A Bit of a Babbling Post

I can't believe it's Thursday already and I haven't blogged. Good intentions and all that. It's been a busy sort of week. We are going away tomorrow, fingers crossed, as FIL is doing quite well and middle son and neighbours are going to check in on him. He had a follow-up visit with the doctor and all is looking good. He does have to take it easy but is supposed to do some things. Husband will be calling him every day while we are away to make sure everything is okay. 

It always seems when we go away there is so much to do before hand, supplies to buy, things to get ready, arrangements to make. Husband has to try to cram in as much work as he can before he goes and makes sure there is work for others to do while he's away. Once we are in the car and heading out of the city I think we'll all feel better. This holiday is a camping (in mini cabins/yurts - electricity, no water) and two of the places are fairly isolated. I find it good to have a recharge, to get away from distractions. I usually don't go on my phone much, or I try not to. Back in the day, the phones we used to have didn't even get service in the UP of Michigan. We do (mostly) have service now, but I miss those days when I wasn't even tempted. It was nice to not get work calls/texts until we drove back over the bridge (the Mackinac Bridge connects the Upper Peninsula of Michigan to the Lower part of Michigan). I remember the ping ping ping of messages as we headed back home, and the reality of everyday life crashed back in again. 

We've been to the UP many times. It's one of our favourite places to visit. There are a couple big cities, but mostly smaller towns and miles and miles of roads where you sometimes don't see anyone. It just feels like life is slower. Maybe it's just us, and we take things more slowly when we're away from home. I'll be (hopefully) wandering around and taking photos, husband will be relaxing in his hammock and catching up on sleep. 

We really need to work out a way to bring that feeling back home with us - or is that just part of being on holiday?

Skies from today

Sunday Adventure

We did go for a walk yesterday. It was very nice. 

First, we stopped at the Poppy field. We've been here before. Some people have a field of poppies that they grow in memorial to their son, who killed himself due to PTSD and a family friend who died from cancer. The field is really beautiful and, early in the morning when we went, very peaceful

A couple of phone photos and one from the camera

Such a lovely place to take a walk! 

From there, we decided to try a new place - The Outdoor Discovery Centre in Holland, Michigan. The actual buildings weren't open (as they are closed on Sunday) but you are able to walk the trails. It was a really lovely walk - another place we're adding to the list to go back to! It was fun to see that there were families there with children who were fishing in a designated pond. They were certainly having fun!

We walked along a couple of trails and headed towards where they keep rescued Birds of Prey. These are birds that have been injured and can no longer be in the wild. Each one had a little bit about the bird and what happened to them. There were quite a few that were hit by cars and even one that had been caught in a trap! They do educational talks with the birds too. 

They are in cages so it's difficult to take photos, but I managed to get a couple that I'm pleased with - here's one. A portrait of a Golden Eagle. This one was unfortunately caught in a trap in the Upper Peninsula and lost it's 'thumb' so it can no longer hunt effectively. 

Here's a couple of trail phone photos

This was well worth a visit and a great place to take children. 

Hope everyone had a good weekend!

Saturday

Well, I turned off the alarm and still woke up the usual time. I looked at my phone. No rain coming. Yikes. I almost jumped out of bed, got dressed and rushed out of the door. I had to talk myself out of it. I didn't get up. I stayed in bed for a little bit, got up and felt a bit...off, but I didn't go out for that early morning walk. I admit that it felt really weird. 

I ended up going to a few garage sales and then ended up doing some of the shopping I was going to have to squeeze in during the week. In the afternoon, middle son came over and we all went to the cemetery to leave some flowers, stopped and got something to eat and then headed home. 

Back to the missing the walk and FOMO (fear of missing out), once I'm past that part of the day when I usually go for a walk, I'm ok. It seems it's just breaking that part of the routine. It is certainly something I want to work on. I want to feel okay if I miss a walk or if I walk somewhere different. It's that bad that even when we go away it takes me a bit to feel comfortable - and I really enjoy going away!!!

I also feel a bit strange if I don't take photos, so I decided to do #1day12pics. I haven't done it for a while, but every first Saturday of the month you take 12 photos of your day or a theme. I usually stick them in a collage. 

