Why didn't I take a picture?!?

Sunrise.

Ha ha. I phoned Micah excitedly this morning telling her to look out her front window. There was a fox making its way up and down the snowbanks toward my place. He was traveling at a leisurely pace and limping a little. The kids got to the window and were chattering in their excitement. (I could hear them over the phone. I think the fox could, too. He kept glancing back over his shoulder!) Anyway, we had a good nature show. :) Did I remember to take a photo? Of course not!

Micah's keeping the kids home this week. There are so many kids out with influenza-B (is that the right name?) they don't see any reason to purposely expose the kids.

The girls and I have had a couple of art get-togethers in the last week or so. Below they were making bookmarks to give to friends. On a previous day they did the paintings. On this bookmark day Audrey and I also played a game of chess. She and Hazel just joined the chess club. Audrey won, by the way. I was so busy chasing her king around I didn't see her pawn right by my king. Now, she did forget to say "check", so maybe that's an important technicality, but she said she didn't notice she was next to the king at first either. Ha! Anyway, there WILL be a rematch! :) (Maybe I'll have a better chance with Hazel!)

Hazel made this one for me!

Audrey made the kitten and Hazel made the chicken. :)
These are 6x6 inches.

Audrey made a nice house which now hangs in her room.

Mark, you had a question about the geography of my house. Here's a picture of the wall that divides my living room from my kitchen. I love how they designed this back in the day. Lots of room for books, a countertop where I throw my purse when I come in and room for a charging station for my phone, Kindle and laptop. Also, lots of storage in the lower cabinets where I keep games and puzzles. Actually, there's lots of empty space down there.  You can see the back edge of my recliner on the right. If you swung to the left you'd see that dining room table where the girls were doing artwork above. The front door is to my left, too, as I'm taking the photo. Confusing? Yeah. (Added a photo.) I really like my trailer.

And since those photos kind of chop things up, here's another view so you can see where I sit and compute/read/think most of the time. My main relaxing spot. :) Micah's house is right out that window.

Speaking of chess, here's our little setup. I've had these pieces for decades stored in a large Ziploc bag. They're nice heavy pieces. The board belonged to my hubby Bob's dad and they played checkers on it when he was a boy. Heirlooms! :) The little rule book was printed in 1967. Glad we had it. We had to look up some info on castling!

Well, I've done a little thrifting lately. I bring some stuff home, then take some back to the thrift store. So equilibrium is being achieved. Trying to consciously get rid of things I don't really need or use, but keep those things that delight and are useful. ;)
I found a couple of cute tea cups. (I always think of Granny Marigold when I buy a cup, lol.)

 I also found this cute little casserole dish that's "just right" for a single person casserole with some leftovers. It's 6.5"x6.5". Cuuute! I also got the little turkey salt and pepper. They were brand new, still in the package. $1!

And a random shot of my colorful dishes. Mostly Pioneer Woman. And my baggy of Sour Patch Kids, lol.

Speaking of candy...I began again on my exercising. I've done a one mile walk with Leslie Sansone (look her up on YouTube) the last two evenings. I know I started exercising a while back, but that only lasted one day. Gotta get out of that comfy chair! Anyway, I'll work my way up to more miles, but right now I need to start easy, I think. This is a great way to exercise for me. No drive to town to the gym. Just get movin'! And it only takes a small area of floor to do this, which is great if your space is limited.

In other news, I did a swap called "Star Wars-Cantina" in which we draw Star Wars characters. (Not necessarily from the Cantina scene.) I've only watched the original movie a hundred years ago, so I just looked up images on Google and came up with these.

I also ordered an older book that Gretchen had mentioned on her blog. I read a sample on my Kindle before ordering, so I hope I'll like it. I do like the old copy they sent! I've taped up the dust jacket, which was falling apart.

I took photos of some journal pages a while back, and didn't get them posted. So, here they are for any who are interested in peaking into someone else's journal. Be my guest! You may have to click on them to make them big enough to read. 

(When I said 11 apostles, I was speaking of those left after Judas left them. I don't know why I said it that way.) 

I always kind of envy those of you who create such artistic journal pages. (Dori and Pom Pom come to mind.) Mine are sort of utilitarian. Just scribble down the thoughts. But I guess we aren't supposed to try to be somebody we aren't, right? That artistic flair just comes naturally to some of you irrepressible folks out there. I'll just have to enjoy your journal pages and keep doing my thing! :)

A recent sunrise.

A quote from brother George, who don't pull no punches. Love him!

As I get older I feel more and more the necessity of reading and meditating on the Word, and praying for all those God has given me as family and friends in this world. Drawing near to Him is our greatest comfort in a world filled with tribulation and hardship. Even when our world seems to be moving along smoothly, someone is going through something hard. Never let up on the prayers! We need each other's prayers so much.

