Let There Be LIght!

This house needs more of it!! I go around opening the blinds to let the morning light in...and I probably don't need to expound on the rest of that thought. Suffice it to say that I require more light in my life than does my husband.
I like sunshine. Especially so in the daytime!
Of course, with the sun comes the outpouring of dust bunnies, dead grass, cat hair, and the like. So today I'm on a cleaning mission. Yes, it's Sunday. Yes, I'm on a cleaning mission. Run needles through my fingers.
I can't stand it any longer. I think God will completely understand. This is driving me nuts and I just can't be my best self and go completely over the edge with Dirt Insanity. So I will start anew.

I went to Barnes and Noble on Friday night and bought the winter issue of Art Journaling (Stampington). I really enjoy the eye-candy and the reading in their publications. Inspiring to me. I was raised in a tiny town in the Ozarks; we did not HAVE Kindergarten, let alone anything that resembled an "art class" or times for art media expression in my grade school years...nor high school either, for that matter! Crayons in the cigar box at the Methodist Church on Sunday morning. New crayons from the downstairs basement in Nichols Brothers Store. New coloring books to match, once or twice a year. That and a stick in the dirt in the backyard. You think I'm kidding? I'm not! That was Art 101 in McDonald County Missouri in the 1950's. I did fall in love with paper dolls and I would save my dimes for paper doll books. I probably had a total of 5 in my life. Pretty good count for a family that thrived on fishing, boating, and hunting. It was a male dominant household, if you will. And I do love sailing and fishing. (Thanks, Tib. He also showed me patience, which the rest of the family was short on for many reasons.)
Now I'm trying to make time for myself and as many art media outlets as I can possibly find. Still have several trips to make to some specific art supply stores in Tulsa. I think there is a part of me that never blossomed. I know there is. God, give me a few more days in my life...

Dang, I'm Feeling Old and Cold!

It's been a great day! Sort of one that scooted around the corners of life...nothing too direct, nothing completely done, and one that I know will end with a nice hot bath and a craft book! Bring on the candles! My Dr. Pepper by the tub...now who else takes life with a grain of salt when all the woes and aches of life itself is telling me otherwise? Might as well enjoy the little things that make me happy.
Helped with getting my daughter's house in order today. Moving, divorce, three children...unloading boxes, putting things away, setting aside...Do you have any boxes to unload in YOUR life? Any thing that needs put away or set aside? I certainly do. On to another list or two...
I'm needing to spend some time with a project or two. Needing to feel a needle and thread in my hand. Some scissors for fabric or paper. Some colors and prints and textures...
I'm needing some alone time. Some Anadama bread...hot tea...honey...and the space heater. Brrrr...it's brisk and cold in Oklahoma today.
Say goodnight, Lana.

Just Working on This!

Pick a font. Pick any font. You're already running about an hour behind this morning so it really won't matter except for the fact that it may not be exactly what you want but oh well it's something written down on the ol blog board. Right. And yes, my grammar is not the greatest, but I do know a run on sentence when I see one and yes, we did learn to diagram sentences back in the Ozarks of Missouri in the late 1950's. So I will just continue. Thank you for staying with me thus far.

I'm in a quagmire. Look it up. Quagmire. I'm usually IN a quagmire. It began when I was around sixteen and hasn't let up too much since then. Gee. Almost 50 years of quagmiring...
Something should be speaking to me.

I'm just not having time (ONCE AGAIN) to get everything done that I want to get done. I'm wondering if a strict schedule (FOR ONCE IN MY LIFE) would work. I've been pondering that in my quagmire. I've also found that learning more than one or two things at the same time in the "life after 60" doesn't work nearly as well as it did when it was "life at thirty."
Perhaps I can learn wood crafting, word crafting, insurance sales, photography, and knitting all at the same time. Throw in "posting pictures to the blog sites/Pinterest/et al"... Can I do all of that AND get to the Y for an hour a day? and eat more healthfully? and make things for gifts? and spend time with my grandchildren? and actually work on a scrapbook of 60-plus years of life? Draw that picture for me and make me a map. Maybe if I got up at 3:00 every morning...

Open for suggestions.

Here Again...

Sometimes you come to the same place over and over again. Here again. Another beginning! I'm listing everything I've eaten today and everything I've had to drink. It is NOT a pretty picture...so I can't post the picture on here. I can say to myself that from this point on, some changes are in the works.
Maybe I really will become that Wild, Wacky, and Wonderful Woman! 2012 holds great promise.

She's Contemplative...

It's interesting to watch each of my grandchildren and spend time with them alone. This is my comtemplative one. This is what I see in her now. The photo was taken over a year ago, October 2010. She looks at the strands of life, even at such a young age. I think it is an amazing work of art in how we all fit into our surroundings...those of siblings, family, friends, and the extended environments of our lives. She wants to have a bakery when she grows up...and "maybe be a designer, too, Mamaw." Her young mind holds so many designs.

