Gratitude Lounge

I enjoy people, especially diversity. The other night I couldn’t sleep, and I got up and put on the television. I found an unusual program, produced by Conde Nast Traveler, of people from more than 70 countries being interviewed simple questions like, “How do you say hello in your country?” or, “How do people in your country count money?” They strung these short segments together, and I found I was enjoying the faces, the diversity, and I began laughing in the middle of the night. Here is one. I hope you enjoy it. 🙂
https://www.cntraveler.com/video/watch/people-reveal-how-to-tell-if-someone-is-from-their-country?c=series

Good morning!
The house is pleasantly cool on the beginning of this hot day, and I am just back from a lovely walk around the block. I think I will make pancakes for myself this morning, as a treat. I found a WW!! rationing recipe a couple of years ago, that is very simple and doesn’t need eggs, and I absolutely love it. Per person: 1/2 cup flour, a pinch of sugar, a pinch of salt, and a pinch of baking powder if you have it, and then enough milk to make the batter. I use saved bacon grease to fry it. It only takes me about 3 minutes now to mix it up, get half of the dishes done, and sit down to the table for pancakes. ☺

Whiskers – We found two grants to help us fix up our old house. The first was through our utility company, which helped us to update our furnace to a new 95% efficient one, and to get blown-in insulation. The second was through our county, and gave us a whole house electrical renovation. Considering we had a pipe in our bathroom wall for GAS LIGHTING, lol (no longer used), and knob & tube, we were very thankful for that, and didn’t have to pay one cent, which helped us have money for the roof and some plumbing. So go to your city offices and ask about grants, and ask through whatever company is providing your heating. The grants are not always low income based. The heating and insulation was through Federal money marked to reduce energy needs, as it is cheaper than say, putting up another nuclear plant. So give it a try!
As for gardening, I also have a very shady yard, and there are walnut trees on the neighbor’s property to the south, which I could do nothing about. But my husband is Scottish, and in Scotland, they are big gardeners, even though it rains 250 days in the year and they don’t get a lot of sun. So I took heart by that, and realized that most vegetables grown in northern countries don’t need as much light… greens, Swiss chard, broccoli, cabbage, spinach, carrots, beets, rutabaga, onions, garlic, etc. The only vegetables that need more light are the “heat loving” ones: tomatoes, peppers, squash, melons, corn. So where I do have tiny patches of sun, I put the tomato plants and peppers, and I have a shady raised bed between two walnut trees for greens, radishes, chard, carrots, etc. You can totally do this! 😊🌱🌱🌱 Thank you for the compliment. My garden is still wildish, as I was always working on gardens on other sites and less on my own. But I love that you have a great picture in your mind of it! I have the same in my imagination! 🤣

Today I am grateful for feeling like I need less and I am attached to less. The last few days I have been working on getting my kitchen back together in some sort of order, and finding places to put things, and in the process, I have been able to put a number of things into the give-away pile that had previously been “precious.” This isn’t an intentional sorting right now, just casually deciding I don’t like or don’t use some things, and would rather have space. The kitchen is not done yet, but getting much closer, and I am starting to sort my craft room, too, which had become a dumping ground for the kitchen things while I had the cabinets empty to paint. I am realizing how much this chaotic environment, which has been going on really since our whole house electrical reno a year and a half ago, how much it has been weighing on me. I am a dynamic creative type, who doesn’t like clutter and disorder… not a comfortable combination of personality traits! 😂
Anyway, the project progress. I have SOME things clean and fresh! I am so happy!

This morning I watched something funny. There is a new male sparrow at the bird box across from my kitchen window. I watched him trying to get in it for ten minutes, but Mrs. Hopeful (the female sparrow who built a nest in the box) had stuffed it so tight that he couldn’t get in! He was so funny trying to push his way in. He worked on it and worked on it and finally managed to get it packed down enough that he could get in. Since then he has been flying to and fro, and singing on top of the box or the little ledge I tacked up to the tree… he is young and I think he is trying to attract a mate just like Mr. Hopeful did in the beginning of last year. We will see what happens. This skinny guy is starting late in the year to get a mate, so I’m not sure he will stay, but I am trying to think up a name for him just in case!

It has been a quiet day here. We have a heat index over 100 and it is humid, but I “captured” cool air last night and the house is quite comfortable. This seemed like a good day to be more quiet, so I have been enjoying reading online. I feel fortunate that I could use this day to recoup, and that I am learning better self-care and realizing when I need it. I hope everyone here is remembering to care for themselves, too ❤