We’ve had rain the past two days. A few moments of sun but mostly rain. I think today is sun but tomorrow, more rain. More flowers are popping up and blooming around the yard. I also have flower seeds I need to start and soon. Sprinkling a few more flower images throughout this post.

On Monday, soon after I posted, I started feeling a bit under the weather. Blah enough to text my husband a request to bring home some Sprite. Felt a bit better yesterday and while not 100% today, passed on work, I do feel more functional.

So, since it’s Wednesday and in Fly lady land, that means it’s anti-procrastination day, I thought I’d share my list.

Today’s To Do List

Most of these I’ve been putting off for some time though the laundry is just there (and I did ignore it the past two days).

1. Laundry: In progress!
2. Pay Bills: DONE
3. Make a phone call about an automatic bank charge: Something I need to cancel
4. Reply to blog comments/visit blogs/write blog post: In progress! Also, debating making a loose blog posting schedule to follow.
5. Clean bathroom floors
6. Make chore cards: Saw this idea somewhere to use a deck of cards for household chores as a means to getting more help from family. Follows the make it fun philosophy. Who couldn’t use more fun?
7. Put away blankets piled on bedroom chair: Happens to be in the fly lady zone for the week as well.

Bonus Items

These are only if by some miracle, I complete the 7 items listed. (Note: I have other items on my list today, I’m just sharing the things I’m putting in the anti-procrastination zone).

1. Find the other Easter basket. We always save the boys (and yes, they are well past Easter basket age but I don’t care) Easter baskets to use again each year. However, one is missing. Probably in a closet somewhere.
2. Pick up more birdseed. My poor house finches are staging a protest over the different seed I put out there.
3. Visit Target for a few items. Might be an on-line shopping day.

**********

In other random news, I finished my book, Ready Player One and watched the movie. Wasn’t a huge fan of either though the book was better than the movie. Ordered two new garden flags from Amazon and they arrived yesterday. I’ll share pictures of my Easter one on Friday. And see the green blooming boxwood up there. Those blossoms STINK. Thankfully, the rest of the flowers around the yard smell pleasant.

Work keeps calling. And I keep telling them, hello, I’m sick. It’s different teachers but I do wish they had some sort of bulletin so I could just mark myself unavailable for the week and avoid all the constant texts.

Ending my post here so I can cross another item off the list today. How is your week going so far? What things on your to do list have you been putting off doing?

I’m sure someone out there is saying: It’s already Thursday! Me? I thought today was Friday. Honestly, Tuesday felt like a Friday. That’s how my week’s gone so far. How has your week been?

I also had a whole post written yesterday and forgot to hit publish. Ever do that my blogging friends? And today, I didn’t feel like hitting the button opting instead for a whole new post. Honestly, yesterday (all week) I was feeling a bit down. The dreary weather doesn’t help with the blahs.

We didn’t do much for the holiday except eat some green food. I made a pretty simple dinner of pork chops and baked potatoes (never got to the store for spinach so had to rethink my menu).  I served some chopped up red peppers as well for a bit of color on the dinner plates. However, we had honeydew and some very green sugar cookies for dessert.

Surprisingly, despite the overwhelming green colors, the cookies were pretty good. I picked up the mix on clearance after Christmas with plans to make them for Saint Patrick’s Day. Planned to make them into shamrock cutouts but somehow in a huge box of “holiday” cookie cutters, no shamrock cookie cutter. Need a cookie cutter in the shape of Texas? I’ve got one. A shamrock? Nope.

J and I had already drank our traditional shamrock shakes from McDonald’s on Wednesday after his appointment. While the appointment went okay, my gut is telling me maybe we need to check out another place.

Winter’s Last Hurrah before Spring

The weather is still rainy and dreary. Yet, I’m thankful the predicted snow never arrived. Last night they said anywhere from a dusting to 3-7 inches (large margin). However, we woke up to just more rain. Happy to see the rain in that case!

I did take a quick picture of my blooming daffodils along the side of the house yesterday. Just in case they were buried in white stuff…

Moved my plans for the flower store to this weekend when warm weather and spring should arrive together!  Also snapped a picture of a crocus bud, purple! I don’t remember planting a purple one last fall but I probably did.

Lemon Tree and A Weird Book

With the lousy weather, I’ve been spending a lot of time inside mostly reading. I’ve not had the energy or mental space for dealing with clearing spaces. So, mostly I’ve been sitting around like my lemon tree waiting for it to warm up enough to soak up the sun on the front porch.

