“You don’t see tzitzit around these parts very often.”

The other evening, I was home by myself and had a hankering for pizza. I’ll bet I have had one slice of pizza in the last six years and Giovanni’s was calling my name. Mr. FixIt doesn’t like this place so, since he wasn’t at home, I decided to go by myself. Ohhhhhh, I wasn’t sorry. Although the crust was just the slightest bit too soft on the bottom center, it was overall divine!

“I know it isn’t officially spring, but….this is good enough for me!”

Beware the Ides of March, they say. March 15th hasn’t always been my favorite day. For instance, this was the day Hubby #2 told me he wanted a divorce. Not one of my better days. This was also the day of Mr. Virgo’s viewing and Rosary which knocked all previous bad days out of the bad day competition up to that point. I think the 16th nudged ahead of that one.

“Frieda got a new pair of shoes!”

West Virginia requires a yearly vehicle inspection. That’s a good thing. Without that, I can just imagine the kind of cars and trucks that would be out on these country roads. It’s a pretty rigorous inspection, too. You can fail if the tint on your windows is just a little too dark. Or if you have a hole in your muffler. Or, as was my case yesterday…Frieda needed a new pair of shoes.

“It’s getting to be springtime in West Virginia!”

Ok, it isn’t officially Spring for another week, but this is one of the biggest reasons I love living in my home state. Spring comes early here. It wasn’t incredibly warm here yesterday…low 50’s…but the sun was shining and it was a perfect springlike day. As you know, yesterday was Mr. Virgo’s Angelversary and I came to the farm for a couple of days. I drank great coffee. I ate yummy chocolate hearts. And it essentially gave myself a day of rest and self-care.

“Remembering Mr. Virgo”

Last year, I removed the date of Mr. Virgo’s death from my calendar so I would no longer receive reminders on my phone. After all, I’m not likely to forget such an event as that anyway. I do have a hard time remembering the exact date of my mom’s death and my grandma’s and my dad’s. I know approximately when they occurred but I have to look it up if I need to know the exact date. Not so with Mr. Virgo’s. I’ll never forget that…or him.

“Typing away…tap, tap, tap!”

I am back to work on the book. I’m editing the first rough draft and it’s going really well, actually. My prayer going into this was to have a cheerful heart and find joy in the process. It’s amazing what a change in attitude can do in making a normally arduous task into something of a pleasure. Fresh eyes and a little distance gives you a new perspective and it’s easier to identify where the story needs polishing.

“McCrory’s Five & Dime in Downtown Parkersburg”

I got my first job when I was 16. My family didn’t have much money, and if I wanted to buy anything extra, I had to come up with a way to pay for it myself. I saved my babysitting money in a piggy bank. Then when I had a fair amount, I went to the bank and opened a savings account. Then I learned McCrory’s was looking for help with sales and stocking the store in the evenings after school. I walked downtown from my mom’s office and got the job.

“Daylight Savings Time begins at 2:00am tomorrow!”

I sat down yesterday to browse my calendar when it struck me…it’s, like…MARCH! Not only that, it’s over a week into it already. This winter was SO much easier to take so I have to think about what I’ve done differently and do it again next year.

We kept the tree up. Ok…it’s STILL up. It’s not decorated but no one who comes out our road and sees the white lights twinkling through the window really knows that. I love the white lights. They make me happy and if that’s all it takes, then I’ll leave the darned tree up all year round! Ok. I’m not going that far. Maybe it should come down tomorrow. After all, tomorrow night when we go to bed, we turn the clocks forward and Daylight Savings Time begins. I think that should be the new benchmark…the tree goes up the weekend after Thanksgiving and comes down when we spring forward!

“It never occurred to me to apply the Serenity Prayer to grief, but it makes perfect sense.”

I used to be a social drinker. For a long time, I told myself that anyway. And, I suppose it was true if you considered every day having at least one, maybe two glasses of wine with dinner…”social” drinking. I mean…I WAS with people, right? I never really saw it as a problem. When I was pregnant with my second daughter, I didn’t drink at all and it never bothered me. After she was born, I had a small glass of wine in the evenings. The doctor said it was good for me and it relaxed the baby. Whatever the doctor says, right? 

“A redbird just makes my day!”

I fixed my coffee and sat down at Grandma’s window to read my morning devotions before I commenced editing the rough draft yesterday. A red flash caught my eye and I looked out to see a cardinal at the feeder. It didn’t take long for me to realize both feeders were empty. I set my coffee aside and dragged the big seed bin from the corner of the dining room out to the front door. I used to leave this bin out on the front porch till one day I noticed the lid was getting chewed up. I used a bungee cord to tie the lid down to keep the critters out but the raccoons were about to get in out of sheer persistence.