My sister-in-law creates this gorgeous display each year – a beautiful way to show off her collection and get into the Christmas spirit at the same time. She sent me these pictures, and she said it was okay if I shared them with you.
This is a close-up picture showing me that she includes two figurines in her display that I have sent her at various times over the years. It makes me feel that I am with her, and that’s a really nice thing.
I’m trying to get into the spirit at my house, but I haven’t really caught the bug yet. I think the first thing I’ll do to start feeling the season is get two packages ready to send to two special people for the holidays. I’ll also prep to send Christmas cards.
My friend Marsha sent me some beautiful stories I’d like to share. Here is one of them –
_______________
Author and lecturer Leo Buscaglia once Talked about a contest he was asked to judge. The purpose of the Contest was to find the most caring child.
The winner was:
1. A four-year-old child, whose next door neighbor was an elderly gentleman, who had recently lost his wife. Upon seeing the man cry, the little boy went into the old Gentleman’s’ yard, climbed onto his lap, and just sat there. When his mother asked him what he had said to the neighbor, the little boy just said, ‘Nothing, I just Helped him cry.’
It’s sunny and supposed to get to 67 degrees F. today! I’m going to try to spend as much time outside today as I can, enjoying the glorious day and trying to get more accomplished in the yard. My plan to ‘chop-a-few-evergreen-branches-each-time-we-drive-up-the-driveway’ project is bringing success. We aren’t killing ourselves and the driveway is getting clearer. This is a several-days project because our driveway is 650+ feet long and steep. Hopefully, we won’t have to worry any more than usual about ice and snow storms this winter.
Blowing more leaves in the front yard will have to wait until we buy a new leaf blower, but I plan to cut down a bunch of weed trees across the back today. This will be a many-day project, since we have a LOT of weed trees and using the lopper gets to me pretty quickly, but I can get started with it today.
I’m
These weed trees are obscuring our view of the valley behind the house. I love to watch the seasons change, pretending that we own all we can see. :0) As you can see from these pics, I have my work cut out for me…
The morning fog has already cleared to a large extent, but I wanted to share the feeling with you. You can’t see the valley that we can usually enjoy behind our house. We can LOOK at it, so we consider it ‘ours.’ :0)
More fog, but this photo also gives you an idea of the ‘weed trees’ that I’m trying to cut down a few at at time. They’re taller than they look here, and when I lop one off, it falls on me no matter where I stand. Not heavy, though, just irritating, and a little of this work goes a long way.
This morning we’ll gather our trash and drive the humongous trash can down to the bottom of the driveway to leave it for emptying. We’ll get our mail, and then make a quick trip to town for some supplies and maybe look for a new leaf blower. On the way back up the driveway, we’ll try to get more evergreen branches cut down so they won’t encroach on the driveway so badly. (I don’t know how long it would take for things to grow back as they were before we built our home over 35 years ago, but I don’t think it would be long.)
Hida Tool
It looks like I have today and tomorrow before we’re due for heavy rain Wednesday and Thursday. I think I’ll tackle the weed trees and see if I can reopen our view a bit.
Cold, gray rainy Sunday here – 39 with a high of 42. Ugh. We’ll have ‘breakfast’ for dinner tonight and spaghetti tomorrow.
Suave Yards
Yesterday I did Pass #2 on blowing leaves from the front yard. I got almost finished and the leaf blower started making bad noises. I looked, but didn’t see anything caught anywhere, anything loose, etc. My husband came out and looked at it, saying it sounded like “bearings were giving up” and that we would probably need to buy another one. This one has lasted a long time. We’ll probably take a look tomorrow and see what we can find.
Yesterday was DAY 142 on my daily yoga practice. I have changed to multiple short plank poses, rather than trying to hold one longer pose. I did six 10-second holds yesterday. I can increase either the time, the repetitions, or both, trying to get the most benefit from the pose on trying to get stronger. My husband and I share the same exchange each day – When he says, “Are you going to ‘yoge’?, and I answer, “Yes,” – he says, “Good on ya.” (Still not a ‘habit,’ or something I feel I NEED to do, or an activity I would MISS if I didn’t do it, but it has definitely become a ‘determined effort’ each day.)
Scottsdale Pet Hotel
Other than cuddling, playing on the computer, listening to music on YouTube, reading, cooking, etc., my plan is to vacuum the first floor tiles and carpet. My husband did this in our truck the other day, replacing the seat cover with a new one, and says he vacuumed up the equivalent of two dogs. :0) I’ll probably do the same today. If there were an award for shedding, I think Amber would definitely be in the running.
Stay warm, safe, and dry today with someone you love.
