Around here this weekend

Hey there, blog friends!

♥

Welcome to another exciting weekend recap on PaperTurtle. Our weekend was fairly low key, and I did manage a few photos to share.

Saturday morning I searched the turtle habitat to see if Rex and Casper were out. They have some favorite hiding places in their habitat and they weren't in any of those spaces. Then I noticed them hanging out under my sunflower sprouts. :o)!!! Made me so happy to see that. They are no doubt enjoying the canopy of shade, and possibly (hopefully) eating bugs from underneath the leaves.

In other pet news, Whiskers Jay was a happy camper this weekend. I drew five mandalas over the course of two days, so he remained perched on the edge of my table...purring and tail swishing...

I love the simplicity of this mandala.

Saturday evening - way too hot to sit outside and enjoy a glass of wine. I took this next photo standing inside our backdoor, dreaming of autumn...

And then Sunday. I'm down to the part in my yoga teacher training where I'm required to attend a certain number of classes at the studio and journal about them. So I went to two classes yesterday - one that I participated in, and one that I assisted with. Need to finalize my notes today before I forget certain details...

I spent a little time looking at the hashtag #mandalalove on Instagram this weekend. Oh, the inspiration! I've made some Instagram mandala friends in the process, and I'm going to be using some new shapes in my own mandalas just to keep them interesting for me. The one above was inspired by a mandala artist who uses a lot of triangle points in her work. Something new and different for me. I made a bit of a mess, but in the long run I loved the finished piece. I used watercolor pencils on this one:

We had some cloud coverage for a while yesterday so it was nice enough to sit on the patio...until the mosquitoes started pestering us. Hot, humid, stormy time of year + Arizona sunsets to compensate.

And now a new week with pretty much the same ol' routine on the horizon. Work, yoga, work, yoga... I'll take it!

Keep on keepin' on, my friends.

♥

Around here this weekend...

Good day, blog friends.

♥

I hope this Monday morning finds you well and happy. I am both. :o) Come in, I'll tell you about our weekend...

Saturday morning I had breakfast with my sister-in-law, Janet. We each had a mimosa and a yummy meal at The Original Chop Shop in downtown Chandler. SO yummy, and I'm excited to take Doug there sometime.

Carrie and her beau were out of town for the weekend, so we had her dog, Marcus, in the mix of our resident fur balls. Marcus and Lucky are great friends. The cat? Not so much. This next shot was at feeding time for the cat...all hands on deck.

I drew a few mandalas this weekend and I loved spending lots of time with each one, just taking my time. Whiskers Jay stayed close by (as usual).

That tail.

You can see both of our turtles in the photo below, enjoying some ground venison that Doug gave them. Oh my gosh, they love that stuff! Rex literally comes "running" for it. Nature. So gross and so cool.

I played with watercolor pencils on my mandalas this weekend and Whiskers would not leave my water jar alone. Pal or pest? Both rolled into one!

This week will include lots of yoga as I have picked up a Friday morning class at another Chandler Parks & Recreation location. So, in addition to the two I teach at Snedigar Rec Center on Tuesday and Wednesday evenings, I'll be teaching Friday mornings at Tumbleweed Rec Center. I've also scheduled my next mandala workshop for the end of August, so I'll be preparing for that in the coming weeks.

When my schedule is full like this it's a challenge to keep up with my own yoga practice, so I'm stepping up my morning routine starting today. Gotta' click publish and hit my yoga mat.

Pray for peace.

♥

Around here this weekend

Hey there, blog friends.

♥

Welcome to the beginning of a whole new week. What a lovely weekend we had around these parts! We were productive and also had time for time for relaxing and spending time with friends. Come on in...

You may recall that I reduced my corporate work hours to have Friday's off in order to pursue yoga and hospice work. I completed my hospice volunteer training in June and have been waiting to receive my first assignment. Well, Thursday afternoon I got the call, and Friday morning I visited my first hospice patient.

I had a moment Friday morning as I was getting ready to go where I wondered what in the world I was doing. I called Doug and he soothed me - reassured me that I could do this... And I did.

Turtle Town

The patient I'm assigned to is so lovely. And as "luck" would have it, she has a great deal in common with my mom. They were both born in the same year, born in the same state, worked the same profession all their lives, and my patient even has a daughter my age. When I first walked into her room I was struck by her lovely appearance - she even resembles my mom in a way. Petite build, impeccably groomed, at the end of her life yet still a grace about her.

It was awkward for both of us at first, but by the end of my visit we were connected. Hospice is sacred space, and I'll visit her every Friday until she's no longer there for me to visit. ♥

In the meantime, life rolls on. I've managed to stake my sunflower sprouts to keep the turtles from plowing them down. The ones in the photo above are doing so well in their habitat.

