When it rains, look for rainbows

I've tried to write this blog entry three times already.  I just don't know where to start.  Our world has changed so much in the last two months.  I guess that's about right.  Somewhere around the end of February, the first case of coronavirus showed up here.  Today, we have 810 THOUSAND cases and 44 THOUSAND deaths.  To be exact, 44,234 Americans have DIED.  While I know how this happened, I watched it happen, yet I still cannot fathom this incredible LOSS.

New York has been hit the hardest so far and they have had to resort to using air-conditioned trailers to keep the bodies in until they have the time, the manpower, the energy, to process them and give them decent burials. This is happening here, in this country.  The United States.  I just can't believe it.  It's like we're watching a movie.  But we're not.  It's real.  Georgia has 19,881 cases today and 799 deaths.  Hospitals are bursting at the seams, healthcare workers are working double shifts, without proper protection, using the same masks and coverings shift after shift, day after day, getting sick themselves, some of them dying.

I absolutely, completely and without any shame, blame Trump for this.  Not the virus, of course, he didn't cause that.  But his RESPONSE.  Too slow, not serious enough, his severe mishandling, LYING to us constantly about testing and masks and every-damn-thing else, absolutely no empathy for anyone so no concern for the sick and dying.  I knew this guy was garbage from Day One and I also knew that WHEN THE TIME CAME that we'd need a LEADER, he would fail us.  But never in my wildest dreams would I have thought we'd have such a horrific tragedy as this and this unbelievable loss we're suffering.

I am a government worker so I am considered "essential" (although when I was furloughed every Friday for six weeks seven years ago, I was non-essential.  Oy.) but the base decided to let those of us who have underlying health conditions (diabetes, heart disease, lung disease, immunity issues) go out on two months of administrative leave, they call it Weather and Safety Leave, in March, to try to protect those more fragile employees.  I took advantage of this offer since I have three of the conditions listed on the form.  I got my doctor to sign it, I turned it in to them and I've been at home since March 26th.  

Larry, however, works for a company that believes itself to be essential so he's been working.  We're washing hands, using Clorox wipes, Lysol and face masks.  Doing whatever we can to stay safe and healthy.  So far, so good.

It's horrible.  The whole world is under quarantine.  I follow a bunch of celebrities and influencers on Instagram and they're all sharing bits and pieces of their lives while stuck at home and it's comforting to see that we are, indeed, all in this together.  As far as all of us trying to stay home and stay healthy, anyway.  We're NOT actually all in this together.  22 million people in this country have lost their jobs.  The government threw us all a $1,200 bone this month but $1,200 will barely cover April's mortgage payment and groceries for an average American family.  Uncle Sam gonna have to do better than that!

I've spent my 26 days at home cleaning house, organizing things, keeping the laundry caught up, working in the yard a bit (we put fresh mulch in the front yard flower beds but we're out of mulch and are not going shopping for more any time soon), drinking lots of coffee, getting lots of rest, watching lots of Netflix.  I have a TBR stack two stories high but I just cannot sit down and read.  I did finish the book I was reading but that's about it.  Mostly I just stay on my phone or watch 24-hour news and stress out.  I've gone in to the office about once a week to catch up any work I have and check email and stuff like that.  I have Kroger deliver our groceries every week and we practice social distancing with our neighbors.  We watch church on Sunday mornings and we covet a double roll pack of toilet tissue.

Folks are doing all kinds of things to try and stay positive.  There's the bear in the window thing where people ride around the neighborhood and see how many teddy bears they can find sitting on window sills.  We have one in our front bedroom window.  Of course we do.  There's the rainbow thing, too, where everybody is drawing chalk rainbows in the street, their driveways and putting paper rainbows up in their windows.  

We believe that rainbows are God's promise that He would never again flood the earth.  We believe that He will send us one when this storm passes as well.  In the meantime, we've got a driveway and we've got sidewalk chalk. 

Ring-a-ling-ling!

We got us one of them fancy Ring video doorbells and installed it yesterday. It's pretty dang cool, too! 

We downloaded the app on our phones and now when somebody comes up on our porch (or if our porch flag flies a little too hard), we get a notification on our phones that there's movement at the door.  SOOOO cool!!  Of course, if somebody rings the doorbell, we get notification that there's somebody AT the door.  And we can see and talk to them through the doorbell, whether we're at home or work or away at the beach or wherever we are.  

Modern technology.  I like it.

Christmas

It sure didn't feel much like Christmas outside (78 degrees!) but it felt like it in our hearts.  Larry and I exchanged our gifts yesterday and had Santa for Tabbie Hoffman and Banjo this morning before we went and had Christmas with my family in Oglethorpe.  Lots of love and laughter and babies and presents.  Oh my goodness, the presents!  

