My husband and his birds

 Yesterday I received a package from my Mother-in-love.  I couldn't imagine what it could be.  She has the best ways of surprising me with little things she knows I would like or would find funny.  I opened the package and there was the cutest sign with a squirrel telling me that my bird feeder was empty and a window mount bird feeder.  Now Jim has just come home from visiting her a week ago so I'm thinking he told her about the bird feeder in our yard and how we was tired of refilling it all the time.  But the more I thought about it, why would she send it to me?  Then it occurred to me that he had put his bird watching hobby on me because he doesn't want anyone to know about it.  That is Karen's bird feeder and Karen's birds.  He just keeps it going "for me"  So I called him about it (out of town as usual) and asked if he told his mama about 'MY" bird feeder.....answer was...."well, I might have said something to that effect". BUSTED!!!  It's time you owned up to being the bird lover you are !!!  I loved the sign though....it's hanging by my patio doors 😂 Love you Ma💓

 

Gratitude 7 + other things

 The request is "Your Best Friends"   Another easy one - 1st and most important will be my husband.  He is my rock.  I don't always discuss everything with him and he doesn't know my feelings on EVERYTHING ( sometimes he's a sensitive bugger) but all the important stuff....he's number 1.

Then there's the children....there is a difference between daughters and sons.  The sons are more protective and not interested in the shopping and lunches, however, if you need something "manly" done , they are the ones to call.

Daughters are a different story - they are my daily callers.  I hear from at least one of them every day.  Boys I hear from not so much.  I was blessed with 3 of each so it's even.  However, the girls are always ready for a FaceTime call, gossip session, laughter and bitch session.  When we are together, it's always shopping or eating or just sitting outside discussing life.  

Other Things

I have a friend that I met a the car wash last year.  We sat and talked long after our cars were finished and I thought she was leaving when I noticed she drove back up.  She walked over and asked if I would like to exchange info and meet for lunch one day...that started a year of texting and lunches and laughing.  She texted me a couple of weeks ago to talk about a dr. visit she had for a routine exam.  Her heart was irregular and they wanted more testing.  Long story short, they scheduled her for a valve replacement last Monday.  She kept telling me how scared she was and had a bad feeling about this.  We kept praying and I kept trying to reassure her that she was tough.  Monday came and went and I was giving her time to get back to herself before I called her.  Her daughters were with her and I was sure she was enjoying their company.  Friday afternoon, I got a call from her husband apologizing that he hadn't called sooner, but things had just piled on him and this was the first chance he had. Gail did not make it through her surgery.  Drs told him that her heart was too far gone and they couldn't even get the stitches to hold for the new valve. My heart was broken.  She had a feeling that this wouldn't go well.  Goodbye my "carwash friend".  I'm glad God put you in my life for the short time he did.

Other happenings for the weekend were - Emily and Cody came up for the weekend.  We finally had kids (Jake and Emily) together for a birthday dinner.  We added Cody to the mix too because his birthday was just a couple of weeks ago too.  We had a good time - out to a Brazilian steakhouse then back home to play games.  Cody watched the Masters and Jim did Emily's taxes.  We all tried to coax Cody into conversation and he would answer any question you asked, but definitely not a chatterbox.  We will get him out of his shyness before long.  You have to be tough and speak your mind in this family😄

Gratitude #6

 Gratitude #6 - Your biggest supporters in life -

I would have to say my biggest supporters are my family.  Any idea I throw at them, they are always supportive and tell me I can do it.  And yes I k now they are rolling their eyes behind my back telling each other that I have totally lost my mind.  But that's ok.  They're mine.

Gratitude

 I am combining day4 and day5 of gratitude because to me they are basically the same thing.

Day 4 wants the best thing that's ever happened to you and Day 5 is Your greatest achievement.

Other than accepting Jesus as my Lord and Savior which is #1, I would say meeting Jim and building a family with him is the best thing that's ever happened to me.  We have had other accomplishments in our married life, but our children are our best achievement.  

Still catching up so we will go on to February  - SAIA committee week was easy this year since it was in Charlotte. Tabby still had to be boarded because we stayed in the city instead of driving back and forth every day.

