Egret!

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I know that Cop Car will ask, “Which kind?”  and of course  wasn’t able to compare it to those in my bird books.  We were driving to exercise yesterday, April 12th, and Dear Husband saw the first of the egrets in the retention pond just down the road.  I’ll be a terrible driver in that area for the next seven months or so, as I try to get a look at the egrets and herons.

I posted his./her coming on Facebook, and suggested that this is a scout, come to make sure that the weather is ready for them.  He may turn around and go back to the flock and tell them to hold off:  it’s still winter here!

My-Sister-The-Nurse lives about 45 minutes south of us, and she says they have had egrets and herons for some time, but they look a little strange with their ear muffs and boots! *G*

I’m glad they are back.  It’s a piece of the Spring jigsaw puzzle that we’ve been waiting to find, and it feels good to know we are closer to our warmer weather.

What do you do…

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…with a husband who won’t let you help him?

Dear Husband has been ill off and on this week.  There’s a terrible upper respiratory thing going around, and just as it seemed that DH was on the mend and back to his old self, he came down with this dreadful cough.  He wheezes, and coughs, and struggles to breathe and won’t let me help him.  At the very least a cup of hot tea, or hot water, or cocoa…or SOMETHING HOT, would help relax his chest and throat and perhaps help to clear his sinuses, but he refuses.  Even a warm shower would help.

We’re on the edge of my forcing him to visit the doctor, and he won’t like it at all.  But, I don’t think he is showing good sense right now.

I understand that he is an adult, and has the right to make decisions for himself, but doesn’t there come a time when you can tell the choices your loved one is making are not in their best interest?

My husband is half German, half Sicilian.  I think that may be one of the most stubborn mixes of nationalities that exists.  He is very hard-headed.  I’m generally willing to let him make decisions, but when we differ in our paths, he usually wins because he simply refuses to negotiate.  That can get old.

Any suggestions for improving our interaction?

I’d Call It Spring!

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Up until today I wasn’t willing to say that spring had arrived.  I know that once we get to the Vernal Equinox, it’s technically spring, but we weren’t seeing signs of it in things that should be green or blooming.

And then we came to April 9, 2013, and everything that grows is telling us that SPRING IS HERE!  We’ve had some pretty bad thunderstorms for the past couple of nights.  Thunder and lightening woke me briefly last night, and we could hear heavy rain on the skylights early in the day.  The result?  Grass greening up, and the squill has formed a tight green mass around one of the trees.

I have Ice Follies daffodils in bloom!  There are pods of daffodil greens coming up in all the gardens.  Tulips and hyacinths are beginning to show flower development, and the iris are shooting up.  I need to add some dirt around the iris corms.  Some of them are sitting on top of the dirt, where the soil has eroded away during the winter.

We still haven’t seen herons or egrets this far north.   I know they are down near I80, but it’s much warmer there.  We’re keeping  watch.  I think by next week we may see them.   Red wing blackbirds, Eastern starlings, starlings, Blue Jays, flocks of robins and house finches have returned.   The cardinal songs are loud and long. Chickadees and juncos are still here.  I’ll be watching for the visitors who stop off on their way north, like the yellow bellied sap sucker, and the gross-beaks.  We rarely get more than a couple off those birds, so it’s really fun to see them visit.

Our house is very clean and tidy.  No one has come to see it in the last week, but that’s okay.  We have long been confident that it will take us a while to find the right buyer.  Meanwhile, we continue to work on the grounds and the basement and the garage.  I think we will have time to let the exercise class come for breakfast in May.

I’m ready for the forsythia to bloom, and the star magnolia to burst into flower.  I’m eager to see if the new hydrangeas have made it through the winter.  I want the trees to shade us from the increasing hours of sunshine.  I’m READY!!!  Come on, Spring!

 

April 2, 2013

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This will be a memorable day for me.  Today we put our home of 23+ years on the market.

