WELL — I Have Ruined Trixie’s Life

 yes, if she were a teenager she would be stomping out of the room, slamming doors and muttering “Moooooom” under her breath for I have well and truly ruined her life.

What could I possibly have done to my little fur girl?  Well….

I have put her on a DIET.  Don’t tell her the word “diet” contains the word “die” — she wouldn’t believe me anyway because she isn’t a very good speller but I am afraid if she doesn’t lose some weight that is exactly what might happen.  Even her groomer said she was struggling yesterday.  So….

She has been cut off. I am revising her diet and cutting down on the treats.  She eats too many treats and loves table food.  It is my bad, I know, and I am trying to fix it.  

She isn’t happy with me —

Good Morning!

 Good morning, all!  We are just about thawed out from the winter storm we had — only to be facing another with some more snow possible.  I just can’t wait.  It’s going to be great — said no Texan ever.

The new year has gotten off to a rip roaring start with the weather — hopefully it will get done soon and maybe an early spring?  Who knows!

Has anybody noticed the moon the last couple of days?  I believe it was called the Wolf moon?  Absolutely gorgeous.  I didn’t have my phone on me when I was out so I missed out on any photos but I am sure there are some somewhere because it was so big and so bright and so pretty.

Well, our local school board is at it again.  The area I live in has a heavy dose of zip code envy.  The zipcodes are divided by a railroad track and the majority of the district is actually on the “wrong” side of the tracks — me included.  So, now the school board has decided to separate the two zipcodes into two separate districts which means they are forming one small one with all the amenities and one large one with all the debt.  The large one contains three fourths of the entire district and they just want us gone.  Needless to say it has gotten hugely political, slightly illegal, and very contentious.  Nobody wants to even drive over the tracks!  There was a county commissioners meeting last night to help mitigate the situation and tomorrow there is a school board meeting that was formally planned to be behind closed doors with no public involvement but now it going to be open.  Legality?  Hmm.  We shall see.

So, yeah, that is all that is going on around here.  Not too exciting yet, in the case of the school board, a little too exciting.  Balance, people, balance.

Have a great day all!

“They” Said it Would Happen —-

 Ok, as promised I will provide proof that we have, in fact, had snow in Texas. At about 6 a.m. the sleet shower started.  It was light.  It isn’t even all that cold outside.  It was loud to begin with and then went quiet.  I thought it was done.  Nope, it was snowing.  Snow is quiet.  Then it was noisy again n, more sleet — there is nothing more exciting than layers of snow and ice.  So slippery!

Of course Trixie had to go out early on which was fine.  I could stand on the porch and let her go on the leash and plead with her to hurry.  She wasn’t having it and turned tail and came back in.  About a half hour later we were on repeat — this time she hurried.  She was not happy that the sleet pellets were stuck to her hair and her feet were cold.  But, she did prove to me that she knew the meaning of the word “hurry”

A bit ago she needed to go out nice again —I was surprised because this is the same dog that can go 15 hours without going out yet here we were.  So, this time Daddy took her and hurry she did — it was a record pee — excuse my language.  She was wet and cold.  She got on my lap for me to pet the sleet away, walked around on the couch a bit and is now sound asleep on the floor == I told her to go into hibernation mode.  Hopefully she did.

So, here are the pics.  There will be more if we have aa much snow as they say.  I don’t know what is going to happen.

Notes from Noah’s Deck —

 Notes from Noah’s Deck is a little thing I do on Facebook chronicling our wildlife activity on our deck in the far corner of the back yard. I named it Noah’s Deck because everything that is out there seems to come in pairs. This deck is completely inconvenient to the house as far as using it to entertain.  I believe it was built to make the best of an unfortunate terrain.  But, in any event, it makes a wonderful den for the local wildlife — mainly foxes and possum and a couple of stray cats.

When we moved here we were told by the neighbor that we had foxes but we didn’t see them until about six years ago when we got Trixie.  Caroline and I were outside with the pup when we sensed something watching us, we turned and there was a fox, on it’s little butt, with it’s ears all pricked, just watching us back.  I shooed it away — it didn’t mind me — and it finally just got up and left.  After that we got the cameras.

