The New Year is 'Round the Corner, Y'all!

Here it is, the year's almost over and a new year is springing new life.  One of my 2014 goals was to try new foods which I did.  Some I liked and some I didn't. LOL  So, the last few days I've been thinking about new goals for 2015.  I got a lot going on in my head and if I don't get them down on paper they will be lost forever!  That's what happens when you get older, folks. 

I asked Donald what our goals should be nutrition wise this year. He said we should stop drinking soda.  I agree.  I'm addicted to soda.  I think it's the sugar that makes me crave it.  When I get on the 'I'm not drinking soda anymore' modes, I can go about three days without it, but then on the fourth, oh boy, I get a hanker'in for it so bad I will do anything (not really) for a soda. Some people are addicted to smoking, some drugs, unfortunately, but my addiction is soda.  Now, here's something I'm gonna share, but don't judge me on it.  It's not all my fault.  I had a bottle until I was about six years old.  I have no idea why my parents didn't wean me off it.  But I can remember my mom filling up my bottle with Pepsi.  I was the third child and I don't know if she was tired at that point and just wanted me to be quiet or what.  :)  I do remember sometimes I begged her for Pepsi.  And now, I think back on those days and wonder if my addiction to soda didn't start then.  Who knows?  I'm an adult now, so I can't blame other people for my choices today. 

We haven't been able to RV the last couple of years.  In 2013, Donald had some medical problems that he had to take off six months to resolve it.  He had to go to the hospital every day so we weren't able to travel.  In 2014, we had construction start in front of our home and getting from our house to the road was impossible with and RV.  I have been saving money so we can go on a trip, so now it's time for planning and calculating the cost. 

Of course, finances are always an issue for the New Year.  Even though we have improved quite a bit in that area, we still need to improve more.  We are going to attempt to put a name to every dollar as Dave Ramsey has suggested, but I don't know how well that will work for us.  I'm thinking if I make my budget sheets up a couple of paychecks ahead of schedule it might put me on the track of what's ahead when the payday rolls around.  Getting Donald to stay on board is gonna be hard. 

Christmas was nice; we spent it at home with Adam and Meghan.  Adam had to be at work at 2:30pm so he came to the house early.  I made eggs, bacon and pancakes (our traditional Christmas breakfast meal) and later that night I put in lasagna with garlic toast.  It was simple for me.  I'm so over the big traditional meals now days.  I never in my life think that I wouldn't want big meals for holidays, but I do now. 

I do have to run to the store tomorrow to get some black eyed peas.  Donald always wants them on New Year's Day.  Something about if you get them on NYD money will come your way.  That's fine...but what is also fine is if we just stay above water. 

I will probably post some pictures soon...as soon as I get them downloaded.

Blessings!

Thanksgiving 2014

We usually go to my brothers for Thanksgiving.  But this year we are staying home.  I don't have anything planned for turkey day.  I thought about going food shopping, but it would be just as cheap to go out to a restaurant to eat.  Since getting older, I don't find cooking enjoyable.  Yeah, I have to feed the husband, but it just gets old. 

 

I've been watching youtube videos of young moms vlogging about their days.  Wow...brings back memories of my life.  When the children were young, I would leave the house around 8am and sometimes I wouldn't get home until dinner time just because there was shopping to do and errands to run.  I see that with these young moms.  Just amazing how time flies by ya. 

 

When Donald and I were married I worked for awhile.  But I wanted to have children, so I quit work.  But there was a time period where I would stay home by myself when Donald was at work and it was boring...after I cleaned up in the morning I had so much time on my hands I didn't know what to do with myself.  But after having children, the days are so filled up sometimes you don't even have a minute to yourself.  However, that's what really kept me going.  I had to take care for my children.  Now that I'm old(er) I'm back to being at home by myself (minus 12 cats and one dog) but I find myself once again trying to keep myself busy.  I had volunteer for about a year, but I think the stress of it was wearing me down and I had to give it up.  I was hoping to be able to go back to it, but I haven't...yet.

 

So back in my early 30's my grandma was visiting for Thanksgiving.  And that's when I decided I would try to cook a turkey.  I had never done it before so it was exciting and scary at the same time.  But you know what?  It came out great!  Thanksgiving that year was so much fun. 

 

When I was a child, we used to go to my other grandma's house.  The house always smelled sooo good when we got there.  The kids helped set the table so they felt like they were a part of things.  Good times and great memories and miss them so much.

