Tag: Friday

Friday’s 5 Takeaways – 5/31/19

It seems impossible that we’re at the last day of May!

  1. Living in a small town in a rural area, the crowds come out for the annual Memorial Day parade. This year’s crowd was not as big, probably because of the weather. While not rainy (at least for the morning) it was cool nonetheless. There is charm in a small town parade, and watching the gleaming faces of parents as their children parade by always makes me smile.
  2. I had an opportunity to be with friends for a holiday celebration. We had hamburgers, hot dogs, grilled baby lobster tails, pasta salad, cole slaw, deviled eggs and chocolate cake frosted with the creamiest peanut butter icing I’ve ever tasted (you should know that I’m not particularly fond of either chocolate cake or peanut butter frosting!). Most of all, we had a great visit together.
  3. Here in PA, we’ve had an interesting week of weather. Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday were all days in which there were heavy rains with high winds, multiple tornado warnings across the eastern part of the state, and several tornadoes reported. While it’s quite scary to be in an area with a tornado warning, there still is awe watching the mighty power of Mother Nature at work – sheets of rain blowing sideways, long bolts of lightning piercing the sky, and slap-you-in-the-face winds. We’re looking forward to a break from it today.
  4. Now that temperatures are warming, full-fledged midday naps will be a daily event. I’m not blessed with central air, so I rely on two window units – one in my living room and one in my bedroom. During the hottest part of the day, I tend to spend time in my bedroom, where I can close the door and keep all of that cold air circulating around me (with the help of a table fan across the room). I like naps anyhow, but this makes a decent excuse to take one without the usual guilt!
  5. This will most likely be my last weekly takeaways post. While there is so much joy to be found in living a contented, simple life, it doesn’t give me much fodder to recite exciting weekly happenings! Hopefully, you’ll still enjoy my random posts along the way.

Meanwhile, have a relaxing weekend and a productive week ahead! And stay cool (and dry!)!

Friday’s 5 Takeaways – 5/24/19

Since last we met here, I have taken the plunge into believing that, although we never really had a spring season, summer is definitely on its way!

#1 – Now that I’m ready to believe that, I finally put away all of my cool weather coats and jackets this week. I’d put away my really heavy winter coat back in early April, but only in this past week or so am I willing to believe I no longer need the jackets as well.

#2 – In celebration of the approaching summer, I spent several hours cleaning all of my porch furniture, hanging plants on hooks and sweeping away the debris of late fall and winter. I’ve been able to enjoy a cup of coffee (usually some or all of my 3rd cup) on the porch, once full daylight has just settled in, and just vegetate while watching traffic and people starting off their day. Mine is the only one of six apartments that has this outdoor space, and because of it, I chose this apartment over another available apartment that had a kitchen at least twice as big as mine.

#3 – Living alone, my place doesn’t really get dirty, except for dust and road dirt coming in that I can’t control. Nonetheless, just like I did last month in the days before visiting my brother a month ago, I cleaned the entire place. There is this idea in my head that, if something should happen to me while I’m away, I don’t want whomever has to enter here on my behalf (even though it would most likely be my brother or my bestie) should find things looking sloppy.

#4 – I could write oodles about the success of my visit with my brother this week. It was, as always, an awesome time filled with hours of conversation. As a fellow blogger (also my inspiration and mentor when it comes to my blog), we’d be chatting and often, one or the other of us would stop and say, “Oh, that could be a future blog post!” It’s fun to have that in common together! Of course, now if he writes about any of them (he jotted down a few of the topics), I’ll get to take credit in the comments of helping spark the idea!

#5 – I had a planned opportunity this week to “pay it forward” and it was successful. Along with it, however, I had an unplanned opportunity to “pay it forward” to someone else, which was also successful. There is so much joy in giving!

Have a safe and happy Memorial Day, everyone! To those of you who served to protect this country and its freedoms, thank you! You are the reason we celebrate!