My husband likes to watch birds and now the wildlife so we put out cameras so we can see what goes on in the night on the deck.  The first morning after we put up the first camera we were thrilled to see the capture of our outdoor activity. There were in fact foxes and they are great fun to watch.  The possum sightings are deceptive - they look small but in reality they are bigger than Trixie as I have seen them in person traipsing through the back yard. It is now our morning routine to get up and watch the clips of the animals over our breakfast.

I can most assuredly say there will be babies in the spring.  I will just leave it at that.

So, here is a pic from last night.  The cold snap we are having has frozen over the water dish and the possum sort of did an ice skating routine — don’t think they are ready for the Olympics yet though.

*sigh* — “They” said the “S” word —

 no, not THAT “S” word — the “s” word that strikes terror in me and gives me a headache.

SNOW

We are supposed to have snow on Thursday through Friday morning.  I know, all of you from the north are laughing at this ridiculous southerner — I can feel the snickering — but we could have 5 inches of snow which will pretty much paralyze the area.

Why you might ask?  We have no snow plows.  AND…..nobody here can drive in snow/ice.  No snow tires, no chains, nothing, nada.

Sigh.  We were having such a nice, mild winter too.  

So, I am going to brave the cold temps to go to the store tomorrow. I went a couple of days ago but forgot dog food.  How you might ask?  Well, I thought I had more than I do.  So, tomorrow I am hitting Target and Sprouts (I like their kaiser rolls for sandwiches).  I need stuff for chalupas and more ice cream.  Speaking of needing more ice cream —

I have had the Bean off and on for several days and it has been lovely.  We watched lots of Harry Potter and ate lots of ice cream.  The cookies are gone, too.  She will be back at school tomorrow but I am betting that there wont be school on Thursday.  Our school district takes it sweet time in deciding if they are closing or delaying so who knows — I hope they decide before everybody is out on the streets — especially student drivers. 

So, I will be back with pics if we do actually have snow.  It will be from the safety of my front porch though. I can’t walk well on dry ground so…

Reading Goals and Challenges

 I love to read.  As a young child, being able to read was a wonderment.  I remember being read to from books like this —

I had this exact copy, still do, and have perused antique stores to buy copies for my grandchildren — it is that magical.  

Then I went to kindergarten at our church.  I don’t know what the “rule” was in regards to teaching children to read in school in 1955 but they taught us to read and I couldn’t have been more thrilled.

We learned to read with the “Dick and Jane” books, like the one shown here.  It was like opening a door for me.  The only downside to learning to read in kindergarten — with these books — is that the next year when we were in first grade and they were teaching us reading I was bored because they used the same books.  Also, by that time, my reading had progressed to the point that I was past this level so it was sort of an issue.

In the third grade another door was opened for me.  Our end of the year picnic was held at San Pedro Park, a historical park in San Antonio, and on the edge of this park stood the San Pedro Public Library.  

We were told that if we had turned 8 and had a parent with us we could go to the library and get a library card! Oh happy day! I mean, back in 1958 we didn’t have B&N on every corner, we didn’t have children’s books in the supermarket, we didn’t have Target, our access was limited so what was a young bibliophile to do?  Yep, the library.  So, of course my mother agreed to get the card and off we went — I was so thrilled and proud and raring to go.  I immediately latched on to some of the most popular books by the likes of Kate Seredy and Lois Lenski.  Kate Seredy was my favorite starting with “The Good Master”.  My best time in my young life was to visit the library, get a stack of books, and settle in on the couch on a rainy day to just read.  In San Antonio we had many rainy days so my mother always knew where I would be.

My love for reading never waned, my love of libraries never waned but my reading habits and methods have changed.  I visit the library digitally now, I download books on a kindle or a Nook app that I can carry with me.  I read in school pick up lines and waiting rooms.  I read in the car while waiting for my husband to shop and I read myself to sleep.  But, I still read and it is still magical.

Now one thing I have done for several years is participate in the Goodreads reading challenge but I really gave that up last year because the pressure of trying to reach an arbitrary number of books in a prescribed time just makes it less enjoyable for me.  So, in 2024 I didn’t read as many books as I have in the past but that is ok.  I try to research what I read so that I am reasonably certain that I will enjoy the book and then I do just that, enjoy the book, regardless of how long it takes me to read it. I still log my books on Goodreads and here on my blog but I no longer try to be unrealistic about it — I will never read 50 books in a year. 

