Last Day of May

I didn't list any goals for this month, but I feel that I accomplished a lot. Despite a very rainy  month, and a whole week devoted to preparing for the 80th birthday party, I got a lot of yard work done. I also got my containers planted. I am ahead of the game with birthday cards and I have a total of four dishcloths knitted up. The van has a set of four brand new summer tires, the brake fluid leak is fixed and the emissions leak in the gas cap has been looked after. I delivered the gas-powered lawnmower to the repairman to have it fixed and brought it home again. I replaced my missing van ownership papers. I arranged to have the Jeep moved out of the back yard.  I drove myself to Bradford to visit with my daughter, SIL and two grandchildren.

 Both Monday and Tuesday I found a couple of breaks in the weather to get both the front and back lawns mowed. They are not trimmed around the edges, but all those tall dandelions and weeds are cut down short. I also found another 2-3 hours this afternoon to weed some more garden. Unfortunately, the areas I weeded were some that I have done once already this Spring. I was able to put down some mulch on one of the gardens. I have some bags of chipped cedar by the veggie garden which I plan on using in some of the flower beds, but the mulch I spread today were bags of shredded paper that I have saved for the perimeter garden. I have used this before in this flower bed and it seems to work just fine. It is under the lilac trees and gets quite a bit of shade. I also planted some coleus plants in there.

When I first got up this morning, it looked for a while like we might get some more rain today. Instead of going outside to work, I headed into WalMart to pick up the Pedigree dog food. Twenty Kg for just under $32 is the best deal I have found. And while I was there, I picked up a few items from my list.

   Non-food items including the dog food, cost $58.12 (with tax). This will come out of my June household budget.  Although vinegar and salt are considered food items, I will be using them to create my weed killer. A couple of months ago I bought some Liquid Plumber to clear an upstairs drain. Lately though, it has become sluggish again.  So I bought the Drano for that job. I also bought another garden trowel and a small cultivator because I have broken two of them recently. I guess I must be hard on my tools.    

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    

Food items cost me only $10.27  When I got home I made myself a fried egg and cheese sandwich. Dinner tonight will be leftover mince and gravy over mashed potatoes from last night.
I have not yet added up my total household expenditures for May, but I know I went over. I will try to have those figures for next time.

Here are some photos in my garden this week.

Allium in the foreground and white phlox behind. It may be pretty but it is a weed I need to pull.

Snow- in- Summer with purple phlox to the right of the photo, Again...it's a weed.

Blue flax in the foreground. My forget me nots are still in bloom

Coral Bells

Daybook: Tuesday, May 30/17

I understand that twice now I have sent empty blog posts. I don't know what happened. They obviously posted after only writing out the title, and then nothing. My only guess is that I have forgotten how to post a blog because it has been so long since I have done one. Here is hoping that this one goes through properly. 

Outside my window.....it is very dark, overcast and wet. It poured rain yesterday and they are still calling for rain over the next few days. The front lawn has not been mowed in over a week and is desperately in need of a cut. The weeds are coming back into my front flower beds before I have finished the beds in the back yard.

I am thinking.....maintaining the yard is becoming too much for me, unless I give up all other aspects of my life.

I am thankful for.....my son and his GF are coming out Saturday to help me with yard work. I am also thankful for my mother surviving the surgery two nights ago on pinning her hip back together after a fall on Saturday. I am thankful for my sister for taking on the job of looking after mom in the hospital.

From the kitchen.....I made a half batch of dog biscuits yesterday morning (I only had one egg left in the fridge). I also made a big pot of chili con carne late yesterday which was dinner and provided two more freezer dinners for later.

I am wearing.....denim capris, a red T-shirt and bare feet. It is definitely summer when my socks come off.

I am creating.....maybe nothing more than a Get Well card for my mom this week. I have made my dad's Father's Day card already. I have 3 June birthdays, but I have cards already made. Last week every single day was occupied with decorations for a friend's 80th birthday. From Monday through Saturday I was involved in the collection, development, and enlargement of photos for tabletop frames and posters. I scoured the internet for 80th birthday captions and messages. I printed out birthdays of stars and famous people also born in 1937, historical events of 1937 and the cost of living, etc. I set up a Penny Candy bar which had nostalgic candy that was sold during the era....black balls, Good and Plenty, caramels, jelly beans, jujubes, Oh Henry bars, malted chocolate, etc, etc., I bit off a huge chunk...too big perhaps; so I called in a friend on Friday to help me out. Thank goodness she gave so much of her time, or it would never have got done. I never got a chance to work outside in the yard or get anything done inside except crafting. I am crafted out for the time being. The good thing is that I spent so much work on it, that it is just a matter of putting all of it into a memory book to give him as a keepsake.

