Random Thoughts for a Sunday Afternoon

1.  THGGM and I had no plans at all for this weekend.  It has been lovely.  All we have done is the usual. Truly, we are blessed, and we know it when we stop to realize just how much we enjoy simple things.  Today THGGM is basking in the sun in our own backyard.  I am puttering around.  The things we truly like doing the most we can do right here.  And it is free.  Sigh.., we are getting so old. But then, we have been getting old since the day we were born.  It's kind of how living works.
2.  Of course "our usual" included stops at our two favorite thrift stores.  I believe I spent a total of 50 cents.  After every item I picked up I asked myself if I really wanted to find a place for it when I got home.  I didn't.  So I put it back.  Were there something amazing, I would have gotten it.  I have my eye on a red plaid tin picnic basket that I've seen twice now at an antique mall.  Truly, I believe my life would be complete if I just had it.  I would never ever long for anything else again.  Yes.  I see it too.  It's become a sickness.  Because it doesn't work that way.  I know this full well.  (but i still want it, really really badly.)  Sometimes things like this come along for great prices, but this picnic basket isn't one of those things.  It's over my budget.  (but i want it.)
3.  My puttering has included packing up things from the guest room/toy room so we can move our bedroom into that room.  So, I've packed up all my beach-y decor - things like vintage pails and shovels, conch shells, boats, that sort of thing and taken them out of the room.  (on an ironic note, i packed them all into a red and white picnic basket, but that one only has tin handles.  and it isn't plaid, it's just red and white.) I thought I had A LOT of beach-y stuff, but obviously, I couldn't have if it all fit in that one picnic basket.  Presently I am packing up the vintage-y baby stuff I've acquired over the past ten years.  No more babies in this family (which makes me sad and happy at the very same time.)  These things I believe I will be willing to sell.  I hate having garage sales, but I think we are going to need one.  I'll probably need to be medicated for it, or just leave home while it's going on, but if I sold some of that stuff I just might be able to justify getting that tin plaid picnic basket. (because i really would like to have one of those.)  After that will come the sorting and purging of toys.  Of course I will keep many of them, but the ones that fall under the category of 3 and under will have to go.   My own children never had as many toys as we have here for the grandchildren. That should tell me something.  (it should tell me that i could have bought that red tin plaid picnic basket a long time ago if i just stopped buying potato head parts every time i find them.  but, no, it does not tell me that.)
4.  Can I complain here?  (like i haven't been already.  on account of not having that red plaid tin picnic basket.)  My hip has been extremely sore for most of the week.  It didn't bother me at all while walking all over the zoo last week.  Or climbing up and down from chairs when I moved things from high shelves in the kitchen to the shelves on the breezeway.  But then suddenly it hits and it hurts to move, it hurts to not move, it just hurts all the time.  Ugh.  But, as far as pain goes, my niece, the mom of the cute seven year old my grand kids love playing with, truly has something to complain about. She had planned surgery on her knee last week Friday.  That all went well.  But then on Saturday she fell. Thankfully she did not damage what the surgery repaired, but she did break her leg in THREE places.  Other people DO have it much worse than me.
5.  I am deeply bothered by manipulation.  It seem to be the main method used now to draw people in to reading their stories on their web pages.  Please do not tell me that I MUST read something or other and that #7 is unbelievable.  Seriously.  I do not do manipulation.  Draw me in with something at least a bit more creative than that. This is one reason why my blog is boring.  Usually, I've got nothing.  There have been weeks where the most exciting thing I have done is rearrange a shelf.
6.  JUDY THOUGHT SHE WAS HAVING A BORING SUNDAY FILLED WITH CALM, BUT WAIT UNTIL YOU READ NUMBER SEVEN!
7,  Ha ha.  Fooled you.  Nothing exciting is happening over here.  But if I had paid advertising, they might have just snatch your information.  But I don't, and it didn't.
8.  Ask me how I'm doing on sorting toys?  Not so well.  I have deep emotional attachments to the weirdest things.  But I did manage to throw away a broken airplane, so that is progress.  I made some ugly rag dolls a few years ago.  They keep hopping from pile to pile.  I MADE them, with a pattern and everything.  I embroidered their faces.  Their faces are hideous, but still.  I MADE THEM.  Ugh.  I wish I weren't such a weirdo.  (and i wish i had that red plaid tin picnic basket.)
9.  Just got back from wondering around Schuler's Book Store.  So much to see, but they didn't have the book I was after.  I am very interested in reading Ruth Tucker's new book "Black and White Bible, Black and Blue Wife".  The reviews I've read in many different places make it sound like a necessary read.  And, like the stickers we used to slap on books in the church library it should come with one:  "Everybody knows somebody who needs this book."  Sometimes the somebodies aren't able yet to purchase the book themselves.  I suggest, buy the book, read it, and pass it on.  Or leave it in a public bathroom somewhere.  (hmm.., and i think i've just made my case for buying the red plaid tin picnic basket.  things of value being pricey and all that.)

I couldn't find that book there, I'll be ordering it on line.  So since I had a gift card and wanted something to read tonight I bought Laura Ingalls Wilder "Pioneer Girl" The Annotated Autobiography.  I love reading about the relationship between Rose Wilder Lane and he mother, Laura.  Maybe you would to.  One really doesn't know the history of the writing of the books without learning more about how and why that came to happen.
10.Well, here I am again, just back from sorting  MORE toys.  Between everything else I have to do.  I foolishly thought that there weren't many toys left in that room since I have devoted two entire hall closets to toys/games/bits/pieces.  But was I ever wrong.  Books, pots, pans, a silver plated tea set (only the best thrifted items for MY grandchildren) real picnic ware dishes with place settings for TWELVE.  And nobody tells you this when you buy them, but stuffed animals REPRODUCE at an ALARMING rate. I've got those and they are fertile.  Not sure if I should get rid of them, or have them fixed.  I swear I've only seen about half of them before.  Then there is the dress-up drawer. Hats, wigs, fabric, scarves, gloves, and multiple sets of wings.  If I am not heard from for a week, you will know what I am doing.  Trying to make sense of how this happened!  If you are wondering if I am also getting rid of the grandchildren, no I am not.  But there is a bit of a lull this summer and I need to catch up on things.  And now all of the grandchildren can navigate our basement steps so I can utilize those areas as well.  I really want to have a designated "guest" room and now seems like the right time to do that.  Time will tell, as time always does, if this actually happens.  (i cannot think of any reason to interject something about the red plaid tin picnic basket that i want, but i am doing it anyway.  because i really want it.)

Well, those are my ten very random things.  It is now Sunday evening.  The weekend has come to an end.

I do not mean to be flippant about all of the horror and trauma happening all around us by not mentioning it.  But I'm not going to mention it.  There isn't anyone who isn't aware of it.  My requirement in all of this as I understand it is to "Seek justice, love mercy, and walk humbly."  It's something we all can do.