Thursday, June 20

Up at 7:30, but skipped my exercises so I could get the house ready for the scrapbook club meeting. I expected only one lady, but it makes no difference if one or a dozen are expected, the house still needs to be presentable.

I'm especially particular that the kitchen and bathroom be spic and span for guests, so I cleared counters and scrubbed everything down in the kitchen, and Hubbie took care of the bathroom.

Spent the rest of the morning getting together the things Mother and I would need to complete scrapbook pages begun at out last meeting several months ago (weather prevented our meeting before now).

Just before 1 p.m., one of the members called to say she wouldn't be here. I actually didn't expect her anyway, but she said she was feeling well enough to attend, and would have if the energy company had not been digging near her home and hit a water line, making it impossible for this lady to bathe. And she wasn't about to go away from her home if she couldn't have a bath.

The other lady arrived twenty minutes early. She apologized, saying she thought her other errands would take longer, but I assured her it was fine that she was here early. In fact, I was glad she was, because there were a few club business matters I wanted to discuss with her, to bring her up to date after all the months of not meeting. Both the other ladies have assured me that they are in agreement with whatever I decide concerning club funds, but I still like to keep them apprised.

The guest scrapbooker brought along with her two bags of Christmas greeting cards given to her by a business. We plan to cut elements and greetings from them to use in making cards for Caring Hands. I think I will make that our project for the scrapbook club meeting next month. In the meantime, I need to find some place to store them.

Business matters out of the way, we then spent a while catching up on each other's lives. This lady has had a bad few weeks, or I should say some of her friends have...one recently lost her husband, and another has gone through a divorce after 20 years of marriage. So she has been in demand as a confidant. She's glad her friends lean on her, but it is emotionally draining.

I know how she feels, since I have experienced loss, too, with the death of a brother, and a friend from water aerobics, in the past couple of weeks.

We agreed that at our age, losing friends and family members is becoming more the norm than the exception, which is unsettling.

We worked on our individual projects until around 2 p.m., and then I served refreshments...slices of dark chocolate cake with dollops of fat-free whipped topping, and coffee. Our guest preferred a glass of water with a couple ice cubes.

Hubbie joined us for refreshments, and then he took the van to the shop for an oil change and to have the air conditioner checked for freon, since we've noticed the unit was cooling properly.

Our meeting was over at 3 p.m., and the other member left. We were all satisfied that as well as visiting, we got a few projects done. Mother finished gluing journal entries (that I'd typed earlier) onto scrapbook pages featuring one of the infant great-granddaughters, and our guest and I made greeting cards for family. She made one for a nephew and one for a grandson, and I made one for a great-grandson.

Later, I heated leftovers for supper...steamed veggies, and macaroni and cheese...and baked a can of biscuits to go with it.

Hubbie accompanied Mother home afterward, and then he and I watched TV, including British mysteries based on Dorothy Sayers novels. A circa 1930s detective novelist solves the mystery of a murder at a women's college (on DVD borrowed from the library). This was a three-part movie that took us up to bedtime.