Making the Most of An Almost Post

Man, have I missed you guys!! I can honestly say that for a while there (and it was a long, long, LONG while), I was beginning to wonder if I would ever make it back here - talk about insanity squared! I have really been struggling to find some kind of balance (and sadly, I'm still not there :oP For whatever reason, this school year has been particularly brutal, with a hectic pace throughout every period and classes scattered all over campus. By the end of the day, I am absolutely fried and frequently catch myself just staring blankly at the wall trying to drum up enough energy to make it to the car and drive home. I don't have much computer access compared to last year either, so my ability to write a post in small snippets over the course of a few days to a week is blown. To compound matters even further, DH has done The Deed. He is officially Retired (though I'll cop to saying it Ree-taard on a regular basis ;o) For those of you wondering what on earth that has to do with my ability to write a blog post, well let me tell you...
Photo Inset: Taya, who looks tubby enough to rate her own zip code.

DH retired the very same day I went back to work. He decided to wait a few months to look for something to do part time; choosing instead to relax and hang out at home. All. The. Time. Since then, he has gained magic skills to rival those of David Copperfield. I have yet to figure out how the man can be in every room of the entire house at the same time, but he is. Clean laundry in hand, I'll zip by him kicked back in the recliner snoring er, watching the news in the family room, only to have him scare the pants off me two minutes later when I plow right into him as I leave the bedroom closet. Sometimes he forgoes the teleporting and just follows me all over the house. Drives me batty. Pretty sure I threatened bodily injury at one point. Now don't misunderstand me; I love my husband, but the man is in desperate need of a hobby, a job, something (anything!) that gets him out of the house [read: my hair] once in awhile. If I pick up the laptop to try to work on the blog at home, he suddenly has a list of 42 things he forgot to tell me. If it's not that, he has a completely different list of things he'd like me to look up for him on the internet. Exciting things; like tractor or truck part numbers and mechanical how to's. *yawn*

Then DH got a phone call with some wonderful news - his/our friend Ron, was moving back to the area. You may know Ron better by his nickname: Brains (this post). I shall now state the obvious: Brawn has proven to be largely incapable of functioning without Brains. Although DH has made a few attempts at tackling all the things he was going to get to when he "ree-tard", he hasn't made much  in the way of a dent so far. Hopefully, now that his brain is back where it belongs, things will start to pick up. Well, maybe ;o)

Some other good news? After all the cooking and cleaning up of Thanksgiving Day was over, I actually managed to stuff in (get it? ba-dump-bump ;o) some Christmas DIYs. I was only able to work in fits and starts, so I didn't have time to do a fun little series of photos as things progressed - apologies!! I don't know about you, but I always like to watch things come together. Anyhoo, I have a close friend (who has had a lot of challenging things going on in her life), and she and I have had many discussions about choosing to be joyful as a Christian - something that is a lot harder than you'd think. At some point, she told me she had put little signs up all over her house to remind herself to "choose joy". Isn't that a great idea? Thinking it would be neat to incorporate it into Christmas, I dug through my thrift/craft store inventory to see what I could find. I already had most everything on hand, but made a gun run to Hobby Lobby for some unpainted .99c letters.

As someone whose default mode is too often of the gloom and doom variety, I loved the idea of a visual reminder. This version is also aesthetically more pleasing than having it tattooed backwards on my forehead (something I have periodically considered ;o) I wanted to add a little "joyful" reminder to our holiday decor this year (mostly because it popped into my head as I was putting up decorations). Funny that I just happened to have those three (totally tacky) little wooden plaques on hand from the '70's that I picked up at a thrift shop... somewhere. Scrounging through my hardware bin I hit paydirt with (would you believe it?) three little decorative hangers. Slap on the paint, glue on some Christmas scrapbook paper, add the letters, some ribbon, some more ribbon, the peel-n-stick felt backing so it won't kill the walls, and... Ta Da! A fun and festive reminder to myself to choose joy. Not quite finished, but getting there!

