It’s time for our Sunday morning chat. On Sundays, I ramble about what’s been going on, whatthe rest of the familyand I have been reading and watching, andwhat I’ve been writing. Some weeks I share what I am listening to.
Last week was pretty chilly part of the week but things have started to warm up again. Little Miss and I hoped that warm up would include some time in the pool but the nights have been very cool so that has left us with very cool pool water. It’s been so cool our teeth have started chattering as soon as we enter the pool, and our bodies don’t really become acclimated even though we hope they will.
Yesterday we tried again, and I somehow lasted 90 minutes but my body did not feel well afterward. The warmest days this week will be Tuesday and Wednesday so I think we will wait to try again until then and those will probably be the last swims of the season.
This week I will ease into lessons for Little Miss to kick off school, but we won’t start in earnest until after Labor Day. The Boy already started back at tech school. I’ll start his lessons the week of Labor Day as well but he has much less to do this year.
So this week is the last week of freedom, so to speak, for the kids before school really gets underway.
What I/we’ve been Reading
Currently: I am still reading Trouble Shooter by Louis L’Amour because I have been reading a couple of other books in addition to or in between. I am going to focus on the book more this week because there is a mystery woven in and I really want to know what happened.
I am also reading The Gardener’s Plot by Deborah J. Benoit. It is an Advanced Reader’s Copy.
On cozy evenings I am also reading Little Men by Louisa Mae Alcott
I just finished Clueless at the Coffee Station by Bee Littlefield and really enjoyed it. I’ll share a review of it on here tomorrow.
My upcoming list has shifted around some as I plan for reads for Autumn.
Up next, possibly, depending on my mood,
A Simple Deduction by Kristin Holl (An Amish Inn Mystery)
The Secret of Red Gate Farm by Carolyn Keene (A Nancy Drew Mystery)
Murder Handcrafted by Isabella Alan (An Amish Quilt Shop Mystery)
The Cat Who Brought Down the House by Lilian Jackson Braun
Little Miss and I read Homer Price by Robert McCloskey over the last couple of weeks.
What We watched/are Watching
Last week I watched Clambake. I don’t want to talk about it. I’d just like to never remember I watched it.
I also watched a few episodes of the old British show Lovejoy.
I then watched Just A Few Acres on YouTube.
What I’m Writing
I made quite a bit of progress on Gladwynn Grant Shakes the Family Tree this past week. I hope to make even more progress this upcoming week.
Now it’s your turn. What have you been doing, watching, reading, listening to or writing? Let me know in the comments or leave a blog post link if you also write a weekly update like this.
How was your week last week? You can let me know in the comments after I ramble at you about my week, which was rather calm thanks to chilly temps and a car that needs to pass inspection before we can drive it again.
Yes, in Pennsylvania your car has to pass an inspection every year and thanks to some lovely incompetence on the part of a local salvage yard and of another seller, we have been unable to get our headlight that was destroyed by the deer we hit last year fixed until this week. And that is well over when our inspection was due. We have an inspection appointment this week and then I will have a car during the week when my husband is at work.
I didn’t really want to go anywhere this past week anyhow. It was superbly chilly and rainy, giving me the autumn vibes I have been craving.
I spent three blissful days inside my house reading books and working on Gladwynn Grant Shakes the Family Tree, all while cuddled up under my grandmother’s blanket. Grandma has been gone since 2003 so I didn’t steal her blanket. I inherited it. Ha! I always figure I should clarify that since it sounds like I stole my poor grandmother’s blanket and she’s at home shivering in the cold.
All the coziness ended Friday when I had to leave my little cozy cocoon and take my teenage son to get his haircut and pick up groceries.
The Boy started school at the tech school again this past week. This is his second year there and at the end of the year he will be done with school because he is – he is – sniff – a senior!
I can’t even believe he is about to graduate from high school. It makes my head very woozy.
I have started asking myself things like, “Will he still want to go on family vacations with us? Will he go out to dinner with us? Will he still hangout with us? Will he still live here because I really want him to live here for a very long time and my heart will shatter if he moves too far away?”
I’m not handling all of this well and I’m not afraid or ashamed to admit it.
After we picked up groceries and brought them home, Little Miss and I attempted to go swimming at my parents. The nights have been very cold so the pool was like an ice bath. We lasted about an hour and then gave up.
Back at home last night I was again under the blanket as the temperatures went back down. This week the temps are supposed to be back in the 80s but I think our days of wickedly high summer temps are behind us. We shall see.
