reveling in it...

 Rain!  I love a good dark rainy day!  It's so cozy in here I could just dance, except for then I'd have to get up from the comfy chair.  It could be better, I could have already put the chicken stew on the hob (aren't WE British today!), smelling it's richness, I could have baked a fresh batch of those low carb peanut butter cookies, and more of the kids could be here, that always makes things even better.

Jonathan isn't feeling the greatest, hopefully it's just a quick virus, and he's back on his feet...18 years old and halfway across the world, he'll be fine...but.  

Yesterday's adventures were enjoyable...Camille has a Barnes&Noble gift card, but didn't decide on anything.  I mean, you can library for free, and if you don't like the book, don't read it.  I know authors and stores and employees have to get paid, but $18 for a paperback book?  I actually get a lot of books from the thrift store, fifty cents or a dollar, then I donate them back, so win/win, they get paid twice.  

Camille, Char, Sonja...

Sonja read this whole book to them.

We went to Aldi so I could return my beloved black electric tea kettle.  I bought it for myself for Christmas for 30 bucks, didn't save the receipt, and got a measly ten bucks back for it.  It totally stopped working yesterday, the base of it just malfunctioned and wouldn't go above 68 degrees.  I had saved our old glass kettle, so back out to the counter it went.  

Target:  we like to stop at Starbucks there, their blonde roast iced Americano with heavy cream and no sweetener.   It's pricey, but so good.   We didn't get much in Target, a package of chicken, some packages of razors that were marked from $19.99 to $5.99, some seltzer.  An Old Navy opened nearby, so we went in there.  I got matching shirts for Lydia, Anya, and Elise, for $1.49 each.  I bought Grant a new shirt, and Ruth a cute little romper thingy.  The girls found a few things too, it all came to $28.  Not too bad.

Home....Grace had already arrived here with Grant and Ruth, Samuel had class, so they were coming for dinner.  Steak, waffle fries, onion rings (in the air fryer), and broccoli spears.  

Our county is still publishing the Covid data weekly.  If you can see those numbers, five unvaccinated are hospitalized, and twenty-two vaccinated.  It's almost as if the vaccine doesn't work!  The side effects though, ugh, especially for those who were boosted, too.  The actual VAERS data is distressing, so many heart attacks and strokes, myocarditis in young people...the doctors who had really good success in early treatment, as opposed to hospitalization and remdesivir treatment (and ventilators!) were silenced and threatened with losing their medical licenses, now it's coming out that they were indeed correct.  

Yeah.  But what can you do?  Spy balloons and laptops and our silly V.P., laughing at yellow school buses and Venn diagrams, while men prance in women's locker rooms and get all the trophies.  

But here in my comfy house, with the rain falling on the metal roof, and the dogs snoring, and the second cup of coffee just as good as the first was...ahh.  I feel better for having gone to the pool yesterday.  It's hard to to go when you haven't in a awhile.  You walk out of the locker room in your big granny bathing suit/dress, all the way across the pool room to access the entrance ramp, many of the class members already there in the circle, glad to see you, you hope ha.  They are a nice group, a few new faces now, too.  

Outside of my comfort zone, once again, but I KNOW if I go regularly it won't be such mental gymnastics to get out the door.  Camille came with me, didn't love it, but didn't hate it either.  Paul said, "It'd be better if she swam laps." Um, I got her out the door to the pool and she got in and moved, and it wasn't altogether easy for her physically, not to mention being there with the old people ha.  But then Paul gets up at six and swims laps for half an hour on the days he's not going to the gym or rucking down the road with a backpack so heavy I can barely move it on the kitchen floor to sweep under it.  

So next month will be busy, I have to do my three day heart monitor appointment at the beginning of the month, then Miss Kathryn will be having her baby boy, then Camille will be having her knee surgery.  Charlotte Claire is going to Norway with Margaret, so I'll be helping with Wulf and Tennyson, as Adrian is in college and cannot skip any classes.  

I'm thankful for each day.  Have a good one too!