Then my smart butt decided I wanted to redo my office/craft room. I emptied everything, went thru it, and got rid of half of my stash.  Jim redid my closet with shelving and I painted the walls a very pretty yellow to brighten the room up , a big improvement from the builder greige.  Everything was put back in place and decorated and pictures on the wall.  It is such a nice place to retreat to.  And as with all endeavors, we learn something about ourselves.  Jim and I both learned that our house painting days are pretty much over, and that professional painters need to make a living too.

Gratitude

 Gratitude Prompt for Today - Any things you have that the majority of people don't

This one is easy....there are many things that I am blessed with that most these days are not....let's start off with my husband.  A faithful man with a steady job that allows me the privilege of deciding if I want my own job or not ( and he's ok either way).  Even though he travels quite frequently, it has allowed me to raise and homeschool our children without outside influences.  Now that the kids are grown and most have a family of their own, I'm able to travel with him when I want to.

Now the children - all have good jobs, none are in jail or on drugs, all are in reasonably good health, and have each other's backs. Can't ask for more than that.

As you can see, although I do love the material things, they are not my first priority.  

Gratitude - Kindness

 The prompt for today is to  acknowledge the kindest thing someone did for you....that's very hard to do, and not because people have not been kind to me, but more so because many people HAVE been kind to me. It's hard to narrow down one particular event...so I won't.  This is not to say that I haven't had to deal with some real A..holes, but most everyone I encounter in life is kind and if they are not...then I move on.

January 2025 - Jim and I celebrated our 36th wedding anniversary on the 3rd with a week of grand gestures of serving each other soup, crackers and anything else that was left in the house to eat.  Somehow we both had some awful respiratory bug, but in our true fashion, we did it together.  It seems that I have blocked out anything else that happened in January except for the ice coatings the weather kept gifting us.  These were just 2 of the days of ice, but it was nice to just sit by the fire and watch.

Gratitude and catching up

 I've have been reading about gratitude journaling, but we all know that I am not consistent at all about journaling or blogging to put it mildly.  So I guess I'll try to do something to get this thing going again.  

The topic for gratitude journal today is supposed to be "The bet thing that happened so far this year"...I can say with all certainty that the best thing that has happened to me is God has had me and my family on the wake-up list every day. It doesn't get any better than that. 

As far as blogging about our life, guess I should finish out 2024 - 

March - Charleston for  Jake and Emily's birthday and SAIA Committee week. Jim was AWOL for most of the rest of the month on business

April - We had our new patio poured then went to Ft Pierce and Gainesville for visits. Jim only gone one week this month  Had a weekend at Emily's. 

May - Jim made a visit to Ft. Pierce - We also made a trip to Gainesville later in the month 

June - Had Cardio appt and passed with flying colors, Went to Gainesville to the end of the month to pick up Logan for Camp Gma & Gpa

July - Had Logan for the month - did the King's Mountain experience and Schiele Museum - both were big winners -  We also got our year supply of peas and butterbeans for the freezer - Jenny came to pick up Logan and Emily came in to visit also, so we had a blast, especially at the farmers market with the fresh apple cider donuts. Girls still talk about that

August - August was extremely quiet but that was a good thing because we needed the break

September - Took a trip to VA to spend a long weekend with family (Mom, sisters, aunts and uncle)  Jim spent several days in Knoxville

October - Spent the first week in Denver for SAIA Convention (scary city) Jim had a few business trips for the month.  Got a big surprise on my birthday weekend -was sitting on patio when I was tapped on shoulder and turned to find Emily, Jake and Rachel standing there to celebrate with me.  It was wonderful. Jim and I left for Knoxville a few days later.

November - Still in Knoxville/Pigeon Forge - made our first trip to Dollywood and it was amazing - we took a different route home and rode the Cherohala Skyway thru the Smoky Mountains. The fall foliage was like nothing we had ever seen before.  Had permanent lighting installed on the house so we can light it for every holiday.  Took another weekend trip to Emily's for Jim to do some work on her new apt - Last we went down to Gainesville for the week of Thanksgiving - for the first time in several years, we had all the children and grandchildren with the exception of Kaleigh and I was in Mama heaven.  

December - the month of Chaos - I was extremely fortunate to have all the gifts bought, wrapped and Christmas ornaments made and given to each family at Thanksgiving, so all I had to do in December to was decorate and get ready for two little munchkins to spend Christmas with us.  We had a full house at Christmas with Jake, Emily, Rachel, Camden and Chandler.  I felt I was in my element.  

Well, that should catch things up for last year and I'm sure I forgot tons but these were most of the highlights.