Monday Musings

Greetings from the great state of Colorado!  If I didn't need to live in Dairyland, I think I'd pick the great state of Colorado to live.  Natural beauties, nice people, and plenty to do!

Ski trips are kind of like camping trips.  Except you sleep in a condo instead of a camper.  And you get exhausted to the nth degree by day and still cook, clean, and do laundry by night.  

We are with close friends of ours and other local friends came to join us last weekend.  

So a happy, exhausted hello to you peeps.  More later after our 16 hour non stop journey back to Dairyland.

Monday Musings

Good Monday morning!  The washer and dryer spin, the bread dough rises, the dog snores, and I'm going to quickly blog before I continue on the journey of mundane Monday.  

See these ladies?  They are my friends.  And we had a birthday to celebrate and all joined together to do so.  Have I ever told you how fortunate I am to live where I do and be surrounded by wise, interesting, and entertaining friends?  Well if I haven't told you I am telling you now.  

See these two people?  They are the first faces I recognized.  They encouraged, chastened, nurtured, and loved me and my siblings.  I used to taunt my dear mother.  "Who do you love best?"  I was secretly hoping she'd one day break and say, 'YOU!  It's you I love best!!!'  But she never did.  Do you know what her answer always was?  It's your dad.  I love him best of the people here on earth.  Then it is all of you.  It was a perfect order.  And it was more perfect because she/they loved something deeper and eternal even more than each other.  Fifty-six years and counting.  And by the way.  I love the utter seriousness in my mother's face as she walked down the "aisle' of her parent's home.  And I also love that they still like to be arm in arm.

I just read about why people blog.  It said that people blog so they can be themselves.  True.  People blog so they can share anything interesting they've seen.  True.  They type their thoughts on a blog so they can remember the fleeting moments of childhood.  Not so true anymore since we have MYP that don't want to be "out there" on the web and I respect that.  Another reason given was to receive comments from others.  Partially true - although comments are very rare these days and that's ok.  And finally, people blog so that it could possibly help others on their journey.  I think I fail at that.  Instead of encouraging and strengthening, I've been a bit more on the slap-stick side of silliness with things I see that make me smile.  Maybe I'll get better at that.  

One of the best side-effects of blogging for me is to meet people that I've come to know  because of blogging.  I've been able to read their personal struggles and joys from the sidelines.  The lady on the left and her husband are one.  And we were privileged to have their company with us yesterday.  It's interesting because even though I hardly know them and have never been in their home, I felt like I 'knew' her.  That's a special thing.  The ladies on the right... well, they just bring such joy.

This is a bit of a struggle for me.  You would think at nearly 51 I would be content in who I am and cherish and differences between people,  I hope to learn that before my next birthday.  

 And here's a few "just because".

 So I am not sure if I'll be able to blog next Monday.  If you don't hear from me, just be assured I'm most likely ok unless I hit a tree on the mountaintop.  I promise to have a story or three to share on my return.  I promise!

Until next time!

Monday Musings

Well hello!  And happy Monday Musings to you!

I'm just back from a dreadful Sam's Club and a grocery run besides.  If you came over right now, you'd see the kitchen full of bags that need to be unloaded.  Luckily for me, I blog fast and the freezer stuff is safely tucked away already.

I love self-check because I can bag things exactly like I like to so when I bring it in, everything is conveniently together like it is in the cupboards and fridge.

I do enjoy food shopping.  I do not enjoy clothes shopping (you probably can tell by my attire!).  I was in a store the other day and my head almost literally started spinning with the options.  I'm just wondering if anyone out there wants to be my personal shopper?  I want to look radiant and lovely in color-coordinated, slightly-conservative clothes and all of this accomplished on a shoe-string budget.  I'll pay you with meals or homemade baked goods.  Thanks!  Looking forward to our future business partnership!

The Easter Bunny was at the mall!  I'm just wondering if it is the same guy inside that plays Santa?  The Easter Bunny comes across a bit more bouncy-fun though.  And yes, the kids were screaming their heads off as mom or dad plopped little "Liam" on the Bunny knee.  Poor kid.

