The Spring Post that drove me crazy (short drive)

This was supposed to be an adorable picture of Tinkabelle learning to go up stairs with her cast, but this whole post is giving me nothing but trouble and doesn't want to let me move the pictures around, so it figures that this picture of my cute little puppy looks like zombie puppy, which is still cute in its own zombie way...
It was a couple of blogs ago that I mentioned looking for and showing you that we, too, have Spring here, but then I got creative, frankensteined my blog, was rescued by Amy the heroine and now here is the "Spring is kind of here" post. While busy looking for Spring in our yard, I found a treasure in the making. Here we have the very start of a strawberry or two...can you count how many flowers there are? This is not a trick question as I need to know if I need to get some jars to make preserves or a good strawberry pie recipe...just kidding, would someone so knowledgeable about pyola need to ask about strawberries ??(probably, yes). By the way, the strawberries (picture of) fell to the bottom and I can't get them back up here.

This next picture is of some plant that I so happily started from seed and I thought it was blue flax, but it never bloomed, just put out this pretty green foliage that it had last summer, so I am hoping it is not a weed that I have been so carefully cultivating!

Now these lovely pink flowers were a purchase I made at BJs (which is like Sam's or Costco, but not) two years ago and I can't remember what they are called (I could cover myself here and just make up a name like pinkultimitus dolittleitis and impress you, but that might not be Christian, so I won't tell fibs), but they have a wonderful perfume and the label said that they are great for hard to grow areas (pretty much sums up our whole yard) and grow fast. Now you want to hear something both pitiful and hysterical at the same time? In my immense naivete, I decided it would be wise to warn our next door neighbor about these fast growing plants as they are on a slope between his yard and ours. I proceeded to tell him that they are wonderful and fragrant and he can cut them if they start to become invasive (he's probably thinking, I can only hope they'll cover that ugly as sin slope). Well, they are obviously peaceful and non-aggressive, rats, rats, rats and are not covering much of anything!



Now these strawberries belong with paragraph two, but they refuse to move, so I say pshaw on them and stay where you are and people will put two and two together anyway!

This is a very challenging post and won't let me write in colors I want or anything, but I'm going to call it a blessing anyway ("so there" whatever force is impeding this post) because God's blessings are so much better and stronger and more wonderful than anything I can imagine...thank you, Lord!!

P.S. Are you ready for a nice tutorial on fish emulsion? It's awesome stuff, but a little smelly. This one you probably DO need to hold your breath for.

Just walking (driving ) in the rain

Well, when we left Thursday morning it was lightly raining, then started pouring and finally lightened up near the end, of our 2+ hours journey...and then Friday, on our way back, we had more of the same, except for the easing up part! And I love rain, just not driving that long in it.
You are probably wondering what that picture above has to do with our trip....NOTHING, but it does have rain in it and Tinkabelle getting a bath in the rain. Can't remember exactly why I had Michael give her bath in the rain unless it was just for the fun of it! She was tied to that bench, but didn't have much problem pulling it around (she loves water, but not being washed).

Anyway, you would have gotten a real rain picture except I am afraid to get away from my Kodak pictures (I can almost see Amy, the computer whiz, sadly shaking her head and saying, this lady is hopeless) because they hide so well on my computer and I have a real challenge finding them again (they are in a file within a file within a file and maybe within that file...don't ask me why...in my dreams computers do everything we want, including the dishes).

There was a rainbow at the end of our rainy trip though (rats, I wish I could put a rainbow here for you) and that was getting to see baby Julia and Olivia and Jonathan. It was Grandparent's day at Olivia and Jonathan's school, so we were treated to grits and biscuits and orange juice (I'm tempted to offer to help the cooks with their cooking as I am not a grit eater anyway, nor is Michael, but love makes you do wonderful things...guess I should be grateful that I am not a regular guest at their homes as this is the same breakfast we got last year).

I'd love to post pictures of all three of them, but my daughter has voiced concern in the past that there are whacko weirdos out there just waiting to pounce on her kids (and maybe even me) if they see their picture...personally, I don't feel that people are able to tell your name, address, blood type and favorite dessert just from a picture, so just imagine a lot of adorableness (psst, she doesn't even know I have this daring blog or that the picture of me you see in my profile is of her little Julia, the baby, so don't tell her!)

