Falling for Autumn

Although my calendar says autumn doesn't officially start until the end of this week - Fall is most definitely in the air.  No tiptoeing in for this season.  Nope.  She seems to have slid in sideways, all "Risky Business" style.  And she was pulling all her accessories along with her.  No complaining from this corner.  I - for one- couldn't be happier! 

The air is cooler.  Those happy 60-something and 70-something degree days are back.  No air conditioners or heaters needed.  Just comfortable days with the windows thrown wide open to catch the breezes and fresh air. Oh sure, I know well enough that at some point summer is going to make one last stand and toss us a few more 80-ish degree days.  But those days are numbered and will soon be a thing of the past.   

The leaves are starting to change colors.  The yellows and reds are peeking out from between the green.  They are taking a foothold and getting prepared to go into full display in a few short weeks.  It won't be too much longer, and the mountains will be cloaked in a colorful blanket of gold, orange, and red.

That combination of beautiful scenery and cooler weather makes the perfect combination for hiking.  I love getting out and enjoying the beauty of my little corner of the world.

I've pulled out my mental recipe book chapter on soups, chili, and gumbo.  The crock pot is standing at the ready for the next yummy comfort food to be prepared.  Especially on chilly Sunday afternoons while we relax on the couch watching football games.  Nothing warms the belly like a bowl full of homemade chili.  Or a fresh veggie soup with a grilled cheese sandwich along side.

Ahh... football.  This is the time when I feel obligated to take an indulgent moment to brag that my fantasy team is doing better than my real life team, the Carolina Panthers.  The Panthers are off to a disappointing 0-2, despite the promising performances of their rookie QB.  Under my outstanding coaching skills - my fantasy team is 1-1. But I digress...

The autumn sky takes on that particular shade of Carolina blue.  You know that shade of blue?  The one that the sky only seems capable of showing during the fall season?  It's a little brighter, a little clearer, a little crisper than any other time of year.

The days are noticeably getting shorter.  A few weeks ago it was light until 9 or later.  Now, the sun has set by 8.  The girls have taken to going to bed earlier and earlier.  They somehow seemed to know the days were getting shorter even before we recognized it.

The Halloween decorations are out in full force at the stores, and will soon appear in front yards everywhere.  Ghosts, skeletons, and headstones mixed in amongst the pumpkins and cornstalks.  Oh.. and the Halloween candy!  Was there ever a more perfect confection created than that little miracle - the Reese's pumpkin?  Possibly, but doubtful.

We get to put away all those skin revealing clothes we tolerated for comforts sake during the sweltering days of summer.  In their place are the comfy sweats, our favorite jeans, and cozy sweaters.  At night, it's my favorite fluffy bathrobe.

So enjoy these days.  The coolness, the crisp air.  The comfort foods and the comfort clothes.  Cuddle up with someone and sip some fresh cider.  Or a beer while you watch a football game.  Go for a walk and crunch some leaves under your feet.  Savor every second.  Before you know it, we'll be in the grasp of Old Man Winter.  But that is a whole different tale, for another time. 

In A Blink

I must be feeling a little reflective today.  Heard this song on the way to work and haven't been about to get it out of my head all day.

I'm Not Buying It...

Nice try, Hershey's.  Sneaky.  But I'm on to you. 

Have you seen what they're trying to pull?  This creation they call the Air Delight.  Available in bars and kisses. 

They say the idea is that the products are full of light airy "chocolate bubbles".  What it amounts to is that they have taken some of the chocolate out of my chocolate and replaced it with pockets of air!  AIR!
 
Oh no.. I am not falling for this one.  If I want air, I have that around me all day long.  For free.  It's not sweet.  Air is not creamy.  Air is not delicious.  Air never got me through a PMS craving.  What lame brain would rather have air than chocolate?  Of course I realize that air has it's place and purpose.  It's extremely important to life here on earth.  But not in my chocolate treats. 

Give me my chocolate bar and my chocolate kisses full of... Chocolate!!

A Day in the Life of The Girls

It's been an interesting day for The Girls.  ("The Girls" being how I refer to our 6 young hens.)  Of course, they may not realize exactly how interesting the day has been - which is probably a good thing for them.

It started this morning when I went to open the hen house for the day.  The food container was tipped over  and the top portion that stores the food was separated from the dish part.  At first I didn't think much of it, but when I opened the door to the house, it hit the container.  Which meant that this had to have happened after The Girls went to bed last night.  Uh oh...

