It's running away from me

Like I do normally, this is a list of the joys I found during the week. I said I was going to be more conscious of the joys I experience, and being my typical self my, intent only lasted a couple of days. Oh well!

We have just ended the 40th week of the year. It is hard for me to believe there are only 12 weeks until the end of the year. I don't know why, because it seems like the weeks between October the first and the end of the year fly by. But this year everything has zoomed past me.

 Sunday: Usually Sunday mornings are a mad dash.We have a quick cup of coffee before getting ready for church running out the door with just enough time to get there before things begin.  Last week was a little different. We woke much earlier than normal for a Sunday. 

TheHub had a mid-morning flight to Denver. I was to take him to the airport and we planned on leaving about the time we would normally leave for church. He had not packed his suitcase the night before and needed to get his things together. All I had to do was throw on some clothes and clip my hair up. Consequently, while waiting for him to get ready, I had quite a bit of time to have a couple of cups of coffee while sitting at the kitchen table and admiring daybreak. 

I kept seeing something shiny in the sky a couple of houses from mine and at first I could not figure out what it might be. Finally it dawned on me. My 15 year old neighbor had a disco cowboy birthday party with 40 or so of her nearest and dearest friends Saturday night. A mylar balloon had escaped the bunch from the arrangement on her patio and was caught in a tree in her yard.  It had enough ribbon attached to it so it soared about 3 feet above the top of the tree, moving about as the wind caught it. 

It made me happy to watch it for a bit as the reflection from the sun changed from a light rose to a bright silver.

Son2 , DIL2, and their houseguest M (also a participant at my happy place) brought their lunch and came over for a visit.  As always, I love seeing them.

Finally since TheHub was out of town I had the house to myself___no cooking and I could watch whatever I wanted. I love things related to WW2 and watched "The Trial of Axis Sally". It was about the treason trial of Mildred Gillars who hosted a radio program, part of the Nazi war propaganda, aimed at American G.I.'s. I really did enjoy it and it was something TheHub would not want to watch.

Monday: No one but me was at home so there was no ambient noise to wake me. I slept until I naturally woke and though it was a later start to my day than is normal, the sleep felt wonderful. I got started on my to-do list then my adult ADD stepped in when I thought “ Why bother to finish cleaning the kitchen when you can find much more interesting things to do like look through a large plastic Jack O’Lantern filled with crayons. I had no idea we had so many of them that no one here will ever use again. But evidently it was much more important for me to sort my Crayola inventory than it was to mop the kitchen floor.

I ended the night with the tv remote in hand watching "The Mouse That Roared". It is an old campy Peter Sellers movie that I had not seen in decades. Though not a great movie, I thoroughly enjoyed it, without any disdainful comments from the peanut gallery.

Tuesday: I first attacked the laundry room, then got the guest room ready for the next houseguest. I had to look through my soap stash and see if I had a few bars of small soaps. We have several people coming to stay with us this month and I do like to have fresh soaps for each guest, but I am not about to put full size bars out. 

And speaking of looking through my stash, once into my various bins I decided to have a spa night since I was here by myself. The self indulgence felt really nice and did not interfere with anyone or anything. 

Wednesday: I guess I was feeling so pampered from the spa night that I slept better than usual and woke butt early. (At least butt early for me.  I rarely am awake at 5) I had a cup of coffee while listening to my morning play list. The temperature was wonderful and I could have had that first cup of coffee on the porch, but it was still dark so I nixed that idea.

There was a long time between the early waking and my Wednesday class time which I filled doing a little writing, reading and laundry. Reading and writing are joyful activities, but the only thing joyful about laundry was having it done!

After class I ran to the grocery store then headed to the airport to pick up TheHub. I am old enough to remember times before cell lots at the airport and what a joy that they are available now. I rolled down the windows of the car while I read and waited for TheHub to call and let me know he was by the curb.

I was very glad he was home. I enjoyed my "vacation" but really did enjoy having someone to talk to at night.

Thursday: I had a wonderful, but all too short visit with my good friend M. We decided to do the Santa letters again this year, but do them on a smaller scale.

TheHub and I went to the annual Greek Food Festival. There were throngs of folks there. I know I live in the south and there is a perception that everything everywhere is separated, however it was wonderful to see all the different cultures from the surrounding area enjoying the foods and customs of the local Greek community. 

I personally love getting to see the dancers. I was able to see some of the younger (elementary age) dancers as well as those from what I am guessing was middle school age. (My guess was based on the fact that the gals were several inches taller than all of the guys except for one, which kind of reflects the growth rate of middle school aged kids)

Friday: I had a pretty normal day at home. It was a little overcast, and  the temps were so much cooler I actually had to wear a tee shirt with sleeves along with my shorts and flip flops. 

Because TheHub had been out of town and the fact that we had food from places other than home Wednesday and Thursday night, we decided to stay at the house. That is very unusual for us on Friday night, for it is our normal "date" night. 

Instead I actually cooked before we watched the movie "Reptile". There were parts of it that I did not particularly like, such as the way it was filmed, and it was a little hard to follow sometimes, but the story line was great.

Saturday: We woke and did a little running around, before settling in for a partial day of football. There is a small restaurant fairly near our house that is in the middle of the errands we were going to run. It had 3 tv's with different games showing on all three. We stopped in for a quick bite to eat and watched part of the early games, but we had to be back at the house for the Alabama/A&M game. TheHub  we might have been arrested for all the yelling he did at the tv. We were excited that Bama won, because it could have gone either way.

After the game we had to drive about 50 miles to a funeral home. One of TheHub's former co-workers passed away after a long illness, and he felt he needed to go pay his respects to her family. 

I did not know her family, but rode with him so he would not be making the trek alone. There was 45 minutes of discussion, both to and from the visitation. Sometimes it is nice to be contained with nothing to do but talk.

Have a great week looking for your joys not matter how small or large they are. They are always out there.

May all your weeds be wildflowers.

Anne