If New Potholders Can Make You Happy . . .

. . . I'll keep making them 'til the cows come home!

Got this sweet picture of beautiful K holding her new potholders (to replace the well-used, old Halloween ones she's been using for wa-a-a-y too long).  A set for Easter, spring and summer.

  Thanks for sending the picture, you wonderful, wacky lady!  Love you.

It's Impossible

Since the (ridiculous) time change last weekend, I cannot get dinner on the table at the appropriate time.

Apparently my inner scheduling device was more attuned to the light outside than to the clock inside.

Each day this week when it's time I should be setting our evening meal on the table, I'm still knee-deep in afternoon activities and apparently thinking it's an hour earlier than it is.

Oh well.  I'm sure by next fall when we have to go through this nonsensical process again, I'll finally be acclimated to this past weekend's time change.

Bunny Body Parts

Nope, we haven't gotten back into raising rabbits as a meat source (been there, done that) so this isn't a post about butchering rabbits.

When dear daughter came into our house Sunday and saw this yarn carnage laid out on the couch, she suggested I take a picture of it and label it "Bunny Body Parts."  (Think she might have a weird sense of humor?  Oh, ya.)

For the upcoming Easter holiday, with luck, all those miscellaneous knitted bodies, arms, legs and ears will be transformed into more bunnies like the one pictured above.

False Advertising

False advertising is what the weather forecasters in our area have been doing all winter.

False advertising is what I'm doing by inserting the above picture in this post.

No, dear readers, the picture does NOT represent what our weather conditions are this morning, but rather it's an old picture I pulled from the files.

The forecast yesterday was for snow to start around 1 a.m. this morning with a couple of inches accumulation by dawn and then heavier snow starting around 7 a.m.  We woke to no snow (surprise, surprise!), but some flakes have been falling since 8 a.m.  It's light and our temperature reads 31.9 degrees so how long before the flakes become liquid drops of rain?

Rather than radiating all kinds of ugly angst and emitting my perpetual grumping and groaning about our nearly snowless winter, I've decided to just give up on winter this year and start looking forward to bare ground, warm weather and the coming spring season.  

I'm beginning to think we made a mistake all those years ago in moving north so we could experience lovely winters full of snow and all the recreational activities (and snuggling inside in front of a fire!) that affords.  (Our old home stomping grounds in Illinois have gotten more snow this winter than we have.  How depressing!)

* * * * * * * *

One more area of "false advertising" I have to talk about . . . and this is strictly my own fault (no weatherman to blame) . . . is that I said I would post a picture of the potholders I made to send to K.  Well, I whipped up a set of Easter themed ones for her (which means I'll have to get some spring/summer ones to her p.d.q. or she'll be using the chickies and colored egg potholders come Fourth of July).  Then, dang, I had them completely packaged before I remembered I hadn't taken a picture of them.  Poop.  

Hubby and I have both been having one heckuva time lately remembering what we want to remember.  (Pass the Ginkgo Biloba, please.)  I've been teasing our daughter saying she'd better get ready to take care of us in our dotage.  Her reply is to roll her eyes and exit the premises quickly while muttering, "Uh-uh.  No way.  Not gonna do it.  Wouldn't be able to handle you two."  Times like this I'll bet she's thinking there aren't so many advantages to being an only child.  (Hee-hee.)

An Evil Combination

There seems to be something widespread in the air these days that is a combination of procrastination and low energy levels.  I know I've been fighting it and it's been mentioned by other bloggers.

The good news is I think I've been shaken out of my own hum-drum, bah-humbug, I-don't-feel-like-doin'-nuthin' mood . . . and it's about time.

* * * * * * * *

Papa Pea and I sat down yesterday afternoon and went over things we'd like to get accomplished this coming spring/summer/fall season . . . and then discussed the things we HAVE to get done this coming spring/summer/fall season.  I think it really helped to face the cold, hard facts surrounding our time, money and (in some cases) skill levels in tackling our goals.  We made a good start on scheduling and we'll see how it goes this spring.  (Then most likely make adjustments necessary to insure keeping our sanity through summer and fall.)  Now that we've discussed and sorted through things that have been rumbling around in both of our heads, having a general plan has energized me.  It always helps to have a plan.

* * * * * * * *

This morning I received (via our daughter) an e-mail that put a big grin on my face and gave me the impetus to get my rusty duster into my quilt room and work on a fun project.  Potholders!  What else?

The e-mail was from the wonderful little gal (yes, she's about as big around as a pencil) who was matron of honor those many, many moons ago at Chicken Mama's wedding.

Here's part of what K wrote:

" . . . it's just NOT ok that I have to

place my springy, lemon muffins

on my Halloween potholders."

True, I had sent her a pair of Halloween themed potholders a couple of years ago, but I didn't think the silly girl was using them year 'round!

So I had a good time today thinking of this beautiful gal with the whacky sense of humor who always makes me smile whenever I hear from her.  The potholders only need the binding put on them tomorrow and they'll be ready to send off.  I'll remember to take a picture to post before packaging them.

* * * * * * * *

You'll be happy to know we averted a real crisis here this afternoon.  We had plumb-dumb run out of kindling!  (I know, I know, such a monumental tragedy.)  We have plenty of bundles of pre-cut cedar wood stacked high and dry in the wood shed next to the kindling bin, but I've been a ba-a-a-d be-prepared-homesteader in not getting it split up and ready for fire starting.  So I swathed my body in adequate layers of clothing this gray, damp, only high in the 20s day (again) and worked on getting several bundles worth split and tossed into the kindling bin.  I'll keep at it, doing some each day, until I've split all we've got cut and ready.  I hope that will take us through the spring heating season when we typically use a lot of kindling.  We don't keep a fire going during the day as it gets warmer outside and often not even overnight.   Therefore, we use more kindling in starting a fire both morning and in the late afternoon or early evening most days.

* * * * * * * *

Time to turn off the computer for the night and possibly get ready for an early bedtime.  Feels like a good night to get into bed and read . . . maybe tonight for more than my usual 6-1/2 minutes before I konk out. 

Been Kinda Quiet . . .

It's true, not much has been going on to report or make for blog fodder.  But that's a good thing because it means nothing has stopped working or fallen apart.

I've been out of pie crusts for a while so yesterday I spent some quality time with an audio book at the kitchen counter making up a big batch of crusts for the freezer.

Then as long as my head and hands were in a pie mode, I made a custard pie.  (Does anything say old-fashioned, down-home goodness like a custard pie?  A custard pie and to-die-for hash made with leftover roast beef always make me think of my grandma.)  The top of my pie got a smidge bit more browned than I would have liked, but it will still be edible.

I've been in a cleaning mood lately (which is always a good thing) so next I started in on our bedroom.

My closet was the scariest so I dove in there first.  Only got as far as the top shelf.  (How could so much stuff have been stashed up there on that not-very-wide shelf?)

When I had all that clattertrap spread out on the bed, I tore into the bookcase which held more stuff that didn't really belong there.

As you can readily see, the arrangement in the bookcase is far from done.  In the meantime, I've created a mess on one end of the kitchen table.  (Fortunately we have a big kitchen table now.  Otherwise, no meals would be served there in the foreseeable future.)

I've had a bad habit of tossing things I didn't know what to do with into miscellaneous baskets and boxes and stuffing them in said bookcase.  These all need to be gone through . . . and the contents dealt with.

I did manage to get the surface of our bed cleared so we had somewhere to sleep last night.  But that doesn't mean I've come close to finishing with the cleaning and reorganization of the bedroom and its contents.  A couple more double shot lattes this morning and I might be tough enough to get back at it.