Good evening! I’m feeling fine and frisky so thought I would blog some photos from today.

First of all, the day started out amusing right off the bat because when I got up David had chocolate muffins in the oven that he made himself from scratch. The kids were all on a two hour delay because of ice but that wasn’t why he had time to bake. He had time to bake because he woke up at 1 in the morning and couldn’t get back to sleep. He was actually not pleased that there was a delay……..

Anyway, I was impressed by the muffins, which included sour cream and two kinds of chocolate chips. While they finished baking I turned a chair around and put it right in front of the big window in the livingroom and drank my coffee and read a Gladys Tabor book that Jo gifted me recently and watched the sun come up. Oh it was lovely. I listened as David took his muffins out and reprimanded Sarah for daring to reach a hand out to touch them, “Don’t you put your filthy finger on my muffins, I’ll get if for you myself. Mom gets the first one.”

MOM GETS THE FIRST ONE.

my heart.

He served it to me on a plate with a fork and stood there as I took my first bite.

He took some to school. He gave two of them to Sarah.

off they all went to school

And I headed to the grocery store.

Oh and guess what? I packed clothes into 8 trash bags and took them to the donate bin! It felt so good and so productive to get rid of clothing that the children haven’t worn in a long time. Why hang on to it?

The clouds were amazing.

I was sincerely admiring the outdoors all day long, however I did not get outside for a walk, even though I did put on my boots and didn’t ever take them off until after the children’s music concert tonight. (Seth pulled them off me, saying I was lazy)…….(for asking him to do it).

While waiting to take Seth and Sarah to the school, Sarah and I watched a Great British Baking show. I am so thankful for my dear cats. These two are from the same litter, Samantha is a small female calico who used to be outside all the time but this summer something happened to scare her enough that she never goes outside anymore. She uses a litter box and stays in the living room the majority of the time. Sherlock is a fat orange male and (don’t tell the others) my favorite. We call him “Loaf” because his body is like a loaf of heavy bread. Both of these cats like laps and catnip and napping all day long.

I don’t remember what made her laugh but I love this photo. She chose this dress from her closet to wear in the chorus concert and once upon a time it was her big sister’s dress. She put on a necklace and earrings, too.

This morning I had joy in my heart over tomatoes so I thought I would start a running list of things on the counter of things I liked today and then forgot to add anything else……then, at the end of the day I saw someone had filled in the rest of the paper with her own thing she liked.

I didn’t take any photos of the children at school tonight but I did take photos of BUTTONS.

Our town turned 300 this year and there was a display case at the school of notable things that came from our town…..one of which was that there used to be a button factory!!!

I just adored these buttons so had to take photos for mom and Jo and this blog entry!

Buttons By Schwanda!!!!!!!!!!

It could ALMOST be Shanda! Almost!

Please don’t call me Schwanda.

Last but not least, well it is least actually, is a photo of myself and my nose. Yesterday I had my black armoire cupboards open and I was standing there arranging things inside. When I was done, I slammed the cupboard door shut RIGHT ACROSS MY OWN NOSE. It hurt so bad I cried and went and sat on Rich’s lap.

I’ve had so many stupid little injuries lately and this is just one of them! Over the last few months I’ve deeply cut my finger and then my thumb, burned a different finger terribly on a curling iron, I swear it was third degree, damaged my ring finger knuckle and now my Tiffany rings won’t go on, scratched and scarred my arm, burned a triangle (an actual TRIANGLE) on my other arm, and got a bee sting up under my arm that took a week to heal!!!! What next. Sheesh.

I’m on the couch. Rich is at my feet trying to help Seth repair a nerf gun. Sarah is coloring with markers and listening to Chris Rice hymns on the old green ipod. Now that I’m done on the laptop we are going to eat ice cream and watch Star Trek the Next Generation. Rich and I have spent months watching every episode and we only have three left.

I love you guys.

Merry Christmasing…….. and I’ll be back as soon as I can to say hello again and hopefully brighten your day. That’s what I love to do best of all.