2022 Project 365 – Week Fifty-one

Well, that’s a wrap! Christmas was today (you’ll see any photos we took next week), and now we can take a deep breath & head into the New Year. One note about our annual Christmas poem (which you will find here): I really think it ends on the word “mark,” but I wanted it to seem a little more hopeful so I added the last bits. But really, right now I’m at “missing the mark,” not at holding a baby’s hand.
Sunday, December 18^th             
We went Christmas caroling after church today and had a lovely time. At the end I was getting ready to walk to my car & my cousin’s daughter said I looked like Christmas & took my picture.
 

Monday, December 19^th     
I took this close-up photo of my anniversary flowers to use as my Facebook cover photo. Aren’t they gorgeous? (And they’re still gorgeous almost a week later.)
 

Tuesday, December 20^th           
The Roy!
 

Wednesday, December 21^st                      
We had our holiday potluck at work & I took Greek salad. I had so many toppings that I couldn’t fit the lettuce in the same container. Ha! It was very popular – I was kind of amazed. Also, if you look at the top photo of the gifts on the table (we drew names) you can see the smallest present in blue penguin paper looking kind of pitiful. It’s the one I brought – I drew my boss’s name. Ha! The gift wasn’t pitiful at all, but I can’t show you yet because we bought the same thing for all the menfolk in our lives & they haven’t all been given out.
 

Thursday, December 22^nd              
I had the day off from work & was planning on vegetating at home, but ended up going out for a bit. I was a little nervous about wearing leggings (I don’t really have the legs for them), but decided I was cute anyway. 

Friday, December 23^rd             
We went to Dr. M’s dad’s house to get him some lunch and found that someone had brought him a meal! It was a nice surprise. We visited a while & then went to get our own lunch.
 

Saturday, December 24^th     
As you can tell, we had a great time together with my family for Christmas Eve. The star of the show was G.P. (Jeepy for short). He turns 2 on January 1^st & he is a dynamo! You can sort of see my new hat that I finished just in time to wear. I’ll show better photos of it next week – it’s cute.
 

I have the day off again tomorrow & am planning to go to my dad’s house to work the evil puzzle I gave him for Christmas. I also have to make a dessert for our final Christmas gathering, which will be on Tuesday night. I got a church cookbook for Christmas (thanks Sue!) and I found a recipe in there I’m going to try. I will definitely let you know how it goes! I hope you had a nice holiday (whether you celebrate or not). Did you do anything fun?  

Merry Christmas!

I’ve been spending time
In Matthew 25.
 
“I was hungry and you fed me,
I was thirsty and you gave me a drink,
I was homeless and you gave me a room,
I was shivering and you gave me clothes,
I was sick and you stopped to visit,
I was in prison and you came to me.”
 
I fall short.
I fall short.
 
I am not meant to be
just a Sunday person.
The babe didn’t come
for my comfortable pew
and my hymns of praise.
 
Fifty-eight years of
O Little Town and
Joy to the World
didn’t prepare me for a
wide open heart
weeping for the world.
 
What is next?
I aim for home
in the deepening twilight
knowing that I’m
missing the mark.
 
But look – there’s a
tiny brown hand
wrapped around my
little finger.
 
Let’s start there.
 
Dana & Mike Rhyne
Christmas 2022

2022 Project 365 – Week Fifty

Christmas is heading toward us like a steam roller. It will be in the rearview mirror before we know it, and I will be ready to settle into the quiet part of the year.
Sunday, December 11^th             
Spent some quality time wrapping presents.
 

Monday, December 12^th     
I went to brush my hair and thought “why mess with perfection?” Reader, I messed with perfection.
 

Tuesday, December 13^th           
I wore these sheep jammies all week*, and I put them in the wash just in time for us to go into the deep freeze next week. There’s even been talk of the “s” word. I’ll believe that when I see it. *I did not wear them to work.
 

Wednesday, December 14^th                     
I came home from work to pre-anniversary flowers!
 

Thursday, December 15^th             
Anniversary cake. It was so good! We’ve been married 32 years now!
 

Friday, December 16^th            
Dr. M says: Defiant bloomers, sheep butts, and a drowsy Pyr kind of afternoon.
 