How about one more picture that has nothing to do with this post (see how consistent I am?), but it is a cute one, Tinka first learning to go down stairs, cast and all:

Even though we now have miniature swimming pools (the muddy type) in our back yard, all this rain is a gift from God and a true blessing.

Wow...I almost don't know where to start now...so let me say it backwards,
too...WOW. My blog site is now sooooooo beautiful all thanks to the creativity and genius of Amy!! God's children can and do help one another so how wonderful a blessing is that!

This just reminds me of how we need to be with God. I had to hand over my password and all to Amy and it was a little scary, but look at the beauty that happened. So, too, when I give up my all/myself/my life to God, He can do awesome things that I can't even imagine.

If you remember little Tinkabelle's story and how she had to find us in the middle of the night, with two breaks in her leg, then you know she was trusting. By the way, we live at the top of a fairly high incline, so she had to go out of her way to get to our door when others were at her level! Tinka knew we needed the blessing of her presence in our lives, for sure!


Now, here is what Michael did with my friend Mimi's tiller (if this pictures allows it, you can enlarge it to see the llama poop piles in the back and to the left). (Renna don't do this):Now, in order to motivate himself, he was saying things like "yipee yiii yooo, ride 'em cowboy..whoa, boy, you ain't seen nuthin yet...oh yeah (VERY deep voice) here comes the man (you can substitute woman or dog if your dog is well trained enough)...we'll see who whoops who, you dirty dog machine (again you can substitute floor, dishes, clothes etc...."), so if your hubby/friend/helper or you yourself need motivation, you might want to try saying these things...it worked for Michael, it can work for you. Think I will try it when I clean the fridge. It's too bad Renna didn't know this before she cleaned hers, but it's not too late because something's always got to be cleaned. Now that reminds me of old Phyllis Diller joke:


The terrible thing about housekeeping is that you have to wash the sheets and clothes, mop the floors, vacuum, do the dishes, take out the trash and then it's all to do over again six months later!!


What blessings that we have dishes and clothes and even dirt and I am thankful.

A pretend blog

Well, you may have noticed this new streamlined look to my blog. It's a new innovative way to "frankenstein" your blog. This all happened from me wanting to make the slide bar smaller on the side so that it would hold more posts, like that cute one of Tinkabelle as a puppy. Kind Amy came to my aid and asked if I was too attached to my present set-up. Well, gosh, I was more attached than I thought, but, if I can let my three children grow up and go out on their own, I can give up some blog background and a template.

On my own (this leaves Amy scot free) , I went to The Cutest Blog and picked a background (which you can only see some edges of) and applied it and voila (that's French for WATCH OUT) this weirdo whacko thing is on my blog. This problem can be solved by getting a 3 column template, so, being the conqueror that I am I go back to see how to do this and find out that you need the patience of Job plus a couple of PHDs. It asked me if I'd ever been in my HTML, but I figured, it doesn't bother me, so I won't bother it...wrong...you've got to go in there and take out the things in red and replace them with things not in red. Sigh...and now Amy has company, but she thinks she can help me later, meanwhile, it's okay if you snicker at my blog's appearance...I promise not to cry too much!

By the way, this doesn't qualify as a real blog, so I'm calling it a pretend blog.

It is also very educational insofar as it tells you DON'T DO THIS TO YOUR BLOG SITE EVER!Give me a moment or two to get over this trauma and I will post a real blog.

This image is called Hangover and your blog could look like this if you follow in my footsteps (sorry to have to scare you like this).

There is a blessing here and it belongs to Amy for being a willing helper here, so thank you, Lord, for all the nice people in our lives.

