I drove over to Deb’s house this morning, and the two of us went to her brother Mark’s. We told him we’d help him get the kitchen and living room areas ready for him to move in tomorrow. It wasn’t hard work and it didn’t take long. He still has a lot of little things to do yet but they can all be done once he’s settled. It’s a smaller house, two bedrooms, one bathroom, and a galley kitchen. The living room is a nice size since he added a bump-out to give himself a front porch and a little more space. Just right for him, and not too much maintenance. He bought us lunch which was very yummy!

This is the listing pictures – before he worked on it. There are two houses there. His is the second one.

The other fun thing was that his bathroom light fixture had a blue tooth speaker – so it connected to his music or phone! I never heard of that. The shower had a rain shower head. All new fixtures and was really pretty. The kitchen cabinets were dark gray and very classy.

Deb went the back way from her house to Mark’s – and I didn’t know that way. I went home that way when I left and it was so much quicker than going through town. That was fun! It went right beside the country club.

When I got home, I prepped the empty fire pit space and leveled the ground as best as I could. I went over to Home Depot and got 6 bags on top soil, grass seed, and bag of mini-pebbles, and a flowering bush. I got all the top soil spread and leveled out, and then perked up the two stepping stones by the corner of the deck. I won’t plant the grass seed until it’s a little bit cooler. That area gets hot morning sun and I think it would die out quickly.

Top soil spread

Spruced up the stepping stones.

The bush I am going to plant in the lower triangle of the hill. I have a small azalea there and it’s growing so slow. The butterfly bushes are doing very well so I thought that would fill in the space quickly. When I came in I was soaking, sweating wet so I got a shower and put on PJ’s. Now, I’ll get something to eat and look over my camp notes.

Lots of blooms on the butterfly bush from last year

Mini Butterfly bush also has lots of blooms

Pinky-Winkey is really big!

This will go on the hill and I’ll move the azalea.

SCRIPTURE of the DAY:

Courtesy of Logan Christian Church

PEANUTS?

TOMORROW July 16th is:

Fresh Spinach Day; Guinea Pig Appreciation Day; National Cherry Day; National Corn Fritters Day; National Hot Dog Day; National Personal Chef Day; National Wedding Invitation Day; Rural Transit Day; Take your Poet to Work Day; World Snake Day (NO! Just NO!!)

I really don’t appreciate guinea pigs. Sorry. I’ll eat a hot dog but it has to be the right kind. I really wish I had a personal chef! God bless…

First thing this morning the repairman came to fix the fridge. He put the new parts in, but when he was replacing the defrost fan he found a cracked wire. So he ordered one – but in the meantime he fixed the cracked one so the fridge would work safely and I could use it until he gets back. It will be several weeks probably. Nothing to do but keep going!

Not quite this bad. Just a little nic…

I worked Pinnacle this morning since I will be busy tomorrow. I stopped at the bank, then buzzed back out to Burlington and ended up buying the soccer shoes. I use them for mowing as it keeps me from slipping on the grass. When I got home I put them on (since they were totally new and clean) and walked around the house to make sure they felt ok.

New shoes for mowing.

After lunch I went outside and finished moving all the stones that I could from the fire pit – so it’s ready for top soil. Then I hosed off the stones in their new locations.

Moved as many stones as I could.

Filled the ring.

Some of the extra stones – I hosed them off.

I spent about an hour trimming dead flower stalks, pulling weeds, and digging out wayward plants. I’m posting pictures but you probably don’t notice the difference. I keep forgetting to take ‘before’ pictures.

Cut back the dead Glads.

Right hill — pulled the weeds.

Left hill – cut dead stalks and dug out wayward plants.

I finally got my next medical test scheduled – next Tuesday at 2pm. It will be an easy test and won’t take long – but I had to have special medications to take before the test. The pharmacy was having trouble with that but now I have them and we’re all set for next week!

Kelly sent me a picture of Logan and Matt, who were both honored as West Virginia’s newest 4-H All Stars. Matt knew he was being inducted, but it was a surprise to Logan. How exciting for both of them – congrats!

SCRIPTURE of the DAY:

PEANUTS?