Have you guys seen the recycled picture frame wreaths? They're very different, and I just love them! I'd never even heard of them until I stumbled across one on Pinterest (yes, I know, I really need to stay away from there). It just so happened that I knew of an OTD frame (older-than-dirt) that had been decomposing  *Ahem* languishing in our garage (for the past twenty years). It was a big, gorgeously ornate frame that came from the living room of my childhood home. It was fabulous, but far and away too fancy-schmancy for our house. I was so excited to finally have a purpose for it! After cleaning it up and adding some scrap wood to the back for stability, I gave it a hefty coat of some pretty gold spraypaint. It had quite a bit of damage down the left side, but that just made the decision of where to put the greenery an easy one. I'll have the finished photos for you next time. Lord willing, it won't take me anywhere near as long to get to that post ;o)

I have one more Christmas idea that I'm playing with, but I think I'll save that one for next time too (goodness knows, I've yammered more than enough this time, right? ;o) As always, thank you so much for reading this far and have a blessed day!

Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious!

Clearly I have had a boatload of fun this week because I am now sitting here scratching my head wondering where on earth the whole thing went. How can it possibly be Saturday? Yeesh. Shadow colicked on Tuesday afternoon (defined here for my non-horsey friends), and the week kind of went downhill from there. I was, however, extremely blessed to have had Kimby with me when I found our poor boy laid out by the water trough. Not everyone in your life would be overly keen on helping you push shove drag lug lead (a reluctant 1,100lb drama queen 'round and 'round the pasture for hours on end waiting for him to "go". She was a tremendous help in nudging him forward; all while keeping an eagle eye out for signs of impending poop from inside the danger zone (to the uninitiated: horse toots are toxic ;o) Brave girl.
Long story short: The colic turned out to be the byproduct of an abcess in Shadow's throat that had left him unable to properly swallow. He probably swallowed either a small stick or large, stiff piece of hay which scratched his throat. The inability to swallow properly likely caused him to panic, which led to the colic. DH gave him a shot of Banamine (which I hate using) for pain, and I put some DMSO on the abscess I'd [eventually] found in his throat latch. We left him resting fairly comfortably around 11p.m. He seemed to be feeling a bit better Wednesday morning, and a couple of hours after a second application of DMSO he was [finally!] able to swallow properly on his own. Of course all that stumbling around in the pasture half the night (for an early bird like me, anyway ;o) was apparently all it took for me to come down with a lovely sinus infection. half of Thursday was, most unhappily, spent at the doctor's office. And raspberries to that! :oP
[Photo inset: Shadow and I in shadow (hee) standing by the almost pond bright and early on Wednesday morning. We look weird, don't we?]

Since the post I had originally planned for today did not get written, I'm leaving you here (so to speak, anyway ;o) with an almost [finished] page of my joy journal. Everyone is blessed with gifts and talents from God (1Peter4:10 on the left side of the journal page), for her - or his - own. What's funny is that we don't tend to see and appreciate those things in ourselves; we often seem to focus on someone else's gift that we wish we had instead. To me? The neatest part is the way God often puts people in our lives who share our interests yet come with their own special set of gifts to help round us out better. Example: My friend Lori is gifted with the most marvelous outgoing and friendly nature - something I definitely wish I had. Friendly? Yes, mostly, though I tend toward reserved. Outgoing? Not at all. I am a terrible introvert (though sometimes I hide it well). I have a really hard time walking up to someone I don't know (like new people at church) and introducing myself, so God gave me Lori (though I'm betting this is all news to her *laugh*). All I have to do is follow her around on a given Sunday, and I wind up meeting everyone I don't know "safely". Betcha didn't even know you were being a blessing in that particular direction, did you chickie? :o)
Likewise, Kimby, who is gifted with that wonderful peace I know I've mentioned before. The kind of peace that puts you at immediate ease and always makes you feel like everything will be all right. The perfect complement to my tends to panic spaz-queen self. She also seem to always know just the right thing to say, too (the heifer); and for someone who is constantly eating her own foot, I'm telling you straight up that is a GIFT and then some! And quit rolling your eyes at me too, sistafriend. Heh Heh Heh. Sandy, with her warm fuzzy heart for critters and crazy sense of humor has an altogether different set of blessings that complete our friendship and brighten my day. There are, of course, many others. All of these remarkable people that the Lord has put in my life. What would I do without them? But I digress...
[Photo inset: My almost finished journal page borrowing some of Joanne Fink's Zenspiration with some scripture verses "dangling" down the left-hand side]

