A Sort of Weekly Wrap Up Post

   

   Over the last weekend, we were able to see my nephew Cade, who is a senior in high school, and his Jazz band perform.  He had the biggest cheering section there with his parents and brother, two sets of grandparents, two uncles, one auntie, a cousin and his cousin's wife and child.  I saw him lean over to his friend and later found out that he told them that the group of us was his bloodline.  LOL!  It also turns out that one of the girls in the band had lived in Oakesdale for years.  Oakesdale is the next town over from us going north and we know many of the same people.  She was totally delightful, and we had a nice visit with her also.  It really is such a small world!

   

   We all had a wonderful time together, sharing meals, hugs, and having some great talks.  I really do miss having that time with my baby brother, the world's best sister in law, and my two nephews.  Eli had so much to tell me and so did Cade.  Cade and I especially have this super tight bond and can visit for hours, never getting bored or repeating the same subject.  Yes, we are both chatterboxes.  LOL!  My brother Eric and my son Chris seemed to have some great talks too. It was so hard to say goodbye to them on Sunday morning.  Our time together was way too short, but we crammed a lot into it.

   Christie brought over a huge black garbage bag full of clothes that Eli had outgrown over the years that are still in excellent shape for my grandboys here.  Bradley may be able to fit into some now and will grow into others. Eli is very skinny, just like Bradley.  None of the clothing will fit Isaiah as he inherited the "Duerr" barrel chest and body.  After Bradly has outgrown the clothing, if they are still in good shape, they will be passed down to Steven, who is also very skinny.  Yes, this is the way we do things in our family and I sure do appreciate it.

   The weather really warmed up this week and I have been enjoying sitting out on the back porch and on the bench in the backyard where Ginny cat and I enjoy some cuddle time. Jeff and I have even been able to have dinner out there. Laundry is being hung out on the line to dry and I have been trimming plants back.  My hydrangeas are now done and I have a hanging fuchsia plant that I got for $10 since it got nipped by the frost.  I cut it back and it is recovering nicely. The greenhouse is opened up during the day so the heat does not build up in there and I will be starting seeds this Friday, Saturday and Sunday.  Jeff will be working on building our front porch and stairs so we can once again use the front door. 😉

   Jeff and I headed over to Potlatch on Wednesday night to watch Bradley's baseball game.  I packed us a nice little dinner and took some drinks with us.  We took Jeff's car over, since it uses less gas.  Oh my hips are paying for that.  I have no idea why, but every time I ride in Jeff's car and have to get in and out of it, I hurt my hips.  Was it worth it though...absolutely!  Getting to spend time with our family and watch my grandson play ball is a privilege that I do not take lightly.  I had some aluminum baking trays with the plastic lids that I gave to Heather for her Cinnamon Roll baking side hustle, along with some latex garden gloves for her.  I am actively cleaning out thing that I am not using, or in the case of the gloves, cannot use because I am allergic to latex.

   Jaysn and Rachel are borrowing our truck at the moment.  While dropping it off on Sunday, I spied some of the half whiskey barrel planters that Rachel was getting rid of.  I asked her if I could have them to grown potatoes in.  She was more than happy to give them to me and will be bringing them over when they return our truck on Sunday.

   Thursday was a day at home for me and I tried to make the most of it despite the back and joint pain I was having.  I washed two loads of laundry and hung it out to dry on the laundry line.  That wiped me out for awhile, so I took some time to have some brunch.  I had a bowl of the pasta salad that I had made the day before.  I then ran down to the post office to get the mail and stopped by Uncle Bob's son's house to let him know there was a relator up at the house who was having trouble getting into the garage to view it.  While there, I spotted a large oval mirror that he was putting out for a yard sale and I bought it on the spot.  I had been looking for one and this one was from Uncle Bob's house.  I got it for $10 and was very happy with that price.

   Later that afternoon, I went down to our commodities distribution and was able to visit with several friends that I had not seen in quite awhile.  We shared hugs and one of them, who had recently lost her husband, looked at me and told me she had something to tell me.  She told me to treasure all the moments that Jeff and I had together.  I gave her a hug and promised her that I do and would continue to do so.  I came home from there with a full heart and lots of groceries including fresh fruits and veggies, canned goods, lots of cereals, powdered milk, pancake mix, baked goods, small bags of chips, rice, beans, split peas, and frozen fish, a huge pork loin, teriyaki chicken, ground beef and sausages, peas, and shrimp.  I also got some HBA items.  My freezers are once again packed full.  Since I was worn out from everything, I grabbed a pizza out of the freezer for dinner and had a Blue Hawaii frozen wine drink that I found from last summer in my freezer.

   Jeff got paid Friday morning, so I ordered more supplements that we use on a regular basis from Vitacost.  I had a coupon for 20% off and I got free shipping.  That really helps since it was a big order.  My friend Carol's sister shared her obituary on Facebook, and it really helped me understand why Carol was the beautiful and feisty person that I loved so very much.  God laid on my heart to pray for healing of hurts on the heart of another friend.  I do not know what the circumstances are of why she is hurting so much, she has not even shared that she is hurting, but God knows.  I messaged her and she thanked me because she is going through a lot at the moment.  Please, if God lays someone on your heart to pray for, do it.  

   My big job for the day was getting the tomato plants and the squash plants going.  As I opened packages of seeds and labeled pots, all was going well until I open a package of Grey Zucchini squash seeds from Ferry-Morse.  There was exactly one, yes that is right, one seed in the package. UGH!  I got out some other seeds from a different company and finished getting all those seeds potted up and watered in.  Everything went into the greenhouse.  I then contacted Ferry-Morse about the problem and they were very helpful.  They sent me a link to a form to fill out and will be sending me a replacement package.  Apparently, the machine that packages their seeds has had a few glitches and I was not the only person who contacted them.

   And so went my week.  I hope everyone reading this had a wonderful week and is enjoying this weekend.  Cheers!