So, this is what I read in 2024

I am starting out this year with the second in the Little Maudly series — “The Village Green Bookshop”.  It is good and engaging and clean and cozy — not a mystery but very human interest.  I started with the first book “The Telephone Box Library” and hope to continue with the series.

Cleaning off my desk two days ago I found a gift card I had forgotten about so I did some shopping for books.  I happened upon another series — “The Tradd House” series — so I bought the first two and hope they turn out well.  I will let you know.  They are ebooks that I downloaded to my Nook app.

So, that is all for today - it is very early and very quiet — sounds like a good time to do some page turning!

Baby It’s Cold Outside!

 We have had a very warm winter thus far.  That ended yesterday.  It was sunny and dry but it was cold and the cedar pollen is alive and well. None of that bodes well with me.  However, it is winter after all so I guess it is to be expected.  Sigh.

At the beginning of 2024, in an effort to handle my raging anxiety, I decided to start an anxiety journal — to document the things that set my anxiety off. As part of the exercise I developed a morning routine and an evening routine.  These routines weren’t complicated — in fact — they were quite basic.  For instance, my morning routine went something like this —

1.  Wash face

2.  Brush teeth

3.  Morning skincare

4. Make bed

5. Tend dog

Yada yada yada.  I know that sounds ridiculous to lay down a routine that is actually second nature but it was grounding to be able to check off the things that I accomplished because some days, in the throes of anxiety, just doing the simple things was difficult.

In the end I just became complacent and abandoned the practice without meaning to.  A couple of hospital visits sort of broke the routine and my little pink anxiety journal set idle.  Did it help the anxiety?  Yes, it did but what really helped the anxiety was a cardiac ablation and medications — that is what has just about wiped away my anxiety completely.  However, I am finding that I need the structure of the day to day routine — if I just do the things on the list regardless of how basic they are then I feel like I have accomplished something, see what I mean?  So, I have a place in my new journal that I can do just that and today is the day that I start.  

As I said earlier, we have had a very mild winter — it was 80F the other day — and it has been lovely.  however that is all about to change.  It got cold yesterday and it supposed to get colder.  Somebody even said the dreaded “S” word — just slightly less scary than the “I” word.  We don’t do well here in Texas with either of those two things so we just need to not have that happen.  Especially since the kids go back to school next week! Never fails!

I have the Bean for a couple of days while her mom is off on a small vacation with two of her teacher friends.  They are going to visit some historical sites which is my daughter’s favorite thing to do.  I hope it is warmer for them than it is going to be here.  This is going to require a trip to the grocery store which is my LEAST favorite thing to do — but I am not prepared for a teenager in regards to eating.  So, a grocery run it is.  

It will be fun to have her to myself for a couple of days — since she has been in high school and busy being a teenager she has left us old folks in her dust! I am sure I will spend hours watching her scroll on her phone or re-re-re-watching Harry Potter.  It’s gonna be great!

So I will close with this lovely pic I found — it just makes me cold to look at it!

Have a wonderful day all! Stay warm!

A New Day, a New Year and Apparently a New Generation

 Happy New Year, all!  I don’t know about you but I am well and truly glad the boom booms are over.  This is what it sounded like behind my house at about 11:30 last night.

I didn’t get up to look but I am sure it didn’t look like this — just lots of old-lady-waking and dog-disturbing noise.  Don’t blame my disdain on my advanced age.  I never liked fireworks, was always terrified of fire and the time my family handed me a sparkler to hold at about age 3  left me traumatized.  So, it isn’t only the dog….ANYWAY, they didn’t continue too long, I didn’t stay awake and the house didn’t burn down with the things landing on the roof so I would say it was an ok night.

Apparently, according to Google — today marks the beginning of a new generation.  Generation Alpha is now passe and we are on to something else.  I don’t know the name of the new generation because I am stuck on “boomer” it seems.  Fitting since I am a boomer — every generation since then just gets muddled in my brain.  Not even sure what my children are — 1975-79 — do you?  Hmm..and the bigger question is — does it even matter?  I think not.

So, onward and upward to a new day in a new year.  It seems people like to have a buzzword to describe what they want to have happen in the new year.  My buzzword is to be “accomplish”.  Now, I don’t mean “accomplish” like in curing cancer or going to the moon or any such shenanigans as that.  My “accomplish” has more to do with my other new, favorite word — tidy.  I would like to accomplish “tidy” and “finishing started projects” like being more organized with my cross stitch thread and sorting the magazines properly.  Not looking for great acclaim here, just a tidy kitchen table.  So, my goal today is to — be tidier.