I had a bad bleaching accident with a load of clothes for one of the MYP.  I am not sure what happened but I ruined two shirts and a pair of leggings.  You win some and you lose some.  I'll have to make it up to her.  (sigh)

So are you all happy we "sprung forward" with the clocks?  I always seem to see complaints from others on social media.  It didn't bother me one iota.  I turned the clocks ahead on Saturday around 3 and happily hopped in bed an hour early and woke up normally.  However, I don't have young kids.  We had time change the eve of special meeting for years when we had three crumb-crunchers and it was brutal.  Somehow we all survived.

Remember my New Year's resolution?  I was going to attempt to see some shut-ins that I normally wouldn't go see.  I have mostly failed at doing it very frequently.  However, a month or so ago, a friend and I went to see this elderly man with a gentle soul.  It was a tender and sweet visit.  And yesterday, we heard he passed away.  I'm so very thankful that we took the time to go sit with him for just a little while.

Celebrated my mama's belated birthday with mile-high pie.  She's the best.  Really.

Yep.  Especially when you pull out bleach-streaked clothes.

for silly...

cats interfere with kite flying 

always wanting to come in again (and yes, I let them)

get it????  took me awhile.

Haha!

And let me tell you, we have LOTS of birdies that are back in the yard.  

Not that I'd ever yell... 

Monday Musings

Post #1212 I see!  That has a nice ring to it.  So does the weather!  Today's weather is brought to you by FANTASTIC!  Look and see!  It just seems like the birdies sing a little louder.  Or maybe it is because the door is open!  And yes, my battery is at 100% (smile)

I've been cleaning out the kitchen.  I got the spice racks all cleaned, organized, and alphabetized.  Happy sigh.  I moved on to the refrigerator.  Got that done and a wad of icky stuff thrown out.  And today?  I cleaned the dishwasher.  Yes you read that.  I cleaned the dishwasher.  Seems a bit of an oxymoron.  But it was dirty.  Trust me.  Go look at yours and look at the rubber surround by the door.  Look under the front panel.  Yucky!  Or maybe yours has always been clean.  Mine has not.  But now it is!

I saw yesterday that Nancy Reagan died.  My memory of her was how incredibly loyal she seemed to President Reagan.  But my memory of her also was that she died years ago.  I was so convinced that I thought the news was a spoof.  I'm weird like that.

Speaking of deaths.  We had a dreadful text message come in early Sunday morning.  Our neighbors a few doors down let their dog out to potty before bed.  There was a scuffle and their dog had been bitten by a coyote in its front yard and it died.  A warning was given to all the neighbors.  We'll be more vigilant as Lisi looks like a walking pork chop.  The cat?  I dunno about him.  Love him as I do, I figure he'll have to head for a tree at lightning pace.  I can't corral a cat.

So the other night we had our most-likely last skiing venture of this season.  It is always kind of sad for me even though I don't go as often as the Chairman or the MYP.  It was beautiful and I managed all the hills without a torn shoulder.  We look forward to a longer ski run within a month in a different state.  That makes it seem better.

I've tended to lean to one political party in the past. But this year, I feel like it is a bunch of puppets in clown suits.  I even said in passing I didn't think I'd vote in the upcoming election this fall.  I thought this sign summed it up well:

If you ask us to dog sit for you, we promise to give the pooch a good time!  Last Saturday, we got to be responsible to take this pooch out to go potty and feed him three times.  Well we like to make life more interesting so he got to come on errands with us.  He loved it and so did we.

We celebrated this guy's 40th.  I think it is safe to say we really like their family.  Well most of them anyway.  Their daughter tends to like to take my phone/camera and take pictures of her and daughter #2...

So without further ado, here's a few things I enjoyed lately:

yes, this has happened...

how I feel...

yep

for some relatives of me that tend to be punny...

Happy new week ahead!