Happy Day 34 Apricots

These were my neighbor's. She asked us to pick them all while she was on vacation before the birds get them. It's a shame you have to pick them a little green, but the birds ate all her cherries!

Dream About a Tent City

Last night's dream was long and complicated so I'll just tell the end.

My boyfriend made some pretty shady friends and we got dragged along with them by plane to their home base. Once we landed, I was furious with the way my boyfriend had gotten so wrapped up with his new seedy friends that he completely ignored my well being. After we landed he was nowhere to be found. Finally I found him in a house on the property sitting on the living room floor making a balloon animal for someone. I told him I came to say good-bye. He just looked at me blankly.

So I left and started walking back to California. I was wearing flip-flops and only had the clothes on my back. Eventually I came to the shoreline where it was twilight and the water was blue green. There was a tent city/ shanty town stretched for miles and miles along the ocean. I tried to keep moving, wondering how long it would be until I was too hungry to keep going. People were milling about everywhere. Some were minors. The tent city was very colorful. But it was pretty much filth and squalor. Various people tried to befriend me or distract me. One girl said we could get a motel room for $25 a night. I said, "Are you kidding me, I don't have any money," and she wandered off to look for another sucker. I befriended a couple. I was rubbing his shoulders. A young boy came up and said something to them, then wandered off. I didn't hear, but they started fighting over him. The man had wanted him to stay to perform some sort of favors. The woman said no way, don't you know he has another boy with him? It sounded creepy to me so I moved on again. It was getting darker. I didn't know where I'd be staying so I just kept walking. The tent city stretched for miles and miles. I wondered if my boyfriend even realized I was gone. I wondered how far away California was. I wondered how I was going to survive.

A Strange Mother's Day

My life has been a whirlwind of trips to and from Monrovia to clear out the house my boyfriend's mom lived in (and subsequently died in). So much stuff it's backbreaking. Right now I'm at the point where I can't pick anything up off the floor because it hurts too much.

We are back home again still waiting on the death certificates before we can proceed. Once that happens we'll have to rent a moving van and storage facility, finish cleaning, and hopefully the buyer won't back out before all is said and done. We are selling the mobile home as is, but in her opinion that means whack $5000 off the price. But I'm not the executor and it's not my decision to make. I would have dumped her at the get-go and found a buyer who was easier to work with.

My real task is to lend moral support, clean as much as I can, and maybe sell stuff on Ebay down the road. My daughter helped by taking a lot of the furniture, toys, and doodads off of our hands.

Mostly I just wanted to vent because it's Mother's Day and Joyce was like a 2nd mom to me. So I'm either going to cry or get mad. Seems I only have 2 modes today.

At least we are at home today and it's a beautiful day. The tanagers are back. A chipmunk was just drinking from the water bowl. I need to go outside and fill them back up. The birdbath is empty. It's so hot the water evaporates. I guess I should move it into the shade.

100 Happy Days Challenge Day 33

I've decided to keep track of my #100happydays challenge here. I'm on number 33 and the other ones are posted to Twitter. Unfortunately Twitter scrolls, and I keep losing track of what number I'm on and it's tedious fishing through all my tweets trying to find the relevant number. Then there was a death in the family on the 14th and I haven't posted a happy day since! My daughter suggested I just start where I left off.

I subscribed to the website, which promised to make a book of all the photos, but since they never sent my daughter or I a confirmation e-mail I have no idea if I'm officially in the challenge or not. No matter, I'm doing it anyway to encourage myself to focus on happy things right now.

So here is my photo for the #100happydaychallenge #day33 We got an unexpected storm that dusted the mountains behind my house with snow.

Some Thoughts On Persistence

A thought on persistence and feeling good: Sometimes persistence can be a bad thing. For example, I'll start playing an online game and it feels good, so I play it more. At some point it stops being fun and yet I keep playing it. Because I have a value system that says persistence pays off and you shouldn't quit until you win or are done or whatever. I tend to keep hitting the flippers long after the thrill is gone. That applies to many things...lovers, crafts, food, careers. I need to learn to let go of things quicker. To maybe once an hour ask myself, 'Does this still feel good? If not, what can I do now that will make me happy?' So on that note, I'm going outside to knit, but only as long as it makes me happy.

Mushroom Biome on Minecraft

Mooshrooms on Minecraft

Busy Tuesday and Wednesday

It's been a long but productive day. I used the bread machine to make pizza dough. It makes enough for 2 large pizzas. Tonight's pizza had chicken, pineapple and onions on it. Tomorrow's pizza will be pepperoni, olives, onions, and mushrooms.

Tomorrow I'm making mincemeat cookies and an apple pie for Thanksgiving. We are having Thanksgiving with family. I'll be sure to take needlework along so I don't get bored out of my mind.
The kitchen only holds two people, and my boyfriend and his mom will be side by side cooking so I'll have to amuse myself in the living room.

Part of today I spent crocheting a baby cocoon. I wanted to work on an adult version of the target hat shown in the photo but I ran out of time.

I got my daily reading done in a book called Raven's Gift. I read it outside in the sunshine but once the sun dipped behind the hills, so did the temperature so I had to go back inside.

Now it's past midnight and I need to get some sleep.

A hat for a new baby.

Random Word List 4

Word List Four

 
I'm finding it very fulfilling to stretch my vocabulary and recall words long forgotten and to look up spellings of words that I thought I knew. Fun! I'm such a word nerd. See the illustrated word list here: http://www.pinterest.com/mystictheodora/random-word-list-four-nouns/
 

 

 

1.     Ageratum

2.     Alfalfa

3.     Amphibian

4.     Anemone

5.     Angelfish

6.     Arch

7.     Bleeding Heart

8.     Bridge

9.     Burglar

10.  Castanets

11.  Catfish

12.  Catnap

13.  Cattails

14.  Chamomile

15.  Chert

16.  Cinnamon Roll

17.  Conch

18.  Crochet

19.  Cruise ship

20.  Cucumber

21.  Curio

22.  Deck tennis

23.  Dice

24.  Dip

25.  Dogbane

26.  Elevator

27.  Fan

28.  Filbert

29.  Gambeson

30.  Garret

31.  Geode

32.  Gibbon

33.  Giblet

34.  Goldfish

35.  Gorget

36.  Granite

37.  Ion

38.  Iron

39.  Ivory

40.  Jabot

41.  Kismet

42.  Kite

43.  Lilac

44.  Lips

45.  Lobelia

46.  Lozenge

47.  Lupines

48.  Maiden

49.  Mandolin

50.  Marquis

51.  Matinee

52.  Memento

53.  Mending

54.  Minaret

55.  Moat

56.  Monkeys

57.  Mummy

58.  Munchkin

59.  Nanny

60.  Onyx

61.  Opal

62.  Orangutan

63.  Ornament

64.  Ornithologist

65.  Parlor

66.  Peccary

67.  Peloton

68.  Pentagram

69.  Petunia

70.  Pilgrimage

71.  Pistil

72.  Portulaca

73.  Prickly Pear

74.  Program

75.  Quirt

76.  Razorback Mountains

77.  Regiment

78.  Saigon

79.  Séance

80.  Sedimentary Rock

81.  Shift

82.  Shuffleboard

83.  Siamese Cat

84.  Slime

85.  Slingshot

86.  Sloth

87.  Spiral Staircase

88.  Sponge

89.  Squid

90.  Squirt gun

91.  Stiletto

92.  Streetcar

93.  Toast

94.  Trombone

95.  Vanner

96.  Wattle

97.  Woad

98.  Zest