Hi everyone,
I’m so sorry about not showing my new dolly today… one word explains it… TAXES! I had a little bit of time this afternoon, but I was boxing up some shorts that sold this morning and got them to the Post Office so they could start on their journey to some new little boy’s house! I came back home and started dinner, thinking I would have the evening to take some pretty pictures of her, but my hubby had other ideas… TAXES! I had most of my books done for my part, but it’s all the rest of the stuff that takes up time. We are already later than I think we’ve ever been. Between my hubby’s 2 surgeries, then Reuben being sick and then dying, things haven’t been the same around here. Tomorrow, I think I get to learn how to drive the riding mower… since my hubby is still recovering. I’ve never driven it because he always has. I might be on the push mower. I’m just looking at it as a way to burn calories.
Suemae emailed me today and was talking about the Estate Sale and said lots of people thought it looked like a museum in Susette’s house. She also told me that big Moose that Susette had, didn’t sell. I guess it takes a special buyer to want him.
She has been listing some of her dolls on Ebay… you can find her by clicking on this link below and then looking for her other items. She put up Ruby Red Fashion Friend Perihelia, and she is gorgeous!
Since I don’t have any new news or dolly pictures to share, I’m hoping you can bring up something that will be interesting for everyone to chime in. I do have two pictures. They are of my Christmas Cactus… I guess it decided it wanted to be an Easter Cactus too… although I’m not sure these last 3 blooms will last till then… but they are pretty!
Well, I’ll be back tomorrow… hope you will too!
See you then,
Blessings, Jeanne
Well, I think most of us at least do understand about taxes, Jeanne, and also how “things” can get in the way of the usual schedule of getting that chore done, so it’s okay. I just made an appointment (for next Tuesday) to get my own taxes done. Hopefully by then I will have gone thru my files and cleared out 2025, so all the medical receipts are together, to go with the forms that have come thru the mail.
As for mowing the lawn, that is one skill I have never learned! When I was a kid, it was my brother’s job (I got all the fun stuff like washing dishes and dusting!); when I was single, I lived in an apartment and never had to worry about mowing, and after I married Ron, it was His job, so, no, I never learned.
Your Christmas cactus is lovely! My mother had one, as did my mother-in-law, but theirs were both bright pink flowers.
I am death on plants, so never bothered to try to grow a Christmas cactus! (I have probably killed more house plants than most people own! My house is like “a little hospice, where plants go to die”…–something I read somewhere. 😂🤣😂)
Nolan is getting very excited about his new shorts that are coming. He Thinks he’s going to get to wear them right away. At 52° for a high, I don’t think so!!
I meant to add, Oh, Susette’s Perihelia is really gorgeous!! Hmmm…..
David has always bought me plants. I love cut flowers and asked him once why he didn’t buy those for me. He said it was because they would wilt and die within a few days. I said, so you buy me live plants so I can kill them. i think he has me mixed up with Morticia Addams.
Hahaha!!! I loved that show! Have fond memories of Morticia cutting all the flowers off the roses and exclaiming “what a lovely crop of thorns we have this year”!!
Where did my comment go from yesterday? I did write one, but it never did show up!
It has happened before, and to others, so I will just leave it to that.
I guess I am a little bit spoiled as far as taxes and grass cutting go! Michael was an accounting major in college, and has always done our taxes. He gets it done as quickly as possible, and by early February we are done! Can’t say that would be the situation if I was the one doing them!🤣
As far a cutting the grass, Michael always did it. I’m not even that good at starting the lawnmower, if that is possible for me! I take care of the trimming and flowers. We have no room for a riding lawn mower, and with only a third of an acre, we really don’t need one.
I have a very small Christmas cactus, a white one somewhat like yours, Jeanne, with NO flowers! It did bloom very prettily at Christmas, but since then, it just is a green Christmas cactus, and I wonder now if I should even keep it. My house is not conductive to growing plants, since every window also has a heat/air conditioner register right there.
I see that Susette’s Perihelia is up for sale, and what a sale that is! Susette paid a pretty penny for that doll, as she got caught up in a bidding war, but did win the doll.
She is beautiful and so well taken care of, and I hope she goes to a person who appreciates her!
Can’t wait to see the new doll tomorrow!
Good Morning dear Jeanne, thanks for this update on progress and no progress and taxes (ugh the worst thing in the world) and your plant is gorgeous. I used to have a few of those but I gave them to my daughter.
I understand getting tangled up in distractions like paperwork.
Mowing, I have never driven a riding mower but I think it would be fun. I am not sure if I would enjoy it as an additional “chore” though. I have used the gas lawn mower a few times, that is kind of a dusty sweaty job, but yes, I agree, exercise and burning off calories is always a winner for more snacks.
Well, I took some pictures of my gooses, I have made about 5 of them now.
They just never made the transfer to my laptop, so I will have to manually send them.
