Guideposts - Week 1

Human felicity is produced not so much by great pieces of good fortune...as by little advantages that occur every day.  --Ben Franklin

Vanishing Act

Remember homework? How it took endless hours to finish after school when you'd rather be playing outside and then somehow only took two minutes to correct it in class? Similarly, dinners take an hour or so to cook and get scarfed up in less than fifteen minutes. And don't even get me started on holiday dinners which are all-too-fresh in my brain cells! One day to bake pies and veggie casseroles. One day to bake our traditional egg bread and to set the table. And then an entire morning fussing (with love, but still fussing) over everything else. And how long does it take to disappear? Yeah, it evaporates pretty quickly after all that time and effort.

Christmas decorations are kinda the same way, only in reverse. It took me a mere day to deck the halls and the fireplace and the bookcases and the china cabinet and the...well, you know. (Because less is not more at our cottage. My philosophy is that if a Little is Good, then More must be Wonderful. And if More is Wonderful, then Lots will be Magical!) So, if it only took a day to put up, why does it take a whole entire week to take it all down? A week of sofas cradling sorted collections of tree ornaments, Santas, snowmen, and holiday mugs. Seven days of snowflakes, tinsel garlands and nativity sets on the dining table. The cottage looked like a flea market exploded indoors. My brain wanted to set sail for Cancun and leave it all behind for elves to tidy up.

The debut of the weekend lent me a desperate inspired burst of energy. All the Christmas goodies have disappeared into their crates and are OUT of the house. The carpet is free of tinsel and every surface is dust-free and polished. My songbird collection is cheering up my kitchen windowsill and little terra cotta angels have emerged. Paintings banished to make room for holiday wallhangings glow in their new locations.

I'll drag the dog crate away from the stairway closet tomorrow and bring out red and pink tulips (silk--it's only January after all). Meanwhile the snow and ice are melting ounce by ounce and actual plants with actual leaves are showing themselves. Today I was thrilled to notice the mini-daffodil leaves pushing their way towards sunlight along the front path...thoughts of springtime and seed catalogs have invaded my daydreams...it's so nice to stitch on flowery projects...the cherry buds are starting to swell ever so little.

The warmth and love of Christmas are lingering happily while the clutter has vanished.

In The Way

Work certainly gets in the way of life sometimes. I never got my Twelfth Day Of Christmas in. I was napping. Every day. Because kindergartners can be exhausting after two weeks away from them.

But it's the weekend and I'm back!

Eleven Ladies Dancing

Probably they ate way too much chocolate fudge, drank a couple extra cups of hot cocoa and indulged in a few too many desserts throughout December. Then they stepped onto a scale and screamed in agony at the red zone number which appeared. And decided that dance was the least painful way to remove some of the jiggle.

Which brings us to the subject of today's post. The one that should have appeared yesterday but got sidetracked by a sinus headache, that one. Anyway, resolutions. They're on everyone's mind, even those who don't make them find their thoughts wandering and pondering change and improvement. I don't have to make any resolutions this year. Not because the last decade's worth finally made me perfect but because my new apron came pre-equipped with good suggestions.

I'll apologize in advance for the fuzzy photos. I'm choosing to go with what I have instead of pursuing photographic perfection.

I'm reminded that I need to nurture my family's spirit as well as their tummies at dinnertime and I'm making an effort to promote conversation nightly.

I'm always available for a looooong phone conversation. But too often my friends are the ones who have to pick up the phone. I need to initiate contact more. I remember birthdays but am unprepared with a card or gift. Planning ahead would help. Like maybe getting things NOW TODAY instead of wishing I had something five seconds after the birthday ends. Any present is better than the perfect present that doesn't happen.

We only get one shot at life. No use pouting and moaning. Instead of blaming others, I've recognized that my attitude is controlled totally by me and I can choose how I react. Meet the more cheerful and less stressed me.

No need to elaborate here.

A good idea even if you've been married as long as I have--decades, centuries, eons. Anyway, long time and I need to keep those sweet feelings circulating.

One of us is still jobless, but cultivating gratitude for the many blessings I enjoy will keep me smiling with the happy side effect of not creating any frowny wrinkles.


Gardeners get this one.

It's nice to recognized, isn't it?!

Pretty cool that I get inspired every time I put on my apron or even walk through the kitchen where it's hung up. I'm expecting to be fabulous by 2011!

Ten Drummers Drumming

The first complete project of the New Year:That would be moi in my new apron.
Rotten light though.

Let's turn on the flash...The front.

The back.Finally I found an apron pattern that I love, love, love!

My favorite thing might be this pocket. I adapted the plain square uninspired pocket into something cuter. Would a bit of lace finish it off? Yes or no?

Now that I think of it, there's something I like even better than the pocket. But you'll have to wait until tomorrow...I'm off to watch Harry Potter and The Half-Blood Prince right now before it gets too late. Suspense--I'm evil that way.

Nine Pipers Piping

They sound great, but oh my gosh! Are they actually wearing kilts?

My heart is in Arizona tonight. It's attending a wedding for me. Regrettably, it's winter and my money tree is dormant and leafless in my backyard. And Southwest Air didn't tuck a free ticket into my stocking on Christmas morning. I think I'm fairly angelic, but I'm missing fluffy feathery wings so I can't migrate south like I want. Phooey! or words to that effect.

One of my favorite kids is all grown up and getting married right about now. (He was the three-year-old who told the bucket story in preschool many many years ago.) I can't believe we aren't there tonight to celebrate. I want to meet his wife, I want to hug his parents, I want to laugh with his brothers and sister and their spouses, I want to marvel at how much the kidlets have grown since last January.

A year ago we were doing exactly that at his brother's wedding. Then the job world came crashing down and we weren't able to attend the beach wedding in May either. My wonderful friend Kacee is amazing to not only survive, ,but to flourish, with all three of her sons getting married in the last 366 days. I can almost hear her fabulous laugh from here!

Am I happy for digital photos and the Net? You'd better believe it! I can't wait to see how the guys looked in their kilts and how Bucket Boy's already-gorgeous wife looked in her gown. I hope there's a photo of them looking at each other with a lifetime of love shining in their eyes. I love weddings!

Eight Maids

and they wouldn't be milking either, not at our cottage with holiday remnants needing to be taken down, packed carefully away and stored for another eleven months.

Twenty-ten! Doesn't that sound amazing? And wasn't it yesterday that we were toasting Y2K in a lovely Alsatian white that son Pierre brought back from his bike trip through Europe (including the accidental detour into Holland).

Dear two thousand and nine, I'm sorry but I won't miss you at all. I didn't really need the CE credits in family, love, friends, thriftiness and simplicity. Please, God, let twenty-ten be a good year. A year with jobs for everyone who wants one. A year free from life-changing loss. A year with security and appreciation.

Happy New Year!