Day 37 (lost 35 and 36) of 40

Yeah...I said it. I lost 2 days! Sunday I was fine but Monday I woke up with a cold...or allergy...or something....Dayquil did NOT touch it. Went to APF anyway AND felt a little better on Tuesday so went to work at school but I spent both days sleeping whenever possible. I'm not 100% today but I think I have turned the corner.

Tonight is the church's seder dinner. H has agreed to go and help me with serving since I assured him he would get husband points. We have gone to the neighbor's for seder but never the one at church. Apparently they do the seder and then have a regular dinner. Hmmm....wondering how many hours this will be. If I can get some pics I'll try to add them at the bottom of this missive.

Day 34 and Sunday

Entering the home stretch!! Yesterday the Altar Guild polished the silver and then Carolyn and I met some others to make palm crosses. It was a neat thing to learn how to do and I look forward to doing it again next year.

Today we processed out of the church and the timing was perfect (for a change) for coming back inside.

This next week will be a very busy one. Harvey has agreed to go to the seder supper on Wednesday with me and I have us signed up to help serve. I will do my usual of goingn to the Maundy Thursday service and then will sign up to do an odd hour for the vigil. Saturday morning we will decorate the church. We're meeting the turtles on Saturday afternoon so not sure I'll make it to Saturday's night service...we'll see.... and then the choir sings both services on Sunday!! My altar guild team is slated to clean up after Maunday Thursday service and the reset on Sunday so I'll see which one Carolyn wants to do. Kabby will do the Tuesday clean up. Lots to keep track of!

Here is how today's altar looked. Hmmmm....the pictures are at the top and not underneath. Oh well...some day I'll figure how to insert them.

Day 33 0f 40 Days

The end is finally in sight. I don't think I've been whining but I will say that without being prompted my darling husband assured me that it would be okay if I went on FB on Easter Sunday!! Oh my!! I thought I had been handling it well. Hmmmm....I even got an email today from a non-FB friend telling me about some new business that has a facebook link!! Temptations everywhere!! My worst fear came true that a dear friend thought I had unfriended them. Fortunately she said something to others who reminded her. Although we live far away and don't see each other often she is very dear to my heart and it made me sad to think of her - even for a moment - thinking I had cut ties with her. All is sorted out but I wonder who else be out there who forgot or missed my post and think that I have decided to move on without them. Cannot wait to get back on and connect.

Day 28 of 40

So tired that I actually slept to almost 8!! General Tso would not approve. Ha!!

Very interested in this "Eat to Live" book. Will have to see if my library has it.

I've been told that if I look at FB on Sundays it doesn't count but I'm not falling for it!!

Day 27 of 40

Yesterday morning we got up bright and early for our whirlwind tour of NC. Below are a few pictures ...and because I'm NOT used to using my Kindle fire to load the pictures they will not be in any particular order. One is Brother Dan at the South Mountains State Park. Another is great -grandparents's headstone and one is Aunt Beulah with her daughter, Dottie.



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Day something of Forty

Been busy so haven't posted in awhile. Down in GA so don't have my handy calendar to keep track of which day it is. Tomorrow we head to NC to see Aunt Beulah. Pictures will be taken and posted!

Day 23 of 40

This the pysanka egg I made yesterday after church. It was so much fun to do! I loved figuring out "Okay, so what part do I want to stay yellow". Obviously the first color was white and then it went yellow, orange, red and black. I definitely want to do this again but will be out of town next Sunday so....will be on my own for egg #2! On this first one I used a pencil to mark things out but then found out the only way to make the pencil line disappear was by the paint so I couldn't put the wax right over it. There were things I want to connect but didn't want to the pencil line to show. Oh well....my second one will be totally free hand.

I just enabled google+ so I could load pictures from my phone to the blog (see example above. Ha!) Is that sort of cheating?? Is that an FB substitute? Well I just won't talk to anyone on it. Umm....does sending a picture of my egg count?

I walked the dog for H this morning so he could get to a meeting and being the nice owner I am I let her off the leash. Such a good girl! Right up to where she tried to crawl under the dummpster by the cemetery office and.....let's just say I hope it was mud! I have her collar and tag soaking in the sink. I used 3 washcloths. I will say that she was very good about holding still while I scrubbed her head. With such excitement who needs FB?

and, last but not least, I am happy to report that I managed to figure out why my posts had been looking like a runon sentence when I could see in the draft that I double spaced between paragraphs!! So happy that now my drafts look like what is publlished once more.