Don’t we need this some days???

TOMORROW July 15th is:

Celebration of the Horse Day; National Be a Dork Day; National Clean Beauty Day; National Give Something Away Day; National Gummi Worm Day; National Pet Fire Safety Day; National Tapioca Pudding Day; Orange Chicken day.

My friends April and Diane both love horses! No one should HAVE to be a dork if they don’t want to. Giving something away is a smart thing for several reasons. And my friend Greg P HATES Tapioca Pudding! God bless…

I woke up to a hard rain this morning – but it certainly didn’t last long. By the time I got finished in the shower it was sunny and clear. And warm. Our Sunday school lesson and sermon message were very similar – and I know that wasn’t planned. Well, GOD probably planned it! But since it’s something we all need to focus on it was a good thing. Basically it was talking about habits, and that you can ‘think’ yourself into whatever life by your focus. We worry too much because we THINK that way. We should be thinking of GOOD, POSITIVE things and focus on that. Don’t let negative thoughts take over your emotions. What you think about is what you become = and DON’T let the devil distract you. Changing your focus changes your direction. What thoughts are shaping your life? 1) Name the lies you tell yourself or believe. 2) Replace them with the truth. 3) FIX your focus! Fix your mind on heavenly things!

THIS is what you should think about!

I could not get my NOOK app on my phone to open for 3 days. I called B&N and they tried to help but that wasn’t working. So after church I stopped in B&N and the lady at the service desk was very helpful. We had to shut the phone down and delete the app and reload twice but we finally did get it to work. I’m very pleased and they were very helpful there!

My sister gave me a piece of lasagna and I had that for lunch – yum! It’s so fun to have a great meal that you didn’t even have to cook!

One storm came through already, but it looks like we may get another one. But in between I was able to work more on dissolving the fire pit. I cleaned out the fire bricks and put the fire ring up by the road. Maybe someone will want it. If not, trash will take it Thursday.

Then I got about half of the stone lugged over to the stone circle I made by the driveway. I still have a bunch more to do.

Making progress…

SCRIPTURE of the DAY:

PEANUTS?

TOMORROW July 14th is:

International Town Criers Day; National Be Nice to Bugs day; National Macaroni and Cheese Day; National Nude Day; National Tape Measure Day; Pandemonium Day; Shark Awareness Day.

No nude for me – I barely tolerate showers! I will probably never be nice to a bug – unless it’s a lightening bug. There’s plenty of pandemonium everywhere – we don’t need a day for it! God bless…

We’ve been busy the last few days. But it’s been fun! Thursday night late Chase and I went outside on the deck to watch the stars and see the full moon – the BUCK moon! We watched the sky to see what stars were ‘moving’ – which told us they weren’t stars after all. It was 11:30pm before we went inside. It was a beautiful night.

Buck moon – internet image

Friday when I got up and showered I headed down to Norwin Square to get my bloodwork. But as would be typical, I missed the call from my doctor so I have no clue what’s next. Guess I’ll find out Monday.

I had toast and tomato for breakfast when I got home, then went outside to move more stones while I waited for Kelly to arrive. I got all the big blocks moved and I think it helped. Mostly I wanted to section off the new little azalea plants so they don’t get buried under vines and buttercups.

Yesterday’s stone wall project

Azalea at the bottom of the walk by shed

This one’s finally starting to grow – in middle of picture to left of Hosta in front of brown fence.

By the steps – behind the 2 stones.

At the bottom of the driveway – hope to put most of the pond stones in this circle.

This azalea is brown – hoping the roots have taken hold and it will flourish! (in front of stone)

Just have the little pond stone and the fire ring to clean out now.

Trimmed back some ‘wild’ daisies and clipped a few stray branches off the lilac by the front deck.

Corner by the walk is looking ok now.

Once Kelly got here we did some small projects. She’s making flower magnets for the fall tea at Hanna’s Town and has half of them made.

Half done – then they need magnets.

Chase needed meds for his cold and Kelly needed a white shirt for Sunday, so we buzzed over to Gabes and Walmart and handled that, plus a bag of popcorn puffs for Chase. I think his cold needed fed. (Feed a cold; starve a fever!)

