A Time For Everything

 

By several years prior to2022, I mean at least ten. When I went looking for a picture of the earliest version of the bird feeder bed, I found it in a post from 2022... But by the small circumference of the mulch and the lack of much else, I know the pic was from a long, long time ago.

Fast forward to the early 2000s and this was the set up: 

I've been meaning to upgrade this squirrel feeder bed for a while now. A long while. As captioned, that picture was taken just over two years ago. But it's probably been since BC (you know, before COVID) that it was last improved.

But what with all the family and life events, not to mention my getting-out-of-debt endeavors, the full funding just hasn't been available. I had some cash stashed for this project, but it was nowhere near enough to accomplish all the plans I had. So when Darling Daughter asked what I wanted for Mother's Day this year I had to think for a mere handful of seconds and the answer was clear: retaining wall blocks and mulch!

That tree has grown (of course it has) over the years and the "thighs" of the trunk--the sections where the trunk branches into roots--have also crept a little higher out of the ground. So rather than the single layer of landscape edgers you see above, I wanted at least two layers of my "tree ring bricks" to help hold in the mulch. So fast forward to 2026 and this is my squirrel feeder bed. 

I moved all the bird feeders farther out into the yard (just out of sight, of the top left of this image) as I didn't want this area overgrown with bird seed that germinated. And I reused the edgers that were originally here to create that planter in the top right.

Here's a closeup of the planter and the day lily I bought for it...

I'm still working on the bird feeder bed, so pictures of that will be along at some point. But I'm pleased that the squirrel feeder setup is finally done.

Stay cool and I'll catch you up in August!

 

 

Hello Friends!

I was hoping to post a different message this month. Alas...I haven't finished the project in order to share the results. So instead, you get a post aka Misc Monday. But as it's not Monday, I couldn't call it that. :0)

In no particular order...

The Dallas Stars didn't make it out of the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs. Honestly, I didn't expect them to. I kept up a positive vibe for Darling Daughter's sake, but, yeah. We've been missing a key player, two actually, for months and I just didn't think we'd be able to power through without them. And we didn't. >>shrugs<<

However, the Dallas Stars were granted another boon by the League and are scheduled for a Stadium Series game. Meaning DD and I will be watching a Stars game at the Dallas Cowboys' AT&T Stadium. Tickets went on sale yesterday and we have ours. Remember all the games we worked the concession stands as a fundraiser for Marching Band Boy?? Now we'll get to watch an actual game and be on the other side of the concession stand! (Better start saving up now!!)

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Mother's Day was a bit gray, but nice none-the-less. I got $50 worth of landscaping stones and a new bird feeder from one daughter, and I'll get mulch from the other once I'm ready for it. I even got a phone call from Sonshine. I skimped on chores and spent the time resting from my yard work bingeing "The Pitt" on HBO Max. Noah Wylie has aged like a fine wine.

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My Etsy store is consistently bestowing royalties on me due to my aggressive launch schedule and posts to Pinterest. I'm now averaging monthly royalties of $8 per month rather than enjoying the swing of -$2 to +$3. Needless to say, I'm chuffed about that.

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Book royalties, too, have been on a higher level as well. I took out an ad last November when I released my last book and since then, I've been very pleased with the return on my investment. I'd expected the royalty rates to taper off by now, but they haven't, so I'm really chuffed about that as well.

So much so that I'm planning another ad when...you guessed it...I release my next book.

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Coming June 17, 2026 -- A Certain Kind of Man!

One week. One story. One rancher who isn’t anything like the cowboys Liam learned to avoid.

Liam Townsend has spent years managing his anxiety with structure, chamomile tea, and the comfort of a predictable desk job. When his boss gives him a choice—write a feature on a Texas horse ranch or lose his position—Liam trades his tenth-floor office for Winchester Ranch and a world about as far outside his comfort zone as it gets.

Gentry Winchester didn’t ask for a journalist underfoot. He’s got a ranch to run, horses to train, and a grandfather showing the first signs of dementia to protect. What he doesn’t expect is a man who quietly walks into his chaos and starts making it better. Or the way that same man makes him question whether the life he’s built is actually the life he wants.

Pops Winchester has been the heart of this ranch for over seventy years. And the heart of Gentry’s world for as long as Gentry can remember. Sharp-eyed, stubborn, and funnier than he has any right to be, Pops is also the first one to see what Gentry can’t.

When a powerful storm bears down on the ranch and Pops follows a memory into its path, Liam must decide if he’s willing to act in spite of every fear still clawing at him.

Being a certain kind of man isn’t about meeting the expectations you were raised with. It’s about choosing the life and the love that feels like home.

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And that's that my friends. Catch you in June.