Pyola, pyola, pyola

Boy, how much excitement can one bug killer cause??!! If I had known it would be this thrilling for so many, I would have been putting a little pyola in each blog! So here goes a description of pyola (with a few commentaries):

Pyola Insect Spray

Kills insects, such as adelgids (think these guys are swedish or norwegian), ants (definitely all amercian) ((except fire ants...which nothing really kills, anyway, as they are super heroes from another galaxy, harvester ants (think they harvest and you cry), carpenter ants (eat your fence as well as your veggies) and pharaoh ants (don't have to worry as they live in Egypt)), aphids (it's good that these guys get killed because there are trillions of them, armored scale (now is this fair, that they even have armor?), beetle larvae (yuck is the best I can come up with for anything that has the word larvae in it), cankerworms (these guys are gonna be a close second on the yuck list), fungus gnats (oh great, is this a bug with a fungus, a two yuck for one?), lace bugs (love lace, but i do draw the line here), leafhoppers (yeah right, what a name, bet leaf- chewer-uppers is more appropriate), leaf miners (finally a name that fits), mealybugs (a man HAD to be the one to think up these disgusting names!), mites (but they really are mighty mites), phylloxera (can't you see yourself saying this name in the ER...what bit you???), plant bugs (wow, now that was original), psyllids (related to those other p letter bugs), scale insects (as in they can even scale a tall building), spider mites (this is in case you don't find the mites creepy enough, they are half spider), thrips (this one sounds like it was named by someone lisping), sawfly larvae (gross), spittlebugs (now i am picturing a bug with spittle hanging out of its' mouth), webworms (I am running out of disgusting adjectives, but this is creepy) and (finally!) whiteflies (so you won't confuse them with our wonderful household flies, I guess).

Hang on, there's more:

Kills caterpillars, including gypsy moth caterpillars (must travel in caravans), tent caterpillars (in tents, of course), leafrollers (are these guys making their own cigarettes?) and diamond back moth larvae (not to be confused with a diamond back rattler, please).

Kills beetles including flea beetles, Colorado potato beetles and Japanese beetles.

Gosh...guess who's not going to eat dinner tonight? Anyway, I copied this out of the catalogue for all of you Pyola lovers. The name of the place is gardens alive and there is a web site, http://www.gardensalive.com/, so go make yourselves feel queasy reading about all these bugs. PLEASE tell me you don't want pictures!! Well, here is one picture...this is a turtle and he eats bugs, so you have to use your imagination or try clicking on this picture and maybe you'll find a bug or two.

Tonight's blessing is going to be thinking of anything but bugs, although they do make birds and turtles happy.

This is baby Dolly right after she was born...I will even challenge the mother, just to hug the baby...crazy redhead!!

Here goes a new blog. I was going to make this the world's/U.S.'s/Georgia's shortest blog, but then too many things kept popping into my head.

Actually, I even have a question for all of you professional bloggers. I want to make my thingee at the right teeny tiny like other bloggers have it, but how do I do that? Sad to say, this blog will make my nativities blog disappear into blog archive heaven, BUT, if I had a teeny tiny thingee...isn't it a slide bar, then it would hold more blogs. If I add lots of gadgets, will that do it?

I knew everyone would be holding their breath (maybe even literally) about the llama poop, so i wanted to give you the scoop on the llama poop (I can wax eloquent when it's late at night and I'm tired). You would probably like the llama poop (Tinka does, she rolled in it and had to get a bath yesterday) because it's almost odorless, so it's great to gather and transport (uh oh...Renna, don't read this if you're eating).

Anyway, it's going to get tilled into our new garden area so we can stay organic (something dear to my heart) and we will also be using pyola (all natural) to control the naughty bugs. Which reminds me of a story from my Irish mother's side of the family. My grandmother always had a big garden and the kids (only one out of seven children continued with gardening and then along came the only grandchild interested...me) always had to help. One of the jobs was to knock off the bugs by hand into a can of gasoline or something like it to kill them. My uncle Jim had NO bugs in his can, but he was still out there long after everyone else finished their rows. Grandma found him knocking bugs to the ground over and over. When questioned, this little guy said he figured they'd just get too tired and leave!!

I included some llama pictures that may or may not have llama beans (poop) in them, if you click on them.

Okay, enough of that, so tomorrow, Good Lord willing, there will be some nice pictures of the garden and some signs of Spring in the back yard...Spring is so exciting! But then, all of God's seasons are full of their own beauty and lots of blessings.

