UPDATE: The winner is…flchen1!
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Happy Valentine’s Day!

Here’s a Valentine from me to you. And you can have two! Just solve the puzzle below…

Sincerely, I wish you a happy holiday with cards and gifts from those you love. For myself, the children’s handmade hearts always do me in. 🙂

Puzzle-Contest

Solve and then tell me something you love to do on Valentine’s Day for a chance to win a $5 Amazon gift card!

I’m a cold weenie. That wasn’t always the case. I’ve lived in Montana, Colorado, Germany. I’ve slept in tents in the dead of winter. But now, I live in the South. I think my blood’s thinner or something. That’s not to say I love the heat. If I didn’t have a pool to cool off in, I’d be miserable in the summertime. However, I really, really, really don’t like frosty toes and fingers.

I’m talking about this because these next seven days, we’re getting some unusually cold weather. Like single digit temperatures at night and below freezing during the day. The forecast is for several days of snow. We haven’t had anything other than a sprinkle of the cold stuff in years!

So, naturally, we’re freaking out a little bit. In advance of the snow, my dd hit the store today to load up on food we don’t have to cook because we know if there’s any accumulation, or worse—if there’s ice—we will lose power. We live in a rural area, and energy companies are slow to fix problems out here. So, our gas cans are full to feed the generator. We bought extra straw for the goat shed to help keep the three little critters warm. We shuttered the window in the lean-to on the side of the barn for the horses and filled the “warm end” with hay. Last night, my dd went out in the dead of night to break the ice in the horses’ water troughs to make sure they have access to water. We’re staying vigilant so they stay safe. We winterized exposed pipes and faucets. We’re dripping water in the sinks and showers. She bought us all thermal longjohns. The kids have boots.

Can you think of anything we’ve missed?

The happiest of all lives is a busy schedule. ~Voltaire

I’m not sure that’s true. The thought of a slothful day sounds like heaven. Lately, because I have so much work on my plate, I rise around 6 AM to begin my days. I write down every little thing I want to complete in the order I want to complete them. None of that Steven Covey stuff about working on the highest priorities first because if I didn’t put “Shower” on the list, I’d forget!

Today’s list includes a shower, yes, and editing a certain number of pages, writing a certain number of pages, reading a certain number of stories, cleaning my desktop (my art supplies have overtaken its surface!), blogging, the daily art project, and many little administrivia things (phonecalls to be made, for example), and if I can get to it, vacuuming and mopping!

I like a list—even a long one. Today’s has 15 times! Checking off accomplishments is my nirvana.

Are you a listmaker? 

Not a sexy title for a blog, is it? But I do like the picture because, hey, I have a thing for Post-It Notes. 🙂

Can you believe this is already the last week of January? I had so many goals. Some of them I did achieve. Today, I’m retooling plans so I can finish the month with a flourish and start February with a steely purposeful mindset! Next month, I want to wrap up a book; I have several editing projects to complete; and I being the #100DayProject art challenge! So, plenty to do and little time for lazy days—that’s for sure! My sis and I are planning writing sprints to slam some words onto paper, something I love doing but haven’t in quite a while. I’ll also try to do some weekly, if not daily, progress posts on Facebook to keep myself accountable.

Anyone else with me? Want to state some goals you’d like to achieve? Maybe we can figure out a way to keep us moving forward, even if it’s just household tasks, like “I have a closet to Marie Kondo or a garden to prepare for Spring planting.” Does that sound like something you’d like to do?

Open Contests

There’s still time to enter!

1. Cover Reveal! (Contest) — Win a FREE book!
2. Thinking about Montana… (Contest & Open Contests) — Win an Amazon gift card!
3. Puzzlers, “un-puzzle” this! (Contest) — Win an Amazon gift card!
4. Anna M. Taylor: My New New Year’s Resolution (Contest) — Win an Amazon gift card!

Hmmm. I didn’t realize that image was so fuzzy! But I liked the idea of it. It’s Saturday!

Yes, the weather is crappy here—overcast and in the low 40s (which is freezing for this Southerner). Still, it was nice to wake up without having an alarm buzzing in my ear. The kids don’t have online school, so we don’t have to enforce a schedule. I can do what I want—well, other than pick away at a set of edits I’m determined to finish by tomorrow. Yeah, I work every day. I don’t have a true “weekend” because I don’t have a day job other than my writing. I’m lucky that way, I know, but it also means that I never really have downtime. I have a blog I must refresh EVERY DAY, commitments/deadlines. Although, at least for the last few months, I have been lightening my work schedule for Saturdays and Sundays, just so I can feel like I have actual weekends.

