After dropping Jonathan off at his holiday camp this morning, I took Mom and Dad out to the airport for their return to the farm. It's lovely weather here--no clouds, started off at freezing this morning but it's at 54 now and supposed to get up to the mid-sixties by the afternoon--but at the farm it's 44 and feels like 35, according to The Weather Channel, wind gusts 23-28 mph, and lows next week there are supposed to hit 6 and 2 degrees. Yes, that's Fahrenheit. BRRRRR!
Now that there's no one around, I have the feeling of not knowing what to do, even though there are thousands of things that *should* be done. Hence I'm just kind of hanging out, doing laundry, helping my brother-in-law unzip a file for the first time, etc. I guess I need a couple of days to do nothing! Mom was a huge help to me the last few days--I spent one entire day cleaning out Jonathan's room, including under his bed and his closet, and also sorting through the toys we kept in our bathroom for him to play with while we showered. It was a tiring day and not really that much fun, although he does have loads of room now in his bedroom; the rocking chair is now by the piano in the front room. Then the next day I had to get all the Christmas decorations put away, which was another big job. Luckily Mom made dinner both nights (cold boiled shrimp, fresh homemade rolls, broccoli stir-fry one night, and last night we had roast beef & potatoes with corn and the fresh dill bread I'd made). It's so nice having dinner fixed for you in your own home! And not having to even give it a second thought meant I could focus on getting all that stuff packed away. Yay for Moms!
While our friends Jessica & Archie have been out of town with their little Eamon, they kindly loaned me their Kitchen-Aid so I could see if I think I'd really use one enough to warrant the purchase price. My interest in using it is primarily for making bread. I've made three loaves now and love it so far, but the real test will come when we see if I still use it after Mom's gone. Dale for one is quite tickled to have homemade bread and has a hard time stopping himself from eating a whole loaf at once. Yesterday I made a loaf of basic white bread, although I substituted some seven-grain mix for part of the flour, and I also made a loaf of dill bread that was pretty scrumptious. Jonathan likes very much to help--he works all the Kitchen-Aid controls and likes to watch the dough hook kneading the bread.
It sure is difficult to pick up the habit again of making blog entries. Right now I'm waiting for an answer back on my genealogy mailing list about a small problem, so after winning a hand of solitaire I decided to go ahead and just make a damn entry!
This morning I was cuddled up on the couch with Jonathan, one arm around him and the other holding the magazine I was reading (he was watching Between the Lions on PBS. All of a sudden, he asked, "What's its name?" What is what's name, I asked? "The baby's name", he replied. So we had a little conversation about not knowing since we don't know if it's a boy or a girl (he said we should ask the doctor), and then he wanted to know when I was going to let the baby out of my tummy. I said it needed to get a little bigger first, but probably about next May I would let it come out. (As if I'm going to have anything to say about it!)
I bundled up all my plants together to keep warm on the deck this evening--wind gusts have been *very* strong today, up to 40mph, and it's supposed to get down close to freezing again tonight. Coming into winter is kind of fun this year; I see the plants not putting any new growth on, and I can imagine what it will be like in spring when all of a sudden they burst into action again. I'm getting a nice feel for the whole cycle of the year. Also, I figure this gives me a break! Hopefully in the nice days over the next month or two, I'll be able to do a little bit of weeding and some much-needed pruning (don't want to do it too soon or any new growth will get frozen) before the spring comes and I get too huge to maneuver around easily. Given Texas weather, I should be all right, I think.
I'm greatly looking forward to the upcoming early Christmas at my house on Friday evening, and tickled that so many are able to make it. As soon as I get back Wednesday morning from taking Jonathan to his gymnastics program, I plan to channel Grama Sprong and bake some cookies. Hopefully my stamina will last. (And everyone who's coming will get cookies to take home with them--I've even got Ziploc plastic containers, so no excuses.)
The house is decorated very nicely for Christmas, with the help of Brian & Joy before they returned home last Friday, and it's very pleasant to go from room to room and see pretty things everywhere--I've built up a big enough collection now that I can make it look like Christmas in more than just one room. I especially like Christmas trees, and in addition to the real tree in the living room, there are 3 little trees throughout the house. Ho ho ho!