Money isn't the only things that's green

Guess I need to get the St Paddy's day pictures up before they become more questionable than they already are. this decoration is on our front door, but on the outside it says KIss Me, I'm Irish...that one makes Michael scared to answer the front door...hee hee!

You probably will not see these lovely dishes on any Rachel Ray show (did I hear you say "Thank Heavens"?), but they did turn out to be lovely shades of my favorite color. In case you are having trouble identifying them, these are green mashed potatoes...

Next, we have a vision of loveliness with the green fried chicken...

Now, sad to say (maybe only for me), the pears in the green jello stayed white.

The grand finale was the green cream cheese frosting on the home-made carrot cake (since I was called carrot top as a child).

And here it is, almost all put together...in the background, you will see the appetizing green milk and the Irish soda bread with green stripes running through it. Don't you regret missing this meal?

My older daughter is too practical to do this, my next youngest daughter lives on her own and doesn't cook, but my son and daughter-in-law are just loopy (not nearly as loopy as me, for which Brande is probably saying "Whew") enough to hold on to this tradition he grew up with (wow, the English major in me hates ending a sentence with a preposition).

Okay, Michael has come back with the cow manure and top soil, so I gotta go cheer him on and also go get the llama beans (poop) from Mimi.

Thanks be to our gracious God that these wonderful and crazy things are blessings in my life.

Interim post

What, you might well ask yourself is an interim post? That's a very GOOD question and we'll both know when I finish this. Although I am guessing that it is when I haven't downloaded my food pictures from St. Patrick's day and need a "filler". How about if I insert a random picture to hold your interest? Let's see.......

That worked out pretty well, as brand new baby goats are always a winner...can you tell I was ecstatic?

Or here's a baby llama giving me a kiss, but you do have to use caution as llamas will also spit and I will not go into detail because Renna (one of my wonderful followers) has a weak stomach and she eats at her computer. So this lack of description is for you, Renna, so eat to your heart's content.

These pictures were taken at my friend Mimi's house and Mimi is absolutely amazing. She had five goats and five llamas, but has pared down to just three llamas which she does all the care taking for, such as giving them worm medicine etc. (I helped out a few days ago, but steered clear of llama kisses because they were not happy campers). Mimi also has a HUGE garden, two dogs, two cats, every plant that was in the garden of Eden (0r pretty close), she hosts a weekly prayer group (which I go to), is busy in the Master Gardeners, swims and walks two miles several times a week, is very active in our church and has a ready ear for anyone....she WORRIES that she is slowing down!~!! By the way Mimi is 77!!! I told her, yeah, she's slowing down to what a vigorous, healthy 35 year old couldn't do!

Just in case you haven't smiled yet...here's Tinkabelle ready to party, so if you have a party, please invite her...

Seriously, I truly thank God for being able to hold baby goats, hug baby llamas, have wonderful friends like Mimi and knowing, too, that there are so many marvelously good people like yourselves reading my crazy interim blog...soooooo many blessings!

Happy St. Paddy's Day!!!

May this day bring a twinkle to your eye and laughter to your heart...I will be adding things all day long as this is a day dear to me...and I do crazy things!

“Christ shield me this day: Christ with me, Christ before me, Christ behind me, Christ in me, Christ beneath me, Christ above me, Christ on my right, Christ on my left, Christ when I lie down, Christ when I arise, Christ in the heart of every person who thinks of me, Christ in the eye that sees me, Christ in the ear that hears me” (from “The Breastplate of St. Patrick”).

And now for a little humor:

GOTTA LOVE THE IRISH

Paddy was driving down the street in a sweat because he had an important meeting and couldn't find a parking place. Looking up to heaven he said, "Lord, take pity on me! If you find me a parking place I will go to Mass every Sunday for the rest of me life and give up me Irish whiskey."Miraculously, a parking place appeared. Paddy looked up again and said, "Never mind, I found one."

Father Murphy walks into a pub in Donegal, and says to the first man he meets, "Do you want to go to heaven?"The man said, "I do, Father."The priest said, "Then stand over there against the wall."Then the priest asked the second man, "Do you want to go to heaven?""Certainly, Father," was the man's reply. "Then stand over there against the wall," said the priest.Then Father Murphy walked up to O' Toole and said, "Do you want to go to heaven?"O' Toole replied, "No, I don't Father."The priest said, "I don't believe this. You mean to tell me that when you die you don't want to go to heaven?"O 'Toole retorted, "Oh, when I die, yes! I thought you were gettin' a group together to go right now."

