Friday April 13, the "marriage saver"

Hubby's been traveling a lot lately, and he got home Friday afternoon with this little dittie--he called it a "marriage saver". Don't ask me why??? We are leaving Saturday for a trip to California, and granted, we haven't always traveled well together, but the issue hasn't been getting lost--at least not geographically! Perhaps this more a spiritual picture?? :) We used it this past weekend when we went to Corpus to visit his daughter, Robin. It was very interesting--everytime we made a wrong turn, some female Australian voice came on and said, "Recalculating"...occasionally, when I turned the way I wanted to more often than she liked, she admonished me to "Please drive the highlighted route!" Maybe that's what Jim meant? I suspect most of us could use a little spiritual GPS to help us travel "life" together well...a Guide to help us re-calculate all our wrong moves, and Someone to remind us to "drive the highlighted route". Meanwhile, it was fun playing with this little gizmo, so we'll take it to California and we'll see if it "saves the marriage"...Let you know later! :)

Slow day...

You can tell it's a slow day when I take pictures of the tv screen! Satellite went out yesterday, and that's always a big deal. Not only do I hate to miss Dancing with the Stars, but Mother has to miss Jeopardy and the news...Major thing!

Just got a heads up that our neighbor Ronnie is back from Iraq! He surprised us all with a visit--I just got back from across the street, but it was raining and I didn't feel like dragging the camera! Jim's going to hate that he's not home for this!

When All Else Fails...

Well, when you're in a funk that won't lift no matter what you do, bake something sugary and fattening and eat! That's always been my sure-fire cure-all...so, there's a pineapple pie in the oven, and I will probably stuff myself later. I feel better already!

Waiting for Hummingbirds...

It's been a quiet day. I've been painting all day, and never got around to taking a photo. I was sitting on the couch and the evening sun hit this bird feeder a few moments ago and really sparkled it. I waited too long to get up and take the picture, but that's ok...this is my reminder that the hummingbirds sometimes come back in April, so I need to get the feeder cleaned up and ready and have some food on hand. BTW, today's my daughter-in-law's birthday...HAPPY BIRTHDAY LAURA!

Rain----------and more rain!

It started raining here Sunday evening--storms all night, rain a lot Monday--then yesterday was nice and we thought it was over. But along came last night, with storms all night. Jim's in Holland, so I'm home by myself, and I'm kind of a baby during storms, so I put in my ear plugs, and turned up my two fans to make noise, and slept through most all of the storms during the night. Woke up this morning to nearly 3" in the rain gauge and the beautiful sky below.
I wondered--is the sky trying to clear? Are those patches of blue a promise of hope, or is all that gray a promise of more to come?
This afternoon, when I got home from the Studio, we had added another almost 2 inches, and baby, it's pouring outside. I put out weed and feed Sunday on my lawn. Wonder if it's been "watered in" as directed, or if all of it has watered out into my ditches? :)

BTW, I got a lot of wonderful definitions of "Beauty". Watch for them in the coming days!

Another Sign of Spring

I changed out the batteries on the watering system. You're supposed to do it at the beginning of the season, and this is my first time. Must have been a man who designed this thing--I had to completely disconnect the darn thing and turn it upside down? A woman would have made it convenient--but then, Jim said he didn't know many practical women. Maybe Rebecca will design one that makes it easy to replace the batteries! :)

Time for a Haircut!

OK, so it's PAST time for a haircut! I've been so busy I haven't had time to make an appointment, so I called today and amazing grace! I got in this afternoon! I'm not too impressed with this photo, but perhaps it's the subject matter! :)
Meet Lorena. She makes me look pretty. :) She's trying to talk me into 3 different colors of red! So, what do YOU think??? :)

A Little Motivation

I'm in an aritst way group that's offically starting tomorrow, but I've already started. One of our tools is an artist date with the child artist inside of us, so I figured I could use a little motivation and applause. My kids used to love charts, so my artist child "Star" and I went for a shopping trip Sunday after church and bought lovely stickers and we made this "yeah for YOU" chart this morning. While I was at it, I made one for my mother who's trying to quit smoking. She could use some applause. Just hope it's not too performance oriented! :)

I need some color!

Ok, enough of the grey days! I've got to have some color, so today I planted some tulips, daffodils, hyacinths, and crocus...we'll see if anything blooms! At least there's now an expectation, and that's half the battle!

I'm so intimidated by drawing/painting flowers, so I've decided to get a small plant a week, and just do "studies". It's another one of those things I want to learn to do, so today I just "do it", one little flower at a time.

I'd Like to be a Bird--NOT!

Los tres amigos--Gosh! It's cold and dreary and windy today. These egrets caught my eye as I was cleaning house today, so I grabbed my camera and hubby's huge sweatshirt with the hood and braved the north wind to get a picture--albeit not a good picture, but still a picture...

Ordinarily I look at these big pelicans flying and think how awesome it would be to be a bird--but today??? Today they're struggling in this cold north wind...

And I'm cozy and warm inside my centrally-heated "nest". Today I like being a human being! :)