 

I hope you all have a great Thanksgiving.  But being thankful isn't just one day of the year.  Everyday we can find blessings and we should be so thankful for even the smallest gifts.

 

Blessings!

 

 

What Happened??

I wanna know what happened to the spring/summer.  I was just designing my garden and here it is winter again.  I waited so long last season for garden planting and growing vegetables; I thought the warm weather would never get here and boom!; here it is cold again.  Why aren't we having warm weather?  I remember many years where it was warm up until December.  Certainly not the last two winters, that's for sure! 

 

Speaking of the garden, mine did not do well this year.  It started off good enough, but somewhere along the road of growing, my plants gave up.  I did get some lettuce, peppers and a few cucumbers, but nothing else.  I heard other people's garden didn't fare well either.  It's like that sometimes.  Don't know it is, but I have great sympathy for farmers.  Thank God for farmers.  Where would we be if we didn't have them?  It's like when our own gardens don't produce we can run to the grocery store or farmer's market and get food.  Awesome!

 

The Green House Homestead has had major changes around it.  It has nothing to do with us.  The land all around us was bought by a developer, an oil company, and guess what they have done to the beautiful land?  Developed it.  Our front yard is only 36 feet from the foundation of our house.  They built right up to it.  We now have a sediment pond feet away from our front porch and the over flow drain  runs along side our house.  They have re-routed our driveway.  They knocked down the 100 year old tree that was 'in our front yard'.  It's terrible.  They have asked us to move for many years, but we have lived here for 36 years.  We have invested and built onto our home over the years.  It's where we brought our children home from the hospital when they were born; where they grew up and fled the nest.  Where we've had fights and arguments and love and hugs and we made memories.  How does one just get up and leave?  So here we stay, now with a sediment pond in front of our house.  Soon we will have an 18 wheeler refueling stations, 8 station gas pumps and a dash-in type store.  This is a far cry from when we moved here 36 years ago.  We had farms; cows, horses and pigs along the road.  I'd stand at my kitchen sink washing dishes looking at he pigs and horses that were only a few feet away on the farm behind our house.  No more.  It is all gone; gave way to a huge community now with a golf course and a country club. 

 

When the trucks and tractors move the dirt around next to my house, my house shakes like a 5.5 earthquake.  Seriously.  I'm worried now about structural damage to my home. 

 

What can ya do?  I don't wanna leave.  So here we stay. 

 

I'll quit for  now, but I got a lot of catching up to do!

Blessings!

I Don't Have a Good Title for This

Do you watch the Homicide Hunter?  Lt. Joe Kenda...he says, "well my, my, my."  Hahah  I'm starting to pick up that saying. 

So much has been happening here at the Green House Homestead that I don't know where to begin.  Well, on second thought, maybe I do.

I'm gonna go through what I can remember.  {Can't believe I've been away so long!!}  Okay, so the kitten we found last year started to grow up and she got pregnant.  She was due to deliver sometime in July.  At the beginning of the month of July is appeared that something was going on with her, so I took her to the vets who did an x-ray.  We saw three kittens!!  However, the doc said her temperature hadn't risen, so she didn't expect them to be there until another week.  So we waited and waited and one evening when Donald and I came home from eating out, Charlotte (the expectant mother) was in a box we had around the house.  I was so excited, it was time!  She was having a discharge so I knew it would be that night.  Anyway, I put her in my bedroom so I could keep an eye or two on her.  For a few hours she acted like she was in labor; she stayed in her box and was having a bloody discharge, but after a few hours, Charlotte jumped out of her box and acted like nothing had happened.  Not a good sign.  Now I'm thinking what I should do because we just spent $100+ on her with the x-rays and all.  Well, I waited and waited until I fell asleep.  When I woke up the next morning Charlotte was walking around not acting like she was gonna deliver.  I knew something was wrong, so I took her to the emergency hospital and explained the last few days to the dr.  Long story short, Charlotte ended up getting a c-section.  Her uterus was badly infected that the kittens fluid was nothing but pus they were in.  The vet techs worked on the kittens for over an hour getting them to breathe because they were full of infection.  Unfortunately, we lost one of the kittens.  So sad; I was really heartbroken. But two kittens did make it and they are happy babies now.  

