Saturday....an oasis in the midst of winter...

 

Thanks to Pattiken for giving me this lovely baking soda award. (Get it?--Baking soda??  Arm and Hammer???? lol  I just crack myself up...)

Now, if I remember correctly, I am supposed to link to her blog, and then list 7 unknown facts about myself., and then give it away to some other bloggers. So if I give it to you and you've gotten it before....oopsie...

Seven facts about me.

1. I was delivered in the middle of a blizzard by a Dr. Jack Frost

 2. I could read and write before I went to kindergarten.              

                              3.  I had to wear "granny dresses" when I was pregnant with my only child, because they didn't make maternity clothes in a size 3 junior petite.

                        4.  I read both volumes of The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich in the 6th grade.

                            5.  I can sing Me and Bobby McGee and Oh Lord, won't you buy me a Mercedes Benz...and sound exactly like Janis Joplin.

                             6. I have a great ear for accents, and can mimic almost any of them. I also can understand foreign English speakers when other people cannot.

                                7.  I have reason to believe that in another life I was a black warrior queen named Dhana.

  There you have it...my deepest darkest secrets.  lol  Well, not really. Just some useless factoids that no one can really blackmail me with.

  Now. I would like to give this award away to :

Carol @ Three Routes

Cabo@Hey Cabo!

Janna @ Jannaverse

Technobabe@Technobabe

GaryKFC@ Garytude
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  Well....for some reason the heavens have opened up and made it possible, almost 2 years after my husband blowing up the engine in his truck, for the Kelley family to once again be a 2 car family. One of the dealerships in town was having a big sale, and we went down to look around and voila!  We are now the proud (?) owners of a 2003 Candy Apple Red Ford Ranger XLT, with chrome (a boy thing apparently) and a bed and rail liner.  It is quite pretty, a V-6, and looks like it was owned by somebody's grandfather who did nothing but drive it to the car spa on a regular basis. It's freaking pristine. AND....drum roll.....the payments are under 200/month.  The Universe conspired to make the Irishman a happy boy.

  I, on the other hand, spent most of today trying to clean up the other car that he has been driving to work. He works in a pipe factory, and gets very filthy from cutting and burning pipe. And our car has light gray vinyl everywhere his arms, hands, and coat touch. The car was so dirty....it took me about 3 hours to get the inside clean and then I whisked it up to the car wash in town and washed the road and snow and ice dirt off it.  I pulled it into the garage and vacuumed it to death as well.

  The weather was incredible today...at one point it was 50 degrees...I spent as much time outside as I could ...burning paper trash, cleaned the chicken coop,  shoveled snow off the 2 back decks and cleaning the car.  and rescuing a kitten who had managed to get ON the roof, but could not for the life of her get back OFF the roof.  Then I finally came in and put some chicken in the oven to slowly bake, started laundry and vaccumed copious amounts of dog hair from my floors and rugs.  I am drying the last load of laundry now, as I stopped to eat supper and then we watched The Last of the Mohicans, which was filmed very near where I lived in North Carolina for 10 years, at Chimney Rock State Park.  Then I returned a couple of phone calls and now here I sit, getting ready for some sleep as tomorrow is a day of District meetings, morning meetings and all that jazz.

  


Alright. Another day, full of the blessings of a life lived ODAAT.  No big deals, no neverending crises, nothing to have to be sorry for in this day past.  Just a day in the life...and now...time for sleep.






Namaste.

Iiiiiittt'sssss FRIDAY!

Searching for… Cloud Mountain…Saving Fish from Drowning. 

The Space Between Us and Stones From the River.

The Death of Vishnu  and Return to the Garden.  Strolling through the shelves of my library,

Yearning for The Family Orchard,  The Unbearable Lightness of Being,

Catapults me across continents, through cultures not my own.

Literature is my Salvation.

Out and about a little today...