I'd Like to Invite You to Brunch!

Well, yes I would! This is one of my most favorite memories... a small hotel on the Rhine. Koblenz, Germany; early morning with coffee, cheese, hard salami, granola, and juice. Ah...just a nice place to relax. Let's go!

Oh, let's wait until April or May. I have some basketball games to watch between now and then! And an OSU-Stanford game to watch tomorrow night.

I Really Want a Dog

I DO... I r-e-a-l-l-y want a dog. Yes, I love my Swoopie cat. She's precious. She loves me and follows me EVERYWHERE. I don't want another animal to take her place. I want a dog because it would be so helpful to my spirit and I KNOW I would be helpful to a kind and loving animal. I grew up with my dad's "bird dogs"...that's what you had in the Missouri Ozarks. Bird dogs! Our dogs went hunting with my dad every fall...shoot and kill. We had bird dogs and they had quail. It all worked out that way; for my dad and his dogs. I grew up loving animals. Now, I want a dog from the Humane Society...or the Rescue Pound in Tulsa... to walk with, to brush, and feed and love. Sounds great to me. My husband does "NOT want a dog!" We may have a conflict larger than the dog.

After Christmas

One thing remains the same. After Christmas, I always think of what I will do "next year." Next year I will plan better. I will begin collecting little things for the grandchildren's stockings in May. Or June or July. I will begin to make things during the cold and dreary days of THIS winter, preparing as the squirrel does for the coming year. That's what I tell myself. I even make lists and write down all the plans and promises to myself. I do this every year. This year will be different. It MUST be different than 2011. That was a year I'd like to "learn from" and move on down the road! As my coach-son says, "Go to school on it!"

2011 was colder than any year I can recall in Oklahoma or Missouri. 2011 was hotter than any I can recall, too! I did not like it, Sam I Am. Several things I did not like about 2011! Get out of here as quickly as you can!!! Please bring me a new year.

I'm starting a journal with scraping stuff and writing and prose and notes. I'm hoping to enjoy the journey of making it; hoping to have something for those who walk behind me. Something they will enjoy looking through one day. The things I miss most about my mother are the stories I never got to hear. Opinions she never got to share. Thoughts and ideas, dreams and desires that were a part of her life... I never knew them. I hope my children know mine. Not that they are so "out of the ordinary," but that they are probably much the same as some of their own. If not now...someday.

To make my day nicer, I need milk. And coffee and Dr. Pepper. And quiet time early in the morning or late at night. A little of that every day. Thank you very much. Love, Lana

Mother Nature makes me think!

Oklahoma has the strangest weather. Truly. If you look at a map of the US, you can easily see that we get the mix of everything...other than hurricanes, I guess! :) Nary enough open water for THAT to happen, but we sure get a mix of the rest! Burning hot temps and humidity in the summers, from warmth to freeze in twelve hours in the late fall...winters cold and damp...spring with violent storms. It's certainly a mix!
And now it's the end of November and the temperatures are dropping. You can feel it in the wind. The skies are gray in the early morning and again in the late afternoon. Step outside and Mother Nature bids you "hello", straight in the face!
I sort of like November. It's kind of a thinking time.
Grab a cup of hot chocolate and a fold-over bacon sandwich. Loafer socks and my fuzzy robe. Do a little searching on the old www.
I need to clean out my kitchen. It's a mess, from top to bottom and side to side. Moving some things around everywhere. You know the feeling you have when nothing is working? That's it.
I'm seriously thinking of getting myself a Christmas gift. A big one.

Wish I Knew How...

Well, this is going to sound a bit freaky, but at my age (63) there are a LOT of things I wish I knew how to do! Some...well...I'm just too far down the road to go back and become a journalist for the Kansas City Star or work for the FBI. I think those things, it's fair to say, are a bit out of the picture now. As much as I love politics, I doubt that I will ever be invited to Morning Joe for cup of coffee and reflection on how this year's election groups are lining up...Lord help us all!! :) Anyway. One of the things I have on my huge bucket list is learning how to do more of the photo things and getting those posted. I'd have to say that posting pictures and losing weight are about the two most consistent items on my list in the past 3 years. Add to that, organizing my family pictures from the past 60 years and getting those scrapbooked~ still in the "to do" column!





I have spent the past three days in a class for insurance producers, i.e., those who will be testing to get a "producers license" in the state of Oklahoma for property, casualty, and commercial insurance. Cram 3 days of information (21 hours) of terminology, stats, etc. How will I ever learn all of this...and to pass the test!? Yikes! Am I too old for this? (probably)...but it's on the list.