Little Joys are still Joys

This was a week when I was home for the most part. I had few places I needed to go and even fewer I wanted to. Even so there are sill joys each and every week____plus March Madness began and it is truly the only time I really enjoy basketball.

Sunday: We woke and got to church a little early in spite of the time change. Because Alabama, was playing basketball in the SEC tournament final we made a beeline home, stopping only to pick up a couple of salads from Taziki's.

While we were watching the game (I mainly listened) I began prepping the laundry room for defrosting the freezer. For the first time ever TheHub actually helped. He was a little surprised it was such an involved job and immediately started lobbying for a frost free freezer. Not happening, at least until this freezer breathes its last breath.

The big joy is a clean and inventoried freezer. I still have entirely too much food.

Monday: This was not a particularly memorable day, but I did accomplish a few things.

I got to see DIL3's video she is using to apply for NPR's tiny desk series. It is from her soon to be released album and I thought I would share it with y'all. (See video above) I love her!

One of my aims for 2023 is to physically have my hands on every single item in the house, straightening and cleaning as I go and getting rid of every single thing that non longer serves us.

Monday was a clean out a couple of shelves in the laundry room type of day, clean out the aux. fridge that is also there, then migrated to the master bath. 

The bath is separated into 3 parts, a large walk in closet and the toilet shower area with a vanity /dressing area between the two. The vanity has 2  cabinets under the sinks with 6 drawers in the middle of those. I got all of those emptied, sorted and put back in place or combined with like products. I wonder why we have so many duplicates of so many things. (Points finger at both TheHub and me) I also wonder why I don't use a lot of these on a regular basis. I counted 23 face masks, bottle after bottle of lotions and potions, and if there is ever a run on Band-aids or my knife skills tank, we are safe!

Tuesday: TheHub leaves for the office butt early and generally does not wake me if I am still asleep. Most days I wake right as I hear the click when he locks the deadbolt as he is leaving. Tuesday he woke me much before that, 

 It seems our neighborhood was crawling with police with dogs, followed by a helicopter, and about 10 cop cars from a couple of other police districts. In the wee hours of the morning a couple of car thieves were helping themselves to anything they found in cars. Most houses here have a two car garage in the basement, but a lot of people just park in their driveways, making it an easy target for a quick robbery I guess. 

The police were called and they caught the getaway driver, but one or two suspects fled on foot, hence all the police activity. This was probably the most excitement our local police department has had in a long time, so there might have been a bit of overkill.

Wednesday: TheHub wanted me to go shopping with him for tennis shoes. Of course he wanted to go to the outlet mall instead of just a regular store like Academy or Dick's. 

We have been married long enough that I knew once we got there he would Shanghi me and we would have to go look at more things for him. 

Our first stop was Merril's and he breezed through it then decided he wanted to go to the Sketcher's store. But as luck would have it they had a huge selection of shoes greatly reduced in the back of the store, and my size was loaded with options. 

I suggested he go to the other stores while I browsed the sale rack. Joy! The mall was closing in less than an hour, he ran wherever he wanted to go, while I tried on shoe after shoe. When he got back to Merril's I had 3 different pairs on the counter. After he bought the one pair he was interested in, their special buy one pair at regular price get a second and third pair half off applied to my selections so I walked out with $14, $23, and $39 dollar shoes. Super deal considering their original cost. 

When we were through shopping we rode by Local Roots and picked up our dinner. Hail Caesar (salad)

Thursday: The NCAA basketball tournament started and I began the day with my brackets filled out. TheHub and I do it every year and every year mine is busted on day one. I know absolutely nothing about basketball except scoring requires the ball to go through the basket. When it comes to picking possible winners I am clueless, and by the end of opening day it showed.

I had several items that needed to be hemmed (I am not as tall as I pretend to be), so I watched basketball while I shortened pants. Kim, I wish you had been here, but kind of glad you weren't so you would not see my workmanship.

Once TheHub arrived home we watched games until later at night.  Most teams that enter the tournament should pay me not to pick them to win!

Friday: Happy St. Patrick's Day. I will admit we did not celebrate unless you consider our dinner a celebration.  I did paint buy fingernails green in homage to the spirit of the day, but other than that it was a heavy basketball day. I love March Madness!

Saturday: TheHub took my car to the dealership for its checkup and I picked him up  and we headed home until it had its annual checkup (most things are still under warranty) 

Ack!!! It was cold outside. I declared it a personal foul since we have been seeing 70-80 degree weather.

 Once we got home and had a cup of coffee, TheHub decided it would be a good day to scrub our shower. It is funny that he decided that, since I am the one who does it, and I do not like to do chores like that on a Saturday. So I sprayed the shower with cleaner and started on the rest of the bathroom. Meanwhile he cleaned the 2/3 of our walk in closet that he occupies.

So as of Saturday afternoon every single item in our bath and vanity area  and also 2/3 of our closet had been touched, relocated, tossed or placed in a donation bag. It is a small dent in the overall house, but progress is progress.

After all the cleaning was done we both got ready to run a few errands and pick up my car.

Then we made it home in time for an afternoon/evening/night filled with basketball. I rarely hope Auburn wins, but I was cheering for them and thought they would win until the last few minutes of the game.

And that is the joys (mostly small joys)  that I had for the week. I am counting progress as a joy and hope that April will bring a lot of joy getting every single item in this house either in its proper place or gone. We are on the downhill side of the mountain and I don't want to leave so much stuff for someone else to have to deal with.

Look for your joys no matter how small. They are out there!

May all your weeds be wildflowers,

Anne