Finishing up the day....

  Sigh....sweet little Roxie is coming into her own. She's started challenging the other dogs at the food bowl, barking and chased a neighbor's dog across the yard...(running headlong into this behemoth of a dog), and today she found the pond. She was exploring the wooded area around the back yard while I was watering the garden this morning and suddenly she was gone. I called and called and no answer.  The Irishman got home about this time and I pointed him in the direction I last saw her and he went down to the edge of the water and sure enough, there she was, along with her favorite babysitter, Bella. Bella was just watching her dig dig dig into the mud, Pat said. He brought her back up in the yard and before we knew it, she was down there again. Stuck in 3 inches of mud, with her little 4 inch long legs!  We had to give her a bath--she was covered in thick oozy mud.  She has been digging a lot, along the gardens edge, in front of the chicken coop...she bites the dirt and digs furiously with her feet, and pulls weeds up and flings them aside.  It's a riot to watch!

  I picked another gallon of green beans today...I have enough to can tomorrow. I also picked bell peppers and a few more jalapenos. I'll pickle a couple of small jars of the hotties and freeze the bells in strips-I froze 3 quarts the other day. The peas are coming along famously and the green beans are looking good...except the part of the bed where someone got in there and dug the plants up. No proof of who that might be, but it looked like the work of a big dog. We have lettuce spinach and kale showing from the second planting. And a couple of yellow crooknecks that may or may not make it to the fruit stage.  We'll see....

  Counting down to the weekend visit of the husbands brother and sister. I can't wait to see them--2 of my favorite people in the world.  I have so much work to try and get done between shifts this week. And yes--I have a grand list.  :)

  Everyone is sleeping around me. I filled the bird water and food dishes and cleaned up a little in the kitchen. I have iced tea ready to make and  a couple of other little things and then I will probably head to bed. Feeling quite tired today.  I still need to feed the fish. Oops. Nearly forgot them. The aquarium is looking a little better all the time since I cleaned it the other day. I'm ashamed that I let it get that bad. I need to take the filter out and rinse it...it's still just a little milky in there. 

  Feeling a little spiritually adrift these days...not keeping to my usual routines of prayer and meditation. This happens to me from time to time and then I have an AHA! moment and get back on track.  I need to remember to.."Make time for quiet moments...as God whispers, and the world is loud." I'm glad I can notice this stuff today...and have the solutions to the problems.

  Watched several good movies the past few days...The Lincoln Lawyer, with Matthew McConaughey  and a wonderful cast that includes William H. Macy and Marissa Tomei and Ryan Phillippe...and a comedy called Your Highness, starring Danny McBride and James Franco.  Then I watched The Divine Secrets of the Ya Ya Sisterhood, which I always love.  And some schmaltzy Hallmark movie about 2 Italian Winery families from the Napa Valley that I loved..with Patricia Heaton and Lainie Kazan and Tony Lo Bianco...the scenery was breath-taking and made me very homesick for that part of northern California where I lived when I first moved out there.  That's more tv/movie watching in 2 days than I do in a month!

  Alrighty then. Time for this old woman to get her affairs in order and start meandering towards her beauty sleep. I have a few unfinished things in the other room and then I am out of here. Have a great new week coming up, all y'all !!!!

  Namaste.