Quarantine and chill and kindness chatty clubhouse: Jump in and join the conversation! All is welcome!

[PollyannaMom]

Good Morning and Happy Friday at all!

To you as well!

I just replied to something in another thread, and found this quote was still in my (buffer?) -

I have read about a program where children can read to a dog at a shelter? That gives the dog and child bonding time and also the child a safe reading audience. Has anyone heard of this?

I think I must have quoted it in this thread the other day and gotten distracted. But anyway, yes, I have seen a similar program advertised at my library. I think it's wonderful!

 

[flyingdumbo127]

That is so cool, PollyannaMom! I have not heard of any libraries around here offering such a program but post plague will check it out! Thanks.

 

[easyas123]

Another gloomy, rainy on occasion, day in my area of MD today. Spotty rain tomorrow, although I'm hoping to get in the mowing. I think better chance of more rain on Sunday. Looking like husband will be on the road for several days, looks like he's leaving Sunday. One of our dogs just seems to know when he's going to be away for a few days and starts plotting on how we can have his side of the bed! Normally our dogs aren't allowed to sleep on the bed -no reason other than two adults and two big dogs in 1 bed = someone doesn't sleep well. It's not usually the dogs...

It's our wedding anniversary today as well, we did the math and it looks like we are 27 years in! Just 20 & 21 when we got married! I couldn't even have a glass of champagne (ahem, legally ) when we honeymooned at good old Dixie Landings aka POR these days. We don't do gifts or big overtures usually, although we do have a get a way planned for Florida in October and my husband is spending a week in western MD & WV hunting w/ his cousins at the end of October so at least there is something to look forward to. I'm not even sure what we are having for dinner! Burgers or BLT's most likely! But we will sit on the porch and have a few cocktails and sketch out/fine tune our ever evolving travel plans over the next couple of years. My husband turns 50 next year, and I hit that milestone in 2022 so he's thinking he wants to do one last big family get together type vacation w/ the kids before eldest gets married or the youngest moving away for work an they start having other family obligations. He's bouncing around between the Outer Banks, Universal Studios, Nova Scotia or the Abacos so it's time he nails down a location!

I had to pick 3 pumpkins last night. Those small ones - of course my super giant pumpkin vine kinda fizzled. I planted them WAY to early, but I was impatient! I did plant some new vines several weeks ago, obviously a bit to late, but they are doing well. Maybe I'll have pumpkins from them by Nov. 1 Either way the expenditure I was hoping to avoid a the farmers market for nice pumpkins to put on the front porch is back on ha ha! On the other hand, the gourds I planted are doing well, as is the Indian corn....eh, at least I'll have 1/2 of my fall decorations on hand. I like to put the corn stalks up at the end of our drive on the fence posts.

So, nothing terribly exciting for us this weekend. I can't believe it's only 3 weeks until Labor Day wknd. I wonder if the next 6 months will be as odd as the last 6 months have been? I hope not.

 

[lovemygoofy]

Happy Friday to all,

Things are going along as good can be. Slow, steady and quiet. I can't complain.

QOTD: what groups do you like to volunteer for?

I still volunteer on the county and state suicide prevention boards. I also do some volunteer facilitation of deployments and feelings over zoom and volunteer for a crisis intervention shift here and there.
I lived with my grandparents as a kid and I was probably 11 or 12 when my grandpa had my volunteering my time every summer. He firmly believed for every hour of my softball time, I needed to be also volunteering an hour of time helping others. It's been drummed into my head from an early age. I was candy striper in hospitals, dying and hiding Easter eggs for kids in pediatric hospitals, helping plant and keep up gardens for the elderly, do things at my church and the list keeps going. I did it every year until college and started doing my volunteer work in college with some local organizations, which is how I found myself in the lower 9th Ward (pre Katrina) in total scary area where we were locked up at night in the top of house so people couldn't get the "Jesus teachers." I just shake my head now thinking about it.

I think that by far I learned so much from my times volunteering to learn that it takes everyone to help this world and things are bigger than just me. My papa was a smart man.

Dinner tonight is old people chili dogs and cut up fruit. Last night I made the most delicious "salad" with corn, tomato, avocado, jalapeno and diced zucchini. It had a lime dressing and it was just so good and refreshing. I included some diced feta and cilantro and paired with blackened shrimp.

