Joy

Oops! I forgot to post this earlier.  Better late than never

The 13th week of 2021 began with full blown spring. My neighborhood is filled with dogwoods, pear trees, azaleas, and iris in full bloom. When it is like this our entire neighborhood looks like an enchanted fairy land. It does not last a long time so you have to enjoy it before it is gone and replaced by high humidity and heat__lots of heat.

These are the joys for week 13:

Friday: When we moved everything from the lake place  I had kept our outdoor table and chairs separate from the furniture donations I made. My sister first said she wanted them, and I was more than happy to give them to her. Later she decided she could not use them because the table did not have a hole for her umbrella, so they stayed in the side driveway next to the house. One of our neighbors asked if they could buy them and we told them no__they could have them.  Friday I walked outside and noticed 4 tomato plants and a beautiful potted plant from them. It was totally unnecessary since I was just going to donate the table and chairs anyway, but certainly appreciated. The joy is not really getting the plants, but the joy is having wonderful neighbors.

Saturday: Saturday morning I had arranged to meet some people in front of a local piano dealership to give away some items that were left in Mom's house. My sister, unbeknownst to me, met me at Mom's to help load the things I had listed in our local "Buy Nothing Facebook Group" in my car.  We were thrilled to re-home Dad's stereo speakers, his tux, and my wedding dress. Plus we had fun just watching the people who were happy to get the items.

Later TheHub and I got out around mid afternoon and took a drive. All the dogwoods and azaleas are in bloom and the neighborhoods are just gorgeous.  There is a particular joy in just seeing how incredibly gorgeous spring can be. But achoo! The beauty comes with a yellow coating on everything!

Sunday: We had some overnight rain which was much needed to wash the first round of pollen away. We were even able to open the windows and doors for a bit. More pollen is sure to come, but most of the trees have already set their beginning leaves so much of the tree pollen has fallen. Next up is the grass pollen!

We were able to stream our church services and then have a Webex Sunday School class. I enjoy having "face to face" interaction with our friends.

Later Son2 and DIL2 came over to eat and watch the Alabama/UCLA basketball game. UCLA won. Roll Tide!

Monday: I woke to a drop dead postcard kind of day. The air was crisp, the skies a gorgeous blue, fresh spring green on all the trees___and a fresh coat of pollen. Other than the sky and trees everything else was yellow.

TheHub came in from work (late) and asked if I wanted to ride up to the bluff to see the sunset. The overlook we always choose is over a valley and now that the leaves are out, all you see is a golf course and trees. It's the perfect spot to watch the sun go down. And as usual it was beautiful, but we know to get a good spot you have to get there early. We go to a small bluff side restaurant that closed at 3. It has very limited parking and every pretty day the "watchers" outnumber the available parking spots. So we head out about 30 minutes ahead of time, and talk until the sun is gone and the brilliant red sky following sunset fades to purple. Talk about a cheap date!

Tuesday: Some days the isolation caused by this pandemic overwhelms me. That coupled with the amount of excess stuff I have here becomes suffocating. Tuesday was one of those days that almost got the best of me. I figured I might as well give in to it and at least be productive, so I spent the day in the laundry room cleaning, sorting, and creating yet another Goodwill box. Letting go of things that no longer serve my purposes feels very freeing.

Wednesday: I had intended to wake early and hit the ground running. I had made my grocery lists to do a round robin type of shopping and hit 4 stores in reverse geographical order to take advantage of each stores loss leaders. 

But sometimes the universe has other plans. The day was beyond gloomy. It was pouring down rain, I mean a true gully washer. I will do foolish things sometimes, but I am never stupid enough to go shopping in the pouring rain if it is not absolutely necessary. Besides a bad weather day is always a perfect day for reading, right? Unless the universe decides you need to do something else.

I went into the laundry room to take something out of the freezer to thaw for dinner when I noticed water, lots of water all over the floor. The freezer had screwed up and was thawing. Instead of spending the day reading, I quickly put all my meats, fowl, and fish in insulated bags, ran them to my sister's house to stick them in her freezer, the came home ( soaking wet, I might add) to deal with the mess. About 5 hours later, lots of work, clean up, thawing and monkeying with the freezer, it was totally defrosted, up and running, and restocked. I did lose a small amount of foods but fortunately only the top shelf and stuff on the freezer door had thawed completely. Frozen fruits were on the top shelf so I had to cook a huge pot of mixed berries. Looks like I will be making jam in a couple of days.

Additionally I had to revamp the menu plans to salvage some partially thawed meats.  Oh well, spaghetti and tacos for Easter maybe?

Thursday: The day was as beautiful as Wednesday had been gloomy.  The rain and winds moved some of the pollen along, so everything looked even more gorgeous, though it was a little too cool to be outside enjoying the beauty. 

Normally I would have begun the day by going grocery shopping, but I had a refrigerator filled with formerly frozen things that had to be incorporated into the immediate meal plans, so there was no reason to go shopping until some of the foods were eaten.  I guess the joy was being able to delay shopping for at least another day, but we are going to have to eat some very disjointed meals for a bit.

So go and find your joy for the 14th week. It is always there, even if it is well hidden!