Tomorrow we are going out for a walk...somewhere, just not sure where yet. 

Hope everyone is having a good weekend!

Friday

I felt quite productive today. I wrote a list and ticked everything off. I had a declutter 5 things challenge and I really struggled! There is plenty in this house to choose from so I'm not sure why I find it so hard. After much procrastinating and uming and ahing, I picked 5 items and into the donation box they went. I don't miss them when they are gone, so why is it such a challenge? 

I went for a walk first thing. It was quite warm even early this morning, but thankfully there weren't many people around. 

Some beautiful clouds around this morning. Later in the day, the skies turned completely cloudy and we had a few downpours. It certainly kicked up the humidity a bit more! 

I chatted with sister this afternoon. Unfortunately, our older sister's husband's scan showed that he had another spot near his liver and the other spots they were hoping to do surgery on are getting a bit bigger. He has to have more chemo before they can do surgery. Sigh. Not the greatest news. 

What's up for the weekend? 

I've decided that tomorrow I am going to turn off my alarm. I am not going for an early morning walk. I shall see how off kilter that will make me feel. I don't know how to explain it, but I find it really hard to break routines, even those I want to - it's a bit of fear of missing out and a bit of a fear of change. I think I've said this before, but my middle son is on the autism spectrum, and I think he gets some of it from me. I've already decided that this is something I'm going to really work on next year but for now, I'm going to take a few baby steps. 

We'll go out on Sunday, but it won't be far. Just not sure where yet. While I am home tomorrow I am making a list, more fun things than not - it's a Saturday afterall! - but it will make me do more than think about what I'm missing by not walking. 

What are your plans for the weekend? 

Days Going By

Things are starting to warm up in my part of Michigan. Husband put in the window air conditioner for the main floor. It's not great and I try not to use it a lot, but it does get rather humid in the house, so I have it on the dry setting more than anything. I like having the windows open especially when there's a breeze. It makes the house feel a lot fresher. Outside, everything is so green. I like that the bushes and trees finally have leaves on them, so the garden feels a bit more private. I took time after dinner this evening to sit on the back porch. It was lovely to see a bunny in the garden as well as several Orioles and even a hummingbird! I have a hummingbird feeder out, but the raccoons seem to like it more than the hummingbirds lol. 

Inside, I'm not really getting much done. I am trying to write lists as they do help. I've come to a bit of a grinding halt with the decluttering. I really have to sort this house out, but I'm back to struggling again. I think if I stop doing it for a while I find it more difficult to get it started again. I failed completely at sorting the bedroom last month. I managed to sort through my clothes and that was it! This month is going to be quite busy with other things so I'm really not sure how much is going to get done this month either. 

I think, going forward, at the beginning of each month I'm going to write down some goals in my notebook - different ones for each area of my life - and then add at least one of two of those into my daily planning. I do like seeing things written down as it makes me want to tick them off the list. Do you have tricks to get projects (house-y or hobby) completed? 

Walking with my Friend - instead of meandering around, I've been making sure I walk each day. The mornings are getting warmer now and that means there are more people around. There are some quieter trails at Asylum Lake and those are the ones we like to walk. We've been seeing lots of new life around - the Sandhill Cranes had a baby, the swans had eight, several geese had families and the deer are finally having their offspring. It's so lovely to see. 

Camping

When we did go camping, we had a nice time away, but it was very chilly! The wind was blowing and as we were near the lake (Lake Michigan and Lake Huron) it was a lot colder than inland. We had looked at the weather and took appropriate clothes. We were quite surprised that the campground wasn't full. Perhaps people had looked at the weather and decided to stay away. The nice thing was that it was lovely and peaceful. 

We stayed in a Mini cabin

It has electricity and a refrigerator, but you use the camp bathrooms (not too far away). It has a picnic table and fire ring (to have a fire). 

It's very near to the beach and I like going down there to see the sunrise/sunset. I only got to see one (little) sunrise as it was cloudy most of the time.

