I guess I allowed summer to whiz by. Here we are at fall again. The past month I lived without a cell phone. Part of the time we also lived without a computer, but I finally solved that problem quicker than the phone thing. Didn't know my phone was so popular. At one point, I couldn't find a cell phone battery in the state of Oklahoma for my phone. My of my, either that's a popular phone I have or someone is terribly incompetent. You don't realize how much your life is wrapped in technology till it's not there for you. My cell phone is my phone book, address book, calendar, keeper of memos & info, camera, a favorite link to social media. Plus, hey, it makes phone calls. It is also darn good entertainment. Oh well, life goes on and I am connected again. It did make me very aware of some changes I wanted to make.

Summer Goals

You know that old saying, "if you want to get something done, ask a busy person?" Well, that's been the story of my life this month. Unfortunately, it seems like everything I could put on a list of accomplishments has been doing things for others. It's a good list and it all needed to be done, but, really I need to focus on my own goals for June. One goal for June - taking a vacation. We've decided to go to Galveston. At least that's what we're thinking as of right now. However, we'll be keeping a close eye on the weather because I do realize the south is entering into hurricane season and I have no desire to experience one of those, or even excessive rains. I like my vacations without hurricanes, personally. We're taking our grandsons and our middle son, who is still in college (Go Pokes). I think Mr. Red Dirt thought it would have been better to just travel with the two of us, but the deed is done and the cat is out of the bag - I've already invited the others and I'm not backing down. We're finally going to Austin for our first attempt to see what keeps Austin weird, plus see our youngest son, who I've previously mentioned, happens to live there. Plus, I've been in the mood for palm trees and sandy beaches since last winter, so that's why we have to go to a beach, somewhere. Have I mentioned how long winter drug on this year? We have actually had nights in May we had to use the electric blanket again.

My other big goal is to make progress on getting our house ready to go on the market. This is one of those things that I understand intellectually, but let's just say I'm a bit stymied at the moment. I can't seem to get my head in gear with getting rid of stuff, deciding what's trash and what needs to stay vs what I just want to keep because I think I'm going to need it someday. I started reading pages on FB to try and get inspired about a new approach to minimalism and shedding stuff. About all it's done for me is convince me there's some pretty screwed up people in the world - as if my 18+ years of child welfare hadn't already showed me the way to that little tidbit of knowledge. And of course, when I have these internal or real deadlines to get stuff done, that's what my head goes off on other tangents that I try to justify in my mind, i.e. doing recipe searches for ideas to cook for Sr. Adults and other stuff and nonsense. Like I need any more recipes. Even if I could never collect another recipe as long as I live, I'd probably have enough recipes to do me for the rest of my life. I have at least been able to keep myself from falling into that time warp, otherwise known as Pinterest...most of the time. However, in all honesty, I cannot tell a lie, yes, I have been known to dip my feet into the pinteresting waters now and then. 

If I were one of those glamour home blogs, I'd be posting pictures of my before's and eventually after's. But, this isn't that. One of my younger FB friends has the true gift. As soon as her kids finished school earlier this month, she moved in one day to a neighboring state, posting the picture of the U Haul truck as they were driving. The next day, less than 24 hours later, she posted the FINISHED pictures of her new house. I swear, it looked like the magazine shoot was in 15 minutes. I was entertaining ideas of calling her up and asking what she would charge to come do my move and reorganization, because the girl knows what she's doing. However, sadly, I'm afraid it's a job that I can't pawn off on another person. I'm only writing this to keep myself in gear. They say public confession is good for the soul. So, here's a toast to the organizing bug...let's hope it kicks in and bites me soon because I need to get on a roll. 

Time for a new view from a different kitchen sink. 

Elaine, aka, the Red Dirt Cowgirl

It's Summertime Already

I saw one of those funny e-cards the other day on FB. It said something along the lines of, "I forgot to be appreciative for the 3 hours of spring before summer arrived." After the long drawn out winter, I had promised friends and family I wasn't going to complain about summer this year. In fact, I believe I actually said, "If I complain about the summer heat, just slap me." Of course, I only said that because I was bound and determined I wasn't going to complain about the Okla. heat. However, I can't help but remark, "One hundred degree heat on May 5th? Really? That's how it is nowadays?" The same day we were recovering from the 100 plus days here, a woman on FB that lives in Maine was worrying about a possible snowstorm or hurricane. But, for clarification, I'm not complaining, I'm just reporting.

Here's hoping we get spring back. We just had a hailstorm hit our neighborhood. It was smallish - marble size maybe, nothing golf or baseball sized. A few weeks ago, I had a little intersection with a deer that did some damage to my car. Just to be on the safe side, I had decided to not have the damage repaired until after the traditional hail season was over.

P.S. Here's a little early evening storm report from last night. This is what the clouds looked like when the high winds started. It turns out some of our neighbors weren't so lucky last night. There was a path of torn up farm equipment and one person had damage at his house. This was after the tornado warning was lifted. We still had lots of clouds left over.

Elaine, aka, the Red Dirt Cowgirl

Ch-ch-ch-changes

We had another milestone in our family yesterday. Our youngest son, who had already moved to Austin in early January, rented a small truck and moved the rest of the furniture that his Nana had given him. Since he's never driven anything larger than a pickup truck, my husband rode part of the way with him to make sure he had gotten the hang of driving a small truck.

