“With”

This has been a pretty phenomenal week.

I’ve been uber productive. I had a surprise visit from a good friend I don’t see nearly enough of. There was some sunshine. Had a GREAT family night; complete with good dinner and movie quotables. Today, I am capping it off by working from home.

There is just something about not being in the office–being in your own space, surrounded by the stuff you love best–that seems to super-charge my focus. Maybe it’s because I don’t have meetings scheduled, and so I have the luxury of working on projects that take a larger chunk of protected time. As much as I like sitting here in my sweats and slippers, I’m not sure I could work from home on a more permanent basis, though. I know my limitations: I get distracted by shinies, the sun beckoning me to sit outside, the clouds lazily floating past the window, the noisy little birds sqwuaking for more sunflower seeds, or {shudder} chores. But on the infrequent occasion I do work from home, I’m able to get a lot done.

Farm Dog is pretty excited about me being home today, too. He likes simply being “with.” So much so that as I plunk this out he’s snoring.

I can hear the other Hairy Beast snoring out in the hallway. She’s stationed there to make sure there’s no way I can sneak down the hall for lunch without her knowing about it.

Speaking of, it’s time to grab some grub and get back to it. Two more projects to complete before I call it a day.

Behind every cloud

I utterly adore clouds like this. The cloud may be there, but it’s temporary. It’s cliche, silver linings and all, but true.

Even though you can’t see it … the sun is still there, still shining.

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For the sky collection

I heart happy spring clouds.

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Never "too old" for a play date …

Several months ago, two of my friends and I decided we didn’t see enough of each other, and determined to change that. I utterly adore these two fabulous women–in their own unique ways, they bring out the best in me. And sometimes snorting, when the three of us are together.

We agreed to meet regularly; the standing monthly appointment is on my calendar as a “Mental Health Break.” We meet at Laughing Planet and hilarity ensues. Really, if you can’t laugh at Laughing Planet … At first, it seemed a little, well, silly, that three grown people would have to purposely schedule time to just hang out and catch up. But now we have done a few times, this is one appointment I don’t want to miss.

We have no agenda for what’s become a play date. We tried that once, an agenda. It didn’t work. We were unanimous in that. So, we have no defined deliverable; there’s no key indicator or metric used to measure our productivity. Wait. Scratch that. There is at least one measure … how much my sides ache the following day from laughing at us. Laughter really is good medicine. And a fabulous ab workout. Never mind the dinosaurs. 

Last month, we discovered we all have
 birthdays within 30 days of each other. Who knows where it came from, but we ended up saying we should wear tiaras this month to celebrate. Kristina actually has one, and good girl, she wore it. I don’t have a tiara, so I stopped at the craft store, and picked up supplies to make one. 



Unfortunately, Brenda couldn’t join us this month. Since we didn’t get to see her tiara, we made her a princess one. Complete with a castle, crown, cute little mirror, and frog prince (that I somehow managed to cut off in that bottom right corner). We’ll deliver it tomorrow. 🙂

Two pictures at once … talented paparazzi, we are.  



Long live play dates!! 

More redneck lawn art

Two of my fabulous friends and I started a blog to help keep us [better] connected across the miles that separate us. My post this week is about redneck lawn art. I had a pleasant little promenade down memory lane browsing through my archived photos of Ferdinand, the old farm truck. Here are a few more of my favorite snaps: 

“I’m ready for my close-up”

 

the neighbor’s cows are fascinated with him too …

 

this one gives me the impression Ferdie has a runny nose

 

I love the way the wheel turned out in this pic

 

spidey’s web just about makes the perfect frame…