Warmer but Still Gray

 Last week was so much nicer around here, but today it was 42 and drizzling when I picked up the girls.  I always dislike going to the grocery store but find it's less boring when I get it over with before I go back home.

It was downright inviting this morning, and I enjoyed having an almost empty store and one of the usual friendly cashiers.

I didn't  notice the display on the left when I was there.  Wonder what that's all about.  The end of the Corona virus?!  Hopefully, but it sure is good to leave the masks at home, even in the library.  

I'm always amazed when I see what Ryan's done to the house every time I go over there.  The floors are finished and beautiful, and the lighting is done and so nice.

Millie and Al being here to help him resulted in the greenhouse window being finished.  It was a BIG deal.  The back yard had brick and stone structures for the grill and the Egg, and those had to be removed to make it possible to get the window into the hole in the kitchen wall.  That was a lot of work, but since they're not eating meat now, it might not be a big loss.  

Emily is beside herself.  She collects plants and never can turn one down, so this will be a nice place for them.  When I went over Tuesday night, the shelf was in, and it was almost full.  All her baby seedlings were there too.  She had put them out in the sunshine over the weekend to spur them on a little.  I love it that I can get some of my gardening pleasure in their yard.

This is the only plant-related thing I'm doing at the moment.  Emily forgot to give us our annual amaryllises this year, but getting them late doesn't seem to matter.  We've watched it grow several inches a day.

Since the weather has been mild, I've been letting it get a little sun every day on the front porch next to Grandma's old churn.  The porch sure does need some work, but I'm waiting for a little warmer weather.

This beautiful little primrose appeared last week in the barren flower bed.  We hear rumors that we're going to get our row of apartments re-landscaped this spring but nothing certain.  I'm not sure I can resist planting things as soon as it's warm enough though.

I've never had primroses before.  I think they're comparable to pansies in their cold-weather tolerance.  If so, I'll plant a lot in the fall or spring or whenever I'm supposed to.  The trees don't allow any sun at all on my front porch, which doesn't bother me in the summer except for making it hard for my geraniums to bloom!  I'm going to concentrate on ferns, hostas, and caladiums this year in my old-lady garden that Mike liked to tease me about.  I'll always have a few crazy things mixed in there.

The cherry trees and dogwoods and forsythia are blooming along with tulips and daffodils, but when I took this picture, it was too cold to linger outside long.

The cats spend most of their days taking in the sights from the window sills.  There are four to choose from, so they don't usually mess with any of MY stuff.  Looks like these little eggs were too much to resist.  I kept finding them in the strangest places, and finally I just had to put them up to keep them off the table.

I saw this interesting picture on one of the community group pages.  This is Downtown Snoqualmie, about 3 miles from the Ridge where we live.  

It's quite colorful!  I recognize our State Farm office in the bottom left corner with the red roof.  Behind and to the right and center is Rooster Valley Farm School where the girls spent two years each, also red with the white picket fence.  In the background is the beautiful new high school where the girls will go one day that I don't like to think about!  Their middle school is about a mile down this same road.  They'll probably love riding the bus there, but I don't like to think about that either.  

Grandma and Grandpa Bindert flew home to SD yesterday, and we all miss them.  I wish they lived here.  Millie and I enjoy discussing the girls to our heart's content, and no one gets bored!  We also discuss our children, but we won't tell them what we talk about.  

Life is almost back to normal again, but then Spring Break is coming up, and they'll be traveling somewhere.  I have to get my calendar straight.  Then Ryan and Emily have a wedding in Portland where they'll leave the children behind and another wedding for Logan, Ryan and Emily's nephew, in Sioux Falls.  I think there is another trip to the beach in Oregon and a trip just for me if we can settle on it.  Whale-watching?  Mount Rainier?  I'm so happy just sitting in the sunshine and being around the family, so anywhere is okay with me.  Anywhere warm!  

I Love Friday Nights

 This Friday night, I had the girls until 9:00 so their parents could meet our friend Karen and her boyfriend in Seattle.  They seemed to have had a good time, but so did we.  

We had a springtime party after school, but it was pretty much wishful thinking.  Our table was decked out in some pastel colors to put us in the mood.