Day 22 of 40

A beautiful sunny day!! The sky is SO blue. Must remember to wear sunglasses for the aftenoon walk. I felt almost blinded yesterday with the sunshine bouncing off the snow. I don't think it is cheating to read ABOUT Facebook. I never knew it had a "newsfeed" and now they are going to make it bigger?? Hmmmm.....I see enough newsfeeds on yahoo and roadrunner! I could be wrong but I am starting to think that I will be changing my facebook habits. Remembered to wear the sunglasses this aftenoon. Dora and I met someone who was hoping to see the comet. That was this afternoon?? Also remembered to take a picture of the amazing blue sky. Here it is:

Day 21 of 40

What a day! It started out beautifully. Around 6 inches of snow made it seem like a cotton candy world for our morning dog walk. (No phone so no pics - sorry!) Since H was with me we went through the woods. He threw snowballs for Dora on the way back. All smiles. All happy. ...then we got back home to the real world! Let's just say that if it could go wrong ...it did!! Hmmm ...just remembered that today's devotional was about bumps in the road on our Lenten journey and that it was to be expected and not to despair. Okay, I'll stop despairing and focus on all that is right and good. Tomorrow IS another day! PS: and I did NOT go on FB!

Day Twenty of Forty

The halfway point!!  Woo hoo!!  AND someone besides myself may actually read these ramblings.  Guess I'll have to make sure to keep it clean!  Ha!

The one pie that we tasted last night seemed fine so now H just has to figure out how to transport the other three pies.

I'm starting to think about what I will do once the Forty days are done.  Seems silly to go through all this and then just go back to doing exactly what I did before with FB.  Maybe try to limit it to once a day.  OR have times that I do NOT look at it.  For example, in the morning before work or before going to church.  It never fails to suck me in and then I have to race to get where I need to be.  Hmm....

Time for the dog walk.  Snow is starting to fall but I don't think it will be enough to cause rehearsal to be cancelled.

Day 19, Part Two

I am suddenly overcome with a desire to look at FB!  MUST BE STRONG!!  Will go take a shower instead!!!!

(Have no idea what brought this on!)

Day 17, 18 and 19 of 40

H is off this week so....busy, busy. 

I made sure to have my camera phone on me  when I checked the icicle tree on Monday.  There were a few left so I took a picture. Not as impressive but...here it is.  Imagine them hanging off every little branch!

Today I am going to attempt to make some fruit pies. I got an easy-sounding recipe from a friend so...  Harvey plans to take a couple of them with him to Old Fort Niagara this weekend.  I'm staying home to hold down OUR fort!  Ha!

We took Dora through the woods yesterday and she now has something funky smelling on her head.  Don't ask!!  I'm not sure and I don't want to know.  I tried to get it off yesterday but there is still an aroma.  H is insisting that we are capapble of giving her a bath this afternoon.  Oh joy!!

Potential snowstorm Thursday night into Friday morning.  Hopefully won't mess up H's trip to OFN.  I hope it starts late enough that it doesn't mess up our choir rehearsal. Easter is coming and we have some tricky pieces to practice.  SO glad I have the key board here at home but rehearsing as a group is necessary!

Days 14, 15 and 16 of 40

Catching up on this week of Lent. 

Still finding folks who wonder how I could have missed = fill in the blank = because they didn't realize or forgot I am not doing FB.  "Ohhhh....I wondered why I hadn't seen anything from you in a while..."


Looking forward to H being off next week so I don't have to "do" the dog before I go to work.  Boss has asked if I would work the 2 mornings a week next school year and I agreed.  H suggests I let her know that it will be my last year.  Yay!!  Then I'll finally be totally retired!!

and, last but not least, STILL FB FREE!!!

Just adding that in the afternoon H and I were taking Dora around and we went by this little tree that had icicles hanging from it!  So cute!!  Unfortunately I didn't have any way to take a picture but will be sure to have my phone with me on Sunday afternoon.  I am hoping they didn't melt off in the meantime!!

Days Twelve and Thirteen of forty

Starting to see a pattern here....not posting and then doing a double header!  Hmmm......it still counts as I have still NOT gone on FB!!

Day Twelve I woke to feeling hungry which is a good thing!!  It means I didn't stuff myself the day before.  I t hink I will add being mindful of my eating....to try to stop and think before putting food in my mouth.  My new rule (which I should have had all along) is no food after 8pm.  I am such a cheese-a-holic that ....never mind....nothing I want to memorialize in print!!