I mentioned it to The Man of the House and we went out to take a closer look.  Sure enough, something had dug under the enclosure to get to the food.  Not only had it managed to get into the run, but it had taken some work first.  This was no easy task for whatever-it-was.  There were at least 3 other places we could tell it had tried to dig under!  I guess we may have to start taking the food container into the garage when we put The Girls to bed at night.

When I went out to shovel up the spilled food, clean up their sandbox, and refill the food - I let The Girls out to play.  They love wandering in the underbrush at the edge of the wooded area, scratching and pecking.  Suddenly they were making quite a fuss of clucking and flapping of wings.  I look over, and there is The Princess's cat stalking them!!  They managed to do an admirable job staying away from him until I gathered him up and put him in the house.  He got a good scolding along the way.

After The girls had their chance to free roam a bit, fill up on weeds and bugs, and do whatever other chicken sort of things they do - it was time to go back in the run.  They did not agree.  I tried using corn to coax them back.  They would get close to the door of the run, then wander off.  I'm not fluent in chicken, but I feel pretty sure the basic idea was "Nope, I don't think so.  Not happening right now".

I was in no mood to argue.  So The Girls had a nice, long free roam session for a good part of the day before finally heading back into the chicken run not too long ago.  Finally.  Don't get me wrong... they didn't just wander in on their own free will.  There was some convincing that had to take place.  But they finally gave in.

Yep, it's been an interesting day for The Girls alright...

I Believe...

if you look at your expecting daughter in her pregnancy pants, and find yourself feeling jealous just because they look so darn stretchy and comfy (what with that panel for the tummy and all) - it might be time to either lose some weight, or rethink your clothing priorities.

Let A Thousand Flowers Bloom

And then the day came, when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom. 

- Anais Nin, Danish diarist  

This quote was recently sent to me in one of those inspirational newsletter emails from a dieting website I sometimes visit.  I get a few of those emails a week, and usually just hit "delete" before even fully glancing at it.  But for some reason, this time the quotation jumped off the screen at me and has stayed in my mind.

Perhaps it was the timing of the email.  It came last week when I was in a full blown downward spiral of lost self confidence, self doubt, and - I have to admit it - self pity.   I was curled into a tight bud of frustration.  I was angry with myself for having stayed that way for so long.  I had allowed my fear of failing, of not being as good as I want to be, to stop me from taking the risk to bloom.  And I felt like I was whithering. 

I was fortunate to have The Man of the House reminding me I have his support and his faith in me, which helped to start nurturing my faith in myself.   Oh, I didn't make it easy on him.  Poor guy.  He knew I was upset.  He wanted to help me.  I wanted to stay curled up inside myself.  After several attempts to get me to open up and talk about what was going on - I think he was just as frustrated with me as I was with myself.  But fortunately I cracked.   And I'm glad I did. 

Now, I just have to figure out exactly which direction I need to turn and then to open my petals wide to the possibilities.

So, today I challenge you to ask yourself... are you happy being curled tight into a bud?  Or are you ready to take the risk to bloom?

Face on Fire - Part 3: Return of the Rash

Although I suppose if you want to be perfectly technical about it - it is actually Part 4.  And it's getting ridiculous!  This rash is like Jason, or Freddy, or Michael Myers.  You can never think it's dead and turn your back on it to take a deep breath, because it will suddenly rise up and appear over your shoulder.  And even when you think it's really, truly dead and gone and over - there is probably going to be a sequel.

This weekend the Evil Itchy Redness reappeared.  Again.  The only good part of this episode is that it did not so much involve the face this time around.  It rather focused its attention around the neck, shoulder, and chest area.  The bad part is that this was the worst itch I have experienced so far with this phenomenon.

I knew how to battle the enemy this time.  And since I refuse, absolutely REFUSE to go on yet another round of Prednisone - it was back to the Benedryl, Zyrtec, Zantac cocktail and the cream/ointment routine that has helped clear up the previous 3 eruptions. 

It's getting quite annoying really.  All these antihistamines are interfering with my nightly glass of wine.  It seems completely unfair.  I'm itchy. I'm annoyed.  And I can't even have a lovely sip of the vine to take the edge off.  How much is a lady supposed to put up with?  Geez...

So, the current news is that the rash once again appears to be clearing up.  But...  Stay tuned for the next exciting episode of "Face on Fire"

Earthquake Measured at 5.9 Magnitude Rattles Washington, New York - ABC News

Earthquake Measured at 5.9 Magnitude Rattles Washington, New York - ABC News

I felt it!

