2026 Project 365 – Week Twenty-eight

People, I think maybe things are back to normal in the Bug household. Perhaps. I stayed home yesterday & caught up on cleaning and laundry. I walked outside precisely twice: once to get the mail, and once to empty the recycling into the bin. It was excellent.
Sunday, July 5^th                   
This photo isn’t from Sunday, but it’s the same outfit I wore to church. It was my turn to handle the “special” during the service (we take turns doing show & tell in the summer while the choir is off) and I read a poem. I reworked one I had written in 2016 which you can read here. Maybe sometime I’ll post the new version on here. We’ll see!

Monday, July 6^th                
Tell me you’re a slob without telling me you’re a slob. I’ll go first! I walked into my office Monday morning & was greeted by this evidence of Saturday’s snack. Oops.
 

Tuesday, July 7^th  
Every time I see myself in the mirror when I’m wearing this dress I go “hmmm” at the design placement.
 

Wednesday, July 8^th                  
People, it was still so hot this week. Oof. The flowers were happy, but the chickens needed to take a break!
 

And so Dr. M made a very refreshing side dish to go with dinner.
 

Thursday, July 9^th      
I just love my zinnia basket! All those different heights and flower colors make me very happy.
 
 

Friday, July 10^th   
Dr. M got me these most excellent Hurricanes earrings. I love them!
 

Saturday, July 11^th   
No photo, but here is my post from the socials: SHARON McMAHON has been on fire lately & since it’s been a while since I’ve gotten riled up & posted on the internet I thought I’d steal on of her recent rants. Enjoy! (Read from left to right.)
 

Last week I had asked for good vibes that employee paychecks didn’t have any issues and so far so good! I have another big employee deduction import to do this coming week for the July 24^th check, & hopefully that will go well. After that there is ONE MORE big task for the August 7^th check and then we should be good to go for a while. Which is good, because surgery is coming up quickly! I’ll bet you’re ready to be done hearing about my job for a while. I know I am! What do you have going on this coming week?

2026 Project 365 – Week Twenty-seven

I had been looking forward to this three day weekend for quite some time. I thought I would probably still work on one of the days, but that I would have at least one day to not leave my house at all. Bliss! But not bliss because it’s been in the high 90s and our house at midday is not very comfortable, so I left my house every day anyway. But on one of those days I didn’t wear makeup! So there!
Sunday, June 28^th                   
I went into the office & then to visit Sue in the hospital. I got a cute photo of my dad, but since I have an even better one of him later in the week, I’ll give you flowers instead. I’m bookending the week with photos of the zinnia pot – and on Saturday I have an extra special surprise involving that pot!

Monday, June 29^th                
This was a TRAGIC day. I had the cutest toppers all laid out to wear with this dress and then I was discombobulated getting ready for work and FORGOT THEM. My glasses were nekkid! I don’t know man. What is the world coming to. One thing that happened is that Sue checked herself out of the hospital! I had been visiting with her & then went to dad’s to make sure he was behaving (he mostly was), and while I was there she called & asked him to pick her up RIGHT NOW. So we went back up there & brought her home.
 

Tuesday, June 30^th  
Got some more Stanley Cup bling, which I promptly wore every evening & then on Friday AND Saturday.
 

Wednesday, July 1^st                 
There was oatmeal somewhere underneath those blueberries.
 

Thursday, July 2^nd     
We have a little rudbeckia (they always look so puny when they first start blooming) and more double-orange daylilies.
 

Friday, July 3^rd  
We had a gathering at Dad and Sue’s house to celebrate the 14^th anniversary of my nephew enlisting in the army. And to help him feel really celebrated, he got to spend a lot of time out in the 90-something degree heat helping my brother grill our hotdogs & hamburgers. Thanks Brandon! (For your service in general, and for that service in particular). We had a great time – and as you can tell, Sue was feeling much better.
 

Saturday, July 4^th   
I went into the office for a few hours (to beat the heat, and get some things done), and then I went by Dad & Sue’s house & serendipitously got to see my other nephew & his main squeeze.  I took no photos of any of that. Instead, I took this photo of my July calendar page & posted it on the socials with this caption: Mood. I love my country too much not to argue with her (& everyone else, apparently). Calendar by Mary Engelbreit. Spice by Penzey Spices.
 

Meanwhile, Dr. M took this lovely photo of his childhood home with this caption: Happy 250th birthday, Declaration of Independence! May your loftiest ideals continue to inspire action on behalf of those suffering abuses and usurpations at the behest of tyrants. This is the house in which I grew up, beautifully restored and flying the flags of the United States and the state of North Carolina.

Finally, here are the kinds of firecrackers that we enjoy these days.

And look! A surprise visitor!
 

Today was church and lunch with the folks, and then a very exciting baseball game (hush – baseball can be exciting!), and now I am writing this post before dinner. This week employees will get their first checks of the new fiscal year with all of their open enrollment changes on them and let us all offer up a silent (or loud!) plea that everything is all right. Amen!

2026 Project 365 – Week Twenty-six

Man, what a week. I was already exhausted from intense data entry all week & then Dad’s wife Sue fell down the basement stairs on Friday. Fortunately, she “only” has a cracked rib, a knot on her head, and a bunch of bruises. Unfortunately, she now has extreme vertigo, so they’re keeping her in the hospital until they sort that out.
Sunday, June 21^st                  
Look Ma – I ate a vegetable! It was pretty darned tasty.

