Jennifer Lyon
Wednesday, October 11th, 2023
Aspirations

Sure, once I wanted to be a good more, and bestselling author.

But now?

Well, I met this older lady over the weekend, and she was delightful. We chatted for a while, and she told me she was a vegetarian, and had been one most of her life. I commented how much easier it is now to find good options at restaurants and gatherings these days. She agreed and said: “The hippies did that for us.”

That answer was so unexpected, I splurted laughter. Also, she’s not wrong.

We chatted on with her telling me about her adult kids, and grandkids, sharing dog pics, and she kept amusing me.

And then? I found out that she’d just gone with her granddaughter a few days ago and gotten tattoo. She got two of them on her calf! She showed me the tattoo of a flower (for her daughter) and a dog (for her dog). The looked good on her!

She is a totally cool grandma.

I want to be like her with my grandkids! I don’t necessarily need a tat, but the idea of sharing experiences with my grandkids — that’s what I aspire too!

Happy Wednesday and do you have any aspirations you’d like to share?

Monday, October 9th, 2023
Weekend Roundup

For this weekend roundup, I’m just going to about one thing — family.

So Wizard’s brother came and we knew it’d be a whirlwind visit. That all went great. But I wondered how it’d be as we haven’t seen the brother in a few years. I had nothing to worry about. Of course, Wizard and he were fine, they talk all the time. But he and I soon fell right back into the relationship we’d always had, and it was both happy and comforting. In fact, Wizard went to bed the two nights, while brother and I stayed up and talked. Family is strong when we embrace it, and accept one another for who we are.

And secondly, our sons. Youngest is physically closest and he’s been with us off and on for three days, and doing most of the driving. Oldest came on Sunday where he was need. Middle is on a trip with his wife and we told him not to cut it short. But he did two things from his hotel that meant the world to us.

Family and friends are truly a blessing.

Also, Wizard’s brother bossing him around is priceless :-) He’s the only one, aside from his mom, who can get away with it! Youngest and I both saw it and laughed hard. Wizard just rolled his eyes at us, then grudging did what his brother told him to do. Family dynamics are pretty hilarious to watch sometimes. Wizard is the second oldest, and the brother who stayed with us is the oldest so it all makes sense.

How was your weekend?

P.S. I may not be home much on Monday but I’ll read the comments, then answer when I can. Trust me, no one wants to read and answer I type on my phone!

Friday, October 6th, 2023
Friday Five

TGIF! I really hope Friday is a great day for all of us (my Thursday was exhausting and a little weird.) Okay time to share five random things about our week. Here’s mine:

  1. Biker Witch had a birthday!  We went to lunch on Tuesday to celebrate which was nice. Probably more for me than her because I dumped a lot of current life stuff on her :-). Seriously guys, she’s a saint for listening to me! But the next day, her daughter, who is currently living out of the country,  showed up for a surprised birthday visit. I am thrilled for my sister getting to see her daughter! It’ll be nice if I get a chance to see my niece too, but life’s moving fast at the moment, so we’ll see.
  2. Wizard’s brother arrives later today (well technically it’s yesterday since you’re reading this on Friday, but I’m writing it on Thursdays). He’s been trying to get here for a while, so we’re glad he’s able to do it. It’s going to be a very quick trip to see another of their brothers and their mom, so it’s not precisely a fun trip. But I’m very glad he’s here, and it’s good for Wizard too. He’s leaving Saturday morning, so it really is a whirlwind.
  3. There’s been a lot of weirdness this week, but so far, this one stole the show. I was washing  sheets and blankets for company. When I went to move the blanket from the washer to the dryer, I couldn’t hope the door. It was jammed and I could only open it maybe a quarter of an inch. I figured out the laundry basket was wedged behind the door somehow. I used a yardstick (anyone remember those??) under the door and with a bit of maneuvering, I was finally able to moved it, and we opened the door. The washer had gone off balance, moved several feet and wedged the laundry basket into the closed door. It was one of the weirdest things I’ve seen. But all worked out. Sometime in the next several days, we’ll get one of our sons over here and to help Wizard reset the legs to balance it.
  4. Maggie is still waking me over and over at night. Once my brother-in-law leaves, we’re going to try to various things to see what works with her. There’s a solution and we’ll find it once we focus on it. In the meantime, I’m a zombie, but at least my timing for zombiehood is good with Halloween right around the corner :-)
  5. No idea what will happen this weekend, but we’re getting pretty good at rolling with whatever comes our way!

That’s my five, now I’d love to hear yours! I hope everyone has a good weekend!

Wednesday, October 4th, 2023
Quick Question: Do You Miss Brick and Mortar Bookstores?

I’m in the mood to browse a bookstore until I find a book or seven to read. But life is keeping us on the move right now, so I haven’t been able to get to one just yet.

Which brings me to my next question: Does anyone go to brick and mortar bookstores anymore?

For a long time, I mostly read on my Kindle, but lately I’ve been enjoy reading physical books. I think it’s because there are too many distractions on my Kindle, but there’s really not any distractions with I’m holding a book. Plus these days finding books that actually interest me online seems harder. Amazon is, in my opinion, pushes paid advertised books lately and buries the rest of the stock. I get annoyed trying to search for books that interest me there.

But the drawback of wanting to go to brick and mortar bookstores for me is the only ones around are Barnes and Noble, and I have to travel a fair distance to get to them. There just aren’t that many physical bookstores anymore, and of course, that’s because demand for them fell significantly.

What about you guys? Do you still hang out and enjoy browsing at bookstores? Or mostly reading on e-readers or your phone?

