HUMP DAY

Here it is hump day of a boring week.  I guess it's good to have boring weeks now and then.  But it seems that all I've been doing is catching up on my sleep.  Sometimes, I think, I can sleep too much.  Nothing gets done.  I still have to get things cleaned up from Christmas!  Get with it, Kathy!  Valentine's Day will be here and you will still have your gifts in the middle of the room.

Well, not really, but sometimes it feels that way.

Yesterday was craft day with Miss Sheila at the library. The kids made these cute snowflake bookmarks.

She got the kits from Oriental Trading Company.  They turned out so nice and the kids really liked them.

We finished up the book of James in our Bible Study yesterday.  It was a 12 week study that stretched even longer because of breaks for sickness and holidays.  Next week we are beginning a study of the Gospel of Matthew.  I think we are all ready for it.

We were going to go to church tonight because we missed Sunday, but it is cold and raining and I am not much of one to drive at night in that kind of weather.  So instead we watched Joe's message from Christmas Eve online.  It was even better than I remembered.  If you are interested, you can watch it here.

Are any of you into Downton Abbey?  Joe and I are totally hooked.  I got the DVDs out of the library.  We finished season one and just this week finished watching season two.  We just have the Christmas episode to watch and then will be going on to season three which I am recording on our DVR.  I didn't know if Joe would like it or not, but he is as interested in it as I am.  It's such a good show.

I tried a new recipe for dinner tonight.  I got it from Web MD.  It was boneless pork chops with a sauce of cranberry juice, honey and sauteed onion.  It was almost like a sweet and sour sauce and really good.  I made some rice in the rice cooker my sister gave me for my birthday.  She said once I used it I would never go back to cooking rice in a pan again, and boy was she right.  I love using the rice cooker.

Time for bed.  Maybe if I can go to bed at a decent time, I will get up to get something done before I go to work tomorrow.  (Late day, working 11:30 a.m. to 8:00 p.m.)  Good night, everyone.  

THE SUNDAY GARDEN...SORT OF

I didn't get to go to church this morning because my stomach was really bothering me.  I was tired when I got home last night and Joe bought us Chinese food for dinner.  It was good, but I guess my stomach didn't think so because I was up and down sick all night.  This morning my stomach was still doing flip flops and I had a lot of pain.  When things settled down some, it was too late to go.

I had a couple of soft-boiled eggs and a cup of tea for breakfast.  I like soft-boiled eggs, but tend to eat them only when I'm sick.  I guess they are my "comfort food".

I haven't done much of anything except lay around and watch TV.  What a lazy day.  But I guess I need a lazy day now and then.  I watched some more of the Mummer's Parade.  The last of the comic divisions was the Froggy Carr group.  How funny they were!  They were running around, carrying signs, yelling "Who dat?  Froggy Carr!", and just generally ignoring all the rules and doing whatever they wanted.  It was the largest group with over 700 members.  I was laughing so hard at them.

  
It was such a beautiful day weather-wise.  I did go out in the yard for awhile and didn't even need a jacket.  I filled the bird feeder with seed and relocated it nearer to the house.  No birds have been there yet, so I may have to move it back to where it was.  One of my customers at work said his plants were starting to come up already.  I looked, but my plants weren't up.  The ground is brown and frozen and looking like winter.  But surprise, I had two roses out there.  I've never seen roses in January before.

But what I want to show you are my trees.  My co-worker Diane gave me two crepe myrtle trees about a month ago.  I was going to plant  them outside, but was afraid they would freeze.  They were just two sticks about a foot high with some roots.  So I put them in a pot and have been keeping them in the kitchen on the floor and watering them once a week.  They must think it is summer because they started to grow and put out leaves.  I moved them today to the front window where it will get more light.

 I figure on planting them outside around the beginning of April.  I have wanted a tree for the yard for years, ever since the people in back of me cut down all their trees and took all the shade from my yard.  These trees are supposed to grow to only 10-15 feet and have flowers so I think they are perfect for the small space I have.  I took both trees because I thought one of them would probably die, but they both look good.  I'll let you know how they do.

FRIDAY VIEW

Since I am working tomorrow, today was my day off.  I really didn't do much of anything.  For one thing I slept until 10 a.m.  I never sleep like that.  I'm usually up between 5 and 6 so I was really surprised to see the time when I opened my eyes.

I got some more undecorating/decorating done.  The bannister has gone from this:

  to this:

It looks so bare to me even with the snowflakes.

Speaking of snowflakes, here's a better view of my front window:

 

Here is my snowflake candle:

 And my Christmas tree is finally down.  But there is so much to do and I am so tired.

My friend Carol from the library where I used to work came over this afternoon and we went to Applebee's for lunch.  She had a steak with potatoes and cole slaw and I had chicken tenders and fries.  It was good.  Since neither of us were working today we didn't have to rush and had a nice long talk.  I almost never go out with my girlfriends and this was a lot of fun.

For my Friday view I will show you the cute Christmas gift she gave me.

 Isn't this the cutest mug ever?  And the Ghiradelli chocolate sounds good too.  I remember being in Ghriadelli Square and the store when I was in San Francisco.  What a wonderful place!  This is such a sweet gift.

Well going to run because I need to get ready for work tomorrow.  Have a nice night, folks.