Fred

So today I had my first date of the season with Fred.  Yes, he's a seasonal date.  Doesn't come out much in Winter.  =)  It was a beautiful day here, so I knew that after work I really had to get out in the yard and do something.  There are all manner of choices, actually.  It's so I never get bored.  Mowing, raking, digging up flower beds, trimming bushes, hauling away brush, raking pine needles (my personal fave!  ugh), etc.  Such variety here on my little "homestead"!  I decided to go with Fred today mostly because I needed to see if the mower would run after the Winter or cough and die like it did last Spring.  Nothing like having a lawn desperately in need of mowing only to have your mower die.  Not fun!  But last Fall I did 2 things differently.  One, I put the mower inside (in the old house on the property, not inside as in where I live! lol), and two, I put stabilizer in the fuel tank.  So this afternoon 'bout 3 I dragged myself out to the old house and brought 'ol Fred into the light of day.  I really did Not feel like working in the yard, but I made myself get out there, and as usual, after getting out there and getting going it was quite pleasant.  You get a bit of a "runner's high" after working hard outside, not to mention the sense of satisfaction after looking around at what you've accomplished. Anyway, back to Fred.  I pulled him out into the yard and gave a pull on the cord (after checking gas and oil, of course!).  One, two, three pulls and he came to life.  What a relief!  However, last Spring he started and ran for a few minutes and died.  So I let him run for a bit--which he did quite well, then started off around the front yard.  An hour and a half later the entire front yard was done and that little mower never skipped a beat!  Seriously, that mower has been worth every single cent I paid for it.  It's from Sears and I would recommend the brand/model to anyone.  I was concerned it wouldn't run, I'd have to take it to the shop, they wouldn't get it done for a week or two and I would be left with a hayfield.  Again.  But thanks be to God, my concerns did not materialize.  Such a relief!!  I'm quite pleased with myself as well.  This is the first Spring I've gotten the front lawn mowed before it was so thick I could hardly mow it!  Yay! (patting myself on the back)  Now to go take some ibuprofen and drink my tea........=)

My Name Is CJ and I'm A Chocoholic....

I think I may be addicted to chocolate.  Really!  What's that?  I didn't blog yesterday?  Yes, I know.  Thank you for reminding me of my failure.  Didn't take me long to bust that challenge wide open.  But I have a good reason.  Well, no, really I don't.  You see what had happened was.......I forgot.  I remembered, then I forgot, then when I remembered again it was too late.  But that was yesterday and today is a new day.  Remember what I said about goals vs resolutions?  =)  Now where was I when I was so rudely interrupted?  Oh yes.  My chocolate addiction.  I have loved chocolate for my whole life, but in the last couple years it has become a vital necessity---right up there with air.  I always have some around and generally eat some at least once a day.  Kind of like a vitamin, only much more pleasant! lol  The thing I've noticed is that I crave it.  No, I mean CRAVE it!  Have you ever had a craving that gnawed at you and just wouldn't go away?  One that drove you crazy until you went and got whatever it was that you were craving?  I have a theory about those cravings, and yes, I will share with you in one moment.  This crazy kind of craving is how I feel about chocolate.  When I'm working around the house, sitting at the computer, after work, after a meal, etc., the "need" can hit at any moment.  It's ridiculous, really.  So the answer I have found is to just keep some nearby.  That way I can pick up a Hershey Kiss and move on with my life instead of not being able to focus on things because I need chocolate.  The problem with chocolate is its rather high caloric content.  Combine that with my inactivity over the Winter and well, you know what is happening.  Not nice!  So when I was grocery shopping last week I purposely did not buy any chocolate, thinking that I couldn't eat it if it wasn't around and maybe it would help in the whole I-will-eat-better-and-lose weight thing.  Bad move!!  Vewy bad move!  I am going nuts!!  Ok, more nuts than I already was! Must you always point that out?  Yesterday I kept looking around for something to eat and nothing was fitting the bill because what I really wanted was chocolate.  When you want chocolate, you want chocolate.  Nothing else will do!  And today, the same thing.  I am an addict!  I mean, this craving has gnawed at me so bad the last couple days I have thought of making a batch of no-bake cookies or perhaps some cooked up chocolate syrup just to stop it! Don't ask me why I haven't just stopped by Walmart on the way home and solve this whole thing with a bag of Hershey's Kisses! I have no idea! Welcome to how my brain works! lol  I haven't quite gotten to delirium tremens yet, but who knows?  It's only been a couple days.   This 'addiction problem' is something that I've just noticed in the last maybe year or so.  Which brings me to my theory.  Sometimes I wonder if we crave foods that have things in them that we need at that particular moment.  What if our brains record and take note of foods with particular concentrations of vitamins, enzymes, minerals, etc and when our bodies need those things our brains sends out a craving alert.  Like, "Alert! Alert!  Body low on potassium!  Send craving for orange juice (or tomatoes, or dried apricots, etc) immediately!"  And of course the cravings are different for different people because our likes and dislikes are different.  Like my body is not going to tell me to crave beets if I need iron because I don't like beets much.  It would be a wasted memo and why would your body do that?  So what if there is something in chocolate that my body really needs at this particular time in my life and that's why I crave it so much?  Well!  It could be true!  Can you prove me otherwise?  Ok then.  That's my story and I'm stickin' to it!  It's either that or go sign myself up to the local CA (Chocoholics Anonymous, if you were wondering).  I'm just not ready for that.  Thankfully, it is now Spring.  I know, you're shaking your head wondering what on earth Spring has to do with my chocolate addiction.  I should just leave you wondering.  But I won't, 'cause I'm nice like that.  Spring means green grass and lots of it, which means that I will have many, many dates with Fred, the lawnmower.  This is a good thing because it also means I can keep my addiction and still lose the few pounds I gained over the Winter!  I just knew this lawnmowing would come in handy for something!  So tomorrow after work, I will be stopping at Walmart.  I just can't take it anymore!  Hershey Kiss anyone?  =)

