We may venture out for just a smidgen of shopping.
😦 Family members who know where to goad and make things much more unpleasant than they need be.
🙂 Candlelight services and other traditions that help us remember and worship. Also those who work hard to make such things meaningful–whether at home, church or school.
🙂 Snow. So much nicer than freezing rain.
🙂 Daughters who love one another and make an effort to communicate in spite of the distance apart they (and we) are.
🙂 One of my former roommates and her friend used to always take the day after Christmas off (if it was a work day) and get up before dawn to hit the store sales. I’m sure it’s crazy out there today, although so much shopping has shifted to online now.
🙂 Christmas, even though it was complicated for me this year with house projects looming (think roof!). It’s still a special time of year and I love the lights which will still be up for at least another week.
🙂 Christmas fell on a Friday this year. Which meant we FINALLY got a rare long weekend out of it. Yay. So nice to have a stretch of a couple days off afterward to kick back, rather than having to head into work again the day after. Such a mood killer.
🙂 Another long weekend next week for New Year’s. Woohoo!
🙂 😦 Time to embark again on the season of resolutions. Sigh. It always starts out with such inspiration and enthusiasm …
😦 Cowboy’s found a way out under the fence in the backyard (newly exposed by the recent tree trimming). But I think I see where it is. For now, I’ve put some barricades in that spot (baby gates, loose chicken wire, etc.). We’ll see if that’s enough to keep him in. That dog. At least Tess didn’t go with him this time, which I think kept him closer to home (and was why he came in this morning when I caught him outside shortly after he’d escaped). He doesn’t like to be away from her much. 🙂 Sweet dogs. But Cowboy is sneaky, he knows not to go to “the spot” when I’m out there watching him. Somehow in his doggie mind he knows it’s not “ok” for him to just go out wandering like that.
🙂 Beautiful, cold, crisp and clear days out here with a lot of wind. The views of the mountains, ocean, Catalina Island — and everything else — are spectacular.
🙂 Lee enjoyed Christmas this year more than he has in a long time. One reason was the lack of stress hanging over him from the bread route. It didn’t bother him that he had to be back at work today.
🙂 Emily was especially enthusiastic about Christmas this year. She spent more than usual on us, buying us some new pots to replace some older ones, & two of the new pots are red on the outside (red is my favorite color). She also bought a bunch of little things to fill our stockings. (We haven’t done stockings in a long time, & she wanted to revive the tradition.)
🙂 Chrissy stumbled across the perfect gift for me – an old-fashioned-looking tea cup & saucer that has an extra part attached to the saucer for a couple cookies or a pastry or something. Delicate & fancy-looking.
😦 I really have to get over my holiday stress over messes & such. I try not to let the clutter & messes bother me, but they do.
🙂 I forgot all about rants and raves and here you all are!!
🙂 we were given a rock in church to lay down at the cross to get rid of a burden. I went around the back and somehow felt led to lay down my aloneness. As I reached the front here came the gal I was staying with. She reached out her hand to take my hand and said, come on friend, let’s do this together!
For a bunch of reasons, I really didn’t look forward to this one much, but most of it turned out really well. (Except that my husband was sick and stayed home on the two portions of the holiday held at his parents’ house, and since it could easily be his dad’s last Christmas, that was sad.)
😦 The last project of the year has been a hard one to care about, and so I didn’t succeed in “getting it over with” and having a few days off. So I worked on it a little more today, though I’d have rather taken the day off.
😦 My husband is really pretty overwhelmed with stuff, and that isn’t easy to deal with. He has things that keep seeming “close to resolution,” and they keep dragging on. He really desperately needs a break.
🙂 Our future son-in-law put good thought into the gifts he bought for all of us, even making his fiance cry with one of the ones he bought for her.
🙂 We made her cry for a second time with a gift we had for her. My husband, her dad, had a watercolor sketch, not originally intended to be a complete painting but it turned out well, that she wanted to have at some point. He did it on the last family vacation before her mother died, of the cabin next to theirs and the trees around it. We had it professionally matted and framed. It’s lovely and she was extremely moved to receive it.
Cheryl – My dad started a painting, years ago when I was little, of a winding country road with trees & a wooden fence running along the side of the road, & a house in the distance. It’s an autumn scene, with the leaves mostly on the ground. He got pretty far into it, then set it aside.
At some point, Mom threatened to frame it & hang it as is if he didn’t finish it.
And that is what she did. 🙂
At first glance, it looks finished, but if you look closely, you notice the difference between the detail in the “finished” leaves on the ground, versus the leaf colors painted, waiting for more detail. But we’ve loved it anyway. I inherited it, & another painting my dad did finish (of a ship on a chappy ocean). Emily has it now, because she especially loved it.
Wandering Views 
😦 I will be shopping today if you need me.
😦 I hate shopping
🙂 My daughter needs professional clothes in case she gets some interviews.
🙂 My husband is a good guy.
🙂 Other than teaching Bible study on Tuesdays and working, my schedule is wide open for the foreseeable future.
Well, I have a lunch date in Sacramento on June 10. 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
You will not be running into me in the store today.
LikeLike
We may venture out for just a smidgen of shopping.
😦 Family members who know where to goad and make things much more unpleasant than they need be.
🙂 Candlelight services and other traditions that help us remember and worship. Also those who work hard to make such things meaningful–whether at home, church or school.
🙂 Snow. So much nicer than freezing rain.
🙂 Daughters who love one another and make an effort to communicate in spite of the distance apart they (and we) are.
LikeLike
🙂 One of my former roommates and her friend used to always take the day after Christmas off (if it was a work day) and get up before dawn to hit the store sales. I’m sure it’s crazy out there today, although so much shopping has shifted to online now.
