{ Bird watching on a rainy day }

Remember when we were stationed in Arizona, I always took a ton of pictures of the birds around the house?

I used to sit for hours in the backyard, with my camera on a tripod, just watching the birds, taking photos, and enjoying them fluttering about doing their own thing.

I haven't really been bird watching since then.  Life got busy, and ashamedly, I stop doing a lot of the little things that I enjoyed.  That needs to be remedied.

So, this past weekend we had non stop rain, pretty severe storms at time, but in the afternoons, a calming, constant rain.  I sat out on the back porch with the camera in hand, and just listened to the drops falling on the table, or the roof above me.

It was so calming and just what I needed.

So many different species, colors, sizes.  I am always in awe of God's creation.

This little one in the back was cracking me up.  He kept peeking over the other one, then looking away, then again that little head would pop up to see what I was doing.  Hahah

I know, I know that is a lot of bird photos, but don't you just love them?

But I also did take a lot of rain photos.  I think sometimes it feels good to sit back and really immerse ourselves into the nature around us.  I for one adore rain, I love sleeping to the sound of rain, I love rainy days and cozy afternoons, and I absolutely love sitting out on the back porch watching the rain falling down around me.

After sitting outside for about an hour or two, I came back in and got some reading done.  My boy Marley is my little shadow, where I go he goes and if he is not right at my feet, he is nearby, watching, waiting.

It just felt good to take it as slow as the rainy day.  Recharged my batteries and made me once again appreciate the life I have.

{ Day 12 of Quarantine/Day 7 of Shelter in Place - Bird watching }

"Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go."

- Joshua 1:9 -

It was another pretty slow and uneventful day.

I did laundry, cleaned the house, did the dishes and then sat for an hour or so while fixing dinner, watching the birds in my yard.

Every spring they come around, hundreds of them, they fill up both sides of my yard, and sit pecking at worms from the ground.

Then every once in a while, one just flies up, and they all follow suit.  It's quite comical watching them, they have no real set course to fly, but rather one goes and they all just go along.

Shortly after, they are back down again back to their business.

As I sat watching them, I couldn't help but think that in the middle of this huge pandemic, they have absolutely no idea what is happening.  To them, it's just another Spring day.

Makes me wish I was one of them at the moment, I think sometimes not knowing what is going on is better than being on top of things.  Don't get me wrong, it's good stay informed but there's also the risk of becoming obsessed with the news and driving yourself crazy.

I have limited my news watching to checking my local city news every morning, and then watching the President briefing every afternoon.  That's it, nothing else, nothing more.

While I was doing this bird watching, my wonderful husband was grocery shopping for me.  Thankfully he was able to find toilet paper today, but now we're playing the no chicken at all, game.

What is with that?

I honestly don't understand what is happening with the shortage of certain food items on the shelves, or the constant toilet paper issue.  It's hard enough dealing with a pandemic but if you are also having to deal with food shortages  or other essential item shortages, it can make things so much more difficult.

Anyway, I hope you are all doing well, hope you have food for yourselves and your families, and more importantly I hope you're staying indoors and keeping safe.

{ Love watching birds }

When we lived in Arizona, I used to spend many days out in the back yard, with my camera in hand.  We had so many birds flying around and they would come into the yard, stand on the fence, fly around and eat the bird seed we would set out for them.

I even had a bird feeder right in front of my kitchen window so that I could just grab the camera and snap pictures as they came by to feed.

Since then I haven't really done much bird watching, I'll snap a picture here and there but nothing like it used to be, I mean I even had an album on Flickr designated to just bird photos.

Anyway.  It was such a gorgeous afternoon yesterday, so I spent some time in the back yard, catching some sun, reading a little and bird watching.

I'll be reviewing Monticello very soon, and I'm really enjoying it.  The story centers around Thomas Jefferson and his daughter Martha, and of course Monticello which was Jefferson's primary plantation.

The sun was absolutely glorious and Marley and I enjoyed just sitting, quietly, listening to the birds and feeling that warm sun on us.

The birds were all around us, flying in and out, going about their business.

Love getting action photos, catching them as they fly around, their beautiful wings gracefully flapping up and down.

It's not always easy catching them in action though, more often than not I get a big ol' blur of a wing or a total blur of a bird.  But then you get that perfectly timed shot that captures them in action, and it makes me smile.

I've been a bit busy the past few days but I'm still trying to stay on top of blogging and housework and summer in general.  It seems to be going by so fast and before I know it, school will be back in session.  Oh boy!!!

This morning I had to get groceries.  Usually I do the shopping for two weeks but since Curt just switched from his contracting job to the GS Position, the pays have been all off.  He only gets his new pay next week, and so I'm trying to pay bills and shift things around the new pay dates.

It's always a bit of a confusion at first, until we settle into a rhythm.  Takes me a month to see when everything comes in and how much comes in, to be able to adjust the budget accordingly and shift bill dates around here and there.

I won't miss that part of the budget, trust me.  I'm so glad and so blessed and thankful to God for this permanent position and knowing that this is it, no more wondering, no more waiting to see when the pay comes or how much etc.  This will hopefully be the last time I need to work around the budget.

I planned on getting groceries just for one week and then doing my usual two week shopping next week when his actual pay comes in, but I can't do it.  I am so used to buying for two weeks at a time, that this is not going to work.  So I pretty much bought my usual grocery shopping, except that I only planned meals for this coming week, but everything that is not meal related, mainly the meats, chicken etc., has been bought.  Next week I'll just quickly plan some meals and buy just the meats that I need.

