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

It's another week of Weekend Coffee Share. I always love everyone's posts. Are you like me and try to visit everyone? It doesn't always happen but I try. I have loved getting to know different bloggers and I figure if they take the time to write a post, I'll find the time to visit, even if it's a week later. I truly enjoy what you all share and I often learn so much. 

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

If we were having coffee we'd probably talk about:

The weather: Holy cow! What a crazy week. Mostly rain, and then Wednesday a quick storm rolled through for about 30 minutes. Heavy rain, hail, some wind, thunder and lightning. A water spout was spotted at the coast. My FIL said the neighbor saw lightning hit a tree (I've never seen that before). Then it was done. It's been cold as well, however, this weekend we're supposed to get up into the 60's and no rain through Tuesday. Let's hope it sticks. 

What we're thinking about: Our little town is growing with the addition of a lot of houses, apartments, townhomes, etc. To be honest, I hate it. I'd rather see growth in small businesses opening, agriculture, etc...but what makes it worse is that our roads cannot handle that much traffic. There is already too much traffic. They have some proposed road improvements and my boss and I were talking about this the other day. They would help for sure, but they're just in the survey/planning phases, so who knows how long it will take to implement and in the meantime, the building is going on around us. Ugghh. I know people in the cities are used to this, but not me. 

On a deeper level...lol, I'm really enjoying the book study I'm doing with a group of gals on the east coast. There are always great nuggets for me to chew on. 

What we're thankful for: Oh boy...after this week, I'm thankful for a boss that can find humor in little mistakes. I think between all of us, her included, we all made some kind of mistake(s), thankfully, not ones that were outrageous. Still, I'm always frustrated when I make mistakes. We definitely laugh a lot there. 

What we're reading or wanting to read: I'm about 30% of the way through the book River Sing Me Home, I'm really enjoying it. As far as the other books I'm reading, I haven't made much progress. March will be a low books finished month. That's okay, some months are like that. It was a weird month after all...haha.

I'm always adding books to my TBR read, and free books to my Kindle...I know I will NEVER get through them all. I keep saying I need to go through and delete some but I haven't really done it yet. 

I pre-ordered a book called The Blind Woodsman: One man's journey to Find his Purpose on the other side of darkness by John and Ann Furniss. This is a local man (SW Washington) who lost his sight at the age of 16 after a suicide attempt..he is now a master craftsman with wood and recently wrote a memoir. I received it last week and look forward to reading it. He has an IG page and the work he does is amazing. His wife is also an artist. 

What we're listening to or watching: I finished the book Wake Up with Purpose. It was good. There was a lot of basketball talk which I'm not a fan of the sport so that was kind of meh for me, but it's a big part of her life so it fit the story. I would have liked to have just heard more about her thoughts, her routines, her mindsets, etc..that she feels contributed to her longevity, but hey, she's a 103 year old woman, writing a book, she can do what she wants..haha! I just started Back to the Prairie by Melissa Gilbert. It's been good so far. She's easy to listen to and it's interesting to hear about her life and the how and why she left the rat race of Hollywood. 

I've listened to some podcasts, no shows or movies. Yesterday my boss was asking me if I watched The Amazing Race. We used to watch it all the time and got out of it...I want to start watching it again. 

Around the house: Wednesday we had all our blinds installed in the new part of the house. Unfortunately when we ordered them, they couldn't match the ones we already have because they discontinued those (we used the same company)...our new ones are a bit darker than the trim, but I think it still looks nice. While they were here, they checked all our other blinds and made any needed adjustments. However, we discovered that they didn't make the light blocking shades correct so they need to remake and re-install..the blocking material didn't go all the way across so there is about 1" on each side where light filters through the material.

I also received our other mirror for the bathroom so as soon as we get the bathroom walls ship-lapped we'll put them up. I'm looking forward to getting the bathroom complete. 

We're supposed to get some nice weather, so I'm going to try going outside and doing some clean up of areas that really need it. 

For the love of food: It was a pretty simple week on the food front. Nothing special or new. For Easter we decided to do cheese fondue with a variety of things to dip in the cheese, as well as deviled eggs, salad and desserts. I'm going to make a banana cream cheesecake that is just so good. You could probably do another fruit, but we love the banana. I also need to finish my menu for next week as well. 

Also flavored another batch of Kombucha. I tried blood orange this time and a combo of blood orange-pineapple. Also did apple pear, and plain pineapple. 

Favorite quote: Last weeks #WQ was all about Easter/Beliefs. You can find my post here.

Favorite photo(s): The grandkids were with us all day last Saturday through Sunday. They slept in our guest room for the first time. They like the idea that it's "their" bed. Haha. They did pretty good too. 

We made log houses.

We found a frog in our toy bucket and moved him to the planter. 

Who remembers these sun catchers? I spotted these at our Grocery Outlet (like an Aldi's) for 1.99, so I bought 3. The ones I usually see are ones you paint and I never like how they turn out. Everyone chose one, and then I separated all our colors into silicone muffin liners. My mom used to store the extras in baby food jars. That was a fun memory to pop up. It was definitely tricky for their little fingers. Indy did well, Pepper just put them wherever, which in the end, was fine..haha. 

They all probably could have used a bit more in the because there were gaps when it was done, but it was fun. 

My latest puzzle is coming along...I'm getting close enough to being done that I separated the remaining pieces by shape. I'm finding this makes it easier because as you near the end, the shape you need is more obvious. 

My daughter and son in law have someone living with them for a few months. The kids love him, and the other day he pulled up but wasn't getting out of the car (he was talking on the phone to an insurance adjuster)...they sat their forever debating why he wasn't getting out of the car and when he was getting out, etc...I took this pic and sent it to him. 

Random or not so random things: 

Today (Saturday) I'm enjoying time in the kitchen making bread and a dessert for Easter. I went grocery shopping early this morning after my book study group was done. Surprisingly, the stores weren't busy and I was home sooner than I thought I would be. I feel like I'm being very productive. I'm finishing this post in between stretching and folding sourdough and doing other things. I have music on and it's a beautiful day outside. 

Last Wednesday later afternoon, a friend and I went to a clay studio and painted some items. Of course I forgot to take pictures. I chose a bowl. I think it was meant to be an "ice cream" bowl because it looks like an ice cream cone, kind of. Anyways..I figured I could use it for whatever or put a plant in it. I've never done this before and to be honest, I really struggled. I couldn't figure out what colors, and when I did decide, I had a hard time deciding how to paint it. I saw examples, but then was like "well, how in the world did they get it like that". I was seeing the finished product and clearly I was in the first part before it was fired, glazed, etc...so it was just "plain, flat, etc". So I just did a few colors, kept it very basic and we'll just see what happens. I'd love to do it again though. One thing I want to do is always be willing to learn or try something new. Afterwards, we walked next door to a popular Mexican restaurant and ate. It was very good. I had two tacos, a Carnitas and a Pescado Frito (fish), both were very good. I also tried a coffee drink called Hipster Doofus...lol. It was Horchata with cold brew coffee. 

I've been trying to figure out when to fly to Ohio to visit my family. I was going to make another stop in S.C. to visit one of my HS best friends, but holy cow, flights are expensive, especially a bunch of one way tickets, so I think I'll plan to do that side trip next year. 

I hope everyone has a great Easter tomorrow if you celebrate and how you celebrate. See you next weekend. 

With Joy Unquenchable,

Kirstin