Now, after coming home from taking another cat to the vets, our oldest 16 year old girl had this yucky stuff on her back.  I didn't know at first if she rubbed up against a bush and had gotten something on her or what until I got closer to her and realized it was pus.  On my gosh, I picked her up to examine the spot and I barely touched it when pus was gushing out of the wound.  She had a big hole in her back.  And it was infected.  I took her into the house, put on some gloves, got out my peroxide and cotton balls and me and Donald started working on her wound.  But the infection was so deep and she had so much pus in her little body it was unreal.  So I called the vets and asked them if they could fit me in which they did.  After we got there and the dr. took care of the wound they said they couldn't believe how much infection she had in her.  And needless to say, this cat we have been treating for and eye problem. She's been to the specialist a few times.  In between all this, another cat got a paw infection and we are so broke now it's crazy.  Savings is almost gone.  But what can you do?  Ya gotta take care of your pets..they are part of the family.

So....the construction has started in front of the house.  No more do we have a beautiful field to look at.  It's a huge hole in the ground.  A sentiment pond is what it's called.  It's suppose to catch all the water from the huge-mon-gous truck stop/gas station/store they are building in the front of the house and to the right.  The company who doing the work has been asking us to sell the house, but we are not spring chickens anymore and we have finally gotten the house the way we want it.  At my age, I just can't see us packing up this place and moving, although tons of people my age are doing it.  Maybe I'm just lazy...but no, the truth is when Donald and I bought this house we had just gotten married.  Well, we actually bought it a few days before we got married and we said we will live in this house until we died.  We never had plans to ever move.  We are the kind of people that when we put our roots down we don't dig them back up.  That's just how we are.  So now we have to deal with all this construction.  {I'll post pictures in another post.}

So, between the cats health problems and construction going on, the budget has been super tight and I've had to put up with my house shaking and trucks all day long.  

But things could be so much worse, couldn't it?  I have to be thankful I'm alive, I have my health, things are normal which if things weren't normal it would be awful.

Just wanted to catch you up  a little bit.

Blessings!

Just Catch'n Up

I've been wanting to post, but just hadn't gotten around to it.  I've seen super sleeping.  I'm so off schedule, I'm like a newborn with my sleeping mixed up.  I'm up while everyone's sleeping and sleeping when everyone else is up.  It's so crazy.  

I've been crocheting some things to put in my Esty store.  I haven't tried selling in there yet, although I've had a store set up for some time...a couple of years, that is.  

My garden:  Donald built me a Rain Gutter Grow System for my garden this year, but it has not worked at all.  I'm thinking it's because we didn't mix the right soil for the buckets.  The plants just sorta petered out.  I decided to till up a block of the yard and planted some corn, pumpkins, lufa, radishes, cucumbers and they are growing great!  So, then I took off the buckets from the first gutter (I have three of them) and decided to fill it with soil which I did, then planted beets.  They are coming up great.  I guess I'm just a 'plant in the grown' kinda girl.  There's something (at least for me) seeing those seeds push up through the ground dirt and grow into something worth eating.  

I never did any spring cleaning and I wish I had.  I need to go through each room of this house and get rid of stuff.  I know the motivation is a mental thing.  I can't seem to wrap my head around it, though.  I heard on the radio that a family had a yard 'sale', except they gave all their stuff away for free.  They felt if somebody needed it, they'd just give it away.  LOL  That's kind of neat; at least that way you aren't stuck hauling it all away yourself.  

I watch a youtuber under the name of Mom the Ebayer.  Wow...look her up.  She dumpster dives, but the things she finds is amazing and the money she gets for it on ebay is crazy!  I wish I could do stuff like that.  

Have a great day!

Hey y'all!  Don't be surprised by the new look.  I love the beach and everything about it.  However, I'm in a country mood right now. 

When Donald and I got married back in '78, we moved onto what was a 7 acre farm.  We didn't own all the 7 acres, our house is near the edge of the acreage.  Long story short, we have a 1/2 acre of land, but mostly in the back where it now hides under the trees.  Our front yard is only 36 feet from the foundation of the house. 

We have a creek behind our house and along side our house and a spring that pops up where it wants when it wants, which is kinda cool.  Our water supply comes from the well in the front yard and we have a septic tank in the back.  Our house is run by electric so when the power goes off we can't even flush the toilets which makes me mad!

I'll write more later, but just wanted to let you all know you haven't come to the wrong place!

Blessings for now!

Something is Bothering Me

I  got problems floating around in my head.  I mean, everybody has problems, but every once in awhile I have conflict going on in my brain. 

