The stork delivers again!

 I'm a little late announcing that on November 23 grandchild #18, Colton Scott, joined us, weighing in at 7 lb. 1 oz.!  His parents tell us he's a keeper and everyone is doing fine. :) He lives with his parents in Longmont, Colorado. 

I hope you've all had a great holiday season so far. I'll have to catch up on blogs after I post this. I think I'm spending too much time on YouTube! I've been watching a lot of episodes of Sherlock Holmes lately. This is an old television series starring Ronald Howard that I'd never seen before. I like that they're only 30 minutes long. The Basil Rathbone version is usually an hour or so long and is more like a movie. I like both!

Our church usually has a Widows Luncheon at Christmas time, but wasn't able to have it this year. So, instead, they gave us each a nice gift box. 

And here's a little picture of Miss River May. Hope you can see it. 

Once again, I'm hunting around through my pictures looking for something interesting to talk about. Not that my family isn't interesting, but I guess we all have fairly routine lives. Micah has several doctor appointments for Adele, in preparation for some dental surgery. All of the doctors seem to be an hour or more away from home, so we'll be on the road a lot in the next couple of weeks. (A physical checkup today, a covid test next week and then dental work on the 22nd.) It will be nice to have that behind us!

And now, let the randomness begin!

Some inchies...

These were for a swap in which we had to use at least one postage stamp on each card with a theme of performance arts.

Backgrounds that someone will add collage elements to...

Barncat. You can't tell from this photo, but this guy weighs about ten pounds...or more. He looks like a raccoon!

More backgrounds. These three were made from a very old Czech primer. It was in bad shape, so I wasn't too hesitant to use it for collage.

The next three are macro shots of butterfly wings. (Backgrounds, once again.)

I'm not sure if I've shown the next four cards. We received an envelope from the swap host containing odds and ends and we had to use at least two items from her bits and pieces for each card. We call this a Trash to Treasure swap.

I was babysitting Sully yesterday while Micah and the other four kids went somewhere. I got a paper cut from a book I was looking at and Sully ran to the kitchen, climbed up on the counter, found a band-aid (Wonder Woman?) in the upper cabinets and then proceeded to extricate it from the wrapper and bandage my finger. He insisted. Quite the emergency first aid responder!

A couple more I'm not sure if I've shown... This was another swap which required the use of postage stamps. This time with a bird theme (on at least one stamp). The backgrounds sometimes make more sense when you can see what country the stamps come from, lol.

The previously shown fat cat, joined by another.

A Sully gift. I couldn't resist! I also got the three girls and Sully bow and arrow sets. (With suction cups.)

Rudolph the Cheeky Reindeer by Adele. He made me laugh out loud!

God bless and shalom to all my family and friends out there!

And Meeeerrrryyyy Christmas, if I don't get around to posting again before then! :)

Not changing yet?

 Good morning mango juice! 

Well, it's a springlike morning here in the north country. I'm still hanging out at the farm, and maybe will be until next spring or summer. My application is still in place for an apartment, but I'm hoping that moves along slowly. I don't want to lose my place in line when the time comes that I actually need the apartment.

This cheeky bluejay has been stealing the cats' food. :)

I kind of figured things wouldn't go as quickly with finishing the house and getting it ready for sale as the kids planned. They are optimists, bless their hearts. Financing finally came through, after the usual setbacks, but then wintery weather had arrived. Adam works outdoors in heated tarp shelters all winter and he didn't want to do that when he got home from work, so they decided that outside work would have to wait for spring. However, we're having very warm weather this week, so he's jumping on some projects like pouring cement footings for the rock work on the front of the house, and a sidewalk, steps and a patio. He's taken the week off from work because it's suddenly in the 50's, which is perfect. Things do take longer when you have a little troupe of kids following you around, but Adam's pretty patient.

This is Sully after doing...

this...

All of this snow is gone now. This picture was taken in the last week or so. We usually don't have much snow until November...which is now. 

Prepping for the big snowball fight.

And this is what it looks like today. Good working weather!

I've spent the last few days (four days?) lollygagging around with a sore lower back. I could hardly get up and around the first couple of days. It has resolved itself pretty quickly and today I'm almost back to normal, but still a little stiff. I've missed my walking, so I'd better get going on that again.

I've been entertaining myself with YouTube and reading and a little bit of card making. I'm currently reading A Praying Life by Paul Miller and I think I'll re-read Another Gospel by Alisa Childers. We've been discussing this book on a Facebook book group and I'm realizing how little I actually retained the first time through! I've gotten a start on Evidence That Demands a Verdict by Josh McDowell, but I think that's going to take the better part of a lifetime to read. 

I can't believe I failed to make a wonderful announcement in October! Grandchild #17 arrived on the scene, in Ft. Worth, TX, on October 8th! My son, Jordan, and daughter-in-law Brooke gave birth (Well, Jordan was present!) to little River May who weighed in at 8 lb. 5 oz. and 19" tall. (Long?) River is their first child, and she's a girl. (I know River can be a boy or girl name.) They are so excited! (Wish I could figure out how to get a pic of her here. I only know how to get them directly from my camera card.)

Speaking of grandkids, my oldest step-son, Bob and his wife Tiffany are expecting a little boy at Thanksgiving time. (#18!)

Well, so much for all the birth announcements. On a more mundane level, I've been doing a series of 12 ATCs for a swap called "The Twelve Days of Christmas". I've finished 9, but don't have photos of all of them. But just so I can put some photos at the end here, I'll show you what I've got. 

I just glanced out the window and noticed that Adam has begun his rock work! Micah came out to assist. Woo hoo! Can't wait to see how it looks. Cheap country thrills, eh?

That's all I can muster at the moment. And I didn't even mention the "E" word once. (You know...election?) Praying for quick and accurate results and a peaceful attitude in this country. 

See you next time!

Shalom to all!