Yesterday we lopped off more branches in the driveway as we came up from Lunch Bunch. Later I brought in the deck chairs and tables from the deck to store on the porch for the winter. These two, plus yoga, were my exercise for the day.
I also ‘slow-rolled’ the heavy, tall green planter from the corner – where the wood isn’t as strong as it might be these days – to the middle of that side of the deck. I’m not sure what else I’ll do to get the deck ready for the winter – it’s too cold for pressure washing – and I’ll probably switch to something of higher priority first.
Honda UK
Since we’re going to get rain tomorrow (and several days next week) I may do the 2nd pass with the leaf blower in the front this afternoon. I would like to at least get things to look like a ‘nice scattering of leaves’ rather than ‘Mother Nature dumping on us.’ I would also like to start cutting down weed trees in the back, but that can be done a bit at a time, between bouts of rain.
The last day to order packages of 6 hand-painted Christmas cards is December 10th. Free shipping in the contiguous United States. Please click on the links to be taken to Etsy to order. Remember that the post office is urging us to mail early this year.
I’ve never seen this quote by Kahlil Gibran before. I really like it. :0)
I wish the world a kindness pandemic – where each person feels a real need to be kind to everyone. I want it to start with me and infect people in rings that spread all the way across the planet. I hope there were no vaccine for it and that, once you are infected, you can’t get rid of it. Let it snow!
I’m looking forward to Lunch Bunch today even more than usual. Due to Thanksgiving last week, our restaurant wasn’t open for our lunch last Friday, so it’s been two weeks since we met. I want to find out if Linda has moved to the retirement place and what else is going on with everyone.
It’s actually warmer this morning than it has been. It’s 51 degrees F. already and is supposed to get to 60 this afternoon! Woo HOOO! I’m hoping to be able to continue my yard work, though I haven’t decided what I’ll tackle yet, if the weather is cooperative. We’re supposed to have light rain off and on during the day and a strong cold front coming through overnight, so it’s still a roller coaster here.
It’s funny. I’m reading After Sundown by Linda Howard and Linda Jones. It’s about a CME (cornonal mass ejection) bringing their world to a standstill with no electricity until further notice and all the things that derive from that. This morning I checked the news and read about solar storms possibly affecting our power grid in a minor way. Eerie.
And with that, I’ll wish you a happy, stress-free day.
I just came in from 1-1/2 hours in the front yard leaf blowing. And that, apparently, is just the first pass. (The lady is this picture is PLAYING compared to what I’ve been doing.) Since the wind was blowing and I’m not stupid, I blew in the same direction as the wind. I was still getting blow-back and swirling, so I just decided to try to get rid of the big PILES of leaves, particularly on the steps around our front porch.
By the time I got to a reasonable stopping point, I was thoroughly pooped. Unless my husband ASKS, I’m not going to bother telling him what I’ve been doing. To an untrained eye, he might not be able to TELL how many billions of leaves I blew off the civilized part of our front yard. The wind is such that it now looks like we have a “lot of leaves in the front yard,” and I would get angry if my slaving away couldn’t be noticed with at LEAST a WOW!”
This morning we got two days of mail from the mailbox at the bottom of our driveway. On the way down, I told my husband about my idea of lopping off some encroaching branches each time we came up. We found an area pretty close to the bottom of the driveway that needed work, so started there. It will also make it easier for us to see if traffic is coming down the road now. We attacked one more area on the way up and then called it a day. I think, if we do that each time we drive up, we’ll have the driveway under reasonable control by the time we’re facing ice and snow. (The evergreens are awful about grabbing every snowflake or ice pellet that falls, and then drooping down into the driveway and finally making it impassable unless we’re proactive.)
So, with the lopping and hauling of branches this morning and then the leaf blowing I just finished, this old lady has been ‘movin’ it’ today. AND, as soon as I rest a bit more, I’ll try to do a good session of yoga.
I’ve been a really ‘good girl’ lately. I gave up added salt. I’ve been eating healthy meals. I have not been eating between meals. I’ve been drinking water. I’ve been working in the yard and doing daily yoga sessions. I’ve started doing the plank pose. And are my scales impressed? THEY ARE NOT!
It’s been two weeks now, and one would THINK that the scales would at least wave a little in encouragement, but NOOOOO. Bah. Humbug.
I’m TRYING to be an adult about this, telling myself that it will take awhile for the scales to show anything. It will probably be a month or so before the measuring tape gives me any encouragement. I tell myself that changes take time, to give myself a break, to concentrate on other things. Do I listen? NOOOOO. :0(
creativeartworksblog 