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May Wrap Up 2026

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      May was both busy and not. It was a mild social month, not intentional, but just how it ended up. Two sisters and husbands were on back to back cruises, left on the 8th, with extended days in London upon docking from second cruise. I'm picking them up today at the airport. Others siblings and friends were busy with their lives. My kids are all busy with their jobs and I certainly wouldn't expect them to keep me entertained. I've read more this month and have a good list of recommendations. Soreness aside, I did a bit of puttering, overdue life admin, and a few mentally stimulating hobbies. I probably watched too much TV or streaming. May 1-7 Derby Day combined with book club and cards was fun. I though needed to miss most of cards as pup needed his shot and we're not young anymore so would have been a time waste to go back asceveryonecwoukd have been wrapping up soon anyway. After son's condo went through the inspection phase, happily, repairs needed were few ...
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Sunday Thoughts

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      It was a good Sunday overall with coffee to start the day. I made my son a huge stuffed omelette before he set out for work, and I had avocado toast and an egg.  My older daughter came over before my sister picked me up to meet others car pooling to a town northwest of the cities for a family graduation party. I made chocolate chip pan cookies and these little s'more snacks to add to the dessert bar. They proved popular with kids and teens. On line they got mixed reviews. I had already wrapped them up with the pan cookies on a large disposable tin, so the pictures not great. There's about three dozen. There should have been more but I kept breaking the crackers. I also ran low on chocolate after going overboard on the pan cookies.     Pup finally slept through the night, from 11:00 after one more bathroom trip, until after 7. I thought he made it without an accident, but he had one right after he woke up barking and before I got him out. I've been gat...
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Friday Fiscal Wellness Check, May 29, 2026

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                                                   For my Friday posts, I copy a previous week, delete the old and update as I go along the week. This helps me add as the week goes on. Here's my recap of Friday, May 22 to Thursday, May 28. I just sort of list things as they come up, then edit before publishing.  Use it Up/Avoid Waste  With just myself home Memorial Day weekend, I used it as an opportunity to use up bits and "one of" items for meals. I got the refrigerator good and tidy. Avoiding Spending/Saving on needs  I chose not to meet a couple sisters for dinner out on Friday. The timing just wasn't great with having all the pets and I really was looking forward to a quiet night and starting the last Outlander season. (I said yes to the pets instead of sisters.) No heat or AC over the weekend, but by Monday it was getting a bit hot i...
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Fun Book Club Idea

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      Photo by Marta Branco      My mom's book club is made up of very busy women, present company excluded. We've had to pivot and adapt on dates and by our June meeting, we'll have read eight books. We'll skip July and August. S, our fearless coordinator and probably the busiest, had a fun idea to cap off the year. We each picked a book and will bring a food or beverage featured in the book. She's doing string cheese and complimentary bites to represent The Measure.  M picked Dear Mrs. Bird but didn't say what she'd bring.       P hopped on  Something from Tiffany's  right away and not to give away the book too much, is going to bringing sweet rolls. I'm stretching a bit, but selected the Venice set book, The Instrumentalist, which did reference the fruit and veg markets so I'm bringing a fruit platter. There's two other regular attendees and three sporadic joiners so we'll see what else might surface.      J...
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The Travel Notebook

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         I've been doing a lots of day dreaming while trying to be fully present. When I want to feel productive with this dreaming, I research and track potential itineraries for vacations and longer stays/slow travel. This is my travel notebook, appropriately using a Princess Cruise line notebook that was part of a Christmas White Elephant gift. Two sisters and their husbands are on back to back cruises as I finish this post and it's been good fun seeing glimpses of their trip.      I've thought a bit about a permanent vacation home but have ruled it out at least for the time being. There's too much to do owning one home on my own, so buying a vacation property feels daunting. My friend who has a Florida place has a love-hate relationship with it. She loves the familiarity of the area, the beautiful beach, and pretty condo, but hates that even with a management company, at a high price point, it consumes a lot of her non-vacation time, and neces...
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Friday Fiscal Wellness Check May 22, 2026

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                                                     I appreciated the feedback and will keep posting these checkins on Friday, though might try and edit word count.  For my Friday posts, I copy the previous week, delete the old and update as I go along the week. This helps me add as the week goes on. I just sort of list things as they come up, then edit before publishing. As I wasn't feeling great last week, I didn't keep track well so this covers a few weeks.  Use it Up/Avoid Waste  Made the strawberry jam from the pre-measured supply. As I've now plenty for my own family and giving, t he remaining frozen fruit will be used for muffins, quick breads, and desserts for get together before the summer fruit starts coming again. I want to get involved in new jam varieties to me such as blueberries and peach. My SIL made last summer and t...
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Recent Lessons Learned Part 2

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      Humor amongst my sister's. Yet, hoping  I'm moving away from this default response to challenges in life.       Oh my gosh do I need to keep moving, reading, learning to feel like I'm not just surviving in life. I blink and the week is over with not much to report or even have a conversation about. I fear I'm in the early steps of heading for one of my gray periods. Summer, with all the promise of sunshine and fun, brings forward complex initiators to anxiety mixed with expectations and loneliness. My physical soreness isn't helping, reminiscent of my sense of helplessness/ hopelessness pre- knee surgery. I'm trying hard to push through this current mood drop and irrational thoughts that my life is just leftovers and crumbs or another day figuring out yet another problem.      I recently got a lesson via a memorial, given by my friend in tribute to her dad. She summarized his life in three "rules" to live by, and I took them as a l...
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