Meanwhile, I had a fit check for a new project. You say I said something about not starting anything new? I have no idea what you’re talking about.
 

Saturday, December 17^th     
My great-nephew’s Christmas presents arrived!
 

Dr. M snapped a photo of me working on this very post. For heaven’s sake.
 

We had our first Christmas gathering today, with Dr. M’s aunt and cousin. Did we take a photo? No we did not. But we did have a nice time. And really I’m looking forward to spending time with all of our people, and then I’m looking forward to heading to our respective corners for a while. How about you – do you get energized by people-gatherings, or do you need to recharge?  

2022 Project 365 – Week Forty-nine

Remember how I said that Christmas hadn’t exploded at our house yet? Well. Just you wait and see.
Sunday, December 4^th             
Dr. M helped me out by eating the pound cake. He said it had a hint of molasses in it, which he liked. More power to him is what I say. 

Monday, December 5^th     
Dr. M started out the week by pulling out some old favorites, including our tree! Chloe (the flamingo) and Martha (the goose) are flanking the flower that Dr. M got for his mother’s grave. We kind of liked it there, but he ended up taking it to the graveyard yesterday, where it also looks very nice.

Tuesday, December 6^th           
Dr. M got his 2^nd shingles vaccine and COVID bivalent booster, and then spent some quality time putting his grandmother’s old glass ornaments on the tree. I love that we have these, and we’ve started putting them toward the center of the tree to make the lights reflect off of them more (thanks to my cousin Kim for the idea).

Wednesday, December 7^th                     
I was craving Chipotle & Dr. M came up with this idea: leftover rice, leftover veggie spinach quinoa soup (strained), the innards of a chicken ranch wrap, sour cream & cilantro lime sauce. It was so good!
 

Ms. Pinky still blooming away. She and Rita aren’t all that happy inside, but at least they’re warm!
 

Thursday, December 8^th             
Brittany Griner was freed! I took a screen shot of this great news when I saw it on my phone. There are lots of different opinions out there – I’m in the “I know it’s complicated but I’m very happy” camp.

Dr. M put up our Moravian star to make our driveway a little less dark. I love seeing it when I drive home after work (SINCE THE SUN IS GOING TO BED ENTIRELY TOO SOON THESE DAYS).
 

Friday, December 9^th            
I got my first shingles vaccine and then stopped by my dad’s house. They had been to a thrift store to get more jigsaw puzzles (.49 each!) and saw this little dude that they thought Dr. M needed (at least I think that’s where he came from). I think he’s adorable.
 

Saturday, December 10^th     
I was feeling poorly for most of the day (I am glad to be done with vaccines for a while!), but I did put some more ornaments on the tree. And I crocheted this hat for my air plant person. I had knocked it off the counter one too many times and the plant died. I think the hat is pretty cute though.
 

Well once again the weekend was way too short. I have all these things I want to do but I’m running out of time. Of course, I could have been doing them while I played a game on my iPad, or rootled around on Facebook, or while I was looking for a hat pattern that I most certainly don’t need. Ah well, I have 5 hours until I need to start getting ready for bed – let’s see how much I accomplish.  

2022 Project 365 – Week Forty-eight

Thanksgiving is over and Christmas exploded out all over around here (except in our house because why hurry when you’re going to leave everything up until Easter? I EXAGGERATE!).
Sunday, November 27^th             
I’ve been listening to the latest book by one of my favorite Instagram follows – Shannan is fierce, funny, and a really good neighbor. (Also, I was laughing because this chapter is about listening & I am the worst. Case in point: I was driving while “listening” to it & kept getting distracted.)
 

Monday, November 28^th     
Photo shoot for my latest finished project. As I mentioned last week, I started it in 2016. It feels good to get it off of my UFO list & into someone else’s house! Also, I don’t know what I was thinking, but I don’t think it’s 15 feet long. Maybe more like 10?

Tuesday, November 29^th           
Gorgeous sunset in the neighborhood.
 

Wednesday, November 30^th                     
I put up my antique Hallmark tree in my office.
 

That evening I started working on a project for the main office Christmas tree.
 