Tomorrow I need to get my car registration done, which means taking the car to get the inspection done first.  It's all still a little strange to me, I never had to do any of this in Idaho or Arizona.  Oh well.

I'm going to run and get my pizza dough ready for dinner, I'm making Crazy Pizza Bread, which by the way, if you've never tried it, you don't know what you're missing.

Then I'm going to throw in a load in the wash, sit and watch today's General Hospital and start on my Part 7 of the Atlanticus.  I finished Part 6 and it's finally right on track with the stitch count, thank goodness.

Well friends, I hope you have a fantastic Friday.  Ooohhhhh and as I'm typing this I just got a pop up from the school letting me know that Nick's materials have been shipped.  Wasn't I just talking about how soon school would start?  Hahah

Have a good one everyone :)

Bird watching, Errand running and House cleaning!

Hello my friends, how are you doing today?

I can't believe it's already Saturday night, the past few days just seemed to have gone by at lightning speed.

First, I wanted to show you my fence, the one that got knocked down by the crazy winds last week. The rental company had someone come out and fix it on Friday, thank goodness because taking the pugs out to potty was becoming quite a chore. I had to get their harnesses and leashes on every single time and then take them both and they each want to run in different directions. Quite the sight I tell you.

So, I've been pretty busy today, this morning my hubby had to go to work for 2 hours, so I had my morning coffee, checked my email and blog, watched a few Vlogs and waited for him to return.

Once he was home, I quickly got dressed and ready for the day and then we both headed out for some errands, which included the thrift stores, the dollar tree and Walmart.  We also made a quick stop at McDonald's to pick up some lunch.  We're not big fans and it's not something we get very often, but once in a while we do enjoy a cheeseburger and fries.

Dollar Tree Haul

I went there for the cleaning products, which is what I usually do because they're cheaper than buying elsewhere. I picked up my ziploc bags, aluminum foil, some cinnamon bread and then one of those organizer trays for the drawers. You know the junk drawer that everyone seems to have in the kitchen? Well I'm sick of seeing it and I've tried to keep it organized but to no avail, so I think this organizer will work wonderfully.

I also picked up this cute little pink expandable file folder. I'm going to use it as my envelope system. Remember I mentioned a few posts ago about how I am determined to get my budgeting organized too? Well instead of just plain envelopes, I thought this would be cuter.  It has colored tab dividers which will be perfect for what I need.

I will show you all in detail once I get it set up, which I'm hoping to do tomorrow.

Thrift Store Haul

I didn't really find much I wanted, well aside from a beautiful credenza at my husband's thrift store, but I can't justify that expense at the moment, no matter how much I've wanted one for so many years.  We'll just wait and see, if it's still there by payday, I may just cave.

I did find a beautiful cake stand and lid which I'm thrilled with.  Tomorrow I'll bake a cake and place it in there, but I'm thinking cupcakes, brownies and so forth will look good in there too right?

The only other thing I grabbed was another of the Taste of Home Cookbooks, I think from 2005, I'm not entirely sure on the date and I don't have it in front of me right now. But it's one I didn't have and for 50c I couldn't pass it up.

Walmart Haul

I had to pick up toilet paper and my hair dye, yes my hair colorist is Walmart.  Hahaha
I also picked up what I needed to make my Homemade Laundry Detergent.  I haven't had any for the past 8 months and I've missed it sooooo much.  I already used it today in my laundry and what a huge difference it makes.  If you've never tried it and would like to give it a go, I show you how to make it in this post.

Prices have gone up since I first made it, and it now costs me about $25 to make it.  But, it lasts me about 6 months, so I think it's well worth it's cost.

I also picked up some of my new favorite snacks. They are much healthier than regular chips and I am getting my servings of veggies in. The best part though is that my kids LOVE them too and munch away happily on these Veggie Chips. Yum!

So those were my hauls, just a few things.

I spent the rest of the day busy with housework, got all my laundry done except for one last load of towels which I will have to finish tomorrow.  I also got all my ironing done and the clothes put away.

I did a bit of tidying up and cleaning here and there, nothing major though because my Spring Cleaning is going to be done next week while the kids are on Spring Break.  Perfect time for it, I think because I won't have people in and out of the house constantly.

Tomorrow, I have quite a few things on my to do list, or rather on mine and hubby's list.

-  Move his computer and school books into the Office/Craft Room.  I want to set up an area for him up there where he has everything at his finger tips.  It will make his school work much easier and he will be where we all are instead of downstairs in the bedroom by himself.
-  Give the back yard a good cleaning, take bulk items to the dump.
-  Move shelf upstairs to the Office for the DVD's and school books.
-  Bake a cake or cupcakes, not sure which yet.
-  Work on the blogs, change a few things, put up a recipe, check on reviews etc.
-  Do some filing, paperwork.
-  If I have time, work on my envelope filing system.

So yeah, quite a few things that I'm hoping to get done.  In between these though, my hubby has to go to work at the commissary, it doesn't take too long but he does have to make a trip out there tomorrow.  I think I'll probably work on my own things while he's gone.

It's pretty late right now, 10:30pm and I'm quite tired.  My allergies have been just horrid lately so I took a little pink pill which will most likely knock me out here shortly, so I am guessing this is a good time to end this post.

I do leave you with some photos I took of the birds around my house, do hope you enjoy those.

Have a beautiful, restful, blessed Saturday night, or Sunday morning, whichever time you happen to stumble upon my post....and I will see you all back here tomorrow :)