First love, fires, GREEN, and dweebiness...

I had started to wonder if Amos had finally set aside his ardent love for Flower Baby in favor of Froggy Long Legs Baby.  Amos has been dragging Froggy Long Legs up and down the stairs each night/morning so that he is not parted from his baby.  However, the other day, I awoke to find myself sharing a pillow with Amos and Flower Baby.  Actually, Amos had placed Flower Baby between us on the pillow and was resting his chin on her face, a paw flung across her body and tucked into my armpit.  While I discovered that it was most assuredly time for Flower Baby's next bath, I smiled and stared at my puppy dog, struck anew at what a merciful gift from my Good Shepherd he is to me.

Today, I had to get up really, really, really, really early.  Of course, the reason I did was because Firewood Man was bringing me more firewood!  The past two afternoon/evenings, it has been colder inside my house than out.  I have not wanted to turn on the heat yet and was hankering for wood.

Last fall, I had left-overs, so that I did not have to wait on delivery.  However, I had the lofty goal of scrapping and painting the back porch this summer.  As you can see, this task did not get done.

The outside door to the porch drags along the floor.  It has been shaved once since I moved here.  Well, it has been cut with a saw-zall, but it still sticks in certain weather.  So, I wanted it trimmed again before I set to work.  I never got it trimmed, so I never painted.

Anyway, now I have enough for a couple of weeks of fires ... maybe three!

Actually, I have not been able to remember just how often I buy wood, so I marked the calendar today as a wood delivery.  I have found that if I close the French doors to the dining room the French door to the parlor, a fire will warm up the living room sufficiently to not run the heat.  Since I sleep better in cooler temperatures, I can set the thermostat rather low in winter if no one else is in the house.  However, with the body temperature regulation problems from Dysautonomia and the Reynaud's, last winter I found myself turning the house up to roast (about 80 degrees) when I would have a cold spell.  What I need to somehow remember is that when those cold spells happen, my best friend helped me figure out that external heat against my skin works best.  So, some time in the next month or so I should get an electric twin-sized blanket to keep in the living room.

Tim mowed as well.  He very nearly had to sickle my prairie first!  We have ever so much rain and my backyard has just loved all the extra drinks.

Last week he did a fertilizer treatment for me.  And I will admit, openly, that I oft have a bit of a pride battle when I look at my yard compared to those of my neighbors.  Firewood Man has this super secret special weed killer and super secret special fertilizer.  In just one year, there was a tremendous difference in the coverage of my yard and now, after a second full year of him treating my yard, I have luscious grass that does not sport either the dandelions or the clover that I see all around me.  GREEN grass wherever I look is bliss!  This year, my mother has paid for Tim to mow as well.  So, the whole of the tending of the yard did not fall upon my fainting shoulders.  It is amazing, really, the transformation he has made to the very, very neglected lawn.  And I simply can never get my fill of gazing upon all that GREEN!

Amos ... well, he prefers snow.  Hopefully, he will have lots and lots of stress free tending-his-business trips out into the yard this winter!!

I am actually thankful that Firewood Man dragged me out of bed early today because I realized that I have two family birthdays this week.  Last year, I started making birthday cards.  I am NOT artistic or crafty in the least.  Seriously, kindergarteners have been art skills than I.  However, I had stopped sending cards after losing my job because of the rather non-economical cost of them.  Last year, I decided dweeby handmade cards from a middle-aged-talentless woman were better than nothing.

What was nice about working on those two cards (and two more that will be coming up in the next month) was being able to sit at the table.

By the way, what did one candle say to the other?  Don't birthdays burn you up?

Yep, I'm making dweebie handmade cards complete with horribly corny jokes!

You can see the new sit-able chairs in the photo.  I could ask you:  Do those look like tone-on-tone BROWN damask chairs to you?  They are, in fact, predominately this rather unidentifiable color ... some sort of silver/green/blue mix.  However, the seats are not broken, the backs are not out, and all the legs are functioning.  So, I was able to sit at the table, spread out my left-over supplies that I am using for the cards, and work rather easily and comfortably.  I cannot sit in any chair for long periods of time, but this was far, far, far better than spreading everything out on the floor and working from there.

With regard to the chairs, what I discovered is that having a patterned chair affects your placemats and napkins.  My mid-1800's chairs were almost cream colored, having been a pale pink when they were first created.  Not a single placemat or napkin goes with the chairs.  I find this unsettling.  My mustard-colored plates will be a tad strong in comparison, but I love them and have plans to keep on using them in heaven.  However, florals, butterflies, and madras plaids ... make for a very disturbing visual contrast with the fabric of the new chairs.  So, I hope to eventually find some plain brown placemats and napkins that will fit with the background of the chairs.  Eventually.  As in 2014.  Meanwhile, I will have horrible mis-matching table dressings until then.

In any case, now that the cards are out in the mail, I shall be taking my very exhausted self back to bed until 3:15, when I have to go fetch Sandra's son.


I am Yours, Lord.  Save me!