Safeway had a bunch of primroses for sale out front, so I brought this cute little pink one home.  The table square is a little quilt I did many years ago.  I wish it were bigger, but I use it very rarely and just not worth it to put borders on it.

The girls asked their sister friends, Harper and Ellis, to join them.  Four kids in the house is a little much, but they did fine.  They're pretty quiet.  They had quite a variety of old 1980s dolls that live here to play with and a couple of the American Girl ones that have been visiting here since last sleepover.

The cupcakes were a big hit, but I was aggravated with the little cups I ordered from Amazon.  They were pretty but really too big, and the frosting ended up being down inside the cups and not that pretty.  Also, the cake part ended up sticking to the bottom, so there was a lot of goody left in the bottom.  They plowed through all the food pretty quickly and then helped me clean off the table.  It's funny how much more helpful the little ones were.  The older girls were too busy planning what they were going to do.  I can't believe there wasn't music and dancing and singing today.  That's usually the first thing they do is wake up Google to play them some favorite songs.

I finished that Jodi Piccoult book, and I think I'm glad I did.  I was totally wrong about it being predictable.  It took a few turns that were surprising.  I didn't love it, but I did hang in there to the end.  I have 3 more downloaded and ready but too sleepy to start one tonight.  

No Scrabble today.  I did the Wordle and have a streak of 27 in a row.  

I sent Emily a picture of my highest word in Scrabble, and I may have mentioned it here.  

Alone, it's just worth 10 points - or 20 with the double word square - but if you use all 7 tiles in your hand, you get an extra 50 points - so 72.  If I had been able to use the triple word square, I guess it would have been 86.  Zoey is a ruthless little bot, but I've ended up beating her by just a few points a game for the past week.  

I haven't napped or even rested much today, so I'm hoping for a full night's sleep and nothing much to stress over tomorrow.

Little Things

Found when I went to take a shower last night.

Cat Tamer

Reminding us spring will be here one day.

Seen on Emily's kitchen cabinet.  1979 or so.

As requested.

Not in the hair but on wrists.

 Katherine was expecting the school to be painted green this morning. I'm not sure where these ideas come from!

The Jodi Piccoult book, Wish You Were Here, is a bit of a disappointment.  I just don't have patience for predictable stories.  I don't like to figure out the ending in the second chapter.  I'm learning a little about the Galapagos Islands, but the other half of the book is written from a doctor's point of view during the beginning of the pandemic.  I feel like I've read about 100 other stories, so this one is almost boring.  Oh, well.  I'll finish it, I guess.

Does Belize have Cayes or Keys?

 I left all my education about the family's upcoming vacation to a 9-year-old, and I heard her say the islands were called Keys, but since I wrote about it on the blog, my news feed has been bombarded with articles about Belize.  I still haven't had time to read about it, but I did keep seeing Caye, so maybe that's what she's talking about.

It was a quiet weekend where I did what I wanted to, which was almost nothing at all, but I enjoyed doing all that nothingness.  Katherine lost another tooth, which was the biggest news report from Steller Way.  

We were going to get together and play games Saturday, then Sunday, then Monday, and things keep getting in the way.  I look forward to the summer when we have some long days to fill.  

I finished listening to my audio book, Summer Water by Sarah Moss, and liked it okay.  It was set in Scotland where the weather was much like ours is most of the time, so I could identify.  It was really little vignettes of the families or couples staying in a set of log cabins, and there was a good bit of mystery involved and some foreboding, but the story just abruptly ended with no explanation of what happened to the mysterious little girl Violetta - or anyone else.  It's like the author just got tired of tying up loose ends and just ended it.  

I'm starting on a Jodi Piccoult audio book right now when I get another cup of coffee.  It's Wish You Were Here.  It's been some time since she's written a book, and I've enjoyed most of them.  She tackles unpleasant subjects sometimes, and this one involves a virus that derails a young woman's life.  Sounds very familiar!  I'm not sure I've never read a book taking place in the Galapagos Islands, so maybe I'll learn something interesting.  A good many of the books I've requested are coming in, and I have to decide if I can get through them in 3 weeks or if I need to put them on a longer hold.  I'm so glad I have this escape.  Sometimes I completely forget where I am and am surprised when I have to return to my real life - and sometimes relieved!