See the new leaves? I guess I shocked the poor thing but didn’t completely kill it. See the cat hair around it? Another sign of spring, cat shedding everywhere! We think in addition to shocking it with cold back in February, I over watered it causing a bit of root rot. Ironically, a magazine I had sitting around had an entire article about caring for indoor lemon trees.

Speaking of magazines, I’ve been doing a decent job of reading my current issues and promptly recycling them (I’ll tear out a page or make a note of anything I want to remember). My plan is to slowly start getting magazines I’ll actually really read. Debating subscribing to the Magnolia Journal.

Along with the magazines, I’ve been reading lots of books. The one I just finished was weird. I found it on the e-library sight and thought it sounded interesting. A bit different than the suspense novels I’ve been tearing through. The Resurrectionist by Jack O’Connell was so strange. I linked to my review. Glad to go back and spend some more time with the Zen and the Art of Housekeeping today. Why do actual housekeeping when you can read about it? Right?

Seems I might need a few book recommendations. Read anything interesting lately?

************

And now, I’ve got to run off and do a few things before I go to work this afternoon. Hope you’ve enjoyed catching up on this Thursday that I thought was a Friday.

Remember about a week ago when I said I watched Frozen on Disney Plus? My thought was I’d watch the sequel soon after. Turns out I don’t need to do that as we’re living it! Well, not the princess part. Or the cool castle part. No grand adventures or talking snowmen either.

However, it’s definitely as if Elsa had a finger pointing tantrum directed at the Midwest.

Twelve degrees out there right now and that’s warm for this week! Saw a meme that ordered the northerners to come get their “drunk weather” out of our backyards. I concur. And please, hurry!

It’s one thing to embrace winter but I’m not quite enjoying frigid cold just to drop a kid off at school yet. We’ve also had snow and ice mixed in with it. Road conditions were still poor enough Monday evening, that J’s baritone instructor called early to make sure we weren’t attempting the trip (He gives lessons out of his home).  And on Tuesday morning, my husband returned home and waited a bit longer to leave for work as the roads were solid ice.

Yesterday, we had a bit of a heat wave or at least improved road conditions, so I did a bit of running around after dropping J off at school.

Grocery Store

Thankfully, the store is back to somewhat normal hours so I didn’t have to worry about waiting for the “senior hours” to end.  Normally, I don’t shop on Wednesdays (sale day, always busy!) but made an exception.

Colder weather is supposed to arrive this weekend so I wanted to be prepared. Flower prices always go up around Valentine’s Day but they had these Meyer Lemon Trees in a sale cart:

A lot cheaper than a dozen roses! And (hopefully, keep reading though) longer lasting so I treated myself. Or rather I told my husband that he bought me a lemon tree for my Valentine’s flowers.

Also, treated myself to a Chai Tea Latte. A medium. Am I the only one can never remember the size names? A tall is a small but the Venti vs. Grande thing confuses me. Appreciated the barista’s graciousness in just saying so you want a medium? It was nice to have a warm beverage in hand going back out into the freezing cold.

Now, back to my plant. I took the photo above soon after I arrived home. Made sure to put it in the car/house first to limit its cold exposure. However, it still started this curling craziness last night:

It happened after I watered it. The soil seemed dry to me but apparently, over watering is a thing with these plants. Hopefully, I’ve not set a new plant killing record. I’m going to let the soil dry out for at least a solid week and see what happens. Wish me luck!

Tractor Supply and The Dollar Tree

Tractor Supply Stories

After driving to the grocery store, I decided the roads were decent enough that I should run a couple more errands.

Poor birds were completely out of seed (Minus a small bag I bought at the grocery store in case I ran out of steam before running more errands).

Lots of people were in Tractor Supply stocking up on bird seed, most likely for the upcoming frigid weekend. This surprised me as I’m not used to waiting to get into the bird seed aisle.

On another note, guess what happens when you down a medium Chai Tea Latte and then, go off on another shopping adventure?  I don’t enjoy using retail restrooms in normal times let alone pandemic ones. However, sometimes when you’ve got to go; you’ve got to go.

Found the bathroom, way back in the far corner of the store. Walked to the ladies room to see this lovely sign:

For key, please see cashier.

What? Asked another associate walking by. Oh, the cashier has the key. SIGH. Did I mention it was busy? Thought about just paying and simply going home but again, when you’ve got to go, you’ve got to go.

