Welcome 2012

I'm sure it will be better than 2011. I'm going to try to keep up this silly journal once more. TRY. Let's hope some fun things happen and that I don't forget to write them down.

I like Jeannie's resolution from The Old-Fashioned Baby blog.

We managed to stay awake for midnight, mainly because we knew Darby and the cats would freak out at the sound of firecrackers and wake us up anyway.

This morning both my eyes are bloodshot, and I'm wondering if anyone at church will notice. The only indulgence I had was at about 11:30 - 2 pieces of Dove Dark Chocolate and a glass of Diet Coke.

No resolutions because I never keep them, but we have already started some new things that I hope we can continue.

One is walking. It may only be once or twice a week since the weather is not always nice, but it's a start. We usually enjoy it except for the time when we misjudged the huge storm coming in and -- well, just think of the old saying "soaked to the bone" - humans and dog. It was kind of fun, at least for me.

The other is breakfast. We both hate breakfast, at least early in the morning. I usually have a protein bar and a half a glass of milk, and Mike has about 3 cups of coffee. For a couple of weeks now, I've forced myself to make us a healthy breakfast, and we've done well. Always with milk and fruit and/or juice. We've had eggs, southwestern eggbeaters, cereal, oatmeal, whole-wheat toast, bagels. Sometimes we just go through the motions, but usually it's pretty good and has to be helping.

This is our official first year of retirement. We've tested it for 4 months now, and it's worked out fine. The insurance we chose has paid for anything we've thrown at it except for Mike's flu shot and a few co-payments. The 4 medications we take between us are either $4 or $7 a month. So maybe we made the right decision.

The "fixed income" is probably going to work. So far it has. And I even have a little money to spend wildly on fabric. Or shoes.

We and our families are relatively healthy, and we're thankful for that. With 2 parents not too far from 90, we can expect problems there, but everyone is handling things well. The nursing home is working out well for Roy, and Mama is still making a lot of her own meals, doing her housework and voraciously reading 2-3 newspapers a day plus watching the news twice a day and her soap opera faithfully at 12:30. She even still sews a little bit.

We're going to tackle the house and get some projects started. It's hard to know where to start, but we need to make some improvements. I'm looking forward to having a garden this spring. Mike - maybe not so excited but willing to go along with it.

I'm on the verge of actually finishing a quilty project. My friend Barbara and cousin Sherry (who are quilters who finish many things a year) are always optimistically giving me things in hopes that something will catch my fancy and make me finish something. I'm kidding, they're just nice and extra generous. But as soon as the girls moved out of the guest room, I moved my sewing machine and ironing board in there and started a project. It was a panel for an Advent Calendar with 25 little pockets that Barbara gave me a long time ago with some more Christmas things. So cute. I worked on it for a few days and finished the front, added a backing and batting and even quilted around the main area by hand while I watched Auburn's bowl game last night.

All I have to do now is bind it and stick a dowel through the sleeve, and it's ready to hang. I love all the little pockets!







I learned to do Pintarest, and while I won't ever be as enthusiastic as some people, it's a nice place to keep those random projects and ideas you run across on other blogs or just in general. People are so creative, and I have no shame about profiting from their creativity. Facebook doesn't interest me that much, even though I do check it periodically. I've mastered my new Android (or whatever that phone is called) - at least for the one or two things that I do with it so far. If I could only stop losing it. Lots of books I want to read but will never have time for.

We've rediscovered Masterpiece Theater on Sunday night - or Masterpiece Classics, I think it's called now. We're loving Downton Abbey and hate that the first season is finishing tonight. We have to watch it twice because we miss some little plot or some funny thing the first time around. Good news is that the new season starts January 8th, and it looks like there are some more nice shows too.



So it doesn't look like a boring year coming up. I think it will be wonderful. We'll come home from church and eat our red beans and rice that Mike made yesterday and eat our turnip greens and sweet potatoes.



And then go for a walk. There's only a 20% chance of rain.