What I'm going to write about is not to take sides on eating meat.  In fact, I've been a meat eater all my life.  My dad used to tell me that I needed to eat meat for protein and protein was good for the blood.  Who's to argue with dad?  Besides, roast beef, meatloaf, bacon, ham is so good.  

But here's the thing:  I'm beginning to want to NOT eat meat.       It's crazy, right?  No?  For some reason I started to search out videos  on the humane way to kill animals that I put on my plate or sandwich.  And what I found make me sick.  Mostly, there is no humane to kill an animal.  I watch one video that is suppose to be the kosher way to kill.  Holy moly...slip the cows throat while it's alive and bleeding out.  The poor animal is still mooing but no sound is coming out and it's down right disgusting.  How can that be kosher???  Now, I searched out the way the humane way is to kill the animals and holy moly, shoot them in the head with some sort of nail gun {that's the cows} and the pigs they gas them.   Not to mention chickens have their heads put into a long tube hanging upside down and their poor necks sliced all the while they are skirming inside the metal tube.  Again, disgusting. 

Recently, I've been watching homesteading videos where one is living off the land {and their animals} and it's confused me even more.  I've watched videos of people  getting orders of baby chickens and they are cooing and ahhing over them and saying how cute they are and they are gonna make beautiful chickens with colorful feathers......then a months later one homesteader opens her freezer door and in there the viewer sees packages of chickens.  She says, here's my chickens, but don't worry I'll order more chicks next season.  I understeading homesteading because I was even checking out backyard chickens myself.....to have as pets!  I could never eat my pets.  Even when I went fishing in my teens it wasn't until I was an adult and had children that I actually ate a fish I caught.  I just couldn't.  Now, it's getting that way with the meat I eat.

While I'm cooking meat, the thing I'm thinking about  is not how tasty the meat is gonna be, I'm wondering how bad this poor animal suffered.  

Now, my grandma was raised on a farm.  They were self sufficient.  They had to be.  Her favorite food was chicken.  Don't get me wrong, I love fried chicken, but now, I look at that bird and wonder how bad it suffered, how scared it was.  

I'm a Christian, no hiding that fact.  Jesus ate fish.  God said 
It is okay to eat meat.  But now, I can't help to think that the meat I'm eating had a life and how scared it must have been when it was being killed.  How can I be a part of that?

I asked my husband if I started making some vegetarian meals would he eat them and he told me he'd eat anything I'd make.  

And that is where I am right now, right this minute.  I don't think I can find any vegan fake meat that comes close to the taste of meat.  Yet, watching meat cook only reminds me of the suffering that animal must have gone through.  

This is my problem.  

Changing the way one eats, even if it's a weight loss change, it's hard.  But, I really think eating more vegetables and less meat and maybe no meat at all is the way I'm gonna go.  I think if I can make some dinners without meat and eventually cut out meat that's the best way to go.

Blessings!

Gardening!!

Let's talk weather.  Has spring arrived yet?  I know it has on the calendar, but what is it really like outside?  Cold, warm, cold warm, that's what it's doing.  Such tease when one is anxious to get plants in the ground.  I did plant peas a couple of weeks ago, but I can tell you, going outside every single day to see if you can see just a little hint of green can drive a person crazy.  It's like watching water boil.  However, today I saw maybe three peas just breaking ground!   Wahoo.  

The family room in our house is starting to look like an outdoor garden indoors.  It's fun to start planting and watching the seed grow into a plant, but sooner or later, just like kids, they need to go.  (hahaha).  Seriously though, please warm weather, come here soon.

Squash, cucumbers started in the aerogarden

Another view:  in the pots are catus, tomatoes, and strawberries

I just started peppers

Blueberry bush

Onions

 You can see I need to get these in the ground or, in my case, in my rain gutter growth garden.

Speaking of which, here is a picture of garden set up this year:

Here's the beginnings of it

This are rain gutters.  Right now we are trying to save money so we had some aluminum gutters we are using.  But probably plastic gutters would be better

We are using 3 inch net cups on the bottom of the buckets.  We drill a hole in the bottom to insert the cup, then the cups sit in the gutter with water in it.

All the buckets will have holes in them like the third from the left.  It allows the roots to have air.

I'm so excited to see how this set up works.  There is a man named Larry Hall who came up with this idea.  He's on youtube and also has a facebook page if you'd like to look him up.  Amazing what he invented!

I celebrated my birthday yesterday.  Will put up pictures in my next post.