Back to the front I walk, park my cart, get the key from the cashier. It’s attached to a stick wrapped with pink duct tape. Visions of gas station restrooms floating through my head. Whew, just a normal bathroom with stalls. No idea if it’s a normal thing or a Covid thing that they keep them locked (Target’s bathrooms are still “normal”).

Relieved, in more ways than one, I returned to the front and waited in line to pay for my birdseed and return the key. Strange times aren’t they?

The Dollar Tree

Braving the restroom at Tractor Supply meant I could run an additional errand so I made my way over to the Dollar Tree. Turns out the particular store I frequent is moving. Quick Trip bought the whole corner or something. Thankfully, they’re just moving across the parking lot and next to another grocery store in our area. Hopefully, the new store’s a bit better maintained.

The moving date listed said mid-February so the store was quite empty. Nice to have a bit of space to shop although not much to look at in the mostly empty aisles. Bought some Fairy garden doors. Then, picked up my project idea paper boxes.

Since this post is getting a little lengthy, I think I’ll end it here and make you return tomorrow to see what’s stashed inside these boxes. I’ll share a few other recent projects I’ve been meaning to show you as well.

How’s your weather? If it’s warm, can we borrow some, please?

Waking up in a bad mood on a Monday? Understandable. However, I woke up in a bad mood today.

Ever wake up in a bad mood? I’m sure most of it is sleep related. My husband added a *few* security measures around the outside of the house during the course of the week. After Monday’s madness, I get it and am attempting understanding.

However, his placement of said measures isn’t working well for me. Or at least not for my sleep.

First, he added a “doorbell” that dings any time a person passes it. It’s right next to the front door. I told him it was a bit much as I go in and out of the front door at least 4-5 times each morning. Add to it, the sound is just like the security sound at my work. No one, even those of us who love their job, wants to feel like they are at work when they are actually home.

Then, he added another to a tree in the backyard. It faces his trailer. It also faces my bird feeders. Last night, nocturnal animals or leaves (wind) set it off twice. I do not do well on interrupted sleep. At all. Put it ON the trailer I told him. Am I the only one with the husband who does not listen? UGH.

Add to that, the new trip lights around the deck and backyard. See above about nocturnal animals, leaves, and wind. Our backyard is now constantly lit up like it’s daytime. Again, it’s about the placement. And again, my ideas for more common sense placement of said lights? Mostly, ignored.

A Bit of Good News

Before I continue with my bad mood minutes, I’ll share a little good news. We did indeed get one of the stolen ATVs back. Turns out another neighbor caught someone trying to rob his shed. The thief? Riding our stolen older ATV. Not as hopeful about the newer one, however, insurance is covering it.

Not-backyard business related: After a comment from Tracy over at 4 D Farms, I took another look at how I could preserve So Not Organized without dragging it all over here or going through the posts each week. And I decided what to do. All of my content from the So Not Organized blog is now archived at:

SoNotOrganized.wordpress.com

It’s not super pretty and kind of a mess right now. There is a search bar though. The old paid site should still be there through year-end but now I don’t have to worry about it all disappearing.

We Now Return to Bad Mood on a Friday

Can I just tell you that I didn’t get enough alone time this week? Uh, this entire pandemic. I know I’m not alone on that one. As some sort of weird 50/51 (depends on the day of the week) Introvert/Extravert personality type (ESFP if you’re really into that stuff; or ISFP depending, today leans more I than E), I need my alone time. And don’t do well without it.

After my husband being home much of this week, J not going to school yesterday (anxiety), and G always here though in his room mostly, I’m like a bear awakened from hibernation much too early. Searching angrily for a tiny corner of our small home to carve out for a bit of uninterrupted time. Time for what? Want to know something funny? I don’t know. Just know I need some time to be alone for a bit. Maybe time for this mood to evolve into something a bit more positive.

Goal Not Met

As an emotional stress-eater, this probably wasn’t an ideal week to pick for going sugar-free. I did okay with it on Monday (surprisingly), Tuesday and Wednesday while not perfect, weren’t awful. I caved a tiny bit on Wednesday with my nemesis or “MY LOVE” pictured above.

Yesterday, however, complete and utter failure. The stress of many things caught up to me and I covered it in chalky sweet candy-hearted pieces. And a few cookies. And Chex Mix. Yes, also a few pieces of chocolate. Though it was 85% cocoa chocolate. *J, the other dark chocolate fan in our house, said 85% was a bit too bitter for him.

