A Year And A Day

As I said one year ago yesterday...Happy New Year! Goodness, I never meant to hide my head under a teacup and be away from blogging this long. I've continually had so many 'brilliant' ideas that I thought I would post throughout the past year, but alas...life kept taking over, in extreme ways...and actually, it has been extremely taking over for the past eight years...yes, eight.

To be perfectly honest, the past eight years have been so emotionally taxing that I think it all finally caught up to me, and every spark of creative energy I could muster up had to go into my work and art, which turned out to be enough of a challenge in itself. The funny thing is, blogging and my work/art are two of my greatest joys and bring true happiness (I'm smiling this very moment as I write this). Why is it that what is most nourishing and beneficial to us, always seems to take the brunt of it during trying times (think sleep, nutrition, exercise, etc...)? 

(One of my greatest joys...)

(Tip: Never have anyone say 'Nebula' before taking a picture, it produces a startled fly in the mouth look...'cheese' works much better!)

Despite the continual chaos though, 2014 did have some wonderful moments of joy and adventure. Early in the year, I got to meet the amazing Elizabeth Rose Stanton at the Seattle launch for her darling first book 'Henny'. It was such a thrill to meet her and share in her joy, and actually, the experience was supposed to be my first post of 2014...needless to say that didn't happen...so after 'a year and a day', here we are.

(Elizabeth Rose Stanton)

(Henny even signed a book for me!)

 A most special 'joy' of 2014 was the birth of our darling little niece Ingrid Joy! She tried very hard to show up way before her time as she just couldn't wait to meet everyone, but as you can imagine, her early bird shenanigans caused quite a bit of worry and consternation, and her poor mama had to try everything possible to keep little Ingrid tucked away, which was very tricky considering there were two little/big-brothers-to-be that needed attention as well. But praise God...both mama and baby made it to the end, and the sweet pea came out healthy, and oh so perfect (on her daddy's birthday no less). She has definitely lived up to her name, bringing so much Joy to all...such a beautiful blessing!

(Ingrid Joy)

Then then there were the usual, joyful, adventurous field trips that I take throughout the year with my amazing students...which despite having a host of ribs and an elbow dislocated (it wasn't just my wrist it turns out...please see previous post), and a heart and that wasn't very happy about being smushed because of it all...ended up being great fun! (I have an amazing doctor by the way that has me all ship-shape now, only going in once a month or so for tune-ups...another amazing blessing, very thankful for him!)

There were adventurous outer space excursions in search of new Galaxies...

Which we found by the way...

And lovely Nebula Nurseries...where the baby stars and planets are nurtured and fed every thousand light years or so, in between naps of course.

We also made a made a very special discovery and learned that, no matter what planet we visited...

 Ice Cream is loved the whole Universe over!!!
 

There were also adventurous voyages to experience...

 With new lands and seas to be discovered....

  Fantastical places to explore...

 And great treasures to be found!!!

 Dangerous treasures mind you...

 But great none the less!

 Thank goodness the sweet mermaids helped us in out noble quests.
 

And last but not least, for now...I give you Miss. Ginger, who is still with us and lovely as ever at 17. Here she is on Halloween, donning her holiday best and preparing to charm all the trick-or-treaters, which she did of course, splendidly. She sleeps quite a bit now but still loves her walks, where she actually hop/runs the whole way. Spending every second possible with her is a top priority...and also one of the top 'Joys'...of not just 2014, but of all time.

I hope that everyone's 2014 had a little, or even better, a lot, of joyful adventure in it, even if there were choppy seas and a few monsters to tackle...but most of all, I hope and pray that this New Year, 2015, will be filled to the brim not only joy filled adventures, but many blessings of health, happiness, and peace for all!

PS~ A special thank you to my some of my bloggy friends, and family, who inspired me to take up the 'key' again...off we go!

♥

(Image 1: Pinterest , Artwork in Images 11 & 12: students...rest of the images and artwork are mine.)



Happy Wishes For The New Year

Once again a new year is upon us and another holiday season comes to a close. It truly feels like just yesterday that Miss. Ginger was helping me decorate the tree (she's in the chair, directing), as I was nursing a dislocated wrist and needed all the help I could get what with Mr.24 being out of town and us hosting Christmas Eve dinner...it was quite the adventure, but we managed beautifully.

Miss. Ginger was in charge of guarding the hooks and making sure I picked the proper ornament placement.

I wish she had helped me with the lights, as that took several days and six tries at getting it right. The old lights kept shorting out the new, very frustrating...and there were several midnight runs to the local drug store for new lights (love that they stayed open so late,!). The clerk started teasing me a bit with each visit...but finally, by 3am, they were done, we were supposed to get snow the next morning and I just didn't want to have deal with it then (we got snow)...and now we could decorate since the lights were up and behaving.