Our realtor called to let us know that he had put the listing on the MLS.  He had to use a temporary picture of the house, until they can get the current picture in place. It was something to do with the rules of the road for the Multiple Listing Service.

Minutes later, he got a call from a local realtor, asking if the house was available to be seen!  Three hours later, the first couple came to see it.  I asked our realtor if that was common, and he said it NEVER happens that way.

Last night, knowing that today was the big day, I started the laundry, tidied the office desk,  put away odds and ends and washed dishes.  I asked Dear Husband to dry dishes and put them away, while I finished with other chores.  We were well on the way to putting the house in condition to be seen.  Still, we had to push a bit today to be sure it was ready.

We do not open the house to prospective buyers.  They are to arrive with a realtor, who uses the lock box to get a key to let them in.  We are supposed to be going out the garage door as they are entering the house.  We slipped away and ran an errand as they looked things over.

I doubt seriously that we will get a bid from this visit, but everything has been so unpredictable that it’s possible.  We will see what we will see.

 

 

Easter 2013

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We are no longer hosting the large family holiday celebrations at Casa Buffy.  Our family has splintered over the last few years, now that both Dad and Mother are gone.  My-Sister-The-Nurse  had the basement of her condo finished last year, and now has room for all her family plus Frankie’s family, Dear Husband and me!  She’ll be hosting us for Easter.

I found this adorable dinner roll recipe.  The dough is shaped into small oval rolls, and before it’s cooked you make two snips in the dough to create “bunny ears.”  I’ll need to be careful not to over cook, or we’ll get brown ears, but I’m going to give this a try.

I’d like to do the goofy deviled eggs that look like little chicks.  Rather than cutting the egg in half, you make a cut cross-wise about a third of the way from the end.  Scoop out the yolk, and do the regular yolk mixture.  Then, you refill the egg, put the white back on like a little cap (slightly tilted), and make the tiniest carrot beak.  I think they used capers for eyes, but there must be other options.  Here’s a link to Rachael Ray, who shows how to make the eggs.

And, of course, I’ll be making Vernice Kastman refrigerator rolls for My-Sister-The-Nurse. She’ll hide them all, and everyone will let her get away with it. It seems like a small price to pay for being treated to Easter dinner.

I’m looking forward to having more time with my family. That’s one of the best things about being drawn together to celebrate: family time!

Things To Do

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Do you do “To Do” lists?  I usually have one right before dinner parties, family gatherings or major celebrations.  I occasionally had one to guide my work day.  I periodically make a list of quilting projects that I want to complete. (There are projects that make me feel really guilty!)

My present list is very paper and/or computer oriented.  Each of these items is time consuming, and none of them are any fun.  Too bad!  They still have to be done.

Enter Checkbook into Quicken program

Balance checkbooks

Create an Excel program for 2012 charge cards

Create a budget, working with charge card info

File a billion pages of recipes

Complete 2012 personal filing.

Empty personal files in lateral file at window

Reorganize files at office desk

THANK YOU NOTES!

I will feel so incredibly virtuous when I wade my way through these tasks! It’s good to be organized.  I really believe that you face the day with more energy when tasks have been completed..  I’ve set many of these things aside while I worked on the house, but now it’s time to see to the information glut.  I wonder if there will be a day when I will be “paperless?”   Nah….books, cookbooks and magazines will always be a problem for me.  All the more reason to make everything else paper free.

Write What You Know About

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It’s said that when you want to write, you should write about something you know.  I’ve become a one subject blogger over the past year because the largest thing in my life is getting my house ready to put on the market.  Here’s the update:  HALF the house is packed up!

It’s better than it soundsl  We have rooms that look airy now, and the realtor is satisfied with our efforts.  We met Monday to sign contracts, and today our house was photographed for the advertising packets.

The house will go on the market on April 2, 2013.

Awesome.  More than a bit scary.  I wish I knew where I was going to be living.

