And I worked all four days. Thus the days of silence once again.

A teacher fell and broke her ankle (not at work, still yikes!) and so I’m helping out for the next two weeks. Except for on Tuesday when I have jury duty. So it may stay silent around here for a bit as my loveable preschool kids do take up a bit of time and mental space.

However, today is Good Friday and my school is off for the holiday. So, today I have time (not sure about mental space, ha) to link up with Cathy over at My Creative Life for a Friday Catch Up.

Easter Plans

I’m going to have to find an older photo for this category. Let’s see…

And with this photo, I realize I haven’t even put the Easter wreath on the front door this year. Oops. Well, that happens when  you’re extremely busy, then super sick, then super busy again.

So far our Easter plans involve going to church on Sunday. J is playing in the band for the later service. Other than that, I have no idea. I did get a few Easter basket goodies for my sons. If you’re in this house, the Peter Cottontail hops down the bunny trail.

No Rest

Me last night at 5PM: I’m going to do ALL the things tomorrow!

Me at noon today (now): I might do 2 of the things today!

Ever have those nights where you just can’t shut your mind off? That was me last night, needed to sleep but could not. And then, a bit of tummy troubles as well. Some of that might have been the Dutch Bros *medium* coffee at 1 in the afternoon followed by a mango Pepsi with dinner.

My plan to stay a bit on schedule for the long weekend is long gone. My work schedule for the next 2 weeks is 7:00AM to 3:30PM which really means getting there at 6:40ish and leaving closer to 4. Didn’t want to throw my early mornings too far off over the 3 day weekend but so much for that one.

Today’s super cloudy, rainy looking outside isn’t helping with the motivation either.

Stuff I Need To Buy

Maybe want to buy? I can live without all these things but I need them in the sense of my personal and household comfort level.

Random things: new um, under layers, shoes, essential oils, socks, lotion, and this is truly more a want than need but I’d like a new dress for Easter and/or to wear to preschool graduation later in May.

These are just random things I tally in my head throughout the day/week. Do you do that or are you an organized list maker?

And what have I bought in the last 24 hours? A medium Dutch Bros iced coffee drink and a preschool book about respect (I did check the library first with no luck on the exact one I wanted).

The End

I have no idea how to end this rambling and random post. Here’s a last phone picture of some spring flowers from around the yard. I’m not 100% but I think this is Sweet William Phlox.

Hope you all have a wonderful Easter weekend!

Did you notice the silence around here this week? That’s because I’ve been sick. What I thought might’ve been allergies late last week was um, not. Or maybe it was and then, the sickness found me? I don’t know. I do know that I felt BAD on Saturday, Sunday, and Monday. Never have I been so glad to have work cancel on me as I was on Monday!

Tuesday and Wednesday I felt better but not 100%. I actually felt pretty good on Wednesday but then did that thing we all (maybe?) do where I did too much. And then, I was tired again on Thursday but still felt so much better! I feel good today and ready to catch up on all the things I’ve let slide this week. Including this space.

Clearly this Friday Catch Up isn’t going to be overly exciting but I think I can find a few things to share. Don’t forget to hop over to My Creative Life, host of our weekly link up.

Coughing, Cough Drops, and Too Many Movies and Shows

Highly recommend the cough drops pictured. A teacher gave me a couple when I thought it was allergies last Friday. Texted the photo to my husband on Saturday as I was realizing it was not allergies. My combo most days of the week: cough drops, Emergen-C, Mucinex (as I told J, you know I’m feeling bad if I’m taking the serious medicines), Elderberry, and regular vitamins. Sometimes, I even grabbed the Vicks Vapor rub.

And oh, how many shows/movies I watched! To be fair, slept through a few. All of the Lord of The Rings, extended editions. Then, I started with Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire and watched all the rest. I hadn’t realized that Robert Pattinson played Cedric Diggory until recently so that’s what started that one. Then, just for fun: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. Last movie I watched (yesterday actually) was The 5th Wave, hoping the book series was much better as I was tempted to start cheering on the aliens by the end.

Shows I watched/caught up with: finished White Lotus (not my favorite season by far, saw a comment somewhere that said the show should’ve drank the pina coladas and I concur), my re-watch of The Last of Us, Abbott Elementary, and then the usual cooking shows. And again, I was shocked to realize that one of the actors in White Lotus was the same actor who played Lucius Malfoy in Harry Potter. What?!

Whew! Time to read a book or something, huh?

Important Errands

I did feel well enough on Tuesday to briefly get out to do this:

Just a couple local issues for me but still, voting matters! Two measures went the way I voted and one did not. Then, yesterday, I made a journey to the post office after reading somewhere the price of forever stamps is about to increase. Look at our new stamps!:

J and I also took a small ride so I could show him the back way to the church where his band practice is on Sunday. Road construction is everywhere in this city! How is it where you are?

Spring is for Noticing

Energy’s been low but I did manage to grab the camera and walk around the yard a bit. I’ve decided my favorite thing about spring is noticing the new blooms and flowers everywhere. And the bugs as well, look at what I didn’t notice on the dandylion until I downloaded the photo! 