I am going.....nowhere today. I don't need to go out for anything, so I won't. It is going to rain anyways.

I am hoping.....my mother's condition will improve. She is taking strong doses of morphine for the pain, but she doesn't remember why she is in hospital or why she has to lie still. Every time she wakes from a nap, she has to be told she has broken her hip and needs to stay in hospital, because she doesn't remember. She keeps trying to get out of bed and is fighting with my sister and the nurses. She refuses to eat.

I am hearing.....the sound of traffic on wet pavement.

Around the house.....the housework is getting away from me. I have to do laundry today. I am running out of clean underwear. I haven't even unpacked the boxes that I brought back from the party.

One of my favourite things....is the long recuperative nap I took yesterday afternoon after my company left.

A few plans for the rest of the week.....include getting some of my own work done.


Here's the picture I am sharing.....I made 18 of these 4"x6"

table frames (two for each table and all of them completely different).  On the left hand side was a photo of the birthday boy, and on the right hand side was a caption. On the backs of these acrylic frames, I had a page of historical events from the year he was born, and on the other side were some examples of cost-of-living. We were not allowed to put anything on the walls, so we strung twine across all the windows where we hung different captioned posters with clothes pins. It turned out to be a very successful party.

I Have Done It Again

Last week I sent a titled post but no blog posting. I don't know what I did wrong, but indeed there was no blog posting because it was just a busy, busy week. LOL. I stayed indoors all week to work on the birthday decorations that I planned for a friend's 80th birthday party.
I was going to write a Daybook Monday last week, but after typing in the title, I decided I better  send a request to the photo shop to have some digital images printed out for the next day, and then I just kept going. The next day, I changed the title to Daybook Tuesday, but then got a notification that the prints were ready for pickup, so I headed into town. I headed to Staples after that to enlarge my prints into photocopies to crop for the acrylic frames that I had yet to buy. I ordered the poster for people to sign instead of a guest book. I scouted out the Bulk Barn for a list of vintage candies that I found on-line. Unfortunately, I did not find the boxes of Cracker Jack, Pink Elephant Candied popcorn or Bazooka bubble gum that they used to sell just a short while ago, but I did find a lot of them from the list. I went to Michael's for the small paper bags for people to fill with the candy, and Dollar Tree for the candy scoops, table top frames, and other purchases on my list. I was in town for hours doing my shopping.

On Wednesday, I went back to Bulk Barn to actually buy the candies I had decided on, and to get the 10% discount for Seniors Day. The actual purchase was not long at all. Every minute I was at home, I was cropping pictures and printed captions to put inside the frames. I had also picked up some 8"x10" acrylic frames to fill with  larger photographs  that I  placed on the bar and the Reception table. I organized the historical events of 1937 into a point form PDF file so that they could be printed out later onto cardstock and put into the back of the frames. I did the same with a cost-of-living page.

I believe it was Thursday, when I changed the title of my blog posting to "Busy, busy Week". I was feeling almost overwhelmed by the amount of work that still needed to be done, so I "closed out" the blog once again and called a friend to ask if she was able to give me a hand with the "Penny Candy" bar. I had to determine which of the many sealer jars I own was going to hold which candy for the amount I bought. She met me at Staples with more current photos that I needed. I enlarged those as well, and then she followed me to my house. She stayed all day to help me. What a blessing. We fit all the varieties of candy into the appropriately sized container, with candy scoops or tongs, and packed it up into boxes. I sent her home with another poster board and  about 20 4" stars which I had labelled with names of famous people born in 1937. Her "homework" was to fit all the stars on the board around the title "Other stars born in 1937". I still had lots of homework myself to finish up over Friday and Saturday. It was so very well organized, that we were able to get all the decorations up and ready in less than the hour we had been given for the task. I had time to sign the poster board and write out a memory on a slip of paper to put in the Memory Jar to get the ball rolling.  My "job" then was to make sure people wrote out a memory, signed the poster board and took home lots of candy for the grand kids from the candy bar.  The party was on Sunday afternoon and was a huge success. I don't have any actual photos yet to show you, but hopefully soon. I was home Sunday night around 7 and had phone messages waiting for me. The most pressing news was from my sister. Mom had fallen at the Home on Saturday and broke her hip. They were still at the hospital on Sunday night awaiting surgery. So yesterday I did nothing at all except to rest and wait for the phone call.
This morning it looks like I have posted another "blank" post, but if you click on the title, it will take you to my updated blog page. Otherwise, go through this link. http://sues-retirementfunds.blogspot.ca/2017/05/daybook-tuesday-may-3017.html

