early December

Monday evening...

Two loaves of bread are baking.  Homemade barbeque baked beans in the crockpot.  There is a dog in a too-small sweater vest at my feet.  The Christmas tree stands tall in the corner, bedazzled in 61 feet of multicolored lights.  Hopefully we'll get the ornaments on tonight.

Hans Zimmer, in the mood of Pirates of The Caribbean streams through my earbuds.  It's my study/work music as I sit here editing today's photography work.  I took my little sweater clad puppy along for the ride but he stayed in the car while I worked my session.  He got a nice walk out of the deal so no worries.

I'm heading to an evening yoga class here in bit, after my bread is done.  One son is at wrestling practice and the other son took off with his bass guitar to jam with a friend who has drums.  Aaron is working on hanging the lights on the outside of the house.

Did I ever mention that I only have three chickens left?  Five was whittled to four by a raccoon.  Four was whittled to three by a neighbor's dog.  My beautiful Golden Laced Wyandotte has a terrible case of molting.  She's lost all of her luster and scurries about the yard nervously.

Tuesday noonish...

The morning was frosty and cold.  The house was chilly and I sat for awhile with my puppy dog under a blanket.  He snuggled his body up close and rested his head on my leg.  Dogs are the best.

It is already noon and I'm just sitting down to breakfast.  Two fried eggs, some ham, and two pieces of homemade bread, toasted with butter and blackberry jam.  I joked with someone the other day that my body is instinctively putting on it's winter coat.  You know, that little bit of insulation to survive a cold winter?  Thus, the craving for fried eggs and toast with butter.  All the good things.

After cuddles with my pup, we braved the morning chill and ventured outside.  He smelled all the smells and I split some larger pieces of firewood, cut kindling, and cleaned the chicken coop.  Loaded the firewood inside and filled the space under the hearth.  Now there is a roaring fire and the house is warm.

I finished editing the images from yesterday's session and got those sent over to the client.  After a couple weeks of living distracted by hospital visits with my youngest son, it feels good to be back to business.

Other than me and the dog, the house is empty today.  I took advantage of the quiet and sat down at my piano.  I began playing 10 years ago and have been self-taught the whole way.  A few months ago I bought some practice books at thrift stores and have been honing in on proper hand positioning, technique, and really focusing on what my left hand is up to.  It's been fun and challenging at the same time.

My violin has seen more practice as well.  Playing Disney tunes.  Playing fiddle tunes.  It's been about working the skills I have.  Strengthening the quality of what I do, in all I do.

Find what sets your soul on fire and do more of that.  Am I right?  It's taken me a lot of years to get to the point where I could recognize and honor that.

Until next time!