Even as some forecasters say our autumn season will be warm and dry, The Farmer’s Almanac says it will be cool and wet. We will have to take it day by day and see who wins out. When I first heard we might have a warm fall I wanted to cry. I really want some chilly days where I have an excuse to stay inside. I have no excuses to stay inside in summer unless the weather is so sweltering I know it will make me sick.
In Autumn I can be like, “It’s just so chilly out. I think I’ll stay at home.”
Which is code for – I’m going to read a book and watch an old movie.
Speaking of movies – Erin (Still Life, With Cracker Crumbs) and I are gearing up for another Comfy, Cozy Cinema starting September 5.
She’s already made some great graphics to go with the feature so if you want to join along, here is our list:
A little update today on Timothy The Spider, who I wrote about last week – he is currently MIA.
Earlier this week it was raining very hard outside and I think he could hear the rain and wanted to get out because he climbed behind one of our curtains and it was the last we saw of him for the rest of the week.
So far I haven’t seen him on the floor but we have brown hardwood floors and a carpet of various shades of brown so he could be anywhere. If I see him, I will most likely kill him. Poor Timothy. Alas, his life might be short. Or he could already have been eaten by one of the cats, I have no idea. All I know is he isn’t hanging over my head anymore and I sort of wish we had killed him before because now I don’t know where he might show up or when.
In closing, I thought I would share a weird conversation The Boy and I had last night about a statue of “the devil” or Lucifer that was sculpted in Italy in the 1840s by Joseph Geefs.
Geefs statue was commissioned and installed the St. Paul’s Cathedral in Belgium but was then determined to be “distracting allure” and feature “unhealthy beauty” in its portrayal of Lucifer or Satan.
So the church hired Geefs’ older brother Guillaume Geefs to sculpt another statue to represent the devil and that one turned out to be just as “sexy” or even more so by some definitions. That second statue is still in St. Paul’s Cathedral.
The Boy and I agreed that the second sculpture is actually more beautiful and distracting than the first so we’re not sure why the first one was replaced by the second one.
(The first statue on the left, second is on the right).
What do you think? which one is more hot?
How was your week last week? Do anything interesting?
My son was recovering from an illness on the couch and watching a cartoon on his laptop, my daughter was watching a cartoon on my phone and I was mindlessly scrolling through Facebook when it all shut off out of the blue.
For ten seconds we sat there and looked at each other bewildered. What were we supposed to do now? With all our devices dark, except the phone which continued to work off data, we were completely lost.
Suddenly I felt excited. I felt a sense of freedom and dashed outside to my garden, over run with weeds thanks to weeks of neglect, and began yanking weeds out by the handful. I felt like a giddy child let loose in a candy store. The smell of dirt and grass and nature was setting my soul on fire.
In the midst of the euphoria I was also disgusted that it had taken the electricity going out to wake me up and break the chains of apathy and digital busyness that I had let hold me down.
Logged on to Facebook I seem to think I have to read one more post, see one more photo, laugh at one more pointless video and then before I know it it’s the afternoon and I’ve accomplished nothing. I haven’t finished the dishes, cut up and put the extra zucchini in the freezer, cleaned up my room, made the beds or weeded the garden.
And I certainly haven’t nourished my soul or connected with God.
Instead I’ve only fueled anxiety that I often call “my anxiety” claiming the state as my own, as if it’s an expected mindset for me to be in.
I’ve found that scrolling past story after story, some positive but many aimed at igniting our fear – fear of cancer, of death, of loss – is damaging my emotional health and in turn my physical health.
Many say “I just ignore those negative or fear based posts” but to me it seems the continuous exposure to these types of stories often permeates our thoughts and perpetuate our fears without us even realizing it. The negative affects of today’s social media are subtle and unassuming.
I’m not saying social media doesn’t have its good points or that it can’t be used to help encourage, connect, and support. Along with the good, however, comes even more counteractive and isolating aspects.
We have never been more connected than we are today, Facebook founder mark Zuckerburg likes to tell us again and again. In some ways this is true but in reality we’ve never been more disconnected or separated.
Satan is never happier than when we are isolated, made to feel alone, and spending our days on Facebook, pretending we are actually connecting with people. When we are on our computer or staring at our phone we are not living in the present or focused on those around us. Our minds are on a digital and virtual plane, trapped in a world of fantasy, antagonistic words, pessimistic views and sometimes fake optimistic ones.
I thought about this all as I yanked the weeds out of the garden so I could plant spinach seeds, seeds of a plant to bring our family nourishment.