  

It was almost balmy at 39 degrees today.  I got all excited and got showered and dressed and went out into the world.   It was pretty exciting out there, I have to tell you.  lol

I found the Irishman 2 very nice pairs of jeans at the Goodwill for 4 dollars apiece. They look almost new. They are  for work pants, and  the way he goes through them it's a blessing I am able to find them.  I also picked up 2 books for me to read, as I have finished the last 4 I got. (By the way...I read Clive Cussler's Arctic Drift.  I really like the movies I have seen made from his books (Sahara) and I really like his writing style.) These new ones  are a book by a Canadian writer named Anne Marie MacDonald called Fall On Your Knees  and another one called The Thirteenth Tale, by Diane Setterfield, a British author. I am looking forward to reading them both, but first I have to read a book loaned to me today by a new friend called Mutant Message Down Under.  Not sure what it is, except that it had a powerful impact on my friend.   I'll read it quickly and get it back to her.

  I bought a Jack LaLane juicer today, barely used, for 50 bucks.  A deal!  Looked them up and they retail for around $199.00.   I look forward to getting back to juicing.  I felt really good this summer, replacing 1 or 2 meals a day with juice. AND I lost over 25 pounds. (Don't worry though...I found most of  it again).  sigh...

Twisted my knee, slipping on ice getting out of the car this afternoon. It's not too swollen and hurts a little. I don't think it's anything serious. Achy...and I took some Aleve.  We'll see how it feels tomorrow.

 Thankfully, we have no plans for this weekend, save the District meeting on Sunday afternoon.  Otherwise, it's nothing but R&R.  I am looking forward to some time at home with the Irishman.  And the menagerie, of course.

Alrighty. I am off to bed. Didn't get there last night until almost 3:30 AM...that is NOT happening tonight!!

Oh...Sandman....here I come......

Namaste.

Arrrgghhhhh......Woeful Wednesday

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Oh my gawd....I have been visited today by these little charmers....

It's been one of those days like my first sponsor told me about:

She said, "I have good news and I have bad news. The good news is, now that you're sober, you get to feel all your feelings.  The bad news is that now that you're sober, you get to feel ALL your feelings."

  I can't decide what's going on with me. The day started on a bad note when I awakened to find the furnace running full bore and the front door wide open.  The culprit, of course, was one Miss Molly Mayhem, who has learned to open the door when she wants in by throwing herself against it. If it is closed properly and securely latched, she can't do it. But often that door gets pulled closed and doesn't quite latch. So there it was, and there she was--sitting on the couch looking very pleased with herself.

Then my coffee pot filter basket got somehow stuck, and as coffee water filled the basket, it had no where to go except run down the sides of the maker and all over my counter. This constitutes an emergency at my house. But I decided to forego calling the Starbucks support team, and cleaned it up and tried it again. It was purely operator error. The second time was a charm, although by now I was grinding my teeth and muttering.

THEN....I got a call from my neighbor across the pond, telling me that Molly had bitten her dog and she had to take it to the vet.  Apparently Molly had gone around the edge of the pond and came out in their yard, and all 3 of their dogs (2 Min Pins and a Poodle) came rushing at Molly to protect their turf. Molly thought she was being attacked (?) and bit one of the Min Pins right on it's fat little butt. She wanted me to keep Molly at home (fat chance) and please, her sister was here with her 2 little Pugs and she didn't want any dog fights. And BTW, her dad died in the nursing home last night.  (He has been there in last stage Altzheimers for over 7 years.)  She said it was relief, but there was a lot of paperwork and she didn't want to have to be worrying about the dogs.  Of course, I apologized profusely and offered my condolences. The vet just put some antibiotic cream on the dogs apparently, no stitches or anything...so I assume the bites were not bad.

  So--I kept her in the house the rest of the day, meaning that I was stuck in here with a whining, whistling Jack Russell Terrorist.  After it was dark and there was no danger of the little dogs being outside, I let her out for a bit.  I told the Irishman to make sure he does not let her out to run in the morning....I cannot chase her down. My life will be hell for the next week or so.  Sigh....