Doug and I had friends over for brunch yesterday. Doug's friend is also our electrician, so he's seen our house remodel in progress, but his wife hadn't seen it since we first got our keys. It was so fun to show her all of the changes around here. I made baked French toast with blueberries, a fruit tray, deviled eggs, and stuffed mushrooms. Yummy!

And after brunch, I made art.

I've been wanting draw mandalas with a Sharpie pen on canvas and it felt so good to get this idea out of my head and out through my hands. I've been collecting words cut from magazines, and though these aren't glued on yet, I'm thinking they will be...

After the orange hues, I went blue...

Ah! Looking at these photos makes me want to stay home on this Monday and create more! It was overcast yesterday, and we had a big thunderstorm and lots of rain during the night. Bam! Woke us up at 3:00 a.m. with some crazy thunder. But alas, there's yoga to be practiced and corporate work to be done, so here I go.

Ahhh...a whole new week awaits.

Wishing you a great one, sweet friends!

♥

Around here this weekend...

Happy new week, blog friends!

♥

And just like that, it's Monday morning! Come on in, I'll tell you about my weekend.

I'll have an assignment for hospice volunteer work soon, but until then my Fridays are free to do what I choose. Pretty much loving that right now! Carrie had a webinar to listen to, so she brought her laptop to my house and we listened together while we drew mandalas. A perfect Friday afternoon!!!

Doug was off scouting/camping with his brother this weekend, so I called my own shots. ;o) I attended a yin yoga class on Saturday morning at my favorite studio, and I made Mexican quinoa for dinner that night...

Doug is not a fan of quinoa, and I love this dish! So that was my dinner for Saturday night, and I froze the leftovers for future lunches.

Then, Saturday night, baby...

I had the Food Network on as background noise, and I sat on our couch (in Doug's spot - ha!) and drew a mandala. Gosh, time just slips by when I draw mandalas! ♥

Sunday morning:

The flower bed at the corner of our patio was half-over-grown and half-almost-dead, with a healthy dose of unwanted grass spouting up. I was outside by 7:00 a.m. and spent the next three hours playing in dirt. Bliss.

I also might have gotten a little carried away with succulents. We'll see how they fare on our patio in the shade. Yesterday's high temp was 109°. Bla.

And now, a new week on the horizon. There's my usual schedule of yoga teaching mixed with corporate job duties, and fun stuff on the calendar for the upcoming weekend. Ha - living weekend to weekend these days. Maybe I'll get my first hospice volunteer assignment this week...I wonder...

Carry on and keep sweet thoughts.

♥

4th of July weekend

Happy Independence Day to my USA readers.

And happy heavenly birthday to my sweet mother-in-law, PJ.

♥ ♥ ♥

Doug's mom was red, white and blue through and through. PJ was born on the 4th of July, married a US Marine, served her community through countless hours of volunteer work, and wore our country's colors every chance she got. If she was still here with us there would surely be a birthday celebration today, but alas, we carry on and remember her fondly. ♥

 

It's been such a great holiday weekend for us! We hosted a small get together at our house Saturday evening so we spent our day preparing for guests.

My SIL, Meta, gifted me with some patio lights for Christmas a couple of years ago. At the time we were planning on relocating, so I kept them in the box until we had a more "permanent" patio to hang them. Saturday morning while Doug played golf with his buddies, I set out to hang my Meta lights. I LOVE the way they look and am so happy to finally have them installed.

I had to make a quick grocery store run before our party on Saturday afternoon and was walking along thinking, Why does my step feel off? Turned out to be something I've heard others confess to and I've always wondered, "How would that happen..."

I couldn't get out of that grocery store fast enough! Lol. Oh, me.

Our party was so much fun! We had Doug's dad and siblings + significant others + friends-who-feel-like-family, and Carrie and her crew stopped in as well. I made meatball sliders for dinner (made the meatballs early in the day then finished cooking them in the crockpot) and a yummy green salad. Each of our lady guests brought an appetizer and as always, we had plenty of food.

Our friends-who-feel-like-family arrived with this beautiful bouquet of flowers: ♥

After all the party prep on Saturday, Sunday was a day of clean up and then rest and relaxation. We snacked on party leftovers most of the day, and I made a simple quesadilla dinner for us last night.

And there was some mandala drawing in the mix...

And now it's Monday and day three of our weekend. I love Monday holidays! :o)

We're having Carrie and Andrew over for an early dinner, then the four of us have tickets to the Diamondback game this evening. There will be a big fireworks display after the game, a great way to cap off an awesome holiday weekend.

Wishing you all a safe and happy 4th of July!

♥ ♥ ♥

Around here this weekend

Happy new week, blog friends!

♥

Do you ever have one of those days when you have a whole lot to say but really just want to keep your mouth shut? No? It's very rare for me, but I kind of feel that way this morning.

