There was just a handful of tasks at each Pinnacle today. I stopped afterwards at Aldi and got 3 items to make veggie soup tomorrow and another small batch of chocolate covered popcorn.

I came home and answered emails and waited for Autmn to call. She had an on-line appointment that we had to wait for. When I was about a block from their house, Chrissy called and her friend Hope wanted to come up (to Chrissy’s). She lives right up the street from Autmn. So I collected Autmn and Cameron – Autmn has been working really hard to get their home organized, and Cameron’s room looks so cute! Then we got Hope, dropped her off at Chrissy’s, got Autmn lunch at Subway, and came home.

Cameron wasn’t sure about the whole process but once we got him settled on the floor, on blankets, with his toys and Mickey Mouse Clubhouse on the TV, he was happy! He laid there for the longest time and played, and talked to me, and laughed.

Autmn had a cup of hot tea with honey (she’s had a cold), and took a nap. Cameron and I had quality time – food, diapers (him, not me), nap (him, not me), more play time, and lots of smiles! He sort of kept hitting himself on the forehead with his toys, but he just laughed again! It was a great-mimi/grandson bonding day! Today, I didn’t feel like they were here long enough! I could take pictures of him all day.

The answer to yesterday’s riddle is ‘The Future’. Today’s puzzle is: Rearrange the letters in the word CONSIDERATE to discover the related phrase. Answer tomorrow!

Birthdays, etc., for January 4th: Isaac Newton 1643; Jacob Grimm (Grimm’s Fairy Tales) 1785; Patty Loveless (Country singer) 1957.

PEANUTS thought for the day:

TOMORROW January 5th is:

National Keto Day; National Screenwriters Day; National Whipped Cream Day; National Bird Day.

My mom loved birds, especially cardinals. John loved feeding them and had feeders all over the yard. Enjoy your day and your weekend – God bless…

It was a strange feeling to be home all day today without cleaning the whole house. That being said, I did clean out three kitchen shelves/spaces, and took everything out of the storage space under the steps. Went through everything and packed a small box of items I plan to pass along to someone who can use them.

I also did some ‘time travel’ – taking myself back to some happy, fun memories that I hadn’t thought about in a while. I sat for probably fifteen minutes and played with my childhood View Master. I looked at Heidi, the White House, Mt. Vernon and a few others. Wow. THAT was a blast from the very far past!

Then I found the ‘book’ I had written about an account of an Easter scavenger hunt that Susan had created for Kathy and I out Home. I read every word and looked at all the pictures, and missed Susan terribly and all the places we used to haunt on our family trips to the cabin. Made me want to call everyone up just to talk to them and remember!

After lunch (Cheerios) I pulled everything from the downstairs closet and stacked it in the family room. I sorted and stacked and tossed and swept and cleaned — then put most of it back in, although more organized and neater.

While I worked downstairs I watched 3 Bedrooms, 2 Baths, and 1 Ghost, and then Magic in Mistletoe. I had seen them both before but it was fun listening to them.

The answer to yesterday’s questions is ‘1907.’ Today’s riddle is: What is always in front of you but can’t be seen? Answer tomorrow!

Birthdays, etc, January 3rd: In 1959 Alaska was admitted as a state. J R R Tolkien born 1892; Victor Borge born 1909. (Victor Borge was a favorite of my dad!)

PEANUTS Thought for the Day:

TOMORROW January 4th is:

National Missouri Day; National Trivia Day; National Spaghetti Day.

Now I’m hungry for spaghetti. Hope I don’t have to go to Missouri to get it. God bless…

I have to say, there’s not too much excitement about grocery shopping, ironing, and cleaning laundry room shelves! Even putting my Christmas leggings, shirts and jewelry away doesn’t create much interest. Bummer.

I had heard some reviews that the Hallmark Christmas movie Miracle in Bethlehem PA was a cute movie with lots of little references to the Christmas story. I was going to watch it today but the firestick only holds them for viewing for several days and I missed my window. Undoubtedly Hallmark will run it a weekend or two over the next 10 months.

Autmn and Cameron and I have plans for Thursday after work. So that IS exciting to look forward to! Noah is off on Wednesdays so it wouldn’t make sense for them to come today.

I just noticed that the back of my Peanuts Page-A-Day calendar has trivia notes on each day, so I’ll share them if they are worthy. I will post the question today and share the answer tomorrow!
Trivia: What year did the New Year’s Eve Ball drop in Times Square for the first time?

Birthdays for January 2nd: Roger Miller, Country singer (1936). Also on this date in 1863 the Battle of Stone’s River concluded (Civil War).