The person I was playing Scrabble with came through with a word this morning, and he immediately blocked me, but I found another place and eventually won by 6 points.  I think the profiles with clouds are computer-generated, and the girls and I didn't much like that profile picture anyway!

It seems like masks are optional as of this weekend, but I might wear mine a while longer.  I've enjoyed hiding behind a mask, and I just feel so lucky not to have gotten sick (that I know of) that I don't want to risk anything.  Most people in the Dollar Tree Saturday wore masks, even young people.  It's almost become a way of life.  I wonder how the first day of unmasked school went.  

It was a scary time two years ago when we first started hearing how serious this virus was.  Now we're facing another crisis in the world, and who knows how this will end.  

 

Disorganized

 I've come a long way since moving here last July to finding a home for everything, but I still don't have systems for everything.

I have my planner and notebooks out on the table usually and try to write a thought or two and make some plans, but I'm not consistent. 

 A lot of it probably has to do with my sleep pattern - or lack of.  I try really hard to go to bed at a certain time and get up pretty close to the same time, but I fail.

I was so tired last night that I delivered the girls home, came home finished off Noreen's soup, and tried to read.  Two pages.  That's all I got.  I cleaned a few things and vacuumed where the girls had been all afternoon.  I caught up on my Scrabble moves.  The guy I'm waiting on to play did not.  I may have to "nudge" him, because I really want to play my topaz.  I played one game against the computer - Zoey - and got my all-time ever one-word score.  Quagmire for 66 points.  I decided to try quag as my first word and had an M and R.  I saved them for a few rounds and got a blank and an I, so I did it!  Too bad I didn't get it against Emily where I could have really gloated, but Zoey doesn't much care.  She went on to beat me anyway, like she usually does.

So I fell into bed really early and slept hard but woke up at 2 a.m.  I guess that's enough sleep for me, and I do like to be up in the middle of the night, knowing I can do whatever I want to.  I caught up on a few blogs I read and a smidgen of news, some emails and a few texts.  I found a list of books I had meant to request last year and went to the library website and requested about 10 of them.  That should give me a good supply coming in.

I had a cup of Taster's Choice in Mike's cup just now, and these little rituals are comforting.  It's funny, but the girls' friends Harper and Ellis have a PopPop too, and his name is Mike.  It's sad that my insomnia didn't happen during the years when he had it too.  We could have gotten a lot done during those times.  Instead, he would find bargains on Woot while I slept and email me and ask if I needed these exciting things - like a panini maker or sheets or cookware.  The things we take for granted....

I'm going to go back to bed and sleep again and probably wake up late, feeling like I've missed the best part of the day!

I did, and I'm upset about it but will carry on.

I found a series on Netflix that I'm really enjoying.  It's funny and quirky and makes me laugh besides showing me parts of the world I ordinarily would know nothing about.  There is a stand-up comedian named Jack Whitehall that I had never heard of.  I'm old.  I don't follow stand-up comedians.  He is now in his 5th season of a series called Jack Whitehall:  Travels with my Father.  He drags his proper 77-year-old British father, whom he still calls Daddy to various countries and films their adventures.  The first is Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam - that area.  I'm almost sure I wouldn't like to visit there myself, but it was funny to see the dad's reactions to things. The food markets alone that they filmed were enough to cause me to hyperventilate.  

In one episode, the "train" they were waiting for to go from one place to another turned out to be an open flat trolley with cushions, and the people got on and rode along a track to wherever they were going.  Animals too.  "Can I hold your chicken?"  If they met another trolley going the opposite way, they had to take apart the one with the fewest passengers, let the others go past, and then put theirs back together. I wonder if this is real, just thinking about it. The scenery was beautiful, and there were bits of history interspersed throughout, whether you wanted to hear it or not, some pretty horrible.  Jack was invited to teach a class of monk students because he was a former teacher - or as his father said, he played a teacher in a sit-com.  I'm looking forward to seeing where else they travel.  I'm ready to start Season 2.  I accidentally watched an episode from Season 5 before I knew what it was, and it ends up in England where they visit Winston Churchill's home.  The father is a huge fan of Churchill, and his son asks the tour guide if there is any chance his Daddy can be allowed to lie down in Winston's bed for just a moment.  It's all in fun but just what I need for these worrying times.  The fun kind of makes me unclench my hands and heart for a while.

