Almost January

Can you believe this year is almost over? I am still in a state of denial I think. I don't think I have had a single month in 2015 that there hasn't been some life changing moment. I was reflecting over my life and I think  2015 ended up being more of a by-the-seat-of-my-pants-year. Instead of being planner and a goal setter.
I end up being surprised that I got anything accomplished at all. I am so happy that I got so many rugs hooked. I far exceeded what I ever thought was possible for me.  I hooked 39 rugs and mats. Ron said my average was 3 1/4 a month. September was my best month with five.

Google Image

Just think what I could do if I lived where it snowed. That was hooking with the air conditioning running most of the time.
Ron has been home this week, and he always reads me great passages in whatever book he is currently reading. He read me this the other day, and I keep having him read it to me over and over. I thought I would share it with you as we stand on the brink of a new year.

"Creating a positive environment to support your success means clearing out all the clutter in your life. Not just the physical clutter that makes it hard for you to work productively and efficiently (although that's important too!) but also the psychic clutter of whatever around you isn't working, whatever's broken, whatever makes you cringe. Each and every incomplete thing in your life that exerts a draining force on you, sucking the energy of accomplishment and success out of you as surely as a vampire stealing your blood.

Every incomplete promise, commitment, and agreement saps your strength because it blocks your momentum that inhibits your ability to move forward. Incomplete tasks keep calling you back to the past to take care of them. So think about what you can complete today." ---The Compound Effect-Darren Hardy.

 

I have been thinking about the goals I had for myself that I didn't finish.  They do call me and I do feel I can't start something new until I finish the old ones. So I am giving myself a month after the party in the front yard, to get some of those things off my plate. That will be it for New Year's resolutions. Sometimes you know what kind of goal I would like to make for a New Year? Something like watching 20 movies and staying in my pajamas one day a week. Doesn't that sound like a great goal? Yeah, no matter how hard I tried for that one, I am always jumping up and running outside. Sasha doesn't like pajamas and watching T.V.

 

Just stuff I was thinking about this week. I hope you have a lovely Wednesday.

~Kim~

“I can't give you a sure-fire formula for success, but I can give you a formula for failure: try to please everybody all the time.”
― Herbert Bayard Swope

Gifts from Afar

 

We have had a few storms. Enough to make the first couple of inches soil damp. Ron is doing his after Christmas disking. Except this year he will be turning this into a parking lot again. We have engagement party here on January 16th. The weathermen say El Nino hasn't kicked in yet. In a normal rain year we get about 6 inches of rain a year. The last time we had a El Nino we had 16 something, 13 inches in January alone. So this is like really, really throwing the dice. We had a very nice Christmas. Yes, everything is put away today. Nothing remains except the tons of food. We have 22 days to pull this engagement party off.

That aside, I have this friend I met though blogging. A beautiful blog named Dog Trot Farm. 
I think that is why blogging is so addictive.  You meet the nicest people. They share your life and you share theirs. When I first found blogging and found Julie and all of the wonderful happenings on Dog Trot, I was entranced. She not only was the most incredible photographer. She hooked rugs, and she had chickens.

I read her stories and I had chickens and I thought, could I be like Julie? She really was my inspiration. Never in my wildest dreams did I think she and I would become friends, living--- me in California and she in Maine. But we are.

She sent me a box filled with love this Christmas. She sent me this snowman chair pad and I have it out on my bench, and it looks like she made it just for there.

She sent some Maine Taffy.

This lovely hen and her egg

Julie knows how I love Christmas Socks or just socks period.

So if you have never met Julie or visited with her at Dog Trot, stop in and you will be so glad you did. Thank you so much Julie.

I have told you that Makenzie is a professional photographer. For Christmas she took pictures secretly of everyone. She was even going to fly to Arizona to take Kessie's and her hubby's pictures. Things just got so crazy and Kessie had just had Sophie. But she was going to try anyway. She took Ron and my photo and I will even show you because I think it is the first photo of myself I have ever liked. Well except the previous one of me and Santa.

She even had them framed. So there we are, I hope when Kessie comes for a visit in the spring we can have some more photos done. I love how our family is ever expanding. I am so thankful for the gifts God continues to send our way.