Managing My Mood

Still reading? Wow, thank you. Usually, I’m not quite so moody. Tend to be fairly stable in the mood department. Looking ahead to the rest of today and this weekend:

Today I work in the afternoon. Always a mood booster being around 3-6 year old kids. Even at their crankiest time of day.

Shouldn’t plan life around the TV but I’m looking forward to watching a new episode of WandaVision and the Super Bowl this weekend. (Wearing my red for red Friday, Go Chiefs!)

A new magazine to read (lots of those that arrive for free in the mail but I gave in and purchased a copy of Magnolia Home Journal and I’m excited to flip through the pages)

I know this mood is a passing thing and once I’ve had a little (real) food, water, sunshine, and more rest, the clouds of my bad mood will lift away.

***********

How do you chase away a bad mood?

Happy Wednesday! Thought I’d just pop on here and share what I’m watching, reading, and doing this week.

Watching

Believe it or not, I’ve not had the TV on much this week. Well, actually that’s not true. I guess I should say I’ve not watched too much of anything specific or planned on the TV. The past two days I’ve left the TV on as ambient background noise. Keeping an eye or ear rather on the news.  Yesterday, I watched a bit of Live with Kelly and Ryan as well as a snippet of the Wendy Williams show.

And of course, last night I watched the season premiere of Prodigal Son. So good! Wish I could get my husband to watch that one with me. After watching season 1 of the series and the premiere last night, I’m convinced The Walking Dead wasted Tom Payne’s acting ability. And Michael Sheen is so fun as a serial killer. Really, I’ve not seen a more perfectly cast drama series in a long time. Will someone please watch this show with me?

When I’m not watching TV (really I’m listening to it more than watching), I’m looking at the birds out the back door. I’ll share more about my birds on Saturday like usual. However, I’m happy to report the score so far: New Birdfeeder: 2 Squirrels: 0.  Chickadees were first to embrace the new feeder, followed oddly, by the red-bellied woodpecker!

What are you watching lately? Or are you doing more reading?

Reading

I’ve not glanced at either of the books I mentioned struggling to read on Monday at all this week. However, I did download Tuscan Dreams at the Cornish Confetti Agency and started reading it at J’s lesson and a bit in the afternoons.

Mostly, I have been glancing at my magazines. I get the HGTV magazine and stumbled across an IKEA desk from the cover I want for my reading nook corner of our bedroom.

Also, not sure if it counts as reading, looking at blogs and Pinterest. Seem to have the home décor bug. Think it might be a January thing? Anyway, I’m a bit obsessed with the Scandinavian style lately and this blog in particular. Trying to figure out how to convince my husband we need to go this direction in our ever on-going bedroom remodel.

So when I’m not watching TV or pretending scrolling through Pinterest counts as reading, what am I doing?

Doing

Honestly, not that much. Trying to over-see J’s on-line schooling. That’s going about as well as I expected. Still searching for balance. And completely fed up with these teenagers and their bizarre sleep schedules. Trying to not bristle too much at my husband’s random suggestions when he’s happily off at work and I’m turning down work to be here and oversee things.

In less gripey news, I’ve been working on my little corner nook area of our bedroom. Can’t do much as the walls and floors aren’t quite complete. However, I can dream. And clear out a bit of clutter, the usual January stuff. A trip to drop off at the thrift store should happen today.

Cooking dinners with mixed results. Tonight, however, we’ll eat leftovers instead of what I planned. Choices of taco meat (from Saturday), chicken legs, sausage & vegetables, or a battle over one porkchop with turnips. Funny note: White wine vinegar is not the best substitution for white cooking wine. My cooking level of experience remains “medium.”

In homage to my word of the year, I plan to spend today simply doing one chore in each room of the house and without hurry or worry.  Thankful for today’s nice weather, I’ll be attending a fire pit meeting with friends later. Though I’ll bundle up in layers as the temperature drops quickly in January (any month) once night arrives.

What things have you been doing this week?

********

Thought I’d share my to-do list for today and what I’ve been up to the past two days.

Still focusing on my 2021 word of Less, I only wrote 5 things on today’s list. Most of them already accomplished, the last 2 in progress as I take a small break to start this post. And that list of errands at the bottom? I crossed them off my list, saving them for the weekend.

Should I share my thoughts about yesterday?

I go back and forth. The desire to not comment on politics versus the internal need to say something. I heard about the storming of the capitol while I was happily visiting Narnia via Disney plus. Seemed surreal and I returned to Narnia for a bit. Personally, I think former George W. Bush gave the most eloquent statement on the disappointing display within our capitol: if you want, here’s the link to his words. 