Apparently this self-professed observer of weather did NOT pay close enough attention last night. I thought they were talking about Thursday into Friday weather. Nope! It was what would happen after midnight. Dora and I were both surprised when I opened the back door to a yard full of snow!! Fortunately today is H's day to walk the dog in the am so I had the time to clear the cars and the driveway. If I had realized we were getting the snow overnight then I would have parked both cars in the driveway. Oh well....no snowplow yet so at least we didn't mess that up.  I was inspired to try taking a picture to add to this blog and.....I did it!!  Yay!  As you can see we only got 4 or 5 inches.  I didn't bother to measure. 

 

Days Ten and Eleven of Forty

My sweetie was gone to a reenactment on Saturday which somehow made me forget to write on the blog! 

We barely got a dusting so the choir was able to do our pieces from the Messiah!  "Surely he has borne our griefs" and "With his stripes we are healed".  I think we are doing the Amen in a couple weeks.  Love doing anything from the Messiah.  Thank you Mr. Jones for having us do it in high school chorus!!  That laid a firm foundation for singing it in future choruses.

Now I need to work on "Lord, let me know mine end".  I don't care for the subject matter and this Maurice Greene who wrote it apparently didn't care that he has everyone singing different words all at the same time so there is no way to listen to the other sections to help keep one on track!  He died in 1755 so I can't complain to him.  Ha!  Well....it was for instances such as this that I got the keyboard so I WILL work on this piece this week.  Oh yeah...and my other complaint is that at times he has the altos going WAY above the sopranos.  Unnatural!!

If I had written on Saturday I would have said how much I love it when the air is "soft".  This sometimes happens in the Spring - although with climate change it now sometimes happens in the pre-Spring!  A taste of what is to come.

H took Dora for her morning walk and he reports that she is now friends with the young German Shepard down the street.  He let her off the leash to say hello and then the lady came out on her porch and called her dog so of course Dora went with her.  H called Dora back and both dogs came back to him!  Too funny!  I suppose if they'd had the time that could have gone on all morning.

Day Eight and Nine of Forty

I DID have stuff to report yesterday but never got around to getting on the computer to write.  That's a good thing, right?

Yesterday morning there was more drama...and I SO wanted to post about it on FB!  When I got up I noticed a distinct odor and - thankfully - investigated to find the source before returning to bed.  We have baseboard heat in our house (NOT recommended) and somehow a little paperback book had gotten lodged underneath the one in our bedroom.  I quickly pulled it out and it wasn't smoking but was definitely turning black and VERY hot!  Yikes!!

Wicked windy yesterday .... as in tie a scarf around your hood so it doesn't blow off!!  Another trick is to wear my big sunglasses to protect my eyes.

Today is not windy.  Yipee!!  Looking forward to a drama-free day.

Wondering about this weekend's weather as our choir director asked us to put in a "back-up" piece of music in our folders in case we were light in numbers on Sunday.  Wha???  I hate to say it but he may be right.  The other day they said the storm would mostly miss us and this morning I heard 2 to 4 inches on Saturday night.  Never good when they keep increasing the amount.  We'll see.....

Day Seven of Forty - this & that

Awoke to the sounds of Dora throwing up.  H said it was the General but...General was snoozing next to me and this was a LARGE animal doing this.  Sorry to be so gross but I'm the one to had to hear it.  Hopefully the day will improve!

Got calls from both brothers yesterday which was great!  Whaddya think it is?  That is the annual question.

Time to walk the dog.  How do I know?  She is standing at the side of the bed with a tennis ball in her mouth and looking expectantly at me!  So subtle.  ha!

I have had friends say that they miss seeing me on FB!  Awwww......

Today I am starting to do taxes.  Will NOT make the mistake of last year where I filed too "early"...if you call the end of March early!  Scottrade actually sent me updated stuff the second week of April and I had to do an amended return.  NOT this year!!  I am waiting til the day of to file! 

Day Six of Forty

Okay....I admit it.  Today I AM missing FB.  I got a notification on my phone that my nephew in Taiwan posted on my timeline and there is only one reason for that....he is wishing me a Happy Birthday!!  but I can't see it!  I did NOT open up the notification so this is just a guess.

I was thinking the other day how there are lots of life's moments I will be missing by staying off FB.  And I don't mean the selfish reason of seeing folks wishing me Happy Birthday.  A friend's daughter is expecting and I think it may arrive before I go back on FB.  There are other friends who will be having their birthdays that I will miss acknowledging (is that a word??) because I've come to depend on FB to remind me.

The BIGGEST reason I am missing FB today though is because I watched the final episode of Downton Abbey last night and I SO want to shout out to all my friends on FB who also watch it!  If anyone out there is reading this AND watches Downton Abbey AND hasn't seen the last episode yet then I won't spoil it but I was VERY surprised!!  Plus now I wonder if they are going to do a Season 4.  Hey....there are worse things to be addicted to in this life!