Paddy was in New York . He was patiently waiting and watching the traffic cop on a busy street crossing. The cop stopped the flow of traffic and shouted, "Okay, pedestrians." Then he'd allow the traffic to pass. He'd done this several times, and Paddy still stood on the sidewalk. After the cop had shouted, "Pedestrians!" for the tenth time, Paddy went over to him and said, "Is it not about time ye let the Catholics across?"

Gallagher opened the morning newspaper and was dumbfounded to read in the obituary column that he had died. He quickly phoned his best friend, Finney. "Did you see the paper?" asked Gallagher. "They say I died!!""Yes, I saw it!" replied Finney. "Where are ye callin' from?"

A Boston Irish priest is driving down to New York and gets stopped for speeding in Connecticut. The state trooper smells alcohol on the priest's breath and then sees an empty wine bottle on the floor of the car. He says, "Father, have you been drinking?""Just water," says the priest.The trooper asks, "Then why do I smell wine?"The priest looks at the bottle and says, "Good Lord! He's done it again!"

Walking into the bar, Mike said to Charlie the bartender, "Pour me a stiff one - just had another fight with the little woman..""Oh yeah?" said Charlie, "and how did this one end?""When it was over," Mike replied, "she came to me on her hands and knees.""Really," said Charles, "Now that's a switch! What did she say?"She said, "Come out from under the bed, you little chicken."

Flynn staggered home very late after another evening with his drinking buddy, Paddy. He took off his shoes to avoid waking his wife, Mary. He tiptoed as quietly as he could toward the stairs leading to their upstairs bedroom, but misjudged the bottom step. As he caught himself by grabbing the balustrade, his body swung around and he landed heavily on his rump. A whiskey bottle in each back pocket broke and made the landing especially painful. Managing not to yell, Flynn sprung up, pulled down his pants, and looked in the hall mirror to see that his butt cheeks were cut and bleeding. He managed to quietly find a full box of Band-Aids and began putting a Band-Aid as best he could on each place that he saw blood. Then Flynn hid the now almost empty Band-Aid box and shuffled and stumbled his way to bed. In the morning, Flynn woke up with searing pain in both his head and butt and with Mary staring at him from across the room.She remarked, "You were drunk again last night weren't you?"Flynn said, "Why you say such a mean thing, Mary?""Well," Mary replied, "it could be the open front door, it could be the broken glass at the bottom of the stairs, it could be the drops of blood trailing through the house, it could be your bloodshot eyes, but mostly......it's all those Band-Aids stuck on the hall mirror!"

Can't forget to add some favorite blessings as well:

May your neighbors respect you,

Troubles neglect you,

The angels protect you,

And Heaven accept you.
*****
May you have:

A world of wishes at your command

God and his angels close at hand

Friends and family their love impart,

And Irish blessings in your heart.
***********
Well, the carrot cake with green icing is done and the green jello with pears is ready, now I need to go get the chicken and fry it in green stuff, then make the mashed potatoes green, of course the string beans are already green and the milk green........doesn't this sound yummy? Oops, almost forgot about the Irish soda bread and it's super special because my beloved mother gave this recipe to me and I no longer am blessed with her presence here on earth. The soda bread will have green stripes running through it. There will be pictures of all this to delight (or is fright?) you!!

Short, but not so sweet

Here is a short little blog on the continuing adventures of Tinkabelle...she was getting pretty big as you can see from this photo.





Just to show you the extent of Michael's love for this puppy, let me relate a dark and slightly sad "tail"...





Actually, I need to preface this with the information that Michael has a very weak stomach and if there is a less than savory "situation" (be it animal or human) to clean up, he most likely will not be the one to call on unless you want him to "contribute". Either that, or...maybe he just fakes it so that I have to do all the cleaning up!!