So, you can count on using those tomorrow if you need to.. I have also been making quilt blocks and additionally have a finished quilt top that needs borders.
Brr it is cold this morning, we have the heat on of course.
I have a cornish rex kitty girl, Princess, and she is really vocal. Cornish Rex kitties are usually very vocal. I mean they meow all day about everything. “Here I am” or “I pooped in my box” or “let’s play” etc etc. We are loving her a lot. I think she might be the last kitty we ever have. We had to put Miles (cornish rex – red mackerel tabby) to sleep last May and that was so tragic and hard. Then we had Pierro, the most adorable white and spotty cornish rex kitty that ever was, and before that was in in 1991 we got Princess the first, and Caesar cornish rex kitties and they lived 19 years. They were the best kitties ever. All of them indoor only kitties and they were so greatly loved. I miss them.
…. last week I brought up missing moms, now I just brought up beloved fuzzy babies. I hope everyone has a sunny day. Here we have clouds and chilly.
Jeanne, I hope both of you are managing those annoying tasks that interfere with our fun. – as my mom used to say quite often.
Charlotte, you are very funny – “plant hospice” haha
Linda, I have learned to select all, copy and save before I post on wordpress.
I lose comments all the time and I am reliably verbose.
I completely understand how those precious kitties can find their way into your heart. I don’t know the cornish rex but our mutt must have been of the mix. She also lived to 19 and broke my heart when she died. I could never have another because of the pain and suffering I endured after she was gone. Now we are dog sitters for our children when they travel. The grand dogs think they own us completely and would never tolerate an incomer.
Yes, Debbie.
when we take on a new precious fuzzy baby, we never look at the “fine print” which is the inevitable heart break of their short lives. I love the happy snuggly playtime moments but the loss can be unbearable.
Our house is on one acre, so we have a riding mower. I used to have husband mow around everything – trees, clothesline posts, LP tank, etc., because I wasn’t good at backing up and turning sharp and would likely run into and over things, and then I would do all the big, open areas. It finally got to where he would just do the whole yard.
I have two Thanksgiving/Christmas cacti, one pink and one white, and they are both blooming again. If I remember right, the pink one didn’t have very many blooms at Christmas, so now it’s making up for it. I guess you could say it’s a late bloomer. 🙂
Theresa, we have a zero-turn mower and when we first got it I thought it would be hard to use. It isn’t and it’s actually a lot of fun and easier to maneuver than our old regular riding mower.
Jeanne I cannot imagine how those board shorts were sewn together so quickly with the increase in your caregiving and chores. Good luck with the mowing, it was never for me. My dad put me behind the mower one time. My arms felt like they were coming out of the sockets after one pass. I haven’t touched a mower since then. Hubby likes to do it but the pollen season is a deterrent.
Charlotte, can I send my Z plant to your hospice! It was a gift from DIL and it just keeps growing and growing. I read that it is a member of the bamboo family and will take over the house and needs to be dusted. One more thing to dust. That is why the dolls are behind glass.
Speaking of dolls, I did see Perihelia online last night. She has always been on my list but I am resisting the temptation. At the moment my ruby red collection is down to two of the very early effner face limited editions, Rebecca and holiday Stella. I am also trying to hold the line on little darlings. They have a way of sneaking into the doll room when I am not looking. The sale of Susette’s dolls is having a sobering effect on me because I realized that I have too many collections.
We are having a roller coaster of a spring, hot cold hot cold. Even the trees are confused, it is either winter or summer with no spring in the mix.
Enjoy your day, winter, summer or somewhere in between!
Roller coaster indeed. The highs and lows are incredible.
Well, Spring is like that… the angry struggle out of the cold.
Yesterday was such a pretty sunny day but the wind was intolerable.
We do not have nice windy days in the Summer here in Northern Virginia – I am not looking forward to those hot humid, stale not windy days.
Yes, Debbie, the last few days we have had winter in the morning and summer in the afternoon. Today we have winter all day. The is the craziest year ever!
That is what it is like here, Sissy. Cold, autumnal nights and mornings and warm in the afternoon, but we only have winter to look forward to.
Push a lawn mower, uck! I was 14 when my older brother went off to college, and guess who had to mow the lawn with one of those awful mowers! My dad had a lovely thick lawn and I can still remember how hard it was to push that mower through it. I would take a break now and then and it took forever to finish.
Another mowing story from when Peyton and I got married. My second husband, (long story about THAT) was not a great choice and when I finely kicked him out (I owned the house) he wanted the riding mower. He had loved using it and would ride it in the evenings while he smoked and drank his bourbon. He was really mad that I had remarried and came by one evening saying he wanted “his” mower. I told him the mower was with the house in the divorce. He offered $80 and I said no. Then he said if I didn’t sell it to him he would come in the night, take it, and through it in the river. I knew he would so I took the money and used it towards buying a nice riding mower for Peyton. Lets just say I was not good at picking husbands, and thank the Lord Peyton found me.
