I Resolve

It's that time of year when we take stock of our lives and resolve to do better....... a ritual of sorts. Here are mine; I resolve to.......

1. be more patient with Jim..........and store clerks..............and telemarketers.............well, maybe not telemarketers. And I'll be more patient with myself. Having occasional goof-off days is not a sin, necessarily.

2. lose 10 pounds. This is the same 10 pounds I've been losing since I was 30 years old. It comes and goes. Mostly comes.

3. spend less time on the computer, right after I check who's on FaceBook, answer some emails, transfer some money to PayPal, play for a while in PhotoShop, watch a movie on NetFlix, place an order on Amazon.com, check my bids on Ebay, post in a few forums, do a little online research, and finish this blog.

4. exercise everyday. Well, I can take weekends off; 5 days a week would be good. But you know they say to alternate days of exercise, so every other day would work even better. Tuesdays and Thursdays.............definitely Thursdays.

5. spend less money, unless I get depressed and need some shopping therapy, or Dillards has a great clothing or shoe sale, or if I see something I simply can't live without at full price.

6. be less judgmental of others unless they're obviously idiots or evil or in politics or on TV, in which case they've got it coming.

7. spend more time with Jim. I like watching him sleep in the recliner.............. it's a bonding experience.

8. stop giving advice to my family; they've never followed my advice, anyway; I usually don't either.

9. let my hair grow out. I'm married to the only man on the planet who likes short haired women; he'll have to adjust.

10. give up a habit.....let's see, I don't smoke; alcohol mostly just makes me feel bad. My generation doesn't do drugs. I can't have sugar or chocolate because of the migraines. Maybe I'll take up a frickin' habit in 2010 so I can give it up next year!

Fa-la-la-la-la, La-la-la-la

Christmas is almost here! And the weather has turned off wet, windy and bitterly cold......well, bitterly so for the mid-south. We don't do cold very well. With the first half-dozen fluffy snow flakes, schools close down, and Wal-Mart sells out of bread and milk, as if we expected to be snowed in for weeks. If we get any accumulation at all, it's usually gone by noon the next day. I only remember one White Christmas in my whole life, and I'll tell you about that soon. It was magical, one of those Christmases we keep in our hearts for life.

But I'm still adding little Christmasy touches around the house, haven't put up the tree yet (except for the Charlie Brown tree, a ficus hung with gold balls, the ceramic tree, 3 wire mesh trees, and 3 tiny green trees decorated with miniature ornaments on bathroom lavatories) or wrapped all the presents, but Lord willin' it will all get done. And I'm praying that this isn't a snowy or icy Christmas because we're having the family at our house this year, and it's about a 2 hour drive to get here.

Jim brought me some live mistletoe from the ranch were he hunted in Texas. He always touches my heart with the little gifts of plants, rocks or branches he brings me, and the fact that most of the leaves blew off in the back of his truck made me love the bedraggled little green clumps even more.

Decorating with Friends

Rita asked Sybil and me over to help decorate her house for Christmas. (That's them in the pics.) Amid all the goofing off, silly talk and laughter, we actually did get a lot accomplished, and then she took us out for lunch and a quick trip to a local florist (note the lovely turquoise wreath) where I stole, or uh borrowed, a few ideas and bits of inspiration. That's why God created pocket cameras, for goodness sake.

Not much to report in the way of technique, but I promised I would share photos. Behind the house is an old red barn, trimmed in white, built by Rita's grandfather, and we made a huge green wreath with a red bow for it, but then we wimped out on climbing the long wooden ladder to hang it. That's why God created husbands.