Saturday's Scribbles

Good "Saturday" to you on this Memorial Day Weekend where we find ourselves in South Dakota spending time with my sister Jan.  The weather has so far been a bit wild.  On Thursday, after nearly a 7 hr drive (with stops) we arrived just ahead of a storm which brought 15 minutes of hail!  Friday's high was 48...with a wind chill in the 30's.  Sustained winds of around 30.  Saturday we had sunshine and a forecast of 73 degrees.  

We headed south to Jan's husband"s grave an hour away.  He is with Jesus now after a 6 yr battle with lung cancer. On our way back we stopped at a small town cafe for lunch but mostly Joel and Jan wanted to have their homemade pie. Yum!  Today after church we'll visit the graves of my mom and Jan's 2nd husband Los who died many years ago.   It's what people often do on this weekend.  We stand at the foot of graves, remembering,  missing,  honoring.   Of course we know it is just their shells that are left here on earth.  Their spirits, their souls are in Heaven.   

Yesterday Joel was also able to get in a 12 mile bike ride while Jan and I napped!  We brought along his recumbent.....After supper a woman who is like a daughter to Janey stopped by for a visit.  Today after going to church and the cemetery we will go to the birthday party of Jan's great grandson.   The cycle of life goes on.  

Grateful today for my sister Jan and spending time with her.   Grateful for safe travel.  Grateful and remembering the lives of those who have gone before us.   Grateful for being able to connect to those we love and care about with phone calls,  texts, and emails.   Grateful for all this and so much more..

Enjoy your weekend!

Jan and I, taken in Arizona a few years ago

Saturday's Scribbles

Good Saturday to you from our corner of Iowa where everything is some shade of green...so many shades to enjoy.  Mother's Day brought out potted flowers and hanging baskets which just added so much color to our world.  Ahhhh  just loving the views outside!  

Speaking of outside, Joel has been getting in his morning porch sitting and watching the rabbits, deer, birds and squirrels in their daily activities.  Unfortunately one of those activities is to eat our hostas.  We have one "generous" neighbor who feels it is his calling to feed the animals.  Thus the corn stalks growing in our yard....and more deer munching on ours and the neighbors hostas.  Gotta love our neighbor's' heart but sometimes the results are a challenge.  I expect without the corn calling them to graze, they would still find our hostas and lilies.  Too bad the deer and rabbits don't eat the dandelions and other weeds and leave the good foliage alone.  

Joel is off to Gabby Grandpas this morning.  He has spent the week getting the deck stained for a second time, biking some, mowing, going through old taxes, dumpster diving at the college, and taking over my "duties"  while I was sick with some nasty virus.  Thankfully he never got it.  I'm still coughing and resting more but it has run its course.  I told Joel I felt like symptoms were vying for my attention....first I danced with a bad sore throat before it left abruptly....then two days of non stop sneezing no matter what I tried.  Then the headache, muscle aches, etc. sleeping most of 2 days, and finally the coughing and what my mom would have called in her generation, "coughing spells" that would last 30-60 min.  Each symptom tapped me on the shoulder and danced with me for awhile and then left quickly to be replaced by another.  Really rather fascinating.  The cough is the one that is hanging around.  

Moving on............even though Mother's Day weekend was spent on the sofa, I couldn''t help but smile at all the love sent my way.  So grateful.  And grateful that our moms were both celebrating from Heaven!  Joel and I were talking about the ages of our moms.....they both would be well into their 100's.  They lived completely different lives.....Joel's mom growing up on a farm, becoming a teacher, marrying a farmer...then after his death, marrying a farmer again.  Staying in the same surrounding communities.  My mom grew up on a farm and wanted nothing to do with farming.  She went to secretary school in St. Paul, met my dad and married him in just a few weeks, traveled continually during her marriage from town to town and state to state never settling in one place very long.  She became a widow at age 46 and never remarried.  Their lifestyles were so different.  Joel's mom did not drink or dance nor participate in other "foolish" activities.  My mom loved to dance and drink altho also had decades in recovery living a full life.  Joel's mom had three boys, my mom three girls. Their faith journeys were different but their destinations the same...Heaven!  

At the end of all this rambling here's my point ~~~~I know that Joel and I were brought together only by the grace of God!  Such different upbringings.  BUT His plan!

I am typing this on my new laptop..  A big deal because of the crazy amount of time and energy we spent getting it set up and getting the code to download my Word program. (I wrote about it on Facebook) Now I am adjusting to the new setup and it is going well.  I am off and running...........or is it off and writing!

You may have heard me mention Joel's "dumpster diving" earlier?  He rides past the local college whenever he is on his bike and with all the work being done there they throw away a lot of usefull stuff.  He has permission to dumpster dive there..and has brought home good wood, solid wood chairs, and even a file cabinet.  He loves reusing things and loves the dumpster diving too!  Sigh..

So as I close this Scribbles, I am giving thanks that viruses have an expiration date!  Grateful for the great looking deck.  Grateful for Joel's "dumpster diving"? Grateful for our moms. Grateful for all the green and colorful flower pots.  Grateful for Mother's Day and the cards, calls, texts and deliveries that warmed my heart.  Grateful for Joel's willingness to take over at home when needed.  Grateful for a new laptop and Word for writing.  Grateful for how well Joel takes care of the yard, the house, and even me when needed!  Ha  Grateful for all the phone calls, texts, emails, and so many prayers.  Grateful for all this and so much more.

