Day 352 - 354

11 more days
in this 365 day series!

Welcome to the last Sunday in June 2014! Does that sound like today is going to be really special? Well, it is!! Every day is just another opportunity to celebrate in my world. I'm present in all of my days (mentally and physically) and I try not to waste too much of the time I have here on earth being gloomy. It's a personal choice thing. I'm here; I'm me; I'm happy!!

Sundays are my stay-at-home day. I do not 'plan' anything outside my home on Sunday if I can avoid it. Although my family are real homebodies, I am a person who must be out-and-about quite a bit of the time. In order to fully 'balance' my life, I need one day a week where I do not need to leave my home for any reason. For me, that is Sunday!

This lovely day at home was immediately preceded by a Saturday with my sister. We had a great time visiting the graves of a couple of family members. Many of our family members are interred in the area where my sister lives (she still resides in our hometown). About 2 or 3 times a year, we pick up fresh flowers and visit as many grave sites as we can fit into that day. The tremendous number of graves and locations make it impossible to see them all in a single day, but we do our best. We used to make this a two day event, but we're getting older and we're good with one full day a few times a year. There is something about visiting the graves of loved ones that humbles me. With my sister, we use the time to reminisce about the family member and enjoy decorating the grave site. Our brother is one we almost always visit. He is our most recent loss and I think we both felt the pain of his passing very strongly. This time, we put out hot pink and white roses with babies breath:

Cemeteries are sometimes beautiful places and always interesting. I love history and so there is always lots of history to read about on headstones. The roses above are the ones we put out yesterday and are on two different graves in two very different cemeteries. Our brother is resting in a small cemetery in a rural location where the wind never stops blowing. On this particular day, that cemetery was so full of grasshoppers were were latterly driving through clouds of them and chasing them out of the car. I was driving or I would have video taped the excitement! The other cemetery we visited is one of the most beautiful places in the big city of Dallas. I love going there.

While driving through the little town to get to our brothers grave site, we came upon a car show in full swing in the middle of town! It was so fantastic that when we finished at our brother's grave, we made a stop and walked around the show for a few minutes until the sun got to me! Here is a little of what we saw:

The black Coupe de Ville (pictured in the lower right hand corner) was built the year I was born.  With lovingly cared for black and white upholstery, she's still goin' and so am I! There were cars there that were older than my parents! It was so fun to walk around that place, but would have been even better had the sun not started burring me to bits! It was cloudy, but deceptively so! This was the 6th Annual RPM Hot Rod Hay Ride Car Show in Valley View, Texas! It was put on by Time Machine Car Shows. Very well done. So fun and I loved it!! You just never know what you'll find on a sunny/cloudy/windy day outside in your area. Go visit loved one's graves with someone you love. No telling what you find while on the road!

The week coming up will be a great one. I have some time-off around the holiday. There will likely be a parade in the neighborhood for 4th of July and I have LOTS of great meals planned for the week. Here's what we'll be enjoying this week:

• Monday - (Soup and Sandwich Night) Homemade Mushroom Soup and Roast Beef Sandwich
• Tuesday - (Salad Night) Composed Chopped Cold-Meat Salad
• Wednesday - (French Bread Pizza Night) Pepperoni, Veggie and Whatever Pizzas
• Thursday - (Old Classics Night) Beef and Bean Nachos
• Friday - (Burger Night) 4th of July Burgers!!
• Saturday - (Chef's Choice Night) Vegetable Plate
• Sunday - (The Big Show Night) Ham with Potatoes and Vegetables

I'll share how I put these meals together and what it's costing throughout the upcoming week. One of the things I want to do is save some money on groceries in the future, without sacrificing on flavor or quality. The first thing to do is eliminate the waste. I'll write more about how I'm planning to do that, later.

Thanks for stopping by and reading up about the weekend and plans for next week. I hope your week is shaping up the way you'd like for it to, also. Until next time, Godspeed, Voyagers!!