So, how did my new day of the new year begin?  Have I already “accomplished” something.  Why yes, I have thank  you.  I organized my new planner.  In an earlier post I mentioned how I am going to a new, larger planner (Erin Condren) in an effort to have all my record keeping in one spot. It is larger which is inconvenient but it does allow me to keep everything in one place and it also allows me a bit of space, not too much, to be creative.  

I told you about my daughter’s planner and how she decorates and makes it her own.  She added the date stickers to make the dates more visible and I thought that was a good idea so I did the same.  Then she found these really cute little bird stickers and I love birds so, you guessed it, I bought some as well.  As you can see, not a lot of original thought going on here.  The birthday sticker came from the collection of stickers that came with the planner.

Now, my daughter loves collages and had dedicated two pages each month to collaging.  

She chooses photos and words that “speak” to her and they are lovely, like her own little Pinterest pages. I am going to do mine differently.  I am only going to devote one page to the effort and I am going to include things that are actually personal to me.  For instance, at church each Christmas we have the opportunity to put flowers on the altar in memory of loved ones or in thanksgiving. It is then announced in the bulletin.  My daughter did this honor her father in law, her grandparents, special cousins etc who has passed on and in thanksgiving for us and her mother in law.  I found it to be hugely touching so I will be adding that mention in the bulletin in my collage page.  They also added some cute Christmas images that I saw as a coloring opportunity which I will add as well.  I might not fill the page each month but I want it to be intentional and meaningful.  I haven’t got a picture of that though because I left the paper upstairs — I will share later when I drag my crippy self up there and glue it in the book.

In other accomplishments — oh wait, there are no other accomplishments thus far (it is only 7 a.m.) — I will have to get back to you on that….

Happy New Years Eve!

 Yes, New Years Eve when our thoughts go to what we want to see in the new year, what we learned from the old year and how we have changed — or not. 

 I saw a “reel” on. Facebook the other day titled “My house is tidy — not clean” and I thought to myself — now that is a concept I can get my head around so I am going to think about being tidier in the new year and not worry so much about being spotless clean.  I mean, my repeated complaint to the Hubs is “you can’t clean around clutter” so possible, if I just keep tidying up the cleaning will take care of itself.  

Hope springs eternal.

Speaking of being tidy — I visited my craft area this morning and became totally overwhelmed.  I got quite a lot of crafting goodies so I wanted to get them organized! Hahahaha!  Ok, so I went upstairs which is no small feat for me and sat at my desk which is actually a large workbench (Gorilla brand) that my husband bought me for crafting.  It is lovely and wide and long and very, very heavy — if we ever move it will have to be sold with the house.  I digress.

You would think that I could keep it organized, wouldn’t you?  Well, here is the state of the bench this morning after being left in disarray for months — 

So, that is going to require some tending to.  But I decided to go ahead and tackle the gift box — All my gifts came from Amazon and I just gathered them in one box.  

I  had great fun unloading it all — most of it I found on Natalie Bowers videos which look very useful and that I didn’t have.  Now the problem of how to organize it looms large.  So I made a start and need a large trash bag up there now so I can clear the trash from the useful  clutter.  I am hoping to make things better so I don’t have to spend so much time looking for things — sort of like my kitchen but that is another whole story.

So, anyway, I am hoping to start churning out some cards quite soon.  I have a boy birthday in January and a graduation in May — I already have an idea for a graduation card and I bought the die for it already and hopefully it will turn out as I imagine.  I will let you know.  Here is a photo of the last card I made last May when Bean graduated from the 8th grade and was going off to high school — rather plain but I liked it made up in the school colors ==

  And, since I get up SO early in the morning I have decided to make use of that time in a better way.  I usually just end up scrolling and watching facebook videos, trying to be quiet since Hubs is still asleep but I dove into my book this morning and got some reading done.  That was good because that is another thing I would like to be more consistent with and trying to read in bed before sleep just doesn’t always go well for me — five words in and I am down for the count.

Anyway, I will be sorting my desk top this evening but I am looking forward to hearing all of your NYE plans!  You will know where I will be if you need me!

