Friday Finds

My mother-in-law was a pack-rat. She saved and "collected" so many things. Some of the things are worthless and cause us to chuckle, but some are worthwhile. Therein lies the problem!

We've found we must go through every box and stack because one never knows what you'll find! It's slow going so we've agreed to try and do a little each day.

My father-in-law, at 95, is the exact opposite. He will throw away anything that gets in his way of cleaning a counter or shelf. 

Because of this, we have to remove everything from his assisted living apartment that is not needed or necessary to him.

We box it up as fast as we can and have stored it for safe-keeping while we do a little at a time. Here's some interesting things I found while emptying a box...

This Woman's Day from 1965 cost just 15 cents! Mom was crazy about doll's, doll patterns, and books about dolls. She cut parts of magazines out to save for both information and patterns.

The magazine pages included page after page of old dolls in different categories...here's just a few of them.

Also in this box, several books on making various type dolls...

And my favorite...a book on embroidering animals...I'll add this book to my "someday" pile. I love to embroider, but haven't done it for years.

And here's an article on Frontier Doctors from Texas Highways magazine...another piece I'll squirrel away on my Texas Research shelf!

Two sets of fake pearls...or are they real? No telling! We'll have to take the jewelry to someone who can appraise it. 

I'm betting these are not expensive, but there are some family pieces that need an evaluation so we'll take the rest just in case.

Just the other day, due to a conversation, I wanted to re-read The Constitution. As if by magic, a copy was at the top of the first box I opened!

Cheryl, of the blog Cheryl's Frugal Corner, posted the other day about "letting go" by clearing out all the unneeded things we have. She talked about how every piece of clutter represents $$$ spent. So true. 

I agreed with her at the time and still do, but I am finding it interesting seeing what one woman saved from all the things she bought. 

I'm saving some of her things for myself, hoping for a time in the future when I can explore them fully and understand her a little better. 

Hopefully our three daughters will read this post, and they won't have to wonder why I saved some of these things shown in this post today. 

They'll have so many other things to ponder after all! I can hear them now laughing away and asking, "What in the world was she saving THIS thing for?"

Thanks for dropping by!

A "Nothing Is A Coincidence" Moment

I pulled some muscles sitting and sleeping all night in a chair in my mother-in-law's hospital room on June 5th, the day the doctors removed her from all life support equipment. 

Jessie Riding "Shot-Gun" With Me In Better Days

Jessie passed away on June 7th. It was a busy time for us with my 95-year-old father-in-law to comfort and care for, a funeral to arrange, a serious medical issue my husband was faced with along with taking care of Jessie's personal possessions and finances. 

I ignored my sore back and it slowly got much worse!  Last Saturday, I finally went to our doctor's urgent care clinic to get muscle relaxers for my back. Whenever I'm in a stressful situation, my back is my weak point. 

Because the urgent care clinic closes at noon on Saturdays, the doctor printed the prescription instead of faxing it to our pharmacy. Sometimes there's a problem with the machines' interaction and the kind doctor wanted to make sure the prescription got there with no problem.

When I dropped off the prescription, the technician obviously wanted me to leave the store and come back later in the day to pick it up. She said it would be at least an hour before they would have it filled. 

I said that's OK, that I would just look around because my back made it too painful to get in and out of my car. She weakened a little.

I also asked her to put notification in their records that my mother-in-law was recently deceased in case she had prescriptions on automatic renewal. She softened a lot.

Just 10 minutes later, I got a text message from the Pharmacy section that my prescription was ready for pick-up. I headed back across the store and went to the "pick-up" window where another clerk completed my transaction.

I passed the "drop-off" window where the first clerk was talking to a young woman with 2 small children in her shopping cart. Something made me stop and wait to say thank you to the clerk for expediting my prescription.

The young woman, with phone in hand, told the clerk her husband said he could wait until payday for the medicine since the Co-Pay was more than they could afford at $48.

Thinking of my mother-in-law and how drugs had relieved her suffering as she left this world for the next, I asked the woman if she would be able to pay for the medicine if I paid $20 of it? 

She said yes, but that she couldn't accept the money from me.  As I handed the clerk the money, I said to the young woman: "Well it's not from me, it's from my mother-in-law!"  

I told her my mother-in-law's funeral was 4 days before and I was 100% sure she had orchestrated the situation that brought me to that register at just that moment. 

I think an angel was trying to earn her wings that day. Just to make sure she does, I plan to help my mother-in-law earn her wings every chance I get for the next year. I hope you will too! 

And if you do have one of those "nothing is a coincidence" moments too, I hope you'll come back and let me know about it with a comment. I would love to hear about the sweet goodness in the world.

Thanks for dropping by!

Life Happens On The Way To Hallelujah Square

On Thursday, June 7th, my mother-in-law, Jessie, left this world for a better one. 

After 71 years of marriage and at age 95, Raymond has lost his sweetheart. 

Tomorrow we celebrate mom's life with a service centered on a poem she wrote in 1994 called "Hallelujah Square." We will try not to cry for our loss as we share memories of how she touched our lives.

Tomorrow, in her honor, may you hug your loved ones just a little longer, speak just a little kinder, and love with just a little more joy.

Thank you, Jessie, for dropping by my life!

Plants And Flowers Around Town

When we're out and about in Texas, I love to look for garden inspiration in and around the towns we visit.

Around McKinney Texas today lovely flower pots are in bloom...

Most shops have pots full of plants and flowers, but some have flowers planted down in the sidewalk dividers too.

A few years back, one of the shopping centers even created a Long Horn topiary to add some greenery to a bedding area...

The shop called My Favorite Room is one of my favorite stops, not only for the wonderful furniture they sell, but for their potted garden in front of the shop.

