Onward to 2013!

Happy New Year! I’m ready! Are you? Do I seem excited? Cuz I’m a little excited. Fresh start. Fresh goals. Big changes ahead. The time has come to prepare. Not that I haven’t been preparing, but now we are talking Prepare. Capitol P. Asses in gear. Making things happen. T-Rex style.

Without the debilitating stubby arms. To the best of my somewhat lessened ability. Not stubby arm lessened, but a lower gear all the same.

These are going to be focused on first half of 2013. Why? Because the big, huge, monstrous over-arching goal of 2013: Read more

2012 Goals In Review

I love this time of year. Christmas is over. The New Year is still at bay. Its the cozy in between. I make it a policy to never work this week (if I can at all help it). Like my birthday week, I consider it sacred space. Time we don’t have nearly enough of. Time to reflect, to write our own schedule, to do (or not do) as we see fit.

For me that looks something like slovenly pijamas, unkempt hair, and not leaving the house much at all. It ain’t pretty. I’ll spare you the image, and we will cap off 2012 with…

Ford! Senior Dog extraordinaire, looking particularly possum-rat-ish in this photo, and still going strong since joining the pack way back in late February. He’s not without his health concerns (or senility), but he’s made it to 2013 to our mild shock and pleasure.

So senior dogs are appreciated, books are read, cupboards are cleaned out, closets organized, gardens puttered in, curtains washed, all those chores. Plus lots of time to think about goals. Old goals. New goals. It’s important. To me.
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Return of the Rent-a-Tree

There is plenty I do ‘wrong’ with Christmas. Wrong being total engagement in the full on consumerism orgy that is the month of December. I spend too much money. Too much is completely relative, because I don’t set a budget to begin with. For shame. I also end up, inevitably buying for myself. Because once the spending taps are open, why not just turn them on full bore? It’s one of those instances where I tuck and roll right out of my speeding frugality vehicle. Damages be damned!

Over the years, I’ve managed to get a couple of things right. Behold: The Rental Tree.

Very much like its predecessor last year. Read more

Changing Priorities…or Not.

This dog.

Does having a baby somehow negate my responsibility to this dog? Does it lessen it? Am I no longer required to feed him the best diet I can afford? To provide him veterinary care when he needs it?

I understand in the battle of kids vs. dogs, human vs. canine bipeds always win. This, I am not questioning. In terms of life and death, of course. But, how often is it actually in those terms? Isn’t it often a question of sacrifice? Of priorities? Of living up to the responsibilities you signed up for? Even when it sucks. Read more

Recycling Christmas Cards

I’ve got issues with Christmas. I not-so secretly love it. A lot. I’m a completely nostalgic, over the moon, card sending, cocoa sipping, carol singing ninny. I already wrote about the cards I’ve been sending for years. There’s a side effect to that. Because I send cards, I get cards. Lots of them.

Another little fact I love. Except I have a hard time throwing them away. Enter hoarding. Sometimes there’s family pictures or cute notes attached. Always, there’s potential. Crafting potential that I’ve never fully exploited. Because that’s another part of my Holiday Sickness. The overwhelming urge ‘to craft’. Read more

Holiday Traditions With Dogs

This weekend I spent considerable time transforming this…

into our annual Christmas Card. The finished product does not very much resemble the original. This required all the best photo editing skills I’ve accumulated through work on this very blog.

I do this every year. Not so much the editing, but the card. I’ve done it every year for nigh on 7 years or more. I’d have to pull out all the cards to count. I love these cards as documents of our life with pack o’ mutts. The conversations behind such and such year’s idea. The pictures taken in our former house vs. the new. The years we managed to include a transient resident. Our friends and family love them (so they say). Although, it may put us firmly in ‘crazy dog people’ category. I’m ok with that. Yes, I have 6 (or so) dogs! Look how damn cute they are! Read more

Just Keep Talking

I keep harping on this, but I’ve fallen down on the blogger job. Perhaps you noticed. Posting dried up because I couldn’t think anymore. I couldn’t see my way through 500 words, let alone a 1,000. Coherent topics suddenly became daunting. And I’m not sure we were all that coherent to begin with. I’m writing about this in the past tense. Like its behind us. And I’ve produced a little, so maybe it is. Or… I am lowering the bar. Ding, ding, ding. That feels righter. Righter? Yes, righter. For right now, its righter. Sorry. Watch that bar fall.

A wise commenter recently suggested I do a week of just pictures. Back when I was only contemplating breaks. Instead of firmly embracing 3 weeks of them in a death grip bear hug. I dismissed that as poppycock. Slacker poppycock. Why bother with pictures of chickens dogs and vegetables? Words! I need words! I chose zero over half ass. That was probably wrong. I’ve come to realize. I criticize my own content. I clothesline myself on that high bar, and leave you hanging for 19 days or so. Oops. Read more

State of The Dog

The state of my own personal nation. The Nation of Dog. Just because I am currently not a good blogger, doesn’t mean the world of dog – old dogs, lazy dogs, bad dogs – doesn’t continue to turn. It does. They do. My dogs.

An intently interested boy dog, who turns out not to be the subject of this post. So he gets the photo credit.

You deserve an update, but its not that exciting. Primarily, we are maintaining the status quo. Holistic vets, raw food, plus some updated spending. There are still dogs to walk, dogs to clean up after, dogs to snuggle, and Pugs to tell “No! Cut that out!”. Singular Pug. He’s plenty. And before my very eyes they are slipping. Ever so slightly. All my best efforts and I’m powerless against it. I chalk it up to short days, cold weather and more napping. That’s part of it. But we’ve also entered this phase. Things aren’t going to get better. My senior dog worries continue to compound. More than half the pack (including Ford) is over 11, with a mixed genetic bag that isn’t doing them any favors. There’s not much I can do about any of it.

The highlights? Read more

The Implications of Being Pregnant

Wait, wha? Pregnant? Who said anything about being pregnant? Certainly not me. Not here. Until, just now. Oh, right. Pregnant. Knocked up. In the family way. Me. We. Currently. Surprised?

Apologies for the crappy picture. There’s a humanoid in there. Believe me. Via Ultrasound via cell phone camera, does not make for the best image quality. Plus Ultrasound pictures are always kind of creepy.

I’m not. Or I shouldn’t be. Because it was ‘planned’. At least as much as anything in life can be ‘planned’.
Although, it enhanced the tremendous amount of respect I have for the birth control I’ve always taken for granted. What does surprise me, is the effect it’s had on me. Already. Physically. Mentally. In all the ways. All that time I’ve not been writing, I have been sleeping. Epic sleeps. I’m just coming around from a good solid 12 hours. That’s the new standard. 14-16 hours also pretty effortless. I may take a nap later to up my total. If I’m not sleeping, I’m pursuing other new found past times, like staring off into space, watching past seasons of TV shows I’m not all that interested in. Occasionally, if I’m really with it, I read. It has taken me 2 weeks to write this post. I’m not even kidding. I’m fresh out of giddy-up. This person building, even in it’s earliest stages, turns out to be really, really taxing. And not in a way I can just write a check for. Read more

No-Spend Month: Over

Today is October 30th. I do not care. No-Spend Month, I am so done with you. Am I glad I did it? Sure. Did I save a bunch of money? Damn straight. Am I ready for some Thai Food and Ice Cream? Why, yes I am.

I prepared a post last week, which I then failed to publish, detailing the $88 spent on groceries. $88 still within budget. With $134 remaining for grocery spending, I was feeling pretty smug about my no spend success. But, this is about more than groceries. It wasn’t until this week, when I closed out the entire budget, that I realized how good and bad we did.
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