I first met Sheba Wheeler at a holiday dinner at The Warwick Hotel in downtown Denver. Mr. Virgo was the Food & Beverage Director and had invited me to come down to the restaurant so we could at least see each other that day. Seating was limited so singles were being asked to buddy up at tables. I always enjoy family style seating as I get the opportunity to meet interesting people.

I love how Facebook can bring folks together that may never meet otherwise. That’s the case of Julie Zickefoose and me. When I was writing posts about the spring bird migration at the farm, a mutual friend “introduced” me to Julie. She is an artist and recently came out with a lovely book called Baby Birds. An artist’s view into the nests of birds in the Appalachian foothills of Ohio.

I really love living out in the country. It’s peaceful. There’s lots of wildlife. It’s a slower life. I like life slow. I don’t like slow internet, however. Being a writer is a beautiful thing…until I’m standing with my cell phone over my head waving it around like a dead chicken, trying to get just…one…more…bar. It can be maddening.

Many of the images I use in my posts are really large…especially since I got my new iPhone. Great camera equals great pictures. Great pictures equals larger file size. That presents two problems. One, Wordpress only accepts files up to a certain size. Two, internet in the country is powered by two squirrels and a possum! It sometimes takes multiple attempts to get a photo or meme down to an acceptable size. That takes time and patience.

Mr. FixIt and I went Christmas shopping yesterday. As much as I hate to go to Walmart, especially during the holiday shopping frenzy, we went looking for a specific item we weren’t finding elsewhere. When we arrived at the store, I excused myself to the ladies room.

There was a bit of a line, as one might imagine with half the town out and about the weekend before Christmas. The woman in front of me had a full shopping cart of merchandise and a cell phone in her hand. She had the phone on speaker and it was ringing…unanswered. She turned to me and said, “Go ahead…I have to do this.”

These dishes! Man, do these take me back. When I lived at home, I set the table every night with these dishes for as far back as I can remember. I know the Golden Wheat pattern by Homer Laughlin came from boxes of Duz Detergent. The green pattern was also from Homer Laughlin and was called Pastoral. It came in boxes of Mother’s Oats. Mom would get gas every couple of days so she could get glasses from the service stations. And the only “china” she ever owned came from the Kroger Store. I had a set as well. I had some white teacups with a gold rim on them that came from my grandma. She saved them and kept them nice to use at her and Pop-Pop’s Golden 50th, but he passed away two months before their anniversary. I can’t remember but I might have given them to my cousin so she would have some precious family keepsakes.

I love this time of year! There are so many fun things to do…parties, family gatherings, cookies to bake, trees to trim, packages to wrap. One thing I really miss this year is the chance to see my granddaughters perform in their annual holiday programs at school. I miss my girls. So, when Mr. FixIt’s son called the other night to tell us about his youngest having her program, we were thrilled to say, “Yes!”

In the early ‘80s, Hubby #2 was just finishing medical school and was about to start his internship and residency. I was working for a four-doctor Internal Medicine clinic as a Diabetes Educator. The wife of one of the doctors I worked for was writing a book about a kind of water exercise called “Flugel Fitness”. She contracted me to illustrate the instruction manual. In the process of working with her, we had lots of conversations about health and wellness. She had a workout studio and I started some weight loss classes for her. I remember having a conversation with her about my situational anxiety surrounding public speaking and she recommended a book by Shakti Gawain called Creative Visualization. I loved that book and read it many times and it did help.

Yesterday’s post struck a sad place within my heart so I wanted to take today in a different direction, though in the end…I’m not sure I have. I’ve really loved all the reminiscing we’ve been doing this month. There were certainly Christmases that were difficult for me growing up and I don’t have good memories of them. But most of my holiday memories are all warm and fuzzy.

One of the hardest things to deal with since losing Mr. Virgo is…change. And of course, that is the one thing you can absolutely count on in this life. Change. Things change. People change. Situations change. And, unfortunately…places change.

I have to tell you, sometimes you have no way of knowing what God has up His sleeve when He leads you down a certain path. Why this way and not that? Sometimes we never figure it out. Other times, it becomes crystal clear. I love those times. Even when they break my heart.

Mr. Fixit and I have a unique relationship. Even though we have only been together a year, we share our earliest childhood memories because we grew up in the same town, at the same time. We are a little over a year apart in age, yet we graduated high school together. We have a lot of conversations that start with…”Hey, do you remember…?” That is unusual unless you’ve been with someone forever. We were in very early grade school together, then my family moved from Parkersburg up to Vienna…the next little town upriver. We joined up again in high school and became the best of friends so, we have literally known each other just shy of fifty years, even though I remember him from 1959.