From The Mud Puddle: February 2009

Over a year ago, I posted several sketches that I had made in my church notebook over a period of time. The first link above sort of explains my thoughts behind why I doodled beside of my notes during the teaching at church. Interesting that tonight I found this link that backs up what I have known about myself for many years.

Doodling Increases Memory Recall

Family Feels Blue and Bands Treats

My Own Shaggy Dog Story

For Valentine's Day, my husband gave me this cute little heart mug and some candy from Starbucks. His card read that I was his sweet heart. He told me that the candy represented the sweet and the heart represented his heart.

Go ahead and say...awww....

The mug came in a box that they found somewhere in the back of Starbucks. The words on the box were blog worthy I believe:

The bean forever remembers

it's birthplace:

the terraced hillsides,

the equatorial rains,

the lilac-blue shade of

the jacaranda. The Bean

eternally harbors

the nurturing touch of the

farmer deep within.

The bean gives back

blessing each warm cup

inviting flavor of it's

coffee-land

origin...

I am not a coffee drinker (the mug was meant for hot chocolate and milk -or perhaps my bowl of morning oatmeal or grits)...but to consider the saying...that a coffee bean or the bean as it calls itself has such a deep meaning...well...one should .....

um...

laugh deeply-as I did

Who thinks this stuff up?

I almost think the box was about as good as a gift as the mug and candies....

This week, you'll have to download the .pdf if you want to read my column since for whatever reason the link for my story is blank online LOL

Valentine's Day Gifts Not Always So Simple

Where is That Loyalty Card When I Need It?

This link takes you to a .pdf file for the story as it did not appear online like the others. It's from a few weeks ago-I'm just now getting around to getting it here on my blog to share.

For TIMHT this week, meet "Mack", our dehumidifier. For the past year or two, it seems we've had a lot of moisture in the house - enough that we started noticing some floorboards warping and some additional mold that we never had before. The house as a whole just felt kind of damp. We have a couple of ideas of what might be causing some troubles(fixable things), but knew we really needed to call in some reinforcements before more damage could be done.

When I cut Mack on for the first time, he told me that our house's humidity was 85%-very high. (normal is around 50%) Since running Mack, our humidity levels have stayed where they should be. It's amazing the amount of water this little guy sucks out of the air each day in order to keep things even while we take baths, wash/dry clothes and dishes etc.

We named it Mack because it sounds like a diesel Mack truck idling in the kitchen. It makes for some great white noise...and well is a good trade off if it means our air is less heavy.

For more TIMHT fun, jump over to MSM's blog !

Old Family Photos Get New Look

I know to some who get large amounts of cold and snow each year, this is nothing-but to us, to me...to see just one flake...or a grouping like this on my car-it's a big deal-big enough to blog about it each.and.every.time.it.happens!

The white specks are snow, falling preciously down from the sky...as Bayley walks down the sidewalk...

Our $10 smallish Christmas Tree...yes, sitting right there (in our front yard). This is as far as it has gotten towards it's goal to get to the road. It still looks really good to be close to three months since it was cut back in November. It was on the porch, waiting for me to check it over real good before we put it at the street. I wanted to make sure it did not have any unseen tiny ornaments left on it before we ditched it out there. Then we gave Bayley a bath (where he ended up on the front porch), and I moved it to the yard. I have looked at it now, and have told my son he can undo it from the stand now and take it on out...but this is where it sits. I kind of like it there...kind of like how we would dig a hole and plant the ball root ones....though this one has no roots....wouldn't it be funny if it actually stayed green longer than those did ? LOL!
(talk about a random paragraph!)

And yes, these are Christmas lights still on our porch. We are THOSE people apparently this year. Seriously though, I thought it might be nice to keep them on there in case I found some heart shaped lights or something to mix in for valentine's....so I did have a reason for leaving them....even if I haven't acted on looking for such heart lights yet....(still time!)