This is what Santa brought our boys.  Banjo got a Dremel nail trimmer and Tabbie got a feeding maze toy.  They each got a toy (Tabbie's is a catnip-filled banana!) and treats and new vanilla-flavored toothpaste in their stockings.  And Larry loved his Notre Dame plush blanket and lounge pants that Santa brought him!

Larry got me the Farm Vet Barbie set (with the itty bitty chicken squeeeee!), a rare 1960 promotional Golden Grapes Pyrex chip and dip set, a vintage Petunia Pig drinking glass, a new cereal bowl, some Optical Illusion cards and a sweet, sweet coffee mug that he wrote on with permanent marker.  He wrote, "When I was young and dreamed of love, I saw a shadow of you.  When I grew up and experienced love, I realized the shadow was you."  Yep, he's a keeper!  He also got me a Pyrex Old Orchard casserole dish (with the lid!), a pair of Pikachu bedroom slippers, a Pokemon Monopoly game, a selfie stick, a beautiful Christmas bracelet and I know I'm forgetting something...anyway, I racked up!  I got a new FryDaddy from Mama and Daddy (along with a cute top, socks and my old stocking slap FULL of stuff) and a gorgeous tapestry from Ami and Brian that I think I'm going to use as a tablecloth.  I also got some soft slippers, a new coffee mug and some bath stuff.


 
Santa came to see our backyard birds, too.  They got a bird seed bell that I smeared peanut butter on and hung from our magnolia tree on Christmas Eve.

We went to Christmas Eve service at Southside Baptist yesterday afternoon (and even though it was 70 degrees when we got out, it was snowing in the lobby!  They had a snow machine going and it was so fun!) and then we went to see the new animated musical, Sing, and we enjoyed it so much.  Such a cute story and some really amazing talent.  We loved it!

Another Christmas has come and gone.  It's always so sad to me to see it go.  After weeks (months!) of planning and shopping and picking up this and that for this person and that person and then it's all over in a flash.  A big, wonderful, chaotic, wrapping paper flying, flash.

And we'll do it all again next year. 

They're here...finally

I'll be your friend, I'll be your lover
Until the end, there'll be no other
'Cause my heart has only room for one
Yes, I'll always love you, and I'll always be here for you
And I'll stand by you through our rockin' years

(Floyd Parton)

Fall is in the air...somewhere

It's been in the 90's this weekend but I still put some fall stuff out anyway.  Maybe we can hurry it along??  It is the 25th of September, after all.  By the way, on this day, 28 years ago, I met my Larry.  So there's that, too.  Never could we have dreamed all those years ago what our life would be like now and what we would have to overcome and endure to get here.  God has blessed us beyond our wildest, craziest dreams and sometimes I still pinch myself and my eyes get all teary when I think of how blessed we really are.

So.  This is what I did around the homestead, trying to get this fall ball a'rollin'.

Yesterday, we went to an estate sale in Macon and got some cute stuff!  

This is so adorable to me!  It's a little Mexican guy, complete with sombrero and poncho!

But underneath all that colorful crochet is a bottle of hot sauce!  I thought it was the cutest thing.  Larry found it.  He always finds the coolest stuff.
 

I just fell in love with this pretty Maltese cross necklace.  I don't even wear necklaces much but I couldn't leave this one behind.

This little beaded candle holder was my favorite find of the day!  It looks right at home next to my vintage big-eyed girl litho print. 

Super weird 1972 Miller Studio Sun Boy chalkware.  He's right at home in our kitchen.  :)

I told Larry I was gonna add a red apostrophe to "chicks" 'cause I'm OCD about such things.  
 

 
My butterfly flowers are finally blooming and I've seen a few butterflies flitting around out there.  Hopefully we still have time for a butterfly oasis before it gets too cold.

Late summer fun!

After weeks of ones we wanted being out of stock and having to wait, wait, wait, we finally got our summer toys this week!  We set them up today and had so much fun!!

This super cute octopus play center was supposed to be for my birthday but it was out of stock.  As soon as walmart.com got it in, I ordered it.  And now, of course, it's ten bucks.  Ha!  And the pool was just as difficult.  The one we wanted wouldn't be here until September so we got this one instead.  It's plenty big for us to cool off in and it's seven feet wide so Larry can lay down in this one!  

A couple of neighborhood kids (us!) had a blast today! 

Here's Larry blowing up the octopus.  An electric air pump is a MUST!  Best $20 we ever spent!

Filling the pool!

Here he is, cute as can be!