Confessions

I have a confession to make.  No, it's nothing bad!  Just something that will be a little weird to most.  Hopefully you all will just write me off as a little eccentric and not send the men in white coats to my door!  =)  I mean, after all, we're all entitled to a little weirdness aren't we?  Ok, some of us have a lot of weirdness on board!  But where was I?  Oh yes. Confessions.  Are you ready?  Here goes:  I still have my Christmas Tree up.  Shameful isn't it?  Now, in my defense,  the tree has nothing Christmas on it and the rest of the house is not decorated for Christmas either. All the tree has on it are white lights and some sparkly brown ribbon. So really, it doesn't even qualify as a Christmas tree, does it? So it's not that weird, right?  Right??  After all, trees grow year round, and what's the difference if I have one of those living room trees with lights on it or a fake pine tree with lights on it?   But that's ok.  I don't even care if you think it's weird.  I like it and it's my house and I don't care what you think.  =)  Just don't send a psych ward posse after me!  So by now you are probably wondering why I still have my tree up.  There are a couple reasons.  One, I just haven't gotten around to putting it up in the attic yet.  But the biggest reason is the lights.  I love those lights!  The older I get, the more I am convinced I have a bit of Seasonal Affective Disorder.  Makes me sound like a real psycho doesn't it?  =)  But I have noticed how different I feel in the Winter vs the Summer.  If I lived up North I could attribute some of that to being snowbound and not able to get out and about in the yard, etc.  But here in the South, that does not apply.  Here I could work outside pretty much every day in the Winter since there is a distinct lack of snow, so that does not account for the depression I have in the Winter.  I have also noticed that having some nice lighting during the short Winter days really helps in the way I feel.  When the tree goes up at Christmas, those lights are so cheering and warm and comforting, that after Christmas is over I find it very difficult to part with them.  So most years I don't!  The lights on that tree are what help keep me going in the Winter.  Sounds crazy, I know.  But it's true.  Maybe it's because I really do have SAD, or maybe it's because I live alone, or maybe I'm just weird.  Who knows.  Take your pick!  I just know that the lights make me feel better.  So they stay---Christmas or no Christmas.  I will say that I am a little later than usual taking them down.  Maybe it's because this Spring has felt more like a continuation of Winter----or maybe I've just been lazy.......  So there you have it.  My confession in black and white.  Now you know more about my craziness than you ever wanted to know!  Well if you can't beat 'em.....join 'em!  =)

Not much of a post tonight I'm afraid. I've been up to my eyeballs in towels and bags today.  Don't get me wrong.  It was a good thing.  Getting things done for the shop is a very good thing!  But after concentrating on things all day, it's time for bed.  I just can't think anymore. =) Hopefully I can wind down enough to sleep---and not dream about towels and bags!  Night all!

