Oh, My...

I just realized I have been lax in my posting but sadly have had little to say.  I'm all talked out.  I'm stuffed to the gills with wonderful and some strange food.  The litter from opening packages is cleared. The next to last guests have returned home.

There is some sense of order in my world again. I am comfortable with order.

I sit in my area crocheting, checking now and then on the injured daughter still here.  Zander plays with Legos while his mother naps. Monday we return to the doctor.  Some one comes here three times a week and does what ever they do with a wound vac.  

Tuesday we drop Bonnie at the vet's for her shots, check up and spaying.  Hubby has a doctor's appointment the same day.  I'm hoping I don't get the places and patients mixed up.

Wednesday I take recyclables to turn in an hour away.

Friday, Zander's school begins again.  Monday Andrew's and Jake's begins.

And we begin the year to do it all over again.  We are grateful and blessed.

Happy New Year.

A Giveaway and This N That...

After one thousand-one hundred four posts and twenty-seven months of posting, I have two hundred twenty-five followers.  Not so good, although I am tickled pink to have that many wonderful people following.  Many have become friends rather than just followers. I want to thank each and every one of you who follow and special thanks for the comments. 

I have noticed many giveaways, I have decided to join that group.  The Art of George Stubbs by Venetia Morrison will be my first prize.  Please ignore the flash reflection on the cover.  This is a magnificent "coffee table" book full of Mr. Stubbs amazing art.  The names will be placed in a hat, and one will be drawn out by a completely unbiased grandson that has no idea what is going on.  I would use random chooser or whatever they call that thing but I am not computer literate enough...yet.  This giveaway deadline will be Friday.  I will announce the winner Saturday.

I am not beyond bribing you to follow, so that is your only requirement to enter..be a.follower...and comment on this post.

On to other random, strange thoughts...I am gonna being working on changing the look and layout so don't panic if I disappear, it will only be temporary.  I asked my daughter what words I could add to the title so more search engines would catch my blog.  She advised, anything with the word sex, my sister said 2012 but 2012 Sex At The Farm did not appeal to me.  Any suggestions will be considered.

We are cool here, not freezing, except at night. The valley shows enough frost in the mornings to look like snow but we haven't any yet.  I hope this winter is kinder than the last.

Marcy is still keeping Zander two days a week while youngest daughter is working on her nursing degree.  She is also still photographing some amazing cold weather pictures which I will be sharing.

Melissa is working and Grandma Anna is helping out with Jake.  What would we do without an extended family??  Grandma Anna is our angel.

I am so proud of both my daughers, I don't think I tell them often enough but I hope they do know.

Hubby is donning the cloak of umeployment and does not think it fits.  At fifty-nine this is the first time, he hasn't had a job. It is not comfortable for him and a little scary. The fences are getting built and things are getting done, so his lack of a paying job has paid off for the farm.

Beverly continues to help us thin and empty our houses.   My sisters and I are hoping that in the spring the shop will be open.  There are many things we cannot do, like erecting the hugh shelves my nephew bought, but maybe the help will show up when we need it most.

Christmas is coming. I dread the coming. It seems that I have lost the spirit of Christmas along with a few other things I have misplaced.

I am still working six days a week or rather five and part of a day.  I am tired.  Fourteen months without a Saturday off is getting old but I am blessed I have a job.

A little insider information on the post office about Saturday delivery.  The post offices will still maintain their Saturday hours, mail will be placed in Post Office Boxes, the only service that will not be continuing on Saturday, if they decide on this course of action, will be street delivery.  This one move would eliminate many positions and would save much money but according to our statistics, payroll is but a small percentage of the expense. We all wait to see what our fate may be.

Yes, Virginia...

This is a partial quote from the New York Sun on September 21, 1897.

An eight-year-old girl wrote the newspaper and asked if Santa was real. Her father had said if you read it in the Sun, it is true.

The editor answered.

"Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus. He exists as certainly as love and generosity and Devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life it's highest beauty and joy. Alas! how dreary would be the world if there were no Santa Claus! It would be as dreary as if there were no Virginias. There would be no childlike faith then, no poetry, no romance to make tolerable this existence. We should have no enjoyment, except in sense and sight. The external light with which childhood fills the world would be extinguished." By Francis Pharcellus Church, Editor of the New York Sun.

May we take the time tonight and tomorrow to view the world through children's eyes.