Jeanne, I can imagine your having to work on taxes. I had to do that too when i was sewing and selling so much. Now it is just our regular taxes, what little I sell now is not enough to bother with tax wise.
If you do learn to use the riding mower, please send us a photo when you are riding on it!!
We are all looking forward to when you can get to show us the new doll, but we understand what presser you are under right now.
We were still battling piles of leaves in the yard this am. It is impossible to get them all. That is what I get for keeping too many trees on our property when we bought it.
Sissy, we mulch our leaves with our mower. Our old mower had a mulching attachment but the one we have now does a good job on its own.
I loved reading this Sissy. I am glad God sent Peyton to you.
Your former hubby sounds terrible. I am so glad you left him. How absolutely mean to threaten you!!
Since hubbs and I have been doing daddy’s trust (all of it bc my siblings are too cheap for lawyers we have been under the guidance of a local estate lawyer for tricky questions) and we are using Rex’s (hubbs) accountant for the taxes. He is so great, but still, the gathering of everything in regard to the estate is a huge effort and a bit scary when numbers go missing etc.
Dear Jeanne, I hope you were able to finish your taxes and have a big cup of hot chocolate as a reward. I have a tax guy who does my taxes for me because math is not my strong suit.
I have a Women’s History Month topic, well question, for discussion here on the Sofa.
If you were hosting an Afternoon Tea party and could invite any three women from history to attend, who would you invite?
I would invite Jane Austen (she’s celebrating her 250th birthday along with America!), Harriet Tubman, and Gracie Allen.
I love your trio, Dorothy! I am seeing them in my mind now, wondering how they would talk together!
I would have Helen Keller, Jane Austen, and would have to include my mom. She would come down from Heaven with the other two because she would never forgive me if she missed a tea party with her favorite writer of all time. My Mom read her books when she was a kid and she used to say she loved Jane Austen before she was popular. I have all of her books and all the movies too.
My there are so many I would want to invite but being allowed only three I would pick Rosa Parks who had incredible courage to do what she did, and I think Naomi and Ruth from the Bible. I always loved stories of their relationship.
I love the story of Naomi and Ruth, also, Barbara!
incredible question, Dorothy.
I should think hard about this…
Three women hmmmm only threeeee
MargaretThatcher JaneAusten, AudreyHepburn, so many others
Yes, indeed, Barbara, Naomi and Ruth certainly.
So many questions.
Well, I wouldn’t invite anyone famous. However, I would absolutely love to talk with my great great grandmother and her mother on my mom’s side. I have a big hole in my family history there. Misspellings maybe? Names listed with different spellings. Marriage listing with the wrong name. Kind of crazy. I would hope that she could enlighten me on over twenty years of searching and not finding any answers. She is famous to me as I’ve searched for her ancestors for so long.
That got me to thinking, Joy….I would like to have my great-aunt Olga, who also did a lot of sewing, knitting, crochet work, etc.–I think I am much like her in that regard. She died when I was still in college, so she never saw how much needlework and sewing I do or how much I enjoy it! And I’d like my mom’s mother, who died when I was 7–I never really knew her, certainly not as an adult, and barely remember her, actually. She sewed, too–my baptismal gown and slip, as well as two cloth dolls, all of which I still have. For the third person….I’d like to meet Ron’s Grandma Trayer. She was his favorite grandma, and we found out, when we visited her grave in 2000 or so, that she was still alive when we got married in 1974!! We had no idea. If I had known, we’d have headed east instead of south on our honeymoon!
Late making a comment, but I just had to check out Susette’s doll. Lots of activity there. And the others are fun to see too.
As to taxes, well ours are done. Other person puts everything together, he was a finance major, and then we take it to our tax peson who does everything else. We always have to pay as we don’t have any right offs like we used to. Anyway, now that you can no longer pay by check, we wait until later on to pay electronically. But, it is basically all done.
As to the mowing, I’m very happy that other person does that with our battery mower. It works so well and is such an improvement over the old gas mower we gave to a friend some years ago. The thing was so hard to start. Other person can do the front and back lawns easily on one charge. We often lift it into the truck and take it to the other house to mow there as well. And no stinky gas to worry about either. But, if we had acreage, we would definitely have a riding mower. Other person has always wanted one, but it really isn’t necessary here and the burning calories, like Jeanne mentioned, is good. The only problem I can see with that riding mower is if it might hit a yellow jacket nest. Same with the walking mower, I guess. I understand that they like shade for their nests. 🙂 Just a warning from the county guy who has removed them here. Can’t you see Jeanne, on the riding mower making crop circles or decorative designs all across the lawn as she mows? I’m sure there will be artistry there. If she opts for the riding mower, photos are definitely in order. 🙂
Jeanne’s cactus are lovely. I have never had luck here with them at all. My outside cactus kind of take care of themselves, fortunately. 🙂
Not sure how I missed that Jeanne, was getting a new doll, but I will look forward to that for sure.
