A Girl and Her Horse

On January 18, 2014, we went to see a grand niece ride a horse. She is horse crazy and her Mother says she practically lives in the barn. Ha! But, I have to say that she truly loves riding and being around horses. She competes and has won ribbons.

The first five pictures are the ones I took. I have to tell you that I should just give up and let Dan take pictures of events like these. I think his pictures are much better than mine! Enjoy!

Wordy Wednesday {A Helping Hand}

We had started putting down the flooring and we needed something with weight. I thought of the coins Dad left us. They are heavy and they would work. So, I dug them out and took them into the room. While taking a break and surveying all we have done, I looked at the coins and thought to myself, "Dad is still here giving us a helping hand".

It has been over five years and yet, I still see (and think of) reminders of him. I had to take a picture and while taking one, Dan was curious and asked me if I was taking a picture of the coins. So, I told him what went through my mind and he smiled.

Several hours later, something happened that got us both staring in confusion and then in amusement. I even laughed.

Dan had stacked two containers of coins and the top one can tumbling down. A thought crossed my mind and then I said it out loud. "Dad, are you trying to tell us something?" This caused Dan to laugh which is a rare thing to hear from him. That alone made my day.

Macro Monday {Bluebonnet Plants}

{To see a larger image, go here.}

I never knew the leaves of bluebonnet plants are hairy!

This was taken on January 21, 2014 before our recent freeze. I am hoping the plants survived. We shall see.

All My Girls {Cats}

All pictures taken on January 10, 2014. I took the time with each one and these were the best I could get considering all my girls were outside at the same time.

Chessie (Miller); Pure breed Maine Coon; 16 years old (born on 6/26/1997)

Nicknames: Girl

(this came from the fact we got Calvin at the same time - a boy of course)

This girl is an amazing gentle giant. She survived surgery to remove a stomach blockage and overcame pancreatis (which is usually a death sentence for cats) in 2007. She had an amazing life so far. She has been a trooper through two moves and really loves this place. She now has an abscess on the inside of her lip that comes and goes. The vet does not want to mess with it considering her age. She is still eating, drinking and living her life large in spite of the abscess. She has slowed down the last couple of years. This girl has refused to learn tricks. Period.

Gracie (Miller); adopted; estimated to be 6 years old

Nicknames: Honey Bunny, Honey, Bunny

This one is our special needs cat and our mighty huntress which is amazing considering she is a tripod. She was hit by a car and lost her front leg before we adopted her. She also has ear problems and allergies that we are maintaining. She is my first cat to ever resort to putting caps on her hind nails due to excessive scratching. Overall, she is a happy content cat with the exception of Abby's presence.

Gracie will roll over and show off her belly if I ask her to "show me your belly". Also, if she is on me and very demanding, I will say "upside down". She will then put her head upside down on my chest and gaze up at me. I cannot resist and will give her the attention (petting) she demands.

Abby (Gail); rescued at 4 weeks of age, 8 months old.

Nicknames: Brat, Holy Terror, Wildcat

This is our surprise addition. I never planned to have three cats. In fact, I only wanted two cats (at a time). I still only want two cats. She is a blessing in disguise. She kept me going when I crashed last summer because she needed me. She was going be just a foster until I found a home; but, with her wildness; I decided to hold off on finding a new home.

She has a high prey instinct and is extremely fast. She has recently started hunting and catching flies out of the air. It's amazing how she is able to keep her eyes and ears on the fly. I suppose that is a good thing because with her around, flies will not live in this house (and I don't have to kill them myself).

She adores hunting outdoors and will go for a walk on the leash (like a dog somewhat). She knows the word "come" (it is like "heel" for dogs) and obeys about 75% of the time. She will stand and sit on command (for treats). When I got sick recently with a sinus infection, I think she finally realized what "fetch" means because she brought her favorite toy (a rat) and I threw it with her bounding after it. She brought it back and dropped it practically in my lap. I was shocked. I praised her, threw it and she brought it back. She did this three or four times before she called it quits. And, she has done this again. So, I am thrilled that she can and will do this if she needs to expend energy without my realizing she needs play time especially during times when I am feeling crappy. It certainly made it easier on me because all I had to do was toss the thing.

I have been somewhat busy with life that I have not had time to teach Abby a new trick. I am thinking of challenging her to "spin". In other words, spin (walk) around in a tight circle. That will be one difficult trick to teach! Maybe I should just stick with "jump", huh?

January Recap

My word of the year, focus, has been good for me so far. I think my focus have been better than in the past. My goals were 52 weeks of savings, books and projects. So far, savings is on track. Books is behind and projects is going slowly. But hey, I feel like I am accomplishing things for the first time in a long time! So, here is a recap of January.

• Savings

  I am recapping some of what I wrote in my A {Long} Week in Review post and adding to it. From here on, I will create a new (updated) table beginning with an updated last balance.

  
  

  	Previous Balance	0.00
  Week 1 (12/30)	+2.00	2.00
  Week 2 (01/06)>	+4.00	6.00
  Week 3 (01/13)	+6.00	12.00
  Week 4 (01/20)	+8.00	20.00
  Week 5 (01/27)	+10.00	30.00

  
  

• Book Finishes

  
  

  • #1: Except the Queen by Jane Yolen and Midori Snyder

    I picked this book up on a deep clearance a long time ago. It had a quote by Patricia A. McKillip, an author whose books I have read and liked in the past. This, along with an excerpt from the book on the back of the jacket persuaded me to buy the book. This book barely has 4 stars at Goodreads and 4-1/2 stars at Amazon.com. I gave it two stars (at Goodreads). Even though it is for young adults in the fantasy genre, I struggled through this book. There is nothing compelling within the pages that keeps me wanting to read. I would not recommend this book to anyone – young or old.

• Projects

  I did cyber organization the first week. I continued along with the organization theme within the house the rest of the month. I reorganized four kitchen drawers. I also cleaned out and organized my dresser throwing out some old clothes and donating a few nice shirts that I no longer wear. And, I finally got around to shredding thousands of papers from files.

• Other

  We took off a weekend and attended a baby shower up Dallas way. I had a very good time and plan to blog about it at a later date. I need to get to the pictures I took during that time. To be honest, I am afraid to look at them. I think it is because I want the pictures to come out well. I have become so particular when it comes to pictures of events like this baby shower. I just need to remember that even if they are snapshot quality, it is still good. In fact, it is better than nothing.

  I struggled with a bad sinus infection for about a week – allergies finally got the best of me. Being sick for a week put a damper on things (such as projects). But, I am not quitting.

  The progress on the garage conversion is coming along slowly. In addition to working on my room, we will soon be building a garden bed for potatoes and making benches for our farmhouse table I recently built. I think we have too many irons in the fire so to speak. Besides what I mentioned, we are wanting to build a shed, a chicken coop, a fire pit, etc., and etc. But, in spite of all this, we are happy and that is all that matters, correct?