Grape hyacinths that pop up in our yard each year:

Orange tulips!

And I’ll end this with the dogwood tree blooms about to open:

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Weather is supposed to sunny, warm, and beautiful this weekend so I’m hoping to get out and enjoy it. Today, I need to do a general catch up of lots of not so fun things like paying bills and cleaning the house. Wait, I’m thinking cleaning the house caused me to get sick the first time. Maybe I’ll skip that part. If only.

How was your week? Any exciting weekend plans?

Someday I’ll get back to publishing Friday catch up posts on Fridays. This week was a bit of a whirlwind over here.  I mean when did this even happen?  Walked out to feed the birds this morning and the bleeding heart plant is blooming!

You might have noticed I didn’t post all week long. Full work week with the exception of Wednesday. So for most of the week, it was this:

Wednesday, I had the cleaning bug and spent most of the day giving the house a good cleaning. The weather’s turned chilly again after a round of storms on Tuesday night that caused this:

Poor lemon tree! (It was in a ceramic pot on a small table.) I can save it but it’s been too cold outside to do much. It’s in another pot (not pictured) with a bit of dirt waiting right now. Also, just for clarification the green up there over the dirt is from a different plant (asparagus fern), the vines just fell into the dirt when I moved it.

So basically, spring around here moved from sunny and warm to rainy and cold (all tropical plants back inside as we’re supposed to dip down in the 30’s overnight. Brrr!). Pansies will be fine though.

Could Be Allergies…

After spending all day Wednesday cleaning, I started to get a tickle in my throat that evening. And woke up feeling a bit blah, scratchy throat, watery eyes. Sick or allergies?

Felt worse as Thursday progressed but made it through (left work a bit early) and then, did manage to make it through Friday. Thinking the answer might be sick. Moral of the story: Don’t clean, it’ll make you sick. Ha! HA! Could’ve also been all the stuff stirred up from Tuesday night’s storm. Or I picked up a virus somewhere at work.  Job hazard.

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Still not feeling 100 percent this morning but thought I’d do a quick check in here on the blog. Probably going to put on a “sleeping movie” here in a bit and snuggle in for what appears to be another cold and rainy day over here.

Hopefully, I’ll do a bit better with posting and responding to comments next week! So far, not looking as busy.

Since it’s not Friday, I guess this is going to have to be a Saturday summary in lieu of a Friday catch up post. Could also be a sleepy Saturday summary thanks to a certain little gray cat. She seemed to think I wanted 5AM to be my new wake up time.

This week divided into home and work with 2 days at home and 3 days at work. Thankfully, I had beautiful weather no matter where or what I did. Not really much to share so I’ll just share some random bits.

Spring is definitely here!

A Pretty Dinner

I thought the ham and potato stir fry looked pretty in the pan as it cooked on Monday night. Didn’t come out quite as well as my first attempt, thinking I cut the potatoes a bit too big this time.

Squirrel Food?

If you pop back to Wednesday’s post, you can see where I planted 3 hyacinth bulbs in my teacup planter. So imagine my shock at returning home from work on Thursday to find only 2 bulbs in the planter. My prime suspect is a squirrel. So far, thankfully, the other 2 bulbs remain.

Maybe because they’re starting to bloom?

Work Stuff

My work days weren’t bad at all. Getting to enjoy the wonderful weather with the kids is a great perk of working at a preschool. Fresh air and sunshine? A nature walk in the middle of the day? Sold! Also, in the class where I worked on Thursday and Friday, a parent brought us all amazing iced coffees from the local Dutch Bros not once but 2 days in a row!  Much welcomed by me as I had to open the school both days which meant getting there around 6:45 in the morning. 

Also, a sweet little girl gave me a dandelion and told me I should put in my hair.  And then, another child gifted me more flowers. So I wound them in my ponytail holder. Nothing like getting home and realizing you have dead flowers in your hair, ha!

Tulip Time

I must’ve planted a very early blooming variety. Tulips usually don’t bloom quite so soon around here. This lovely little yellow tulip also randomly bloomed in the flower garden beside the front porch. It’s a solo tulip.

Happy Discovery

In addition to the lone yellow tulip, I finally found my peonies emerging in the front yard. I transplanted them a few years back and had thought that perhaps the long summer drought did them in last year. Glad to see these shoots coming up out of the ground.

Hibiscus Blooming Time

The silly hibiscus bloomed almost all winter and here it goes again. I actually have 2 tropical hibiscus purchased on clearance from Menards, this one though is 3 maybe 4 years old. I need to replant it but I’m a bit nervous. We’ll see how it goes. Clearance purchase or not, I’ll be sad if repotting this is what does it in.

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It’s another beautiful weather day once again so perhaps after I get a handle on the laundry (yikes, talk about a laundry monster!), I’ll get out there and enjoy it. We are supposed to possibly have severe storms tonight. Not much else going on. Hope everyone is out enjoying the weekend no matter the weather!

Joining in with Cathy over at My Creative Life for the Friday Catch Up although as I said, mine’s a Saturday summary this time.