AUGUST SNAPSHOTS

Hot, humid August has come to a close...tonight's beautiful sunset...08/31/2013

 

 

 

Twenty-four Jars of Jalapeno Jelly...cooked, canned, cooled...ready

 

Rear window view of a fire west of our home--our firefighters are heroes!

 

Summer self portrait

 

I'm looking forward to Fall.  How about you?                                

SOCIAL MEDIA REALITY CHECK

I think I've just had an "aha" moment.  I read this article and suddenly had an epiphany.
 
Facebook is a background noise that distracts me from living.


I've given the idea of quitting Facebook some serious consideration in the past --in fact, I did quit (for less than a week) a year or so ago--but I've been wrestling a lot more with the idea lately. In fact, I've been wrestling so much, that it feels like a UFC fight inside my head.

I've begun to imagine what my life could look like without Facebook and I like that vision.  I am overstimulated by mostly useless information, that I admit makes "real life" feels rushed and diluted.  It is like I see life in washed out colors instead of vivid technicolor. That's sad.  I am guilty of wasting too much time checking in, posting an occasional status and reading others statuses, videos, articles, songs.
 
I have a list of things (a mile long) that I can/should/want to be doing instead of Facebook. Here are the first 15 that came to mind:

go to church/read my bible
volunteer
work out
meal plan and cook
begin the afghan I have the yarn and pattern for
spend time outside (riding my bike, taking a walk, hiking)
meet friends for coffee, drinks, lunch, dinner, breakfast
work on my writing
read
call family and friends
write letters
garden
make jalapeno jelly
home projects (that are an entire list of their own)
artistic/creative endeavors

I wholeheartedly agree with the points made by the author in her article (above).  I confess that logging onto Facebook often manages to irritate me more than anything else.   I get enough irritation at work and just working through the challenges in life in general without additional "self-inflicted-stupid-Facebook irritation" --why has it taken so long for me to figure that out? 

That being said, I am grateful for Facebook for the continuity I have with my family and friends who live out of state--most importantly, with my children and grand-babies that I see and talk to on Facebook everyday and I don't want to lose that.

So it's time for me to adjust the balance and fine tune my priorities.

JALAPENO JELLY MAKING TIME

I didn't plant a garden this year. We moved in December and since then, we've barely gotten a (partial) lawn in, shade on our patio and our pool up with lots more to do--so no garden this year. 

I still plan on making my jalapeno jelly in August, but I will have to buy my jalapenos this year. 

I have perfected my recipe to include three degrees of heat. 
 
Mild (lots of good flavor and tiny touch of heat)


Medium (enough heat for the masses)

Medium+ (Good heat that the guys really like!)

Habeneros are my secret addition to my original recipe.  You can read about my jelly making adventures here, here and here.

I'm looking forward to making several batches this year--maybe more with heat!  I know the guys will be happy about that! 

July has zipped by and I have still not written close to what I expected to for my Camp NaNoWriMo....anyone else out there participating?

OUR NEWEST BLESSING

I haven't been NaNoWriMo-ing as much as I'd planned to, but I did sit down and spend some one on one time at my desk with my laptop yesterday and feel somewhat less guilty.

I have a very good reason to not be absorbed in writing, though....I am happy to announce the birth of our newest precious grand-daughter, Isabel.  She was born July 5, 2013,  weighed 8 pounds, 13 ounces and was just shy of 21 inches long.  Healthy and beautiful, I am in love already!

I can't wait to make the trip east to go meet her and spend time with sweet big sisters Emma and Kailee and mama and daddy!

Proud Mama, Daddy with Isabel

 

 

Daddy is in love with his baby girl

 

 

 

                     ♥  Three sweet sisters ♥

CAMP NANOWRIMO

Here's the deal.

I'm signed up for Camp Nanowrimo for the month of July...meaning I will be writing, writing, writing for 31 days. 

My goal is to write more than I wrote in November for Nanowrimo.  For the record, that was just over 14,000 words.  My goal was 50,000, so I did not come close to my goal. I started strong, but then all the sorting, packing and planning for our December move just got in the way.  Moving is like that...time consuming.

So July appears uneventful...no moving on our summer horizon (can I get a halleluiah?).  That means I should get a lot of writing done...right?

Everyone nod yes.  Thank you.