Thursday, December 1^st            
I pulled out this bento style lunch box that I made Dr. M get me a while back . I really enjoyed using it – I’m going to try to eat smaller meals with more snacks (that’s what my body is telling me it wants).
 

Friday, December 2^nd            
Behold! It’s not homely, it’s gnomely! (That little witticism came from Dr. M.) I ran out of red yarn, and the beard looks more like a mop head, but I kind of like him anyway.
 

In other news, I tried to dye my hair blue, with muted-to-nonexistent results.
 

Saturday, December 3^rd        
My friend Jenny always organizes the ornament swap at the church she grew up in (she lives in Charlotte now). You might remember that she planned the gorgeous wedding I went to at the end of May. Anyway, my stepmother goes to that church, so I had two invitations to the luncheon – and my cousin Kim came as well. It’s always a lovely time with excellent food. I stopped by my dad’s house to ride with Sue, and took a picture of our latest completed puzzle.
 

I made a pound cake, but I wasn’t very happy with it (had to substitute dark brown sugar for regular & it wasn’t sweet enough for me). But I used my mom’s old cake plate so that gave me the warm fuzzies.
 

Some other random photos of the day. Fun!
 

I didn’t feel well in the night and slept until 11:00 today! Sheesh. I might also have been exhausted from people-ing. Today Dr. M & I have stayed our respective corners, so I might be ready to go back out into the world tomorrow. And while I was typing this he started getting out Christmas decorations. Maybe we’ll get our tree up & decorated by next weekend. How about you – have you decorated yet? Do you mess with it? If it weren’t for Dr. M I might give it a pass some years.

2022 Project 365 – Week Forty-seven

Boy, this week was full of food! I guess you might expect it, but still…
Sunday, November 20^th             
As I mentioned last week, Dr. M replaced his dad’s hot water heater. He’s still got a little carpentry work to do (the new heater is taller than the old one, so the shelving that was in the same space has to be adjusted), but at least his dad has hot water. Dr. M is a little wild-eyed in the picture below – ha!
 

I made myself an open faced livermush sandwich for dinner – toast with Laughing Cow cheese, livermush, and peas on top. It was SO GOOD!
 

Monday, November 21^st    
I went by Daddy & Sue’s during my lunch hour to work on the puzzle. I thought they’d be gone, but I caught them right before they left to sing with their group. Aren’t they snazzy?

Tuesday, November 22^nd          
We had a meal at work. It was really good (chili, with some random side items), but for me the star was this homemade carrot cake. I kept telling the coworker who made it “it’s SO GOOD!” It got kind of embarrassing. Ha!
 

Wednesday, November 23^rd                    
Dr. M was in a store buying flowers for his mother’s grave & they were in full Christmas inflatable mode. This is my favorite.
 

Thursday, November 24^th            
Thanksgiving! Here are some random photos of the day (plus the “official” photo of all of us). I had to laugh – I went back into my cousin’s office to eat and NO-ONE JOINED ME. I ate my whole meal by myself, reading my book. It was bliss. I wasn’t an entire hermit. I did go out & mingle with folks after I finished eating.
 

The best part of the day – the blanket in its new home!
 

Friday, November 25^th           
Dr. M says, “It’s not easy being green…”
 

Saturday, November 26^th       
I finally pulled out a new crochet project (I had joked & told Dr. M that I might start crocheting again in February). I started this one in 2016, and then we moved and I kept pulling it out & doing a smidge & putting it back away again. Well. I actually finished it last night! I’ll do a photo shoot with it before I send it to the recipient. It’s sort of a shawl/wrap situation – and is fifteen feet long. I don’t know why – I think the original pattern called for it to be oversized.
 

I told Dr. M that we needed some vegetables in our lives and he delivered! He called it a sort of a spinach tomato corn vegetarian chili vibe. It’s really tasty – and I plan to have it for dinner again tonight.
 

It was so nice to be off of work for a couple of days. I had a handful of projects in mind to do, but of course did none of them. I might do one of them this evening – for some reason I can’t find any black socks so I need to dump out my sock drawer to see what the heck. Wish me luck. Did you do anything productive over the holiday, or were you a lump like I was? (Note: I did do laundry & some housework, so not a total lump.)