For the next year (or two) all my posts may be complaints about how difficult it is to keep a house presentable so that we can show it on a moment’s notice. Prepare yourself! *G*

Exercise

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Actually, NO exercise this week!  The Park District must be working on the building, getting it ready for Spring and Summer classes, so our Senior Exercise has been cancelled.

We have plenty to do to fill up our days, but it seems odd to have the schedule changed.  I will be leading class in mid April while our exercise guru is taking a yoga seminar.  I have a new song to put into the mix, so I need to work out the counting of the moves, and get a disk created with the new song.  That’s one of my projects for this week.

I plan to finish quilting the first of the twin bed quilts that we will give to the shelter this year.  The quilting might take me a couple of hours at the sewing machine.  The binding will take longer than that, but not too long.

I have some family documents that I’d like to scan into the computer and then send to my siblings.  They are things from my parents and grandparents that provide family history and genealogy which I think all my siblings might like to have.

Filing….I have filing to do  I’ve hit bottom on the company filing, so now I’m down to just the personal stuff, but that will keep me busy for a morning each month.  I’m seriously considering filing once a month rather than letting it drag out. (I can hear the snickering in the back ground. QUIT IT! lol)

I guess it’s time to get my day started.  Have a good one!

Weather

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Bad weather has given us a couple of extra hours with my sister and her husband.  Originally, they had planned to leave at 7:00 a.m. for the trip home, but the weather in their neck of the woods is much worse than it is here.  They have ice and snow, and it’s bad enough that the local university has cancelled classes.  It’s  given us a much less rushed morning.  If they wait a bit to leave the roads might be in better shape.

Today is a cleaning and tidying day.  Scraps on a Mission meets here tomorrow, and right after that the realtor is coming.  We’ll be signing the contracts to sell our house.  It will be a momentous day.

Our bread baking class yesterday was very interesting.  The chef managed to organize things in such a way that we were able to make sour dough dinner rolls, pesto rolls, a focaccia with rosemary, cinnamon and raisins, and a basic white sandwich loaf.  We learned how to proof dry yeast, and shape rolls.  I learned that salt will kill yeast, so you add it to your dough later in the process.  I also learned that sticky dough sometimes needs more kneading, and sometimes needs more flour. You always try the kneading first.

I made a lot of bread and cinnamon rolls when I was in my  20s.  My doctor suggested that I stop baking because I was getting too many carbs.  I miss making my own bread.  We’ll have to see if we can use more restraint if we resume bread  baking

Meanwhile,  we hope our loved ones have a safe trip home, and a good week of Spring Vacation.  Is there a tribal dance to bring on Spring?  We sure could use it!

Family

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My youngest sister, Frankie, and her husband are coming to visit.  They’ll be arriving today so that we have some time together.  Tomorrow we are all taking a class in bread making at Sur La Table.  Their classes are just wonderful.  Frankie and I have taken classes there before.

We hope My-Sister-The-Nurse will join us, but she has a dreadful cold, and may have to beg off.  She doesn’t want to share the cold, and we really don’t want to catch one.

I’ve been working on the first twin-sized quilt for Scraps on a Mission.  Pictures will follow when the binding is on.  I’m so very pleased at how well this is going.  I thought the larger quilts would be much harder to work on at the machine, but the 11″ opening on the Janome makes a huge difference!

Monday I see the foot specialist.  I have some minor issues to run past him.  The orthotics he prescribed have helped!

Tuesday, Scraps on a Mission meets, and right after the ladies leave, our realtor comes.  We’ll be signing contracts for the sale of our house.  I’m sad, but I’m tired of living in limbo.

Thursday, I finally get my perm!  I’ll look like Little Orphan Annie for Easter, but it will make it easier to shape my hair for the next few months.

I hope to get more quilting in this coming week, and then we go to My-Sister-The-Nurse’s for Easter.

We start the week with family and end the week with family.  I’m a happy camper, getting to see so much of my family.