Monday, March 3

Slept late, until after 8 a.m. No reason to get up early, since the world was pretty much shut down thanks to the solid sheet of ice covering everything. On top of the sleet (three inches fell, according to the rain gauge) there was also a layer of snow. The good thing about that is it made it easier to walk between our house and Mother's.

We finally got around to having breakfast around 9 a.m., and afterward I did stair stepping, resistance bands, and weights exercises, and then got ready for the day.

Just as I finished exercising, a friend called to say she is putting her house up for sale in April, and in sorting things she wondered if I knew anyone who would like a box of various sizes and colors of tiles. I said I was sure the arts council would like to have them, and I'd contact the director to find out. The director was delighted to accept them. I'll pick them up next week and deliver them to the gallery.

The friend also said she wanted to give away her bird feeders, and Hubbie is excited to have those. This lady has a bag full of old greeting cards, too, that Mother and I will use in making new greeting cards.

This is the friend who hosts Mother and me when our other friend comes from a town about two hours away to stay for a few days. She's scheduled to be here next week, so we can visit then and pick up the tiles, bird feeders, and cards.

This just wasn't one of those days that inspires me to do much, but I did bake a lemon cake for Mother's birthday tomorrow. In the morning, I'll make lemon pudding and meringue for it.

Later, I went to Mother's house to fix supper. I took leftover chili-mac, salad makings, and cottage cheese. Mother cut up veggies and made three individual salads, while I heated the leftovers. While supper heated, Mother sorted pinto beans, which I'll soak to cook tomorrow.

A ham and beans dinner is an unusual meal for Mother's birthday, but it'll have to do until we can take her out...and it looks like it could be Thursday, maybe, before we can do that. Until then, she'll enjoy the lemon pudding cake...her favorite.

Today, she got a really cute card from our friend from the town about an hour and half away. The front says, "People are drawn to you like june bugs to a light...," and inside it  says , "and your light shines brighter every year." Mother was delighted with the sentiment. It was obviously the bright spot of her day.

I stayed and visited with Mother for a couple of hours after supper, then returned home to put the beans in water to soak. Then Hubbie and I watched the remaining episodes of the fourth season of "Friday Night Lights."

It promises to be bitter cold again tonight, and not much warmer tomorrow, so I don't know how much thawing will occur. A meeting of the Friends of the Library at the college is scheduled for tomorrow evening, but if the roads aren't a whole lot better by then than they are now, I'll not be attending. I'm hoping the meeting will be postponed until next week.