O, Spring... Where art thou?!

It's March 11th, the buttercups (daffadils) are up and some blooming, the birds are coming back... but the temperature feels more like mid-winter thus far. We had a nice snowstorm this past weekend, the most we've had in a while. It didn't last too long though. And even though I'm a cooler climate lover I'm ready for winter to be over. The snow is gone now except for a trace here and there and now we are left with mud. I guess it's peak mud season. Our back yard is a bit of a mess, especially around the dog kennel and orchard.

I'm getting excited about the upcoming growing season. I'm anxious to get our seeds started but I promised myself we would not do what we did last year. By late February last year we had bought most all of our seeds and got them started then and by mid March or so. Well after mid March we started having days with temps in the 70s and even a couple of days in the 80s. We planted even more seeds in pods inside. We had little trays everywhere. On the kitchen counters, on the bar between the kitchen and the dining room, in all the window sills, in our little homemade, makeshift greenhouse on the basement steps from the outside. Just everywhere. We even started our flower and herb seeds inside. We were sure we were done with the cold weather and frost. Well that wasn't the case. By early April we were having heavy frosts and snows. Most of our starts were ready to go out but the weather wasn't co-operating. One day I came in from work and the smell just about got me. We could have put them on our back porch but they wouldn't have made it we don't think. So we lived with the 'smell' for a bit longer until the weather changed. Now I don't mind the smell of dirt in the outdoors but inside it was a bit too much. Hopefully we've learned a lesson in patience and can just wait for a bit.

My situation from the last post has not changed in essentials. The talk of a 'change' is still out there but I'm more open to things now than I was when I wrote before. It's still a bit scary to think about but at least I've come up with some possibilities if/when it comes to pass. That is, I did with the help and advice of a good friend.

Ch-Ch-Changes

My life is about to go through a major upheaval in the next few months, or so a rumor goes. I'll not elaborate on the specifics of the rumor as I don't like to spread things, especially if I'm not 100% sure that it's true or even if it will come to pass. It's not a bad thing in itself actually, but it's something I have no control over and that's the part that bothers me. I'm not a big fan of the unknown, especially if a possible unknown carries so much weight that it can affect my way of life. To say I don't like change is an understatement. I think the worst part of it all is the anticipation and uncertainity of it. I am a worrier, always have been and probably always will be. People will say to me "don't worry about it, it's not happened yet". But I can't help it, even if I try to put it to the back of my mind it will sneak back and will cause me to stress. I'm stressing even now as I'm typing this.

Now having said all that about not liking change there is one comfort that I can remind myself about. Although the thought of having my routine and security messed with bothers me... once the change has been made I usually don't take too long to adapt. So in a nutshell (because I know I'm nutty!) if I can make it through the next few months of anticipation surely by the time of the 'occurence' I'll have come up with some coping mechanisms or maybe an actual solution to what must be done. I know of course I won't be going through this alone, I'll have the love and support of my husband, parents, and friends.

I don't mean to sound mysterious and as soon as I know for sure that this 'thing' is going to happen I'll have lots of posts about it. I've only found out about this in the past few days and I'm still not sure what to make of it.

I Got Tagged!! Thanks Beemoosie!

//beequilting.blogspot.com tagged me for a game.


Well, here goes. These are the RULES:Link to the person that tagged you. Which I did.Post the rules on your blog.Share 7 random and/or weird facts about yourself on your blog.Tag 7 random people at the end of your post and include links to their blogs.Let each person know that they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

7 random and/or weird facts about me:

7. I'm a person who likes routine, especially about what I do in the mornings. If I deviate from what I normally do I feel like something is wrong or missing all day.

6. I can remember old friends' phone numbers from when I was a kid or teenager, but yet can't tell you what I wore yesterday.

5. Speaking of clothes I have certain clothing items for things that I do. For instance I wear the same shirt every time I fly on a plane, or drop or pick up someone in an airport. It's crazy, I know.

4. Even though I'm somewhat older I worry about what my parents think about what I do. If I'm unsure if something is the right thing to do, I ask myself... would I do this in front of my mother or father? (Doesn't mean I won't do whatever, but still I might feel a bit guilty for having done it.)

3. I make up silly songs about my pets and sing to them most everyday. My golden, Lizzie, gets a whole Broadway production when she gets her bath.

2. I'm one of those sappy people who cry their eyes out watching a sad movie or a hallmark commercial.

1. I don't like the paper material most newspapers are made out of or how they smell. After I've read the paper I have to go and wash my hands immediately. When I was a kid I wouldn't touch a newspaper at all.

OK, here are the 7 sweet ladies I'm tagging. I'm looking forward to seeing what they will write.