Monday, October 2nd, 2023
Weekend Roundup

I took a Halloween picture of our yard, but I don’t love the way it looks so washed out in the picture, but I’ll show it anyway.

Can you spot Maggie? She’s off leash (despite all my ranting about off leash dogs, LOL) and sort of hiding. She was out there with permission, I do let her come out with us lately, but I still think it’s not the smartest idea.

Now back to the Halloween stuff. I love the witch (because my daughter in law gave it to me!), the skeleton dog and the pumpkin. They are all motion activated and very cool. The tombstones are just foam and we’ll probably toss them after this year. We just did that since we haven’t landscaped yet, so it was fun.

The drab looking doll on the end Wizard liked and picked out. I agreed because it was a joint project. She’s “Two-faced” (my name for her) with one side was blank painted black, which Wizard repainted in a hilarious way that you probably can’t see well in the pic — it’s like a child’s drawing of a doll face. Anyhow, when Two-faced is motion activated, the head spins to show her horror side. She also says creepy stuff I can’t even remember. We call the witch and two-faced “the girls” because we weird. Seriously weird.

The skeleton dog in the middle barks and growls fiercely. The pumpkin on the corner of the planter laughs and says stuff, but he’s pretty silly and no one takes him seriously.

We plan lighting but who knows if we’ll get to it around dealing with Real Life, If not, we’ll add that and more colorful decor next year.  And soon we’ll start collecting some Christmas decor. I’m going to keep going while Wizard is into it. It has been a fun distraction through Real Life stuff. For Halloween night, we’ll sit outside with candy on the drive way so little kids can bypass the scary stuff if they wish.

Otherwise the weekend came and went and now we’re in October and hopefully Fall weather is getting the memo!

So how was your weekend?

Friday, September 29th, 2023
Friday Five

TGIF! It’s the last Friday of the month and time to share five random thing about our week. Here’s mine:

  1. I got the towels I was fretting about, which is good. Wizard’s brother will be here at the end of next week for a couple nights and I should be set there. However, I kind of wished Id ordered the color I originally wanted. I made the mistake of asking Wizard’s opinion since he lives here too :-) But the towels are fine, they are an orchid color which is darker than I wanted. I had a spice color picked out that I thought would brightened the bathroom more. And yeah, this is not even a real problem, LOL. It’ll all work fine once I bright in a bit more decor (which I don’t need for Wizard’s brother, he won’t care).
  2. I got my hair cut by the new person. I kept it simple, I just asked her to cover my gray roots and even out some issues. I’m letting it the length grow a bit as the last time it was just too short. This new stylist did well. I’m not committing yet for two reasons: I need to wash and blow dry it a couple times to see if I’m happy; and I may have another recommendation. I’m debating if I try that stylist too then choose the one that is the better fit. Again this is a slight dilemma not a problem!
  3. I don’t think I’m going to have any luck getting in sooner than November 13th to see the ENT for my throat and nose issues. However the good news is that at least I do have the November 13th appointment as now everyone is booking well into January and farther out than that. So I have that much to be thankful for.
  4. I made and baked bread and granola yesterday. I planned on making some cookies too, but ran out of energy :-) I’m also excited as I ran out to Trader Joes and found a gluten free (or close enough) cereal that I should be able to eat for a reasonable price. I was super excited because I really like eating :-)
  5. In fun news, we have a small, two-night trip planned for the beginning of November with two of the boys and their families. The third son already had a separate trip planned. However, we have another trip mid next year still in the planning stages, and he and his wife have committed to going on that one. Those are both fun thing to look forward to!

That’s my five, now I’d love to hear yours! I hope everyone has a fun and safe weekend!

 

Wednesday, September 27th, 2023
Do You Love Halloween?

So I love Halloween and always have. It’s a great time for to pretend and have fun. But after the kids moved out, we just stopped and eventually got rid of whatever decorations we had. This house is motivating us to do it again. I was excited. WAS.

Then I went to my son’s house this year and whoa, I wish I’d taken a picture of their front yard! My daughter in law is a big seasonal decorator and she would win a competition on the best Halloween decorations! They’ve collected their decor over the years and my son is really into it too. So much so that we were in a hardware store on Saturday (helping a family member) and he was distracted by the Halloween lights for sale. I had to remind him we had a job to do and he didn’t have time to look for the elusive orange bulbs he’s been searching for :-)  He grinned that I’d caught him looking.

So year, their house is amazing!

And then there’s us, who just have a few things. But I coaxed Wizard out to start some prep to decorate. It was easy to do, I told him I’d use the wheel barrell to move some extra rock from the back to the front to use. He could only tolerate me doing this for about 20 minutes before he started helping. Um, I should mention it’s suddenly hot again, and now my arms are very slightly sunburned and I have a big mosquito bite. Wizard did warn me that we should wait until later in the evening, LOL. Still we got the hardest part done!

If we finish it in the next two days, I’ll try to get a pic, but after seeing my son and daughter-in-law’s house, I’m feeling inadequate, LOL! I’m kidding. It’s just a holiday, not a competition. And the point is that Wizard and I are having fun doing this together. As a bonus it’s a good distraction from other stuff.

Now the question is, can I talk him into pulling out the clear Christmas lights to add some lighting around the decorations? I might suggest I buy some solar Halloween lighting; I’m pretty sure that will incentivize him into repurposing our Christmas lights for free :-) Maybe.

Do you decorate for Halloween?

P.S., Now I’m giving Maggie the side eye, wondering if I should dress her up in a costume. She would not be amused.

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