I spent the day being chased down by the 7 dwarves of Menopause.  I felt like crying a lot, and I don't have a reason for it. I was bitchy and sweaty and feeling like a giant fat pig.  I am going to make an appointment with a new doctor in the area, who does the bioidentical hormone treatment....a friend of mine is seeing her and said she cannot believe how much better she feels.  If I can afford to do it, I will. 

On a lighter note, I realized this afternoon that the days are getting longer. It's light when  the Irishman goes to work in the morning and still light when he comes home.  This screams to me that spring is on it's way, that the cabin fever will soon be over with, and temperatures will start to climb. That I can still believe in spring is a good sign. Because I am so tired of this winter and this cold...that I have been looking at real estate in New Mexico. Living in the desert looks like heaven to me right now....There's still so much snow in my yard that you can't see the garden beds.  It looks like an ice floe back there...solid white as far as you can see.

Tomorrow is a new day.  I will wake up being more grateful than I have been today and more committed to my meditation and prayers.  I will make sure I eat breakfast and I will drink more water.  I will look at my world through a new set of eyes and be filled with wonder. 

Maybe.

Namaste.

A lovely Tuesday...

 

Lots of the white stuff out there, but at least the sun was shining today.   I went out and fed the chickens and got the mail --could barely make myself come back in. Feeling a bit of cabin fever...so, I fussed around outside...swept the car off and started it up since it's been sitting there idle for about 4 days now. I took a shovel to the walk and cleared a path . I played with the dogs and I said a quick Thank You to my Creator for blue skies and sunshine and Vitamin D.

I spent a lovely day at home, minimal cooking, patching some holes on the Irishman's jeans and [experimentally] patched a pair of long johns (bottoms) that he burned the knee out of when he caught his jeans on fire welding at work. We'll see if it holds...that thermal cotton material is not the best kind of stuff for fixing...I still have one more pair of jeans to fix the back pocket on, and I think that chore will be out of the way.  The little stack has been sitting around for about a month and I just kept putting it off.

 I think tomorrow I will bake a bread pudding, as I have some old rolls in the fridge that need using.  There's nothing like a cinnamon and nutmeg-y bread pudding with a warm vanilla sauce to warm the cockles of your heart!

The chest cold is passing and the coughing is almost non-existent. Except in the evening. lol I have coughed more in the last hour than I have all day. I have gargled and will have a nice drink of water before bed...hopefully I will sleep as well as I did last night...

  I've just found one of my cousins on Facebook (actually, she found me, I guess). I only see her once a year at the family reunion, and she only lives a couple of hours away.  I am itching for a road trip...Waiting to hear from her about it.  LOVE that girl...she is a hoot. Everytime we're together, the laughter is nonstop...to the point of gasping for air sometimes...

I was out back for a bit this afternoon. The pond is completely iced over and the geese are throwing a fit. They make so much racket and then circle circle circle...finally landing and sliding across the ice. It is really something to watch them. There are really beautiful designs on the ice...not sure what made them--possibly just the wind, I suppose. We still have a lot of snow out there,too.

Okay..time to sign off and hit the hay. I am a sleepy thing tonight and cannot even keep my eyes open to read the homesteading magazine that came in today's mail. I love this magazine...I usually read it cover to cover the day it arrives.  Full of all kinds of great stuff, and this issue is no exception. It's called Countryside Magazine  &Small Stock Journal.  The magazine of modern homesteading.  It's my all time favorite. Check it out.  I also found a website that belongs to a woman who lives rather efficiently with her husband and 5 children on an acre of land. Her name is Lara and it is  here.   She is delightful

Sweet dreams, my friends. May the wind be always at your back....

Namaste.

My furry world

 

This is a picture of our lab mix, Lucy. Lucy came from the local shelter. She had been born in a snowstorm to a mother that was tied up and left outside(with no food or water) when her owners moved. By the time the neighbors called the Animal Control people and they came to the rescue, the mother and 3 other newborn puppies had frozen to death.  Lucy and one other pup survived.  It was everything we could do to not take them both. 