A month or so ago I noticed a sprout shooting up in the middle of my flower garden. It didn't look like a typical weed, so Doug and I agreed that we'd let it grow and see what it turned into. A couple of days ago we woke up to a beautiful white flower. I was so excited and headed outside to take a whole bunch of photos. {Of course.} I posted it on Instagram to see if anyone could identify it, and several thought it might be Morning Glory. Turns out that it's Datura, also known as Jimsonweed, also known as Devil's Trumpet, also known as poisonous. WHAT?! Thanks to my friend, Sam, for the info. Pretty on the outside, wicked on the inside...shame.

Friday night we tried a new-to-us Mexican restaurant for Friday night date night, and Carrie & Andrew joined us to celebrate his recent work promotion. It was fun to sit with them and share a meal, and this is the only photo I took that night:

Really yummy chips and salsa spread. And the house margarita was really small and warranted a second.

Saturday I attended the final day of my hospice volunteer training...

The photo above was taken at the end of an activity we did and I just couldn't even...I still can't... It was a day full of emotional subject matter and conversation. By the end of the day I was simply spent and as I was driving home I took a detour and ended up at Whole Foods for a salad, glass of wine, and a little retail therapy.

I strolled around Whole Foods in a bit of a daze. I ended up with a potted sunflower and a couple scoops of decadent chocolate before heading home to Doug.

Sunflowers and chocolate always help. ♥

 

Doug worked both days this weekend, working for a client who just purchased a house and wants it painted before their furniture is moved in later this week. Left to my own devices yesterday, I moved a whole bunch of things around on our walls - pictures and what-nots and small shelves that landed in places when we moved in and that I have been wanting to rearrange for a while. So yesterday was about pounding nails and folding laundry and making cookie dough to replenish our freezer supply.

 

And just like that, it's Monday morning. I love my new work schedule and not working on Friday's, but that in itself presents a few challenges that I'm sorting out in my mind this morning. Time to click the "publish" button and get this show on the road.

 

But first, yoga...

♥

This weekend, our turtles, and the heat

Oh my goodness, it is HOT in Arizona!

♥

Welcome to summer in the desert. Our air conditioner ran constantly all weekend, and yesterday's high in the "Valley of the Sun" was 118°F (47°C). I will try super hard to not dwell on our crazy heat over the course of this summer here on my blog, but this weekend was brutal in terms of weather. The silver lining is that the sun is shining and our skies are a really pretty blue.

For the past several months I have been asking Doug to install drip lines in our turtle pen. Now that summer is upon us, we really needed to make that happen. I had such a cute plan in my head, and Doug moved forward without me and...well...bless his little heart...what he did wasn't really the same as what I had in my head. {I know, I know. Poor Doug.} This weekend seemed like a really good time for me to learn how to hook up drip lines and bury them right where I wanted them, according to the plan in my head. So the photo above is Casper, walking under a drip line before I did my digging.

But first, there was this:

Friday and Saturday I attended hospice volunteer training at Hospice of the Valley. I was in a class of about 25 new volunteers and we learned about boundaries and ethics and that we are not allowed, under any circumstances, never ever ever to administer medication. So, I'm pretty sure I won't be dealing with medication.

This building is just east of Mercy Gilbert Hospital, and this corn field is just east of the parking lot:

I stepped outside during one of our breaks to warm up. Ha! The air conditioning in that building was so cold that I wore a sweater both days, and had to go outside to thaw out. Anyway, I thought it was cool to see a lush field of corn still amidst growing urban construction.

Carrie and her crew came over Saturday night and brought dinner for Doug's Father's Day celebration. She made a yummy batch of spaghetti and meatballs, and spent some time playing pool with Doug. Oh, and she also brought a pan of brownies that we topped with vanilla ice cream and sprinkles. I love the relationship that she has with Doug, and he loved being celebrated as her father figure. ♥

So, back to the turtle pen. Over the past week Whiskers has decided to be a meowing alarm clock at 4:30 a.m. which is extremely annoying, but to my benefit yesterday. I really needed to be outside at sunrise in order to get my time in before it got ridiculously hot outside.

I'll admit to being fairly grumpy at the beginning. Why didn't Doug just wait for me before installing those drip lines? Whyyyyy... And why did he choose yesterday morning to meet his brother at the archery range to shoot their bows? Whyyyyy... Well. As it turned out, it was good for me to learn how to put those little connectors on the drip lines. And since the turtle pen is my realm, it was good for me to dig and bury the lines and know exactly where they are for my ongoing future reference. And since my Taurus spirit craves all things earthly, it was really good for me to dig in the dirt and put things right where I'd pictured them in my head.

Plus, it was fun that my little Casper turtle was really curious about what was going on in her habitat. I had to be very mindful where I stepped because she was out and about checking out what was going on as I dug and buried and moved things around. Rexy stayed hidden while I played, and I've already see him out this morning, cruising around the perimeter assessing the changes.

