I am loving the extra daylight that comes with the evening hours but I am not liking the mornings without the sunshine when I wake up. I am not a morning person to begin with and not having some sunshine to tell me it’s time to wake up makes the mornings even more difficult for me. But since the time change I have been waking up long before my alarm- UGHHH it’s the worst. The change in time has messed me up more than usual. I blame getting older on this reality. I feel like I’m losing the ability to sleep in late. I used to love sleeping till 9 or 10 on weekends and or in the summer if I wanted to but now I can’t seem to stay asleep. Maybe it’s just stress and once summer arrives I will be back to my old self, loving the days of sleeping in late. Oh I hope that is the case.

Up early

Cleaned floors

Laundry In

Woke the sleeping giant

Spent quality time shopping

Went out to lunch

Took a nap

Watched a great movie

Went for a brisk walk

All in all I think it was a great day. Sad the weekend is coming to an end but there will be another one in just a few days.

Growing up in my childhood home, we had a nice size front and back yard. In the back yard we had a huge tree off to the side and the rest was open lawn that had our swing set and room for our play pool and whatever yard games we dragged out. That was where if as kids we wanted to “play” in the yard that is where that kind of stuff happened. Our front yard was not meant to “play” in. My Dad liked having a nice looking lawn. He cut the grass once a week religiously and applied the fertilizer 4 times a year. I can still hear Dad saying in a loud voice at us kids when we would be riding our bikes up and down the driveway – ” Stay off the grass” ‘Don’t go in the grass” Dad was a bit obsessed with having a nice lawn. I remember feeling annoyed with that. I wanted to play in the sprinkler in the front yard at times or my brothers wanted to play baseball in the front- OH NO- that was not going to happen. To have the matted marks on the grass from people running on it did not make my Dad a happy camper.

Well, I soon turned into my Dad once I owned my own house. I too religiously cut my grass once a week (sometimes twice ) if we have a lot of rain. I do all the fertilizing and keep the same schedule as Dad did. When Faith was little I did let her play in the yard although being a girl she like playing on the driveway most. When the sprinkler came out I had to take deep breaths as I do not like the matted down wet grass look but only having one child and a couple neighborhood kids it did not get that bad. Still, I am just like my Dad- I like a nice looking lawn. I love coming home and seeing my lawn looking well maintained. I am obsessed. With that being said I have been able to look at my grass just about all winter as we have not gotten much snow and I can not wait to start making it green and plush. Thanks Dad.

It’s been a long week of different things- work tasks, home tasks and life events. HELLO Friday and Happy St. Patrick’s Day. I enjoy celebrating all holidays and to me St. Patrick’s is a holiday. My family is Scotch Irish and Catholic, even if I had 0% of Irish in me I would still celebrate this day. Everyone is Irish on this day. My family celebrates with the traditional corned beef and cabbage meal and a green beverage. When my daughter was little the Leprechauns would visit while she slept and come morning the trails of mischief in the house were present. Those were the days-

Thankfully I have little nephews and a young niece that we do the younger activities with and they think it is all magical. At all costs, these moments are savored, as time goes by to fast and the littles do grow up. TGIF I look forward to some celebrating, rest and memory making.

Rollie is my 14 year old puggle that I have loved since he was 3 months old. I never was a dog lover, I grew up with kitty cats, fish and hamsters. When I married my late husband who grew up with many dogs started to change my heart but I was still very hesitant to the idea. When Scott was diagnosed with ALS I knew I had to bring a dog into our lives and quick. My heart was very heavy with all the unknown that was coming our way in the future but there was no doubt when I saw Rollie all 100 rolls and wrinkles that he was to be ours. I surprised Scott on his birthday 15 years ago and Rollie is still brining us smiles, love and joy.

After we brought Rollie into our lives a year later we gave birth to our daughter. I was very nervous that Rollie was going to eat the baby as he was chewing up everything else he could get his teeth on. But little did I know Rollie and Faith were going to be the best of friends ( Brother and Sister ) Rollie was super sweet with Faith in every way. Faith does not leave the home without Rollie except for school ( although she tried to bring him a few times) and when people would ask her if she has any siblings she said ” yes, I have a brother” It was super cute but I had to explain by adding he has 4 legs and fur. Rollie continues to be loved by all and is spoiled beyond spoiled and the fact he is soon to be 15 makes me nervous. His white muzzle reminds me that he has lived a wonderful and eventful life thus far and we will continue to live our best life. Rollie, I love you old man.