I found it pretty pathetic that it took the electricity going out to motivate me to weed out the bad and plant the good. Yet it often takes a power failure in our life to wake us up to the good we have been missing out on.
Philippians 4:8 says: “Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.”
Sometimes I need to pull the plug on the busyness of life so I can focus on the noble, the right, the pure, the lovely and the admirable.
If I don’t cut off the power sometimes, or let God flip the switch for me, then the negativity, fear, pessimism and anxious thoughts will grow in my life like the weeds in my garden. The weeds are choking out my healthy plants, stopping them from growing. I’m nowhere near a master gardener and I know I have a lot to learn if I want a bountiful harvest in the future.
There are days I feel the weeds of life all around me, trying to steal my joy, my hope, my fervor for life. I put my hands up to push them back, but without the help of the one who is our Master Gardener, I’ll never find victory.
I need Him to help me keep the weeds in check and to remind me they need to be pulled so I can breathe and grow.
Marsha, our leader, is on vacation right now so we will be sharing only our highlights for the week and when Marsha comes back we will share a round-up of all the most clicked from the three weeks she is gone.
This is a blog link-up where we not only allow you to share your past posts but we encourage it. So share away!
I’m so glad you are here and taking part in our weekly link-up of family-friendly, fun, educational, interesting, crafty, fashionable, and whatever else posts. I hope you’ll tell your followers about our post (feel free to copy and paste the graphic) and visit the blogs in the link-up.
Now it is your turn to link up your favorite posts. They can be fashion, lifestyle, DIY, food, etc. All we ask is that they be family-friendly. You can link up posts from last week or even from years ago. We are always looking for additional hosts so let us know if you want to help out and we are also looking for more links from fashion bloggers so let your fashion bloggers know!
Also, please take the time to visit the other blogs on the link-up and meet some new bloggers!
Continuing with my Summer Movie Marathon today I am focusing on the movie Summertime, released in 1955 and starring Katherine Hepburn and Rossano Brazzi and directed by David Lean.
First, a little description of the movie:
Middle-aged Ohio secretary Jane Hudson (Katharine Hepburn) has never found love and has nearly resigned herself to spending the rest of her life alone. But before she does, she uses her savings to finance a summer in romantic Venice, where she finally meets the man of her dreams, the elegant Renato Di Rossi (Rossano Brazzi). But when she learns that her new paramour is leading a double life, she must decide whether her happiness can come at the expense of others.
Summertime isn’t exactly a summer movie in my opinion, other than the fact that Katherine Hepburn travels to Venice in the summer. It could really take place anytime, but it’s called Summertime because Katherine has her first big international adventure and her first big romance on this trip that is in the summer.
Okay, fine, maybe it is a summer movie, but I guess I think of summer movies being on the beach and being a bit silly. This movie is not silly. It is, in fact, quite serious at times. There are funny moments but there are also some big life issues that hit Katherine’s character, Jane.
Jane is a lonely woman who can’t seem to fit in. She’s a little odd by some standards, though I love her character – except when she flies off the handle at this one small thing in the movie and is all over dramatic at other times.
She likes to read and take photos and film little movies on her reel-to-reel camera and doesn’t believe she could ever be loved. (She sort of sounds like me.)
At first I found Katherine’s way of acting in this part grating. I wondered why they picked her for this role, but the more I watched, the more I got it. Yes, she is a bit grating in the way she talks and handles herself but that is how the character is. She’s abrasive and bold and overly excited and also suspicious of others who seem interested in her romantically.
In this case she ends up being correct to suspect Renato De Rossi and here is where spoilers will come in so if you haven’t seen the movie and want to, you might want to stay clear of the following paragraphs.
Jane meets Renato in one of the sexiest scenes I have ever seen in a movie. No, there is no sex or nudity or crude language. The actor who plays Renato simply looks at Katherine Hepburn in a way I could only dream of being looked at. The resolution on this clip is not great but this is the look:
Brazzi absolutely oozes sex appeal throughout this whole movie – from the first moment he checks her out, his gaze gliding down her legs and back up to the back of her neck while she films the scenes around her.
Jane is embarrassed by his attention and decides to leave the restaurant but a couple of days later she’s face to face with him when she wants to buy a goblet for sale in his antique shop. He is thrilled to see her again because he could not stop checking her out at the restaurant. He asks where she is staying and the next day he shows up and wants to take her out on the town.
