Now It's Friday

We had a fun Thursday -  love our standing Thursday lunch with our friends.  Yesterday we didn't get home until 4:30, and then were so full, still, we only had a small peanut butter sammy for dinner.  The food at lunch wasn't as good as I expected, better than some of the others expected but laughing a bit with our friends was just what I needed.

The contract with the CPAP is apparently fulfilled.  I have no idea for how much longer the insurance company will monitor the usage, or if they even still will.  But there feels like less pressure. So that's always good.

Neither one of us had a good night last night so when 5:30 rolled around, I rolled over and went back to semi-sleep. Just couldn't make myself get up and go for a walk.

The iris that were gifted are blooming and beautiful.  The Hawthorne tree is all of a sudden blooming and beautiful. The supposedly killed (don't want them around anymore) hollyhocks are not so beautiful.  We'll be heading out in the morning after our walk and pulling them out, cleaning up the actually dead weeds and sprucing up the area.  Our backs will suffer but the yard will look better. 

And I'm sad that one of my most asked questions these days is:  Do you take cash?  That should always IMO be the default.  I'm discouraged that everything these days is a card or an app - mobile thru at Chick-Fil-A exempted. But that's my old-person thing coming out.

I'm grateful today for a new mop that makes the floors feel clean and is a quicker-to-use option than the steamer which always seems to take me forever.  Grateful for clean throw rugs.  Grateful for a pretty good book to be reading and grateful for the possibility of two new movies to see in the next couple weeks.

Jumble of Thoughts

I have written and re-written and decided to just put all these mixed up thoughts down so I won't forget.

A couple prevailing thoughts:  

• Yesterday we saw someone drive off - the driver being the only person in the car - with his left foot hanging out the window.  This same person has in the past been seen driving standing up with his head and part of his body (he's tall) sticking through the open sun roof. It would never occur to me to do those sorts of things.  I'm aware I am by nature obedient and a rule-follower.  I realize the world actually needs "out of the box" thinkers, however, from my personal perspective a bit of maturity and rationality benefits every one.  Thinking only of one's self and immediate whims/wants can lead to danger and un-safe conditions.  

• On our walk yesterday morning we saw these deer.  I love when we see the urban deer.  We stop and chat at them for a minute then are on our way - as are the deer. Still, our morning walks are my favorite time of the day.  Today I hoped for a spotting of one of the Lyrids meteors streaking across the sky, I love to see the shooting stars.  But this morning was w-a-y too cloudy, though the clouds themselves were beautiful. 

• Ran across this article the other day.  This woman "gets it". I suspect more than a few of us women/mothers/wives in our 70's feel some of these emotions.  I don't agree with everything she says, of course.  Our culture isn't very welcoming or kind to us oldsters.  Irrelevant, invisible, unimportant - things really change when you get to be old.  It's not a comfortable place to be. Being 70

• Headed over to the hospital yesterday for a quick test.  I dislike taking medications, mentioned in our physicals last week I really didn't want to take a statin if I didn't have to. Because of the history

of heart disease in my family, and my somewhat elevated cholesterol, this test was decided on.  One for The Husband, also.  (The test administrators came through the door and called our names - The Husband responded "Bingo!" and everyone laughed. My dear, loved companion:  never a dull moment!) Anyway, hopefully this test will tell us how much calcium, maybe plaque, is in our arteries.  Thank heavens they just charge a rather small fee.  Information is generally valuable, fingers crossed the results will be good. After our tests we rewarded ourselves with a Chick-Fil-A cone, something we haven't done in quite some time.  Absolutely yummy!

• We need something to look forward to.  Haven't quite figured that out yet.  We've a wedding in May, and I'm thinking maybe we'll head out of town for a day or two in July for our sealing anniversary.  I subscribe to the thinking that everyone needs someone to love, something to do and something to look forward to (family and friends to love, job or work of some kind to do and hope/anticipation for something good).

And...The Husband just walked in and said he wants to go on a date for lunch today.  We're together probably 99.9% of the time but apparently he needs something a little different today.  I guess that solves the "something to look forward to" desire for today. It'll be fun.  I won't have to fix a meal, it'll be somewhere we rarely go and we'll have a good time.  Yay for spontaneity. 

I'm grateful for good medical care, grateful for our good dental visits the other day, grateful for someone who gifted The Husband some cash so he feels a bit of joy in being able to treat us to lunch.  Grateful for the kindness of people - who even make a medical test less stressful for this person who is always a bit stressed.  😏

Whew!

Daphne flowers

And we're done for another year.  Hopefully.  Our annual physicals were this morning.  We're both in good shape.  Went fasting for our blood labs and got that taken care of before we left the hospital.  So glad things are ok so far.   We'll see what the labs show, and of course we still have a couple tests to have (some of which the insurance will likely refuse to cover) but that's ok.  Fingers crossed we're good until 2027. 

