It is really and truly winter out there again tonight.  Today it really snowed, the roads got bad, and the wind blew hard.  It was the first blizzard of the season.  It's still new enough that the novelty hasn't worn off;  I'm not minding it at all.  

much ado

I really should be making dinner right now instead of writing a blog post.  I really should be buying groceries so I can start dinner pretty soon instead of writing this blog post.  Instead I am sitting here, perusing the internet,  and listening to my kids making crazy noise outside of the house (outside lest the crazy infect me too).  I'm thinking it's a pizza night. 

It's already getting dark outside.  Yesterday was daylight savings in the direction of falling back, which is much easier than springing forward.  I have nothing against falling back, but I hold a huge vendetta against springing forward as that one hour of stolen sleep takes me about 6 weeks to adjust to every year.  One can not fall back as an option every time, however.  Apparently, we can't just leave time alone either. 

Things have quieted down around here lately.  I'm super busy still, but the lack of any current trauma has me floundering.  What in the world is there to do if I can't be obsessing about anything specific?  My monkey mind can't even seem to drudge up imaginary things to worry about at the moment.  What in the world am I supposed to write about?!? 

While I ponder, I thought I might post some pictures I took this fall at my friend Deana's place:

Cool Old Car:  Pretty sure my Dad would approve

What is it with me and rusty old chains... sure there must
be some deeper meaning here. 

Little Blue Eyed Horsie

Horse striking a mysterious and nonchalant pose

Some Pictures That Made Me Smile This Week

I have a lot of friends and family who are on crazy awesome vacations right now.  That sounds pretty nice.  Someday I will go to Istanbul and Greece. 

I have a friend who is writing a newspaper column and doing a crazy writing challenge of like 1600 words a day for a month.  I am super impressed and inspired.

I have a friend who responded to a stressful situation by tiling the walls to her laundry room and doing a complete redo on her art room.  This too inspires me.

Now that basic order has been restored again, I need to add some excitement back into this mix; the final ingredient to surviving winter once again.

One of my favorite blogs- Hyperbole and a Half

I am saving this picture- a sweet find!  Ammunition in the mental game that is poker.  :)

Laundry, Schedules and Other Interesting Topics

Been meaning to update in here for awhile, but actually being able to find the time and the desire and the words to write down has been beyond me for weeks.  So, it is 2:37 AM, a time when I should be snuggled up in bed, toasty and asleep.  For some reason my brain decided to snap back to attention at 1:30 AM.  Instead of fighting it, I came out into the living room thinking I would be super woman and write something in here.  Instead I started doing the inevitable Internet surfing, in which I find myself looking at random pictures of Maine Coons and catching up on my favorite blogs written by other people. 

Tomorrow I don't go to work until noon.  This house is a WRECK.  I have ambitious plans of doing many loads of laundry, cleaning everything, vacuuming and scrubbing and making this place sparkle all before I leave the house.  If nothing else, I will make a big enough dent in the wreckage so that when I walk through the door upon returning from work, I won't get that fight or flight response I had today when I got home.

I was so on top of all of this too!  For the last couple of weeks I have been following a schedule religiously.  There are days for working for the business to chip away at the list our accountant gave me and balance QB. Days for cleaning the house and doing laundry. This all mixed in with working at my part time job and getting back into my regular running/exercise schedule, while still making sure the kid's homework is done, their rooms are being cleaned, groceries are bought, and meals are created.  Things were under control!!  I was giving myself pats on the back for the consistent organization that I'd accomplished in my life for many many days in a row. 

This weekend my dad got really sick and had to be hospitalized.  I spent most of the weekend over there with him, trading off and on with my siblings until he felt well enough to leave today.  He still doesn't feel awesome, but he's happy to be out of the hospital (he's staying at my sister's house for now).  It was a pretty chaotic weekend for all of us.  Lots of sleep deprivation and taking care of things more important than laundry and cleaning stuff.  Oh well, those things always wait for me.

Besides the craziness of this weekend, I am feeling better (since my last couple of blog posts).  The vitamins, candida cleanse, running, and getting rescheduled in life all seem to have finally kicked in.  Just in time for winter, which was what I hoped would happen.  I think I will survive in one piece now.  Another thing that I just started about two and a half weeks ago (with Shannon) is a workout called Body Pump.  It is a brutal workout that engages all muscle groups with thousands of reps to music for about an hour just a couple times a week.  I feel so much mentally clearer since I started going.  The hour of pain is definitely worth it.

Different topic... We took the kids to a pool party last night.  Lots of their (and our) friends were there, and it was super fun.  A great way to avoid being at home on halloween night!  Mental note: must do this again next year.

Well, this has been a lot of rambling.  It's been fun, but I think I am tired now.  Gonna go to bed and hope for a fabulous four hours of sleep before I get up again and start kicking butt (maybe) and get reschedulized.