 

As it wasn't going to be great sit-around-and-do-nothing-but-read weather we decided to do a walk. We found a trail nearby that caught our attention. It was called Bush Bay Trail (the Narnia Trail). Great catchy name! It was quite a beautiful walk with lots of old trees that seemed to grow out of rocks. 

It came out into a lovely lake view 

It was a beautiful walk. I have it on my list to go back and spend more time there!

The next morning it was foggy and suddenly rain was forecast! We took a look at the weather and saw it wasn't going to rain a bit further west, so we headed that way. By early afternoon, the rain was finished in the area we were staying in so we spent the afternoon back at the campground and then I did read for a bit!

All-in-all it was a lovely weekend. The morning we left this was the view of the Mackinac Bridge - the fog was still set in. 

It was weird as once we got on the bridge, we were above the fog, and the skies were lovely and blue!

So glad we had a good time away!

Been a While - Update and Hopefully Back - a little venting too

We had a lovely weekend away that weekend. It was rather chilly for camping, but it was nice to get away, and quieter than we thought it would be. Just lovely. I'll post more later about the camping trip, 

I meant to post before now but was playing catch-up with the house and regular life and... well, then Father-in-Law took a fall and life went a bit crazy for a few days. He fell while walking the misbehaving  dog. It pulled on the lead and pulled him off his feet, he toppled onto his side and then had trouble getting up. Husband was on his long work trip day (four hours' drive there, work to measure some stuff, four hours' drive back). FIL refused to take an ambulance (afraid of the cost) so when husband got back into town he took his dad to emergency room, Only, he didn't want to go to the one in our town (afraid of the cost) so wanted to go to the Veteran's one about 40 mins away. Husband drove him there; had an x-ray only to find they couldn't tell if he broke his hip or not, so he had to go to the hospital in town. They waited there for hours. He broke his hip. He needed surgery. No hospital bed so he stayed in the emergency room all night (and most of the next day!).

He had surgery Thursday. Finally got a room. They decide they keep him in Friday. We had another camping trip planned this weekend. We were up and down as to whether to cancel or not and in the end decided we would go late on Friday, spend the night (it's a couple hours away), take a quick walk Saturday morning, get back on Saturday early afternoon to pick him up from the hospital. Son was not going, so he stayed with FIL's dog and would visit FIL Friday evening. 

Saturday morning, we wake up to texts from son saying he was at the hospital at 7am as FIL wants to leave against medical advice. He's insisting on leaving. So, we don't walk, we pack up, drive back. We tell son to tell FIL that if he leaves against medical advice his insurance might not pay for any issues that arise. The hospital staff tell him this too. By the time we get back he's decided he's not leaving, he'll listen to what they tell him. 

He isn't discharged on Saturday. Husband spends the night with FIL's dog. 

The issue he was having was with his blood pressure. When he stood up his blood pressure dropped and they wouldn't release him until it was stable. Late Sunday after he is finally discharged from hospital. He's back home. Husband is staying with him tonight. We'll go from there. 

FIL is a stubborn old man. We are hoping he won't overdo things. Husband can't stay there indefinitely, and he is the only one around. Hubby has phone calls from his brother who tells us what he should be doing - he's hundreds of miles away - but doesn't offer to come help. Mind you, he's the one who didn't even come for his mother's funeral. 

I do find it really sad (again) that in this situation and the one with MIL that a primary worry is money. You shouldn't have to worry about whether you can afford to pay for treatment. Yes, he has insurance but even with insurance something like this can run to thousands of dollars. His thought, going through the VA (Veteran's Association) that he will have a case number and the bills will be run through them. 

Well, that's my story and my rant. I obviously have catch-ups to do with blogs. With FIL home, things should settle down. We have to work out meals and dog walks and such but hopefully - if he doesn't try to rush things - he should be ok soon. 

Our little mini-cabin before the week I'd rather forget lol

Thank You!

Thanks so much for all the birthday wishes.  The day ended with a lovely chat with Aurora. Certainly made my day. 