Surely, I’m not alone in missing a country where politics didn’t drive people apart from one another and incite them to violence. So much more we could focus on doing within our own states, neighborhoods, and homes than shouting at each other over the “leaders” of the moment. Also, though I’ve chosen less for my word, can we all strive to be more?  Let’s be more than one issue/one party voters (something I have never understood).  Show more kindness to one another.  Strive for more understanding of different points of view.

My final thought is I hope our leaders who incited the violence as well as those who participated, face proper consequences.

Back to My To Do List Items

The laundry mountain is on-going, of course. And I had Christmas clothing in the wash so sweaters are drying.

I safely packed the Nativity away for next Christmas.

Sorted out all those candles.

Gave myself permission to feel less guilt and throw away some that weren’t entirely consumed. Especially if I didn’t like the scent. I threw away 3-4, seems okay. The rest I returned to the shelf, sorted seasonally. I need more January candles.

Cleared out the cup cabinet. Mainly, re-arranged it though I did add a pile of grey plastic cups we all hate to the donation bin.

Sneaked in a different type of project. Since I’ve decided to do a Rudolph day on the 25th of each month, I found an empty bin for projects. Quite by accident but hooray for the discovery of an empty storage bin in the basement! Had some Christmas stickers lurking in an upstairs cabinet and so made myself this:

It’s just a blank spiral notebook I took from the kids’ school supply stash. Even jotted a few ideas in it before stashing it in the aforementioned empty storage bin. By the way, did I ever share that I’m a left-handed blogger? So, I also decorated the back as I find it easier to turn spiral notebooks over to use them.

The Random Bits

I guess the left-handed part was kind of random, huh? Going back to yesterday, I made our traditional 3 King’s Cake. Kept things simple and used a yellow cake mix and can of vanilla frosting, just adding some colored sugar to the top of the cake. We typically use a cashew to represent baby Jesus and I kept that the same.

Can you believe my husband found the Jesus cashew (I hope saying Jesus cashew isn’t blasphemy) in the very first piece of cake?  I’m glad he’ll have the prosperous year and all that but it kind of takes the fun out of searching for it.

In other news, J and I have been enjoying simple hot chocolate. The kind from a packet. It’s nice. We’re down to one packet so if he wants hot chocolate after school again today, I’ll have hot tea instead. Yes, with cake. Are you a hot chocolate fan? Favorite brand? We like Swiss Miss around here.

Not much else going on, I work a full day tomorrow, my first working day since Christmas break. I’m looking forward to going back and yet still going to miss having another lazy day at home.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I hear Prince Caspian might attend my laundry folding party.

Forgot the frustrations of starting from scratch. Been a long time and now I can’t find the old tutorials I used to make So Not Organized. Still not giving up hope to have things the way I want on Jan. 1.

In chit chat news, I went inside a free standing Starbucks store on Tuesday night for the first time since well, possibly 2019. Might have ventured in one back in January of February of 2020. It’s certainly been a long year, hasn’t it?

Anyway, I needed gift cards, specifically one a for a secret Santa gift I was in the middle of dropping off at work. Turns out the grocery store location closes at 7p.m. NOT 8p.m. like I thought.

Happy news to me, finding out the free standing location was still open. Not sure when they closed, probably 9p.m. Even happier news, I could go inside the store! Couldn’t bring myself to order a gift card through the drive through. So, mask on, enter store. Still can’t meet to chat with friends but you can pick up merchandise/order coffee/buy gift cards, all inside the store.

Bought my gift cards. Then, decided since I was already there, might as well treat myself. Since it was after 8 already, I ordered a small (tall?) Chai tea latte. My new favorite Starbucks drink of choice. Onward to work to drop off my secret Santa gift since I wasn’t working the next day.

Spilling The Tea (Literally)

Drop off gift, check door to make sure it’s properly locked. Then, am I the only one? Get in car but wait, maybe I should check door one more time just in case. Do that. Come back to car. And realize my purse strap caught on my coffee (tea) cup and in a freak accident, turned it completely upside down in the cupholder.

Gravity is real, my friends. Suffice it to say not a single drop of tea stayed in the upside down cup. Instead it all pooled in the cupholder. A beautiful brown delicious smelling pond, no longer fit for consumption even if I’d had a straw handy.

Almost sums up this whole year does it not?