 

Despite two more games to play in their regular season, my Dallas Stars have been officially eliminated from the playoffs. While they won Friday, the team that needed to lose Saturday did not. Even if we won both remaining games, we'd only tie the team ahead of us, but the tie-breaker goes to them...as a result, we're out.

As I mentioned several posts ago, I am so sad for the players. A lot of things conspired against them--including themselves--and they just couldn't pull it off.

On the other hand, there are so many things to be grateful for and I won't bore you with all of them, but they'll have a nice long off-season to heal up physically and mentally. DD and I will be ready and rarin' to cheer them on to great heights again next season.

As for me, I'm a little disappointed, but mostly relieved, not only for myself, but for my pocketbook. :0)

I can now ramp up the writing projects and plan for my upcoming trips (three of them!), including the annual GRL conference. Without hockey playing such a prominent role in my schedule and my mind, I can focus and produce.

Hope you had a great weekend and a lovely Mother's Day if you are a mom, or you celebrated the mother of your children, or celebrated with your own mom.

I called both my moms, had lunch with one child and received phone calls from the other two, and otherwise enjoyed a quiet weekend just me, myself, and I... (DH went to visit his own momma.)

Here's to a great week...

My momma and me...

My baby and me...

My hockey  partner in crime and me...

And my dear first born and me...

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I am also a dunce...I messed up the new subscribe process, but I spent Wednesday sorting it out, so...

My mom (YS), my friend NC, and my friend GN, have been manually added to the NEW subscribe list. Any blog post will show up in your inbox at noon of the day I publish it. (I hope.)

Everyone else will need to re-subscribe because, as promised, the Feedburner lists/databases were deleted.

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Have a great weekend, y'all.

For all my followers who are moms, I hope you had a lovely day yesterday. I communicated with all of my babies and both my moms, so a lovely day.

This is my mom and me a couple of summers ago, visiting Sailor Sonshine in Seattle.


Here is my lovely Brown-Eyed Girl and me last summer...


And here I am with Sailor Sonshine and DH on the same trip to Seattle.



I don't have a picture of DD and me because she gets twitchy about pictures...

But she's the only one of my babies close by and she bought me much appreciated gifts for Mother's Day.

So Mother's Day was this past Sunday. DH cooked my favorite, grilled hamburgers, on Saturday night, and I got three mini-roses, one for each of the kids. And all of us are going to go see the new Star Trek film sometime next week, when the Brown-Eyed Girl has a day off.

My flowers:


The pink one on the left is from DD, the lavenderish one on the right is from the Brown-Eyed Girl, and the cream colored one in the back is from Sonshine.

The day itself was spent peacefully with me enjoying the lovely spring day and the herd of wildlife I have enticed into my backyard.


In other news...DD just finished her semester of college, and one of her classes was an art class. One of her projects was to mimic Van Gogh. I have a new piece of artwork on my wall now!


I have taken up sewing again! I don't know entirely why, but partly because I just got rid of all my fat clothes. Of course, all my patterns were sized for the larger version of me, so I needed new patterns. I now have seven new patterns to mix and match.

Second thing on the sewing agenda was taking apart a dress, whose fabric I loved and that I didn't want to just give away with the rest of my clothes. The bodice of the dress is too big, but I've sewn a casing to the skirt, slid in some elastic, and voila! a new skirt. Finished last night and wearing today!

Speaking of clothes and the slimmer me, I finally passed the 144lb. plateau I'd gotten stuck on. I'm hoping to fall into 130s range here soon.

Are you a seamstress? Have you ever laid hands on a sewing machine? What have you made??

Now that summer's here, I'm feeling adrift. Without classes dictating when Sonshine has to be at school, I have to redefine my morning schedule. But how do I want to do that? I know. It's up to me. I wanted to start walking again, but do I do that at home or here in the business park? I should be getting up early and writing/revising, but again, at home or at work? I suppose, I'll work it out eventually.

Anyway...I've had things to share for a while, so lets get started...

In case you couldn't tell by the color scheme of this here blog, I'm somewhat of a patriot. Yes, I love my country and what it's supposed to stand for. My bedroom is decorated in a red/white/blue scheme, with flags even and some Americana knick knacks. Some painted by my dear mother.

I found these socks a few weeks ago. Cool, huh??


Sonshine has been a Lego fan from way back. Of course, at his age, he needs sets that are a little more challenging (and are expensive). The last few years he's received several Star Wars sets and I finally got them hung up in his bedroom: (top: Luke Skywalker's X-wing fighter shoots bottom: Darth Vader's Tie fighter)



He has Han Solo's Millennium Falcon as well, which we had pics of from Christmas and which is still at the fireworks store and not hung from the ceiling:



We haz drums again! Our foot pedal on our original set of drums broke and you you can't play without the foot pedal. I like to play with the kids, plus music helps keep the brain active. So here they are:


And last but not least, the twelve days of Jen.I celebrated my birthday on Mother's Day and got twice the haul! And as promised, in no particular order, is one of my wonderful gifts:


It's not the most exciting gift, but since there are so many other cool pics above, I thought I'd include one of the more boring gifts. *But* without this camera battery charger, we wouldn't *have* any of the other pictures!