I got back on the housework bandwagon yesterday and got caught up with housey stuff yesterday and today. The house is as tidy as it's going to get - at least until after the weekend. We're off camping tomorrow morning. I say camping, it's at a State Park campground, but we're staying in a mini cabin. It basically is one room with two bunkbeds, a small counter and a small fridge. It's not a far walk to the bathrooms. Certainly a lot more comfortable than a tent. It does have electricity, so if it's a little chilly, we can turn on the small heater we bring with us to take the chill off. Outside there is a picnic table and place for a fire. We will take our camping chairs. It's about four and a half hours away, just over the bridge into the Upper Peninsula of Michigan so a bit of a drive. It will be colder up there too. 

I have packed my bag, my new camera, my older camera and a tripod. I'm hoping to be able to try out the new camera and see if I can work the timer and such. We shall see! I've also packed a sketch book in hopes that I can try out some nature journalling while we're outside and a couple of books as well as my kindle. It should - hopefully - be relaxing. There are no plans and no expectations, hopefully just a relaxing weekend away. 

I enjoy going away, but for some reason the getting ready to go away leaves me a bit anxious. I worry about stupid stuff I shouldn't even worry about. The thing is, once we've left the house, it all seems to disappear, and I enjoy the time away. Do you get anxious when you go away or do you prefer just to stay home? 

I think I'm a creature of habit and like the routine - or rather I'm stuck in the routine, and everything feels off when the routine is broken or changed. I always intend to take time away as a chance to break the routine for good, but I always seem to end up sliding right back into it again. Something to think about. 

I do hope everyone has a good weekend. It's a bank holiday for both US and England (though for different reasons) so I hope everyone has a nice long weekend. 

Some spring visitors to the garden - on the left a Baltimore Oriole and the other two are Rose-breasted Grosbeaks. 

I'm Sliding into 60 lol

I am finally over the hill of 55 and sliding into 60 as I turned 56 today. Felt a bit sad this morning, not for growing older, but growing older without Mum and my MIL. Seems rather silly but that was all I could think of as I sat this morning watching the beavers before starting my walk. 

I had a couple of places to go but after that I did, well, not much of anything. I sat in the garden and watched the birds, read my book for a while and went up in the craft room for a little bit. I got my present from everyone a few weeks ago when we were in Minnesota. 

The family all clubbed together and treated me to a new camera. It is one I want to use for dedicated landscape photography. It's a birthday, Mother's Day and Christmas present. It's been on my wish list for a little while, but I haven't managed to save the money for it as something always seems to come up. 

My oldest son treated me to takeaway tonight for food. I didn't want to go out to eat, but I didn't want to cook either! There is a place up the road that does food in and for takeaway, so he went out there to get some for me. 

I had a Cheese Quesadilla. It's very yummy. I do make them, but - for some reason - these ones taste really, really good! I don't get them often, so it was a lovely treat, especially as I didn't have to cook! 

Some crafty bits

Book I finished

I actually quite enjoyed it. It was about a woman whose life was falling apart, and she decided to go back to the place she came from to try to find out what happened to her sister who disappeared years before. 

Back to housey stuff tomorrow. 

Lovely Sunday

We had rather a lovely, relaxing Sunday. I picked us out a couple of nearby nature parks that we, apparently, had been to before but it's been a long while! We were heading out to the first one, when I noticed how beautiful the morning was, so husband pulled in one of the Asylum Lake car parks and I took a couple of phone photos. 

How beautiful is that? 

The places we went to were really beautiful. The walks weren't that long - I think we walked about 4 miles in total, but they were both well worth visiting. I have written them down to walk them again. 

There were two beaver lodges at this place. We saw a couple of Green Herons and heard lots of birds. the fields were filled with Wild Lupines (or course, I didn't take photos with my phone lol)

Because they weren't too far away, we were home fairly early. That's okay, as like I said, we are off camping next weekend. The weather was just beautiful today - as I write this (at 9pm) it is still 80f/27C. I can't believe I was wearing gloves and had handwarmers at the beginning of the week! I sat in the garden a little bit this afternoon and read for a little bit. 

Our middle son came over a bit later and had some food with us. All-in-all a lovely way to spend a Sunday!