Weird and thankful are the two words I’m using to describe this week. I have had more than a few weird happenings. And I’ve been thankful for quite a few blessings put in my path at just the right time as well.

Tiny Bits of Blessings

These small things (but they felt like big wonderful things at the time) made me offer up a few prayers of thankfulness this week. 

• Called into work on early on Monday morning, time crunch. Barely got there and as I did, the other opening teacher let me know the time clock wasn’t working so I was able to be in the classroom right at the proper time. Whew!
• In a rush to get home, mad dash into the grocery store. The chickens I wanted to grab for dinner were on sale and right in the front so I didn’t have to wander deep into the store for them. Time saver!
• A rain shower on Tuesday morning to save me time watering the plants. And the plants and flowers prefer that rain water anyway. And another one Thursday afternoon, actually that one was a bigger thunderstorm which cooled us off. No more heat wave this morning.
• J agreed to go on a walk at a nearby nature center with me on early on Thursday. We saw a few monarchs and a snake (!), neither of which posed readily for the camera. Honestly, I didn’t try very hard with the snake even if it was tiny.

  

Wee Bits of Weirdness

Here’s where the weird and thankful part of this post arrives. I’ve had some strange encounters this week.

• Had to stop for gas on the way home from work Tuesday. Had a fellow ask me to slap him. Something about a bet with his friends and $200. What?! I politely declined the offer as I was wearing one of my work t-shirts along with it being a bit strange.
• Remembered one of my dreams. I hardly ever remember my dreams. I was in the living room of a lovely older couple I didn’t know and we were talking about fields of all things. My contribution to the conversation was to tell them about Hodge’s field down the road from where I grew up, it’s now a housing subdivision. Wonder who those people were. Maybe relatives I never met?
• In the McDonald’s drive-thru with J. Splattering on the windshield like it’s raining. Except not one other car had water on it. Something dripping off the roof, just on us. We joked maybe it was Sprite but hoped it was simply water. From what? We have no idea…
• Need more than a wee bit of weirdness? Post a found cat (or anything really) on the Next door neighborhood app. Yeah, I don’t think I’m calling the guy who someone else posted the two different numbers for him at different times (both in the middle of the night) regarding the cat. Scam alert senses tingling.

Ending With A Song

Overall, it’s been a pretty good week around here. However, this has definitely been the theme song for the week. (Early 2000’s Country Flashback Ahead)

In case you don’t want to watch the video/hear the song (full printed lyrics here), the main chorus is as follows:

God is great, beer is good, and people are crazy.

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More happened but I think there’s been enough said about my weird and thankful week.  How’s your week been?

Thought I’d share five things from this week in the style of a week in review post. Kind of a Five on Friday kind post with a twist, admittedly not much of one. When checking, I saw the last time I did a week in review post was back in March!

Oops. Didn’t think my week in review posts were going to be quite that sporadic. Maybe I’ll do better during the school year.

My Five Things From This Week

One: Speaking of Oops, I fed a stray kitten.

 

And now it’s adopted me. Except everyone in the household voted no to adding this sweet fellow to our family. Our current cat voted a very loud no on the matter.

However, in fairness to the family, we do take care when discussing adding another cat as our current cat is quite small (she weighs about 10 pounds) and we don’t want her overwhelmed by a larger cat. This little fellow is going to be fairly large if his ears and paws are any indication.

Why oh why did you feed the cat? Everyone knows not to do that. Except the poor guy was starving and seemed to be eyeing the all you can eat bird buffet at my feeders. Barely a baby and yes, I did go to Target yesterday and get some kitten food.

I do have his picture posted on the neighborhood site so hopefully, someone needs a cat and soon before I get any more attached.

Two: Front Porch Privacy

It’s not that I don’t like my neighbors. However, our houses are not that far apart and their porch is not big. While I’m glad they have their daughter staying with them while her mom recovers from some medical issues, she is outside all the time. Sitting on the bench which faces our front porch, it’s the only way it fits on their porch. While she is very kind, I find it hard to grasp my peace when she is out there because:

Direct line of sight is how my husband put it. And sometimes when I’m sitting on my front porch, I just want the solitude of my porch, the cat laying there, and the gentle scent of my flowers. Hard to obtain with someone a few yards away, constantly on the phone and (ugh) smoking. Case you ever wondered, cigarette smoke overpowers the scent of flowers.

So, I’ve been attempting to construct a living privacy wall of sorts. Tall lemongrass, lavender, sage. I need a plant stand as well. It helps a bit with the direct line of sight at least. Trying to give us both a bit of privacy, I’m sure they’d prefer a little bit as well.

Might be time to focus on making the back deck an oasis instead. Except, it’s all shady and I like my sun loving flowers that do good only around the front of the house.

Three: Feeling Summer Cozy With Books and TV Shows

The Netflix laundry folding show I’ve been watching, The Good Witch, has a real fall feel to it. And it’s just kind of a happy, settle in kind of show.

And I’ve escaped (via a kindle book) to The Hummingbird Hotel, thanks to Daisy James and her new series.

The two characters start off with that strong dislike of each other that we all know leads to love and romance in the end (well, if it doesn’t I’ll be both surprised and disappointed!).

Four: Haunted By The Ghosts of My Farming Grandparents, Apparently

The only reason I can think to explain this self-proclaimed city girl (okay, suburban girl) suddenly having this desire to plant a fall garden. Or even actually work in our current (albeit small) vegetable garden pulling weeds.

Yesterday, I planted a second set of bean seeds (after tearing out the current bean plants because they were tangling on all the other plants and the beans from them tasted awful!). And pulled weeds plus pulled up my poor zucchini plant that had seen better days. Does look we may have a bumper crop of cucumbers in a few weeks. Plan to get a few more things going today.

My fall garden plans include: one okra seed (This is just a to see if it will work kind of thing, I found one lonely seed in a packet from spring. The okra we planted in the spring didn’t make it), green beans, lettuce, carrots, and sweet corn. My idea is to grow most of it in pots around the front porch area as that’s honestly the place with the best light.

Five: Random Tidbits

 

Aside from my crazy idea to try fall gardening, I might need to ban myself from the garden centers for a bit. Can’t resist those bargain flowers that they mark down this time of year.

 

Especially when I’m convinced by fluttering sales agents in the form of hummingbirds visiting the sage and monarchs showing me the sombrero salsa coneflowers (yes, I think that’s a weird name as well).

J had two band practices and a baritone lesson this week. G had car trouble and we had to go jump start his car the one evening J didn’t have an activity. My husband’s been mostly busy with work and visiting his friend in the hospital (things weren’t looking great on Tuesday).

Oddly, I’ve not worked all week but I don’t mind. I’m enjoying my time at home while things are slow. Of course, I should be making better use of it and doing the “boring” stuff like getting the car inspected, tags renewed, actually finishing this basement project, etc.

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Well for a summary of the week, this post got rather long. Better end it here. How has your week been?