In Which I am Thankful for Dancing With the Stars

 Gratitudes:

1. My Ninja blender. It makes morning smoothies so much easier to make. And the food processor attachment makes my life so much easier.
2. Caribou Coffee's crafted press. It's cold press coffee blended with cream and sweetener (or none if you don't want). I add vanilla and yum!
3. Dancing with the Stars (DWTS) season 20. We've only watched season 19 and 20, and the talent has been awesome. Even Mountain Man has gotten into the show. 

It's been a bit of a surprise to me that Mountain Man and I can agree that a dance show is awesome. I can't get him interested in So You Think You Can Dance but the moment he learned Sadie Robertson from Duck Dynasty fame was going to be Dancing With the Stars (DWTS) last season, he willingly jumped down the dance rabbit hole. Only for DWTS mind you. I think it has something to do with the mix of 'stars' and professional dancers. And the judges. Something about the judges resonate with him. 

DWTS has it's season finale tonight and I'm worried. I love Noah Galloway and his story. I swear I cry every time I see him dance. It's beautiful and touches me deeply. That said, as much as I want him to win the mirror ball, he's not the best dancer. That would be Rumer Willis, in my opinion. I want her to win. Ryker Lynch is steep competition, and Noah may be the fan favorite due to his story. And that freestyle. Damn!

No matter who takes home the mirror ball, this is has been an amazing season. And I think Mountian Man and I will continue to watch future seasons. Now, if I could convince Mountain Man he needs to take a ballroom dance class with me...

Ruminations

 Gratitudes:

1. My husband has discovered Better Off Ted on Netflix. This was such a good show. It always makes me laugh.
2. Coldstone Creamery. Amazing ice cream. Enough said.
3. Knitting. It's full of mindfulness and productivity.

Life is full of twists and turns and forks in the road. Each decision we make, each choice means we choose to leave certain paths behind as we propel ourselves along. Eventually, these choices catch up to us. The path not taken may rear up and shower us with consequences. Some of these may be painful, even devastating. Perhaps there will be a do over. Perhaps there will be loss. Perhaps we will have avoided something truly awful. Either way, we are forever changed by our choices as we walk through the twists and turns of life.

Knitting and Pie

 Gratitudes:

1. Good friends, good pie, knitting, and cock jokes. No, not THOSE cocks! Get your minds out of the gutter.
2. After making a concerted effort to get up earlier in an attempt to actually be tired enough to sleep through the night, I actually averaged a solid eight hours a night this past week.
3. Shiloh Walker because her books rock my world! Thank you so much for Busted. Please, please, please tell me that Travis and Seb have books coming....

I have started a new knitting project. Hopefully this one will take much less time than my previous one. It's forcing me to try new stitches. I'm not bitter about that at all. 

On the surface this looks really easy and really fast. I'm doing a test with some leftover yarn I have from a lap blanket I made for J.R. Ward when I first met her at Lora Leigh's Reader Appreciation Weekend in...2008? Yes, that was it, 2008. It was my first knitting project and OMG, it took forever. But it was a good first project and turned out really well. I hope J.R. enjoyed it.

My Warden Lap Blanket

Since then I've made a lot of small items for family and friends. Nothing for myself. I really want this cowl. It looks so cool. And then I want to make it for my friend's daughters. Because I keep talking about knitting them something and then I procrastinate and never do. Maybe this will be the year of knitting. Don't get your hopes up.

Well, Hello There!

 Gratitudes:

1. Velcro Dog has transitioned well to walks once a day instead two or even three times a day. It's a sign he's getting old (8-1/2!) but it's much easier for me to manage that single walk. 
2. I'm on a tight budget for books and music so I'm very thankful our library system has a superb selection of both in physical and electronic formats. 
3. Rain. 

Despite my putting my blog on my to-do list, it's been some time since I've spent time here. Time to dust off the cobwebs, I guess. 

Life has been slow days of pain management, reading, cleaning, walking and playing with Velcro Dog, and wondering if there will be a time when I can rejoin those who work for a living. Sometimes I wonder why I would want to go back to deadlines and stress and leaving my house, and then I remember. Because leaving one's house is a GOOD thing. It means I spend time with people who are not married to or otherwise related to me. Socialization is a good thing.

I spend at least one day a week with a good friend and we sit for hours at a café talking life and loves and everything. I love those days. I need more of them. I love my friend. We encourage each other. We amuse each other. And even better, we challenge each other to be our better selves and to reach for things unknown. 

Now that the weather is temperate I spend more time outside with Velcro Dog. He loves the dog parks we visit. I love that he will run and sniff and play while I bring a book or my iPod and relax in the fresh air. Oh, I walk around the park. It's not all sitting on a bench cheerleading from the sidelines. Velcro Dog would never stand for that. We wander and he sniffs while I attempt to bird watch. Or people watch. 

The house is slowly coming along. Mountain Man finished his degree in December so he spends his free time recovering from way too many years of dividing his energies between work, house projects, and school. Some of that recovery time is sitting quietly. I understand. When I finished my graduate degree all I wanted to do was navel gaze for a while. He's slowly coming back to life. I see sparks of the man with a wicked sense of humor and a gentleness that has been missing. We're both in a period of understanding who we are now at this point in time. I'm glad we have each other. 

Life isn't what I expected it to be. I think it's leading to something incredible I could never let myself imagine.