Happy birthday twinsies weekend

Our older daughter was born on the husband's birthday, so every year it's a two-fer in our family. Since she's busy at work on a looming audit filing and she made plans all weekend with her friends/boyfriend, I either mailed her gifts or had them delivered. She really liked the floral arrangement I sent, and I've gotta admit they did a great job. 

The husband and I went up to the lake for about 24 hrs to address a couple maintenance items since we're staring down primetime entertaining season on the water, with our summer calendar filling up. The visit started out kinda gray, but had cleared up by sunset and so we enjoyed colorful cloud viewing from the back porch.

We took the four-legged beasts with us. They spent their lake time mooching for food, lounging on the furniture with us and barking at the neighbor's spaniels across the canal. Which annoys everybody until we shuffle them back inside, but there ya go. 

Too bad their guard dog efforts don't include scaring off my nemesis, the swallows. Last May a swallow pair built a messy nest up underneath our dock, adjacent to the grill. As soon as the babies fledged, I tore that sucker down and managed to scare them off with those shiny twirly things and a few holographic owls the rest of the summer. 

This year they're back and aren't fazed by last year's nesting deterrents. So now I've had to take a stronger approach to encourage them to build nests elsewhere. I'll have to take a pic of my efforts next time I'm up there and post it here, to let you know if it's working. This spring, I must admit they're pretty determined. And if it was just a nest, then I'd probably be fine with it. But it's the bird poop - yuck. On the dock. On the boat cover. On the table next to the grill. Now you can understand why swallows are public enemy #1 at the lake house as far as I'm concerned.

Mr. Right, not Mr. Right Now

Last week I emailed our college coed and her older sister, the accounting queen, the following list of things to look for in a boyfriend and/or potential husband. Click on the Finding Mr. Right below to follow the link and take a look.

Finding Mr. Right

As I recently told the older daughter, I'm in ZERO hurry to be a grandmother. Planning a wedding, however... That's gonna be a lot of fun. I'm especially looking forward to tagging along for the cake and catering tasting! Since it typically takes about a year to arrange a nice wedding, plus the time invested in dating to find "the one", we're probably talking a process of about two to three years, give or take. An important part of finding the right guy is having a general idea of what you're looking for in your significant other instead of just bouncing along blindly, hoping you fall in love with someone you meet on the myriad dating apps floating around these days. And so I thought this list was a pretty good guide that spells it out for young adults.

I've told the girls that Mr. Perfect for Them won't just fall out of a tree in front of them one day. Oh, if only it worked that way. Or arranged marriages. The husband and I think we'd be pretty good at picking out husband material, ha-ha. But seriously - as much fun as the dating game is, it can also be littered with missteps, false starts, poor judgment and broken hearts. I'm all for waiting until the Lord leads you to the right person instead of settling for Mr. Right Now and a starter marriage. Whether they're 25 or 35 when they walk down the aisle doesn't matter to me, as long as they've found a wonderful man to share their lives with.

There is one more thing I believe needs to be added to this top ten list, a #11 that reminds our girls to seek out a fellow Christian. Watch and wait for God to send you a believer who will grow in faith with you as you mature and figure out what who you are and where God is leading you. Someone who is committed to living a life based on the Bible as God's word, as well as His saving grace, and will devote themselves to that common purpose for the rest of their time on earth together. That's worth waiting for!

 

Lake and some chicken fried steak

Praise God that my mother has finally rebounded from the awful side effects of the immunotherapy treatments for her bladder cancer, thanks to steroids. For a few weeks there, I was afraid the cure might kill her before the disease. Since she was feeling better, I took her to the lake house so she could meet up with an old high school friend from the DFW area. They seemed to have a good time getting caught up. I took them to our new favorite hole-in-the-wall cafe in nearby Kingsland for some chicken fried steak and homemade rolls like they used to whip up at the elementary school cafeteria back in the day.

Later, we nosed around some of the shops on Main Street in Marble Falls and ran across a new bakery. I decided to sample a cookie, cupcake and decorated Texas. Thankfully, it all tasted as good as it looked.

I had arranged for my window washing guy at the big house to keep the windows clean at the lake place so we can continue to enjoy the views. So he and our sweet little pest service guy were in and out of the house on Friday. Last time we were at the lake, I spied some dirt on the back patio near the pool. On closer inspection, I realized it was some sort of animal poo. Sure enough, I walked out on to the dock to make sure the boat and jet skis were still in place and saw a lot of animal poo by the sun shelf end of the pool. I called the pest service guy over to take a look and he thinks it's probably ring tailed cats leaving their calling cards. Shy, nocturnal members of the raccoon family, we have spied them on the roof of the city house before. Cute or not, they're gonna need to quit using the flagstone around my pool as their personal toilet, or they'll soon get gathered up in live traps for relocation. 

