Little inspirations

Don't you wish you could snooze like that? This cat inspires me. She shows up on our doorstep one cold Christmas Eve. From the start she let us know what she wanted. Sometimes food, sometimes just a good rubdown, other times a door she wants opened. She persists loudly until she gets what she wants . . . oblivious to any eye rolls, sighs or insults hurled her way. She at times seems unsettled and nervous, but she'll soon work it out and just sack out with her belly in the. She is a spectacular hunter by night and by day she perfects the art of lounging and being a housecat. If only we all could take such easy care of ourselves.


Another odd bit of inspiration hit me today as I was refilling the hand soap in the bathroom. I was pouring from a huge refill container into the small dispenser. I realized that if I tried to rush this process I just made a mess of it. And when I slowed down and just let the soap take its time trickling (slow, but steady) that it all went along smoothly . . .no glubs, no mess . . .just nice and easy. And the light filtering through the blue ribbon was really very beautiful . . .almost peaceful. I'm thinking I ought to approach life more this way, because isn't life so much cleaner and more enjoyable when we just relax and do things at a natural pace and enjoy the view along the way? Every time I try to hurry it up I end up making a mess. So for today, it's all about being the liquid soap.

I just like the irony of this picture. The wintery tree and the volleyball net and shower which clearly belong to summer. I used to see things like this and miss summer . . . but now I'm more patient and can happily wait. Because really, if summer came tomorrow then we'd miss Spring. And Spring is not so great unless you've just finished Winter. I'm finally learning to appreciate the necessity and beauty of the cycles of life. It's a simple thing, but it sure has taken me awhile to catch on.

On to February

Lots of Canadian Geese have been flying over lately. Some in such large masses that the whole family is drawn out to the deck to look at the sky in awe with our mouths agape. Only after we made it back inside unscathed did we realize that we were lucky to have escaped being pooped on. I like this picture because it is exactly like the season here . . .some clouds, some blue sky, always something alive and moving about and then the tree, still slumbering through winter and awaiting Spring's new leaves.

It snowed . . .again. At least this time Mother Nature had the courtesy to wait until the kids were already on their way to school. It's pretty, but really, we're done!

And another Superbowl Party under our belts. Small and lowkey (and cold . . .the heater in the barn went out) but fun. The kids are tired today. My body is tired from all the yuck I ate yesterday. Today I must purge the house of the tempting, bad for you stuff and head back to veggies and good food.

Hopefully, today will end our streak of bad appliance luck. Today we have the dishwasher repair man here and the barn heater man on his way. There is always the coffeemaker which must be mailed back today and the refrigerator which seems to have taken on a personality of its own and beeps randomly throughout the day and night. I'm afraid to even talk about how everything is fixed now, or wonder about what is next . . . because I'm sure it would be something.