But, back to Jane being suspicious – she has every right to be. Renato is not who he says he is. I mean, he is attentive and passionate and romantic and very possibly in love with her but he isn’t exactly unencumbered, shall we say. He has a family – not just nieces and nephews like he eludes to but a wife and children. The wife, he claims, is living somewhere else, by her choice. She’s fine with him seeing others because she’s doing the same. That’s how Italians are, he claims. Maybe they are, but that isn’t who or how Jane is.
Still, she is drawn to Renato and can’t seem to let him go and…well, you will have to watch the movie to know what happens, but I will say there was one scene that suggested….okay. Again. You will have to watch it.
I love the scenery in this movie. It was shot on location in 1954 and it is gorgeous. The film had a budget of $1.1 million and was one of the first British-produced films to be shot entirely on location.
According to the site Luca’s Italy, (https://lucasitaly.com/2017/11/30/venice-in-the-movies-summertime-1955/) “Most of Summertime was filmed in and around the Piazza di San Marco and Campo San Barnaba, where Brazzi’s shop was located. The building is still a shop, but today sells toys rather than red Murano glass goblets, but curiously, never seems to be open.”
The blog post also states, “The Pensione Fiorini, where Hepburn stays, is now the stunningly named Splendid Hotel on Rio dei Bareteri.”
If you would like to read more about the movie here are a couple of reviews:
I watched this movie on Amazon but I do see it is free on YouTube. I can’t vouch for the quality:
I had to switch things up for my next movie because I couldn’t find Having A Wonderful Time streaming anywhere. I also decided not to watch Clambake because I tried to watch it and I couldn’t push through. Plus, if I had watched Clambake and written about it, I would have run into the Comfy, Cozy Cinema that Erin from Still Life, With Cracker Crumbs and I are planning and going to start September 5.
If you are interested in joining in, Erin has designed some wonderful graphics again this year and you can see the list below:
Next week I am going to write about Summer Magic with Hayley Mills to wrap up my Summer Movie Marathon.
This week’s theme is: Relationship Freebie (Pick a relationship type and choose characters who fit that relationship as it relates to you. So, characters you’d like to date, be friends with, be enemies with, etc. Bookish families you’d like to be a part of, characters you’d want as your siblings, pets you’d like to take for yourself, etc.)
From this prompt, I decided to make a list of ten characters who I would love to be friends with in real life – if they were real. Well, you know what I mean.
Cynthia Kavanagh from The Mitford Series by Jan Karon
Cynthia is the wife of Father Timothy Kavanagh, an Episcopal priest in Mitford, N.C. He meets Cynthia either in the end of the first book or the beginning of the second, A Light in the Window. Their love story is so sweet and pure. It’s a beautiful example of what love late in life can and should be. Father Tim has never been in a relationship and Cynthia was in a cold, loveless marriage before. Their relationship starts slow and awkardly.
Cynthia is an illustrator who also writes childrens books about her cat, Violet, a fluffy, white monster who Father Tim and his dog Barnabas aren’t so sure about. I would love to be friends with Cynthia. We’d sit in her little yellow house and sip tea and talk books and cats and how neither of us are really very good cooks or bakers but like to try anyhow.
2. Elizabeth “Bess” Marvin in the Nancy Drew books.
I absolutely love Bess from the Nancy Drew books. I love how she is described as pleasantly plump and isn’t shy about eating whatever she wants and flirting with boys – not even caring that back when these books were written fat girls were supposed to be not who boys would be interested in and were shamed into eating lettuce and a tomato for dinner.
I could absolutely see myself hanging out with Bess. She’d be more outgoing and crazy and I’d be quiet and laughing at her crazy antics. We’d talk about what foods we like and how no matter what we do we can’t get ourselves super skinny but there are times we still feel healthy and happy.
3. Valancy Stirling in The Blue Castle by LM Montgomery
I would absolutely hang out with Valancy from The Blue Castle. If I met her before she received the bad news about her health, I would have been trying to pull her out of her dumps and encourage her to ignore her family’s rude comments about her.
After she received the bad news I would have joined her for tea at her Blue Castle and I would have walked with her in the forest, picking flowers, listening to the wind rustling the leaves and to her read excerpts from John Foster’s books.
4. Jo March from Little Women by Louisa Mae Alcott
Jo and I would absolutely hang out in real life and talk about the books we are writing and the characters we’ve created and our fear of people reading what we have written. We would talk about how we feel like the stories and characters belong to ourselves and how we are sometimes afraid if others meet our characters they won’t like them and it will take something away from us.
We will totally talk about how we both snap sometimes and say mean things and have to wrestle the mean sides of ourselves the same way Marmee said she had to wrestle her feelings.
