I’m hoping that this summer, the “babies” (who were born last spring) will be a little less shy. They watch the other squirrels take nuts from us, but they still like to keep their distance. I’d like to make it a habit to sit out on the deck with my tea every morning and feed the squirrels–it was a nice start to the day.

This is a project I made for the cats. We are in the process of making what was originally a “cat wall” (and has become all four walls in our bedroom as well as the top of the closet in our bathroom!) and this was part of it. I painted the board/shelf black (I’ll show “after” pictures once we have everything done) and I made a side for the shelf by cutting a piece of PVC pipe (I’d asked on our neighborhood social app if anyone had leftover bits of PVC they didn’t want, and I actually got a few!). I wrapped thick twine around it, gluing it with a glue gun. You can see the progress in the second picture. I really love how it turned out, and the cats are obsessed! (The twine in the picture was what was leftover from a previous project–I had to use a new roll for the PVC because that obviously wasn’t enough.)

I know I write about how Duck is super needy, but Jerry happened to be taking my picture while I was writing a blog post with Duck on my lap. When I pay attention to my computer rather than him, he puts his paw on my face to remind me that he’s there. It’s endearing, but it drives me crazy at the same time. Whenever I sit down to write is when he suddenly wants all my attention. Trying to type and see my screen with him there is a challenge.

I like to share my DIY projects because sometimes I even impress *myself* with the things I’m able to do. Well, this is to show that some of my DIY’s fail–and this is probably the worst. I broke the window pane on Noah’s window! Thankfully, it was just the outside pane, but we obviously need to get the glass replaced. (I had been trying to remove those thin white strips around the outside–which should be rather easy–in order to reseal the window in place. The stripping is old and should be replaced, but I’m not sure I’ll attempt this again, haha.)

I got a new screen protector for my phone and don’t you just love the “easy open” packaging on products? 😉

I never give my cats baths (I’ve only attempted it once, with Chandler, and wound up with his canine tooth buried up to his gums in the “meat” of my palm–then had to get a tetanus shot at urgent care). Well, Chick smelled really bad and I figured out the source–a few mats of hair under his butt encrusted with dried diarrhea (TMI, sorry). I did my best bathing him, but most cats hate baths–as evidenced by my glove that was intact before I started. After his bath, I trimmed all of the hair on his backside so it was less likely to happen again. (I’m not sure of the source of his diarrhea–maybe separation anxiety while Jerry and I were gone?–but he’s back to normal now)

I thought he would never go near me again after the “torture” he’d endured during his bath, but not even an hour later, he sat on my lap and purred. He was probably just happy that he didn’t smell bad anymore!

This was literally 30 seconds after I opened an Amazon box…

You know what this means! The start of baseball season in Michigan. This was at Eli’s games a couple of days ago and I can’t even describe how cold it was, despite being in the 50’s. I don’t think anyone there was prepared for the cold. I should have brought my winter coat, but it seemed excessive when I left the house. I was so glad to have a hat, two pairs of gloves, and my Buff in the car. I was also wearing heavy-duty long johns with jeans and a hoodie over them. I texted this picture to my friend who replied that I looked like I was going to rob a bank. 

There is pretty much nothing that is more comforting than Duck sleeping against my ear and purring. His warm belly and the purring make me so happy.

I was getting tired of going back and forth to the garage to get different sizes of screws and hand tools, so yesterday morning I decided to organize as much of it as I could. This was the mess I started with. I wish I had an “after” picture, but it was taking much longer than I thought, and I didn’t make much progress. Once Jerry got up, we started working on the cat shelves in our room, so I had to set all of this aside for later.

Hopefully I’ll have an “after” photo of this next week!

Okay, I’m off to Eli’s double header (wearing my warmest winter coat today). Then Jerry and I are supposed to work on some projects around the house–we’ve got a lot of “maintenance” stuff to do this weekend!

Have a great weekend 🙂  xo