Category: house

Day 365: Busy

~ Dona ~ 2 Comments

Another delightful full night’s sleep left me feeling like tackling a bunch of chores including baking a loaf of sandwich bread and moving the bread machine to the pantry. Unfortunately the bread machine had baked its last loaf earlier in the week, because the paddles refused to move today and nothing I did (or read about doing on Professor Google) helped. Dean and I decided that we’d just get a new one. After all that bread machine was at least 15 years old. Delightfully I was able to salvage the loaf I’d put in the bread machine — sort of. It will make good croutons.

Andrew and Alex called on their way back from the airport to see if I wanted to have dinner with them tomorrow for my birthday. I said I wanted takeout from somewhere near them and we’d bring the dessert. Delightful!

Days 356-363: Unpacking, Catching Up, Eating Down the Freezer and Enjoying Being Home

~ Dona ~ 1 Comment

Normally it takes me up to a week to unpack after a trip, but I was determined to get it done in much less time than that. I unpacked my clothes and did laundry on Friday, then finished with my electronics and toiletries on Saturday. (Yes, I pack too much of everything when I travel, especially by car). I was delighted when everything was where it belonged, including suitcases.

I’d not kept up with this blog while I was gone, so I made it a priority to do so. After all, it is almost to the end of the project. Seeing my table of days and dates become yellow (see photo above) is delightful.

We decided to eat all the food from the freezer before purchasing more food — except essentials and groceries to compliment whatever food was in the freezer, so we began doing that, although when it was his days to cook Dean didn’t seem to understand the concept since nothing he used for his meals was in the freezer. We’ve determined that I will cook for the foreseeable future. Seeing the contents of the freezer become fewer is delightful.

It’s good to be home. No — it’s delightful to be home.

Days 354-355: Some Sanity and Home Sweet Home

~ Dona ~ 1 Comment

We left the lodge around noon and drove to Madison where we were paying Alexandria and Peter a brief visit to check out their new home. It was utterly delightful. I stopped and bought some Minocqua Brewing Company‘s beer and Alexandria and Peter gave us more. (Minocqua Brewing Company used to have a restaurant/Brewery in Minocqua but after they displayed a Biden/Harris sign outside their restaurant they were no longer welcome there and the restaurant is now a pizza place. They still brew beer in Madison though.)

After the visit with Alexandria and Peter we headed back to Bethesda, stopping at a hotel in Indiana for the night.

Needless to say, being home is delightful.

Days 317-318: Two Delightfully Quiet Days

~ Dona ~ 1 Comment

Dean spent his day off working and I started the after-guest cleanup. I pretty much cleaned up the kitchen on Sunday, but there was more to do — like putting things away. I also started changing the bed sheets, laughing at myself because I would make the world’s worst bed and breakfast owner since it takes me days to make the beds after guests. Mostly because I hate doing it, but also because it involves some amount of effort. The beds are still not completely made. Ah well, there’s always tomorrow. (now that I know it is only Tuesday — I kept thinking it was Wednesday).

I snapped a photo of flowers from a friend* (above) that Alex left with us and the paper fortune teller template (below).

*Funny story about the flowers. When I was putting the flowers from a friend into a vase the friend apologized for the strong fragrance of the mountain mint. I didn’t think anything of it, but later that night I kept thinking I smelled pot (or a clove cigarette — which annoyed me — the cigarette, not the pot). The next morning I smelled it again and could not figure out why it was so strong in the dining room. Then I remembered my friend’s warning about the mountain mint!

Day 262: Catching Up

~ Dona ~ 1 Comment

Spent today getting delightfully caught up on the delights of the past week or so and posted them here.

I also sent two thank you notes and prepared two packages to be mailed. One was a songbook that once belonged to my Aunt Nancy. Because her daughter, Michelle, and I have been talking on Facebook, I decided to send it to her. The other was a photograph of my Uncle Dick when he was in the Army. I sent that to my cousin Debbie, having promised to do so months ago.

Days 247-249: Still Home

~ Dona ~ 1 Comment

As delightful as the get-away was, it was also delightful to be home. At home the chairs are all comfortable (the Airbnb had chairs, but only one inside one was comfortable and that’s where Dean chose to work all day. The bedroom porch had two comfortable chairs, but the weather was not always nice enough to spend time there.

At home we have two indoor showers. The Airbnb had a shower, but it was outside and while it was fun showering there when the weather was nice, it was not so nice when the weather was chilly.

I was happy to be home with my plants — plants really make me happy these days. I was delighted to see that the snapdragon that planted itself in a crack in the front porch was in full bloom when we got home!