Corner View: Experience

This is a book by a beloved friend of mine and fellow blogger, Caryjo.  You can get it from Amazon.  I have it on my Kindle Fire.  This is a fictional story based on true parts of her life. I've had it for quite awhile, but just started reading it.  It's a wonderful, Christian-based story about a young teenage-girl and the grandmother-type woman who reaches out to her.  The woman's name is Cary.

Joanne (or Caryjo as bloggers know her) uses her experiences to reach out and witness to others.

 A friend and blogger(who no longer has a blog but does Facebook), Nance introduced me to the poems of Ted Kooser.  He's a poet laureate of the United States and lives in Garland, Nebraska. He writes about everyday experiences in such a way that I can instantly relate.  Truly a wonderfully talented poet. This is my third and latest book of his.
The following are three poems from the book pictured.  The last poem has the same title as the book. I think most of us can relate to the experiences written about in the poems.

For more corner views,  head on over to Francesca's.

Corner View: Walk of my dreams

As many of you know, we went to Ireland when we turned 50.  It will be 11 years ago this summer. It was  my dream trip.  The walk below was around a clift overlooking Ardmore.  There is a shrine, a saint's baptismal well, and a tower lookout. Nora Roberts' visited this area and wrote a trilogy around these sites.  Particularly 'magical' was the well. The trilogy is: Jewels of the Sun, Tears of the Moon, and Heart of the Sea.  These make wonderful light-reading, especially if you want to 'escape' for a while. I did my research and chose Ardmore as our first stop out of Dublin. It was a walk of my dreams and I would love to walk it again.

For more corner views, head on over to Francesca's place.

More snow pictures

Across the street from our old house.

Behind our old house. The bungalow is not empty, but will be rented soon.  This barn is across the alley in back of the house.

Still Life in Snow

I love the still life the car made and also the vivid blue of the steering wheel!

Sleeping Beauties

Sleeping Beauties

Corner View: Favorite Plate

I took the topic literally  as in an actual plate.  It was easier this way than coming up with a favorite food which is how it could be interpreted.

The plate below has been my favorite Christmas and basically winter plate until this year.

 Then at Thanksgiving my son's girlfriend gave me this plate and it became my favorite Christmas/winter plate.

For more corner views, head on over to Francesca's place.

Ginger in the Snow and another snow day for school

Our Siberian husky loves the snow!  However, even she didn't like going out in the one degree temps. Here she is playing with Mike.

We're on our 5th day of no school.  We  (in our school district) have not been back since we took Christmas break.  We just used up our last 'snow day'. Yikes!

Today  the reason for cancellation is ice on the roads---we had an ice storm last night. 

Our first snowfall and no school!

 Our first snowfall combined with extremely cold temperatures has cost our school district four snow days! Monday was professional development for the teachers; therefore, our students have not been to school since before Christmas!  I'm sure they will be quite 'social' when they return!
(For those of you wondering why: our roads are largely narrow country roads that climb  up and down steep hills.  When the temps drop, the snow remains.  It also piles up on the sides of the road making an already narrow road even more so. I've held my breath passing a school bus or a fracking truck going the opposite direction before and that was without snow!)

The woods that edge our back yard.

The woods across the road in front of our home

We have many huge pine trees in our front and side yards.

The front door is to the left, but we actually go in the kitchen door which is in the section on the right.

We consider the front of our house to be where you can see the bay windows peeking out.

Five-Minute Friday: Welcome

I don't remember my mother ever feeding the birds though  all the parsonages had good-size yards.  She wasn't much for outdoor life but her  smile welcomed anybody and everyone to her home.

I'm not as welcoming to people, but then I'm not the preacher's wife, but the preacher's kid who grew up in a fish bowl yearning for privacy.

So I feed the birds instead.  They don't ask any questions or make any judgments; as long as there is food during the cold weather, they are happy.  So I welcome them to my front yard.  However, I can be gracious to humans and at those times, my mother's upbringing kicks in and I am the welcoming lady of the house.

For more Five-Minute Fridays, click here.

Corner View: Twinkle

 Our mantle with Christmas decorations twinkling in the dark.

 Here, the lights twinkle on the tree inside as the deer eat outside.

 Our outdoor lights.:

For more corner views, go to Francesca's place.

Christmas and New Year

 This was taken over Thanksgiving.  It was our Christmas celebration with Sara and her family from Texas.

Dillon wanted a Seattle Seahawks Marshon Lewis football jersey.

It was his most wanted gift and we were able to give it to him.

Grandpa and Dillon 'hulking' for the camera!

 I bought Doug's crew all a Santa scene Lego set and they were quiet and busy as they put them together.  We had Doug and his crew over the Saturday before Christmas.

 We iced cookies together after opening presents and eating Subway for dinner.  I was able to enjoy the time with them and not stress over food preparation.  Everyone loved it!

 Our kitchen is a gathering place despite there being limited  seating.  The evening was drawing to a close here.

 Next are some of my decorations:

 My snow babies.

 Mom's antique ornaments, of which I meant to give some to my brother this past summer.  I will still mail him some if he's interested.

 More of my angel collection.
Just a few Christmas items are placed among the Precious Moments.

 Also in the dining room.  The ceramic tree was my mother's made and given to her by my Aunt Eleanor.  She then gave it to me when they downsized.

 This is the first year in over 12 years that I've been able to set out my village under the tree.

My mantle had some of my Santa collection on it.

This manger was bought for my older brother Roy's first Christmas.  It is 68 years old. I was always fascinated with it, so Mom eventually gave it to me.  Pieces have been broken and paint is chipped, but I don't want a different, newer version.  I cherish this one.

 Even my bathroom got some holiday cheer!

It's taken me awhile to start blogging again.  I took a long break so I could get caught up on a lot of other things.  I succeeded with most of them.

New Year's Eve we spent a quiet evening at home with Chinese take-out.  We watched shows that we had DVRed.
New Year's Day we first cheered Oregon on to victory and then rooted for Ohio State.  In the play-off game, we will be rooting for Ohio State over Oregon.

I hope to continue posting. I hope all is well with you all.  Tomorrow, we return to school.  Is it terrible that I'm hoping for a snow day?!