Comfy?

Today my husband was on one of his smoke breaks outside when he stuck his head in the door and said, "You might want to come take a look at Cupcake." (Cupcake is one of our goats). I got worried and thought maybe something was wrong. I quickly went to the kitchen window and realized it was a situation that didn't warrant any panic---maybe a camera though.

That's their feeding trough. It's made from an old tractor tire turned inside out and the blue barrel in the middle is filled with water. This keeps the feeder from getting moved around and is also supposed to keep the goats from getting into the feeder and soiling the food.

Gee, that works....

The Lost Art of Letter Writing...

I ended up in a conversation on my son's page on Facebook yesterday--this is how it started, with my son's initial post:

"Why do people get all mad when people don't reply to a text? When people don't hear back from others when writing letters, they don't act the same way because they understand that it's a piece of paper traveling a distance and people are busy with life and whatnot. If i don't text you back it's because it's text. It's at my control to reply as I please. No alterior motives, no ignoring.. Cell phones have telephone functionality for a reason."

This prompted my reply:

"The art of letter writing is lost...I'm thinking of starting it up again."

I figured I'd catch some flack from my son about posting in one of his conversations and his friends would just virtually roll their eyes at me and move on. But there were some intriguing comments that were posted afterwards amongst other observations and commentary...

Collin: Mom, it never should have gotten lost.

Nancy (my sister): Jane, in our local school system, they have dropped cursive writing altogether. I understand that the world uses keyboards, etc. now, but this just seems unbelievable to me.

MacyShay: I can't remember how to write in cursive but I did take a coligraphy class (I think that's how its spelled) and it was so much fun but killed my hand! But I wish I knew cursive=(

Hearing these comments actually made me kind of sad. My son actually admitted to me that he didn't really remember cursive either. I had no idea! I guess I hadn't even thought of this consequence of an almost all computer generation. I thought back to when my son was in high school a couple of years ago and realized that most of the essays, reports and whatnot that he turned in to his teachers were always typed up on the computer and printed out.

So I have now made it my mission to start writing more letters. Not emailing...not typing on my computer & printing out...but actually putting pen to paper & thoughtfully writing out what I want to say. No "lol", "omg" or "wtf". It's time take back this lost art. 

So friends & family, watch out! You may have a hand-written correspondence coming to a mailbox near you.

Sincerely yours,
Jane 

Comfortable...

So remember last week when I still hadn't gotten my Christmas tree taken down yet? Well today, after feeling icky all week, I finally started getting it all put away. I got the house decorations boxed up, took the ornaments and lights off the tree, then got so far as taking the very top of the Christmas tree off.

Then I got hungry.

I grabbed a bowl of my favorite Greek yogurt (remind me to tell you about it sometime), tossed a little granola on top, and settled onto the couch to eat. When I was finished I happened to glance over to the tree bag and this is what I saw:

That dog can be comfortable ANYWHERE...

So Much For Plans...

It's 2012...Christmas has been over for a week now. Because I didn't get my Christmas tree up until a week before Christmas, I told myself I would allow keeping it up until New Year's Day. It was a great plan.

Yet here it stands.

My friend Donna & I had plans early New Year's morning to go check out the once a year sale at Dillards. We got up early and arrived right at 7 am. (Although when we arrived we found out it actually opened at 6 am--whoopsie!) It's the one time of the year that you can get 50% off everything that is already on sale and clearance. I just wanted to use this once a year chance to get some items I really needed at prices I could afford. 

(FIVE bras and three pairs of undies for less than $40--enough said.)

 

Unfortunately, when I woke up yesterday morning, I wasn't feeling in top form. My throat was scratchy and my sinuses felt a little stuffy. By the time we had finished at Dillards I was definitely ready to head home. Donna, being the great friend she is, offered me some Benadryl to help me feel better and get some rest. So when I got home I took a Benadryl and settled in on the couch to kill some time. Four hours later I woke up. It was almost 6:00 pm and I was feeling groggy and still pretty crappy. That tree was not coming down.

So here I am on Monday morning, January 2nd, off from work and camped out on the couch again. My head is stuffed up, my throat is sore, and the tree is still there--as evidenced in the photo just taken with my phone above. An unlit, dark tree, looking kind of forlorn with a few ornaments lying on the ground underneath, knocked off from one of our dogs who insists on sleeping under it. If I feel better later today, I'll make a go at it. If not, I suppose it will wait until I feel more like myself.

Let's just hope it's not still up on Valentine's Day....