New Day, New Year

The snow has been falling off and on all day. We have spent a lazy luxurious day just being together and reading and doing various things around the casa. These pictures are not from today, but they still look about the same out there....snow is snow is snow.


When I left this place back in 1976 and ran off to California, I swore I would never come back. I had left a couple of times before this particular Exodus, but returned each time. I had run off to Wisconsin for a year (not so far away, and same weather!) and then off to Colorado for about a year and a half. But when I landed in sunny California and the cold temps got down to about 50 and the hot temps up to about 80...I knew I was home. lol


I still don't like the snow and I don't like the cold. Now that I'm old and beat up, the cold makes me hurt in places I didn't know I had. On the other hand, because I don't work anymore, I don't have to deal with that side of the bad weather. When it snows, I just stay home. I don't have to drive in it. If I have appointments and the roads are bad, I just reschedule them. Where I live, sometimes the worst part is my hill of a driveway and the road in front of my house. There's about a quarter mile stretch that sees no sun, is on a hill, and is a sheet of ice, regardless. PLUS...we are out in the boonies, so we are the last place the snowplow finally comes. When they come. And that's okay by me...I am content to just stay here and read and sip tea and look at it through the window. Husbandman says the weather here is sucky...never cold enough for long enough to be fun. I think he is deranged. But, he is from Wisconsin...and you know how THOSE people are. lol. I tell people I have my own personal zamboni driver. (About 1/4 of them know what I'm talking about.)


There are several people on my mind this evening that I hope are weathering the holidays okay. I don't hear from them anymore, and there's a little hole where they used to be.


So, here we are, the first day of the first month. I started reading the Artists Way again today. I also started the workbook lessons in ACIM. This should be enough to keep me on track in some areas of my life and expand my world so that some Light can come in on a regular basis. I hope so.



I am especially blessed tonight by friendship and by love and by the miraculous gift of sobriety. I am blessed with wonderful memories and a wonderful family and all manner of things good. I have had a life full of adventure and romance and mystery. When I tally it all up, I find it wanting for nothing...and how great is that?


I leave you with this recycled quote (because it's one of my faves):

"I have always been delighted at the prospect of a new day, a fresh try, one more start, with perhaps a bit of magic waiting somewhere behind the morning."~~ J.B. Priestly (1894-1984)


Namaste.

'Fraidy Friday

[One of those cool caves, in Virginia, I think]

Glad this day is over. My back hurts from standing in the kitchen for about 6 and a half hours slaughtering pumpkins. I froze 12 pounds of cooked pumpkin. That should be enough pies and breads for the year. The crazy thing was, all through the process I kept thinking "Aldi's has this stuff for .89 a can" Arrgghhhhhh......

I roasted all the pumpkin seeds too. The main batch, from 2 pumpkins, I just roasted with canola oil, worcestershire sauce and sea salt. The second batch, I made spicy roasted seeds with granulated garlic and cayenne and sea salt. They are wonderful. Got about 6 cups, at least, of roasted seeds.

We had no trick-or-treaters. Never do. But that's okay. I buy candy anyway (whatever my favorite kind happens to be in any particular year) and then I just eat it all myself. Brahahahahahaha....

Nothing exciting today, puppy played outside a lot and always came back in the house to check in with me. Got an email from an old friend in California that I have known for about 30 years and hadn't heard from in a while. That was nice.

My gratitude list today is based on all the things I don't have today. No high drama, no rages, no chaos, no screaming fights with anyone. No hangover, no "where the hell did I put my car?", no fear of what I did or did not do last night.

The blessings in this life just keep on coming. It's all good!