The Little Man and I were at Wally-world and had stopped in Subway to get a sandwich. I felt the shaking but I'm a little slow. At first I thought I had a wobbly chair. Even when I noticed the the signs over the produce department shaking I thought someone had messed with them. It wasn't until I heard someone asking someone else if they felt the shaking that I realized it was probably an earthquake. Um... DUH!!

When I Grow Up

Once upon a time there was a little girl.  As she grew up she realized she wasn't the pretty one, that was her younger sister.  She wasn't the smart one.  That was her other younger sister.  She was just... her.

When she was almost grown she wanted to be a teacher.  But when she went to college she wasn't very good at it.  She goofed off.  She skipped classes.  She dropped out.  She went home to face her disappointed parents and her pretty and smart sisters.  She tried community college, but she wasn't much better at that than she had been at university.  She dropped out of that also. 

Time rolled along, she became a wife and had kids of her own.  She worked part time to help mothers breastfeed their babies.  But her job was forever trapped in the category of  "part time temporary" and there was no room for advancement.  She thought of becoming a board certified lactation consultant.  She took one online class and after barely passing realized she may not be very good at this either.  But she held onto the thought of getting that certification.  Until she realized that because she wasn't a nurse, or a nutritionist, or something else with a bunch of letters following her name - being a lactation consultant wouldn't mean much to potential employers. 

She thought perhaps she should become a nurse.  She tried to push past her fear of being the oldest person in the classes.  She tried to push past her fear of science classes that involved a lot of mathematical equations.  She tried to push past her fear of  classes period.  In the end, she realized that if she can't even clean up after her own kids being sick without dry heaving - she probably wasn't going to be very good at dealing with strangers vomit, blood, etc either.  Which would not make her a very good nurse.

Just for good measure, the universe decided to give her a good kick to the teeth by having her pretty and smart sisters go to school to become a teacher and a nurse.  And one of her friends sat for the lactation consultant boards.  Just as if to remind her that others could achieve the things she was too lazy, or too afraid to do herself.

She tried to think of something she would be good at.  Something that would interest her.  Something that would stimulate her mind.  Something that would make her feel like she had found her place in the world.  Something she could look forward to doing and enjoy each day.  The right thing had to be out there somewhere.  

She realized that at 40+ years old, she still had no idea what she wanted to be when she grew up. 


  

Froggy Set

First completed crochet project for the little tadpole

Frog bib with matching hat and booties

INTRODUCING...

My grandson!!  Expected arrival - around January 16, 2012!

Yep, you read that one right.  I'm gonna be a (gulp!!) grandmother!  Holy Cow!!!

Just Us Chickens

The girls have settled into thier new home quite nicely.  We've started letting them out to do a little free-ranging in the evenings just before sunset.  It's quite amusing to watch them run around doing thier thing.  Picking at every little bug that crosses thier path.  Spreading thier wings.  Re-inforcing the pecking order.  Chicken sort of stuff.

One thing no one tells you is how difficult it is to get decent pictures of chickens.  Small children and dogs have nothing on these ladies.  Just when you think they are still and you have a good shot - they turn away or run off.  They must be camera shy.

Svetlana, Medusa, and Shelly

Medusa

Shelly

Svetlana

Shelly and Miss Muffett

Amelia and Small Fry (aka: Fry)

Small Fry

Update to: Face on Fire

The saga continues...

I did make it to the Dr following my last post.  I got a steroid shot in the um... hip.  I got a round of prednisone.  I was told to take Benedryl at night, Zyrtec in the morning, Zantac and Prednisone twice a day.  The rash cleared up quickly.  Much to my relief.

The following Friday was my last dose of medicine.  I was glad to be done.  I don't like how I feel on Prednisone - or Benedryl.  But it was finally over.  Or was it?

By Wednesday, the rash was reappearing!!  CRAP!!  Now what?  I called the Dr Thursday.  Begging to be seen or get more prednisone.  I was promised that they would get a message to the nurse and she would let me know what the Dr wanted to do.  They were mistaken.  The nurse never called me back!

So, I called again Friday.  This time the nurse did return my call and I was given 5 more days of the Prednisone.  Ugh.  I am irritable.  On edge.  Let's face it... I'm more than a little bitchy thanks to this medicine.  And I'm also living in fear that once I run out, the rash will again rear it's ugly head all over my face.