Chase wearing my flower-light halo

Chase and his mom!

Paul and Kathy picked Kelly and I up at 5pm and we drove to Delmont to see a presentation by Ulysses S Grant. We’ve seen him before and he’s excellent. You have to remind yourself that it’s really NOT General Grant! He’s so informed and interesting and I always learn so much.

This is from last year’s presentation….

We ordered pizza on the way home and met the delivery guy in the driveway! Again, we stayed up until 11:30 just chatting and catching up. Chase touched up my memory plaque for Tazz and it looks really nice.

Kelly and I had scones for breakfast and Chase just got up, packed up, and slunk to the car. He had a bag of snacks and treats to munch on the way home – that’s his M.O.! I planned on mowing but it was already too hot and stuffy at 9am. So I switched gears, did laundry, cleaned up, and started working on a few previously ignored projects. I’ll keep working on them this evening and tomorrow. I have to catch up my journal too.

SCRIPTURE of the DAY:

PEANUTS?

TOMORROW July 13th is:

Barn Day; Beef Tallow Day; Embrace your Geekness Day; National Beans ‘n’ Franks Day; National Rock Day; National Barbershop Music Appreciation Day; Fool’s Paradise Day.

I kind of really like barns – especially old ones! Kelly used to always bring a rock home when we went on a walk when she was little — for her dad (Stoney). Not sure if she connected the significance. She was 3. God bless…

To my adoring public! (haha) No word garden today – had a full, busy day. Will catch up tomorrow. Sending hugs and wishes for a happy weekend.

There wasn’t much to do in Jeannette today – but we did get the truck temp tags I ordered last week and I was very excited! They are the new style and color! No one but me gets excited about temporary plates!

Sort of like this – but they say TRUCK instead of Let Freedom Ring and start with ‘V’. I actually love the new style!

I got gas in the VW then went to New Stanton to meet my friend Ginny for lunch. We had the ‘Two for…’ deal. I had a cranberry pecan salad and a BLT. It was good. We had a nice few hours catching up – her granddaughter will be a second year college student this fall, and her grandson just turned one! We both had pictures to share. And ironically, we’ve both had similar medical experiences, trying to find out why we get short of breath. We’ll see what we discover.

Salad.

I stopped at Youngwood Shop and Save to get my favorite bathroom tissue, then came home to answer emails until time to leave. I drove to Blairsville to meet Matt’s sister Aunt Kimmie to pick up Chase – but I was early so stopped in the Fleatique. I found a picture frame that matches the ones I have Logan’s and Peyton’s senior pictures in — so I was pro-active and bought it for Chase’s, even though it’s down the road a ways.

I like the picture in it – but I did buy it for the wooden frame!

I also found an inexpensive beenie baby skunk – they are normally sort of expensive since they are pretty rare – so I scarfed it up. He rode home on my dash and is now happily cuddled up with his mother and sister!

Skunk family…

I stopped on the way to the house and got Chase Chick Fil-A – it was dinner time and he was hungry. I think that and his bag of pretzels will hold him over. He does have pop tarts, too!

Hanging out…

When I went to pull in the garage I noticed that my broom holder had let loose and fell on the floor. I tried to hang a shovel on it – and it’s not made for that. It’s just a Dollar Tree find. So I cleaned off the board and reattached it, and added some duct tape — and removed the shovel!

Reinforced.

Last week I ordered 20 Letters to Mary books – just so I have a supply on hand. They came today, so for me that’s exciting. Anyone need a book???

When we stopped at Walmart to stock up on Chase-ables (food), I got a bag of popcorn. Then I came home and melted down some chocolate wafers and drizzled the popcorn. It’s something Chase likes so I don’t think it will last very long!

SCRIPTURE of the DAY:

PEANUTS?

TOMORROW July 11th is:

My Brother-in-law’s Birthday; All American Pet Photo Day; Cheer Up the Lonely Day; Collector Car Appreciation Day; Free Slurpee Day; National Blue Berry Muffin Day; National French Fry Day; National Motorcycle Day; National Swimming Pool Day.

