Day 67 of 365

Today is Mother's Day. But since we celebrated on Thursday when my daughter was home, today isn't Mother's Day for me.

My husband never has been one to celebrate it with me. When my daughter was young, Mother's Day often went by unnoticed. His belief is that the child should be the doing/ buying for the mother, so until my daughter got old enough and had some money, I knew not to expect the day to be anything special. I'm sure there are other men that feel the same way, but I also know there are other men who, no matter how young the child is, celebrate the day with their wives.

So today is a plain ole' day for me. My daughter did call this morning to wish me happy Mother's Day. And I called my mom. She and her good friend Nona had a wonderful - and sugar filled - time eating the treats I sent her way. She even sent me a picture of the remains of their feast and I'm posting it here today. (Although when I spoke to her this morning, she let me know the goodies have now all been devoured.)

In looking for my picture for today, I decided on a single red rose. We don't have any of our roses blooming yet, but the new climbing rose we planted this week is blooming.

So for all the moms out there, here's a rose and a wish for a Happy Mother's Day!

And to my mom, Happy Mother's Day. Here's her picture of the leftovers (what little there is) for all to see! (Remember what it looked like on Day 65?)

Exercise update: 21 for 21. That's 3 weeks straight!

Day 66 of 365

What a day today was.

Our poor kitty. She didn't come in last night. Lately she's been staying inside when we're inside and going outside when we go outside. She was out with us yesterday, but wasn't around when we went back in. She doesn't wander too far, so we figured she'd show up again at some point. By night time, she still hadn't popped up. Sometimes she finds a good sleeping spot and stays there so we still weren't too worried. Early this morning she was at the door and hubby let her in. I didn't see her until I got up and noticed she was covered in mud and leaves. And she had a bit of a limp. (I guess hubby missed this?) I cleaned her up, she ate and drank a bit and then headed downstairs to sleep. I checked on her and she seems fine except she's still favoring one leg over the other. There's been a tomcat around the last couple nights, so I have a feeling she might have tussled with him (she's fixed though). I'll be keeping a close eye on her. She doesn't appear to be in pain, but maybe a vet trip is in the very near future.

Then we spent a couple hours trying to get our irrigation pump working. Now that the garden is planted and we only have water in the ditch Thursday-Sunday it's important we get it going. We put in a new sprinkler system last year, but this year it's not wanting to start up. Finally hubby got it going for a few minutes, but then it went out again. We may need to be making an (expensive) call to the sprinkler guy.

When we gave up on the sprinklers, I went to check out the strawberry bed. There are blooms! But there are also weeds. Too many for that pretty bed. I may be out tackling those in the next few days.

After looking at the strawberry bed, I noticed our clematis needed to be tucked in the trellis a bit better. As I was grabbing vines and moving them around (unfortunately without my gloves), I felt quite the sharp pain in my finger. I moved it away fast, but not before I got stung /bit. Not sure if it was a wasp or a spider, but my finger throbbed, swelled up, and turned red. I immediately took some Benadryl (since I tend to have issues with wasp stings), but my finger is on fire and is swelled up like a sausage as I type this.

So I took a picture of my pretty purple violets blooming under my soon-to-be-blooming roses and called it a day. No more outside play for me today. Guess today's Kentucky Derby and NASCAR will be how I'll spend my afternoon.

Exercise update: Despite the sausage finger and Benadryl daze, I managed to make it 20 days out of 20. I've worked too hard at this exercise streak to break it now.

Day 65 of 365

My mom received her Mother's Day present in the mail today so I can let the cat out of the bag.

My mom lives in another state right now. She's moved several times over the last few years, downsizing each time she moved. Sometimes kicking and screaming at the downsizing, but getting rid of things nonetheless. Several years ago when I was visiting I helped her purge items that she had a hard time letting go of. Things like a dried bean collage I made when I was 8 or so.

I felt like one of those professional organizers you see on Hoarders. If you've seen the show, you know how difficult the decision is for some people to get rid of old newspapers, pizza boxes, or busted shoes. Now my mom isn't a hoarder, but she did struggle with getting rid of things that held sentimental value. Things like old bean collages. (She did finally toss it out.)

As she's moved multiple more times over the past several years, I think it's gotten easier for her to get rid of things. Most recently she moved back to California where she was born, raised, and lived most of her life.

She lives near a dear friend, and they both are faithful readers of my blog. And when my mom calls me every week or so, she talks about the pictures, the food, and the creations.

So as I was searching for what to give to my mom for Mother's Day, I came up with what I thought to be a pretty darn good gift.

I sent her a large box, priority mail. A box full of those things she's talked about and commented on. I sent it Wednesday afternoon, and she received it on Friday. Way to go US Postal Service!

She was headed out to her friends' house when the package showed up. I imagine right now the two of them are on a sugar high!

She received:
A pincushion (Day 1)
Blueberry Muffins (Day 19)
Rosemary Bread (Day 33)
A Potholder (Day 34)
Dick and Jane Magnets (Day 41)
Mimi's Cafe Carrot Bread (Day 62)
Sugar Cookies (Day 63)

Happy (early) Mother's Day, Mom! 

Exercise update: 19 for 19

Day 64 of 365

Thursdays are usually pretty rough for me but today was a full, productive day.

• The plumber came and put in my new kitchen faucet from Day 56 and fixed our leaky toilets and showers. Now maybe our water bill will go back down.
• We had a high school kid come and do some yard work for us this afternoon. He's a keeper so we'll have him back again and again.
• My daughter got our new climbing roses from Day 62 planted. Red roses on a white arbor for the entrance to our rose garden.
• I finally (yes, finally) started on the quilt that I fought putting in the frame way back on Day 38. Better late than never.
• I rode the exercise bike for the 18th straight day. Yay!
• We celebrated Mother's Day today. My daughter heads home tomorrow and works through the weekend so we had a Mother's Day dinner tonight. We had barbecued steak, corn on the cob, baked potatoes, and grilled garlic bread. Yum! 
• My daughter helped me (or I should say I helped her) finish up planting our garden. Corn, tomatoes, cucumbers, radishes, broccoli, cabbage, bell peppers, hot peppers, red potatoes, russet potatoes, kohlrabi, carrots, spinach, arugula, zucchini, cantaloupe, watermelon, kale, rosemary, basil, Italian parsley, and pumpkins. It's not pretty right now, but it will be soon.