Lucy also goes by the Big Goon and Lucy Goosy. Honestly, if you have a cookie in your hand, she will answer to anything you want to call her. lol

 

This is Miss Molly McGee [AKA Molly Mayhem]...our Jack Russell Terrorist.  She was purchased by my dingbat  brother at a pet store for his 2 year old daughter. Anyone who knows JRT's knows they are not good children dogs. Except my brother, who said that the lady who took his 350 dollars said, oh yes---they're great with kids!!  (I told him I had a bridge I'd sell him too).  He begged and pleaded with me to take her as she was mowing down the toddler at every turn and running away and terrorizing the neighborhood every chance she got to jump the fence.   We brought her home 4 years ago, a couple of months  after having to put my beloved cocker spaniel Sophie to sleep, due to liver cancer. We live in the country and she runs like crazy here.  She's mellowed out a lot in the last year, but she will always be a Jack Russell.

This is little Caylee, back when she first found us and came out from under the back deck. She looked like a little polar bear cub.  Also known as Cooder Brown, and Caylee Baylee.  She is coming on 2 years old now and is the sweetest dog in the world. She loves the snow, and lays on her back and makes snow-dog angels (I swear!!).  She is a barker and a runner and she always kowtows to Molly, who is the Alpha dog. She stays out in the cold for ungodly amounts of time and is a happy happy dogglet. Here's a more recent, grown-up picture of her, playing with her best friend, Lucy:

  I guess I've trotted out these pictures because tonight we watched the movie Marley and Me. It was  a heartwarming and heartbreaking story.  I had to put Sophie to sleep, and I held her until she was gone, bawling like a baby the whole time. That damn movie had me crying  my eyes out.  Every animal I have ever had that something has happened to, has nearly killed me. And every time I say "That's it! I can't take this!! No more pets...no more..."

  So I'm feeling a little melancholy and a little hopeful and a whole lot blessed tonight. Because I have 3 great dogs.  And I have had other really great dogs in my life...and there's just nothing like that unconditional love. That trusting, fun, acceptance that you only get 24/7 from your dog.  I have had dogs in my life as long as I can remember and I probably always will.

  I'm just blessed that way...

Namaste.

The Party's Overrrrrr.......

 

 Here's a picture of the  strawberry trifle I made for the dinner party tonight. It was fantastic! I would definitely make this dessert again, only took about 25 minutes to prep and assemble. And everyone loved it.

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Well, I almost pulled off the surprise. Right down to about 2 hours before, when some goofball called his phone and said they were sorry they couldn't make it to his party.  He was out, and so when he got home at about 2:30, he comes in and says  "Were you thinking about having some kind of a party?"  I said, uh,-what?   LOL

In spite of the terrible weather today (we have gotten about 4 inches of snow in the past 6 hours), 14 people showed up for dinner, plus the 2 of us.  I was worried about having too much food, in the event that people started calling and cancelling at the last minute, so I was holding off on the pasta cooking, but had already made a punchbowl sized salad. I made a dutch oven sized pan full of the marinara, and dumped all 8 dozen meatballs into it,  and a big bowl of the aglio e olio. Well, there is about 1 serving of salad left over! Whew! Most all the bread was eaten, ALL of the Aglio e Olio was devoured, and I have enough spaghetti and meatballs left for a couple of lunches for the Irishman and one more main dish for us at supper. There's about 1/3 of the Trifle left too.  It was delicious, btw. There was lots of good conversation, good friends and good eats.  Perfect combination.

I am exhausted.

I got up early and got almost every thing done...mopped floors, cleaned bathrooms,vacuumed furniture, dusted, cleaned the birdcage....made the salad, made the Trifle, ---OMG!!!  I've turned into Wonder Woman !!!!     *grin

I'm gonna take some cough syrup, put some Vicks on the bottoms of my feet AND my chest, have a glass of water, and go to bed.  I did pretty well tonight as far as the coughing , but the later it got, the more I was coughing.  Laying in bed is the worst, anmd I even have a pillow setup that keeps my head and neck somewhat elevated.  But all in all, I feel better than I did a couple of days ago, so I have high hopes of a quick (ish) recovery! lol

Hope everyone had a happy Valentine's Day!

Namaste.