As he turned the corner, going south from my Mother's where he picked up the bed, I realized I was witnessing a landmark moment in my youngest child's life - moving furniture to an out of state home. So, of course I couldn't resist taking a picture as he drove. (Please note red dirt at the crossroads, this is only a mile from our last red dirt road in the neighborhood.) I followed behind until he decided he thought he knew what he was doing. Earlier in the week, the national weather predictions were for tornadoes and other lovely stuff for Texas. However, by the time we got back home and checked the weather, it seemed like the weather predictions had changed. Not that anyone was upset over the possibility of not having to worry about tornado warnings. The big deal in the national weather was more snow for the Northeast. I swear, once again, I don't know how they can stand it up there.

It had been such a busy weekend, I was so beat that I actually fell asleep before midnight. This was the 2nd night in a row - that's almost a landmark for me. So, I was asleep when my son sent me a text message at 2:12 a.m. saying he had arrived. We have promised we're going to Austin this spring - assuming spring arrives. I'm beginning to wonder. I'm starting to research Austin spots to visit. Mainly, I want to find out why Austin is weird. My husband told me last night 150 people move to Austin every single day, but only 20 people are moving away daily. It's gonna get a bit more crowded. I had heard on the radio that it has the 3rd worst traffic in America. Right now, our son is enjoying the convenience of a 7 minute walk to work. I doubt he fully appreciates how convenient life is for him right now. Someday when he's trapped on a freeway day after day, it will hit him. However, the inconvenience of a small starter apartment may finally overcome the practicality of walking vs driving. Right now he's just having fun, setting up his 1st apartment right out of college. I remember those days, and they were fun. I had bought him the large Pampered Chef pizza pan for him to have a little house warming present. There's nothing like pizza on a Pampered Chef stone, even if it's just a simple one made with croissant bread dough from a tube, which is one of my very favorite easy meals.

         Elaine, aka, the Red Dirt Cowgirl

Moving On

I've been giving myself pep talks about surviving winter. Mainly I've been telling myself it's time to quit taking it so hard and it's time to move on. I'd like to say I've risen above the occasion and have made the best of it. But, alas, I haven't. I'm taking it hard, that's my story, and I'm sticking to it. We've made jokes about living in Alaskahoma, but deep down, I know it's nothing like living up north. I don't even know how they are surviving winter. I guess the less said about it, the better. Why belabor the point, it's not like we can change the weather.

Old gas station in late 1970's. This was around the corner from our first house we lived in 35 years ago when we were young married.  It was torn down years ago, a trailer now sits on the spot.

The bottom line: life moves on, things change, I need to quit obsessing on the "I hate winter theme". 

I'm starting to let the winter of 2013-2014 to wear me down. Here is is March 3rd and I'm trying to figure out new ways to stay warm. Our grandsons came on Friday night for what we thought was an overnight visit. The bad weather hit again before we could get them back home, so we have extended house guests. Of course, you don't mind when it's your grandkids. I can now say I know what thunder sleet is, we had that new experience yesterday. It hit during church and we had to wrap up church early before the sermon. We barely made it back home, driving through another episode of the stuff before we got to our house. Luckily I had a little warning Friday afternoon that they were coming for a visit, or my cooking might have had to get more creative than usual. At least we have electricity and wood for the wood stove. But, I'm ready for spring. This is ridiculous. I'm ready for life to move on. We've decided to work on our house to get it ready to sell and this prolonged winter is cramping my style.

My church has another pancake supper tomorrow night. That is, if we can get to the church. I kind of need to know, I'm in charge of the pancake batter. I guess the day is getting ready to unfold and the news & weather will tell us how bad it really is. What I really hate about the current thought in the news/weather world is how they high jack the programming and just take over. I mean it's really not necessary to have an entire morning of "Aint it awful out there be careful, to know that "it's really awful out there". I get it, and I bet everyone else does too.

I realized when I reviewed the pancake recipe from last year's post, that I don't know what I did with the 97 cent Easter baskets with lids that I used to make up all the extra batches of batter. Oh well, guess I can go buy me another batch of cheap Easter baskets. I think this year I will box them up later so I don't have to do that again.  

Time Seems To Be A Concept I Fail To Understand

I know I've been busy, but I can't believe I lost track that I hadn't blogged here in so long, although I had made a conscious effort to save my writing for my e-book. It seems like I'm getting closer to having it ready for publication. I just had to shut down whatever, in order to channel my thoughts to my e3-book.  I've also been trying to put some time and effort in to building my food related business. Some things haven't changed: Facebook still has those mean people that want to spew their venom wherever they go and the political fanatics are still compelled to inflict their opinions on the rest of us. Plus, there are those idiots who click on 73 things to "share" with the rest of the world - and that's just on one day. I figured out how to block their generosity on my PC, but not my cellphone, so I may have to say bye-bye. They're taking up on my bandwidth and making it frustrating to read FB on my phone.

Christmas was nice, although it didn't seem to last long enough. But, all the festivities leading up to it were fun. The most heart warming thing we did was deliver Christmas boxes to 2 families that were not having much of a Christmas.

One way I've been entertaining myself in the kitchen with are Lava Cakes. As someone once said about something else, "the possibilities are endless".

Our youngest son has relocated to Austin, so I see South Texas vacations in our future. He finished his Master's program exactly 3 semesters after finishing his Bachelors. He was always sensible and practical - when he was 3 he actually told me one time, "Mother, it's time to put me to bed, it's my bedtime."  Plus, to top it off, he had 4 job offers. He took the one with a company on the top 100 companies to work for - so that seems promising. My brain is so non-engineering oriented, I'm amazed I gave birth to a child that was able to make math and science work so well for him, since I'd made a personal vow years ago to try and live my life without either.

It's been so cold at our house, let's just say it's "winter challenged", that I've been researching beach vacations for future trips. I can hardly wait for warm spring days. Actually, I'd like to experience warm winter days - I think we've had enough cold days to freeze the bugs. In the meantime, I just keep a heater close to the computer desk.