Cobalt yarn And Answered Prayers

Does it count as a post if I just write a one-liner saying I'm too tired to post?  Well you can't blame a girl for tryin'!  Seriously, I really really would rather be in bed right now.  But I will rise to my challenge of a post a day for this month!

Does God answer your prayers?  I'm not talking about the big, important things in our lives that we pray for and about.  What I'm referring to here are those little inconsequential-to-the-running-of-the-world kind of things that happen in our common days.  I don't know about you, but God answers a lot of these kinds of prayers for me.  A Lot.  Most of the time it's when I can't find something or am having trouble fixing something, etc.  Let me give you an example.  Last night I got itching to wind up the hank of hand-dyed lace weight merino yarn I recently purchased.  When you buy hand-dyed or "gourmet" yarn, most of the time they come in a hank and have to be wound into a ball before you can use them.  Since I am new to the world of specialty yarn, this also means I am new to hanks, which also means I am new at winding them.  The last hank of yarn I wound turned into a tangled mess and I sat for hours straightening it out.  I did not want that to happen with this one!  So I did what I do when I want to find something out:  I Googled it.  It's really amazing what you can find with Google!  Lo and behold, there were instructions on how to wind a hank of yarn into a ball.  =)  So last night I got out my new hank of cobalt yarn, draped it over a chair back as instructed and cut the string that held the whole thing together.  There was excitement in the air as I anticipated all this lovely blue yarn (1000 yards of it!) in a nicely wound ball.  Ha!  It only took a few minutes and I could see that it was starting to get tangled again.  This was very frustrating!!  I followed instructions!  This was not supposed to happen!  I went back and looked at the instructions again to see if perchance I had missed a step.  No, I had done what I was supposed to do.  I went a little farther, attempting to untangle and wind at the same time and getting more and more frustrated.  The last hank of yarn I did was only 550 yards and it took me probably 6 hours total to get it wound.  This hank was 1000 yards!  Do the math!  It was NOT going to be pretty!  So, as I usually do when I start feeling desperate, I started praying. (Just to clarify: I do pray when I'm not desperate too! lol)  And what do you know?  The yarn broke........ Oy me! Not the answer I was looking for!  So there I was with a tiny ball of yarn in one hand and this big ol' hank of yarn over the back of my dining room chair.  Great!  Not only was my yarn not wound into a nice neat ball, but I didn't even know where the end was.  Talk about desperation!  I very carefully lifted the hank of yarn off the chair and turned it round in my hands, praying that somehow I would see an end somewhere in that cloud of gorgeous blue.  I confess I didn't have a lot of hope.  Did I mention this is lace weight yarn?  For comparison, regular worsted weight yarn has about 200 yards in 4 ounces.  This yarn has 1000 yards in 4 ounces.  Take my word for it, it's fine yarn!  Much more easily tangled, much less easy to see a lost end.  So I wasn't feeling so hopeful about finding the missing end.  But I kept turning the circle of yarn slowly around, trying to not tangle the threads any more than they already were.  And suddenly, there it was!  I could hardly believe my eyes!  Talk about relief!  Of course, finding the end was only half the battle.  I still had to somehow get that yarn into a ball without a tangled mess.  So once again I draped the hank over the back of the chair and carefully started unwinding.  At first it was doing the tangle thing again and not unwinding neatly from the hank.  Then, again quite suddenly, it started unwinding neatly--like it's supposed to! I could have jumped for joy---but I didn't because that would have just tangled my yarn again.  lol  I now have a nice neat little ball of yarn (I say little, because it's not all wound yet.  That much yarn just takes some time!), as well as a thankful heart.  Whew!  Aren't you glad God cares about the little (albeit desperate) moments in our lives?  I am so amazed that He takes the time to care about them.  I mean, compared to His greatness, even the biggest problems in our world are small things.  And yet, He stoops to pay attention to my hank of cobalt yarn, and help me wind it into a ball.  Who wouldn't want to have a relationship with a God like that?