A Bit of Catch Up — So Behind

 Catching up with sharing an interesting event we had in December.  Our church, St. John’s Anglican Church, is a historic church in a historic neighborhood called Ryan Place.  Each year the residents of Ryan Place host a tour of a few of the historic homes in the area and, as it is in the big middle of things, our church is one of the focal points as is the historic elementary school across the street.  Our church hosts tours of the church, we have a tea room whose proceeds go to the youth group and there are pop up craft shops in the parish hall selling their crafty wares.  Now, mind you, I went to the tea room and enjoyed looking at the crafts but I did not walk the neighborhood because I hadn’t taken Lilly with me and it is too much walking for me.  So the photos are compliments of my daughter — she loves photo journalism and she is good at it so I will just steal her photos — with her permission of course — so enjoy!

My daughter did the tea room sign — twice because the first time it got ruined by the rain — and the Positive Potato found its way into Bean’s Christmas stocking.  I wish I had bought one for myself so I am going to track down the expert crocheter (is that a word?) and get one —if they have any more, they were popular.

So, it was a great day for the tour and it was well attended, our youth group did well with making some money and looking forward to next year.  And again, photo credit to my daughter, B Wilcox and thank you!

2024 - the End of the Year

It is hard to believe that 2024 is already over — it just flew by for me — but it is hard to believe  in that number — 2024 seems so space age and advanced.  For those of us who grew up in the 50’s the turn of the century seemed like a galaxy far away and yet here we are — 24 years into it already.  Mind boggling.

I have been tweaking my blog today in hopes of making it more attractive but I am afraid it is beyond my pay grade.  I used to like to change out the backgrounds and such but it used to be easier, I don’t have much luck with it anymore.  I will work on it.

I bought a new planner.  You wouldn’t think somebody my age would need a planner — like I was in college or something — but I do have a good number of things to keep up with.  Every morning I log my heart rate and my blood pressure so.I have a small notebook for that.  I have a pocket calendar that I keep up with and they are mostly scattered over the kitchen table so I decided to buy a planner that has areas to keep all those things in one place.  It is bigger which is inconvenient but maybe I will quit misplacing it.  My daughter has always kept a planner and she is very creative with it so I am going to take a page from her and try to make my planner creative as well — I will share when I start on it.

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My daughter is very artistic and crafty and her planner is lovely, full of details and collages so it will be difficult to keep up but I will make it my own - after copying hers a bit!

I am still collecting new card making supplies — like they say — shopping for a hobby is a hobby in itself!  I agree with that.  So, we will see if I can actually churn out something worth mailing to someone! Currently I am drawn to what they call “clean and simple” cards — lots of white background, a central focal point, very intentional — I am looking forward to trying it.

I am also planning on getting back to my cross stitch.  Arthritis in my hands is giving me some issues but I don’t intend to give up cross stitch and I have a few things started so I need to get busy.  I have let it all sit for way too long.  I am currently working on a pattern I bought in Colonial Williamsburg and I need to get back to it before I am hopelessly lost with it.  I have missed stitching, not sure why I got away from it but I intend to get back to it. 

And then there is the dreaded eating plan.  We have so many issues involving food around.. here that it is quite difficult to navigate around meals, snacks, etc. I have to lose weight but dealing with my husbands diabetic diet it is really hard to not dive into the cookie jar on the regular.  However, I am going to tackle it one day at a time, one meal at a time and — one cookie at a time.  It has to be done but it will be sad. No cookies.  Can’t even fathom it.

Reading will have a huge priority in my upcoming days.  I love to read.  When I was a child, pre-school, I would sit and marvel at my mother when she would read the newspaper — I distinctly remember asking her what it felt like to be able to read — to me it ws magical.  So, there will be a lot of that.  But no challenges.  Challenges sap the joy right out of it.  So, no arbitrary number of books to complete.  Just losing myself in a book for the fun of it.  

I am currently reading the second book in the Little Maudley series and I won’t be done in 2024 so it will be the first of the new year.

So, are these resolutions?  No, just an idea of how I want to spend 2025.  I want to enjoy things and do things I enjoy.  I want to focus on the joy that certain things bring me.  And right now, these are the things that bring me joy — art, books, stitching (but that is sort of art, isn’t it?) and all things beautiful.

I am looking forward to this new year and all these lovely things I intend to surround myself with!