Always a Good Day!

And, the day that is always a good day is...hair cut day! I got my hair cut this morning. Had fun telling Jody about my cruise. I came home and took care of some business over the phone. By thwt time it was lunch and then time to go to church to work in the library with Donna...another reason it was a good day! We always enjoy getting together. We did maintenance and then visited and got to show her some of my photos and tell her about my cruise. I have managed to get all the angels down from "on high." They are now patiently waiting on the dining room table for me to get them boxed up. Each time I was upstairs today, I brought down some boxes that Christmas ornaments are stored in...so preparing for the next phase of undecorating. I am seeing a light at the end of the tunnel, but still lots to do before the Christmas closet doors get closed until this coming November I just can't keep "at it" the way I used to be able to...my back protests lots sooner than it used to! A funny thing happened just a few minutes ago...today I have been taking care of some of the charitable gifts that I am going to give this year. One was to my college, Cottey. The phone rang about the time that I was heading to get my iPad so I could blog, and the caller ID stated that it was Cottey College. They were calling to ask for a donation. I told them "done and done" as of this morning! Easy call for her! These calls from the school are always very nice, as the students are the callers and they are interested in Cottey back when! We had a nice short chat. She is a freshman from France and enjoying Cottey. So that was a fun part of the day...especially since I had already made my decision and done my donation. Another, not so nice, part of this day is that another squirrel has fallen down my chimney...that's the second one this year! (insert eye roll!) Nathan removed the last one in a body bag shortly after we returned from the cruise. I wish that squirrels would stop visiting my chimney! I'll bet they regret visiting it after they fall in and find no way to escape! I feel bad...but...I'm settling in for the night. I am planning to take the last few stitches in the Christmas ornament I'm working on...soon to be the first ornament finished for gifting in 2026! To be continued! Be safe! Be well! Be cautious!

Ground Hog Day 2026

I have no idea if the ground hog saw his shadow or not today. I do know that the extreme cold temperatures left us today and it "almost" felt warm! It actually got to 48° this afternoon and tonight is only supposed to get into the upper 20s overnight. Compared to the last couple of weeks it almost seems like a heat wave! (Not really, but...) Tonight's photo is a glimpse of the highlight for some in our family of our cruise…the spotting of a sea turtle. I did manage to get a photo of it sticking it's head out of the water. Kathy got a really good video of it with her phone. I've had a pretty good day today...stayed busy. I did manage to get all the snowmen and trees packed away in boxes. Now I have to get the angels down from "on high." "On high" meaning on top of the china cabinet. I have gotten angels and a nativity scene out of the china cabinet. These items are taking the place of the trees and snowmen on the dining room table. I hope that perhaps by tomorrow I will have all of Christmas that is downstairs, except for the big tree, all boxed up and upstairs. I took Christmas serving pieces upstairs a while back. They are on the bed in Melany's former room, and, I still have to get them into boxes. That can wait a bit. I will feel better once the downstairs is cleared of Christmas...then I can concentrate on the tree. I still haven't found all the everyday decorations…so more boxes to go through. I managed to get all trees and snowmen into three boxes…so they will be together when I decorate with them next. I'm hoping to use less boxes this year. This morning I also did some cooking. I made Sweet 'n Sour Pork and enjoyed it for a late lunch. I stayed in till this evening when I went to The Furnace Room Prayer meeting. I'm home and ready to settle in for the night. I think that I feel like doing some stitching. I'm closing in on finishing my first stitched Christmas ornament for this year. To be continued! Be safe! Be well! Be cautious!

Sunday Favorite

Bidding Farewell to January

Today the trmperatures dropped back down and it is once again extremely cold. Currently it is 18° with a windchill of 3°! Brrrrrrrrrr! I have stayed inside all day today. I have done a little cleaning...ran the vacuum and put some things away that I had brought downstairs over the last couple of days. I did manage to get more decorations into boxes to store till this coming Christmas...the Carolers are all back in storage boxes and on the guest bed. I also packed up a box of my decorative trees. There is still quite a forest on my dining room table and also quite a group of snowmen, but the table does have a few less things on it. And the table in the living room was clear for a time once the Carolers were put away. But I had to out some Hunmels on th table, as I don't have the little shelf back downstairs where they go. I will probably wait to bring that down till the big tree goes down, as the shelf will be in the way of me walking around the tree to get decorations off. I made a new soup recipe today...it was "okay," but probably not a keeper. It was vegetarian barley soup. It has chopped up kale in it and I'm not a fan of kale...probably should have substituted spinach. I decided to only make a half recipe in case I didn't care for it, and I'm glad that I only made a few bowls of it. I managed to finish another book today...so am only one behind for January after not reading much during the month...but am glad that I read some in three books which made it possible to get them finished. I plan to stitch tonight. To be continued! Be safe! Be well! Be cautious! And, keep warm if you are in the cold parts of our country!

A More Successful Day…I Think!