Since I'm obviously headed for "short story long" here, *snicker* I'll add that this journal page is about the things that I have a love and/or propensity for and what I'm supposed to be doing with them. A reminder to self, if you will. The right side of the page looks like a scarf, which is something I have been known to crochet. Speaking of... Do you like the yarn ball "o" and hook "t"? I was pretty excited when I saw that the idea actually worked and you can [mostly] tell what they are. The word Art is only partially visible, and horses is right above that. What? You were expecting something else to top the list? (well silly you ;o) They're not necessarily in order of preference, but more how they fit best in the space. Everything gets done in pencil first, then it's made permanent with Staedtler pens. My hand-lettering still needs lots more practice. I haven't decided whether or not to add color to it yet - the scarf, perhaps? Or maybe I should just leave this page in black and white. What do you think?

Have a blessed week everyone, and thanks so much for reading this far!

There are presents, and there are Presents, and then there is T-H-E  P-R-E-S-E-N-T.  One that SO overwhelms, you just can't quite figure out what to say outside of quoting Mary Poppins, that is. *grin* DD really got me this year; just wait until you see what she made for me! First, though, you should know that the apple didn't fall far from the tree at all; the little stinker. Sometimes anticipation can be every bit as much fun as the actual event; in this case Christmas. Over the years I have entertained myself (and others) by making up fun things for the kids to do at gift giving times. From numbering and color coding presents to treasure maps and silly poems full of clues, I've tried to make birthdays and holidays both fun and memorable for them no matter the gift. Well. DD, it seems, is a chip off the old block[head]. *laugh*. I would like to share some of that lovely anticipation with you too, if that's okay. Ready? Let's have some fun...
I noticed a large number of small white (unmarked) envelopes scattered all over our living room Christmas morning. DD, wearing an ear-to-ear grin, shrugged her shoulders and said that was something for later. When later arrived, she handed me a large manilla envelope containing a strangely shaped piece of wood, and the following note:

After collecting the envelopes (26 in all), I opened them and spread out the contents on a stool. Each one contained a small piece of paper with a word on one side and a number on the other, and a final strip instructing me to ask DD for [yet another] envelope:

She handed me another large manilla envelope that had a series of lines and numbers which corresponded with the paper strips I'd just opened:

Once I'd matched up all of the numbers, it would tell me what to do next. Honestly, where does she get this stuff?? As if I didn't know. *laugh*

Other than accidentally whacking the "o" off of into, I had to give her two thumbs WAY up on the fun and sneaky scale ;o) Oh, and the little house is the small storage shed (the big one being one of our many fantasies at this point). So, we all went be-bopping out to the shed. I opened the door, and....CRIED.

Although I was expecting something made from wood - she's in the woodworking program at college where she is making wonderful use of the talent that the Lord has blessed her with - I was definitely not expecting it on the scale of what I got. A full blown hand made 38 drawer scrapbook paper storage cabinet that is almost as tall as I am....Isn't it phenomenal?

We had to take the drawers out to move it into my craft room/office. I was (still am, actually ;o) totally blown away by the remarkable job she did:

Dang. Girl's got some talent, doesn't she? Guess who's sporting an ear-to-ear grin now? :-D <-- See? I had a field day putting labels on each drawer before sorting and filing away all of my 12x12 papers. Woo!

I saved the last two paper drawers for my rubber stamps, which had enough room to lay them all out nicely - no more digging  through a box (boo yeah! ;o)

She even put four larger drawers at the bottom, which were perfect for storing my other paper crafty things (like embossing, wood burning, etc.). She did confide that after about drawer #15, it got rather tedious. *laugh* I hope you all had a very Merry Christmas; you know I sure did ;o) For those of you who would like some inspiration for sneaky gift giving, feel free to borrow some of my ideas from this lens: Making Those Memorable Moments.

May you have a wonderful week, and a blessed New Year!