Sweet friends, it’s the first of the month (kinda), which means it’s time for Duke’s Mixture 06.09.2022. In this edition, I am joining my friends Rebecca at Knit by God’s Hand and Jennifer at All 4 Boys for Thankful Thursday. I am also joining Anne at In Residence again for her monthly Currently link-up…albeit a week late. And throwing in some hodgepodge for good measure with my friend Joyce at From This Side of the Pond. You can read my last Duke’s Mixture post, written waaaaay back in March, here. I hope these posts are as much fun to read as they are to write!!
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CURRENTLY 06.2022
Here are the words we are considering for June’s Currently – celebrating, giving, taking, trying, and wearing. Come on back 07.06.2022 when we will be talking about what we’re currently enjoying, having, hoping, picking, and using. So enjoy participating in this series with Anne.
Celebrating…
Memorial Day in Tucson. So enjoyed our 4-day road trip to Loews Ventana Canyon Resort. The resort was really pretty. Tucked into the side of a mountain with trails and gardens and a waterfall on property. Golf course. Two swimming pools. Super comfy bed and pillows. We indulged in a massage, endured an 8+ mile round-trip hike to 7 Falls in Sabino Canyon. Saw “Top Gun 2,” ate out, drank wine in the huge hotel bathtub. And going out and returning home we stopped at Keeling Schaefer Winery and Tasting Room in Wilcox, Arizona. Their Kokopelli Sweet Lucy Moscato is divine.
Giving…
away books to members of my online book club. Each month I give the group a consideration list of summaries for 8-10 books. Then the gals vote for their choice for the coming month’s book. Once the winning title is determined, I pose a question to the group and anyone who answers the question correctly wins a copy of the book of the month.
The members voted to read The Love of My Life by Rosie Walsh for our June book. I gave away 3 copies of this book to members who correctly guessed the holiday closest to my wedding anniversary is Independence Day, the 4th of July. Such a good book!! Not at all a love story, as the title might suggest. Kind of a twisty mystery. Also gave away a copy of our second-place book for June, Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus. I have just started it. Not sure where it’s headed.
Taking…
care of PC. We got home from our Memorial Day trip to Tucson on that Monday afternoon. He had begun feeling poorly Saturday night and Sunday. His body aches, sore throat, chills, and cough were worse on Monday so I did the driving home. Tuesday morning when he woke up feverish, Paul decided to take a Covid test and it was positive. On Thursday, I was feverish but have never gotten a positive Covid test. Have been playing nurse trying to take care of my Prince Charming while trying to stay well myself.
Trying…
to get back to blogging slowly. Tomorrow I will share another installment of Where Bloggers Live. Want to just blog when I feel like it. It had become stressful for me and felt like something else I had to do on my already full plate. Now that school is out and we are beginning to feel better again, I hope to have more ME time. Time for writing, blogging and doing other things I enjoy. Like creating one of these book spine villages below with the terribly clever Jennifer Chamberlin at The Maker Beehive and my equally clever sister Valerie.
Wearing…
The lemon skirt and pin stripe blouse is an outfit from New York & Company that I have had for a very long time. The skirt became too big in the waist and I had it altered but the guy that altered it was a real creep. And it is still too big. Wore this outfit to sub at Lucia’s school.
The dress in the middle is from Versona. PC picked it out. I think it is borderline too short and too young for me. It features a ditsy floral print in pink and blue. And it is the dress I forgot to pack the slip for. I was flattered that he liked the dress on me, though.
The last look is an Amazon belted tee shirt dress and a Target cardi. It’s probably my favorite of the three. I just ordered a similar dress in a turquoisy-teal color. Looking forward to wearing them both when it is just too hot for jeans.
HodgePodge
Joyce thinks up the most interesting questions for this series. I like to join up with her for hodgepodge whenever I can.
Daughters and Sons
1. “A daughter’s a daughter all her life, but a son’s a son til he takes a wife.” What say you? Elaborate. Probably depends on the daughter. And the son!! I know my daughters are daughters for life. And I am my mom’s (and dad’s) daughter for life. But I am a mama of only daughters so I can’t personally speak to how I would feel about a son. I imagine I would love him just as much. The mamas I am close to who do have sons love them fiercely. It might be interesting to have a mother-child relationship that doesn’t involve a lot of hormones.
