Around Here

As most all of you know, if you live in Tennessee, we are in the midst of a bit of a cold snap.  This morning our temperature gauge was reading four degrees.  I think Shaun said the wind chill was minus twelve or something like that.  Cotton and Kitty spent the night in the basement last night.  It's not the tropics down there but it ain't the arctic either!  I debated on bringing Cotton in.  I know chicken's bodies grow somewhat accustom to the temperatures and she has her house full of hay and cedar shavings in her coop that she sleeps in but Shaun felt differently and knew I would change my mind and worry about her being out there.  So she slept in a dog crate just in case Kitty the killer got any funny ideas. 

This morning, I walked in the day care to fifty two degrees which still felt very warm compared to the outside.  In an attempt to warm the place up more I plugged in two heaters and got the temp up to sixty two after an hour or so which still isn't bad considering how crappy the windows are in the mobile home I call my work place.  When the wind was cutting from the north west yesterday with minus temperatures I could feel a slight draft from time to time.  There was also frost on the outside of the windows that I took complete advantage of with my camera and just have to share a few with you.  Funny how something so cold can be so beautiful.  

This ice was actually on the inside of the screen door.  It condensates regularly.

I claim to be a finder of feathers and feel they are put in my path at times.

When I looked at these I felt the same way.  They are wispy just like feathers only on one window. 

currently

Currently... I am fascinated by fine glitter and modge podge.  Mixing the fineness in with a glob of m.p. and brushing it on any surface brings a glow to my face.  It is simply breathtaking. 

I am anxiously awaiting items ordered online.  I have very few people to buy gifts for and normally prefer to shop online.  However, when Christmas is now two weeks away and I call to check on an order only to be told that they won't receive the merchandise until this week "then" it will be shipped to me, I begin to rethink ordering anything online.  Ugh... Christmas shopping.  I am beginning to loathe it.

I feel I have currently almost kicked a nasty cold by not using antibiotics for once.  It had appeared to take up shop in my lungs after a few days of travelling there.  I have taken over the counter items and several immune boosters, including DoTerra On Guard beadlets.  The key on that is staying on top of it and not letting it get me down.  Rest every chance I get and eating right too.

I have chosen to not put up a Christmas tree or drag out all of my favorite decorations that are normally scattered throughout the house.  In a way it is making me feel like a rebel, which I like, rebelling against the entire over-doing-it world.  Instead I have chosen to simply illuminate areas of our home and may just leave the tiny white lights up all winter.  They make me smile without the ho ho ho.  On the other hand, not going all Christmas-y has led me to not know what to blog about since every other blog that you look at right now is lathered with holiday cheer.  I'm choosing to let them handle it.  Plus we have a four wheeling vacation coming up that I have a mental count down for.

I am currently loving the book by Gillian McKeith called Food Bible.  How to use food to cure what ails you.  It's super.  I have picked up a new morning routine of being nice to my liver by drinking a warm cup of water with lemon to cleanse my liver for the day instead of forcing coffee right away.  I have also picked up a few new eating habits for my skin.  This is definitely a book I want on my shelf that I feel I will go to time and time again.  You can seriously pick a condition or need for your body and it leads you to what to stay away from or add to your diet.  

I have decided to go ahead and dig in the garden at the day care today at the prompting of one of my kids here and plant some garlic.  We discovered yesterday that I apparently missed one when I dug them up last summer and found it's shoots standing proudly.  So I grabbed a handful when I left the house this morning and have intentions of digging in the dirt/mud today with the kiddos.

I am minus two kids at the dc which brings me down a touch not to mention my pocket book.  I am currently on the look out for other income for the meantime but can't seem to motivate myself to do anything about it.  I have my etsy store and things to put in it but keep holding back.  Maybe I feel I need to learn from this.  Being self employed and having times when money is good I should learn to save up for times like this.  I feel Shaun is silently nodding in agree-ance (I guess that's not a word). He is also self employed and follows this rule very well.  But he's been at it a lot longer than I.  If I had saved forharder times I wouldn't be panicking with the lack of children right now.  Lesson learned... manage money better when hopefully the next kids show up and put back for down times.  

I am currently not very good with my camera.  My pictures are turning out blurry or have very poor lighting or I am not seeing any subject matter.  So I wind up not taking it with me and ignoring it.  I have managed to take a few... very few... pictures lately.