And we will absolutely dish about how publishers in her day were completely sexist and that if she were alive now she could write and publish whatever she wants.
5. Aunt Minnehaha Cheever from Gone Away Lake by Elizabeth Enright
Aunt Minnehaha visited Gone Away Lake, really called Tarrigo Lake, with her family, including her brother Pindar, when she was a child. The site was a summer getaway for the wealthy but when a dam was created upstream it caused the lake to dry up and all the wealthy vacationers to leave, many of them leaving their homes behind. When Aunt Minnehaha hits hard times and can’t afford her home in the city she moves back to Tarrigo to live. Eventually, children named Julian and Portia discover the homes and become friends with Minnehaha and her brother, who has also moved there.
Minnehaha has had some sadness in her life but she is absolutely full of optimism and likes to look at tough situations in a new and exciting way. If she and I were friends we would look through all the old dresses she has and all the old china and she’d make me some of her amazing tea and then she’d tell me that what I am facing now is nothing compared to what they had to face when they were young, living among some very rich and arrogant neighbors.
6. Anne Shirley from Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery
I’m sure Anne would be on the list of many readers. An imaginative orphan girl who comes to live with an older brother and sister on a farm on Prince Edward Island, Canada would absolutely be a very interesting person to be friends with.
She and I would go walk along the shores of the Lake of Shimmering Waters and pick apples from the apple trees. We would also walk through the falling leaves during autumn to Diana’s house to visit her and have pastries and tea together.
We would absolutely talk about books and, well, I hate to say it but I’d probably tell Anne she is way too focused on what is and isn’t romantic and what romance should look like. If it was older Anne we would talk about raising children and how she keeps the romance alive between her and Gilbert.
7. Angie Braddock from the Amish Quilt Shop Mysteries by Isabella Alan
I’ve only read one book in the Amish Quilt Shop Mysteries but I really liked Angie. She’s bold and not afraid to find out how someone has been killed so she can clear the name of another person. She’s also dating a handsome sheriff (at least in the one book I read) and has a great relationship with her father who is trying to figure out his place in the world now that he is retired.
She sells sowing materials at her shop and I don’t think I’d be able to talk to her too much about fabric but I bet we’d like other similar things and I would love for her to introduce me to her Amish friends.
8. Miss Jane Marple from the Agatha Christie series
I would love to be friends with Jane Marple and ask her questions about various “goings on” in the village she – er- we live in. We’d of course – like with everyone else – sip tea – probably real English tea and have a few coo—biscuits while she tells me about her latest case.
Since I’m her friend, I’d also follow her around while she solves various cases. And maybe get some credit with her. *wink*
9. Sam Gangee from The Fellowship of The Ring
Sam and I are kindred spirits. We both like second breakfasts and are a bit nervous but also pretty loyal to our friends. Since we are friends we would enjoy meals together and we would be friends after the adventure to get rid of the ring so I’d ask why he did everything for Frodo and ask if he’d like to get more credit.
10. Flo and Lady Hardcastle from The Lady Hardcastle Mysteries by T.E. Kinsey
I know…I popped in two into this one but they come as a pair, I’d say. I would love to be friends with Flo and Lady Hardcastle from The Lady Hardcastle Mysteries. Flo is Lady Hardcastle’s maid but really she is her best friend. Both of them have been spies and investigators and solved mysteries during the early 1900s. Flo has no fear when it comes to tracking down criminals and solving mysteries. She fights the bad guys, cleans up, and then heads home with Lady Hardcastle and serves her tea.
Lady Hardcastle, like Flo, has no fear and is like a dog with a bone when it comes to solving a case. I love how both women break barriers, ignoring all “rules” of society in England in the early 1900s.
I could see us enjoying tea (I know! I like tea! What can I say?) and talking about cases we’ve solved together and laughing about how we’ve shown the men in our small town that women can do more than cook and clean and keep house.
How about you? What literary characters would you love to be friends with?
It’s time for our Sunday morning chat. On Sundays, I ramble about what’s been going on, whatthe rest of the familyand I have been reading and watching, andwhat I’ve been writing. Some weeks I share what I am listening to.
I am still reading Clueless At The Coffee Station by Bee Littlefield (really enjoying it) and Trouble Shooter by Louis L’Amour.
