Yes, I know it’s actually Tuesday when I’m posting this, but yesterday was the Memorial Day holiday. 😉
When I redid my website a while back, I didn’t transfer over old personal posts about our family or the kids so the site would be focused on writing and my books, and one of my weekly posts on the blog was Hello, Monday, where I shared what we did over the weekend. I thought this would be a fun thing to start up again so my reader friends, like you, can get a glimpse into “real life” for the Noormans. 🙂
I have gotten away from blogging in recent years as I grew more focused on writing my books, and I miss it. A lot. I first began blogging in 2005, and it was my place to share my thoughts and document our life. Somehow, as I’ve become more focused on social media to get the word out about my books, I’ve turned to Facebook to share personal stuff. And that’s okay. But the sad thing about that is Facebook doesn’t show all my posts to everyone who is my friend there, so it’s like more than half who originally clicked to follow me aren’t even seeing anything I share. It gets a little frustrating. Especially since I don’t have the time or energy to try to figure out the best way to get their algorithms to share my posts.
And what I’ve been realizing lately is that no matter what happens with social media apps, no matter how many times they change the app and the algorithms, this blog will always be mine. I write it. I host it. Nobody else controls who sees what I post. So, while some may think blogs are dead, I’m going to get back to my roots and start posting here more.
Oh, I’ll still share plenty over on Facebook, but I’m feeling the need to get back to things I love right now, and one of the things that always made me happy was writing here on my blog.
What we were up to this weekend:
• My best friend, Jen, invited me to go kayaking on the lake where her sister lives. It was perfect weather and just so wonderful to get out of the house and see people. Jen and I have been friends since we were six, and we were reminiscing about another time we were out on that lake together, when we were probably pre-teens and we took a paddle boat (some people call them pedal boats) and had our boom box, listening to “Let’s Hear It For The Boy” while we pedaled past the YMCA camp that is on the lake, where there were a bunch of boys out playing in the water. hehe! Fun memories.
On our kayaking adventure, we saw lots of turtles on the logs along the shoreline. The tiny turtle babies were so cute. I didn’t have my phone with me in the kayak, so I didn’t get any pictures of them.
We had a yummy dinner on the grill – chicken and veggie packs – then sat on the dock and watched her nephew attempt to catch fish. There were so many mayflies out, and the fish were coming up out of the water to get them, which was fun to watch. And I kid you not, there were thousands upon thousands of mayflies. We looked up at the sky above us around sunset time and it was just swarming with them. It was crazy. Cool to see, and they didn’t bother us … much. 😉
• Sunday was a day of rest. Watched church online and had communion (cheez-its and apple juice in place of the cracker and grape juice we would normally have at church). The most exciting thing we did was order a new mattress for our bed. Ours is super old and no longer as supportive as it once was, and it’s causing both of us issues. We went for a mattress-in-a-box. Hopefully, we’ll like it. We’ve heard good things.
• Monday, we traveled across the state to Jake’s parents’ for the day. We sat outside at a distance and caught up, played yard games (in the garage to stay out of the hot sun), and had hot dogs on the grill. We hadn’t seen them since last year as they are snowbirds and only recently came home from Florida. 🙂 So, we were excited to be able to visit. Even if we weren’t able to hug right now, it was still wonderful to see their faces.
On the drive home, we encountered a couple things. Thunderstorms and a drunk driver (we’re pretty sure that’s what was going on with her). I happened to glance in my rear view mirror and saw a big white SUV a ways back from me go from the right lane of the highway into the left lane, only she didn’t merge nicely into the lane, she kept on going off the left edge of the road into the dirt and grass then swerved back suddenly, which of course caused her vehicle to weave back and forth as she tried to gain control. I could tell that the left side of her vehicle had damage to it. We can only assume that was from an earlier collision with something. Maybe a guard rail. Maybe another vehicle. Who knows. I was super nervous about this person being behind me and I was about to pass a semi, so I went ahead and started to pass and just prayed to get around the semi and into the right lane before this person gunned it and rammed me or something. I prayed that if she passed, she would not drift right and hit me. But I didn’t have to worry about that … because while I was passing the semi on the left, as I should, she decided it was okay to pass the semi on the narrow RIGHT SHOULDER of the road … going 80 MPH! What? She went fast enough that she was ahead of us as I finished passing the semi and then she sort of slowed behind another vehicle, and there was NO WAY I was going to attempt to pass. But because she was right in front of us, we got her license plate number and Jake called 911 just before she got off at an exit, which he told the 911 operator. It was craziness. We ended up getting a call back from the area police saying that officers had found her and they wondered if when she swerved off the road if she hit anything, which she did not. They were trying to figure out her path and where the damage to her vehicle might have occurred. We are just very glad that we reported her and got her off the road. It was scary to witness such erratic driving. And who knows what the reason … but one thing was clear … she should not have been on the road.
How about you? How was your weekend? Any fun stories? Feel free to drop them in the comments.
Thanks for stopping by the blog. I hope you’ll come back again soon.