 Ginger hung in there like the good little elf that she is, but after a while...

she needed her nap.

She did wake up every now and then to make sure I was staying on task...and thank heavens she did, who knows what I might have put on the tree if she hadn't.

 Once the tree was complete...it was on to other fancying up chores.

 The table needed setting...

 Limpy needed a little antler décor...

 And a few other touches were made (I might just keep the tree in the fish bowl...kind of like it).

(We're babysitting my father-in-laws furniture for the time being...without it, sitting would have been a bit tricky.)

 And then we were ready for the crowd. I wish I had more pictures to share, it got pretty busy. We made Barefoot Contessa's Beef Bourguignon, it was heaven...seriously, lusciously heaven. We tweaked the recipe a bit and it was perfect (longer cooking time, less burgundy-just 2 cups, and less salt)...so good served over German dry potatoes (dry so they can soak up all the yummy goodness.)

And joy of joys, with all that busyness going on, my dislocated wrist actually popped right back into place, and I was thankfully able to enjoy the festivities without any pain.

Now I can receive the New Year with two open, welcoming arms instead of one...and no cast (thought it was broken initially).

Happy New Year wishes to all...may your 2014 be blessed, and filled with the 'Happy' part every step of the way.

Thank you for always checking in on my sporadic blog...I appreciate your visits so much and hope to be spending more time visiting you and blogging in the new year...one of those resolutiony things.

♥



Our 'Deer' New Roommate

 Well without further ado here he is, our new roommate...he's technically named Limpy due to the fact that he was limping when he was spotted by Mr. 24 on a hunting trip...I know, very original, that's why I say 'technically named' as I think he's deserving of a much more majestic name, though one hasn't occurred to me yet.

He officially joined our household the day before Thanksgiving so he was able to take part in the festivities, mostly by just observing everyone and watching us eat though.

 I was very trepidatious about his becoming a part of our home as I'm a huge animal lover and have never liked (read-abhorred) the idea of trophy animals, but Mr. 24 on the other hand grew up in Alaska and didn't even taste beef until he was nine. His family hunted and caught every piece of meat they ate for the first nine years of his life, mostly moose and venison, with rabbits and salmon thrown in for good measure. 

Mr. 24 hadn't been hunting in ages when a neighbor invited him to go several years ago, and thus poor dear Limpy entered our lives. The only thing that eases the thought of his demise for me is the fact that he was already injured and was taken out of his misery. He also ended up being turned into charcuterie...that helped a bit as well, he wasn't 'wasted'.

For several years he lived in Mr. 24's office, but recently the Mr. changed offices, and they can no longer hang out at work together. They might be able work together again someday, but for now, 'Limpy' will be staying with us.

Here he is on the car ride home from the office...

And this is where's he's been for the past six months while I tried to come to terms with him becoming a temporary (or permanent) member of our household (notice the fish art in the background, another office acquirement...I see a cabin in our future).

So far he's blending in well I think, and behaving very respectfully.

I greatly appreciate the fact that he doesn't stare at me while I'm doing the dishes...he prefers to look out the window, which is kind of sad and sweet.

Now maybe we'll focus on getting our mantel put up, we have some old timbers from a now defunct 100 year old flour mill that we've been contemplating using...they would compliment Limpy nicely.

We've been actually getting along so well, that if and when the time comes for him to leave...I just might want him to stay...surprisingly (very surprisingly), he's grown on me!
Now for the new name.

Hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving...how was that already one week ago?!



Finally...Thanksgiving At Our House!

After three years of living in a somewhat limbo-ish state at 24Corners, we are finally going to get to host Thanksgiving dinner here...I'm so excited! We also have a special new 'roommate' that will be settling in before the festivities, tomorrow actually. I'm not sure I'm very thankful that he'll be here, but I'm willing to give him a trial period. He is quite handsome though, so at least he has that in his favor!

 

Wishing everyone a very Happy & Blessed Thanksgiving (I'm so thankful for you!)...oh yes, and an extremely delicious one too!

♥

Treats & Tricks

 

Well the latest mischievous bunch of rabble-rousing Halloween welcomers showed up for duty last night...

They were more interested in partying with the Halloween cupcake crowd than actually learning what their official greeter duties would be though, so we'll see if they can pull out of their sugar induced silliness and pull it together for tonight.

The cupcakes on the other hand, have been diligently learning how to scare prospective eaters all morning...very proud of them!

It looks like I'll have be the on double duty tonight though, patiently hanging around, greeting and waiting upon the little princesses and goblins that materialize to collect their treats. One can only hope the P-Crew will lend a hand every now and then...oh wait a minute, they don't have any hands...oh well, their screeching, snickering and sneering will just have to do then.

 Happy Halloween everyone!!!