1. Alee
http://farmgirlalee.blogspot.com

2. Jessica
http://bluegrassprincess.blogspot.com


3. Mary Beth
http://day4plus.blogspot.com/

4. Frannie
http://freedomvalleyfarm.blogspot.com/

5. Nancy Jo
http://nancy-jo.blogspot.com/

6. Joy
http://downbranchroad.blogspot.com/

7. Elizabeth
http://ruby--slippers.blogspot.com/

A Little Snow

I've let 20 days go by without blogging and I wasn't going to let that happen again. Oh well. Anyway as the title says we've got a little bit of snow in Central Kentucky today. Not much mind you, just enough to cause some traffic problems. At one time the local news was reporting about 5 wrecks at once. I had my husband drive me in to work today, I know better than to drive on a day like this. I'm not too proud to admit I'm not a good snow and ice driver and well, it just makes me too nervous. Although I did plenty of backseat/passenger side front seat driving. hehe One time I was going on so badly that the look my husband gave me made me say, "Ok, I won't say anything else." Only to be 'giving driving advice' to him in the next minute. He takes it well though, just laughs and shakes his head. He's from Sweden and he gets amused about how people here react when it snows. Especially how everyone heads to the grocery store to get the 'essentials'. But I do remember some winters from when I was young that if we hadn't of went to the store and stocked up, it would have been really bad. We haven't really had a big snow, like over 4 inches, in a long time.

It looks like the snow has melted from the roads now, although I'm sure the backroads and the roads going up the mountains are still bad. The kiddies here in Madison Co. got an extra day off today. So with MLK day yesterday they had a nice long weekend. Well good for them, I know I loved being off like that when I was in school. It felt really decadent, especially if the roads got better in the afternoon and we got to go somewhere. Too bad we can't have snow days from work when we are older.

Music

Looking back through the previous posts I've made I see that I never mentioned a great love of mine. I adore music... listening to or performing. I've been singing since I was about 2 or 3. I don't know that I'm all that good at it, it's just something I've always done and loved doing. I've written several songs with a musician in England and we had a couple of our songs on download.com. I noticed a few months ago the music had been removed from the site but I have found it on another site now. How it came to be posted there I have no idea, but I'm glad it was. There are 2 songs there and they are not perfect by any means. The musician in England recorded my vocals using Skype software. He did as good as he could with the quality, but it's not studio quality due to the distance and the internet connection in general. But if anyone would like to hear these songs they can be found at:

http://www.freesoothingmusic.com/artist.php?artist_id=8

The first song: Tami's Song was written for a dear friend of mine who passed away in 1997. She was such a loving and giving person. We had been friends since I was 5 years old and the song started out as a childhood memory I had of her dancing in the rain one day. I wrote the lyrics in about 15 minutes and my songwriter friend composed the music almost as fast. It was just one of those things that came together.

The second song: If You Were my Man was originally called If You Were my Girl. The songwriter had written it for his girlfriend but changed the lyrics so I was able to record it.

I hope whoever listens to these songs enjoy them.

Some pictures of my tree

Hopefully this will turn out. The first pics are of my trees, with and without the light on.










And here is my fireplace

Happy Holidays to all!

I can't believe I've let so much time go by without posting something. I wanted to at least make a post a week, maybe two. I'll put that on my new year's resolution list..... make one or two blog entries a week, if not more. Sometimes I feel like I don't really have anything interesting to post or at least not interesting to anyone else. I lead a simple kind of life here, nothing too daring really. I enjoy the simple pleasures such as observing nature and the changes of the seasons. I have been keeping a weather and seasonal journal for the past few years now. I started it because I wanted to notice trends and see the best times for planting and such. Of course I rely on the Old Farmer's Almanac as well. My grandfather really enjoyed his and relied on it for information with his farm. I started reading it as a child with him and I look forward to when it comes out each year. There's a lot of good practical information in there as well.

I hope everyone had a great Christmas. Monday, my mother and I went to my aunt's house for dinner and had a nice time. My husband didn't feel like going, I hated leaving him at home alone, but I had promised my mom I'd take her. We spent the day at home yesterday. We made a Christmas buffet with ham, meatballs, salt and dill cured salmon, pickled herring, red cabbage, baked beans, cheese ball and all sorts of desserts. At first I wasn't sure anyone was coming but my best friend's mom and her daughter stopped by for a few hours. My best friend and her husband came later that evening. It was so nice having them, we had told them to drop by anytime because we would have the buffet up all day.

We are going by my parents tonight and exchanging presents. They were supposed to come to my house yesterday, but my father didn't feel well. I'm going to take some pics of my home and tree and try to post them on here. We'll probably keep our decorations up until the 1st or 2nd week of January.