Renee by Sandra Ardoin
A Simple Deduction by Kristi Holl (An Amish Inn Mystery)
World Traveler by Anthony Bourdain
Ever Faithful by Karen Barnett
The Author’s Guide To Murder by Lauren Willig, Beatriz Williams, and Karen White
Gardner’s Plot by Deborah Benoit
The Kamogawa Food Detectives by Hisashi Kashi
What We watched/are Watching
The Husband and I watched a Magnum P.I./Murder She Wrote crossover yesterday. I expected more from it, but then I learned there is a second part so we will be watching that tomorrow after he gets off work.
I started a Hayley Mills movie – Summer Magic — that I planned to replace one of the movies in my Summer Movie Marathon series since Having A Wonderful Time isn’t streaming anywhere and I don’t really want to order a DVD of it. I’m really not liking the movie very much so I don’t know if I will stick it out or not or watch something else for the marathon.
This morning I watched Just A Few Acres Farm after we watched the sermon from Elevation Church together. This is a Sunday tradition.
The sermon was excellent this week.
Just A Few Acres was interesting as he worked on fixing up an old truck with his son.
Last week he was spray painting a tractor and I know I’m old now because that was simply fascinating to me. Fascinating and very relaxing.
My book Cassie came out last week on Amazon. You can learn more about it here:
It’s part of a series but can be read as a stand alone.
I made quite a bit of progress on Gladwynn Grant Shakes the Family Tree which I hope to have out by early November.
What I’m Listening To
I listened a little more to The Cross Country Quilters by Jennifer Chaverini and Mansfield Park by Jane Austen.
Photos from Last Week
Now it’s your turn
Now it’s your turn. What have you been doing, watching, reading, listening to or writing? Let me know in the comments or leave a blog post link if you also write a weekly update like this.
Welcome to a Saturday Afternoon Chat. I’m sipping lactose-free milk with maple syrup mixed in today and snacking on chocolate chips (just a few). Healthy snack? Not exactly, but also not the worst. What are you snacking on today? Or sipping? And what are you doing? I hope to get some reading time in myself after a fairly busy week.
Today I thought I’d write my post like a “week in the life” type post – so here is my week in “diary form.”
Monday I’m one of those women who sometimes says things to herself like, “I don’t need a man to make it through life.”
And I don’t need a man.
I want one, which is why I have my husband.
I do, however, enjoy acting like I just don’t know enough about home repairs because I’m just a dumb housewife when a window replacement guy comes and tries to talk me into a “free assessment of your windows because we were in the neighborhood.”
I was in the middle of creating content for my Instagram today when a man knocked on our side door. He was holding a clipboard and wearing a uniform. I don’t trust people holding a clipboard and wearing a uniform after some bad experiences.
I went to the side door and discovered our collection of Daddy Long Legs are back. One of them was hanging out on the handle. About a month ago we had like ten of them hanging out in that entryway because we rarely use it – normally only to bring groceries in and sometimes we just use the back door instead. My husband cleared them out with the broom while I watched from the hallway and said things like, “Ew! Oh my gosh! Is that one climbing in here?!” and he said things like, “They’re Daddy Long Legs! They’re harmless!”
Anyhow, on this day there was a baby one right on the door handle. Right on it. No room for my hand to open the door without touching it.
“Just open it!” my son cried from behind me while he held the barking dog back. “It’s just a Daddy Long Leg!”
“But it is still a spider!” I cried.
I finally pushed the thing aside and opened the door. Standing outside was the man with the clipboard, a beard, and some sweat beaded across his ruddy face from the sun beating down on him.
“Hello, ma’am I was in the neighborhood and happened to notice your windows are bowed out because …” blah-de-blah-de-blah seller talk blah. “Can you see how that window reflects oddly there like a funhouse window? Well that’s because Argon gas is getting in between the panes there and blah-blah.”
“We don’t have any money,” I interrupted.
Go away I wanted to say.
“Oh that’s okay, ma’am because we can send an evaluator out for no cost to you and –”
I was already looking bored and rolling my eyes but he wasn’t taking the hint. I have to admit he was very smooth.
Cue “dumb housewife who can’t do anything without her husband’s permission mode.”
“You know….is there anyway you can stop by another time when my husband is home. He’s the one who handles all the house stuff.”
And then I stepped back into my house and pulled my spider-covered door closed in his face.
I was so proud of me because the last time one of those guys came, I talked to him way too long and was way too polite. This is what my teenage son said when I finally took the guy’s card and went back in the house that first time, but this time when I got inside my son said he was very proud of me too.
He also told me that the gas the guy said was getting in between our windows is the third largest quantity of gas in our atmosphere and the guy was a scammer.
Tuesday
Tuesday was a weird day in some ways but it got better. I woke up super groggy after some weird dreams and it took me most of the day to snap out of it.
