How does this happen?

  Time is whooshing by...even daily. Hard to believe that it's December today...that November even has come and gone.  Sometimes it seems like it's just been spring, watching the garden seeds sprout and enjoying the wonder and miracles that are involved in eating the first greens and peas...in seeing the fragile little seedlings start getting stout and developing leaves and then flowers and then--BAM! It's winter.

  Or at least, it's supposed to be. 

 December 1st, and the projected high today is 66.  Monday they are saying 71.   What????   We are possibly due for some rain tomorrow. We've not had much. And no cold and snow means no other precipitation either. As much as I can mostly do without the cold weather and winter, I know we need that snowfall for our land.  We need that cold cold weather to kick the bug population down some. For the ground to rest. Right now I still have so much stuff growing out there it's crazy. The dirt still working hard for me, with no vacation.  Soon, though.  I hope.

  Anyhoo~~~  now it's Saturday already. I have had a restful week, for the most part. I had company for lunch on Thursday.  I went to the chiropractor on Friday. And today, later, the Irishman and I are going to a matinee to see Life of Pi. It will be my very first 3D experience. I am excited.

  For now though, I am still in my pj's. I made pumpkin pancakes for breakfast, and they were heavenly, with real Maine woods pure maple syrup on them and butter, of course.  I cleaned up the dishes and watered the dogs and fed the cats. Now I am here, but soon I have to get dressed and be ready to go when the Irishman gets back. Tomorrow he is taking a trip to Bloomington for an Area Assembly. So I'll have the day to myself. I think that in honor of the movie (about a young man from India, if you don't know it), we will have a nice early supper/late lunch at the new Indian place in Edwardsville.  We have our favorite place, of course, but this one is new and we haven't been there. I think it's called Raj's...but I could be wrong about that. I'll report back.


  This week went by quickly. I fell flat on NaNoWriMo this year...stalling at about 12000 words and not getting anything else written. However--I am not abandoning this particular project. I am almost in love with it.  This is a first...I have loved other things I've written, but this feels different somehow.  I'll keep you posted.


   I think we're going to have a cozy, small Christmastime party...probably a soup buffet with desserts and breads and crackers.  Just an open house kind of a thing...nothing particularly fancy, but it will make me get in the holiday spirit a little more. And get my house decorated some.  Not a lot again --this year I'm going for a little more moderation...seems like either I decorate worse than a Macy's window...or I do nothing at all.  Somewhere in the middle would be good.  Some twinkle lights are always nice, (except that then I want to leave them up year 'round...which maybe isn't so bad-they are really happy in the dead of winter, late Jan-March).  We'll see how it unfolds. 

  I have a grocery list and a birthday card to mail to a fellow who seems to not get any word from his own family (been there) and he gets very depressed about it. I'm not his family, so maybe it doesn't help him at all...but it makes me feel hopeful that it just might give him pause to know that somebody cares enough to acknowledge his birthday...as far as the groceries go, I thought maybe I would go after the movie, but...maybe I'll wait and go by myself tomorrow. I really don't like shopping with my husband.  IS that awful?  But he makes me crazy, buying things we don't need, making comments and acting bored. Even when it's his idea that he go with me, he acts like he can't wait to get out of the store and that distracts me from my mission.  LOL  Because I don't particularly like it either and that's why I go armed with a very definite list of things and rarely vary from it. Yeah...I think I'll wait and go tomorrow.  It's one of those goofy lists...dates and flour and butter and celery...things I can't grow or produce here (yet). And holiday baking kinds of stuff.  Toilet paper too, now that I'm thinking of it. And if it's on sale, I might just buy a LOT.  :)


  Alright. I'm dressed now and have folded a dryer load of clothes and put another load in. Checked on chickens, gathered 3 eggs and pulled a lot of chard, kale and chickweed for them-they love that.  Trying to decide if I want to trust that the Irishman will be back in time for me to send him out to clean the coop or I should just do it.  I swear, I just cleaned the damn thing. But with the early nightfall, they are spending a lot more time in the coop. and that accounts for it, I reckon.

  I'm thinking about making some beeswax candles.  I saw some on a craft blog, and they look so pretty. And they don't release all the toxic chemicals into the air that regular wax candles do. (And even though I know this, I still burn them. Go figure.)   They melted the beeswax and then poured them into jelly jars and half pint canning jars. They were gorgeous.  I made candles years ago, but stopped doing it.  I made soap too. And paper. And oh hell....all kinds of stuff. But I make it until I get really good at it (translates to: bored with it")  and then I kinda stop doing it, knowing that if I ever want to do it again, I can and know how.  lol  One of my projects for this winter is woven rag rugs. I have a frame and I have a couple of books...no reason why I can't do it. 

  Hope everyone has a happy Saturday. I can't wait for the movie...I absolutely adored the book.


   

  Namaste.