Well, summer has finally come to the UP. We have had beautiful warm days which have brightened my spirits and awakened my love for outside tasks-preparing the front and back decks, landscaping and plants. B needed to restain the front and back decks as the winter reeked havoc on the stain put down last year. However, since the weather was so warm, he was able to get it done and it dried by the end of the day. The next two days were spent getting the furniture on both decks. This year it was a bit easier for the both of us because we left the larger pieces on the deck during the winter under a weighted tarp. B and I are getting a bit too old to haul those pieces out of the garage and up the deck steps every spring. It was so nice to sit on the front deck swing and enjoy the peacefulness of the neighborhood (such as it is..we only have 4 neighbors and they are not anywhere near close to us). We had planted white feather hostas the last few summers in the backyard and they have started coming up. We added an antique iron bench that we found last year. The seat was missing so B made a new wooden one. We don't use the bench for sitting just to hold some lovely colorful plants. A birdbath was put next to it as well as a bird feeder. It does look pretty. I will try to take a pic if I can. Not much of a photographer here. My oldest son is much much better at that. We plan to put in a decorative wooden fence to complete the area but we haven't gotten to it yet. B put some sod down at the bottom of the steps on both decks as they get quite muddy when it rains. The sod looks good and anything that avoids getting mud in the house works for me. Our neighbor down the road came over and offered to take down two trees that B was concerned about in the woods behind the backyard. We get some pretty fierce winds here and he was worried that if one or both came down, they would land right into the house. The neighbor agreed and said as long as he could have the wood, we would be even. Good deal. We have seen a lot of birds so far this year - turkeys, cranes, indigo buntings, and red breasted grosbeaks to name a few. The lilac bush is getting ready to bloom. I can't wait. The lilacs are so pretty and they bring a wonderful fragrance to the front deck.
So last month, I decided to track our no spend days as we are trying to be more careful on how we spend our money. I am happy to say that we had 16 no spend days for May. I am hoping we can do that again for June. As well as avoiding spending money just willy nilly, we are being careful what we do spend our money on as in groceries, gas, etc. I made up a pantry and freezer list and have been trying to keep track of what we have in each and using those items before going to the grocery store. It seems to be working as our grocery bill for once a month shopping is down by $100. We also are careful about any errands we run in the car. To save gas, we plan our errands on the same days when possible. This way we only have to fill up 1 or 2 times per month.
I declutter whenever I clean the house and most of the time, those things are donated so someone else can enjoy them as we did. As I said in a previous post, our cat Al passed away at the end of April. We gave his cat food and treats to our son and dil for their cats and we are donating his carrier, extra kitty litter and litter pan to UPAWS which is our animal shelter here. We will need to wait on that as the shelter has closed for the next two weeks because they had an outbreak of parvo.
B wants to see the movie "Pressure" so we will be going to the theater for the early show to see that. Mondays are $5.00 days at the theater which saves us $8.00 in admission price. The movie will be out by 6pm so B suggested we go to Applebee's for dinner afterwards. I love their mozzarella sticks.
I hope all of you are enjoying nice weather as we enter into June.