So, today’s work is done. (It’s already close to noon!) Maybe I’ll see what’s on cable to watch. Think I can talk anyone into watching something with me? The fam really doesn’t like my taste in movies. What? You don’t want to watch Die Hard again? I can settle for something less violent. I can. How about a comedy? What? The King of Staten Island doesn’t count? Maybe I’ll hole up and binge-watch The Boys. Who’s with me?

Can y’all suggest something everyone might love?

UPDATE: The winner is…Roberta!
*~*~*

I’ve been to many psychics over the years, and on several occasions, I’ve been told I have three muses—one a very old man, and the other two frisky females. I’m not sure which one woke me up at 3:15 from a great, dead sleep with the solution to my book story problem—the “who done it” and the ending.

Once up, I didn’t fight them (although I think it was just the grumpy old man). I quickly jotted down the notes in my head then sat at my desk and painted one very ugly postcard, and this one, which I love…

Over the years, I’ve decided insomnia’s not a horrible thing if I don’t fight it. Forcing myself to remain in bed and counting sheep or listening to fake rain falling on tin roofs only annoys me more. So, I take advantage of the quiet and do whatever I want. Sometimes, I actually catch myself yawning and head back to bed.  Sometimes, like this morning, I have kids to wake up for online class, so I’ll be up all day. Hopefully, I’ll be plenty tired tonight and the muses won’t be able to pry me from bed again.

So, how about you? Do you battle insomnia? Have you figured out what works for you in coping with the problem? Comment for a chance to win a free book—winner’s choice from my backlist!

UPDATE: The winner is…Jeanine Lesperance!
*~*~*

Just a quick note about what this day means to me, and then I’ll move on. One year ago today, my mom passed away. She was at home, being cared for by my dd and myself because she wanted to be home until the end and knew she wasn’t going to beat her pancreatic cancer. I’d just walked away to get a washcloth to clean her face and returned. I began gently cleaning her face, talking to her, telling her that my sister was nearly there, hold on, when I realized she wasn’t breathing. One minute later, my sister arrived, too late to tell her goodbye. It was such a sad, sad day, but the only thing I can be thankful for is that she didn’t live to see what was to come just two months later. She left in peace.

So, here we are…how many months in? We cope. We also find joy. Little things matter more. My 16-year-old granddaughter has become our hairstylist. She watched YouTube videos so she could cut our hair. Here she is giving her 7-year-old sister a trim last night.

And isn’t she lovely? All that lovely strawberry-blond hair. She’s going to be a redhead like her mama.

We mostly stick close to home. Get our groceries delivered curbside, pick up our takeout masked. The one place we frequent, because it’s a big open, well-ventilated warehouse is our local flea market. We make that an event. See the treasures we found yesterday?

My mother had a collection of that old-fashioned, mid-century white Corning Ware with the blue flowers. We’ve been slowly adding pieces (it’s very collectible!). We paid $6 for two pieces, now we’ll have to hunt down lids on eBay (something else we enjoy—the hunt!). My dd got rid of all our plastic storage dishes and mixing bowls, and we’re replacing them with midcentury Pyrex (also, very collectible!). That brown set with the mushrooms we got for $40. If you think that’s insane, see how much it goes for on eBay! See the bent glass serving tray? It’s midcentury as well by George Briard ($10).

I added some odd bits to our haul—the yellow tin ($1) that I intend to cut up for tin jewelry, the small wood inlay picture frame ($1.50) that I’ll fill with a painting, the ceramic disk with raised lettering depicting the Cherokee alphabet ($6), which I will use to set my brush pot on for use on my art table, and I think I’ll press it against a gel plate covered in paint for background marks. See the yellow swan? It arrived in the mail today, so I added it to the display. I used a picture of it for the last jigsaw puzzle I posted.

So, we craft and “hunt” and have family movie nights. We’re fortunate, and we know it, because we aren’t hurting for money or searching for food banks. This situation isn’t normal, but the kids are happy, learning to cook and cut hair, and we have a little farm of animals they care for. We’re busy and not feeling especially stressed out about the restrictions. My police officer SIL got the vaccine this week, which is a huge relief. Hopefully, sometime this year, the rest of us will get it, too. We have lots to look forward to—warmer weather, swimming this summer, working on flower beds. We spend evenings talking about the trips we want to make to familiar haunts once it’s safe—Beale Street in Memphis, New Orleans.

We’re enjoying simple pleasures. Grateful we’ve, so far, dodged the virus while missing my parents and grandmother, who left us just before all this hit. We are finding things to be happy about and grateful for during this long-ass pandemic.

I’d love to hear how y’all are coping and whether the vaccine is headed your way soon. What plans do you have for when we get back to something approaching “normal” again. Comment for a chance to win a $5 Amazon gift card.