Happy tomorrow birthday, Paul. Take a picture of your pet, and share it with the lonely. That will cheer them up. My neighbor Al has three collector cars. Stop at Seven Eleven and get a free Slurpee! I love French Fries! No more motorcycles for ME! My sister loves swimming pools. Have a happy day. God bless…

My sweet Chrissy on her bike – close enough!!!

Typical day – sun, clouds, heat, a dabble of rain. But I was inside most of the day. Wednesday (big surprise!) is my cleaning day, which I did. I took some time this morning first thing to have a phone visit with my sister. We needed it! It was nice to catch up. We talked one hour and 2 minutes!

I got all the cleaning done and washed a load of towels. I had lots of trash to take up to the road, including 5 bags of lawn trash. They weren’t heavy (I packed them better) so I could do it myself. While I was up there I noticed that a few of the limbs on the front tree were hanging too low, so I clipped them off and bagged them, as well. There were several overgrown plants in the flower beds so I pulled them, roots and all, and tucked them into bags.

No — not like this….

By then I had taken inventory of the critters in my yard. First was a baby bunny, then a small dove sitting on the dismantled fire pit.

I needed a stone to prop up a wall, and when I went down the hill a robin flew out of a nest in terror and scared me to death! Once he was away, I peeked in and saw that there were 3 small blue eggs in the nest. You can’t see the nest unless you know it’s there – which I do now. Standing on the driveway, looking at Snoopy, the nest is straight up on the left from Snoopy’s black ear.

Three tiny eggs…

I also moved a few of the stones from the firepit to create a small barrier wall by the bench. That was a fairly easy move, but the rest of the stones will take some work to move. I’ll wait for help.

I think it looks pretty cool.

SCRIPTURE of the DAY:

PEANUTS?

TOMORROW July 10th is:

Don’t Step on a Bee Day; Gospel Day; National Kitten Day; Pick Blueberries Day; Teddy Bear Picnic Day.

I used to make a regular occurrence out of stepping on bees. I never wore shoes outside in summer. Wouldn’t it be fun to have a teddy bear picnic? We could share the gospel with them. God bless…

The weather has been all over the map today – no pun intended! It’s been cloudy and chilly and rainy and steamy and sunny and hot and breezy. Right now there’s sun but also darker clouds here and there. I went outside after work to mow the grass before it rained — I almost made it! I just started cutting when it began sprinkling. I made one loop around the yard and was ready to give up but it quit! So I was able to get the whole yard done.

After that, I went in and cleaned up – because I was sweaty and sticky. I had stopped at the farmer’s market down by Oakford Park Road for tomatoes so I had one with toast for lunch.

I was doing dishes when I looked out the living room window and saw Nate and Dave on the neighbor’s roof! They were installing gutter guards for him. They popped in and said hello when they were done.

Nate on the roof….

It took a little self-motivation but I finally went back outside and cut dead flower stalks and pulled a few weeds on the hill.

Cut down dead stalks

The other task for today was to balance my checkbook. That worked out fine so it’s done for another month.

I’m listening to AN UNEXPECTED CHRISTMAS (Hallmark movie) while I type. Tyler Hynes is pretty funny in this one – and I do like Bethany Joy Lenz.

SCRIPTURE of the DAY:

PEANUTS?

TOMORROW July 9th is:

Fashion Day; International Emergency Kit Day; National Don’t Put all your Eggs in One Omelet Day; National Sugar Cookie Day; National Dimples Day.

It’s been a very long time since I’ve had a sugar cookie. I don’t make omelets and I’m really not much into fashion. Everyone should be prepared for emergencies! God bless…

Today is World Chocolate Day — something very important to celebrate! I just had a small bite of a chocolate chip cookie….

It was very warm and stuffy very early this morning. After breakfast (toast and tomato) I started a laundry load, then went outside and changed the yard flags. My hair was soaked in the back before I even got them all done.

Once I came in, I got my two very small bins and took down all the red/white/and blue decorations and packed them away. Then I backed the car out and switched a few shelves around. I found Jesus behind the extension cords.

I decided before I was done with all that to take down the r/w/b lights on the bookcase and put plain blue ones up. We’ll see if I like that.

