Beautiful end to a wonderful day.

Yesterday was a beautiful spring day. Warm, sunny and just a hint of a breeze. A day like this makes the spirit soar. The forecast calls for the weekend days to be in the 60’s with a chance of must needed rain Saturday morning. This sunset was a way to end a perfect spring day. We are spending Saturday and Sunday with family.

Wishing all of you and your families a blessed and Happy Easter. Enjoy.

Rose

Spring has sprung

I think spring has finally arrived in Iowa. Or at least it is trying harder. This is the view out my sunroom this morning. So beautiful. 

When I stepped out to try and capture that beauty, I was greeted by singing birds. They were enjoying the sunrise, too. I don’t get to see many sunrises from my sunroom. During the winter it is cloudy most days and in late spring till fall, the leaves on the trees block my view. But I am thankful for those leaves. They keep our house cool and most summers, we don’t have to us the A.C. a lot.

Take time to enjoy the beauty around you.

Rose

Fire at the Easter Vigil Mass

Hubby and I decided to go to the city this morning for a few groceries. We went early in time to be home to watch our favorite team play basketball. We, also, went early to beat the Sunday after church crowds. That got us talking about our Easter plans this year. I thought I was having Easter this year, but daughter no.1 decided to have it on Easter Sunday. She is more centrally located. That in itself is going to be different. We always have Easter on Holy Saturday so that everyone can go to their own church for Easter Sunday. So that left us two options. Go to the Easter Vigil Mass on Holy Saturday at 7 p.m. or the Easter  Sunday Mass at 8 a.m. Neither option sounded that appealing for us. Easter Vigil Mass is usually an hour and half, making it near 9 p.m. before we get home. But getting up and being to church by 7:30 a.m. didn’t sound so fun either. We decided since we are to be in Des Moines, a couple of hours away Easter around 11, we better go the Easter Vigil Mass.  Boy, I better get to where I was going with this post. Talking about what to do, got hubby and I talking about the Easter Vigil Mass in the past. As you know, we have four daughters all born within 5 years. All had long hair as little girls. And our church always passes out candles to all attending that are lit during the early part of the Mass. Our girls were fascinated with fire like most kids. I would spend that part of Mass watching and worrying about one of them going up in flames. The good Lord was with us and a million other little kids over the years, because I have never heard of a case of injury. I am sure I will have flash backs to those Masses of long ago this year when we attend the Easter Vigil on Saturday.

Enjoy the day,

Rose

Time in kitchen-not so bad.

The carpet cleaning yesterday took a little over three hours. The fellow was done around 1:00. Two things, actually three good things about the morning, the carpet looks great, I got some work done on items for my TPT store and we went out for lunch. We had the room back together by 6, in time to watch the Iowa Hawkeyes play in the NIT tournament. And they won. So, all and all a very good day. And the carpet looks so good. I think we can put off new carpet for a while longer. But for some reason, the day made me tired. I think part of it was sitting around so much and part of it was the work of putting the house back together. I always seem to work harder on days when the daycare kids aren’t here. NCAA tournament starts this morning at 11, and in case you haven’t noticed, I am big college basketball fan. I think I will spend the afternoon watching basketball.

Rose

Trapped in the kitchen

I will be spending my day off in the kitchen. No, I won’t be cooking. I will be stuck there because the carpets are being cleaned today. Hubby thought we should get new carpet but I didn't  want the hassle of cleaning out two rooms full of furniture. I figured it would be a bit easier to have them cleaned and then decide if we can get by or replace them come fall. Well, a bit easier is the key phrase. Emptying the living room of all but the heavy pieces was a bit more time consuming then I realized. I have a lot of stuff. Four side tables and one coffee table, none of them light as feathers. Plus a couple of big plants, three lamps and a stereo. Oh my. I am thinking some of that might not make it back in. Thank goodness we have a sunroom to put things in. We had planned on spending the day there, too. But Mother Nature didn’t get the memo. This morning we going to empty the toy room. We figured while we had the carpet guy here, we just as well have the toy room cleaned. That should be fun. Wonder what “missing” toys I will find when I start moving things. I have a couple of hours before he gets here. I should get busy but I decided to enjoy at least a part of this day in peace and quiet. We all know that having carpets cleaned isn’t quiet.

Rose

Oh my, they are back.

Finally took the snowmen wreaths off the doors. One reason, spring is about here. Or so the calendar says. Still plenty of snow on the ground and it has turned cold again. Another reason, the robins are back. Last week’s snow didn’t scare them off. I know they are the harbinger of spring but for me they are the harbinger of other things. I find them a bit of a nuisance. Did you know that robins will make their nests just about anywhere? They particularly love the wreaths on my doors.  Last year I had to take down a nest a few times each day. Robins are very determined birds. And did you know they will dive at you as you are taking down those nests. I now hang wrought iron type wreaths. The one on the front door say’s WELCOME and the one on the back door has birds and bells. Nothing to attach a nest to.

But you know what the enterprising robins did last year after I took down their nest various times? Decided the top of the light fixture was a good place. Mud and sticks and long pieces of grass everywhere. So I wrapped mesh screening on the fixture and that worked. Let it up for this year. But now those robins have found the suet feeder and have decided that it is very tasty. So now, between the squirrels and robins on the suet feeder, the woodpeckers hardly get a change to eat. You would think with their long beaks they could take care of the problem themselves. 

Have a relaxing weekend.

Rose

Just one of those days.

Today has been one of those days. I had a mental list of things I wanted to get done on my day off. A blog post was one the first items on that list. That one I am attempting now. I got off to a fair start this morning. Paid some bills on line. Cleaned up the emails that I tend to let pile up. Answered the ones that needed answered, forwarded the few I thought funny and hit the delete button on most. But before I could start my blog post, hubby decided we should do something.  Like go out for coffee. I said, No Way. I can drink coffee here at home. He thought it would be fun to shock everyone with our appearance. The local café is very busy between 9 and 10:30 a.m. every day with all the local retired people meeting for morning coffee and local news. One time, when my girls were very little, I hired a sitter and a friend and I checked out the morning coffee hour at the local café. What an experience. Everyone and everything was fair game for the gossip part of morning coffee. We were so bored and wanted to leave but we knew if we left before the others, we would be the topic of the gossip. So there we sat. Waiting and waiting for most to leave so that we could. After that, I said “never again”. I prefer to drink my coffee here at home. I have TV, my computer and my morning paper for company. Oh and hubby. So back to my list and getting things done. I sat around most the morning, enjoying the time off. About the time I did feel a like attempting a post for my blog, white smoke came out of the Vatican chimney. So I sat and waited with the rest of the world to see who our new Pope would be.  After that, I chatted with daughter no. 4 via Facebook. Made a pot of chili for supper and now I am finally going to be able to cross off one item on that mental list. A blog post.

Have a relaxing evening. 

 God bless the Pope.

Rose