Well, I think I've covered everything I had for now. Thanks so much for being my family and friends and patiently reading all of this. It takes me a lot longer to do the posting than it does for you to do the reading, so maybe it's not so long? :)

God bless all!
Shalom.

Checking in!

Sometimes it's hard to think of anything very exciting to blog about. But that's okay. Sometimes excitement isn't all it's cracked up to be!

We just had about 3-5 inches of snow. Today was bright and clear, and very cold. We just got the driveway plowed and now we're due for more snow tomorrow! Micah and family are driving to St. Cloud tomorrow, about 2-1/2 hours away, for dental appointments for four of the five kids. I'll be praying for safe travel and doing some dog sitting for the day.

I'm still reading the Moshe Dayan autobiography. I finished the Deitrich Bonhoeffer book and began the Mitford series. I've read some of these before, but just realized that this fictional town is supposed to be in North Carolina! I had imagined it to be in New England! I'll have to reimagine it now! ;)

I've been busy helping with grands, helping with AWANA, making ATCs, enjoying cozy reading weather, putting on a couple of pounds and things like that. Hey, look at this...

Well, they're upside down, but they're snowshoes I bought at a garage sale last summer. I haven't worked up the nerve to try them yet, but now would be the time! I've watched tutorials, so I should be an expert, right?

This is the view right now. Glad for the sun, but it was -25 last night.

Micah was decluttering her closets and found this little item that Adam hasn't looked at in ten years. (Yep, GM, it's a mandolin. Didn't mean to be so cryptic, lol.) I have his permission to play around with it. :) No, I've never touched one before, but nothing is impossible with YouTube!

While decluttering she also came up with a box of video games and game systems belonging to Jordan. He asked about them and so I took pics of everything and he'll decide what I should mail to him. He'll probably just sell them. He doesn't seem worried about the postal rates. That stuff must be worth more than I think!

If you dislike looking at ATCs and APCs, now's the time to flip the channel. I know I'm not doing much drawing lately. More cutting and pasting like a little kid. It's kind of fun for the moment. Well, I did do those Tomten cards. I put one in my header today because that snow was making me feel cold. You, too? So, here are my latest cards...

The Collaged House swap:

Forgive me if I've posted any of these in the past. I checked back a few days on the blog to see what I'd posted, but I may make a mistake.

For these APC swaps we decorate a whole deck of cards over a period of about a year. We do the Aces one month, Kings the next, on down the line. Sometimes we'll do two whole decks, each with a different theme. For instance, above you see two full sets of sevens, one with a bird theme and the other with a postage stamp theme. This stamp and bird themed swap has gotten a little complicated because the original host couldn't complete the swap due to family difficulties, so someone else took over and we're skipping around filling in cards where needed. I won't try to explain the details. More info than you wanted, I think!

These 7 and 8 cards will complete this swap. Like I said, it got a little out of order and some cards were lost in the process and had to be redone. Anyway, all done with that one!

The name of the swap below was "An ATCoin on an ATC with an Envelope Security Liner for a Background". How's that for a mouthful? The ATCoin is the circular piece. And, yes, we actually save the security envelope liners to use for collaging, lol. You could do any kind of theme you wanted.

I seem to have run out of new photos, so it might be a good time for a dinner break before delving back into the lives of folks in Mitford...or maybe Israel, depending on what strikes my fancy this evening.

Did anyone read this far? Congratulations!! Thanks for stopping by!
Shalom! :)

The creeping crud...

I'm feeling pretty great, but Micah's family has been sick. Headaches, sinus infection, coughs. Everyone experiencing slightly different symptoms. Hazel and Audrey had school on Thursday and Friday and both seemed well. Hopefully everyone will get better over the weekend. Poor Adam still has to go out and chop wood to stoke the outside woodstove. Such is life in the backwoods!

I've enjoyed the long Christmas vacation. Ours seems to be a little shorter than folks in other states, but then our kids don't start school until after Labor Day, so I think we shorten Christmas and Easter breaks.

Doing a lot of reading. I just finished A Light at the Window by Jan Karon. It's the second in her Mitford series. I think I'll read the whole series through while working on the two books below.

I read the Dayan autobiography in my early twenties when it first came out, and really loved it. I found this copy at the thrift store and grabbed it. He's what I would call a warrior poet. A really gifted writer. I'm reading slowly and pondering. The same with the Bonhoeffer book. I think the Mitford books will be good light reading, in contrast.

Here are a few cards I've finished lately.

A zentangle swap...

 ...and an Altered Playing Card swap. They just had to have a lady and some text on them. Let the imagination run wild.

It's dark out, but there are still lines of snowmobilers roaring by in the road ditches. Lots of folks must have taken the whole week off to go snowmobiling. I can only hear a faint whining when they pass by. We have a long driveway. Hope everyone stays safe out there!

Time for dinner, so I'll wave goodbye for now. Thanks for stopping by, and shalom to all! :)