Long Weekend is Here

I started this post on Friday afternoon. Then I picked it up again last night before dinner, after I had planted most of my containers. It is now Sunday afternoon and the long weekend is more than half over. I have spent another 3 hours outside today pulling weeds in a different garden bed but it isn't even half finished. I am well and truly ready to crash on the couch again, but I will try to send out this post first.

Do you see all that long, tall grass in the back of the picture? That is what the front of the picture looked like this morning before I started pulling weeds. You couldn't see any flowering plants. I even found 3 flower pots in that mess that I had been looking for earlier in the season. Ha. You might see a laundry basket in the foreground (right hand side) that is full. There is a wheelbarrow to the left which you can't see, and it is also full.  That little patch took 3 hours, so now you see what I am up against. When I last posted, I mentioned I had started on one of my perimeter gardens. I thought it might take another 2 days. In fact it took another three days. I have mowed both front and back lawns again this week. I removed big clumps of ribbon grass that had choked out my irises and tried transplanting the tubers. August is the time you have to transplant iris, but I have no choice. I was losing them anyway so it is worth a shot.

Monday is Victoria Day holiday and is traditionally the time to visit the nurseries to buy the bedding plants that  will be going into the garden this year. I try only to buy annuals that I want to put into my planters and hanging baskets. I have enough perennials that I don't need to buy any more, but it is always so tempting.This summer I decided to limit the annuals I buy to just two colours....red and white to pay tribute to our country's 150th birthday. There is a forecast for rain this weekend, so yesterday (Saturday), I decided to go to Burt's Greenhouse to buy my flowers and get as many of them planted as I could so that I might take advantage of the expected rain to give the transplants a good start.

Red and white nicotina in the centre surrounded by red  petunias

Red geranium in the centre with trailing red verbena, red and white petunias and dusty miller surrounding the edge of the planters

My hanging planters have red and red and white Regal geraniums, and white trailing lobelia

 Every day this week has been sunny and dry, and as a result, I have been outdoors working for a few hours every single day. I am feeling so exhausted when I come in. I change out of my filthy (but apparently fashionable) clothes and shower. Then I cannot keep my eyes open so I fall asleep on the couch until it's time to take the dog out and make dinner. The only other work I have done this week......
....vacuumed the kitchen and dining room
....transplanted some house plants one morning while it was still too cold outside
....baked some dog biscuits
....washed laundry and hung outside on the clothesline
....used 4 liters of  my homemade weed killer in the cracks between my patio stones behind the shed. I need to make some more to finish the job.
....phoned my mother
....made a roast pork loin dinner for my son and GF on Tuesday night. They took me out for lunch yesterday before I went shopping for flowers.

I have some more perennials that made a showing this week.

Candy Tuft

Pasque Flower

White Bleeding Heart

Mini Irises growing through Snow-in-Summer plant. I need to thin this out.

Allium just starting to open up their heads

Different varieties of tulips

Lilac trees

Yellow tulips are done, but the other yellow "flower" is Euphorbia. Behind those, my hostas are just making their way out of the ground. In the background are tiny flowers. The white ones are Lily of the Valley (just starting to bloom) and the blue ones are Brunnera (just finishing up their blooming period) Growing throughout the bed are little Honesty plants  (Silver Dollars) that are growing from seed from last year. As they get bigger, I will pull up most of them and throw into the compost. They are very pretty purple and white biennial flowers, but I have more than enough. This is a shade garden. I will be adding pots of impatience or begonias to this area to provide summer long colour.

Happy 2-4 weekend, or Victoria Day weekend. Happy Memorial Day weekend to our American friends.

