Weekend Coffee Share.....Come Sit with Me

Check out all the other posts on Weekend Coffee Share, hosted by Natalie the Explorer. I'm off to go visit some now. #weekendcoffeeshare

The Weather: Oh Lord.....we're back up in the 100's. I mean, really!!!! BUT good news is our AC is back up and running as of Wednesday. It's only supposed to last the next 3 days then hopefully ease back down. The skies are also hazy from the wildfires. 

What I'm thinking about: Oh, this and that. A little of everything pertaining to life. Do you know how expensive it is to put an obituary in a newspaper? We were going to put my dads obit in 3 different papers (the town he was born, raised and lived for years, the small town we moved to and lived in for quite a few years, and then the county paper where he was currently living. Do you know it would have cost over $600 to put it in all three! We passed. Instead I wrote out something, put a picture with it and printed it to mail to family and friends who wanted one. Then I made a Jpeg version that we could share around on FB. I think it's much more personal and my dad would probably have preferred that. 

What I'm thankful for: Perspective, and that while we tend to view things from our own perspective, it's so important to be willing to at least look at things from another perspective. The way we view it may not change, but at least we were willing. 

What I'm reading: I tried to get a lot of reading done on our trip last weekend, but didn't get as much as I'd like. I'm almost done with Jo Tracys book (one of a few) I bought and downloaded on my kindle. I'm so close but have been too tired to finish the last few days. I will say I want to kick "Suse" in the shins for something she did. Lol. I was like "WHAT!" I also am halfway done with the book The Sweetness of Doing Nothing. I'm loving it. My book club meeting is tonight and I can't wait to discuss our last book and get ready to choose a new one. Also I had mentioned awhile back about joining the book box club "Shelfrighteous". The latest box will ship the first of September and I can't wait. The book we will be getting is called The Wife Between Us. It sounds interesting. 

Around the house: Well, boy! A LOT is going on around the house. Planned and unplanned. We decided that we will be replacing the kitchen and hall floor and will use the same flooring that is going into the new part of the house. This is a good thing because while I loved the floor we had (stamped and stained concrete) it was wearing, hard to clean and we were wondering how we were going to make the transition work between old and new...replacing the floor will make it flow much more smoothly. Walls will be repainted as well in there. Hubby is picking up tile this weekend for the bathroom. 

Painting has begun in the rooms. Loving the colors we chose. We have one living room wall that we need to shiplap and then it will be painted green. 

Part of the main part of the house.

Office! Love this color though it is more blue than the photo looks. 

Master Bedroom

Master bath

State of the current kitchen. After 2 1/2 weeks of this unit making noise and pumping hot air out, we finally turned it off yesterday. Yay. 

Hubby and a friend are picking up appliances tomorrow morning. Cabinets should be ready and delivered in the next few weeks. We still need rest of the tile for bathroom, granite for counters and trim work. Buy sinks and hardware. So still a lot to do, but it's coming along. Everything will just still be chaos for several more months. 

What I'm learning, realizing or understanding: These times we are in are so heartbreaking because it just seems that everyone is so stuck in what they think and believe that there isn't room to hear anyone else's point of view or narrative, on a variety of topics but especially the BIG one.There's no room for conversation without judgement. It seems that people aren't allowed to have their own opinion without villifying others or feeling villified themselves. I don't say much about anything because I don't like confrontation whatsoever and I feel like no matter what side of the coin you are on people are willing to throw out the history of what they know about you and judge you. Ugghh.  

From the Kitchen: Because of the chaos, not a whole lot still, though now that the AC is fixed, it's not quite the sauna it has been. I've been searching Pinterest for some new recipes to try. I also want to try a sourdough loaf with Kalamata Olives in it. I don't typically like them, but one of the breads we bought on our trip had them in it and it was so good. For our book club tonight I'm making a simple cheese dip that my MIL makes. It's simply a an 2- 8oz pkg of cream cheese, a jar of salsa and 2 c. shredded cheese. It's so good. I usually mix the cream cheese and shredded cheese first, then add the salsa. I sometimes add chopped olives as well. 

Favorite Quote from the week: I actually just heard this one again this morning but had heard it awhile back from someone else and it is simply "be where your feet are". Be present, Be in the moment. Where you are and who you're with.

What I've listened to: Last week while we were gone, I spent a lot of time sitting on the deck with no noise. No music, no podcasts, just silence and nature. My hubby finds it easy to wind down with a good TV show or movie, but me, I enjoy just being in silence sometimes. I love those times. There are some podcasts I want to listen to, but just haven't had an opportunity to focus on them. 

Randomness: We had a wonderful time in the San Juan Islands. We hiked to some beautiful waterfalls, ate lunch at an oyster farm. I tried raw oysters in honor of my dad. I'm not an oyster fan, but I managed. Then we ate wonderful fish and chips, and crab and cheese tater tots. On Sunday we took the ferry over to another island and spent the day exploring. We visited a park called "English Camp" at the suggestion of a man we met at one of the marinas (one of my hubby's favorite things to do, even though he's more of an introvert) is to chat with some of the people he meets that seem to be locals, etc. Anyways, this place was pretty neat, and the history interesting. I will maybe at some point do a post on this trip but for now if you're interested, here's a link to the history of it. We also visited an amazing sculpture park and chatted with one of the board members who happened to be scrubbing a bridge. People love to share history if you stop and take time to ask. 

I also join in on Sunday Stills photo challenge and I made sure I snapped some photos that I knew I could use in upcoming challenges. I still need to go through and edit all the photos I took, but I needed to delete some things off my computer to make room.

While we were gone, our 6 month old grand daughter learned to crawl and now is all up in her big brothers business. 

Photo(s) of the Week:

One of the many waterfalls on our hike one day. So peaceful.

My oyster adventure. I only ate three. 

Lighthouse on San Juan Island. I really wanted to see a whale but none were to be seen. 

So much fun exploring the creek and walking along the banks. I could do this all day.

This bear was one of the sculptures at the San Juan Sculpture Park. I took more photos on my camera. I just haven't uploaded yet. 

We also visited a pottery shop and they had this neat treehouse. 

With Joy Unquenchable,

Kirstin