And so Happy Hump Day to you!! We'll see you Friday with next installment of the Twelve Days of Jen. :)

Well, Happy Mother's Day--

I know it's a day late, but I was busy on Mother's Day.

Let's rewind just a bit...I have been active. I've walked around the block every weekday evening for the last two weeks, except this past Friday. I gave myself a day off as I woke up with very achy legs. The weekends have been busy with shopping or museum visits and chores.

My diet is not going as well as I'd like. I thought maybe I'd lost some pounds or inches, but I'm not so sure. I've drinking Slimfast for lunch and trying to eat healthy snacks when the hungries get me, but I don't think that's working. Maybe my snacks aren't healthy enough--I know the yogurt I eat is still full of sugar and carbs. But it's sooo yummy. And it's yogurt so it's healthier than say a Snicker bar or a Big Mac, right?

Bah--I've really been trying to cut back on the carbs, but I think that's why I'm still so hungry all the time--not enough *something* for my body to process. I was talking to the gal at the post office on Friday and she suggested more protein. And I think that's probably a good plan. So more hard-boiled eggs, more nuts, more beans. Tomorrow.

I was gone all day yesterday at my MIL's house so I didn't get to prepare for the week like I usually do.

So all of my mothers seemed pleased with their gifts, which is good. And I felt very good about being in a position to give those gifts. That wasn't the case last year.

Yesterday was spent in a small town in the central wilds of Texas. A place I'm hoping to live someday soon. My FIL cooked a brisket--which I'd been craving and we had a nice visit. DD had bought $1 kites for her and brother a week or so ago and on a whim they took them. Now DD is 21 and sonshine is 15, so to see these two enjoy the great outdoors flying kites together was very neat and way cool. They even sucked DD into playing WOW for while. She's resisted so far because she can just be stubborn that way, but hubby said he'd pay for an account for her if she wanted to play regularly. I cautioned her since she's in college and I hear it can be quite addictive, but she's also getting fairly serious about school so...

For prezzies, I really had no great wants or needs. (Especially after last weekend's spending spree.) I just wanted to have a fun day. So I ended up with a plant (I had none.) and two yummy smelling (but too expensive) Yankee candles. I really didn't even want those, but thought the kids needed to give me something regardless. I don't say that in a greedy way, but it's important for them to learn to give gifts (whether to me or whomever).

And amazingly I got some writing done. The word count wasn't off the charts or anything, but a) I wasn't really expecting much of anything and b) I'd been struggling with a few aspects of writing. My plot ideas are really few and far between and everytime I end up with a sex scene, I get performance anxiety. :) So I tricked the muse and was able to write the sex scene.

Well, that's about it.

Have a good week--

Well, as you all should know, Mother's Day was this past Sunday. On Saturday, we trekked out to my sister-in-law's house for dinner--turkey dinner with all the trimmings. De-lish. My mother-in-law was there, and my other sister-in-law flew up from Houston, and we had a grand ol' time visiting and eating and playing games.

On Sunday, my little family stayed home--mostly. Hubby and the kids disappeared mid-morning to buy my gifts. Which was really a two-fer--I got a couple of hours of peace and quiet *and* gifts!

So what did I get you ask... Well, I got a new pair of ear buds for my iPod, a new hard plastic case for my iPod, a couple of movies, a bouquet of tulips, and a new iPod.

I'd asked for one. One with much more storage than my old. Four times as much, I might add, for the same price as my old one two years ago. Gotta love technology. I love my iPod. I have quite a bit of music, but mostly I love to convert my favorite TV shows/movies from DVD and put them on my iPod.

And really I don't ask for much. My husband sometimes complains that I'm too low maintenance. He's the one who tends to spend money in large quantities...

My kids are all asking what I'm planning to do with my old iPod. I haven't told them yet, but I will probably give it to my youngest daughter as part of her graduation present. My older daughter won't be very pleased about that. My son was never in the running. He's not responsible/trustworthy enough yet.

As for the rest of my daughter's graduation gift, we're getting her a Kindle 2 - an e-reader. I want one, too...maybe for my birthday. But they're not cheap, so one may be all we go for--at least in June. My anniversary's in July... ;)

I never imagined I'd be a gadget person, but there you go!

Do you have a favorite gadget?