Making Hay While the Sun Shines

Because we have been enjoying lovely sunny days both yesterday and today, I have been taking advantage of the opportunity to get outdoors to work. I mowed the front lawn yesterday and  moved some heavy branches into the back of the trailer so I could  cut the grass that I was unable to get to while they were piled beside the veggie garden. It had grown so long that the mower stalled out on me several times before the job got done. Yesterday I pulled the weeds from around my fish pond and today I cleared the couch grass and the lilac tree runners from part of a perimeter garden in the back yard.  If the weather holds out, it may take another two days to finish this particular job. I hauled away 3 huge wheel barrow loads each day to my compost pile. The job seems to get bigger and bigger each year. Could it be that I am getting older and I need to scale back a bit??

I came in to shower and then I flaked out on the couch and fell asleep. While I was sleeping, Rick's friend arrived to take away the Jeep on his flat bed trailer. It is no longer in the back of the yard. Yay!

I won't show you pictures yet of the back yard because it is still so messy and desperate for an overhaul. Rick was unable to do much with the yard and  I found it difficult to keep up. Perhaps tomorrow I will include before and after photos of the work I am trying to accomplish, but in the meantime, I will show you some springtime flowers that want to bloom despite the obstacles they face. Ha.

Forget-me-nots

Golden basket (Alyssum)

My Mother's Day Week-end

My Friday morning started early again with my appointment to get my brakes fixed at 8 AM. I stayed in the waiting room watching the news on television and finishing off the yellow washcloth I had started knitting at the beginning of the week.

The good news is that the valve that was ordered the second time, cost less than the first, so instead of almost $800, I only paid a total of $576.77 (less than the bill for the four tires installed) I came home to pack my bag and some things I had set aside to take to my daughter's house, including the tin of home baked chocolate chip cookies. I grabbed a bite to eat and headed for Toronto when the "check engine" light came on. I turned around and headed back to the Canadian Tire in Kingston. By the time I arrived, I was so upset I was beside myself. Those servicemen took the van immediately and gave it a thorough inspection. They found an emissions leak where the gas cap goes on. They removed some corrosion and fixed the problem and charged me nothing for the inspection and the work that took more than an hour. They assured me it had nothing to do with the work they had done on the tires and the brakes. The timing was coincidental; but they felt so bad for me having spent all that money and having to come in so many times during the week, they had decided not to charge me anything. They did leave me with the invoice however. Had this happened at any other time, it was a $95 job. Luck was on my side today.

I finally got away to Toronto, but didn't arrive in Bradford until almost 6 PM. Of course, I arrived in the middle of rush hour traffic on a Friday afternoon. But I made the trip myself, without any problems, when I had never done it before. *patting myself on the back* Saturday was my grandson's 6th birthday. We spent a couple of hours in the morning decorating, blowing up balloons, and preparing snacks for the party. It was an Avengers themed party for some of his classmates and a great time was had by all. Later in the afternoon, after his party guests  left, the second party got underway when extended family arrived. My poor grandson was ready for an early bedtime that night. We all went to bed early as a matter of fact.

The next morning, soon after Mother's Day celebrations, I decided to hit the road early to try and avoid any heavy traffic. It looked like it might rain so I was anxious to beat the weather as well. The off ramp from the 404 to the 401 is really tricky and I knew I would have to pay close attention. There are four lanes that exit: two go into the downtown, one exits to the 401 West going to London, and the fourth exits onto the 401 going East to Kingston. I had to be in the correct lane or I would have had to make a forced exit to somewhere I didn't want to go. It was a white knuckle drive, but I made it. *again, patting myself on the back* The rain held off until I arrived in Oshawa. From there it is smooth sailing as there are few merging lanes or off ramps to contend with.

I made good time despite the rain. By the time I reached Napanee, the sun was out. So I decided to do some grocery shopping at No-Frills and Giant Tiger. By the time I left Napanee, the dark thunder clouds had moved in. By the time I brought everything inside the house and took the dog outside, it just started to rain. While I was taking pictures and putting away the groceries, there was thunder and lightening. I slept for a while before I had to get ready to go out for dinner at my son's and his GF's apartment. They had invited her dad and step-mom, her brother and myself for a lasagna dinner with salad and garlic bread. So yummy! The moms got to take home some potted mums for Mother's Day.

There were a number of phone messages waiting for me when I got back home, but it was too late in the evening to respond. I am very glad that not all my weekends are this jam-packed with activity. It was an incredibly busy time.