Peanuts thought for the day:

TOMORROW January 3rd is:

National Chocolate Covered Cherry Day (Mom would have loved that!); National Drinking Straw Day.

Take Snoopy’s advise and be yourself! God bless…

I think I will join Lucy’s sentiments – even though I’ve only experienced about 18 hours of it, this year seems suspiciously like any other year and not new at all! One of my favorite Peanuts quotes.

Since I got all the decorations taken down and tucked away yesterday, I spent today getting the house back to rights. Mostly it was cleaning, but I also did three loads of laundry and tackled a few little chores that I had been putting off through the holidays.

As much as I am NOT a fan of snow, because I was staying in all day I enjoyed seeing the ground and the trees and bushes all covered. The neighbor’s dark green door wreath with a bright red bow looked especially festive. And the azalea outside my living room window was perfectly dusted in a white dress. But it didn’t last long.

I decided – as I took the trash out this afternoon – that my new garbage can is big enough to be an addition on my house. I can’t reach the bottom, so here’s hoping I don’t drop anything in there or I’ll have to get a ladder and crawl in! It’s a super sturdy, huge sized and very very nice garbage can.

When I was cleaning I realized that there was a suitcase that I kept extra blankets in that I didn’t look at for winter blankets. I found another one! It’s a new one that I bought after Christmas last year and forgot about. So I added it to the rest.

Birthdays today: Paul Revere 1737; Betsy Ross 1752

Peanuts Thought for the Day:

TOMORROW January 2nd is:

National Cream Puff Day; National Buffet Day; National Personal Trainer Awareness Day; National Science Fiction Day.

Not a fan of any of that, basically. But Aunt Darlene would have been at New City Buffet in a heartbeat! I still miss her, and half expect to get a call from her to meet her there! If you are going back to work tomorrow, stay calm. God bless.

It doesn’t feel like New Year’s Eve and it doesn’t feel like Sunday. It still felt strange not teaching Sunday school. Next week, back to schedule. Todd’s message was POWER IN A SHADOW – people watch us and we have an influence on them whether we choose to or not. What impact will you leave? Are we reflecting God’s influence in our lives in our shadows? We have a brand new year ahead of us – take the 20 second challenge and step out – 20 seconds of insane courage to make a difference in someone’s life. Reach out.

Once I got home and had lunch I started on my list. I took all the window clings down – which was the last box to do before the trees. That one thing makes such a major difference in every room! I switched out the drink coasters from Christmas to winter, repackaged the leftover cookies into smaller containers, got the calendars ready for the big midnight switch, and changed the outdoor flags to New Year’s and winter. Finally tucked Snoopy into his storage shelf, too. AND — the car is back in the garage!

The rooms look empty but peaceful. I adjusted the location of a few items but nothing major. Everything is still very dusty and dirty, but everything is put away. My feet hurt – I made a hundred trips up and down the steps. Tomorrow I have all day to clean and do laundry. No other plans…

Scripture:

Quote:

TOMORROW January 1st is:

National Bloody Mary Day; National Hangover Day (???); National Thank God It’s Monday Day; New Year’s Day.

Happy New Year – start the day off by being thankful for all the wonderful things in your life, and for a brand new year to look forward to! Be safe! God bless...

So today I hit the ground running! So much time, so little to do. Strike that; reverse it (Quote from Willie Wonka!!).

I’m going to skip the post today because I have things piled all over the place and just need to keep moving. I did take a lovely hour out of my morning to talk to Gen (from New York). Then my friend Teresa called in the afternoon and we discussed a tentative ‘date’ to go to L&L, Miller’s Crossing, and RAVE. So that’s coming up very soon. One of my happy places: Fleatiques!

Have a great evening and a fun day tomorrow. If you have plans for New Year’s Eve be safe and happy. Hugs to all! God bless.

TOMORROW December 31st is:

National Champagne Day; Universal Hour of Peace; New Year’s Eve; Make Up Your Mind Day (about what, I didn’t research…); Leap Second Time Adjustment Day. That needs checked out!

Happy New Year!!!

Today is my favorite sister’s birthday! I dropped off Susie Squirrel, because it’s her turn to stay with Kathy for the next six months – until my birthday. Kathy had to work today so I didn’t get to see her, but hopefully she enjoyed her day and will be happy to have Susie back in residence. Happy birthday, sweet sister!

So after work and lunch I started putting holiday decorations away. Today is supposed to be the best day weather-wise so I took care of all the outside decorations first. I put the reindeer in the shed (I always hate to put them away!), gathered up all the other outside decorations, and changed the Christmas lights to blue/white for winter. I did leave snoopy up until the weekend. He gets put away last anyway.

