A quick update

I keep hoping for things to slow down a bit. Life has been very busy lately for one reason or another. I had thought that once summer was over and we wound outside projects down to a minimum, everything would just move at a quieter pace. But, that hasn't been the case...yet. Yes, we did get our woodstove installed and we have been loving it. The timing couldn't have been better because for nearly two weeks we had beautiful, but cold, sunshine. We were blessed with no damages to pipes or hoses due to freezing temperatures, and the horses enjoyed the weather as much as we did. We found that by keeping our pellet stove going round the clock, and having a fire in the woodstove in the evenings, our little home kept us toasty and warm. I am so thankful for not having to use our furnace anymore.

We adopted a black lab puppy from the local shelter on December 4th. We've named her Nellie, and she's a joy (most of the time). Annie is still adjusting to not being the only housepet, and slowly she's warming towards the pup. My hope is that Nellie will help keep Annie young-at-heart, and that Annie will pass along her quiet demeanor and general good dog sense to Nellie. So far, so good. We are still looking at adopting a Golden Retriever from the rescue as well. After Christmas, we have a meeting to meet a dog named Jasper. He sounds amazing too. So, if all goes as planned, we will be back to having our standard of 3 dogs again. Are we crazy or what?

Last weekend was the annual Christmas cookie bake-off and exchange at my house. I had a total of 7 friends there baking and it was a lot of fun. Tiring for my back, but fun nonetheless. That evening I had severe back spasms and thought I was going to have to make a trip to the emergency room, but my hubby found some old vicadin tablets. I took one of those and a very warm bath and the spasms eased enough for me to get to sleep. I did go to the doctor the following day and got some muscle relaxers, anti-inflammatory meds and more pain pills. I don't want to get caught when something like that happens with nothing to help. Now I just need to be careful for a while and let my back heal from whatever I've managed to do to it this time. Sheesh! It's always something.

We got our Christmas tree up and all decorated, and I've made an evergreen wreath for the front door. We've put a few decorations inside the house, but are keeping things very simple this year. We had planned on taking the train to Idaho to spend Christmas with our son Justiin and his wife Jenney and our grandkids. I definitely didn't want to drive there in winter conditions, but taking the train sounded so very romantic and part of the overall adventure! But the nearest train depot to the small town where they live is Spokane, and that would mean they would have to drive over 170 miles one way just to pick us up. We don't want them having to do that, so I guess we'll just stay home and have a very quiet Christmas, just my hubby and me. Maybe that's exactly what the doctor ordered. A peaceful and quiet day at home with the dogs. I might even stay in my pj's all day...doesn't that sound nice? I'll fix a nice dinner, play some Christmas music and have a fire going in the woodstove. Who knows? Maybe we can even squeeze in a Christmas day nap...that sounds heavenly!

I realize it's been about 3 weeks since I've posted anything here on my blog. Since Thanksgiving, we've had a couple of weeks of very cold (as low as 9 F), dry and sunshiney weather which I loved. But the last few days the temperatures are back up into the upper 40's and low 50's with rain. Tons of rain. The skies are grey and gloomy and everything's looking rather dismal again. Oh well, winter begins in just 4 more days so I guess we should expect this kind of weather. One good thing about the winter solstice is that's the shortest day of the year, and after that the days will begin slowly lengthening again. That's good. The seasons sure seem to come and go a lot quicker than they ever used to. A sure sign of aging, I guess.

I hope everybody is enjoying this Christmas season; spending time with friends and family and remembering just why we celebrate this time of year. Merry Christmas everyone!!

That's it for now from cingspots

Blessings!