Monday, June 22^nd               
I was trying to get a good photo of this “cage” I used to wear in my hair sometimes, and while this isn’t fabulous (also, I can’t really “do” my hair right now), I thought the photo in photo effect was pretty cool.
 

Tuesday, June 23^rd
There were bees ALL OVER the bee balm (I mean, what are the odds?). Also, there were chickens. Happy sigh.
 

Wednesday, June 24^th                
Stanley Cup souvenir. I’d never held a hockey puck before. Interesting!
 

Thursday, June 25^th    
Summer staples right now – cucumber tomato salad and blueberries! Not eaten together. Although maybe I should try. Hmmm…
 

Friday, June 26^th
I’ve reached the point in my life where I’ve decided that I don’t care about how my arms look in public. However, I actually didn’t spend very much time sleeveless – it was cold in the office! I was especially glad that I had a blouse with sleeves to throw on while I was at the hospital waiting while Sue was in the ER.
 

Double-orange Daylilies & Zinnias! (This is just a zinnia fan account now.)
 

Saturday, June 27^th   
I wore one of my sermon shirts to the office (I got 5 hours of good work done!) and to the hospital, where I had to get a photo of my terribly cute father.

Today was a repeat of yesterday, but I spent less time at each place. I got home around 3:30 today and have had a lovely afternoon at home. However, I just now realized that I still have clothes in the dryer. Oops – better go take care of that! Feel free to talk amongst yourselves.

2025 Project 365 – Week Thirty-seven

It was another busy weekend around here & I am just now sitting down to write my blog post. But also it’s almost bedtime, so we shall see what kind of sense I make!

Sunday, September 7th  

Church picnic! It was a great evening!

Monday, September 8th

I stayed home from work and had a fabulous day. Dr. M joined me on the deck for a while.

Tuesday, September 9th 

Found a new way to use a gift bow.

Wednesday, September 10th

I kept trying to get a good picture of these toppers. They’re my favorites, even though I don’t wear them very often.

Thursday, September 11th

Dr. M says, peace be with you…

Friday, September 12th    

Dr. M found some sunflowers! And then he found some House of Bug flowers.

Saturday, September 13th

I spent the morning at a bridal shower. 

And then the evening at a surprise birthday party for my oldest friend (as in we’ve been friends a long time - she’s younger than I am - ha!). It was a good day, and now I need to be people free for a while.

I think that is QUITE ENOUGH for one post. How was your week?

2025 Project 365 – Week Thirty-five

Well it’s practically fall now and as per usual I am in a snit about it. Where is the light? Where is the heat? (I am well aware that the heat is not really gone yet.) I’m not a drama queen, but I play one on TV. Okay, yes, I am a drama queen.    

Sunday, August 24th 

Dr. M made an excellent chicken thigh dinner tonight - yum! It was so pretty too.

Monday, August 25th
She strikes again!

I took this photo to try to retrain my brain. I know I’ve lost weight - I practically have a whole new wardrobe. But I still look down and see thunder thighs. So I took this picture to remind me that I am NOT the same size I was, no matter what my brain tries to say.

Tuesday, August 26th 

Trying to track down a mystery. I remembered that I’ve had a kidney ultrasound in the past - before my first hip surgery. I reached out to the hospital that did the scan, but they only keep their records for 10 years (this was 14 years ago). So other than an offhand comment on my blog from back then (It was my second ultrasound in two weeks – this one for the uterus area (the first one didn't show any kidney issues).), we’ll never know what it showed. But I’m guessing my kidneys were closer to the same size. Maybe. I’m starting to think that medical tests are just smoke & mirrors at this point!

Wednesday, August 27th

From the interwebs: This square turned up in my memories from 7 years ago. The blanket it was for hangs on my office wall, so I looked for the square, to admire my work. Couldn’t find it. I looked & looked & it just wasn’t there (you can look too on the second picture). People. That blanket has been on my office wall for YEARS & I just now noticed that it’s backwards? I guess it’s nice that the back looks as neat as the front.

Thursday, August 28th

Dr. M says: A mess was made, but the food was good! It’s who we are as a couple: I do most of the cooking, I clean and oil the cast iron, Dana does some cooking and washes a lot of dishes, just not my heavy-a$$ skillets and dutch ovens

Friday, August 29th    

Dr. M went to see his dad & found that he had a wound that had become infected. He took him to urgent care where they lanced & drained the wound & then packed & dressed it. Pop is a diabetic (although otherwise in excellent health) so Dr. M takes his wounds very seriously (note: they went back today to have the packing removed and things look great - the PA told Dr. M that he was doing a great job). 

Saturday, August 30th

End of summer bloomers.

I finished the last square of the blanket I’ve been working on (hallelujah!). It might not be as big as some folks thought I should make it, but I. Am. Done. Once that square is dry I’ll start joining them together & then figure out what border I want. I already have an idea for the next blanket - a total stashbuster that is very different than any I’ve made so far. We shall see. 

Tomorrow is labor day, and I am going with Dr. M to his dad’s house to do some work. I’m excited because we’re planning to get BBQ for lunch. It’s the little things people! What little things are getting you through the madness?