Cute as a June Bug
2. Something you’ve seen recently that was ‘cuter than a June bug’? My grandkids are always cuter than a June bug. Cami, or Clammy as we call her, has had strep throat this week. But girlfriend has worn a full face of makeup everyday despite being sick!! She is mesmerized by the cosmetics hand-me-downs her mama has given her. Paul says Cami has her make up gun set to “Alice Cooper.”
And this week Declan is discovering real people food. He has tried avocado, banana, pear, carrot and loved licking the bowl Brennyn had eaten Cajun air fryer shrimp and veggies out of.
Lastly, check out the cuteness I will be kitty-sitting this weekend. I have started working for Rover.com, doing drop in visits on folks’ pets, and taking dogs on walks. Was contacted this week to watch Pepper, and the housemates her family is fostering right now = 2 mama kitties and 12 4-week-old kittens. PC and I are going to be in pig heaven playing with all of these babies.
Ice Cream You Scream
3. ‘You can’t buy happiness, but you can buy ice cream and that’s pretty much the same thing.’ Agree or disagree? Last time you had a serving of happiness ice cream? Dish-cone-milkshake-sundae…which one do you choose? Totally agree. And give me all of the above. I will eat ice cream in any form or flavor. Last time I had ice cream? Last night. While working on this post. Might have it again tonight, too. It is my favorite sin.
Against the Tide
4. What is one way/area in which you’re currently ‘swimming against the tide‘? Tough one. Maybe with blogging. I am refusing to allow myself to get all wrapped around the hub about blogging again. I like to write and blogging provides me an outlet to do so. Not here to influence or persuade anyone about anything.
Summer Plans
5. Three things you’re looking forward to this summer?
- swimming in our pool
- possibly meeting up with Brennyn and fam at South Padre Island for a few days
- getting our pool fixed – finally
Randomness
6. Insert your own random thought here. We had our first real rain of 2022 last night. It was delightful. And it was all because I did the rain dance about 4:30 yesterday afternoon. Sure, I saw the puffy gray clouds building in the northern skies. True, this time of year is often referred to as our ‘monsoon’ season. But we haven’t had more than 2 drops of rain in the 6 months of 2022. I decided Mother Nature needed my help and took matters into my own hands…or dancing feet. The result was an hour-long rain complete with lightning, thunder and pea-sized hail. It was glorious.
Thankful Thursday
Joining Rebecca Jo and Jennifer in sharing the hosting responsibilities for the Thankful Thursday series. However, I have been away from blogging for several months. Some weeks, you might discover posts from all 3 of us, other Thursdays, it might just be one of us hosting. Sometimes you might find a post from me on a Friday!! But whatever the case, YOU are always welcome to join us!!
STRAIGHT FROM MY GRATITUDE JOURNAL
For my Thankful Thursday posts, I usually share the ‘gratefuls’ I’ve listed in my gratitude journal over the week or month, whatever length of time has elapsed since my last Thankful Thursday post. Always lots of things to be thankful for even if I don’t get around to writing a post about them all. This is the gratitude I have been using for almost a year.
So thankful for:
- my relationship with PC
- my babies and their babies
- Jeri, my mom’s visiting nurse
- church messages about relationships
- blooms and now baby peaches on our peach tree
- paying off bills
- opportunities to substitute teach and pet-tend on Rover.com
- working out
- summer evening walks
- a wonderful trip to Tucson with PC
- baby hummingbirds in the nest in our magnolia
- bloom on my transplanted Christmas cactus clipping
- good books and friends to read with
- electricity, water, food and our home
- money to replace our air conditioner
- the foundation my parents gave us
- having fairly mild cases of Covid (or whatever it was I had)
- the many times my mom has fallen but not been seriously hurt
- sleeping well
- summer
Your Turn
Not sure I know where the week went. Well, yes, I do. I spent most of everyday floundering around trying to feel better. And tonight I feel almost, almost 100%.
How would you respond to this month’s currentlies and hodgepodge questions? What are you thankful for this week? Link up your thankful Thursday post or share in a comment below.
Thank you for coming by. I will be catching up with my blog reading this weekend. Going to be 107* on Saturday so I think I will let PC go to his baseball game alone while I stay home in the AC. See you then!!