Well, one day, long ago ( about a year and a half) and not too far away, he comes home and joyfully greets his puppy, then proceeds to go to the front door where we leave our shoes (as I delude myself into thinking that this will keep the carpets cleaner while I am dealing with an untrained puppy). After taking his shoes off, he steps into a "present" that the little girl has left by the shoes and he goes goooosh and realizes that even his after shave is not going to cover this scent! He yells upstairs to me "Help, Tinka pooped down here and I stepped in it...I need some paper towels in a hurry". With that, I madly dash, while snickering, to get......of course, the camera!! Laughing hysterically, I take pictures...fortunately, for you, everything was on the bottom of his sock! Whoops, I just noticed, that if you enlarge the picture, there are some "graphic" details...so be forwarned. But he still loves her, so there is a happily ever after story (especially since he didn't throw up).

Tinkabelle's "Tail" continues...

Sorry to leave you "hanging" on this suspenseful tale(tail) of Tinka belle, but sometimes life (so brazenly) interfers with blogging.

We put this little puppy in a big cardboard box , foolishly thinking that she would stay there happily, next to our bed with a little blanket to lay on and a stuffed toy next to her. After a few pitiful whimpers, we put her in her rightful place, which is our (she thinks it's hers and hogs the whole king sized bed when possible) bed!

The next morning, I very carefully gave her a bath and we took her to the veterinarian. Our vet said it was probably just a sprain in such a young puppy, but she took X-rays. Sad to say, she had two breaks in her little leg and the vet advised against looking for this owner!

We discussed the fact that we already had three cats and no fence and a yard that was large and expensive to fence in and we really couldn't afford another pet. So , armed with pictures, Michael goes to work to see if he can find a family for Tinka (who is probably snickering and saying "What a waste of time...I am ALREADY home"). In fact, I am highly suspicious of Michael's sincere effort to encourage someone to take her as he was acting like a love-stricken teenager and talking baby talk to her and saying "Are you SURE we can't keep her"? Now, I'm not very strong when it comes to little puppies, much less ones with a broken leg, so my mind is reeling with possibilities....

We had already spent a considerable amount of money to get her leg set and casted as well as get her shots. One of the last straws was Michael saying "Look at her. Isn't she beautiful and she loves us?" (Many years ago I once fed a fully grown stray who wandered to our door a few times and might have ended up with one of the ugliest dogs because he even had big warts on his face, but he never returned, so beauty is not my only weakness). Then Tinka herself kept on acting cuter and cuter (a DEFINITE conspiracy) to further weaken me (like that was necessary), so I just (happily) gave up.

I would like for you to study these pictures of a man who claims he is NOT a dog person, but only a cat person........what do you think?

Now, Michael's kids are trying to think of a name for this little girl, but the night we decided to keep her, I have a dream, no kidding, a dream that someone is telling me her name. This bodyless entity is saying "Her name is Tinkabelle" and, in my dream I am arguing "What kind of name is Tinkabelle? Don't you, at least mean Tinkerbell?" The answer comes back "No, her name is TinkAbelle!!" I woke up, related my dream, said it was crazy and we tried other names, but nothing sounded right, so she became our

Tinkabelle.

Tales (tails?) of Tinkabelle

Well, this ought to be interesting...I am going to probably do half a blog this morning and then come back and finish it after picking up sweet Helen for prayer group and making my trek to the hospital.

This will be the Tinkabelle story...hold on, it's a "thrill a minute". Most of my life (Mario, my darling late husband always loved dogs), I have always had a dog and most of his life, Michael, my present wonderful husband, has only had cats. Michael said he was NOT a dog person, which turns out to be a huge LOL!

Once upon a time on a dark and stormy night...nope, not stormy, but it was after midnight and Michael and I were upstairs in the computer room in January of 2007 when we heard a strange noise at our front door, so we carefully went down the stairs, pausing to listen and the noise ( a cross between a bark and whine) repeated itself a couple of times. My big protective hubby says "Stand back from the door while I protect you from the fierce monster at our door and show you how big and brave I am"...well, maybe he didn't say exactly that, but he did say "Stand back".

Not being one of those women who just stand by as danger assaults their hero, I peeked immediately around the door as he opened it...................................and there stood a teeny little limping puppy of about 5 weeks old!! As I ran out to get her, Michael says "You probably won't catch.." and before he finished I had this puppy in my arms!