Enjoy your weekend~

Saturday's Scribbles

 

Good Saturday to you on this first weekend in May here in northern Iowa.   Yesterday was an absolutely beautiful day with sunshine, warm temperatures and gentle breezes.  It won't be long and people will be putting out flowers and everything will be bright and colorful in our neighborhood.   But today it is sweatshirt weather at a cool 58 degrees so it is still a roller coaster ride with the temperatures.  We have had plenty of rain this week, which was needed.  It has greened everything up, too!

Speaking of yesterday Joel enjoyed the nice weather while he stained our back deck.  Earlier in the week he had scrubbed it and yesterday he put on the stain. He has declared that this year the focus is to get things done outside of the house.  Some new wood trim and a coat of paint for this big house is called for. Somehow I need to keep him off of a high ladder though.  All his work  makes me think of a picture he showed me from a postcard that came through the mail.  There was a picture of a T-shirt that said "Dahlen Workshop.. fixing everything but stupid"  For some reason we found that pretty funny.  

Speaking of stupid - it is not a word I use much- but that is a bit how I have felt this week as we have looked again for a laptop for me.  I know I need it backlit and I know I need the letters to stand out vividly from the keyboard color. I know I want a 14 inch size screen and I know I need a program that can use voice to type my articles when necessary..... but the rest?  I have no clue.  It does make me feel just a little bit stupid, which I know is just silly.  We thought we would be able to buy one right here in town, but that has not worked out as we go from store to store and they are not carrying what I need or everything is out of stock. We were told to wait until the middle of June when the new stock comes in.  6 more weeks?   I need to get this going and set up for several reasons.  Bottom line.......Technology keeps moving on without us and at our age it is kind of hard to stay caught up.  Guess we will just need to take the plunge and do our best with God's guidance!

Joel is off to Gabby Grandpas this morning....then Menards and the grocery store.  He does like his Menards!  He can usually think of some "good reason" to go there every week!  Haha   He got in a couple bike rides, but has been working mostly on the deck.  I am walking 30 minutes now daily...but still indoors.  I picked up a dust rag and went through every room in the house on every level the last couple of days...now we need to get the vacuum out!  Made some homemade whole wheat bread this week along with almond flour quick bread.  We eat very little processed food or purchased meals.  We are a "from scratch when we can" couple.  Haha

A neighbor stopped over to ask a question  this week and we invited her in for a visit.  She will be 95 in June and continues to live on her own.  Just a few years ago she had a large coffee table and end table she was going to have Salvation Army or Goodwill come and pick up and we told her we would purchase it from her.  She did not want anything, so we gave her a gift card.  That coffee table and end table still grace our living room and work so well for us!  This woman has always enjoyed being outdoors and I think it shows in her strength and longevity.  

Speaking of longevity, Joel and I were reading an article on how to get enough protein as we age and the importance of having it.  Lots to do with muscle mass and energy as we age.  Joel and I have gone to cereal, oatmeal, a salad, or yogurt for our nightly suppers and are thinking a bit more protein would be a good thing!   It is just so hard to pack in the protein without large portions of meat.  I wonder if our neighbor packs it in!

We had quite an adventure this week with hemming up our living room curtain panels that were dragging on the floor.  I wrote about it on Facebook.  After 1 1/2 hours of attempting to thread our sewing machine and get the bobbin to work....we gave up and went to adhesive hemming tape!  We noted:  Joel's fingers are too big to get down into the bobbin area on our nearlya 50 year old machine and my vision makes it impossible for me to be using the machine....Thank goodness for hemming tape!

Moving on...........the weather has been crazy this week across the country.  I did see a video on Instagram that had me laughing, though.....there was a tornado that hit a train that had stopped on the tracks.  Two workers were talking as they videoed the tornado coming...one guy says, "I think it is going to hit us"....debris is flying everywhere.....hitting the train and windows and rocking the train....another guy says, "Do you think we should get away from the windows?" They just keep talking matter a fact like as it goes over shattering windows....then one says......"I think a car turned over....yep."  A car is over."  The other says "we are in an emergency".......  (NO KIDDING!}  I think it was hard to comprehend what was happening but I would NOT have been so calm.....On a sober note, so many have been hurt and so much property destroyed this week.  A violent spring so far.

Speaking of Spring, Joel is wanting to find some periennals to plant this year that are deer resistent.  It seems we have many daylilies and hostas which deer LOVE to munch on.  So we are on a quest to find some plants they will ignore....And then there are our resident squirrels....This morning Joel also told me a squirrel had a big corn cob he was dragging around our yard.....from a neighbor's yard.  The squirrel would stop every few feet, dig a hole and plant kernals!  I have a feeling Joel will be mowing down corn stalks again all summer!  

So on that note, we are thankful for all the rain this week....and no tornadoes.  Grateful for green grass and the antics of our squirrels.  Grateful for a cleaner house.....grateful for homemade whole wheat honey bread.  Grateful for Joel getting the back deck scrubbed and stained.  Grateful for his energy and stamiina.  Grateful for having three days of good energy and balance myself this week....felt so good and makes me hopeful for more in the future.  Grateful for a neighbor stopping by.  Grateful for hemmed curtains and hemming tape.  Grateful for phone calls, texts, emails, and in person visits....and so much more..

Enjoy your weekend!