A Day Off........

 On a whim last night I grabbed this one violet and placed more soil in its pot.  I had transplanted it there a year ago and the soil had all settled down.  When I would pick it up to water it the plant would wobble around like a spinning top as it was not supported well. The above bloom fell off while I was working with it.

Because of the spiraling condition parts of the blooms seem to be not getting enough water as they come out all faded.  Since I installed a new plant light for the violets I now have one other violet setting up some buds.  I try to leave the light on them all the time now as they don't require any sleep.  It is like living in Alaska when they have full 24 hours of daylight for a long season.

I was taking some decorations upstairs a couple of days ago and while there I found a new project.  I found it but I am not going to do it right now.  I discovered a sack full of newspapers and  other clippings that my mom had collected. The pile is dated at least back to the 1965's with photos of one of my brother's weddings that was in the Osceola Newspaper.  The clippings she chose to collect were always of family members living and who were then dead. There are also anniversary booklets and funeral cards.

Also I see by the one clipping there is a picture of my Grandmother sitting at a workshop for elderly women.  I don't remember my Dad's mom being very functional but somehow she ended up with a large group of ladies in a neighboring town.  She is the one sitting in the foreground and was the only one named in the article. The nursing home must have taken them for the afternoon from the neighboring town in which she lived.  I found a Des Moines Register article about the town of Hopeville, Iowa. It never had a railroad come through it, so the town eventually faded away and the majority of the citizens are all now buried on two rolling hills south of the town.  The writer of the article was a flowery writer and I may share some of it down the way as my blogging continues. The town was actually settled by a traveling religious group, not Morman, even though their route went through the area, but another religious group that wanted to create a perfect society.  Hopeville is south of Murray and it is near where I was born.

At one period in our married life, we would buy two plates of a smaller size to eat on rather than the everyday ones that we always used.  We stopped doing that when  my wife's dad moved in with us.  I found these the other day and we are using them again.  They are a break away from the norm with their brightly hand painted designs. It really isn't that good of a painting but it is fun to put a grilled cheese sandwich on it with a side of chips or salad.  They are just the right size for two empty nesters.  We have a collection of five different smaller plates that we use whenever to give us variety in our lives.  Some are Martha Stewart plates and others are hand painted modern designs. The plates were always a closeout of a set that was sold and they were individually prices sometimes down to a dollar each. The bargain tables at big stores are fun.

I will share one more of the AJ  the grandson's photo today.  I don't think the hands are in focus but he is just busy checking out the new world while finding things in wrapped packages.

I didn't have work today so I am just doing those odd jobs that need to be done.  We are having the severe cold again so going to feed the birds and getting the mail is all that will be happening for us. We went to get meds last night and as we returned the snow fell for a while and the temperatures took a nose dive.  We were in the forties most of the day Monday and by this morning we were at -6.8 degrees F.  The whole week is to stay below the 20's in the daytime.

The State inspectors investigate and evaluate the school for the next three days.  I am assuming the teachers were told not to be sick and gone no matter what as the school has to put it's very best face forward.  Any dust that existed has been cleaned up and every floor double duty shined.  There are always things that they find wrong with the classes offered or the workshops the teachers are not attending so it is not possible to get a perfect report.  It is more like the "law and order" people coming in to evaluate, complement and sight flaws in the system.

It happens every five years and they do look at the past evaluation to see if improvements and corrections have been made to make it a school up to snuff.  Our school is one of the second fastest growing schools in the state, population wise, so they can't find too many faults if people are moving into the area. Declining enrollment is a major problem in most of Iowa's school. I may get work after this first day invasion as they have two other schools in our system to evaluate and they do that Wednesday and Thursday. 

Well it is time for me to move on to my next projects for the day.  I have things to do and since the birds are again not eating out of my feeder I will move on away from the dining room table.  I hope everyone is not getting the cold we have but I know some of you will be getting our snow and others our cold.  Take care and thanks for stopping by today.