Day of Rest: Wintery River

This was a shot I took on my way out yesterday. The water is a delicious blue in this very-cold weather.It is SO COLD! But toasty-warm in my little river house. Millie is snoring by the fire, and I have gluten-free oatmeal bubbling in the double boiler--PROPER porridge! I am going to spend the afternoon in the kitchen doing food prep for the week. Will do a blog post on how I do easy-peasy meals. Back tomorrow for M&M Monday.

Validation

This is one of my favourite things on Youtube. It's sweet and funny and moving. I hope you like it. We all need a little bit of validation! :-)

Check List

I had an interesting conversation last night with John. I forgot to do something and was frustrated with myself. He suggested a checklist. I swatted back: I have a checklist! But after we hung up, I retired to a nice hot bath, & thought about our conversation. I noticed a couple things: one is that when you defend what you're doing, there's no room for other more efficient or productive ways to do things. There's no room for new learning, there's no way for new growth. Which means that if I continue to defend my checklist, I'll continue to have the same issues of not making key contacts. The other thing I noticed was that it's not about the actual checklist, it's about creating a system that works. Checklist or no, I need to be organized. I thought I was, but there's always room for improvement.

We are in the midst of our busy season. It is now, working long hours everyday, that allows me to have time off during the rest of the year. Having said that, I will make an effort to continue to update my blog everyday, but if I don't, just know that I'm being very busy-and-important. ;-)
Speaking of the blog, convo with Mum yesterday:

Mum:Every post is about those dogs.
Me: Every post? That's just for M&M Mondays.
Mum: Oh.

Which brings me back to learning. It seems you really can teach an old dog new tricks. Thanks, John. [no link]

What's the real reason you can't lose weight?

This is a new video that John Morgan has posted. Next week we start our whirlwind of seminars. 2 teams out each week for the next several weeks. The beauty of this method is that it gets you in tune with what your body needs; what will work for you. We've had some amazing success stories, just since I've been working for the company. One guy who lost 17 lbs. in the first 21 days & went on to lose 40. Even more impressive was his out-of-control blood pressure that he doesn't have to medication for anymore. Does your other-than-conscious mind need an explanation for something to work? No. Yes, hypnosis really does work. We use it all the time, we just don't know it.

New Year's at Brother D's

I babysat for Brother D. I was all set to be in bed by 10p, but then Brother D promised the nieces they could stay up til midnight. Then he was out the door. Oh, brother! I read a quote somewhere about New Year's Eve that went something like: When you're a child, you want to be an adult so you can stay up! You know you're an adult when you just want to go to bed.

I LOVE this kid. My brother always wanted a kid like Calvin, from Calvin & Hobbes. Well he got him in drag. Convo with Princess Marmalade:

Marmalade: Xena was being mean to me.
Me: Oh? What happened?
Marmalade: Well, I was just spitting on the hamper . . .
Me: Spitting?
Marmalade: And Xena yelled at me!
Me: Because you were spitting on the hamper. Where are you supposed to spit?
Marmalade: [sighs] in the sink.
Me: Sorry, gotta side with your big sis on this one. Hamper-spitting is gross!

We all played a new game from Santa:

Fancy Nancy gets to fancy up her bedroom.

Unfancy Nancy with the plain room.

You draw cards and spin a spinner & poof! You have a fancy room. At one point, Xena accused Marmalade of cheating.

Marmalade: Nuh-huh!
Xena: Yuh-huh! [to me] She's lying!
Marmalade: Nuh-huh!
Xena: Yuh-huh! I can tell. She's got her lying face on!
Marmalade: Nuh-huh!
Xena: Yuh-huh! [pointing] That's your lying face!

It made me think of Dave Dobson. He would never have said "lying face," but he could appreciate what Xena was noticing in M's Other-than-conscious-communication. :-) Incidentally, can you imagine little boys playing a bedroom decorating board game???

After Fancy Nancy, I said, "OK, girls . . . ." Marmalade gave a preemptive, "I don't wanna go to bed, now!" I said, "But you're not going to bed now. It's New Year's Eve. You have to stay up til midnight." 10 minutes later, she was zonked out on the sofa. [Negative reversals, gotta love 'em. Thanks, Dave.] And then there were two.

We played cards:

Triple War???!!!

I taught them how to play Crazy 8's. "You see, kids. Back when I was your age, we didn't have Uno. We played with real cards."

I was really fading! Xena held on as long as she could, but zonked out when I turned on the TV. Aphrodite & I played Spit (another card game) in between commercials. And then!

Kathy Lee Gifford & Andy Cooperson. Yes, I'm being a smartass. I know who they are.

I said, "Happy New Year. Now we can go to bed." "But when are Momma & Daddy coming home?" Hehhhhhh . . . we didn't last. HAPPY New Year!

M&M Monday

I'm home most of the time. And M&M are with me wherever I am in the house. They have their main beds in the LR & my office. When I move to a different room, Maggie waits to see if I'm going to be in there for any length of time, and then she follows. Any longer, and Millie comes to join us. I have sleeping bags for a quick bed.

I used to think it was odd that they both will come to the door and bark. They are so much barkier than Barkley or Remi were. But I now realize that they were waiting to be invited in. They won't come in unless I tell them to come in. They do that when they're outside on the back porch, as well.

Maggie on floor, Millie on bed. Asleeeeeep.

I promised a surprise last week. But the surprise is mostly mine. I was all set to get another rescue dog (a rottie) when I went to Richmond over new year's. And then I didn't. And I think it's best. I think M&M need my undivided attention. I think going into my busy-time-of-year with John Morgan Seminars is not the time to be introducing anything new into the daily regime. I think I will have M&M until I don't. And then I can look into getting more dogs.

Day of Rest: Shenandoah River Valley

View from atop the mountain on the way to Fort Valley.