Produce cost $13.12

 5 lbs imperfect carrots $1.97, frozen bags of veggies $1.50 a bag, red potatoes $1.49, 2 tomatoes $.89, and celery at $2.77

Meat cost $28.37

 Pork loin was $8.16, 4 lbs. of ground turkey for $10, hotdogs cost $1, 30% of centre cut pork chops cost $4.21, and Montreal smoked meat was $5

Pantry items only cost me $11.18

 Campbells soup cost 50 cents a tin, mandarin orange slices cost 79 cents a tin, Primo spaghetti sauce was 88 cents a tin, pizza sauce cost me 97 cents and Nescafe instant coffee was $3.87

Bread was $6.89

Dairy cost $8.91

The 4 packs of yoghurt were only 50 cents each.

Finish dishwasher detergent was $3 off for a price of $13.97

Total groceries cost $84.42, including taxes, with food costing $68.46

Daybook: Monday, May 15, 2017

Outside my window.....it is sunny and breezy....perfect line drying weather. The front lawn needs cutting again.

I am thinking.....I am pretty proud of myself for having driven  to Bradford and back without getting lost or frazzled. This is a big accomplishment for me. I didn't get my license until I was almost 40 and  Rick was the one who drove everywhere.

I am thankful for.....the service department at Canadian Tire for looking after me so well.

From the kitchen.....I have pulled out some centre cut pork chops from the freezer for dinner tonight. I emptied the dishwasher and filled it again. I washed those dishes up before emptying it again, and I washed some items in the sink. I cleared off the counters and scrubbed them down. I swapped out the big kitchen wastebasket for a much smaller one, so that I can take the garbage outside to the bin at the end of each day.

I am wearing.....blue jeans, socks and a printed T-shirt. This is my basic uniform for working outside in the garden.

I am creating.....another finished dishcloth. That makes four.

I am going.....outside to pull more weeds and maybe mow some more grass.

I am hoping.....for some nice sunny weather this week.

I am hearing.....the elementary school kids playing outside during their lunchtime recess break. I have the back door open today to air out the house. I also hear the baby birds squawking from under the eaves of my house, as their parents bring them juicy worms. When the babies leave, I need to get up the ladder to replace the pieces of aluminum soffit that blew down after one of our winter storms. I will wait until I have someone else here with me (in case I fall off the ladder).

Around the house.....the dusting and vacuuming STILL need doing. Working outdoors tires me out too much. I can't come in afterwards and face that job. So it is still waiting for me. I wasn't here all weekend, so this morning I did three loads of laundry, including changing out the sheets in my room and the spare bedroom, and have hung them out on the line.

One of my favourite things.....is my new long handled rounded shovel for removing the really big clumps of weeds without having to bend over to pull them out. I have lots of really big ones unfortunately.

A few plans for the rest of the week.....include returning phone calls today from the weekend, baking more dog biscuits because Satchel went through them too quickly last week, making another trip to the bank, and perhaps scheduling an eye appointment to see if I need a stronger eye glass prescription.

Here's the picture I am sharing.....a pot of mums given to me by my son and his girlfriend last night. I was invited to their apartment for dinner along with her dad and step-mom. It was a lovely dinner of lasagna, salad and crusty garlic bread with home baked cookies for dessert. Yum.

I will enjoy the flowers indoors right now. After they fade, I will cut them back and plant them outdoors so they will bloom again.

Thursday Update

I set  the alarm clock again for 6 AM. I needed to take the dog out, feed and water him, and then look after my coffee and breakfast. I took four plastic bins of recycling out to the side of the road. I left here at  7:40 to be at the garage for 8 AM. I left my keys with the manager and proceeded into the store to buy my gas can. I got about 3 rows of knitting done when the manager came into the waiting room to tell me that although they ordered the right part, "they" sent the wrong one. Can we try this again tomorrow morning?

On the way home, I stopped to put gas into my new gas can. I had a cup of tea, because I deserved one, and then went out to weed for 2 1/2 hours.  I did some more work in the driveway and around the third flower bed I worked on yesterday.  While pulling weeds around some campanula, a glint of silver caught my eye. It was the  ring that my Sweetie had lost in the autumn while trying to fix the snowblower out in the driveway. He had lost some weight and the ring had become too loose. At some point he realized the ring had come off. We looked everywhere in the gravel and in the rocks that lined the flower bed, but couldn't find it. I bought the ring for him on a trip I made to Mexico with my dad and "Dee". It was silver with lots of ornate engraving on it and he had decided to wear it on his ring finger as a wedding band. And there it was this morning sitting on top of the green plants as though he had just dropped it there moments ago. I am so happy to have it.

