STILL HERE

So here I am and here is the snow. It is pretty and I am watching it from the inside. I have not been out without my husband for several days, which is fine for me. We have been having below freezing weather to sub zero even some mornings. And our front porch has been a glare of ice, no matter what he does to it.

I have been keeping busy, cooking mostly and the basic cleaning. I love to cook in the cold weather. I made a great Fennel Soup Friday, and homemade sour dough biscuits, and homemade cheese. Saturday we took some to our friend at the bike shop and also got some errands accomplished.

I got a new exercise DVD that is walking miles in place, while doing aerobic arms. I got the 3 mile one, and then I can stop at 1 then 2 and work myself up to 3. Of course, afterward I treated myself to 3 homemade biscuits and some potato chips. So I have a feeling it isn't just all exercise.

Over the 3 days my man was home, (which was lovely!) we started the Short Story Literature Class from the Teaching Company. It was great. The 1st lesson was on Edgar Allan Poe. It only reinforced me on how scary he can be. What is great about the class tho is how many times I think about the story and then can share my thoughts with my husband. Looking forward to the next lesson we do, and I'll keep you informed.

WE also got audio CDs on learning French. We listened to the 1st lesson just to see what we thought. We think it will work, it is interesting and repetitive. But, to be honest, it will not be easy. But then, I feel up to a challenge lately.

I had wanted to start going to a Mahjong group, but the weather is holding me back for now. I have found a place on the WEB that teaches you how to play and then you can play against someone. I am looking into that. There is the same for Bridge and Chess which could be handy in the future.

I read another one of the Elm Creek Quilt books and they are wonderful #6 Master Quilter is a great read. The next one is a historical novel concerning the Underground Railroad. But we need to read for the next Mystery Club Meeting 1st. WE are reading A Beautiful Place to Die. It has definately caught my interest. It is set in Africa in the 50's.

There is so much I want to study and learn at times. I just read an article that states that procrastination means you might not know who and what you are. Well, maybe what I need to think about is how my learning fits into my new roles in life. It has been an engaging thot for me.

Tomorrow is Charity group and I think I will be able to get out ok. I don't have far to drive. WE are making bed socks, toboggans, scarves for the County Home to deliver on Valentines Day. We spend 4 hours a month together crocheting, knitting, talking, eating.... It is a great time with lovely ladies.

If you can't come but would like to contribute let me know.

A Not So Good Day

Yesterday I had commented on FB that ARTHURitis was visiting me. Although I woke up exhausted and not feeling good at all, I seemed to get an awful lot done.

I have been at the church helping to cook Springerles. This is a grand affair. To give you an idea – we did 275 dozen last year. We, for the first time, have figured out how many dozen we get out of one batch of dough – 7dozen+3. So we have 3 dozen bottles of anise and we are cooking for 4 days. The 4th day we will cook lemon springerles, with only making 42 dozen. Can you believe we actually use the word “only” after all these figures.

I told you all of that to explain my day. I usually go and quilt on Thursday at the same church. But since I was already spending 2 days this week there, and did not feel good, I decided to forego the trip on Thursday. Instead I would stay home and get things done that had been left by the wayside, and work a little ahead for Friday.

I cooked 2 suppers yesterday. What a freedom to know I could spend time at home with my husband and our furry children and not have to rush around. DH offered to take me out to eat or p/u – but that was just looking like more trouble than it was worth. After being gone so long I want to be in my own house and backyard.

My Husband has suggested we start listening to the classics. So far we have both listened to Gilgamesh. He has listened to the Iliad and the Odessey, I am starting the Iliad. He is presently on Beowulf and tonite we started to find where we could get Aenid.

I have been bemoaning to myself about not being in any learning situation lately and decided to take that into hand myself. I got on dailylit.com and signed up for Vanity Fair, Silas Marner and Arabian Nights. I also revived listening to my Teaching Company class of Musical Theory.

After getting 4 loads of clothes done, the pup food, the yogurt and the 2 dinners while I was listening to the above, I decided it was time to tackle the garden. There were many surprises out there. Like, the smallest ears of corn I have ever seen. DH was teasing it was those little oriental ears you find in some Chinese food. Bumper crops of potatoes (red and gold) and onions. Some radishes were left, but no beets seemed to grow at all. I also could not find any of the garlic that I planted. But, today at Springerles, I learned that you plant garlic in the fall, pick it in the spring, just like spring flower bulbs.

My best crop tho seemed to be the Sunflowers this year. And how I do love them. (For those of you that don't know, my wedding bouquet was sunflowers and daisies wrapped in a brown paper bad with a string bow. )It would not be easy for us to see the birds eating from the flower heads, so I carefully removed them from the stems and saved them to put up by the window, where we can closely see the birds devour them.

With the absence of hay this ear I decided to just lay all the corn and sunflower stalks down on the garden. This was sad to do at first, but it looks like it might do the job.

I wonder what I'll do on a day I feet good?!