Pessimist

• I admit it.  I am a pessimist.  I think I came that way - I've always been the complete opposite of an optimist.  Except on those rare occasions I've forced myself to be Pollyanna.

He Loved It!

So, I've struggled lately with the whole coronavirus thing.  I've been down, discouraged, & dejected.  Continually.  For far too long. It's been hard.

I just finished a book "The Power Of Bad: How The Negativity Effect Rules Us And How We Can Rule It" by Tierney and Baumeister.  I started out really excited about what I was reading.  That enthusiasm waned as I read.  The final (10th) chapter sorta redeemed the "less than" chapters.

One take-away was that I really can get on top of my pessimism and control it.  If I want.  I've been making a conscious choice over the last couple days to do just that.  And while I can't claim perfection, I do feel better enough that I want to keep at it.

Cuteness!!

• The only thing The Husband requested for his birthday was a cake from our granddaughter.  She's been into serious baking the last few months.  (I've looked at a couple of the recipes she uses and wouldn't dream of attempting one, let alone make a bunch.)  It turned out beautiful (in both appearance and taste) - the Husband downed the last piece this morning for breakfast.  All I managed to gift him was a package of socks he'd already said he didn't want. 😬  Hahaha Sometimes that seems like the only way to get him to try some new clothing item is to just buy it.  No matter what.

• We've been watching the ducklings and goslings grow as we walk along the creek-side path in the mornings.  This morning they were just heading down to the water, what a fun surprise.  The goslings will pretty soon be full-sized geese, they're growing so, so fast!

Yup, broken!

• Had our friends over for dinner - it's still a tad uncomfortable to eat out, I'm not really ready for that.  She made her yummy cheesy potatoes, to go along with our baby back ribs, cornbread and fruit cup.  We had splurged on a 7" cheesecake from Cheesecake Factory.  They all loved it.  It tasted like freezer to me.  I can always tell when something's been in the freezer too long, or if the freezer hasn't been cleaned in a while or, well, I'm not sure what all the factors are, I just know when something tastes like freezer to me - and I'm not fond of it.  I managed to try to ignore the freezer taste long enough to clean my plate of my piece of cheesecake, but I won't be having another.

• And that last picture?  That's of the bottom of my stoneware crockpot liner.   Yes - that's a crack. Has to be replaced.  And here we are again - w-a-y too many choices, w-a-y too many reviews, w-a-y too much $$ and w-a-y too much trouble.  I'll be getting rid of my Instant Pot, it's not for me. But my crockpot?  Can't live without it.  I guess a trip to WalMart or Target is in my immediate future.

So today (in my efforts to be more upbeat and find good in life - including picturing my heart with a happy smile on it)  I'm grateful that so far we have been healthy.  That truly is a big thing.  While we might not be very welcome back at church (because of our age that this dang COVID-19 seems to be targeting) we can still enjoy church at home.  And we want to be extremely careful because absolutely do not want to get it.   I'm so grateful that I can again access the library books - that's always been a favorite thing of mine to do - when you like to read you're never bored. At least that's my take.  I'm grateful that it looks like we'll be able to get the shower "up to snuff" - the bid for the floor tiling is reasonable and I'm pretty sure that the cleaning / sealing of all the grout afterward will make a huge difference.  And I'll keep working on that optimism thing.