Aggravation comes over me when I drive on the stretch of highway between Wilmington to Chicago. UGGGH the money we pay in taxes goes to what I ask? My poor car as it hits every pothole and crevice. It makes me cringe with every bump. I have blown out a tire on a pothole once and of course I had to pay for the replacement, as if that was my fault. Other states have very nice highways and well kept sideways to match. What keeps Illinois from keeping up with the road work that is so highly needed? Currently a patch work is being done on 55 that is taking days to dry as it was filled with concrete and the weather is not allowing that to dry well. I hate crappy highways !!!!! There are other things that aggravate me to no end but I will save that list and rant for another day.

Today is my birthday and I got the cutest text video message from my 1& 4 year old nephews and 3 year old niece. As their mom coaches them off screen to start singing “happy birthday to you”…. and I have a huge smile on my face and my thoughts are Awwwwh how super sweet, they are the cutest…then the WWF smack down fest starts before the song is even completed. My niece smacks her younger brother who then smacks her back and goes for her hair as he is pulling it his older brother who is still singing to me smacks his younger brother and also kicks his sister. OH WOW all the while my sister-n-law is singing in the background “Happy Birthday Auntie Kimmmmmm, we love you !! As if she does not see what is happening right in front of her eyes- I guess it is better to act as if all is well and not make a scene! HA HA HA! I needed that laugh today and I look forward to seeing those little angels this weekend.

Let me start by saying I am NOT a fan of leftovers. My mom raised us on leftovers and sometimes we at the same thing for 3-4 days in a row ! NO WAY I say as an adult. I do not like eating the same thing two days in a row unless it is something yummy I got out to dinner the night before. Now that I made my feelings on leftovers clear, I will say, there are SOME things that I make homemade that I will eat twice in a row. ( there are always exceptions to the rule) LOL. and this is one of them.

Lasagna, Chili, and at times meatloaf. Today is one of those days that I am eating leftovers and so glad to have it. I made Lasagna yesterday and I was in no mood to cook tonight. Driving home was a sweet thing knowing I did not have to cook food, just heat and eat. I’m know my mom was raised the same way that she raised us ” We eat it till it’s gone, no waste” but I did not pass that mindset on to my own kids. I admire so many things mom does and I have carried on many things as well but not the mindset of leftovers.

Not much is on the agenda today. It’s wet and snowy out, my laundry is going, cleaning is done and my dinner is prepped and ready for later. It’s nice to have plans on weekends but I also fully enjoy having nothing on the agenda and taking each minute as I so choose. I have to run an errand or two today but there is no time constraint on that either. I love when the weekend days are quiet and I can actually think about what I have coming up in the days ahead. Now, to tackle the most challenging task of my weekend…..waking my daughter and telling her it’s time to get herself moving- she is not going to sleep the day away just because she chose to stay up late 🙂

I found a treasure from my past today all the way back from1988……my writing journal from my 8th grade language arts class. Just thinking about it now as I write brings a smile to my face. Oh my to re-read my entries and actually recall the words that were on the paper made me gasp just a bit. What I really enjoyed most was seeing entries from my old classmates. All of them I went through elementary school with. I would love to have a reunion with my elementary class. I have very sweet memories from my elementary years. I sat and wondered where some of them might be today and what they were up to. Some of the entries I found was a questionnaire with questions like: Where will you be in 20 years, What did kids say about you in your younger years, What is something you have learned about life….The responses were very juvenile but sweet. So many kids answered ” a rich millionaire” for where will you be in 20 years. ( I wonder if any of them became just that)

I have said this many times over, time goes by so fast and today was just another reminder of that. I am glad I stumbled across it today. I wish I had journaled all my life so I could look back and see how much I have grown and overcome the daily trials and tribulations life throws at us. But each time I told myself today I should start to journal, I never did.