Today's plans I hope are none.  I need to wash my sheets and pillowcases and gaze around the front porch to see how I can brighten that area up this spring.  I'm going to do research on buying a new printer.  Somehow the little plastic piece on the tray where the papers come out got broken in the move, and now papers go flying across the room when they print.  I think I might can replace the tray, but it's an old printer, so it might be time to replace it.   I'll send that job to Ryan to research for me.

One of my neighbors has noticed the cats in my window and stopped to ask if I wanted some cat food.  She had just bought two bags of food when her cat got sick and now has to have a special vet food.  I need to read about this brand and see if maybe that food CAUSED the ailment before I feed much of it to Bowie and Layla.  Even though they have half of an 18-pound bag of Iams food in a bin and two full bowls of it on their placemat, they felt the need to pull the new bag off the desk and bite their way into it during the night. Bunches of little bite marks, but they still didn't spill it. 

 I gave them a few bites when I found it, and Layla turned and walked away.  Bowie was happily munching on it  when I left him, but I will do some research on it first.  I think it's called Blue Buffalo.  These cats share one can of wet food every morning - Fancy Feast salmon and gravy - and then maybe a couple of small bowls of hard food whenever they want it during the day.  So far, they seem super healthy, so I don't want to mess with it.

It's not a bad day.  I don't have any reason to go outside, but it looks sunny and warmish in case I do.  

Unintended Free Day

 Noreen had asked me if I would follow her to the "car place" to leave her car yesterday morning.  Emily took the girls, so we were able to go about 9:00, and it was such a nice outing.  You can tell when we've been closed up for too long and only updating each other on our Wordle scores!  We didn't even mention that on the way.  It does make us realize we have to take time to get together for an in-person chat.  Nothing like it.  She was off to take someone to an appointment, so we just had a quick trip there and back.  I did learn of a new car place in case I need anything local done - fingers crossed an oil change is the only thing on my list.

She brought me a welcome bowl of soup, and I had it for lunch.  Soooo good.  

I really wanted some cornbread, but I'm still not able to find a good self-rising corn meal - or any fine corn meal - around here and keep forgetting to order any, so I gave up on that.  I'll check at the grocery store today and see what's available.  If I can interest the girls in going with me, we'll go right after school since they have early pickup and a long afternoon.

We also have a teacher work day Monday, and chances are we might have a sleepover, so I need to corral them to find out what they're liking to eat lately.  They've gone from vegan to vegetarian lately and can add more familiar foods.  They had missed eggs and milk, and that's a good treat for breakfast - yellow eggs!

We tried to get a milkshake at McDonald's last week, but the drive-through lanes were blocked, and the girls had jumped in the car without their masks, thinking we wouldn't need them, so we traveled across the street to Burger King.  They were also having troubles, and we were trapped in the line before we knew it.  It was not unpleasant waiting, but the girls decided to open their lunchboxes and snack on their leftovers from school while we waiting.  After being gone for over an hour, we came home with two vanilla milkshakes and large fries.  I managed to snag a couple of the fries, and they were nice and soft, better than McDonald's.  That's my restaurant review for today.  Oh, and I resented having to pay 27 cents for a teeny container of honey mustard sauce.  I don't carry cash around, and it was touch-and-go to dig that much out.  We had ranch dressing at home, so it was a successful trip.  Not going to fast-food places - ever lately - makes it nice when we do.  A real adventure.  There's no temptation to get a Happy Meal since they have meat in them, so it's simple choices and big smiles.  

So my morning today consists of taking the girls to school and getting my hair cut.  I'm not sure why I put that haircut off so long, but I just hate taking the time to do it.  I'm in and out in 10-15 minutes, and it's pleasant, but I just wait until I'm aggravated with it before I'll go.  Let's hope it's good walking weather.

