A Peek Into Last Week (August 19 - 25)~

early morning dental appointment~thankfully, during one of 

the cooler times of the day!

It has been a while since I've published any APILW style posts. I have been concentrating on relearning the ins and outs of YouTube and digital content creation. I had gotten very rusty in the things I used to know and do with ease before, because it had been years since I last made any videos for my channel. All that to say, I miss writing the weekly posts that give you a glimpse into my life, and hopefully you enjoy them too. I'd like to incorporate some video content into the posts as well, but we'll see how it goes!

So, let's get back to it shall we?!

It has been one long, hot and humid summer. And the one day we got a bit of rain, thanks to Harold, it was just enough to create a sauna for us! Someone in our area said "you know it's bad when we're praying for a hurricane! ". Weather has been strange and extreme in many parts of the country and my heart and prayers go out to all.

With keeping cool as one of my top priorities, I have been concentrating my efforts mostly inside, with only short trips outside to try and keep our lawn and garden alive by watering and brief trips out to run necessary errands. One the rare days that the humidity is not suffocatingly high, I try to do "bonus" outdoor jobs, with seed sowing being at the top of the list, in hopeful preparation for a fall harvest. 

I still find ways to enjoy the great outdoors by watching the birds, squirrels and even wasps making good use of the little birdbath oasis I keep full with fresh water for them. All creatures are welcome at TJ's Sweet Birdbath Oasis!

I  have been whiling away some spare moments sipping on cold, sweaty glasses of iced tea while reading books I was able to download for free from OceanofPDF .  I mostly read nonfiction and have found several of the books on this site that I have been curious about.

In the kitchen, I have been having to be creative with meal planning and prep, as finances seem to keep getting tighter and tighter living on our fixed income in this precarious economy. I continue to focus on purchasing sale items in bulk and cook and bake as much as possible from scratch which seems to be our saving grace when it comes to keeping our bellies full.

on the way to the dreaded V.E.T. 

after surgery...woozy

Our senior doxie had to have her teeth cleaned and nine of them were extracted, which was an unexpected, but necessary and major expense. She's worth it though!

On a more dismal note, in winding up this week, I found out that some of my social media accounts were commandeered as a "prank", supposedly (not a very funny one). I probably would have never known except for the fact that the person (someone we know and who has since apologized profusely) picked the one Instagram account that hasn't been used in a good while to send messages. I began getting questions from a few folks that took the time to privately message me about comments made on their accounts, knowing I hadn't been using the account lately. Luckily, it was caught early and no real harm was done so...all's well that ends well. I have learned from this ordeal to never leave my phone laying around unattended! I will ask that anyone that may have received messages from me out of the blue, please know that this is what happened and kindly disregard.  The WWW and social media definitely have their upsides and downsides!

How have you been spending your summer?

Thanks for stopping by! 

👄xo, 

TJ