Next weekend, we're headed back to the lake house to celebrate the husband's birthday weekend. We've invited a sweet teacher friend of mine and her boyfriend. I hope we have the same clear skies we enjoyed yesterday, though some high temps above 62 would be appreciated. I don't enjoy zipping across the water in my jeans and coat, all hunkered down trying to stay warm.

Leapin' lizards

I'm back to hand watering the landscaping plants in our yard these days, encouraging regrowth after the deep freeze of February. That's when I spied this well-fed guy along the little rock wall between our yard and the neighbors. He had an eye catching design along his back, which was easy to see since he's such a large specimen. I can only hope he has been dining on all of the worms hanging from our oak trees and falling all over the ground these days. I read in our local newspaper that they're moth larvae. Sounds like a tasty meal for our local reptile and bird populations.

I was curled up on the bed reading Saturday morning and I had dueling dogs in my lap. Look at those ears! These two play themselves out and then crash after all their romping.

I loved the light coming through the bedroom window and hitting the closed door into my exercise room. I keep some of my longer costume jewelry hanging there, and it was a lovely spotlight of color.

Running at top speed now

My desktop computer has been moving like a turtle through molasses in winter the past couple months. I was thinking it was about 5ish years old. Come to find out, it's practically a technological dinosaur at the ripe old age of eight. I didn't realize this was the desktop I got when we moved from England back to Texas the first time in 2013. So that thoroughly explains the reason why the rats on my CPU wheel were outta steam. I briefly contemplated purchasing a laptop, but decided to stick with the big ol' 27" desktop screen that I can see from the other side of the house.

The college coed's boyfriend turned 21 this week, so she sent me a pic of them at his birthday celebration. She's gearing up for a final push to the end of sophomore year later this month, working hard to pull down another 4.0 semester and stay on the president's list. In just three short weeks, I'll be flying to South Carolina to be her roadtrip buddy to get her car home for the summer. I'm already dreaming about stopping in New Orleans for a seafood meal and some beignets, yum-yum. The older daughter is actually in NOLA this weekend with some friends. I envy them the great restaurants and pretty garden district dressed in its spring foliage.

Easter weekend

We've had a damp and kinda chilly start to the Easter weekend this year. And yet I don't mind zipping around doing errands in my jeans and a hoodie. I volunteered to provide Easter crafts and treat bags to the girls at a residential living center for kids who have been taken away from their families and can't be placed in a more standard foster situation. Thanks to covid, I was unable to visit with the girls this year and just had to drop it off.

I was glad to have my big twelve seater dining table to serve as the staging area for my treat bag prep. My theme was "Some Bunny Loves You", and so the girls had spring rabbit ears to decorate and wear, rabbit eraser topped pencils, bunny necklaces, etc. Last year, when we were with them in-person, I took sugar cookies to decorate. Maybe next year we can get back to cookie decorating. The older daughter arrived Thursday evening for the holiday weekend. She brought me the prettiest Easter cookie from one of her favorite bakeries in Austin. Our younger daughter couldn't join us, but I'm happy she was invited home with one of her college besties to celebrate Easter with their family.

What a pretty and tasty little reminder of the reason we celebrate Easter. Praise God that he sent His son Jesus Christ to walk this earth for a time to teach and guide us. It's hard to contemplate the enormity of God's love for us and Jesus' acceptance of God's will, sending him to be crucified on a cross for you and me. When weeping and death gave way to exultation and resurrection, and we were washed clean of sin by His precious blood. Hallelujah and Amen!

This time of year always reminds me of the old Baptist standards we sang during the Easter season. Up From the Grave He Arose and The Old Rugged Cross are two of my favorites, and they have been running through my head all week. I've got some great renditions of them on my church music playlist

As much as I adore the old hymns, this is one of my favorite modern worship songs on spotify at Easter time. You came from heaven to earth to show the way, from the earth to the cross, my debt to pay. From the cross to the grave, from the grave to the sky, Lord I lift your name on high. Read Matthew 27-28 in the Bible for the story of Jesus' death and ascension to heaven. It's life changing in the here and now, and flows on into eternity. I pray we're all blessed with a glorious Easter day tomorrow when we celebrate HE IS RISEN with our families.