There is more action packed adventure coming up, but I need to get ready now...so, please stay tuned for the continuing saga and find out what we did and the very strange way that Tinka got her name... :-)

Surprise, it's Christmas..Feliz Navidad..Merry Christmas

Well, here are a few of my nativities.

I thought it would be nice to post them before Spring is completely here!!! These nativities come from all over the world and they are made of paper mache, crystal (Germany...purchased when we, my late husband and I, were stationed there), pewter, wood, plastic (Poland...we brought some back when we went there), straw, bone (Mexico...on a trip there from Arizona), clay(Guatemala...ones that my late husband, Mario brought back when he worked and went there regularly), wax, metal, a geode, etc. etc.. Ironically, I had never been a collector of anything and then, many years ago, I made a small nativity and that started it all and Mario always encouraged me to find more and now my sweet husband Michael encourages me...maybe someone needs to discourage me because I now have close to 400!!

But they're really not for me, but for the open house that we have at Christmas, to help everyone focus their attention on what Christmas REALLY is...all about the enormous love of the Father in sending us Jesus! I always ask people to pick their favorite and it's always difficult and always helps re-open my eyes to the ones they pick.

Michael and Kelly (my sweet step-daughter) painted the one with the piece of Christmas tree in front, this year, no, actually it is now last year. You aren't even seeing half of them here, maybe only a third. Some are out all year long (thank the Good Lord...phew) in curios and on the walls and on the etageres, but there are still a ton to take out and display each year, plus all the cookies we bake until we can't see straight.

Although I treasure each one, some are extra special because they were picked out by my family. Hopefully, I can do individual ones this coming Christmas.

Oh yes, and I need to tell you (Michael said to) that we made it in the newspaper this year (not my idea, but a nice lady from our church asked if she could call the people she knew at the newspaper)...maybe I could scan it and put it in this blog sometime.

This is a blessing that all of us are reminded to keep all year long...be kind to everyone.

Thinking this "white stuff" was only going to come down a little bit, I quickly grabbed my camera and took a picture of Tinka looking confused and almost as if we caused this, but it kept on coming down, so sweet Michael (isn't he cute?) went out and had a one-sided snowball fight with Tinka (don't worry, she's fast and he never even hit her!)

Even though I was born and raised in Chicago, I have spent most of my life in Georgia. My wonderful late husband was in the Army and all three of our children were born at Ft. Benning and grew up in Columbus, GA. We're all scattered now and I'm in north GA., but snow is so unusual here too.

It's all melted the next day (all the roads anyway) and schools are opened again, but we laughed a lot and had a good time, so that's a wonderful blessing!!

Well, here goes a tutorial, I guess. I once tutored a student at Columbus State University who wanted to just pass history (he was failing), but I told him that we were going to get at least a "B" and he did! You know, this was a blessing to me because I just loved history and the professor who was teaching it did an excellent job, so there was a lot of motivation.

Had to include a fun photo of Oliver...being a kitten, he likes to get in the middle of everything, but so do the others, even Tinkabelle. All these sweet pets were "rescued", although Tinkabelle rescued herself by finding her way to our doorstep at midnight and crying. She was only about 5 weeks old and had two breaks in her leg! Happily, she has been spoiled rotten ever since and you can't even tell which leg had the cast on it for 6 weeks.

Anyway, you need to get at least a "B" here, too.....

The flowers are fun:

Use any yarn you like or use two together (I did try some fluffy yarn, but the flower kind of gets lost).

Use any size needles you like, but I used US 6, 8 and 9 for variety

• CO 36 st
• row 1: k across to end
• row 2: k1, BO (bind off) 4, repeat to end (12 st will be left on needle)

leave about 3-4 inches of yarn and cut it, then use a tapestry needle to pull it through the remaining stitches and pull tight to close, decide which side looks best to you and tie your beginning yarn to remaining and cut and hide.

Now, you can use yarn scraps to make it look like stems by just pulling the yarn through the hole in the middle and sew it on or use different buttons in the middle...lots of options here.

There's also a picture of some easy and fun slippers...would you like that pattern?