Some family friends we haven’t seen in like, well, thirty years or more, came to visit my parents so Little Miss, The Boy, and I headed over there for the afternoon. Well, honestly, The Boy went over earlier to help clean the house and mow the lawn. Little Miss and I went over later and visited with everyone for a little bit before they left and we jumped into the pool.
We didn’t last long because the water was extremely cold which wasn’t a surprise since it was only 70 degrees (F) out.
Wednesday
Little Miss and I tried swimming again on this day. It was warmer outside but absolutely freezing in the pool. We lasted maybe an hour. I kept hoping she’d break first so I wouldn’t have to be the bad guy and I was thrilled when she finally she said, “I think we need to get out. My teeth won’t stop chattering.”
Whew. I was free to jump out and take a warm shower.
“Let’s stay in our clothes in case we warm up and want to get back in though,” she said.
I did not want to do that. Not one little, itty-bitty bit but I said, “Okay.”
While drying off after the shower I heard what I thought was a fan blowing but there isn’t a fan in my parents’ bathroom. I looked out the window to see if the wind was blowing. It was not.
Finally I thought, “Wait. Is that rain?”
So I looked out the bathroom door and indeed it was pouring – I mean totally down pouring outside. We had seen nothing on our weather app about rain.
And not only was it outright pouring but I could see from looking through the bathroom door and the outside door window that two of our car windows were down.
Sadly, I was naked, my 9-year-old doesn’t know how to turn the car on and my parents both have mobility issues so I had to let the car get soaked until I could finish getting dressed and get out there.
Little Miss helped me with rolling up the windows – well, she walked out with me and we both got soaked in the cold rain but she didn’t help roll the windows up in the end. The cold rain made her decide it was going to be much too cold to try go back into the pool so she changed and then helped Grandma make tuna melts for dinner, which I didn’t eat of because I am still a picky eater at my advanced age and don’t eat tuna melts. Thankfully I had picked up some fried chicken from the only supermarket in a 15-mile radius so that’s what I ate instead of tuna melts.
While at my parents I called The Boy and asked him to kill a spider that’s been running around on our ceiling for two days but Little Miss and I are too short to kill or chase off.
It’s a black one. Somewhat big but not huge. So, yes, on this day while we were at my parents and he was still at home I called and asked him to kill the spider on the ceiling.
He said, “What spider?”
I said, “The one on the ceiling.”
He said, “I don’t see a spider.”
I said, “He comes and goes.”
So he said, “This is the dumbest call you’ve ever made to me. You want to me to kill a spider but you don’t know where it is?”
So I said, “Yes, exactly. Do it before we get home so it doesn’t fall on our head. Bye.”
The end of this story is that the kids have named the spider Timothy and have decided to leave him alone on the ceiling. The problem with this ending is that I can’t find Timothy as I am writing this and if I find Timothy on me, I’m going to have to kill Timothy.
On this night I found an episode of Classic Mary Berry that I hadn’t seen yet and I was so excited. Mary Berry feels like comfy, cozy watching and Little Miss and I watch her especially in fall and winter.
I also found out there is a more recent series of hers on The Roku Channel so I will be starting that series later this week.
I felt like a total dork for getting so excited when I saw that I could access new episodes of her shows. You would have thought I found a bunch of money in my couch or something with the way I was clapping my hands and telling the children.
Little Miss was excited.
The Boy was less excited but that’s okay.
He politely listened to me, nodding and smiling like you would with a patient at an insane asylum.
Thursday
Update on Timothy: Today he moved to the part of the ceiling over where I sit to do my writing and then over Little Miss. I moved myself to somewhere else in the house when he was over my sitting space.
Little Miss, on the other hand, decided to whip him away when he came to her part of the room by whipping at him with a cat toy. He moved some but then decided to hang out on the wall instead of the ceiling. Little Miss decided he was getting too close for comfort so she was going to kill him.
She pulled out a broom but the end of our broom was missing so it was just a hollow tube. This meant Timothy might be able to climb inside and come out to get us later so we added some duct tape to the end. Then she slapped at him and he avoided every hit somehow by scurrying up and down the wall away from her. She finally hit him enough that he fell down behind the bookcase. I figured he would be on the floor crawling toward us, so suggested she spray flea spray behind and under the bookcase.
We hoped he was gone but later in the day we looked up and he was back, crawling across the ceiling again.
I’m now starting to wonder if he is a CIA spy, something I’ve been worried about happening ever since I found out our neighbor’s son has CIA clearance.
