migraine for the quarter, yesterday. Today I got all the things I messed up yesterday corrected. Tomorrow we’ll get ready to go to Wichita Falls for Saturday and Sunday to watch our grandson’s team play a baseball tournament. We haven’t seen them play this year, so I can hardly wait.

We learned today that Hobart’s boys played a second game yesterday and won it, too, so they won the district finals. Now, they’ll go on to play in regional finals, so we’re really proud of them and will look forward to listening to their games on the radio.

Today’s pictures are of our stand in granddaughters. They live next door and diligently play basketball in our driveway. Sometimes Don goes out and plays with them. One picture is of him playing with Sasha, who will be 4 in August. The other picture is of Sonia, who will be 7 next month. Sonia comes to practice every day, and she’s really very good. Sasha loves to do everything Sonia does. They are a joy to us.

Today was a gorgeous day. We got our walking done and added a couple of blocks, and we got our time in the sun, as well. I also got my jiggling done. I don’t get to do the kangoojumps as often as I’d like, but I’ll do them tomorrow. I’m learning that it’s not as easy to be tall as I always thought.

God bless us all!

Migraine day.

Today was a tougher day because I woke up with a migraine. I take herbs for migraines, so they aren’t so easy to recognize. I kept denying that it was a migraine until this afternoon when I mixed up all the herbs I was packaging. When I do something really crazy, I have to own up to the migraine. I get so foggy that I don’t really know what I’m doing. The pain is not excruciating, though, so that’s good. The aura just makes me pretty dysfunctional.

I did get chili made since it’s cool here, today. I was out of pinto beans, and I eat those every day, so I got a batch of those made and put into the freezer, too. I did three loads of laundry, changed our sheets and got all my herbs done for the next 26 days. I’m going to finish Don’s up and go to bed.

It was too cool to walk today, besides I was feeling yucky. I did get my jiggling done, though. I didn’t do the kangoojumps; I’ve got to be feeling pretty good to hazard those. Ha. I realize now that being tall has its responsibilities. God knew exactly what He was doing when he made me short; it makes the falls easier when I don’t have so far to go.

God is good and I trust Him; He blesses us all and I thank Him! The picture is from one of the tables at the supper last night. Different ladies from our congregation decorated the tables. They were all beautiful, but I especially liked this one.

Irises galore and blessings, too!

Whew! Today was a busy but good day. I got the irises cut, arranged, taken to the church building and brought home after the salad supper was over. Now the house smells great with fresh irises! I would love to have sent them home with people, but they were too big and awkward for them to take.

I did get an hour in the sun, our walk done and my jiggling done today. I didn’t get a thing done around the house, but it won’t crash. I didn’t get the herbs finished. I’ll do that tomorrow.

The pictures in the blog today are the arrangements I made for the ladies’ salad supper tonight. I only did the irises; the screen, trees, bear, etc. was someone else’s doing. I still have lots of buds that will open over the next few days, and there are even several still open in the yard. I went to sleep last night thanking God for all my blessings. I didn’t get anywhere near listing them all, but the irises are on that list. Health and happiness are some more. Loving friends and family are some more. Thank you all for being on my list of blessings!

God bless us all!

Busy day, but all is well!

Today was too short. We went out to David and Dorothy’s house this morning to do their haircuts and visit. On the way home we did grocery shopping and then walked. After our walk I cleaned all the veggies and cut carrots for jalapeno juice. It’s a staple in my diet these days. Late this afternoon went to Hobart’s last home baseball game and out to eat at the Pizza Hut with David and Dorothy.

The game was GREAT! The weather was perfect, so that we didn’t get hot or cold. The whole game the other team led until the last inning when we were able to tie it and in the last play of the game we won. The game was tied, David’s grandson, Shane, was at bat and there was a runner on third. The pitcher threw the ball; the catcher missed it, and the runner stole home. How cool was that? The best part was that in a previous inning when Shane was up to bat the same thing happened, only both the runners on third and second were able to score while the other team threw the ball around missing it. Shane had gotten a couple of great hits in the game, but he got 3 RBI’s without even swinging the bat. It was really fun to be on the winning side of such a game. Maybe it didn’t go EXACTLY like that, but that’s how I caught it. If Bill Coffin is reading this or Don, I’ll probably get corrected, but the bottom line is that we won and Shane was our hero. (Of course Shane is our hero no matter what happens; he and his brother moved furniture for us this weekend, so they can do no wrong; at this point in life we are so impressed by brute strength and energy!)

