The Week in the Mirror

Wow, can any of you believe we have just completed the 14th week of 2021? For me, this entire year so far has been pretty much a repeat performance of 2020. Well, at least from March of 2020 onward. It has been like coming home with a new born when the days feel long but the weeks slip by. The difference in this year though is the hope that things will get better after vaccinations are available for everyone.  Hope in itself is a reason for joy!

And speaking of joy, these are the highlights of 2021's 14th week

Friday: Another gorgeous, yet chilly day! You have to understand chilly is relative and for my Southern blood, any day with an overnight low below freezing is chilly, even if the highs are near 55.  By this time of year , I am wearing capris or shorts and flip flops. A drop in the temperature and having to wear a sweater is a serious disruption in the force!  Luckily I have learned to leave out one sweater and one sweatshirt when I change over my winter to summer duds. (I live in Alabama where there is no such animal as spring and fall clothing. I do however, keep a single pair of jeans out year round which sit in a drawer, untouched mid-May through late September.) 

Friday night I bundled up to brave the cold (OK I wore a sweater, jeans and socks) and TheHub and I went to Aldi and Costco, because we are lame people looking to do anything but still limiting our exposure to Covid, even though we are both fully vaccinated know how to have a good time. 

Saturday: More gorgeous weather was the name of the game. It was still a tad on the chilly side but the flora and fauna declare it was  full on spring. Since it was so beautiful we  decided to take a little business road trip. 

When we sold the lake place the new owners bought the pontoon but did not want the bass boat. We had taken it to a boat dealership near the lake to have it tuned up. Meanwhile I listed it on a local FB boat site, and had it sold just as the tune up was done, I was thrilled to find out it was a dad with his 13 year old son who bought it. We met them there and the deal was done. The kid was grinning from ear to ear and when I asked him to send me a picture of the first fish he caught from the boat, he told me I could expect it after his first cast on his first fishing trip Sunday afternoon. I am beyond happy, both to be rid of the boat and mainly that it goes with a kid!

Sunday: It was Easter and a bit different than our normal Easter. Instead of going to services, we streamed them, and instead of going to Sunday School we had our Webex class meeting, but both were a great alternative to having nothing. Afterward TheHub helped me move a couple of things that I needed some help with ( When did I get so old that I had to have help moving a king size bed? I used to be able to use my pack mule body to maneuver almost anything.) and then we settled soon to do our own thing until we had our big Easter salvage dinner__spaghetti and salad, If nothing else it was a weirdly memorable holiday!

Monday:  It was another boring day in paradise and I just hung out around the house doing generic house cleaning (I have still made little inroads with the lake mess in the basement, but it is out of sight and I am pretending it does not exist) 

TheHub called on his way home from work and asked if I would like to ride to the bluff and watch the sun set.  We got there a little late and parking was a bit of an issue, but we finally found a place to sit and talk while we watched the sky change from blue to orange to violet. Once the pollen settles a little we will grab dinner from the restaurant across the street, sit at the picnic tables right on the bluff and have a sun set dinner.

Tuesday: Road Trip!  Any other year I would have just called it going to the store, but this was a "we are fully vaccinated so let's go to Trader Joe's and explore the store" trip. I have been to TJ's only one other time since the pandemic began and I was in and out in less than 10 minutes. My Beloved Sister and I went together  and really did enjoy the outing. Then we ran by a take out place, grabbed lunch, came to my house to eat, then ran to Mom's. While we were there we decided to officially put the house on the market, and begin showing it after the last donation truck comes on Monday.

Wednesday: I listed the house on a community Facebook site and got a good bit of reactions to the coming showing. We are going to try to sell it by owner first and if that doesn't work we have chosen an agent to list it. 

Later TheHub called to see if I would go out to eat at one of the local restaurants with outdoor dining options. I agreed with the condition that the patio dining was not over crowded. We drove around for almost an hour and struck out at every place. There are many places with dining set up, but they were all filled to capacity and that was a deal killer for me. Instead we went to a little pho place and grabbed something to take home. It was delicious and I got to sit at my own table without others breathing in my space. (Yes, I am still being overly cautious and probably will be for a while until there is more data.)

Thursday: My Beloved Sister and I went to Mom's to start the knocking off the final to-do's before we begin showing the house. I will admit it looks really good and even though it has not been lived in for almost a year, we are in and out of it daily so other than being empty and having that echo sound that empty rooms have, the house does not feel or smell like it has been sitting unoccupied this long. 

We got a lot done and plan to go back each day through Monday to do a little more sprucing up, put some flowers in pots, hang a fern or two and fill the hummingbird feeder to make it look like a happy home. I hope it will sell (quickly) to someone who loves it as much as Mom did.

And that is the not nearly complete list of joys that happened during the week, but it is at least some of them. The others are just the routine things that make me happy, like seeing rabbits hopping through the yard, or beautiful birds, or hearing my new neighbors toddlers playing outside. Life is filled with joys as long as I look for them.

Have a great week 15 and find you joys!