Sunshine on My Shoulder

Younger son's last weekend at home. Blueberry pancakes for breakfast (thanks, Mama Bear), a morning of target shooting, late pizza lunch, Barnes & Noble (thanks to Debi, we each got a new book), and now home where younger son continues room-cleaning and packing and husband and older son build shipping crates for him. The photo is from the drive home from shooting, taken with my point-and-shoot digital through the windshield (no, I was not driving). Rainbows don't usually happen at 1:30 in the afternoon, so I'm thinking this was meant for us on our special weekend. I'm thinking Mother Nature knows how this other mother is feeling about now.

Behind the Times

My cousin-in-law Debi makes the most amazing cards. She even sends them, too, as can be seen above. I really need to write my own thank you to Debi, perhaps using one of the cards she made for me. I am behind on several things but working on catching up. (I would include a link to Debi's blog--she was one of my inspirations in starting to blog--but Blogger gremlins keep flinging poo at me and laughing. Alas...)

Mmm ... Good!

We had blueberry muffins for breakfast this morning, courtesy of Mama Bear's Christmas basket. I hate to see close friends move away even if only temporarily (18 months counts as temporary if a return is planned), but if they move to locations with tasty goodness and find a way to share it, who am I to argue? The muffins got eight thumbs up by the way.

Under the Weather

So much for younger son's plans to sort possessions, pack some, set others aside for shipping, and so on. Given that he spent several hours Saturday in the company of many thousands of other people in the Georgia Dome watching the University of Virginia lose in the Chick-Fil-A Bowl, he probably should have seen this coming. Here's hoping it's a bug of the 24-hour variety, and he's back in the land of the awake and kicking tomorrow.

Trading a Kid for a Dog?

Our Christmas visitor, Biscuit, needs a new forever home sooner rather than later, so we're taking her on a permanent basis. Members of her first family (the non-allergic ones at least) are getting unlimited, unsupervised visitation rights. The post title above reflects the fact that as Biscuit moves in, younger son moves on and out, leaving for Seattle a week from today. Perhaps the canine addition will distract me from missing the departed human quite so much. And perhaps not.

Lazy Days on Mondays

The last day of the winter break (for the husband, anyway) seemed a good day to be lazy. I worked out for an hour, donated some platelets, hit a local grocery for sale items for which I also had coupons, read V is for Vengeance, and now am heading to kendo locally since the gym in Alexandria I normally go to on Mondays is closed tonight. Really, this is what passes for a lazy day for me; hence, the photo of one of the cats. When nothing noteworthy is happening, look to a cat for inspiration.

In with the New

When I was growing up, we would open our presents on Christmas morning. When not in use or being played with, the opened presents would stay underneath the tree until it came down on New Year's Day. The husband didn't like this, so it never became a tradition in our family unit. The tree seems empty once there's nothing beneath it, and I often don't think about plugging in the lights. It is as if its purpose has been served and it is just, just there. It looks even emptier now that the ornaments, garlands, and lights have been removed.