I took the lights and garlands down and the windows look dark and bare. It’s hard to get used to the house as things are tucked away. But once it’s all cleaned up I’ll welcome the relative plain-ness of it all. More to do tomorrow.

Scripture:

Quote:

TOMORROW December 30th is:

National Bicarbonate of Soda Day; Falling Needles Family Fest Day (???); Bacon Day.

I’ll go with the bacon! Then I’ll get back to tucking Christmas 2023 away! God bless…

Today was my niece Sarah’s birthday – Happy birthday Sarah! Hope you had a wonderful day – celebrate you!

Kelly, Matt and the boys got here about 10:30am. We just hung around the house – then ordered pizza for lunch. Matt ran to Walmart for a few things, and Peyton went down to the car wash to clean up his truck – he drove separately, OF COURSE!!! The boys set up their video stations in the spare room while Kelly made more tassel caps. She’s sold a number of them already – custom made.

I fussed around a bit and got the kitchen ready for supper, and organized the day a little bit. Of course, when everyone got there at 4pm I totally forgot to take pictures. I did get a few of Cameron while we were waiting on Nate, Jen and Chris – but then I was busy and all thoughts of the camera flew right out of mind!

We did gifts and snacks when Nate got there. Everyone seemed pleased with their gifts, and the kids were way too generous to me. I got a new HUGE outdoor trash can with wheels and a lid, and Sherree (Jen’s mom) had an M&M jar custom made for me. What a sweet gesture and I love it. I also got other things and they were all perfect. I loved all the gifts equally, but I really desperately needed a new trash can (the old one was falling apart) and the candy jar was very unexpected! Thanks to everyone!!

Matt spent a bit of time searching for viruses on my computer and did get them all cleaned out. Everything is running as it should now. I’m very happy about that!

No backed-up drains, the laundry room stayed clean and dry, and the day went very well. It was a great day spent with family and I felt extra blessed and thankful It was a fun day!

Scripture:

Quote:

TOMORROW December 29th:

National Pepper Pot Day; Tick Tock Day; No Interruptions Day.

Tomorrow is my sister’s birthday! Celebrating my best friend and life support system! Guaranteed I’ll have bunches of interruptions! Always happens. I’ll eat some M&M’s and be fine. God bless…

I climbed out of bed this morning ready to accomplish a long list. Yesterday was a bit of a trial – So I put it all behind me and started the day fresh. Since the drains are fixed and cleaned out (for now – long story), I was able to do a load of laundry, all my dishes, get a shower and eat breakfast. The horses were out in the field. As I watched, the one on the right took off, and the one on the left threw himself on the ground and rolled around on his back. Then he jumped up and galloped off. It was neat to watch!!!

My first tasks (well, after all that!) was to make deviled eggs and Oreo Ice Cream for tomorrow. I was just finishing up and my friend Bear called me – he’s off this week and Connie is working so I think he was bored! We worked at Smail’s together for years, and I am his #1 fan (he’s the actor), and we have known each other for over 40 years. So we talked for over an hour!

By then it was lunch time and I had a piece of ham and a cookie. I spent the rest of the day cleaning. But I did get a txt from Chrissy and Hope and they needed a ride to Autmn’s. She got a vacuum and a rug scrubber for Christmas from her mom, and she’s determined to get the house organized and deep cleaned. So I took them down, and got my baby hugs. We interrupted his bottle so he wasn’t happy for very long.

Chrissy took some pictures of the clouds for me since I was driving. On the way home there were clouds floating on the ground. I wanted to stop and photo them all — but I came home and finished cleaning.

I saw a really funny post on facebook and it reminded me of Chase – he’s my Goldfish fanatic! He might go for this!

I still have ironing to do and a few cards to write out and then supper. Everything else is ready for tomorrow; I will make the sloppy joe’s in the morning. Oh! I wore a pair of the earrings that Alea made! Cool!

Scripture:

Quote:

TOMORROW December 28th is:

National Short Film Day; National Card Playing Day; National Chocolate Candy Day; Pledge of Allegiance Day; Holy Innocents Day.

Tomorrow is Burke Christmas Day. I’m excited to have everyone here. Noah even switched his day off so he’ll be here all day, which is fun. God bless…

Today has been a long, busy day – with more to come over the next few days.

So I am not doing a post this evening! After I clean tomorrow I will catch up! God bless….

Tomorrow December 27th is National Fruitcake Day. Oh Joy! God bless…