We don't take much medicine (there's only one rx for The Husband and so far none for me),  we try hard to eat fairly healthy and even though we're both overweight it's not by a huge amount.  I know I've said before I want to age as gracefully as possible (though grace isn't really in my genetic makeup) and we need to be healthy enough to take care of each other.  That's a decent goal, right?

I have been feeling guilty about not journaling here more often lately.  But it's fine.  This is really just for me to remember certain things.   

I've loved our spring.  Our daphne bushes have been so pretty.  We were warned when we bought them (with a lovely gift card) that they are tricky to grow.  It's been several years and they've done so well.  The whole bush is usually more upright than the picture shows - that one was taken the morning after an overnight rainfall.  Still, though, they are lovely.  The sargent crabapple out front is beginning to lose the blossoms but frankly, this has been it's best year.  The new little maple is also leafing out beautifully.  We are supposed to have some rain tomorrow and on Friday will have the winter we missed out on through December and January:  actual snow here on the valley floor. I'm so grateful to have been able to enjoy the spring that came at the appropriate time.  😊

Spent the afternoon chatting with my friend - she's off tomorrow for her Dad's funeral on Friday.  She and a couple siblings are speaking.  This loss has been hard for her.  As a cherished one's death is always hard.  I really struggle with funerals - come home just completely wrung out.

So, it's been a busy day - annual physical exam this morning, lunch and chat this afternoon.  The other day we managed to acquire some new rugs - a couple washable ones for the kitchen to replace the cushioned ones that threaten to break one of my ankles every time I prepare a meal - the up and down is hard on me.  And a new rug for inside the front door.  I'm so glad we did that, we rarely spend money on extras.  And we have a new runner to install down the staircase - the current runners are worn-out / tacky and need to be replaced.  I'm glad we'll be able to get that little project done, it'll feel better. We also managed to get some more seasonally appropriate seed for the birds.  Within a short while of putting the new seed out on the feeder we already had a little birdie eating it.  I'm thinking about getting a second feeder, I think The Husband would really enjoy it.

I just had a treat - was gifted a couple cans of root beer. These cute little roughly one cup size.  The perfect size for me.  On the rare occasion I need something different than water this is the best solution.  I so enjoyed it.

Today I'm grateful for being done with the medical stuff for a bit - and for the fact that it didn't take over an hour for the lab person to find and utilize the right vein on The Husband, like last year.  He's historically been problematic with that.  I'm grateful for the kindness of people treating us like we are valued.  Grateful for discussions that include hope and encouragement and friendship as we (hopefully) walk the path toward discipleship.  

Odd Day

 Church conference over the weekend was great.  There were so many things I heard that lifted my soul.  A few things that made me mentally squirm a bit about things I need to improve on.  But that's what this life is about, right?  Learning, growing, finding the path back toward our Creator.  Anyway, the weekend was great.  Monday felt blah.  Kind of a mental let-down after the weekend.  And we were busy yesterday doing laundry, vacuuming, cleaning up. 

Aren't they lovely?

Today we decided to switch up the order of things:  errands in the morning, home stuff in the afternoon.  I enjoyed it - I am definitely a natural morning person, my energy levels are higher in the morning than the afternoon.  So, here I am, catching up on bills and computer stuff.  I finished the last ten pages of a book that I simply couldn't finish last night.  Our walk this morning was lovely.  No deer sightings, though we've seen quite a few recently.  I did stop and take a video - in a spot where we've been before and been astonished at the loud music from the birds singing the day into being.  There had to have been several dozen birds in the couple trees.  I love hearing the birds.  Winter means there are fewer songs to hear but today it was sweet sounding.

The lilacs are about done, as are the tulips.  The trees are still blooming beautifully though as I mentioned before, some are losing their flowers. 

Our snail mail must have arrived very late yesterday - the Husband checked it around dusk and still no mail.  But it was in our box just at seven on our return from our walk.  And sheesh - I need a "minder".  Received a past due notice (what is it about that that is so alarming to me?) for our garbage pick-up.  Apparently I forgot to pay it last month.  Sigh...Got that done first thing this morning, but now am wondering what else I've forgotten to do?  Seriously can't even recall getting a past due notice before.  I know it must have happened but truly I try to stay on top of things.

Stopped at a bookstore - was quite interested in a little "gratitude" journal I came across. Each page contained a few prompts such as:  name three people today who helped you, or who you are grateful for.  I loved that concept.  I try diligently to find gratitude in every single day, but often it's the same sort of things.  Nothing wrong with being grateful for the same things, but I need to be more inclusive and aware.

So today, I am grateful (again and always) for The Husband.  I probably don't tell him enough.  And life can be stressful with the issues we both have.  But I cannot imagine traveling through life without him.  Would have been bereft of so much joy.  (And I stand by my statement that a lot of people today equate fun and joy - not the same thing at all!!)  The children that have come to us have also provided joy.  I am also so grateful for spring.  I truly treasure the hope this new season brings.