When we got home from the Pizza Hut I remembered that today we used our last packets of herbs, so I had to throw herbs for the next 28 days. Ugh. I got them thrown, but I’ll have to put them into the packets tomorrow.

Tomorrow is also the day that the ladies at church have invited ladies from the area for a salad supper and special speaker. I am helping register visitors and also taking all the irises from the yard to decorate. I’ll cut them in the morning and take them over and make arrangements. Other ladies have decorated the tables and the rooms in general, but I’m just adding the irises for a live touch. I’ll get some pictures for tomorrow’s blog. Today is non-picture. Please pardon! The irises are doing great, so tomorrows pictures will be good. I just didn’t have time to snap today.

God bless us all!

Today has been busy, as always. It seems like Sundays fly! We did get to walk, and it was the perfect day for it. We have to take advantage of perfect weather when we can get it because it’ll be way too hot very soon. Too hot is okay; too cold is not good. We’ll work with too hot. We can get up early and walk when it’s too hot. When it’s too cold, it’s too cold and that’s it.

I was able to catch up a little on my emails today, but I’m always behind. Be patient with me if I owe you email or drop me a reminder.

In my meds protocol I take Sunday off of everything except the Essiac Tea, so that’s kind of nice. I don’t have to watch the clock so much. Then on Monday I go back to the Carnivora, but I take a day off from Essiac Tea. That gives me kind of a treat on both of those days. This is my last week on this protocol. After this week I will go back onto the full protocol of the 16-week aggressive push. It’s certainly a doable thing, but I’m going to have to learn to work my alarm watch and wear it or carry the phone with me all the time, again, so that I don’t miss any doses. It’s not all that demanding, just a discipline.

The pictures today are just a couple more from the flower garden in the back yard. I’m liking it now that the flowers are blooming, the weeds are under control and the stepping-stones are back in order. The skinny sticks sticking up are the crepe myrtles that Don pruned for me. I’ll have to get pictures of them when they bloom; I promise they’ll look good! His sister says they call that crepe murder in Houston, but it’s the way they prune in Tyler, Texas, so we’re comfortable with it. Tyler is one of the prettiest cities in Texas, in my opinion.

God bless us all.

Explanation . . . de-stressing!

Today has been another good day. I need to explain the comment I made in the blog yesterday: “If we sell this house . . . “ We want to scale down a bunch and we want to live where it is warm year round. We believe scaling down will make life simpler for me because I won’t have the stress of always needing to clean and always needing to weed and harvest flowers and veggies in the yard. I’ve decided to have no vegetables this summer. We’ll do baseball with the grandkids and not sweat the veggies. We are not likely to sell this house, so we are looking to make it simpler to live here for the 8 months that are warm. The other months we will go to where it is warm. IF we SHOULD sell this house, then it will be simpler if we have already gotten rid of all the extra stuff we have. We don’t have the house on the market, but we are doing the scaling down part. We love it here except for the cold months. Our plan right now is to go to South Texas for the winter months. We’ll see how that works next winter. We don’t have any plan to move, though. If the house should sell, we’d probably just buy something smaller here in town. (If someone comes up and asks if we’d sell the house, we’d talk; otherwise, we’re keeping it.)

Now to tell you how today went. Dorothy and David mentioned a couple of weeks ago that they wanted to buy a new sofa. I said, “Don’t buy a new sofa; take one of ours!” So, they came shopping at our house today and bought the sofa that was in our bedroom and a chair from a guest bedroom. We rearranged a bit and love the extra space and don’t even miss the furniture. We were at their house playing cards tonight and it looks great in their house. We’re all happy!

I got pictures of the ‘new’ stones in the garden and Roney’s Encore in full bloom. Those are the pictures on the blog tonight. We had a great time playing cards tonight; my team won all but one game, so we did much better than last night!

Ruthie and Phil made it home in one day! I found email from them the first thing this morning telling me they had driven all the way. They’re tougher than I thought! We don’t even do that, anymore! Thank God for their safe trip and for their visit!