The boy dolls here are jumping up and down and can’t wait for their new swim shorts to arrive. Yay! Can you hear them? I’ll have to see if I can get them to pose for a pic after they arrive because there sure isn’t any sewing going on around here. Weeds are now in control.
Joy, We had a dear friend who got in a Yellow jacket nest. The yard man was mowing and ran over one. Our dear friend who was in his nineties , rushed out to help and they both got covered in stings. It really had bad effects to him, and he never quite got over it even though he almost lived to be 100. When we heard about the nest, we went there and Peyton poured gas down both entry holes and lit them on fire. Never had yellow jackets after that.
Jason managed to create a stir once when he ran over a ground wasp nest. David told him it was there and we were trying to get rid of it, but Jason has a tendency to not listen when you tell him something and he paid for not listening that day. Fortunately he is not allergic. I am so I stayed clear until David destroyed the nest.
Good riddance to those yellow jackets and tell Peyton good job! So sorry about your friends being stung though. That is awful. We’re lucky that we have a free county service that will come out the next day after you contact them and use prythium, which is non toxic and gets the queen. The others fly around for a bit and then die off. Mission accomplished. We may have tried gas at one time, but having someone else take care of it works for us. I’m surprised that we haven’t seen any yet this year. Maybe because the season is so off so far. Guess we’ll find out.
I sure can hear all your young men anxiously awaiting their adorable board shorts.
Riding Mower vs. Push Mower: Well we have a few acres here that need mowing. Once when David was out of town on a job I was using the riding mower and it caught fire. It was exciting to say the least. But since he was out of town and until we could get a new riding mower, I had to use our push mower. It took me four days to mow since I had to do it in sections and it was really hot here. It was great exercise, but I was glad when the new riding mower showed up.
I’m with you on a riding mower. Have no idea how you were able to mow that much property. Glad you were able to get another riding mower. 🙂
I’m going to have to tell the boys here that they need to take a flight to TX so they can use your pool. Mine has still not materialized.
I totally understand your dilemma. I’ve been trying to get my taxes ready for a couple weeks now but am having trouble motivating myself with all the other stuff going on around me.
I’ve finally recognized that I am going to have to see an orthopedic doctor and asked a woman in Chorale who she uses. David had a good one for his knees but he is miles away. The one the woman suggested is from Bryan/College Station but comes to Bellville on the 1st, 3rd and 5th Fridays so I will make an appointment for the middle of April (the first Friday being Good Friday). It appears to be my right knee being out of alignment that is causing all the other problems. I’ll probably need some kind of surgery but it would most likely be arthroscopic since I don’t have knee or hip problems otherwise.
Oh, Jeanne, look on the riding mower as a fun thing. I used to do ours all the time until Jason moved into the mobile home and David turned it over to him in lieu of rent. When I get my knee fixed I might take it back over because he does a sloppy job of it and I actually enjoyed it. He can still do the weed eating because the weed eater is big and hard for me to use.
My Christmas Cactus got flowers on it recently, too, but I think they are smaller than yours. I used to enjoy riding the mower, but it wasn’t fun to scrape off the stuck-on grass by the blades. Pushing the mower took a lot more energy. Now J and M and R mow the lawn. Thank you for sharing Suemae’s Ebay link! It would have been fun to go to the estate sale. I picked up our taxes today. We need to go over them and sign them. I really don’t like doing them. Hope you all have a great day!
Good luck with the taxes everyone, I am glad I don’t have to do any. Only significance 1st April has here is that Seniors and beneficiaries get a cost of living increase to reflect the inflation rate. I never understand the inflation rate, my power, LPG, petrol and food costs seem to have gone up by a lot more than the 3% they say is our annual rate this year. I think I will end up with about $15 per fortnight which won’t cover the extra for the LPG bottles! Oh well at least we get something. On 1st May everyone on a low income gets a winter energy payment as well, $20 a week each adult till 1st October.
Charlotte, I am with you my house is a hospice for plants. My friend gave me a winter cactus for Christmas (yes, I know you call it a Christmas cactus, so did I till I came to the southern hemisphere). It did very well for a short time but I obviously watered it too much and it rotted from the base. I have separated all the leaves and I am trying again but I have no great hopes for its ultimate survival.
It was dark when I got up this morning so not sure what it is like outside yet but supposed to be 23C later. I think it all turns to custard tomorrow with wind rain and cold.
Have a lovely day everyone, Spring is almost there.
brrrrr please stay warm and cozy, Anne
Well, I just sent Jeanne the Goose Report, so if she needs an extra day
I have that ready for her use!