After lunch I pulled some couch grass from the small bed around the birch trees....the first weeding project in the BACK yard. And then I used the new gas can to fill the lawnmower to cut more of the lawn in the back. I'm still not finished, but I have given it a good start. If all goes well tomorrow morning, I will have the brakes fixed and then I am off to Bradford for the weekend. Have a great weekend and Happy Mother's Day.

Outside Work

There was sunshine today. It was still kind of chilly, but I went out about 10:30 to take advantage of the weather. I pulled weeds in the driveway and the third garden bed out front, and I trimmed some more grass from around the front lawn. I took two of these laundry baskets full of weeds back to my compost pile.

The sun got warmer so that I had to remove my jacket. Then the black flies appeared and drove me nearly mad, but I stayed outside for about 2 hours. My jeans show how hard I worked.

After lunch I went outside again, this time to cut  some grass. I ran the lawn mower until it ran out of gas. Tomorrow, while I am waiting for my brakes to be fixed, I will go into the Canadian Tire store and buy another gas can. The only one I have found has a green cap and I don't remember my gas can having a green cap before. So I will buy a new one and label it "Lawn-mower" so I don't get it mixed up with the fuel for the snow blower, or the riding lawn mower, or the pressure washer, or the wood chipper, or any of the myriad outdoor tools that are here that I don't even know how to use. I have a picture to show you just how high the grass has grown. I need some more dry days to get the job finished. And I would dearly love to get started on weeding the back yard gardens. The dandelions are doing well.

Now that I have come inside, I am feeling exhausted. I might have a wee lie-down. I have some chicken thighs with Teriyaki sauce in the crock pot for dinner.

Be Careful What you Wish For

Everyone must remember me lamenting all the rain that we have had recently. I was sick of it and asked for "no more". Well, that is NOT rain you see on my windshield. When I took the dog outside last night around 11:30 PM, it had started to snow. It didn't stay on the ground very much, but it did accumulate on other surfaces. By the time I had to leave at 7:30 this morning, I only had to turn on my windshield wipers, but I heard at the garage that others had to scrape the ice off. That is my punishment for complaining. Others have it much worse. Ten Canadian cities, including Montreal, have declared states of emergency. They are losing everything they own due to flooding. Some people have died. And yet I had the audacity to complain about the lack of sunshine. Changing weather patterns are affecting everyone.

The reason I had to leave so early this morning was an appointment to have my "leaking brake fluid" problem looked at. Well, they found the cause. They need to replace a valve that costs more than all four brand new tires cost me today. They don't stock it, so it had to be ordered. I have another appointment for Thursday morning to have it installed. And because it is labour intensive, the cost of installation will also be higher. I am looking at another $800, on top of the $661.60 I was charged today. I'm not very happy.

On the way home, I stopped at No-Frills and paid $1 for 4 AA EverReady batteries on sale, and I stopped at Shopper's for 2 dozen eggs and 3 loaves of whole wheat bread (only $1 a loaf), and  two blocks of cheese at $4.99 each for a total of $17.83 off my gift card, so no more OOP. When I got home I pulled out the ingredients I had prepped for bread pudding and chocolate chip cookies and got those made up.

I will take some cookies with me for my grand kids this weekend and leave some for my son and his GF who will be looking after the dog. I will probably finish off the bread pudding all by myself with a little of the homemade yoghurt I made yesterday. Once again, it turned out really nicely. I am liking this new yoghurt maker.

Daybook: Monday, May 8/17

Outside my window.....It is cold and overcast. What else is new? My daffodil flowers are rotting because they have been pushed down into the ground with all the rain and have not been allowed to dry out. The grass is finally cut because I picked up my lawnmower this morning ($87) and decided to cut the front lawn right away.

I am thinking.....I will have to make time to get outdoors between the rains to get the back yard cut, or it will be too long for the lawnmower.

I am thankful for.....my son and his GF who have volunteered to stay here this coming weekend to look after the dog while I go to Bradford to stay with my daughter while celebrating my grandson's 6th birthday.