Gratitude:
Good facetime visit with my mama
Still good health for all those around me
It's Friday and can spend some time with my Matt

 

[lovemygoofy]

Another gloomy, rainy on occasion, day in my area of MD today. Spotty rain tomorrow, although I'm hoping to get in the mowing. I think better chance of more rain on Sunday. Looking like husband will be on the road for several days, looks like he's leaving Sunday. One of our dogs just seems to know when he's going to be away for a few days and starts plotting on how we can have his side of the bed! Normally our dogs aren't allowed to sleep on the bed -no reason other than two adults and two big dogs in 1 bed = someone doesn't sleep well. It's not usually the dogs...

It's our wedding anniversary today as well, we did the math and it looks like we are 27 years in! Just 20 & 21 when we got married! I couldn't even have a glass of champagne (ahem, legally ) when we honeymooned at good old Dixie Landings aka POR these days. We don't do gifts or big overtures usually, although we do have a get a way planned for Florida in October and my husband is spending a week in western MD & WV hunting w/ his cousins at the end of October so at least there is something to look forward to. I'm not even sure what we are having for dinner! Burgers or BLT's most likely! But we will sit on the porch and have a few cocktails and sketch out/fine tune our ever evolving travel plans over the next couple of years. My husband turns 50 next year, and I hit that milestone in 2022 so he's thinking he wants to do one last big family get together type vacation w/ the kids before eldest gets married or the youngest moving away for work an they start having other family obligations. He's bouncing around between the Outer Banks, Universal Studios, Nova Scotia or the Abacos so it's time he nails down a location!

I had to pick 3 pumpkins last night. Those small ones - of course my super giant pumpkin vine kinda fizzled. I planted them WAY to early, but I was impatient! I did plant some new vines several weeks ago, obviously a bit to late, but they are doing well. Maybe I'll have pumpkins from them by Nov. 1 Either way the expenditure I was hoping to avoid a the farmers market for nice pumpkins to put on the front porch is back on ha ha! On the other hand, the gourds I planted are doing well, as is the Indian corn....eh, at least I'll have 1/2 of my fall decorations on hand. I like to put the corn stalks up at the end of our drive on the fence posts.

So, nothing terribly exciting for us this weekend. I can't believe it's only 3 weeks until Labor Day wknd. I wonder if the next 6 months will be as odd as the last 6 months have been? I hope not.

Happy Anniversary!! I'm sorry you aren't out and about right now but hope you can have some cake and cocktails tonight!

 

[flyingdumbo127]

Happy, Happy Anniversary Easyas123! God Bless and much joy ahead to you and your husband! I certainly pray the next 6 months won't be quite as odd. Though they have also been filled with much Blessing so not complaining!

I LOVE that your Grandpa was who taught you about volunteering, Tina that is wonderful Thank you so much for all the volunteer work you do! My Grandma and I volunteered together at a hospital when I was a teen!

Friday gratitude:

I now have half the needed writers for the Christian faith based kindness project I am working on. Please do PM me if you like to write and we have not already been in touch on this. Thank you!

Nice text and email from friends
Air conditioning! It is HOT out there

 

[Meriweather]

It's our wedding anniversary today as well, we did the math and it looks like we are 27 years in!

Happy Anniversary!!

 

[Snowysmom]

Happy Anniversary @easyas123

 

[Snowysmom]

@lovemygoofy What is old people chili dogs? Sounds interesting.

 

[Kirby]

@easyas123 , Happy Anniversary!

It would be nice to get some rain here. The clouds build up to the north and east and just go away when they get close. It's in the low 100's for the next couple of days with a heat index between 105 - 110. Then we drop down to the 90's again. My A/C has been running quite a bit the last couple of days. Blessings though, we haven't had that many 100+ days this year.

Had to tell Carol that she needed to put the kids in daycare for now. My blood pressure has been up since Sunday and I haven't been feeling well. I'm monitoring it and seeing the doctor on Monday. Going to have to figure out what is going on. DS came over for the morning to help out and DH is here now. I hate putting the kids in daycare right now, that much more chance of exposure to Covid but at the moment we have no choice.

Dinner tonight is spaghetti and a salad.

 

[Meriweather]

Oh no, Susan.....I hope you get it figured out and feel better

 

[gwynne]

@easyas123 Happy Anniversary!