Pink Fairys

It seemed like it would never happen, but it did.  Finally.  I'm talking about Spring!  Spring has finally gotten here!  It's such a relief to have longer days and warmer weather.  And the flowers have started!  But what I really love about Spring are the trees.  There is that day every year when you finally can see a faint green haze all along the branches (or red haze for some trees).  Where there are a lot of trees together it looks almost like a green mist or smoke. That Spring Green color is the most beautiful green of all, because it lets you know that Yes! the trees are still alive and Spring is finally here.  However, here in the Piedmont of North Carolina, there is something else that happens before the trees start wearing their green.  Have you seen it?  If you haven't, you really, really should.  It's the Redbuds.  Before moving here I had only seen a couple Redbud trees.  They are not really plentiful up North.  My grandma had one in her yard and she loved looking out at it every year.  But really, they are few and far between in the colder climes.  But here......Here in Central NC they are everywhere.  They grow wild all through the woods and along the roads, not just as cultivated trees in peoples' yards like the apple and cherry.  So at this moment in Spring when the woods are still pretty bare of green leaves, the wild redbud trees put on their show.  And is it ever a beauty.  Those poignant pink buds on their petite trees all through the bare gray woods---rather like fairy sprites all dressed in their best pink dresses dancing through the forest.  So lovely.  Everywhere you go, there they are, in the most unexpected and unlike places, flitting in and out.  At this time of year I don't mind the long drive to and from church because I get to see the fairys dancing.  =)  Their beauty doesn't last nearly long enough, but I suppose that is what makes it so special every year.  So Spring has sprung.  The pear trees are nearly finished blooming, and very soon there will be the Spring Green haze on the trees---as well as azaleas everywhere (another fine treat to see).  But in the meantime, I love those pink fairy dresses.

Lazy

Well I see that I am settling into a nice routine of blogging once a month. lol  I have no good reasons for why there have been no posts.  None at all.  Honestly, I just haven't felt like it.  Is that good enough reason?  It's not that I've been so busy I haven't even thought about rambling.  I think about it pretty much every day.  But every time I think about it it just seems like too much work.  Must be getting lazy in my old age!  =)  Actually, in the last week or so I haven't even checked Facebook much.  That is epic!  I usually catch up every day.  I think I just needed to get unplugged for a little while.  There was a time when coming unplugged seemed like a major disaster.  But lately.....not so much.  Am I getting old?! lol  Oh stop worrying!  I'm not going off to be a hermit with no phone or internet or indoor plumbing!  There are just some days when I need to savor the quiet.  Several friends have commented on the lack of blogging and Facebook activity, so I guess it's time to plug back in.  =)  I am blessed to have friends who read my ramblings.

So what have I been up to?  Mostly just everyday life.  Not too much excitement.  However, last month I went to my first Ladies' Retreat with the gals from church.  Retreat is held every year about this time, over in a conference center in Western North Carolina.  I had never gotten to go until now.  We had a great time.  No.  It.Was.A.Blast.!  A weekend filled with laughter and music and learning and worship.  And all women! How fun is that?  I can't say enough about our speaker Carol Shust.  If you ever get a chance to go hear her, take it!  She was amazing.  A true woman of God with a heart for others.  As for me, I only had a couple meltdowns due to the continuous presence of other people.  =)  When you live by yourself all the time it makes you just a little crazy when you have to be around people (especially large groups of people) 24/7.  But I had a wonderful time in spite of the meltdowns and am already planning for next year---if my friends can stand it!

This month so far pretty much the most excitement I've had was a trip to Outback Steakhouse with my friends Bob and Charlene.  Yes, I know.  It doesn't take much to rock my world.  We had a yummy dinner followed by an excursion to Walmart for ice cream where we laughed like fools in the ice cream aisle.  I love spending time with them because not only do they let me act silly, they act silly right along with me! lol  (That's not the only reason I like them, but it's one for sure!) 

So.  Shall I do another challenge?  Can I blog every day through the end of April?  I'm hesitant because my yard is getting ready to explode on me.......But I'll give it whirl.  Just don't be too hard on my if I miss a day or two!  =)