Miscellany

It’s time for a Miscellany Thursday!

It’s actually going to be something of a stream of consciousness post, because I have no specific plan for what I’m going to write.   We’ll just see what comes out of my fingers before my blogging time is up…

After a fairly mild December, we’ve had some very cold January temperatures here on the east side of the country.   I can tell the ground is getting colder and colder because my tile floors downstairs are getting chillier and chillier.

But hey, in 6 weeks or so, it’ll be March! And March is practically springtime.

(says the eternal optimist)

In the meantime though, I hear there’s sort of a big pile of snow headed our way.

My poor bulbs were confused by the warm December weather, and started to emerge. I’m hoping that they will still be ok for springtime…will they just halt their growth in the cold and continue when things thaw out?

I’ll be sad if all my bulbs are done for, at least for a year, especially because I planted a bunch of vole-resistant bulbs.

In other news, Joshua started college classes this week.   It’s a bit of an odd feeling, sending one of my kids out to school…actually, it’s a brand-new feeling!

I think he’s going to do well, though, and the marvelous news is that one of the classes he’s taking is math, which means I’m down to just three kids in math.* Which isn’t that hard because I’ve been through all of their books at least once before and so none of their math is particularly challenging for me.

*I anticipate that I might do a little bit of helping Joshua with his college algebra, but I still think it’ll be less work than being the one solely responsible for his math.

He’s just doing part-time college classes this semester, so for now, he’s a hybrid college student/homeschooler.

I’ve plotted out my plan for the 14 days of Valentine’s…so now I just need to get working on those plans before February 1st.

(Here’s more about the 14 Days that I do each year. 😉 And yes, I know it’s a Hallmark holiday, but this is a Hallmark holiday we choose to have fun with.)

Yesterday, I shared on Facebook that I was having a crabby attitude.   I vented to Mr. FG about the things that were bugging me, which helped a little, but what helped me more was making and sending him a list of some things to be grateful for…some things that WERE going right.

That helped to balance out all the things I felt were going wrong.

It’s kind of crazy how much a thankful list helps.

Also, one of my good friends gave me some practical help, which made things feel less overwhelming.

For a lot of my adult life, I haven’t had a whole lot in the way of deep friendships (aside from Mr. FG), but for the last few years, I’ve had a couple of really, really great friends from my small group at church.    They offer me so much relational and practical care and I am incredibly grateful for them.

Speaking of friends…my friend Sarah’s post had some wonkily-sized pictures, so those of you who got that post via email received something kind of unreadable.

Sorry about that. The photos are fixed in size now, and if you missed her post about avoiding food waste as a single person, click right here and you can read it on my blog.

My Instagram account got hacked this week.   In what seemed like a hot second, I had Arabic lettering in my profile, advertising a spam link, and my account had followed hundreds of people I didn’t know.

Luckily I caught it very shortly after it happened (there’s an upside of checking instagram regularly!) and it was fairly easy to fix the damage.   Phew.

Okee-doke…that’s all the brain-dumping I’ve got time for today!