 The entry to the shop is on the north side of the building and gets less of the hot summer sun than a west side exposure would get. 

I try to remember that when I want to duplicate their look. When we first bought our house, the builder had planted evergreen trees like the ones potted in these pictures of My Favorite Room's entry.

The evergreens our builder planted were on the east..and sort of south...side of our house (where our entryway is) and that summer was terribly hot. We had lots of days with temperatures over 100 degrees, and those poor trees did not last at all!

I'll take the cue from this shop and maybe try planting some of these type trees on the north side of the house in the future. 

When you're not a good gardener, but love the look, I've finally learned it's best to study and copy the ideas of others who do it better. 

If you are looking for ideas for your garden too, come join the party at Everyday Living's Garden Party here.

Thanks for dropping by!

Why Monday Trade Days Are Never On Monday

Texas has a long held tradition of holding gatherings called Monday Trade Days. 

I'm a transplanted native Californian who married a native Texan from an old Texas family. 

When I first moved to Texas in 2005, I was somewhat confused since Monday Trade Days are held on the weekend and are never held on a Monday!

I've learned back in the olden days of Texas, farm and ranch families often lived far out of town and made monthly trips into town in their wagons to buy dry goods (flours, sugar, fabric) and to sell or trade their farm produce, along with ranch animals and such. 

In these Texas communities, the people waited for the "circuit" judge and "circuit" minister to come to their town at a set time period. 

The two would ride a circuit, arriving in town to conduct weddings and church on Sunday, and then court business on Monday, before riding on to the next town. 

One town would be given the first Monday of the month to conduct court business, another town some riding distance away would be assigned the second Monday, another town the third Monday, and another the fourth.  

In Canton Texas, the town was assigned the first Monday of the month. First Monday Trade Days is still held in Canton on the Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday prior to the first Monday of the month.

Since next Monday is the first Monday in June, Canton's First Monday Trade Days for June will actually start this Thursday (May 31st) and go through the weekend.

In McKinney Texas, where my husband's family is from, the town was assigned the third Monday of the month. 

McKinney still carries on the tradition and holds monthly Third Monday Trade Days on the Friday, Saturday and Sunday before the third Monday of the month.

According to my in-laws (ages 92 and 95), McKinney held a dance on the Saturday night of Monday Trade Days, as most Texas towns did. 

When I first moved to Texas, I was surprised at how much Texans love to dance, especially the men! 

The Texas Two-Step is the dance of choice here, and you'd better be wearing your boots 'cuz you can't dance The Texas Two-Step without them.

My father-in-law remembers from the time he was a young boy, his father had a Boot and Saddle Shop in McKinney (in this building in the picture below), played a mean fiddle, and "called" the dances at the Saturday night events. 

Now you know why Texas' Monday Trade Days are never held on Monday. 

This week I'm joining the Share Your Cup party at Have A Cup Of Mrs. Olson's and the Vintage Charm Party at My Thrift Store Addictions. Hope you'll join these parties too.

Thanks for dropping by!

Carnival

How long has it been since you've been to the carnival? 

When we were kids back in the last century, the carnival was a big deal for us small town kids.

Every spring, a carnival now comes to our small town in Texas. The carnival sets up on a Friday and stays through the following weekend. 

For the last two years, the carnival has coincided with a spring break visit of two of our grandkids who love to go to the carnival. 

The kids love the rides that are a little more tame than these two, and mom and dad buy each of them a day long pass so we stay as long as we can...

The littlest granddaughter usually lets us know when it's time to go home...

Thanks for dropping by!

The Garden: What Came Back This Year

Outside in the front, the pots are starting to come to life. Several plants from last year even sprouted up on their own...

Bless my little brown thumb...I'm as shocked as you are!

For instance, this Hydrangea died out early last summer, but look...here it is again.

I was just a few days away from buying a new Hydrangea plant when I realized this one was coming back on its own.

I'll bet this happens to you all the time, but it's a first for me.

Wild Bill's little fig tree popped right up again and already has figs coming out. 

It's a 3rd-generation-cutting tree (cutting from his grandparent's tree became his mother's tree, and a cutting from mom's tree became ours) that wilts and dies down some in late fall each year, but as soon as it gets some sun the leaves start popping out again. It's a hardy one!

It's long past time to put the little fig tree in the ground, but we're trying to keep it in a pot so it's movable.  That way, if we sell the house this year we can still take it with us.

Rosemary, Mint, and Boxwood are three more plants that came back this year along with a few more that I have no idea what they are!

Boxwood And Rosemary From Last Year

I read last year that Mint is one plant that can get away from you if you're not careful where you plant it. Lesson learned! 

This is one of the Mint plants after I pulled half of it out...

Mint Gone Wild

Why plant Mint? I read that Mint will keep vermin away so I had to try it. Don't know if that's true, but it sure smells good as does the Rosemary.

There's even a few Ruellia plants that popped up by themselves in the rock bed...

Here's what Ruellia looks like once the flowers bloom. 

Source

Ruellia's nickname is Mexican Petunia, and this plant loves the heat and takes very little water to grow. It also spreads like crazy and will come back each year, filling in your empty spaces by spreading itself as far as you'll let it go.

I bought several new plants in pairs to plant in the pots on either side of the entryway.

Doesn't it always seem like you bought a lot of plants until you plant them? I'll have to make another trip to the nursery soon to buy a few more to fill up the empty spaces in the pots.

I'm thankful today for all the rain we've been having and all the plants that came back this year without any effort, especially that Hydrangea. 

How about you? Do you have any tips on what you plant that returns to your garden each year?

Thanks for dropping by!