“Cold, grey days are Marshmallow Days!”
I got home safe and sound yesterday just in time to leave for church. The tree that had fallen across the road the night before was cut up and moved from the roadway. The same scenario is being repeated over the entire region with the thaw and soaking rains causing the ground to soften. All it takes is a little gust of wind and trees topple easily.
“Knowing who saves me over and over brings me peace beyond understanding.”
I finished my laundry and packed up the car. I had a last minute conversation with a wonderful woman I met recently. Then I headed home from the farm right about dusk. This photo looks like it was pretty light out, but it was dark, dark, dark when I headed into the home stretch on the two-lane country road. It was so dark, you were right on top of deer before you saw them, even with the brights on. Something ahead of me caught my eye. Not three seconds ahead of me, a big tree fell and crossed both lanes. Fortunately, I was going slow and didn’t need to slam on my brakes. I am well aware I missed this falling on me by the skin of my teeth.
“The Farm is my ultimate happy place!”
If the weather hadn’t turned colder yesterday, I would have spent the night out in TOW-Wanda last night. But, with a low of 17 degrees forecast, I opted for the next best thing and headed to the farm! I made sure Mr. FixIt had everything he needed, filled him with more cold meds, propped him up in his recliner with a cover and a heating pad and made my escape. He still has some potato soup to warm up and I promised I’d be back sometime today. I could sit and watch him suffer and watch TV, or I could write. With his full support, I chose writing.
“Writing again…this time I mean it.”
About a year ago, I set my book on the back burner at the urging of my agent. She wanted me to focus on increasing my social media presence. And, while taking a break from working on the book was welcome, that time hasn’t made a huge difference in how many people follow my blog or Twitter or Instagram accounts. People come, people go. Maybe you need this for a season. Maybe for a reason. But things just stay the same overall.
“TOW-Wanda in the fog at the Ponderosa.”
I have a tendency to get antsy. I get bored pretty easily and being cooped up in the house drives me batty after a while. Poor Mr. FixIt was down for the third day in a row with a virus. I fixed him tea. I made him a pot of homemade potato soup. I gave him cold meds. I tucked him in his recliner with a heating pad. I even watched a movie with him. But, as much as I dearly love the man, I had to do something else for a little bit.
“I Need That Joy…down in my heart!”
I love, love, love the way God works in my life! It’s like an elaborately woven tapestry with bright colors here and dark colors there…never seeing what’s developing in the picture till you get some perspective. That’s when you start to see how this thread that was pulled over here is causing that thread to move over there. And then you see…you really SEE. And you know beyond a shadow of a doubt…it is GOD!
“Making the little things count, because the little things add up to be the BIG thing!”
Yesterday was a really great day! First of all…the sun was shining and we had a high of 68 degrees here in West Virginia. A difference of over seventy degrees in three days…and Mr. FixIt has a sore throat. sigh I’m hitting him with Zinc and Vitamin C. And prayers!
I met a friend for coffee yesterday at the new Starbucks. Sue is a budding artist and she gifted me a watercolor of a little bluebird. She knows how much I love them. For Christmas, I gave her a pair of socks that I knitted and she wanted to give me something special. I’ve had it sitting near me all day and it’s so sweet.
“Super Bowl Party food!”
Was it just me or was that not the most boring Super Bowl game ever? I mean…the commercials were even boring. We did have a wonderful day, though. Mr. FixIt’s daughter and her family came to church with us (second Sunday in a row!) and they really enjoyed the service. Everyone came out to our house and the weather was SO great! Clear, sunny, and sixty-four degrees. I made a big pot of chili, hot wings, guacamole and white cheese queso. Everyone played outside. We had the corn hole boards set up and the baby had her trike and some other toys. When the evening was over, I was fried, so I’ll just keep this brief. It was so wonderful to have the family with us at church and for an afternoon of fun. Boring game or not! It’s going to be 64 again today so I am making hay while the sun shines. Happy Monday! ❤️
“Toboggan. A knit cap, or a sled? Turns out…it’s both!”
The cold weather this week brought lots of images to Facebook and lots of memories of my winters past. One picture in particular reminded me of the drafty old farmhouse Hubby #2 and I lived in when he was doing his internship and residency. It was on a busy street in east Denver, surrounded by newer houses. I learned it was the original farmhouse before the land was sold off and the resulting neighborhood developed around it.
“The advent of home DNA tests can open a can of worms for the unsuspecting.”
“Dirty little secrets, dirty little lies…” Don Henley / Danny Kortchmar
A few years ago, I bought a DNA kit through Ancestry.com. I picked up my mom’s passion for genealogy research where she left off when she died in 2004. Even though Ancestry was founded in 1983, it would be many years before the company went beyond connecting the dots between people and helping us fill in the blanks in family trees. When the DNA kit became available, it was fairly revolutionary. Here, you could go beyond the little green leaves and find out where you came from…geographically speaking.