From the kitchen.....I have the other half of the turkey carcass in the crock pot making a soup broth. I baked a batch of dog biscuits on Saturday and I made a Shepherd's Pie  last night when my son and GF came for dinner. I started putting together ingredients to make chocolate cookies yesterday, but had to put the creamed butter and sugar in the fridge because I forgot I had run out of eggs. Right now I have yoghurt "cooking" in the yoghurt maker. I cut up 6 cups of stale bread and was going to add some of the whole milk that was left over from making the yoghurt to bake a bread pudding. Ha. I forgot AGAIN that I didn't have eggs, so those two ingredients are back in the fridge. I have a great memory but it is too short.

I am wearing.....blue jeans, blue socks and my new ivory and gold coloured long-sleeved T-shirt.

I am creating.....no cards last week. I did however finish up a dishcloth while watching Netflix.

I am going.....nowhere else today. I have already been out to pick up the repaired lawn mower.

I am hoping.....we finally get some sunny days this week. Enough with the rain!!!

I am hearing.....lots of bird calls today, now that the rain has slowed down a bit.

Around the house......there remains the same housework that I mentioned last Monday. I didn't do any of the vacuuming or wet mopping. There is laundry to be folded. I want to hang the draperies and do some outdoor work.

One of my favourite things.....is an afternoon nap on cold, damp day such as this.

A few plans for the rest of this week.....include two appointments at Canadian Tire early tomorrow morning. The first one at 8 AM is a brake check. My brake light came on again the last couple of days, indicating low fluid. You will remember that Canadian Tire topped up the fluid for free 4 or 5 weeks ago. Since the light is back on again, I have a slow leak somewhere. It needs to be fixed. At 10 AM, I am scheduled to have 4 brand new summer tires put on my van. I will be spending a boatload of money this week. Ugh! I will pick up some eggs on my way back tomorrow so I can finish up those two baking projects sitting in my fridge. And since my van will be practically brand new again, I may drive to Bradford this Friday instead of taking the bus or train. It just seemed too complicated and time-consuming (and expensive) to go there with all the different transfers I would end up taking. I have already forwarded money to my daughter to buy my grandson his gift. She knows best what he needs/wants and can put the money where it is needed. I will be staying for two nights and return on Sunday.

Here's the picture I am sharing.....

Yellow tulips

 The rhubarb should have been ready to pick by now, but we haven't had too many warm sunny days yet. It is almost ready. 

First Week of May

The title of this post was going to be Goals for May, which I started a few days ago. I have since given up that post. I don't want to set any goals for this month, except maybe to end up at the end of the month with more good days than bad. I will be satisfied with that.
So I will just give you an update of my week.All the "to-do" items that I listed on Monday remain undone. After I wrote my Daybook I went down for a nap and slept all afternoon.

On Tuesday, I started my day by going to my bank to withdraw $100 and I went to Shopper's Drug Mart to buy a $50 gift card with half that money. I was entitled to a FREE 90 gm Brookside chocolate bar with the purchase of the gc. As well, I bought a case of 12 Diet Pepsi for $3.49 which made more sense than buying a bottle of pop. From there I drove to a friend's house to go on our drive. We drove to Westport to meet up with a third friend and then on to Perth. We visited some of the shops on the Main street downtown until the rain started back up again. We drove to a park and had a picnic lunch in the car. Afterward we drove to Kilborn's. We love to go there occasionally to have a look. They sell EVERYTHING....clothes, specialty foods, furniture and furnishings, kitchen appliances, giftware, etc. I was able to buy some Dutch rusks for a friend of mine. They are so difficult to find nowadays.

On Wednesday morning my friend arrived with her list of things she wanted to help me get accomplished. I gathered up the documents I needed to finalize Rick's estate.  I  discovered that I was missing the ownership paper for my own vehicle,so we needed to make another trip to Service Ontario to get that sorted ($32). But first, we took the gas-powered lawnmower over to the repairman in town. We checked out Value Village to see if they had a dresser to replace the one I gave up to my son. They didn't have anything suitable, so I didn't buy. We stopped at No-Frills on the way home to buy a turkey at $1/lb., 2 packages of Octoberfest sausage at $2 a pkg., and 2 packages of 4 hamburgers each at $2 a pkg. I also picked up 6 Oral B tooth brushes for only $1 a piece. (stocking stuffers) Total $19.65 When I got home I had time to clean out the Jeep Wagoneer that my husband was giving a friend for parts, and I phoned him to remind him it was available for him to pick up. When I was cleaning up under the seats and floor mats, I found a total of $14.11 in found money. Not bad for an hour's work. I also collected the waste baskets and took the garbage to the curb. I cleaned the downstairs sink and toilet. This was my MOST productive day of the week.