Blessings!

Catching Up

There are no excuses as to why I haven't been around here.  So I'll just start catching you up.

Valentine's Day was nice as Donald brought home tulips that were just about ready to bloom.  They were lovely:

I really love the container they came in.  Now, the tulips have come and gone.  Only thing left of them are the shriveled up stems that I need to cut off and put the bulbs away until next year.  Or, I can put them in the refrigerator for about six weeks and they will bloom again.  Maybe I'll do that. 

I don't know if I mentioned we have been, okay, not me so much except as a supervior, working on the inside of the motor home.  We started with just the tv cabinet because we had an old tv in there which worked just fine as long as the, oh, what's that box called that we all had to run out and buy for our old tv in order to watch it digital{?}, anyway, we had one in the motor home until it went ka-poop.  So, we were talking about getting a flat screen for it, therefore, we had to take down the cabinet the old tv sat in. 

That cabinet is gone now.  No tv there yet!  Then the shower was leaking so Donald tore the whole bathroom out including the floor and re-did everything.  He put self sticking tiles in the bathroom and I'm not at all happy with it.  He also put a floating floor down in the motor home which was left over from a room we did in the house and because he put a couple of staples in the floor where it met with the rug, it has separated a little.  Donald's not happy with that, but it doesn't bother me.  :)  Now, I've decided to take out all the carpet and just replace it all with the floating floor.  

New Bathroom Floor

Where the carpet and floor meet.

Here's the kitchen-I bought smart tiles at Home Depot to put on the wall behind the stove and sink

These are the tiles I chose.  Smart tiles are heat proof; sorta plastic, but they are peel and stick and you can cut them with scissors.  Easy

Here are the 'cracks' in the floor.  Floating floors are not suppose to be nails or staples because they 'float' but since Donald nailed down the rug with the floor it started to separate.  It really bothers him! LOL  I'm all for just filling in the cracks.

Renovation realities in the house--haha.  About a year ago our 1970's in wall oven gave up the ghost.  We had some problems with it in the past, but Donald was always able to get parts.  But, there comes a time when it is just vintage and parts can't be bought for it anymore.  We were slightly looking for a new oven when sales ads came out or when were in the stores, but the cheapest one we could find was $1, 399.00.  Wow.  Now, one day we were in Lowe's looking around when Donald came upon a stainless steel wall oven, display model, the last one of it's kind {so the sign said} for $876

.00.  Seriously?  Plus, we got 10% off that!  Here's some advice for anyone near our age..never, ever think you can remember measurements of anything in your home no matter how many times you measure it or how long you've lived in your home.  Haha.  The 'new' oven measured 29" opening and I was so sure that's what our old oven opening was.  So, as not to pass up a great deal we went ahead and arranged to have it sold to us (we didn't have the money at the time; had to come back next day); then when we got home, we measured the opening and it was a 26" opening!  Uh-oh.  Then we had to brain storm how we were gonna extend the cabinet in order to install the new oven.  Here's what we came up with:

You can see the lighter colored wood  under Donald's drill.  That's what we added.

On the left is the added wood.  Donald hasn't cut the the front 'bar' off yet.

I was pleasantly surprised the stain we had on the shelf in the basement matched really well with the rest of the cabinets.

Always a mess when renovating!

A bit blurry, but the opening is ready for the oven.

And here it is.  Thankfully, the cabinet hasn't fallen down! :)

I've made meatloaf in it and that's all I've done.  I need to go to the store and stock up on food!  

Next blog entry is gonna be about gardening.  Oh, I can't wait to get my plants in the ground or in containers.

Blessings!

Family Time at Glory Days and other stuff...

It's been a true winter here in the southern parts of Maryland.  Snow, snow and more snow.  The only good thing I can say about this is that the snow melts, then it snows again; the snow melts then it snows again.  And, on one of the first snows, I did make some ice cream, so that was cool.  {No pun intended!} And now that the groundhog saw his shadow do I guess it's another six weeks of winter.  I'm so  ready to get my garden started.  For Christmas I got an outdoor sink so now I can do my planting right next to my garden because I have an outdoor faucet  there and I won't have to go all the way around to the other side of the house when I have transplanting to do.  Are we lazy or what??

Yesterday I was talking to Adam on the phone; I haven't seen him in about a month {even though he lives 10 minutes from me} but I asked him if he wanted to go to dinner, and I mentioned a favorite place of his, hehehe, and he decided that he would.  I went downstairs to tell Meghan to get ready we are going to have dinner with her brother.  It was one of those nights where we just had fun and everyone was in a good mood.