BTW, Fr. James reminded us that Sundays do not count in Lent so.....this will be MORE than 40 days off FB!  No, I will not look at it on Sundays!!

Just back from the dogwalk and there was a birthday greeting from a friend who is on Google+ !!  Mad props (I THINK that's the expression!)j to Cindy Allers for remembering that I'm not seeing anything on that other site!

Day Five of Forty

Below is what I wrote to post on Monday but......forgot to publish it!  Oops!!  Perhaps I should develop a newer plan!!

New Plan:  Will come and write when the spirit hits and then publish the day's page at the end of the day.

A good start to the morning.  While doing the mailbox walk I heard my Lenten bird again!  Not a melody but a strong and clear call "peeerrrr, peeeerrrr, peeeerrrr, peeeerrrr".

So far I have had no urges to check FB.  I DO think however I need to stop telling everyone I see that I am not doing FB for Lent.  Isn't that like the Pharisees putting ashes on their faces?  Ha!  Besides....the reactions have ranged from "Yeah, I know. I read your post." to "Ummm....okayyyy..."
Such unconcern!  Double Ha!!

Fourth of Forty Days

Still haven't read any of the library book but I WILL!!  There's time...not due til March 6...have I mentioned that my middle name is/should be "procrastination"??

No smell of skunk this morning (yay) but no Lenten bird singing (boo).  During the mailbox walk (see Daily Routine below) Dora was VERY interested in something.  We stopped so she could stare into the little cemetery and....there was a big old skunk waddling along!!  Needless to say she did NOT (Dora, that is!) get off her leash during the morning walk.  Must check and see if Camp-Mor still sells "Skunk Off'.  I hate to think what Heads and Tails would charge to deskunk her.  H said, "But you'd have to put her in the car to get her there and you don't want to do that!"  Oh no....we would walk to Heads and Tails!!  It would be worth it so I wouldn't have to wrassle her!!

Generic daily routine:

Wake Up
Carry General to the kitchen
Let Dora into the backyard
Feed General
Make coffee/Let Dora back inside
Walk the mailboxes (that means going up and down across the street where all the mailboxes are lined up outside the little cemetery)
Get newspaper out of the mailbox
Fix coffee and take upstairs along with newspaper

Whew!  And that is all before I've had a shower and taken Dora for her regular walk!!  I am hoping H will read this so he can appreciate what all I do before he even opens his eyes in the am.  Of course he thinks it is crazy to carry a perfectly healthy cat down the stairs in the morning but - as I've tried to explain - General likes it!!  And H says there is no good reason to take Dora to walk the mailboxes but......she likes it!  I started doing it when she first moved in with the hope of her deciding to do any urgent morning business there instead of the backyard (and, yes, if she ever did I WOULD - and have - pick it up!) but so far she seems to prefer the backyard.  Oh well.....

Second and Third of Forty Days

Oh dear!  I didn't write anything yesterday.  Well.....I can report that I am missing FB much less than I first thought I would.  A friend at church seems to be missing it for me!  Ha!!  Last night at choir practice she told me about something funny she had seen on FB because she wasn't able to send it to me via FB.  Hmmm.....maybe I should consider adding on "no talk of FB"!

Yesterday morning there was a STRONG smell of skunk in the air which is a sure sign that Spring is on the way!  Hurray!!  This morning - for the second time - there was a bird singing that I hadn't heard before.  Very strong voice.  A Lenten bird??  This is one of the perks of having a dog is that I get out into God's creation every day and there is always something wonderful to see or hear. 

One of our members sends out a psalm a day for Lent so I make sure to read that and then of course there is the daily devotional book "Forward Day by Day" and last, but not least, I also get a daily email from Episcopal Releif and Development wtih a Lenten meditation.  Time spent on these things MUCH better than FB!!

My goal for this week is to read the book I checked out of the library.  It is nice to check out a book but one should really make an effort to read it!!

First of Forty Days

I have given up FB for Lent and have decided to attempt a journal....sorry, I guess that sounds "old school"! ...I mean Blog on how it is going.  So far so good!!  Of course it has only been 8 hours and 52 minutes!  Less if you don't count that time I was asleep.  Ha!

Quickly realizing how much time I spend couching my thoughts in terms of how it will play on an FB post.  Can you say "big waste"? 

This may seem like cheating but I don't really expect folks to be reading this and I will limit the time I spend writing it.  Just a quick daily post of how I am faring without checking on you-know-what.