Friday
Today was a lovely day and I thought it might not be. I knew it was going to be a long day and it was, but somehow, I had energy to get everything done I needed to.
I drove 40 minutes to pick up a friend of Little Miss’s.
Little Miss had to go in and visit their kittens and I needed a potty break.
Then we left but not even a few yards down the road, Little Miss said her friend needed her teddy bear dressed in a frog outfit so I offered to turn around.
That was a dumb, rookie mistake because after the bear was retrieved we headed out again, only to be stopped by a construction worker who had set up between the time we turned around and came back.
Before we left the first time I noticed a helicopter hovering over the field in front of our friend’s house. There was something hanging down from the helicopter, which was near some power lines that have those large red balls or round thingees as I call them on them. The ones they put on power lines in spaces like that to let airplanes know that there are powerlines there. I thought the helicopter was replacing those and watched for a few moments.
When we got stopped I was grumpy and got even grumpier as the minutes ticked by. Twenty minutes later we were finally allowed to move forward on a road where we couldn’t turn around and there was no cell service.
That’s when I was able to see the helicopter moving up the hill to my left in a large space cut into the hillside where the powerlines go up and realized that the thingee hanging down from the helicopter that I had seen before (I use thingee a lot. I’m a writer, yes, but I’m old so that’s the word I use when I don’t want to try to think of the real word or look it up) was a type of saw and the helicopter was actually trimming the tree line.
I wish I had had time to take a photo or a video but by then there were a line of cars behind me and I just wanted to keep going forward to get our groceries, which we drove another half an hour to pick up.
After driving up and down hills and around bends in the road and admiring the views along the way, we grabbed our pick-up order and then drove another half an hour to get home – or to my parents anyhow.
I made these videos for Erin from Still Life, With Cracker Crumbs because she thinks I live in a super remote area … and she is right.
Once I got to my parents, I dropped off some groceries for them, picked up The Boy and left the girls with my parents and my brother who was visiting. The Boy and I took all the groceries in and then headed back to my parents to briefly say hello to my brother and take the girls for a 90-minute swim.
After that, it was back home for some pizza and Bluey and Minecraft and then Little Miss’s friend went home.
We weren’t sure we’d be able to swim again before summer was over for a variety of reasons – cold weather, algae, high chlorine, and rain, but today the weather was perfect and the pool was fairly warm until right before we decided to leave. It was nice we were able to get the swim in today because it is supposed to rain a lot on Saturday (today) and Sunday.
Little Miss wanted a sleepover tonight but I was strong this time and told her ‘no.’ It worked out well because she was overstimulated and glad for the ddowntimewhen her friend left and quickly fell asleep and we both were able to get up today and simply take our time waking up.
We do have one last summer sleepover planned for two weeks from now after The Husband takes Little Miss and her friend to the county fair.
School starts for The Boy this Thursday and for Little Miss on August 28.
Saturday (today)
Today the weather is gloomy but I don’t mind. I’m inside writing this blog post, my Sunday Bookends blog post for tomorrow, working on Gladwynn Grant Shakes the Family Tree, watching old movies, and planning to read a bit later on.
Little Miss and I are decompressing from the day’s events while The Husband covers some events for the newspaper throughout the day.
The Boy is enjoying sleeping in and lounging about for his final weekend before school starts. Timothy is still on the ceiling and has been enjoying the edges of the room more where I think he’s realized we can’t reach him easily.
So that is my very long post about my week.
How was your week? I’d love to know. Let me know in the comments by linking to a weekly round up post or just by letting me know.
Marsha, our leader, is on vacation right now so we will be sharing only our highlights for the week and when Marsha comes back we will share a round-up of all the most clicked from the three weeks she is gone. The hosts are excited for Marsha – well, not to speak for Sue or Melynda, but I think they are too – to go on this trip that she has been looking forward to and are looking forward to hearing all about it when she gets back.
I’m so glad you are here and taking part in our weekly link-up of family-friendly, fun, educational, interesting, crafty, fashionable, and whatever else posts. I hope you’ll tell your followers about our post (feel free to copy and paste the graphic) and visit the blogs in the link-up.
Now it is your turn to link up your favorite posts. They can be fashion, lifestyle, DIY, food, etc. All we ask is that they be family-friendly. You can link up posts from last week or even from years ago. We are always looking for additional hosts so let us know if you want to help out and we are also looking for more links from fashion bloggers so let your fashion bloggers know!
Also, please take the time to visit the other blogs on the link-up and meet some new bloggers!