God bless us all!

Sunshiny day and irises blooming!

The pictures are from yesterday at the Wildlife Reserve. The first one is a prairie dog showing us how he does spring cleaning. The second one is Phil behind and leaning on the heart rock. The last one is Ruthie and Phil contemplating and deciding against a climb on the rocks. It was a great day of adventure!

Today was beautiful! We hated to see Ruthie and Phil leave, but we rejoice with such a wonderful visit. We played cards tonight, and everyone in the group was sad to miss them. The men won all 4 games, so we’re out to get them tomorrow night. We played here tonight; we’ll play at David and Dorothy’s tonight. We’re all meeting for breakfast in the morning. We’re a tight group and can’t get too much of each other.

My blue irises were blooming this morning before Ruthie left, so she got to see them. She sees plenty in Tennessee, but I wanted her to see I’ve got a bit of Tennessee here with me. The Roney’s Encore is in full bloom in the back yard. I should have taken a picture, but I didn’t get that done today. Phil had taken me up on my offer of some cool rocks I had in the flower garden, so I spent today putting the walkways back in shape before the ground gets hard or more rain comes. The ground was just perfect for working out there, so I got with the program. I had a huge rock shaped like a heart and a few shaped like states. I loved them, but if we sell this house, nobody but me would love them. I thought Phil and Ruthie might love them in their garden, and I was right. I had plenty more good stepping stone sort of rocks, so I just filled in the spaces. I loved being in the garden. I hoed weeds that were sneaking back, so I’m ahead of them right now. Whew! It was a great day even if Ruthie and Phil did leave. They couldn’t have left if they’d never come, so I’m thanking God that they came and asking Him to give them a safe trip home.

God bless us all!

Last day of Ruthie visit.

Today was our last day of adventure for this visit. We went to Oklahoma’s best-kept secret, the Wichita Mountains Wildlife Reserve. It was very windy, but it was still nice. The first picture is Ruthie and I with a windy hair day; we’re grateful for hair! The next picture is Ruthie and Phil sitting on a rock with the HEART ROCK behind them and to the left. The last picture is of Don, Ruthie and Phil at the Prairie Dog Town. Tomorrow I’ll show you a picture of one of the prairie dogs that put on a show for us. In the last picture look at the mountains behind and between Don and Ruthie and see if you can tell why they call that Mount Lincoln . . . turn your head to the side and see if you don’t see Lincoln’s profile.

Ruthie and Phil loved the Reserve; we do, too! We love to climb around on those rocks, and we feel so blessed to have them out here in this flat country. Come to see us and we’ll be sure to take you to see it. Bring your hiking clothes and we’ll have a great picnic and fun day!

Ruthie and Phil are leaving in the morning, so we hate that. We love so much that we’ve had this visit, though! I’ve been lucky that it’s during this month that my meds are real simple; no under the tongue stuff, so I could talk the whole time. Ha!

Pray with me that they will have a safe trip home! God blesses us all and we give thanks! I love you for looking in on us.

The Pantry has great food and fun!

Today’s pictures are on the stairs up to Diana and Bob’s front porch and at The Pantry, but they don't seem to be going onto the blog. For some reason I'm not seeing pictures, but only little boxes with red x's in them. That frustrates me, but I can't fix it, so I'm going to bed. SORRY! It was a beautiful day to visit and travel!

We toured Bob and Diana Clark’s home first, and then Diana went with us for lunch. I went to school in Japan with Bob and we feel like we all went to school with Diana because she’s so easy to know and love. I think it was 3 years ago that they came here and bought a beautiful old house, and they are restoring it themselves. Bob is in Russia working right now, so we missed him, but it was great to tour their house and see the progress they’ve made. Then lunch with Diana was a hoot. I can’t tell the trick that Phil pulled on Diana, because it will ruin it for his future antics for his friends and family who read this. I will say, just beware when you eat with him and be ready for some fun.

Ruthie and Phil are going home Friday morning, so we’re already dreading missing them. We can’t talk them into staying longer, but they do say they will come again, so that gives us hope for another fun visit even though this one seems so short. We thank God for this visit and ask Him to keep them safe as they travel home. God bless us all!