 

[gwynne]

@Kirby Take care, hope you feel better soon.

 

[flyingdumbo127]

Oh no! Hug and prayers, Kirby! Please take care of yourself and feel better soon!

 

[flyingdumbo127]

Double posting because we were near the middle of page 2 and that will never do!

It is HOT. So thankful to God for our A/C's! They will get a workout over the next week! I pray all of you are cool in your homes as well. It was so hot last night that I got up during the night to briefly turn on my bedroom A/C for a few minutes. I rarely need to do that. A friend shared with me that she and her daughter ordered a kiddie pool to sit in this weekend. I thought that was such a clever idea--won't work for me living in an apartment but maybe it would for some of you or at least bring you a smile as it did me to me

Have a good night everyone!

 

[sparkle78]

Extra prayers for everyone tonight, I’m having trouble sleeping. So I just watched an entire movie on Netflix. I HATE all of this - not seeing my niece and nephew several states away, not being able to have lunch in a restaurant with girlfriends, not having a school routine in place, ....all the unknowns ar3 driving me crazy !

Sorry. I know we try to be an uplifting thread. It just writing those words and letting myself say it out loud, felt really good

I’m grateful: I did not live during the time of WWII, where you didn’t hear from love ones for really long times
That my family has been able to continue to pay the bills and do a few extra fun things during this time
That I do have several good friends I can reach out to, and meet for a walk outside soon.
Also in knowing , when the sun rises tomorrow I’ll be better to cope with this all. I just get these nights every few months and as tired as I am , I can’t sleep. Darn hormones

 

[Pea-n-Me]

Happy Anniversary @easyas123 !

@sparkle78 you aren’t alone. There’s a lot going on right now. I didn’t sleep too well this week, either.

@Kirby (Putting my nurse cap on) your BP being high combined with your not feeling well is concerning. I hope you have gotten help.

We have central air and we keep it on. Three people in our household have bad seasonal allergies so we need to keep the windows closed. The bills are higher for a few months but it’s worth it to us!

 

[lynxstch]

@easyas123 Happy Belated Anniversary! I hope you celebrated in some special way even if you can't travel quite yet!
@Kirby Hope you feel better soon
@lovemygoofy Glad you get to spend some time with Matt. Is he liking his new job (minus the driving of course!) I too want to know what 'old people chili dogs are--as we are old people too,, lol!
@flyingdumbo127 Glad to hear your project is going well and that you have 50% of what you need. Sorry I wasn't much help
@Pea-n-Me @sparkle78 It's not just you having trouble sleeping lately. I am usually one to hit the pillow and be out like a light. Almost this whole week, I have tossed and turned for a couple (or few) hours and just not been able to shut my mind off

Weatherman is so wrong lately, not reliable at all. They said we would have heavy rain Thursday (even had flood watches out), we might have gotten about an hour of very light rain. They said it would rain all day yesterday, not a drop fell, and it was sunny for the most part and almost 90 degrees. It's 70 out now, they say that will be our high for the day, along with rain. Since I don't believe them, I just watered the garden. There are so many ripe tomatoes out there we can't keep up with them, even with giving a lot away, lol. I learned my lesson, next year it won't be 36 plants! I managed to get the yardwork done again yesterday, so that's out of the way for at least a few days. We stopped at our new favorite Italian place and got cheesesteak sub with onion rings for hubby, and chicken parmigiana sub for me. Just didn't feel like cooking. Today will be errands and grocery shopping and then I plan on doing nothing the rest of the weekend. All my cleaning and laundry is done, so I am ahead of the game for a change

Gratitudes-like a lot of other posters, air conditioning, I wouldn't be making it thru this summer without it going almost constantly. Hubby has allergies , so it helps him be able to breathe better too

Being able to keep in touch with family and friends by texts,messages, calls, etc even when not being able to see them in person much at all

That we are hopefully getting closer to things going back to normal, if there will ever be a normal 'normal' again
Have a great weekend DIS family!

 

[PollyannaMom]

@sparkle78 - we all have those days! (We call those “down days on the coronacoaster” in my house.)

 

[lynxstch]

@sparkle78 - we all have those days! (We call those “down days on the coronacoaster” in my house.)

Very appropriate name for them..I am borrowing that one from you!