Thankful Friday, Summer Edition!

 It's been a fun week. 

I'm thankful for: 

1. Summer!

2. Hanging out with friends at Sonja's birthday celebration on Saturday. 

3. My Girl Scouts award and bridging ceremony on Sunday. No photos because they aren't my kiddos, but we now have 3 Cadettes and 6 Juniors! 

4. A successful bell concert Sunday night, complete with moving looooots of furniture.

5. I got to help facilitate some interesting discussions at my church on race and mortgage lending through our racial justice group.

6. More things checked off my to-do list, woohoo!

7. Scouts, bells, and to some extent the racial justice group are winding down for the summer, so I get a nice break for a few months.

8. I squeezed in a hike at the Patuxent Wildlife Refuge this morning before it got really hot.

Thankful Thursday, Wet Week Edition

 We got some much needed rain this past week- 2-3 inches worth! It was a bummer that it was over Memorial Day weekend, but I'm glad we aren't going into the summer quite as crispy.

This week I'm thankful for:

1. I got my CPAP machine working again. New mask + correct settings = Yay good sleep!

2.  I took a lovely 5-mile hike at Great Falls after work today in gorgeous weather. Saw a Pileated Woodpecker, lots of turtles, blue herons and a beaver!

3. A fun game night with my cousins on Monday. Ella found Diagnose This, which is sort of like Cards Against Humanity. 

4. Got more things knocked off the to-do list, which is satisfying.

5. Honestly just chilling a lot over the long rainy weekend.

6. The national Memorial Day concert that I can watch on PBS.

Thankful Saturday, Calmer week edition

 This week has definitely been better than last week, although that was a bit of a low bar lol.

Lots to be thankful for!

1. I got to camp with my Girl Scouts after all! I was scheduled to camp with them Friday and Saturday nights, but mom in the ER meant that another parent went in my place for the weekend. As it turned out though, I was able to go Saturday night and had a lot of fun! The funniest part was our troop moving our tents into the Glen Shelters because it was going to rain.

2. Luna is walking almost normally now. We're still sorting out her digestive system (maybe too many meds?) but she seems in less pain and is excited to walk again.

3. I just read the book 'The War That Saved My Life' by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley and it was so good. Historical Fiction set in England in WWII, YA. 5 star read.

4. I had a day of rest and small adventures. I slept in, made muffins for breakfast, checked out a new bookstore in Kentlands, went birding for an hour at the lake, and bumped into 2 friends there. I also went looking for owls in a different spot and discovered a new to me trail that I want to fully hike at a later date.

5. A Pileated Woodpecker basically posed for me while I was birding and I got some beautiful shots of a beautiful bird.

6. Two of my cousins have moved to Arizona! Their new place looks so nice and I can't wait to visit them.

7. Mom is doing better. Saw her Saturday morning and Wednesday for lunch and she seems like herself and can walk relatively normally (with her walker). 

Thankful Thursday, Weird Week Edition

 This has honestly kind of been a weird week for me. It's had some great highs and some low lows. In some ways, it was really hard to think of things I was grateful for on Tuesday, when I was so worried we might bomb Iran again. But honestly, remembering that I have so much to be thankful for helps when I'm feeling low, maybe even more than when I'm just having an ordinary day or a great day. 

So this week I'm thankful for:

1. Old friends. On Friday I went birding with Kate and we talked for like 6 hours. On Saturday I saw my friend Andrea from college and we also talked for about 4 hours. Then I had dinner with Babs... and talked for 2 hours. I've known all 3 of these women for over 20 years and its just so fun to hang out, talk about our lives and randomness, laugh, and just be. I really hadn't seen Andrea in at least 8-9 years (we were trying to figure that out), so meeting up in Harrisburg was great. Rats for forgetting to take photos!

2. My favorite bookstore, Midtown Scholar in Harrisburg. On one hand, its a bummer my favorite bookstore is 2 hours away. On the other hand, it's probably a good thing because I'd be there weekly buying way to many books if I was local. It's got new and used books, a huge history section, and this cool underground part that goes on forever of rare books. 

3. Birds! Spring migration has started, and Kate and I walked several miles around Huntley Meadows looking for birds. We found what we think was a Coopers Hawk in a nest, red-headed woodpeckers, and tried our hand at identifying lots of sparrows.

4. Easter! Easter service at our church was such a wonderful celebration. We had a full house, great music, and dang, can Joshua preach. 

5. Girl Scout Cookies. I was silly and gave up sweets for lent, so I've been enjoying my stash of girl scout cookies this week. 

6. Conversations with mom. Alzheimers is a tricky thing, but on Friday mom was in a good mood and we actually chatted about a few things. I think she was following the conversation pretty well as I tried to reminisce about things she might still remember (but not too many things or I'd confuse her). We laughed a lot, and that was wonderful. I miss being able to talk to her about things, and this was a lovely small dose of her that's still in there.  

Thankful... Monday? More March Edition

 I'm surfacing after a having a cold that wanted to be a sinus infection. 0/5 stars.

There's still a lot I'm thankful for, including:

1. My immune system. Being sick sucks, but I'm glad I eventually bounce back.

2. Masking is socially acceptable. I was able to take Luna to a vet appointment on Friday while masked, so I (hopefully) didn't pass my crud onto other people.

3. More good books. I finished 'The Last Runaway' by Tracy Chevalier while recovering and started

4. A new season of Top Chef!

5. Livestreams of music. One of my favorite bands from Ren Faire, Piper Jones Band, was playing at a club in Houston on Saturday night, and there was a livestream to watch for free

6. A clean bill of health for my teeth, at least for another 6 months.

7. Bell festival was so much fun. We had a great conductor, good music, and it was at the beach, so who can complain? It was fun to go to a new beach too, I'd never been to Rehoboth before. 

8. Wondering a new wildlife refuge before bell festival, Prime Hook. A windy day for birds, but a lovely walk, and I did see a bunch of forest birds.

9. My friend Kris that let me stay at her house for festival so I didn't have to pay for a hotel room.

10. March weather? We've had 2 85 degree days and then the next day it snowed. I'm here for the warmup and will stay for the crazy back and forth (which we might have again tonight.)

Adventures in Birding

 A medium adventure! My friend Carol and I went to Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge for the day on Saturday (2/10/2024). Winter is one of my favorite seasons for birding for a few reasons. One, its not beastly hot outside :) Two, its much easier to see birds in the trees when there are no leaves. And three, its weird duck season. Where I am on the east coast, we get lots of interesting ducks that migrate here from Canada for the winter. 

Blackwater is about 2 hours away from us, so we got there about 10am. 

Thousands of snow geese flying over the water.

Unfortunately I didn't have my good camera with me (it's trying very hard to die, I need to replace it), so I just have some landscapes from my phone. 

We saw lots of eagles, tons of ducks, several great blue herons, 3 different types of woodpeckers, and a Great Horned Owl peeking out of its nest. Also thousands of tundra swans mixed with Canada geese.

Canvasback ducks, ring necked ducks, and American Wigeons in Cambridge, MD, about 15 minutes north of the refuge.

We stopped for a yummy dinner at Fisherman's Inn on Kent Island on the way home. Yum!