A Busy Friday

My friend Carla of Longarm Quilting Inspirations messaged me and asked if I wanted to go on a walk with the dogs Friday morning.  I told her no.  I had a laundry list of things I had to do.

Did I ever?  I thought I’d take you along on the busy day.  I started with a shower and feeding the dogs.  I had heard from Kalissa, our daughter, in the overnight that there was a good chance that Anders, her son, would get released from the hospital Friday morning.  They have been in the hospital all week.  Anders, at three weeks old, had viral meningitis.  I told her if she needed anything, I was doing errands, and to let me know.  She put in a grocery pick order so that was one thing on my list.  BUT…before that, I had other things to do.  I threw my clothes in the laundry and unloaded my dishwasher before I left.

Next, I took Betsy, Kalissa’s dog, back to their house.  I’ve had Betsy all week and although she’s a totally fine dog with family, she’s not the best with other people so I’m always happy once she’s back home.

While I was at Kalissa’s I threw in a load of laundry.

Then to the post office.

Then to the bank.

From there I was off to my oldest daughter Kelli’s house.  She lives about 35 minutes away.  She had a set of beds that she was giving Buck for his house and if I had them at my house over the weekend, Buck, my son, could take them to his house and have them ready for his girls once his house is finished.  Here are my grandkids greeting me at the door.

It was a VERY quick stop for me and then I was off.

I made the 20 minute drive to Decorah.  I was almost late getting Kalissa’s groceries.

Then I went into the store and did my own shopping.

I had a quick stop at the thrift store after that.  I forgot to take a picture of that.

It was getting later than I hoped.  I was worried that I would be late for my next stop which was Carver, my grandson’s play at school.  They had two performances.  I thought the first one was at 1 pm but it was at 1:30 pm.  I learned that when I ran into the convenience store for some coffee.

I made it to the play on time.  Here is Carver… a raccoon in the front row on the right playing with his mask.

Here is the whole group.  I loved going to the play as many of my previous childcare kiddos were in the play.  So fun.

It was a production of Red Riding Hood.

From there it was time to drop off Kalissa’s groceries… As I was driving to her house I noticed that the electric company had been to my son Karl’s house and lobbed off his tree.  When he bought his house a tree on the property had been hit my lightning sometime back and it was half dead.  The tree was in the powerline so my boys couldn’t deal with it themselves.  They ended up having the power company cut it to a safe height for the boys to handle.  I stopped and took a picture and sent it to the boys as originally the electric company wasn’t going to do it.  You can see the tree trunk and see the line.  It truly went right through the tree.  They were both so happy to see the hard part was finished.

To Kalissa’s.  She had made it home.  Anders was in the house.  I was a happy grandma!!

That was a quick stop as I wanted to get home and get my groceries put away before the bus came.  I scrambled and I got that done and the laundry changed at my house.

I had a consult call with my daughter, Kelli.  Emmett wasn’t doing well.  I suggested an ear infection.  He ended up going in.  He had tubes in his ears from previously chronic ear infection.  One tube came out and he had an ear infection in that ear a couple of weeks ago.  It cleared but now we suspected it was back.

He went to Urgent Care and our suspicions were confirmed.  He does have another ear infection.

Gannon, my grandson, was the only one off the bus.  Carver stayed at school for his second play performance.  My childcare kiddos had other plans.  I drove him to his house and visited for 20 minutes…

…then back to my house.

Buck’s and his kids were coming the next day so I quickly made a batch of Cheerio Bars.  They are Buck’s favorite.  You can find my recipe HERE.

They aren’t glamorous but they are delicious.

I put the last of my laundry soap into the washing machine so while I made the Cheerio Bars I made a batch of homemade laundry soap.  You can find the recipe HERE.

Then Gannon and Anders came to my house.  I was watching them while Kalissa and Craig, her husband, went to Carver’s second performance at school.

I took some time to love on Anders.  Rosie wanted in on the fun so jumped on the headrest of the recliner.

They were here about an hour and a half.  When they picked the boys up they asked if I wanted to go out for supper with them.  I really didn’t.  Well, I did but more so, I wanted to fold my laundry and get a blog post written which I did.

Just as I was finishing up a blog post, they brought me take-out food.  How sweet.  I sat down with a sudoku puzzle and ate.

Just as they were leaving I noticed a bag and check on my garage bench.  A family friend dropped off goodies and a check for Kalissa so I gave them to her.  She wanted to gift Kalissa and Anders and Owlet Baby Monitor.  That was so sweet.  We had other friends gift them gas cards, gift certificates, and money to help defray costs while they were in the hospital.  It gets really expensive to have a little one in the hospital so it was VERY appreciated.  Many thanks to those that helped along the way.  You made things more manageable.

I was back to the computer to finish up a couple of things for the night and finally, at 9 pm, I sat down to cross stitch.

I ended up staying up a little later than I typically do.  I looked at the clock at 10:30 pm and thought if I stitched for 20 minutes more, I could finish the project I was working on…and that’s what I did.  By the time I took the dogs out and got myself settled, it was finally lights out at 11:15 pm.

As you can see, I really didn’t have time to walk the dogs with Carla!!

Phew.  It was a long day…and a busy day.  But this is my dream life.  I love being there for my grandkids and adult kids.  I love having a job that is flexible and allows me the freedom to have days like this.  I love that the dogs fit into my schedule no matter what it is.

A long time ago back when Kramer and I had kids we made the decision that I would be the stay-at-home mom.  That came with the realization that I wouldn’t have a fancy career.  We wouldn’t be making the big bucks.  We wouldn’t have the fancy things.  That was okay with me.

I loved being able to be the mom and I still do.  I always had a job but it always worked around the kids and their lives.  Now I added in working my job around the lives of the grandkids too.  I love that I can be helpful to them making their lives a little easier.

Every day I am so thankful for my health and it allows me to have days like this day.

Other people might show vacation photos of trips to Hawaii as happy days for them.  Me, I show days exactly like this day as my happiest days.

My happy days continue.  I have six of the ten grandkids here today.  It’s gonna be another crazy day!!  I love it.