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!

A Different Viewpoint

 This holiday season I have heard several people, friends and strangers alike, of my vintage say they didn’t have any Christmas spirit this year.  I was one of those people.  For some reason all the magic of the season just seemed to allude me.

Is it because we have been dealing with health issues?  Is it because we don’t go out and about as much as we used to?  Is it because we have been hearing and seeing all things Christmas since before Halloween?  (Thanks a lot Kroger for the very sad commercial played almost non-stop for weeks.). What in the world was wrong with us?

I thought about it and decided to just go with it and see what happened, see if the conundrum changed with time and what changed it, if anything.  So, I just plodded along.  I watched every sappy, predictable Hallmark-esque movie out there.  That certainly didn’t help.  I read, kept to my usual schedule which I am trying to tweak BTW, and just kept on keeping on.  

Then we attended church on Christmas Eve.  We always go to church on Christmas Eve.  Back before Bean was born we went to midnight mass but after baby came we started going to 4 pm mass which is traditionally our children’s mass.  

So, this year as usual we were in our usual pew at 3:30 pm and, as usual, I sat and took in the feel of  it all — all the bells and smells.  I am so at peace when I am in our church, I can’t really describe it, but it is a feeling I don’t get anywhere else.  The church was full — attendance at that service was 212 souls — lots of kiddos, lots of noise and yet I sat there in my peaceful state just soaking it all up.

And it hit me.

I hadn’t lost my Christmas spirit — my Christmas spirit had just ehanged, evolved so to speak, and I was looking for it in all the wrong places. I assume my age, life experiences, changes I see happening all played a part in this new revelation.  I realized that while I was missing all the trappings of our American Christmases I was being shown what it is like to bask in the REAL reason for the season — the birth of our saviour, of course, without saying — but the inescapable, overwhelming feeling of gratitude that goes along with being humbled at the foot of the cross.  

I realized then that my spirit was back— it was different, yes, not chaotic and filled with lights and tinsel, but quiet — the climax of the Advent season where we sat waiting for the blessed event, in quiet and awe.  

I think this is the very first time I have REALLY experienced the feeling of the quiet of Advent and I will say it was awesome.  All the materialism of commercial Christmas replaced with the quiet and waiting —difficult to describe but so wonderful to experience.

So, to all those people who were lamenting the loss of their “spirit” I will just say — it wasn’t gone, it was just different — a better different — and I certainly hope this feeling stays with me well into the New Year.

It Has Been a Hot Minute

 Hi, all! By now you probably figure I was gone never to be seen or heard from again.  Not so although I don’t seem to be keeping up with things like I used to — old and slow and my time has been taken up with a lot of other things.

I have been seeing my two cardiologists a LOT, trying to figure out if my cardiac ablation worked.  There is a three month period of time, after the procedure, that you can still have aFib episodes (I have), it can be defeating (it is) and it can settle down and be fine (I am hoping that is what is happening).  This whole aFib thing has taken on a life of its own and I am just a little bored with it now.

My mobility is really giving me issues these days.  I am using a cane more and more when I leave the house.  I purchased my new rollator and have taken it out once — I need to take it out more but it is definitely something to get used to.  I named her Lilly — can’t remember if I mentioned that.

I have been working on getting back to my hobbies — card marking and cross stitching.  Hubs and I don’t buy Christmas gifts for each other anymore, we each buy our own and then show the other what we got.  So, I went to my craft area the other day sussing out my card marking supplies —- I have been away from it so long I had forgotten and some stuff just needed replacing so that is what I have bought myself for Christmas.  I can’t wait to open the box!  

I have been watching youtube videos by a YouTuber named Natalie Bowers — she is in the UK and does lovely cards — when I listen to her I imagine I am listening to my bloggy friend Mary!  Anyway, she has inspired me to get back to it.  So, I am hoping to do that after I open my box!

I have been reading a good deal.  I decided this year to not really join any challenges but just to read for my own pleasure at my own pace and not to fulfill some arbitrary number.  Right now I am reading “The Telephone Box Library”.  It is really good and I recommend it!  

So, other than that not much has been going on — life has changed since Bean is in high school and we no longer pick her up from school.  It is sort of sad, I miss it, but I haven’t figured out a way to keep her little so I guess I just have to accept it.

I am hoping that, in the new year, the doctor visits lessen — I am not a great doctor goer anyway but this is just making it worse.  I am making some changes to my schedule — I am an early riser and that is where my energy is, Hubs doesn’t so I usually sit and wait for him to get up and that isn’t working for me.  So, it is a good thing his hearing isn’t great because he can sleep through my housework which I am going to start doing first thing in the morning when I have energy!  Ha! We will see how that goes.

I am wishing all of you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.  I am hoping to make an appearance here more often now that things are getting back to normal.  It will be good to catch up with my blog friends, I am missing all of you!

Meet Lydia.

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Good morning! Meet Lydia, my nap time companion.  Lydia is a pink Dino that I discovered in the youth bedding section at Target.  She is just the right size to cuddle and weighted so she offers some comfort that weighted things do and she doesn’t slide all over.

I brought her home (yes, I paid for her) and she has taken many naps with me in the recliner.  If I put her up on my shoulder she keeps my head from falling over and giving me a crick in my neck.  She is also very calming.  She is also great for propping up my Kindle. 

I haven’t used her a lot in recent days for a couple of reasons — my anxiety is improved and I don’t feel the need to be weighed down and I have also learned that sitting, reclining, for hours on end is probably what is making my hip hurt worse.  So, I am just sitting in the chair, and it is helping, and with less anxiety I am making it a point to get up and move around every hour.  The hip feels slightly better.  Girls, being sedentary isn’t all it is cracked up to be.

However, my next trip to Target is going to net me this —

Very fitting to honor our outdoor residents, don’t you think?  Then, I think they will have to be moved someplace besides the coffee table in the living room.  They will probably go on the guest beds — not that I ever have guests but you know, seems reasonable.

I am still thinking about the rollator.  I did better walking around at church yesterday (even though the Hubs tried to fall down, standing still in the communion line) but I still think that some situations might warrant having something of this nature.

Of course, I am not as svelt as the lady in the photo but I do fall within the weight range.  There is a heavy model that is a little sturdier but since I don’t “hike” (except to the grocery store and the communion rail!) I am thinking this one would serve my needs well.  In baby blue.

So, today marks the beginning of another week, the last in October.  Is it my imagination but has October just flown by?  In Texas we aren’t really having much autumn weather yet — you can feel a change in the air but it is quickly hidden by high 80’s and low 90’s during the day.  And, this upcoming weekend we have to deal with daylight savings time — I wish somebody would put and end to all that foolishness — 

I like to look at this picture and imagine this gentleman is my ancestor — would be fitting since I have indigenous lineage and so wise — so, so wise!

So, I am preparing for the jolt to my mind and body but hopefully my sleep will be ok — I didn’t sleep well last night for no good reason so I am hoping the time change doesn’t throw me into some sort of insomnia loop - don’t you hate it when that happens.

Have a good Monday, all!