Strawberry Wrist Watch

Click here to read rest of blog.  The quilling in this watch is created with 1/16” paper.  Talk about little, sewing thread is almost same size.  The ole eyes were watering – trying to see what the hands were doing.  The hands kept holding too tight and distorting the shapes.  Finally after many, many errors the final results are quite nice.  The watch face measures 1 ½” across, is battery operated and has a white leather strap.  This is indeed “one of a kind” item and would make a special gift or just a beautiful conservation starter wrist watch to wear.  There is only one supplier of this wrist watch that I could find, and that is from Australia.  Go to www.artbybetty.com for price and shipping rates; also look at the other wrist watches in “Other” category.

Heat wave over? Sure hope so, after 80 days of 100 and above temperatures this year anything in lower 90’s or 80’s seem like a cold front.  Ha.  And rain – well I know God will send rain — sometime.   But seriously though, this hot, dry weather is not new to us here.  We have made it through other years, complaining all the time and make promises that we are unable to keep. Keep up the good thoughts – rain will come.  It is a promise from our maker.

New Year

A new year is here.  What you do with it is up to you – only you.  Making promises to do better this year is only a promise.  Make that promise a goal.  And the only way to make a goal come true is write it down.  So what do you want to do?  Make more money?  So how are you planning on doing that?  No plan, no goal – it is not going to happen.   To make money in your field may mean you will need more education.  So…. you will never be this young again regardless of your age now.  Go back to school.  And again it may mean you need to change your field of work altogether.  If you goal is to make more money this year, you will have to figure the way for that to happen.  Just wishing will not work.

 For some may want to lose weight.  There is only way.  Without hard work on your part – it will never happen.  A better choice of foods and exercise – hard and lots of exercise is the only way to achieve this goal.  Make it happen by being accountable and keeping TRUE records of what you actually eat, including ALL snacks.  Tell everyone you know that you need them to help you watch your diet and that you need help with exercise.  No accountability or hard work and this year will be just like last year, with more weight gained.

 Enough for today.

Cardboard Boxes

Finished with your Christmas shopping already?  Are you 100% sure?  Did you miss anyone?  What about those unexpected guest that seem to appear out of nowhere every year? Got something tucked away for them?  Hopefully there will only be ONE unexpected guest. 

Children do not count the money spend on presents, they count packages.  They put them up in piles of “mine and yours”.  Watch the war if one sibling has one more present than the other.  Pouting, tears, and “Santa loves you more than me” starts immediately even before opening any presents.  So count presents and make sure there is an even amount and save loads of trouble.

 Depending on the children’s ages, all the empty Christmas present boxes hold a fascination for children that cannot be ignored.  New toys laid aside the children build a town, fort or store out of the empty boxes.  For hours and sometimes days (as long as the parent can tolerate the empty boxes) new toys will ignored.  Either Mother’s cleaning or the cardboard finally going flat will revive the new toys that Santa brought. 

 May everyone have a wonderful Christmas, full of love, old hurts forgot and forgiven.

Indoor Plumbing and other blessings

Do you really like the hustle and bustle of holidays like Christmas? In a way it is still so fun, but more so when the children were little, their excitement infuses the whole house. The awe of shinny new presents – so explain why they play with the boxes instead of the new toys! That is a mystery of childhood and the freedom of their imagination. Wonderful, sometimes as we grow in age we lose our imagination and that is sad. Just compare a 5 year old and an 18 year old at Christmas. Wow!

Do you serve traditional Holiday food or something altogether different? I’ve tried for years to something different and get resistance from all sides. “It will not seem like Christmas without ____.” Oh Well, I do know that the local grocery store will cook the main meal for me. That makes it easy and good too.

Now about presents – what can I say – they all have way too much. And the electronics, as hard as I tried to stay up with times it seems impossible. They change daily and the young seem to have an automatic instinct of how to use them.

Seriously, we must think about people in other lands that live in conditions we would not accept. Think about living without running water, hot and cold water. I personally am so thankful for indoor plumbing. Think about not have electricity – can you just imagine how that would change your life? Or heat or cooling for our homes and what about transportation. No car? Horrors. Give thanks to the good Lord above for supplying us with all blessings.  Thank you Lord!

Exercise and other dirty words

Walking or running? Well running is out for me, knees tell me NO WAY, in a direct message of PAIN.  Walking will definitely firm up the legs and other places, plus it is good for the heart.  To walk in sunshine gives the added benefit of Vitamin D which so many are deficient.   Plus the sunshine just makes a person feel so much better and just makes the world is a brighter place to live. 

Other exercise?  There are all sorts of gyms and spas out there with all sorts of equipment.  And even some for just ladies!   Some of the equipment is downright frightening!  Machines that make a certain muscles move, if a person can figure out to use the machine correctly and not get all tangled.  Scary!  Machines that reach all the way up far taller than the person using it.  Machines that offer a “walk path” that works really well, except if machine is going too fast to keep pace it is impossible to change pace while on the “walk path”.  You could find yourself on the floor behind the machine.  Oh my!

Enough for today!  Being as it is only 28 outside now; guess the mall is the next best thing to being outside.  The only thing about walking in the mall is to be there before the stores open, it is not considered polite to run over customers.