Cold Musings...

Laundy. Clearing. Typical January things...  I always enjoy the winter months because nobody actually expects me to go anywhere, so I don't have to constantly decline to do so!  I am free to stay home without feeling as if I've let the world down somehow. Now is the time when I do a lot of thinking, though.  And that is not always good. Lol...

I have finally found the tote with my Valentine things.  I was shocked to discover I had already put it in the decorations room in a red tote. How organized? No wonder I didn't find that/

I found this cute box of K-cups at Aldi.  It would make a super gift, but I don't think any of my peeps have a Keurig except me. The little bear here was my son's as a little boy. When my grandmother ordered it for him, the company accidently sent two, and she decided to pay for the second one and keep it. What a fun move. My son came to my Mom's every day during the school year, and he loved to say goodbye to Charlie Bear at home and then we made a game of "racing" Charlie to my mom's house.  Boom! Charlie was magic because he was already here and waiting for him.  It was so fun. To this day I don't think both Charlies ever crossed paths, and I doubt they ever will. 

Mom made this cute snow lady at Ceramics class. And you can see I treated myself to those enormous Pioneer Woman mugs from Walmart. They are really almost too big, but sometimes that's just the cup of tea I need.

Still reading Mom's diaries. They are such an eye-opener. In this one she was only four years older than I am now. I have to shake my head when I consider how old I thought she was then...  Some of the events rush back into my mind when I read them. I can see her perspective better from here than I could when I was living it, that's for sure. I had some marital troubles that year that later led to divorce. Thus... whole months at the end of the year are just blank. She also mentioned getting old...  I think it was such a shock to her, too.  Is that the way of the world? My goodness...  ENCOURAGE is my 2022 word.  So enough of this tangent.

I am finally okay with how my shelves look.  I had gone clutter blind for I'm not sure how long. I realize my everyday cleaned up look is vastly cluttered to many, but I had crossed all kinds of boundaries with all holidays represented in little ways and even arranging jars of pickles and boxes of spaghetti...  What? I felt like I suddenly just woke up and was shocked at what I saw.

Here we have my grandparents near their wedding days.  I want to put one here of my parents also...  My Valentines. 

I will add that those sweet little light up hearts came from Valerie Par Hill on QVC. I recently wrote a comment on her Instagram accound about buying them. My mom had me order them the last day she was here on this earth. I said I wanted to buy them to give to everyone who had been nice to us. She said, "Oh, Gayla...  order lots!" Valerie wrote me the sweetest note after that.

Laundry is spinning, and I have caught up temporarily. That's always a short-lived feeling of success. My son is back on Keto diet. I am just trying to behave better than I did at Christmas. Most of Keto is great, but... as Paula Deen once said, "I'd get up out of my death bed for a potato." lol...

Have a warm end of the month. We need snow or rain...  Farmers know this.

Whimsy and Hugs!

Paging... Mr. Mojo. Mr. Mojo, would you please report to the front desk?

Whimsy and Hugs!

Do you ever lose that Mojo feeling?  I have lost it in a weird way.  I don't like anything I do after I've done it.  So I re-do it. And...  I don't like that either! lol...  I did find this cubby and organized? a little in my Studio.  I like that except I went for a rather cheap cubby thinking it would let in more light...  and it's a bit flim flam...  so I may walk into quite a mess one of these morning. I sure hope not. But I heartily recommend this system, and I had never had one before in my life...  
 

We had a pretty big snow, and now the weather is hovering around zero or below at night and very little better during the day. I am just happy we are cozy and warm, and I feel for all those who are out in this. The Highway Department bladed the end of my driveway shut, but they came out and fixed it after three phone calls. I told the scheduler that I wouldn't think of pushing all my snow on their road!  Our actual road was clean as a pin, but there was a three foot barricade that had frozen and thawed and refrozen...  I also said we had some medication coming.  She told me they wouldn't care...  but evidently they did because they were here before 8 a.m. and it looks clean as a bean right now.

So..  I actually don't have any news.  I am glad because pretty much all the news I hear from my friends is sad... or bad...  or kinda gloomy and miserable. And that always makes me feel bad for them. My mother was such and trooper, and she really had a superior attitude all the time (almost).  My dad?  His was even better! lol...  I try to channel them every day a little.

I made a few journals for my Facebook group as prizes for pre-Christmas posts.  That was a lot of fun for me. They should be getting them any day now. The photos are either from a digital download or from their own childhood pics they posted on Facebook.  My group is called Meadowlane Sampler if any of you want to join.  We just post photos of our houses or whatever...  sometimes it is busier than other times!

Well, I'm off to rearrange the furniture and maybe the whole house!  lol...  Probably won't accomplish that. I used to do that all the time, but it's a bit harder now with the new tenant...  I so love my son working from home, and he works square in the middle of the house...  And the cat?  she helps him all day long.  I think Little Caesar's should put her on the payroll...  

Winter Wonderland is here!

Well, at last we have some snow!  I was wondering if we might even skip a year, but we did get a couple inches of a forecast 8" snowstorm. I am okay with less, but as a Farmer's daughter I know we really need the moisture in our ground. We are dry here in Missouri. 

Except for a few snowman items, our Christmas is all put away.  Of course, I keep out the trees because...  well, I just like them.  I have three up all year, and I really make the best of it with holiday lights and ornaments or flowers. It's just fun, and I can pretty much do what I want because my son really doesn't notice if a tree is up or down as long as it's dark at night late when he's roaming the house searching for a likely place to sleep. He has a great bed, but there's something about our family that really likes to sleep first in one chair, or the couch, or maybe bed... lol...  My mom used to say quite innocently that she liked to sleep around. She never really understood why everyone did quite a bit of giggling when she said that. 

I have begun my New Year's projects and plans. It is really a mind set, that's all, and encourage is a great word for me. I am working in my planners and a journal or two, plus eliminating some of the major areas of my discouragement by clearing and organizing.  Well, at least, that's what I am telling myself to do every day... just even a little.

Callie has been a lot of help with all our rearranging and planning. My son bought her a fancy fountain water dish that has lightly running water. The theory is that cats like slightly moving water in the wild, so this is beneficial. She actually is drinking from it quite a bit, probably to show off for him... She seems to like him better right now, which is okay.  I always feel guilty when she likes me better. Fickle little creature!

Since we had our first tracking snow, it was time to bring out the frozen Item I had prepared in the blistering hot summer.  I decided on strawberries last August, so we had a little strawberry pie. My only cool whip or whipped cream was pumpkin spice, so this is just as is...  Not bad but not diet either...  I froze the berries without sugar and just put three or four tablespoons of raw sugar in them after they thawed...  

Didn't you all feel sad to hear about Betty White?  I sure was looking forward to her 100th birthday. It was sweet to read her interview that talked about how blessed she was to be in such good health. Who could ask for a better way to pass away than to feel like that at that age? She was a sweetie I think.

Well, time waits for no one, so I need to get on task, as they used to say at work. I finally don't really miss work...  It took a long time to acclimate to never having a classroom of kiddos.  In fact, I often still dream that I'm teaching. But... I must admit it feels really fun to just wake up and start some project or another and not worry about being late anywhere. Have a great first week of 2022. 

Whimsy and Hugs!