 

Times like these are far and few between these days.  It's hard when everyone is working and have their own schedules..it's hard to find time to get together.  Sometimes, I think of when life was simpler, yet harder, too; when families lived on the same farm and grandma and grandpa was always around.  That would have been awesome times.  

I'm thinking about doing some youtube vlogging..haven't decided yet about it.  I'm about 80% sure I will, but I'm still thinking.  I'm sure I must have something to say that might help someone. 

Still having sleeping issues, but I totally need to work on it.  I know other night owls feel the same way as I do, but nighttime is so peaceful...nobody to bother you...the phone stops ringing, it's time to have to one's self.  I do not manage my time very well and I suppose I need to work on that, too.

With that said, I'm signing off for now.
Blessings!

Shoveling Snow

 Well, we may be doing a lot of this tomorrow if the weather forecasters are right.  Not looking forward to it.  And I always worry about Donald, Adam and Meghan driving in the snow and rain.   I've been blessed to be able to stay home and not have to go out into this mess.....oops, but I'm remembering just now that I have one more day before the emissions testing on my car expires.  Drats!!  That means I have to go to the emissions place.  *shaking my head*  I need to start getting things done when I'm thinking about them.  

I took my car in for service last Thursday.  That car sucked up $590.00 of my money! LOL  Unreal.  I don't know how people afford service on their cars.  Seriously.  For 35 years my husband has taken care of the maintenance on our vehicles when needed because we didn't have extra money to spend on the cars.  So when I bought my Hyundai two years ago I decided that it was easier to take it into the dealership for service and give Donald a break from worrying and working on the car.  Especially in the weather; there would be times he'd be out in the snow or rain under the car and I would feel so bad for him.  So taking my car in  for service is a break for him, but boy, he has to work overtime sometimes to pay for it.  Crazy.

Little by little and step by small step I have been cleaning up around here.  Donald sometimes complains that he 'just took the trash out' and it's filled up again.  I told him to be proud of a filled up trash can.  That means I'm cleaning and getting rid of stuff we don't need.  And it really feels good too, to walk into a room and see it organized and cleaned.  The dumb thing is is that I forget to take pictures of the before and then when I'm done and look at what my hard work has accomplished I think to myself, 'I should have taken a before picture'.  Duh!  Story of my life! 

I so can't wait for spring, I so can't wait for spring!  Winter is just so 'live in the cave' kind of thing.  It's okay for a couple of days, but I would love to be planting a garden and smelling fresh cut grass and sitting outside.  

April is my birthday so I look forward to that because spring is right around the corner.  My mom said that when she brought me home from the hospital it was snowing.  Maybe that's why I don't like the snow, per se.  :)

Blessings!

It's Time to Get Back to my Blog!!

I didn't expect to be gone so long, but wouldn't you know it, on Thanksgiving night I got sick.  I had gotten some type of intestinal bug.  While at my brother's house I started feeling chilly, which, when that happens, I know that I'm getting sick.  So, me and the family left to come home, but on the way home i was feeling sick to my stomach.  By the time we arrived home I was soooo cold that I went to my bed with my coat, hat and gloves on.  I pulled the blanket on me and I was still cold.  Meghan went to get another blanket for me and she put that on me and I was still cold!!  Let's just say, it was downhill from there.  It took me a good 3 1/2 weeks just to get somewhat back to normal.  I took a leave of absence from my volunteering, but I'm trying to decide when's the best time to go back.  

As I was getting better, the day before Christmas Donald came down with what I had.  It didn't stop him from enjoying Christmas, though.  

 

We had a good new years.  Meghan was with us, but Adam had to work.  

 January has really claimed itself...we've had snow, winds and temps as low as 5 degrees.  The poor dog; she hasn't been able to go outside and run to her hearts content like in the summer time.  It's basically go out and come in.  Then lay around the house all day as there's nothing for her to do.  

Little by little, I'm decluttering and organizing.  Years, when I was having depression really bad, I had let things get really out of control.  I'm happy now that I'm tackling it.  Although one might not be able to see what's being done, I can see it and it's exciting to have things organized again.  Yes, it's going to take me awhile, maybe even this whole year to get things done, but I am keeping my eyes on the end result.  

 So this is the a short update on me.  Next post will not be as long!

Blessings