Hugs and kisses,
Oh, Leslie! It’s so good to “see” you again! And, no! That dress is neither too short nor too young for you! You look gorgeous in it! I am only going to hit or miss on your topics tonight! I think PC is correct re: the makeup gun…definitely Alice Cooper vibes! And, Declan…those fingers…sooo cute!! I’m intrigued by the book spine villages…please fill me in! Last…I’d have all of those little kittens stuffed in my pockets! There is nothing like a tiger kitty! Oh, one last thing…come back to blogging when you want and only when you want (that’s not to say I don’t miss you)!
https://marshainthemiddle.com/
Oh, Marsha, we are just getting started on the book spine village project but it is such fun already. Check out Jennifer Chamberlin’s great online classes for collage and other media. They are simple, straightforward and result in some pretty clever ‘art’. You can find them here: https://www.themakerbeehive.com/. Come join us!!
Are there photos of the rain dance? 😉 It was pretty effective, its power even reached over here!
That photo of Alice/Cami with the smudged eye make up – so cute. Lovely to see a new blog post from you, hope that PC is now fully recovered and that you managed to avoid sharing the germs! x
Those kitties are adorable! Hope you and PC are over thé worst of your illnesses.
We are feeling almost normal today. So enjoyed my kitty-sitting stint!!
Hope you are doing well health wise. We also had covid here this week and Gabbie did not test positive on a home test but did on a PCR. I tested positive on the home test. So I’m not sure why they work for some but not others! Always good to catch up with you!
So much to read and so many questions to answer Leslie! Loved the Alice Cooper makeup on your granddaughter and I totally understand where you’re coming from in regard to blogging. In answer to the son/daughter quote, I found it the opposite – our daughter disconnected a lot from us when she got married – she and her husband are a very intermeshed couple and we’re very peripheral after being much closer in your younger days. Our son was always a bit of a lone wolf, but he married a lovely family oriented girl who brought him closer to us – so I guess everything has its exceptions to the rule… Lovely to see you back and enjoying life so much. x
Both of my sons-in-law are very close to their parents, their mothers in particular. My brother and my mom have a very close bond. I think it is a relationship free of hormones, unlike mother and daughter relationships. It is interesting that your lone wolf son has grown to be so close to you all now that he is married.
My Cami is a character. That baby loves to put on ‘ake up. She just has a heavy hand with her makeup brush!!
You know how to get in all the good in a blog post – love it!
Look at those destination pics – GORGEOUS!!! As are you in your cute OOTD!!!! I just love your style so much!
Sleeping well – isnt that the truth for a gratitude!!! Whew – I rarely get full nights sleep & when they happen – its such a blessing!
What a great update! Always enjoy your posts (and when you pop up in my comments, too!!) I totally say “blog when you enjoy it”…goodness, blogging should be anything but stressful!! So nice that you and PC were able to get away. I know you have been looking forward to it – and that resort looks wonderful! So sweet that he picked out a cute dress for you:) (which may or may have led to enjoying wine in the bathtub…ha! Just sayin) Sorry he came home sick. Hope both of you are feeling better. And, no more covid!! That Declan licking the bowl – love it! Nothing like real food!! Hope you have a great week ahead! Looking forward to even another post soon. Hugs –
Declan is the cutest! I love that sweet baby pudge! You captured an adorable photo of him! Love your cute outfits, especially that lemon print skirt. I hope you and PC are feeling better by now!
Thank you so much. Other than being very sleepy and tired, we are over the hump.
I am so excited to be flying to see Declan (and his fam) next month. Thank you for the sweet words about his photo. He is pretty cute. And a genuinely happy baby. Can’t wait to hold him again.
So glad that you are both feeling better!!! Billy just had Covid as well! He slept in his office in the basement for ten days – it was crazy but might have worked. Wyatt and I never developed symptoms and after 13 home tests, I still had never tested positive. He had a mild case as well, thank goodness. Mostly fatigue and a cough.
Your grandbabies are so darn cute!!! I bet you are so happy you can see them again!
Wow, I hope Billy’s kind efforts kept you and Wyatt from getting sick. I knew I was doomed because PC and I had been on vacation and had eaten after each other and drunk after each other. Went to a wine tasting twice where we shared the same glass. I was doomed to get it. But it took four negative tests before it finally showed up even though I was having symptoms for days before my positive.
Thank you for the sweet words about my grandbabies. I just bought tickets to see my Ft. Worth grandbabies the end of July. Can’t wait.