I planted more dichondra grass seed (see the green in the photo above?), and I also threw in a couple of sunflower seeds to see if they'll sprout. Time will tell. The little red marbles will eventually disappear under the thick grass that's to come, but I love the way they look for now.

Doug arrived home at 8:30 with breakfast sandwiches from Starbucks, just as I was finishing up with my work in the dirt. I was in much better spirits when he came home than I was before he left. :o)

I spent the remainder of the super hot day inside, taking care of laundry and drawing mandalas. I was on a mandala roll this weekend! I created four pieces that I was able to photograph to use for promoting my upcoming mandala workshop in August. Whiskers, the meowing alarm clock, was close at hand.

This week holds more extreme heat outside, with me remaining calm, cool, and collected on the inside. Eh-hm. Gosh, the heat can cause some interesting irritability and random unreasonableness. Sounds like a job for my yoga mat...

Peace out, blog friends.

Be cool.

♥

Our weekend and a quick road trip

Happy new week, blog friends.

♥

Ahhh... A little cold front moved in for us this past weekend and our temps were only around 101°F (38°C); a relief from the previous weekend when we were hit with 118° (47°C). Really, 101° is tolerable for us, 118° is just plain awful!

Anyway, enough about the weather...

{the desert in Tucson, Arizona}

Friday evening we met some good, long-time friends for dinner at a nice restaurant in Scottsdale. It was a great way to kick off the weekend, and we came home with a doggy-bag full of rib bones that Lucky snacked on all weekend. I even sent a few home with Carrie for her doggies and I smile thinking of her wondering if they'd know what to do with them. Must remember to ask her how they liked them...

 

You know, I gave up teaching yoga on Saturday mornings, and this was the first Saturday that I was really able to enjoy the luxury of getting out of bed and having no commitments for the day. Very nice! I spent a good amount of time on my own yoga mat, took care of a few things around the house, and did our grocery shopping before it was too dang hot outside.

 

I came home from grocery shopping and mixed up a batch of cookie dough - a new recipe I'd been wanting to try and I will share more about that later this week. Once my cookie dough was mixed and chilling in the fridge, I went mall shopping with my girl, C.

Fun thing that happened this weekend: My aunt, Kathy, visits my grandma every couple of weeks and stays with her for a few days. While she's at Grandma's house she cooks and cleans and takes care of things that Grandma can no longer do herself. (Grandma will be 96 this summer and still lives alone. ♥ ) The past couple of times Aunt Kathy has been at Grandma's house she has texted me and we share photos and messages back and forth for Grandma. So on Saturday, Aunt Kathy texted me a photo of a new chair that Grandma bought and had wanted me to see, along with photos of her pots of plants and flowers on her little patio. I texted back photos of our backyard and a couple of selfies, including the one above of Carrie and me at the mall.

While Carrie and I were out shopping for clothes, Doug was home working on our master bathroom remodel.

Over the years of working together on construction sites, Doug and his brother, Don, have been drawing goofy pictures of each other and then covering them up behind walls and layers of paint. The one shown above was drawn, photographed and texted to Don before being covered with a fresh sheet of drywall. Don's text reply was, "DOUG!!!!" Lol. Those two.

Doug is making slow and steady progress on the bathroom remodel. It's going to look amazing when he's done! :o)

And yesterday we took a little road trip...

I met Mindy and her husband, Carey, while I was in Tulum, Mexico on my yoga retreat. They live in Atlanta, Georgia and were staying at the same resort for a few days. We ran into each other several times over the course of their stay and we became fast friends. This past weekend they were in Tucson for a wedding, so Doug and I drove south to meet them for lunch. It was so nice to be able to sit and share a meal with them! We bid farewell, trusting that our paths will cross again someday.

I had wanted to make a little side trip to see the Saguaro National Park, so on our way home Doug accommodated my request. The park was 16 miles off the freeway and we made it 13 miles before pulling the car over, taking a few photos, making a U-turn and heading back to the freeway. Cactus are cactus and we see our share all the time anyway.

Heading back toward the freeway...

It was a fun way to spend a Sunday, and we were home by 4:00 p.m.

Here's something cool about this week: Doug and I made the decision for me to cut my hours at my corporate job, and [after some negotiating] my boss agreed. Starting this week, I'll be working Monday - Thursday with Friday's off in order to pursue other interests. Specifically, I'm going to begin volunteering in hospice work on Fridays. ♥ For the next two weekends I'll be in volunteer training, then once my required training sessions are complete, I will begin volunteering in various capacities with Hospice of the Valley. I'll share more about this as it unfolds for me.

Time to feed the turtles and get ready for work.

Have a lovely week, sweet friends.

Count your blessings.

♥