🙂 Christmas, even though it was complicated for me this year with house projects looming (think roof!). It’s still a special time of year and I love the lights which will still be up for at least another week.
🙂 Christmas fell on a Friday this year. Which meant we FINALLY got a rare long weekend out of it. Yay. So nice to have a stretch of a couple days off afterward to kick back, rather than having to head into work again the day after. Such a mood killer.
🙂 Another long weekend next week for New Year’s. Woohoo!
🙂 😦 Time to embark again on the season of resolutions. Sigh. It always starts out with such inspiration and enthusiasm …
😦 Cowboy’s found a way out under the fence in the backyard (newly exposed by the recent tree trimming). But I think I see where it is. For now, I’ve put some barricades in that spot (baby gates, loose chicken wire, etc.). We’ll see if that’s enough to keep him in. That dog. At least Tess didn’t go with him this time, which I think kept him closer to home (and was why he came in this morning when I caught him outside shortly after he’d escaped). He doesn’t like to be away from her much. 🙂 Sweet dogs. But Cowboy is sneaky, he knows not to go to “the spot” when I’m out there watching him. Somehow in his doggie mind he knows it’s not “ok” for him to just go out wandering like that.
🙂 Beautiful, cold, crisp and clear days out here with a lot of wind. The views of the mountains, ocean, Catalina Island — and everything else — are spectacular.
LikeLike
😦 Well, there go our views. Huge coastal fire to the north of us.
😦 There was a forecast of rain for Monday, that’s now been removed — sunny but still cold for the next week.
LikeLike
Maybe, in about a week, we can discuss the dog park.
LikeLike
I have children like that….
LikeLike
🙂 Daughter preferred to spend day with brothers; “I can always go shopping.”
🙂 Bought her a good pair of shoes.
🙂 Discussed the type of outfit she needs with an expert clerk who told her what to buy and how (since they didn’t have what she needed in store.)
🙂 Remembered we have a friend at a store near her who can help, so I’ll give her money and she can shop in LA on Monday.
🙂 Fun Christmas cards arrived.
🙂 Leftovers at my son’s house with promise of pizza for dinner if we return.
🙂 My uncle’s widow appears to have a man friend who makes her happy.
🙂 Gorgeous day; rest for this weary one.
LikeLike
🙂 Slow-cooker pot roast (no-potato recipe) here all weekend and probably well beyond.
🙂 Kitchen is cleaned & I took a 2-hour nap that really hit the spot.
🙂 Cowboy is still inside the fence.
🙂 I do like my new sheers, I hung more on another pair of long windows today. Perfect.
LikeLike
🙂 A nice, relaxing Christmas with my family.
🙂 Lee enjoyed Christmas this year more than he has in a long time. One reason was the lack of stress hanging over him from the bread route. It didn’t bother him that he had to be back at work today.
🙂 Emily was especially enthusiastic about Christmas this year. She spent more than usual on us, buying us some new pots to replace some older ones, & two of the new pots are red on the outside (red is my favorite color). She also bought a bunch of little things to fill our stockings. (We haven’t done stockings in a long time, & she wanted to revive the tradition.)
🙂 Chrissy stumbled across the perfect gift for me – an old-fashioned-looking tea cup & saucer that has an extra part attached to the saucer for a couple cookies or a pastry or something. Delicate & fancy-looking.
😦 I really have to get over my holiday stress over messes & such. I try not to let the clutter & messes bother me, but they do.
LikeLiked by 1 person
🙂 I forgot all about rants and raves and here you all are!!
🙂 we were given a rock in church to lay down at the cross to get rid of a burden. I went around the back and somehow felt led to lay down my aloneness. As I reached the front here came the gal I was staying with. She reached out her hand to take my hand and said, come on friend, let’s do this together!
Amazing gift of God.
LikeLiked by 4 people
🙂 Christmas is over!
For a bunch of reasons, I really didn’t look forward to this one much, but most of it turned out really well. (Except that my husband was sick and stayed home on the two portions of the holiday held at his parents’ house, and since it could easily be his dad’s last Christmas, that was sad.)
😦 The last project of the year has been a hard one to care about, and so I didn’t succeed in “getting it over with” and having a few days off. So I worked on it a little more today, though I’d have rather taken the day off.
😦 My husband is really pretty overwhelmed with stuff, and that isn’t easy to deal with. He has things that keep seeming “close to resolution,” and they keep dragging on. He really desperately needs a break.
🙂 Our future son-in-law put good thought into the gifts he bought for all of us, even making his fiance cry with one of the ones he bought for her.
🙂 We made her cry for a second time with a gift we had for her. My husband, her dad, had a watercolor sketch, not originally intended to be a complete painting but it turned out well, that she wanted to have at some point. He did it on the last family vacation before her mother died, of the cabin next to theirs and the trees around it. We had it professionally matted and framed. It’s lovely and she was extremely moved to receive it.
LikeLiked by 3 people
Cheryl – My dad started a painting, years ago when I was little, of a winding country road with trees & a wooden fence running along the side of the road, & a house in the distance. It’s an autumn scene, with the leaves mostly on the ground. He got pretty far into it, then set it aside.
At some point, Mom threatened to frame it & hang it as is if he didn’t finish it.
And that is what she did. 🙂
At first glance, it looks finished, but if you look closely, you notice the difference between the detail in the “finished” leaves on the ground, versus the leaf colors painted, waiting for more detail. But we’ve loved it anyway. I inherited it, & another painting my dad did finish (of a ship on a chappy ocean). Emily has it now, because she especially loved it.
LikeLiked by 1 person
A “chappy” ocean?
That should be a “choppy” ocean. 🙂
LikeLike