Then the only things on my agenda are vacuuming, doing today's Wordle, and reading some in my (paper not audio) book.  I started Miss Dior on Tuesday and read a little bit every night.  I'm not sure why the interest unless I saw a good review.  I certainly don't remember anything about Christian Dior except that he was a designer and completely outside my sphere of fashion knowledge.  I'm just enjoying different types of reading lately and haven't listened to any audio books this week.

It's not just about fashion but about the wars and concentration camps and what sad and tragic lives most of that family lived.  Still, the writing is beautiful when describing their family home in France, and there are pages and pages of old black-and-white pictures.

Wordle has been interesting this week with words like rupee and nasty.  I have one miss in 25 tries and now have a streak of 13.  That makes me nervous because I have to be accountable to Emily and Noreen.  We're pretty serious about it and discuss our strategies.  Noreen introduced me to online Scrabble, but we haven't played each other.  Emily and I have an game ongoing.  She sent me a word last night and gloated and then went to bed.  We do exchange a good many insults about our choices.  I'm not so keen on looking up answers but just want to be creative with my limited vocabulary.  I have a hard time beating the computer because I seem to always get a rack of vowels, sometimes 7 of them.  So unfair.  I pick someone at random to play, and these people (or maybe bots) don't tend to play a game over the course of an hour or so and get it over with.  A word may come in at inconvenient times, and then I have to go back and figure out what I wanted to play.  I'm waiting for someone to come on now and play so I can very firmly make topaz.  IF the other person doesn't block me.  It's a 32 pointer, and you can see neither one of us is exactly tossing out anything worthwhile.

It's really nice though, and Emily and I have enjoyed it lately.  We find it hard to get together in person much, so this is our way of chatting and making each other laugh.

I'll come back with pictures of the sweet girls all ready for school in an hour and get on with my day.  Laundry is going, cats are fed, and my first cup of coffee is halfway gone.  And it's Friday!

These are my favorite socks right now.  Cozy Earth.  Before Christmas, I could hardly turn on the computer without seeing ads for this company.  It was an Oprah Pick, so Oprah told Emily to get me some for Christmas.  I got 3 pair, this one, a black pair, and a navy pair. 

They're so soft and luxurious to put on.  I wear these under boots where they don't show, and I'm hoarding the dark ones so they don't get all linty or lost or whatever happens to socks.  Emily said to go ahead and use them up because Oprah told her I could have some more when those are gone.  I really should ask for the bamboo pajamas, but I'm not sure I could relax in $200 pajamas.  Or $255 sheets.  I'd better wait until my 401K recovers a little bit.  I'm perfectly happy with my threadbare and comfy ones, but if I get new ones, Amazon also has bamboo ones for $39 with lots of colors that are probably worth trying once anyway.

=======

The girls really didn't want to go to the grocery store after school.  Who can blame them.  We came home and had a snack.  Then they had some school work to do.  Katherine needed to do a couple of pages of math - place value - and did great once she took the time to read the directions.  When we finished, she said, "Thank you for showing me how to do the problems with those little sticks."

Place value sticks.  I love the colors and how clear it makes place value seem, but they have always been the hardest things to snap apart.  Looks like the hot chocolate didn't get wiped up so well!  They are pretty good at cleaning up but are always in a huge hurry to get to the next thing. 

Graysen needed practice on her multiplication facts, so we did a few rounds of flash cards until she could do two sets pretty quickly.  I guess we spent a full 30 minutes on it, and then they wanted to do word searches on my phone.  I have to reset the timer for 10-minute intervals because they can't help reaching in and "helping" the other person.

It's time to take them home, and I'll be enjoying the start of the weekend with my book and a cup of coffee.  Maybe I won't venture to the Putin news tonight.  I heard him described as reptilian, and now I can't look at his eyes without thinking of that.  I feel so bad complaining about the little inconveniences I have when people are suffering so in the Ukraine.

Life Continues

 I haven't been compelled to write anything in a long time.  Life is still good, for the most part.  We've had accidents, illnesses, and a few bad weather incidents, but we're all happy and content here in our little corner of the country.  