Tonight, I'm posting a photo of the back of our MSC ship, the Grandiosa. Kathy drew a red square around the balcony we believe was Joy's and my balcony. This photo also shows the Malta flag that is flown on this ship. I cropped a photo so it can be seen better. The following is an explanation of why this flag was chosen: "The MSC Grandiosa flies the Malta merchant flag primarily for financial and regulatory advantages, commonly known as a "flag of convenience". Malta offers lower taxes, reduced operating costs, and flexible regulations for international ship registration, making it an attractive, reputable, and stable choice for large cruise companies to register their vessels." We really enjoyed our room...it was fun to watch the ship be guided into the docking areas...it was "backed" in so we could watch it being tied to the dock. I have some good photos of the men working to secure us to the docks. From this balcony we had good views of where we were tied up. I really enjoyed a couple of hours taking pictures from our balcony...using different lenses and settings. Now to bring you up to date on my passport/birth certificate saga. I think that all is completed on the birth certificate form and now all I have to do is wait for it to come in the mail. I got an email telling me the next steps...which was to print a form, take it to be notorized, and then photograph it and upload it onto the site. Once I did that I got the word that all was complete. I am very thankful for my Credit Union having notary service as one of offerings at no exoense. I have loaded a couple more boxes with Christmas decorations and taken them upstairs. I have organized the dining room table with snowmen on one part, trees on another, and then a small area with misc. items. Hopefully that will help when I start putting thrm into boxes. I haven't gotten to those boxes yet. I did a little general cleaning today, too. Unfortunately there are other things to do besides just undecorating! I did finish another book last night. And, I am closing in on another...I may get this one done before the end of the day tomorrow...then I will have read three books...only one book under my book a week goal! I have been able to finish these books as I had started them sometime back and one got taken away from me before I got it finished...it became available again so it was an easy finish. The one I am reading now I checked out from the church library some time ago...so have a good start on that one, too. I got a call from the public library yesterday saying that they had a book that I had requested. It is February's book for my Cottey bookclub. It is Jimmy Carter's Palestine:Peace not Apartheid...may not be an easy read! Though, I had checked it out around Christmas and found it not as hard to read as I expected. But I just wasn't into reading a book I needed to concentrate on so much right at Christmas. So I will give it another go now and see if I can get it read in the next three weeks! My reading has taken me away from my stitching. I'm not sure if I will read or stitch tonight. To be continued! Be safe! Be well! Be cautious!

Effort Foiled!

My main goal of the day was to apply for my passport. That effort came to a screeching halt because I don¡t have the proper birth certificate...HAS to have my parents names and places of birth on it. I have a cerrified copy of my birth certificate with raised seal, date filed, etc. Bit it "only" has my name and date and place of birth on it. Thankfully that one was accepted for the cruise! I found this requirement in the fine print and made every attempt to locate mine, ut to no avail. In that fine print it also said that if you have a news article or insurance proof with parents names that could be used. I have those in a scrapbook that Mother made. But I was told at the Post Office that those would be accepted only if there was no way to get a birth certificate...and since I had the one that I did that I can order one. I will say, as an aside, I have a birth certificate with parents names and birth places for Woody, Melany, and Nathan...but not for me...and, I have no recollection of ever seeing a birth certificate for me like that. BUT in this scrapbook there is a postcard with information for the way my parents could order such a birth certificate...so I am guessing that such existed at one time, anyway. So I came home and began the process of ordering a certified birth certificate with parents names and places of birth on it. I "thought" that I had opened up the AZ government site to order such...but later realized that I was on a third party site...when I got a "possible fraud charge" from my Credit Union. I still thought that I was on the AZ site and went on and told them that the charge was okay. But as things began to slow down in the ordering process...I got to thinking. I did check and the site that I somehow managed to get on was a legit site...I checked back with the Credit Union and they gave me the ohone number to this company and I decided to call before I blocked my account. Aftrr talking to them, I did feel better...think that I will end up getting it, but at probably a higher cost than necessary! Oh, well...ive and learn! We will continue with this saga until my official document is in my hands. Waiting at thr moment for the official approval and then I will have to sign and then it should be sent. I can¡t take may days like this! I'm exhausted. I did end up making mvegetable broth...still in the process of letting it simmer. Needed some for a new soup recipe and also wouldn't mind having some in the freezer. It's about at the end of its simmering time and then let it cool some before putting it in the rerigerator for the night. I think that I moved a couple of Christmas items from one place to another, but that is about it for today. To be contiued! Be safe! Be well! Be cautious!

Out and About…Again!

We are pretty much back to seasonal wearher and temperatures here in Tullahoma...not the extremes...others not too far from us are not as lucky as we...Nashville is in pretty bad shape. Today I drove the car for the first time since Friday. We had Bible study tonight. I am home and had a nice hot bowl of potato soup after I got home...to warm up. It got up to 32° today and is 27° currently...so not having a heatwave! But in comparison to the last few days of teens with feels-like temps in the single digits...today was better! One of my accomplishments of the day had nothing to do with putting away decorations, as a matter of fact I only did a little putting away today. But I did manage to make an appointment at our local Post Office to apply for a passport. I set it up for late morning tomorrow. I had already gotten everything together that I understand that I need. Today I organized the items...made copies of originals...and, wrote checks to the Postmaster and the Department of State. I "hope" that all is in order and it will be an easy process. For some reason I was really tired this afternoon...so a nap was in order. It was good to get out and see friends at church this evening, but also good to ge back in for the rest of the evening. I did read some today and managed to finish my first book of the year. I just haven't been in a reading mood...so starting out behind in my usual goal of one book a week! Oh, well, that goal isn't written in stone! This evening I plan to stitch or read. To be continued! Be safe! Be well! Be cautious!