Vintage Thursday and What We've Been Doing

We've had a busy week, and I am behind on posting. Sometimes I get too many irons in the fire and get burned trying to juggle them all. This week it's been like that. 

Sunday was a busy one --we had family in to visit over the weekend and they all came here for breakfast. Here is the table before they arrived:
 

Bowls of strawberries and slices of clementines added bright color:

I meant to take an after photo too, but we had to hurry and leave because I needed to be in Beckley, 2 hours away, for a meeting of the WV Storytelling Guild.

On Monday we made a trip to the other end of the state to Morgantown, to see our youngest son--what was supposed to be a trip to his doctor with him turned into fixing his car instead. Nice timing, really, since he lives about 4 hours away. So we were there when the car gave him trouble, and there is nothing quite like a little support when your car lets you down. We drove home through terrible storms and were relieved to find our electricity was still on when so many people were without power for most of this week.

At work, I am slowly packing up, cleaning out files and getting things ready to retire. I did not bring too many personal things to my office because I remembered how it was when I left my branch library--boxes and boxes of stuff and days and days of cleaning out. At that library I did a lot of children's programs so I had puppets and all kinds of programming supplies that were mine and had to be brought home. I left a lot of things behind but even so it was enough of a job to get moved out that I did not want to repeat it.

I have brought my paperweight collection home, though. I never meant to collect them, but somehow I've ended up with quite a few.

This isn't the whole collection; I have several more that I never took to work. I unpacked these and put them on top of my desk, but I would like to figure out how to get them into a window so the sun catches them like it did in my office.

Tuesday evening was bread-baking and yogurt-making night. I tried making oatmeal bread and it came out pretty well, more dense than the other breads but more filling and with a nice texture and moistness. I am still learning with my breadmaker, a Cuisinart.

Last night I was really good for nothing. I was just tired, I suppose, from the traveling and from work, and I did literally nothing worthwhile. Now that should feel good sometimes, right? But it didn't; it felt like a waste of time. I did package one mug that sold on eBay and got it ready to mail.

Tonight I caught up on what I should have done last night. I got six contracts ready to mail for summer programs, put away some paperwork and even had time to enjoy this evening's beautiful weather. Two books sold on Amazon so I got those ready to go and added a couple more. I feel a lot better about tonight's work.

Larry has been working on gardens now that the ground is dry enough to get in them. He planted the cabbage and broccoli yesterday. He also moved out my electric dryer and moved in the gas one. We still have to vent it before we can use it, but this is step one. With this good weather, we're drying clothes outside anyway.

So that's the week so far! Like most Aprils, it's full of planning and getting things ready for the next phase. Tomorrow I hope to order baby chicks and some honeybees, and Saturday it is do or die on the taxes. Then I will be able to breathe easy and focus on gardens! It will be planting time before we know it. I am so ready for that.