The thing on everyone's mind besides Covid is the new war on Ukraine.  I had some girls in the car this week - little girls - and I was pleasantly surprised at how knowledgeable they were about current events.  Obviously, since there are Russian and Ukranian students in the school system, there has been a lot of discussion in the schools, counseling, advice to parents on how to handle fears and misinformation, and that is so good.  

And then I venture to Facebook just once in a month, and I find that adults who should know better are still posting misinformation about our country and our administration at a time when we should all be on the same page.  It boggles my mind how people who are supposed to be intelligent can blatantly post lies for a laugh - or maybe they only get their "information" from Fox News and all the Trump propaganda outlets.   I'm not sure why someone who was responsible for destroying careers and lives just because they didn't give him enough praise can be given a platform to keep on with his lies.  This is not the country I know.  We got through four years without any big disasters, but he won't go away, and the gullible and ignorant are perpetuating the belief that Americans are indeed stupid.  It breaks my heart that children are taught by their parents this misinformation and grow up so full of hatred.  This war is a terrible thing, but if any good can come from it - besides its end - is that it will bring world leaders to common ground.  I think there is no hope for a good many Americans who have bought into the propaganda, but who knows? 

Meanwhile, we do see a little hope of spring.  There is garden talk and vacation talk.   The girls don't read the blog yet, so I can disclose that there is a discussion of maybe Disneyland this year.  I question that because the girls aren't big fans of the Disney characters and some of the rides.  I guess there will be enough there to entertain them.  They might also go back to the Oregon coast.  I've been invited, but I'm not sure it's not too much of a trip for me.  We're looking at something more Mimi friendly, but they know I'm content just staying right here in my happy little place.  I can't wait until Noreen and I can get our coffee and tea and plop down on our front porches to discuss the people passing by and how to solve all the world's problems, and boy do we have some ideas this year!

The girls have been here most afternoons and even for a sleepover last weekend.  I'll see what pictures I have to share.  They are at such a good age for communicating with.  They make me laugh, and I just give them everything I have when I'm with them.  Such sweet things and still tolerant of my craziness.  I told Emily they would probably love to have a TikTok channel called Life with Mimi where they follow me around looking for my phone until I find it in my pocket, and they dissolve in shrieks of laughter.

Proud of Graysen for her Student of the Month award.

Bowie and Layla are allowed a few minutes in the mornings to sniff that warmer air and look for bunnies.

It's coming.  We're not used to the 50s, so it's a real treat to go without a coat.

Lots of random pictures.

Give these girls some plastic droppers and beakers and various foods from the kitchen, and they never tired of doing "experiments."

Ingredients:  Milk, buttermilk, food coloring, baking soda, grits!, salt, pepper, pizza seasoning.  Maybe more things that I don't remember.

Sleepovers are getting better and better. If they have trouble falling asleep, we turn on Sparkle stories, which are pretty droning and boring, and that does it every time.  I'm the first one to go!

I took this from the library parking lot last week.  I'm still listening to a lot of good books and checking out a few paper ones and even have watched a movie and a documentary this week.  I'll try to write more in detail about the things I read and see, so I won't forget and try to re-read or watch them.

One of the special birthday gifts from Aunt CeCe.

I'm not liking coffee as much lately, so I thought I would try Mike's old favorite, Taster's Choice.  I think I know what his opinion would be on the new jar, but it tastes pretty good for now.

Graysen is wanting to learn to type with all her fingers, and we've found some cute apps for them.

Ice-skating party for Graysen in February and her two friends, Noelle and Harper, who had birthdays in December, plus four little sisters.

 

Katherine got to surprise Graysen with her balloons and her birthday doughnut.

Makes my heart happy to see them read together.

All the babies!  I'm not sure exactly what these little things are.  It says Aqua Monkeys.  They're being nurtured pretty closely.

Graysen and Noelle having some big-girl time away from the little sisters.

I think I have more pictures but little time.  I needed to make myself get started posting again.  Maybe something interesting will happen - something GOOD and interesting - not more broken bones or news about wars.