Anyway, that is how it has been, life continues to be rewarding, busy and I really still don't know what end is up. It is all good though. I am of course, very, very thankful. God is good, all of the time.

~Kim~

There is much more snow now.

"Nature gives to every time and season some beauties of its own; and from morning to night, as from the cradle to the grave, it is but a succession of changes so gentle and easy that we can scarcely mark their progress."
---Charles Dickens

Merry Christmas From Me to You!

I just wanted to stop in and wish all of you a very Merry Christmas. I wish you blessing upon blessing.

 Everyone will be here and eating and laughing and all sorts of hi-jinks will ensue. The only thing that would make it perfect would be if Kessie's and her family made it from Arizona.
I wouldn't wish that drive on anyone though, not during the holidays.
 Merry Christmas!!!

Me and Santa. About 1961

He was a very nice Santa!

~Kim~

“And the Grinch, with his Grinch-feet ice cold in the snow,
stood puzzling and puzzling, how could it be so? It came without ribbons. It came without tags. It came without packages, boxes or bags. And he puzzled and puzzled 'till his puzzler was sore. Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn't before. What if Christmas, he thought, doesn't come from a store. What if Christmas, perhaps, means a little bit more.”

Cold and Weather.

 

I had to laugh this week about the weather report. After years and years, the west is colder than the east. Every single day, I am happy with the weather. I love coats, and boots and scarves. I love wearing gloves and hats. It has been years. I love walking out and breaking ice on my chicken waterer. Yesterday, the sun was shining, and I thought the chickens needed some time out of the pen. I made me laugh to see them flop out in the sun, and raise their wings to the sun and lay out in the yard like a whole flock of sunbathing sun worshipers.

 

While we were gone, no one being out back. Flocks of crows, thought they could invade our trees. I walked out there and they flew off scolding me, because I think they had decided this looked like a good place to live. I have never seen so many before. The trees were just dripping in crows. We have two that live here full time. They are the ones who play catch with rocks, you know dropping a rock and then flying down to catch it before it hits the ground. They are quite the comical two.

Yesterday, while the chickens were out, enjoying the sun. I heard a sound from a chicken. I ran out thinking it was a hawk. Nope, just the crows. One of them was flying around trying to look like a hawk. My chickens had all ran back in the coop, and I could tell you that crow was enjoying himself too much. I could hear him laughing as he swooped back and forth about the yard. I walked down and locked the chickens back in because they weren't coming back out anyway. He flew around laughing his scratchy laugh. Then he and his buddy, flew off out in the pasture. " I think I could hear them saying, " Did you see that!!! Those silly white chickens running for their lives!!!" Drama all around.

Yesterday I got to play a bit in the kitchen. Out shopping I saw these lovely milk bottle candles. I even picked up one to see how much it was, and knowing I had the same bottles at home, and the wicks and the soy wax. I put it back and decided to make my own. So I did.

 

I love how they turned out.  I know why they are so expensive because it takes a lot of wax but they look so pretty. I need to burn one to see how they burn. I was pretty happy how they turned out.

With this lovely cold weather, our citrus is just lovely. I went out and picked lemons yesterday. They smelled so good my mouth watered. They are perfect thin skinned and full of juice.

 

For a year, I have wanted to try making lemon syrup. So yesterday I finally got to do it. I got the recipe here.

I can't wait to use it in my tea. My kitchen just smelled lovely with lemons. It was nice to slow down and play a bit in my kitchen. I hope you are enjoying your week. I think I am almost finished with that running about stuff. I hope you have a lovely rest of the week. Ron's last work day is tomorrow for two whole weeks. I think I am more excited about that than Christmas. He has been so busy and we have both been running for what seems like the whole year, it will be nice to have a couple of weeks to hopefully unwind. Ha ha, me and my plans. You know that saying, " You know how to make God laugh? tell Him your plans."

Have a wonderful day,
~Kim~

My favorite picture in the whole world. This picture makes me want to marry him all over again. He is the best!!

" Have a heart that never hardens, and a temper that never tires, and a touch that never hurts."
---Charles Dickens