On Thursday morning I wrote a letter and enclosed documentation to close out one of my husband's accounts. I phoned in two prescription refills. I cleaned out one of my desk drawers and collected papers that needed to be shredded. It was overcast, but not raining, so I did a load of laundry and hung outside on the line. I phoned my bank to set up an appointment to discuss my finances the next morning. I had an appointment scheduled on the other side of Kingston for a breast examination at 2 PM. My hydro bill arrived today. It was only $124.23 which was way down from the month before. Yay! I was able to shred all of the purged documents I had gathered.

Since my appointment with the bank was for 10 AM, I went into Amerstview  a little bit earlier so I could pick up my prescriptions and a few things (milk and oatmeal) from Shopper's with my gift card. I deposited my found money into my savings account. After my appointment I came back home to do more number crunching.  I am considering cancelling my supplementary health insurance with my past employer, since I was able to opt into my husband's health insurance. It is far more expensive than mine but it  also looks after eye glasses and dental coverage and 100% drug coverage.  Mine cost $14.95. His costs $135. I'm not sure what to do. I am paying for both right now.

Today I have baked another batch of dog biscuits. I have washed one load of laundry, read more blogs and commented. I am getting ready to go to my son's apartment for dinner. It is another wet and soggy day outside. Enjoy your weekend, everyone.

Daybook: Monday, May 1st, 2017

Outside my window.....it is overcast. It is wet, though not raining at the present time. It is chilly.

I am thinking.....I need to get back to writing out  weekly and monthly goals by starting up my to-do lists again. I started the beginning of the year by writing daily in my yellow composition book. I stopped mid way through the month of January. Then I started up again briefly in February as I wrote down things I needed to do after Rick passed away, then nothing... I started a page today on May 1st.

I am thankful for.....a friend of mine who is coming this week with a list of things that I need to do in order to tie up loose ends.

From the kitchen.....on the weekend, I made a batch of soup that will make most lunches this week. On Saturday for my son and his GF, I cooked chicken thighs with Teriyaki sauce in the crock pot with a side of rice, carrots and corn. I cooked a chocolate pudding and made yoghurt for the first time in my yoghurt maker. Last night's dinner was cabbage roll casserole from which I froze two dinner servings for later in the month. There is a batch of dried red kidney beans cooking in the crock pot right now.

I am wearing.....blue jeans, gray tube socks, a gardening t-shirt and a red with white polka dots zippered cardigan.

I am creating.....more cards for birthdays, sympathy, get well, and thinking of you. I have a buyer for a boxed  assortment. I will make a bunch and let her pick the ones she would like to purchase.

I am going.....nowhere today. At least, I haven't made plans for today. Last Monday I didn't have plans either, but my son and his GF were off work and picked me up to go for a drive. It was a sunny day.

I am hoping.....that this veil of anxiety and depression lifts soon.

I am hearing.....the blower on the furnace. I had to turn the heat back on yesterday morning. I put some peanut butter inside one of my dog's bones, so he is busy trying to get that licked out.

Around the house.....there is housework that needs doing. Hopefully this week I can get the upstairs rooms vacuumed and the downstairs floors wet mopped. I would like to get my new-to-me drapery panels hung. When the weather allows, I want to spend an hour or two outside pulling weeds/ cutting grass/ planting.

One of my favourite things.....is my yoghurt maker, because it is a new experience for me. It is still work because I have to heat the milk to 180*, so very careful monitoring with a thermometer. And then I have to cool it down to 110* (not any cooler than that), before pouring into the clear containers in the yoghurt maker. Unfortunately, it is not simply a matter of pouring in the milk and pushing a button. It is time consuming, but I hope it will become second nature because the yoghurt is absolutely scrumptious. I probably only need to prepare it once a week, or less.

A few plans for the rest of the week.....include a drive and picnic lunch with two of my friends tomorrow. A friend coming over later this week to help me tie up loose ends. I have a breast examination appointment on Thursday afternoon. My son's GF's mom has arrived for a visit from California and so I am invited for dinner this Saturday at their apartment.

Here's the picture I am sharing.....

 Grape Hyacinth growing among some Globe Thistle plants that seeded themselves. I want to dig them up and move them to one of the back gardens. Though beautiful flowers, the Globe Thistles are very invasive.

Bleeding Hearts are just starting to come out against the back drop of my daffodils.