A disorganized lack of concentration that proves one is highly intelligent!

So I had grand plans to write a blog once each week until Christmas but then something happened  

For staters, my little nephew was born and had no Auntie Von crocheted blanket on which to lay his little head and I realized procrastination had won! So I’ve been diligently listening to books and crocheting. Next it got really cold outside and we hadn’t gotten the Gee-Oh! dome done, so I’ve been busy babysitting our garden shelter that has no garden in it yet. Next our children decided to come home and get me motivated on my Christmas letter. So now I’ve been busy addressing envelopes and stuffing them with the lovely photograph and letter that they helped me get ready. And finally of course it’s nearly Christmas and I have no gifts under the tree so I need to get working on those.

These days it’s so quiet I can hear the clock ticking so that means if the washing machine gets off balance and makes a clunk it could send the sleeping dog through the roof with fright. If the mailman or lady pulls up with a different vehicle that sends them both into barking frenzy! I usually try to keep a radio going so that their fright doesn’t make me spill my coffee! So I have begun to think of my life in terms of punctuation marks 

So while life seems to be nothing but quiet long scenic paragraphs within an  occasional punctuation mark, I decided maybe I should share “a few of my favorite things.”

Since memories flood minds during this time of year, I recollect the first years of watching The Sound of Music at Christmas time.  We would be at my grandpa and grandma’s apartment all sprawled out on the floor; pillows and blankets and feet and more pillows and more blankets and more feet seemed to be everywhere! My mother would insist that we must watch the sound of music because it was on television that night. No Netflix or DVDs or Blu-ray for us. And so the song “These Are A Few Of My Favorite Things” has been etched in my memory with the taste of a weether’s toffee candy  from my grandma’s apartment.

So what are my favorite things today? Fleece lined clothing, watching ducklings, crocheting a gift , sitting with one of my doggies , and of course  coffee!

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Today I got to have all of these favorite things at once!  I dressed up in my fleece tights under my jeans and fleece lined sweatshirt to go out to the Gee-Oh! dome with Seymour. I filled my coffee mug up with some fresh French press. Seymour and I sat on the butterfly bench and listened to the pond pump make it’s beautiful fountain of sound and I watched the little ducklings eat their food and grow bigger. Then I came in the house and sat awhile  with Waldo and crocheted a gift for someone for Christmas… this day was completely full of my favorite things.  

(Here’s where I put the punctuation marks of parentheses and tell you that — yes, I cut my finger today with the kitchen scissors. And I couldn’t  find a Band-Aid and had to stop the bleeding with a Kleenex. Also never mind the fact that I spilled my coffee all over the kitchen table. Thank goodness I had just cleaned up the  Christmas letters .)


Oh and about the ducks: they were a rescue mission as the mother’s fall brood was first five then four and then these two.  We put them in the barn that had a full set-up from the spring dozen that the foxes ate.  But when the water froze in the dark corn-crib room, I decided they should move into the greenhouse where it has stayed just at or above freezing. Therefore they have taken up residence in Seymour’s garden house and he’s not very fond of sharing! 

Final note on these favorites.  The fountain is in the pond.  I get so excited when I tell people about our adventure.  I hope I’m not annoying. Waldo has these kangaroo leaps when people come to vitcut that are so annoying. What’s wrong with excitement anyhows?  Joy that’s uncontainable spills over  and even though there aren’t any presents under the tree yet (or whether there will be any at all) doesn’t matter at the moment. Christmas season doesn’t mean shopping season to me anymore anyway (since I’m not really capable of buying my own two pair of pants right now anyway). My discovery today was that Christmas to me is sending  Christmas letters and receiving the greetings in return mail. That’s my favorite thing about Christmas-real mail from real people!

So the punctuation lifestyle of  empty-neaters has arrived. We enjoy the exclamation marks wit exuberant  barking. We put up with the commas of change in direction as we put the Gee-oh project on hold for Christmas. We accept the semi-colon differences of years passing and growing older.  We understand parenting is a brief parenthesis in our lives that never really ends. Most of all we honor the quotation marked blessings that God speaks to us through the greetings of loved ones and friends this time of year.

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A fountain of hope to all of you! Enjoy the season!