I could not make myself lug rocks, move stones, or do anything with the deck. So I took some flower pictures and went back inside. By then it was lunch time so I had a few fish sticks.

Mini butterfly bush.

Plethora of glads.

Large butterfly bush with pink gladiola and a day lily.

Pink and white Pinky-Winky

Some sort of thistle???

For some reason I got this sudden urge to run to Mt. Pleasant. I was going to go to Walmart but changed my mind and went to Goodwill (got a sleeveless shirt for outside work) and then to Tractor Supply. Cameron loves cows so I got him a mummy and a calf – it was sort of pricey but I knew it was safe for him to play with. And they are really cute and sturdy.

How now, brown cow — and calf

Just as I got home it started to pour down rain. I snapped a picture out the door just as a loud clap of thunder boomed! It made me jump! My lightening strike (basement light) sort of put me off storms.

Since I had jammed the little downstairs fridge full a few weeks back, the tiny freezer really got frozen over. So I turned it off and stuck towels in it to catch the water as it thawed. Didn’t take very long and it’s all turned back on now.

Frozen…

Defrosting.

All defrosted…

SCRIPTURE of the DAY:

PEANUTS?

TOMORROW July 8th is:

Be a Kid Again Day; Math 2.0 Day; National Blueberry Day; National Chocolate With Almonds Day; National Freezer Pop Day; National Ice Cream Sundae Day; National Love Your Skin Day; Cow Appreciation Day.

Kind of ironic that I bought Cameron a cow today! One day ahead! I wish he was coming in tomorrow :(. I love ice cream and it is kind of fun to have skin. God bless!!!

Our Sunday School Lesson was about taking our thoughts captive. Don’t let negativity draw you away from what you know is pure and good and Godly. Jerry Ryder preached the church time message and it was The Two Sides of Peace. 1) Live in Peace WITH God 2) Live the Peace OF God. Grace is described: God’s Riches At Christ’s Expense. There’s good news, but there is bad news too – but there is a FIX for the bad, as long as you make the right response. Be thankful, not uptight – trust God for inner tranquility. Worry accomplishes nothing. Good words to live by: Give it to God, and then go to sleep! Don’t take it back. Live like the Children of Heaven that your are.

After church I had a piece of toast with a slice of tomato for lunch, then did a few quick things outside. I finished cleaning off the driveway, and since the batteries were charged I could use the blower. I mixed up the home-made weed killer and put the new sprayer together. I test-sprayed the wood lining the driveway but it was too hot to spray everywhere. I think it would have evaporated before it soaked into the roots. Waiting for a cooler day.

Sprayer

Once I came back in, I took the ripped pocket flaps from a pair of old shorts. Then I cut the watermelon and there was SO MUCH! I took two big bowls over to Kathy’s picnic – and still have plenty at home for me.

More than enough for me…

Kath had a ton of great food – Paul made chicken, brats, and hot dogs on the grill. We had 3 kinds of salad, cheesy potatoes, chips, and desserts. Yum. I ate too much! Edy, Hattie, and Rosie are staying with them for 4 days, and Millie spent the night. She adores her older cousins. Their other grandparents, Chris and Wayne, and their cousin Lucy were there, too. Tonia and Isaac, Sarah, Kyle, Wyatt, too. It was a fun evening. Hannah and Dan are coming up on Thursday, picking up the 3 girls, and going hiking in Maine for a week. That’s an exciting vacation. And Edy just got back from a month in Greece! Wow!

Edy

Hattie, Lucy, Rosie

Millie

Wyatt ‘sampling’ his cooking skills! (Water)

Wayne and Chris; Tonia; Kathy

Kyle, Sarah, Paul, Isaac

{Pistol – Isaac’s dog.

SCRIPTURE of the DAY:

PEANUTS?

TOMORROW July 7th is:

National Macaroni Day; Global Forgiveness Day; International Peace & Love Day; National Day of Rock and Roll; National Deck Day; National Dive Bar Day; National Father/Daughter Take a Walk Day; National Koi Day; National Strawberry Sundae Day; Tell the Truth Day; World Chocolate Day.

I love chocolate! We should always tell the truth — God bless!