AMANDA'S BASKETS: GREAT WEEKEND....

Monday, May 18, 2020

GREAT WEEKEND....

So how was your weekend? Mine was pretty good. I did do internet work on Saturday but Sunday...ah Sunday. The weather was beautiful. I decided it was time to venture out and do a bit of shopping. First time since we shut down. I needed flowers for my outside flower beds.

Well, I passed up Walmart because at 8:00 in the morning, the parking lot was crammed full...and there was no line at the door. I can only imagine how crowded that store was with all those folks. So I went to Home Depot. There were plenty of people there but the store was not crowded at all.

I managed to snag three large flats of impatiens, six small flats of begonias, some herbs, one tomato plant and one caladium. My son decided it was time for a new grill and fire pit so he bought those.

I spend the rest of the day simply relaxing outside. I did arrange the patio and brought out another umbrella and the rest of the chairs, but mostly I watched my son put together the grill (It's gigantic!!!) and the fire pit and then slowly grill three different types of meats. By the way, the grill is a charcoal, not gas.

Didn't even look at my phone. Believe me, I needed that. But this morning...the number of emails that needed attention was unbelievable. I spent five hours answer them between phone calls and ZOOM meetings and still I have only handled about half of them. This volunteer job is full time!!!

Oh well, on the plus side, I have something to do with all my 'Safer At Home' time!!!

Hope you all had a great weekend...
Keep safe and stay well...
Talk with you tomorrow....

CRAFTING IDEAS

I am always looking for a small piece of paper to write down something which will later be disposed of. I decided to use some of the scrap paper of which I have a ton. I mostly use the paper for glueing projects. I decided to cut the paper into a small size. (Six pieces from a piece of copy paper.). But just having them sitting on my desk would get messy without a container. So, using a cardboard box, I cut it down to size and using a hot glue gun I glued the ends together. Using a picture from a magazine cut into pieces and stick craft glue, I glued the pieces to the box inside and out. I also used some decorative tape for the outside edges. And to finish the top corners which were not covered, I used straight pins with colorful tops. Looks nice and works well.

MAGAZINE IDEAS

(New) One article in the Farmer's Almanac 2024 is a list of trends. One I knew about is the trend to downsize in just about every area. Another trend that I was surprised about was called ''The Human Library' which offers people on loan to talk about specific subjects. Finally, more folks are adding pets to their family and as a result, stores are adding more pet food, toys and medication to their offerings. There's also a nice garden article which suggests mixing vegetables and flowers together for success.

RECIPE IDEAS

Have you every made Cherry Dump Cake. It calls for 2 cans of Cherry Pie Filling (21 ounces), a white cake mix, 1/4 -1/2 cup butter, melted & 1/2 cup coarsely chopped pecans. In a 9 by 13 pan, spread both cans of cherry pie filling. Add the melted butter to the cake mix and break apart the resulting mixture and crumble it evenly over the pie filling. Sprinkle the pecans evenly over the mixture. Bake in a 350 degree oven for 35 - 45 minutes until the topping is golden brown. Serve with vanilla ice cream. Fast, easy and very delicious.

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

What if you want to establish better habits, then decide what habit you want to work on. Again, try an easier one first for that good feeling of success. Let's consider more exercise. Start small. Don't try to run a marathon right away. Set the amount of time, the type of exercise and when to do it to begin making sure that it is within your reach. If it works for you each week add a bit more. Walking is one of the best ways to get good overall movement but there are many exercise videos on YouTube of varying lengths and difficulty to check out. Change your exercise routines to eliminate getting bored. For hardcore exercise with weights, give yourself a day in-between to recover. Even on days you would rather not exercise, do it and see if you feel better. It takes an average of 66 days to establish a habit. Just think 66 days to establish a good habit for a lifetime. Sounds like a good thing to me...how about you?