We sure cooled off quick!  Now it's time for a nap!  :)

Weekend project!

Back in the winter, we made a list of things we wanted to get done around the house this spring and summer.  Repainting the picnic table and benches was one of them.  We did that yesterday and Larry even replaced the whole top of the table that had a couple of rotten spots so now we'll have it for years and years to come.

Being the counterculture folks that we are, we wanted something different from just a brown table and benches.  Larry had the idea of doing every piece a different color and I picked the colors.  I was going for beachy colors.  If you've ever been to our house, you know our "style" is eclectic.  We like vintage, we like the beach and we like stuff that reflects our hippie hearts.  My friend, Lisa, even told me Thursday that our house looked like it belonged at the beach!  

So for the picnic table and benches, I picked stone gray, seafoam green, cool blue, latte and cream.  I painted the benches and Larry painted the table.  And it's a good thing we painted the picnic table and benches before we painted the deck (that's another one on our list!).  I'm just sayin'.  :)

I think they turned out beautiful!!

I didn't plan for them to match our patio set but when I was painting the blue bench after the green one, it hit me.

Yay for three-day weekends and home projects!

Garden update!

We've had a lot of rain this week and our little garden loved it!  Everything is so lush and green and growing!

We have eight little green tomatoes that are almost the right size to fry!

Larry cut the grass today and it looks sooooo good!

I have been really, really tired lately so while I slept in yesterday morning, Larry went estate saleing all by himself.  He brought me home lots of goodies!  A good bit of Pyrex and this beautiful seashell chime that we immediately hung on the front porch.

It reminds me of the beach and I just love it!

I'm still loving my blue porch ceiling!!

I've been growing these little beauties in pots on the porch.  

Tabbie Hoffman loves to be on the porch with Mama.  And it was a glorious 78 degrees today so Mama loved it, too!

The windmill

Larry and I painted the old Aermotor windmill today!  Well, he painted most of it but I did help a little.

I've planted sunflower seeds all underneath and around it.  My plan is to have something like this by mid-summer.  :)

A girl can dream, can't she?

Busy Saturday!

A couple of months ago, I bought myself a new camera, a Canon T5.  And I signed up for some photography classes for this spring.  I love taking classes and learning and going to school.  Where was this girl 40 years ago when I hated school, cried and begged Mama to not make me go??  Anyway, I paid my fees and waited until this morning.  It was so much fun and I learned so much!  I've been a point-and-shoot photographer since I was 13 years old and I got my first 110 (man, I loved that thing!) for my birthday and I wanted to learn more about aperture and shutter speed and how to use what when.  The class I took this morning was a basic intro to DSLR cameras and here are a few pics that I took!

 There were six of us beginners in the class.

 Practicing shutter speed...

 Practicing aperture with an f/stop of f/5.6

Here I was playing with the exposure compensation.

The class was great.  I met some really nice ladies, had tons of fun and I learned so much about my camera and taking pictures.  I can't wait for the next class!

Larry had to finish up some stuff over at the condo (that we are still trying to rent out omg what a pain in the butt) so I went garden shopping.  Larry had already gotten me some plants from Houston County High School's greenhouse last week -- tomato, orange bell pepper, jalapeno pepper, coleus, impatien and begonia.  So I went and bought two cherry tomatoes, six green peppers, a banana pepper, a yellow bell pepper, a PURPLE bell pepper, lantana, zinnias, marigolds, dill, thyme and flower seeds, lots of flower seeds.  Sunflowers for the fence, butterfly magnets for my flower bed and marigolds and snapdragons for the vegetable garden.  I got bags and bags of garden soil and loaded 'em all up in my car and got crackin'!

I repotted the coleus that Larry got for me
and put this cute little Airstream trailer in the pot.  :)

 My sweet little garden 

(with NO squash, mind you.  We are not going there again.)

I picked up these adorable little birdy plant markers on my
 Peaches to the Beaches adventure with Debbie and Christie.

Aunt Ruth gave me a bunch of pieces off her succulent plants in November and I just stuck 'em out by the fence.  This is how they look now!  You can see two little pieces on the left that I just stuck back down in the dirt.  They'll grow!

We joke all the time that all I have to do is THINK about wanting something and God gives it to me.  I was thinking about how cool it would be to have a windmill in the backyard and danged if Larry didn't bring this one home.  I'm trying to decide if I want to paint it or not.  I kinda like its "distressed" look.  If we do paint it white again, I want to paint the flap barn red.  I planted sunflowers allllll up under that thing.  I can't wait until they're growing and coming out from all sides.

 New flamingos for the backyard

My boys <3