Solstice Sunrise

For the past several years we have spent the dawn hours of the winter solstice at Katy's house.  Well, in 2009 it was a sunset bonfire.  But since then, dawn.  Sunset would be easier, gah, morning.
Why are you so early, and so pretty?

Basically the exact same pic, I was just messing with settings.

Laying out!

When I flipped to tan my back, Oliver decided my butt looked soft and warm, so he climbed on board!

Afterward, we headed to town to run errands, afterward I dropped Chan off with Phoenix for a couple days and then went and got Daddy's new Fire tablet all set up so he can read ebooks on it.

Not a bad solstice.  Matt has started using his CPAP again, so I am hoping after getting up at 3 and being busy all day, I can spend this longest night of the year snuggled in and snoozing happily.

Impending Doom, Things in Bloom

Ah, the storms are on the way.  The chicken houses across the road smell HORRIBLE, the wind is whipping around that stench, can't even breathe out there today. I plugged my nose and ran for the mail.  UGH. Nasty, nasty, nasty.  It smells like yeast mixed with the poop.  The first batch were grown and gone in 6 weeks and he took 2 weeks off between.  They come get them just after midnight and rev and back up the trucks once every 30 seconds, it's LOUD, took 2 nights and is yet another shining example of what a HUGE shithead the guy is.  It's not enough to befoul (literally) the very air we breathe, he's got to throw in noisy nights as well.

The wind is up and everything is whipping around.  The huge pine that looms over the bedroom is scraping along the roof when the wind hits just right.  It's not straight on, it's swirly.  It poured for about 15 seconds and managed to get the whole porch wet, so it must be raining sideways!

It's Groundhog Day, so I fed the cats and moved some firewood.  The traditional GD activities.  Later, I will walk on the treadmill because it keeps raining and then sunning outside and I don't want to go for a walk and end up in Oz.  

This is the type of weather that gets me hyped up for about half an hour, then I just want to sleep. Or...maybe that's the crash because it's 2 in the afternoon and I've only had a protein bar and about 20 sugar snap peas all day.  I'm eating jerky now, that should totally fix it.  No, wait.  Okay, now I am all better.  We made Julilanne taters with cheese.  1 box or the dehydrated kind weighs 4 ounces and has 4 servings, which is good, but it takes too long to cook to make it good for backpacking.  

These are the things in bloom/being green in the yard, February 2, 2016

Kuma is very against having his photo taken.

We have been eating this (spiderwort) and dandelion and of course sorrel.
Love some greens this time of year, I CRAVE them, I started buying spinach in big bundles so I can have it every single day, I just throw it in soup or eat it raw or toss it in a pan with some butter and wilt it to go on anything else I happen to be eating. I figure there's something I need in there, the way my tummy yells for greeeeeens. 

These Final Hours

I am finding that here in what feels like my final hours, I have nothing at all to say.  Nothing queued up anyway.  Eloquence is something I gave up, unknowingly, but all the same when I started taking antidepressants.  Now, I'd rather just deal with the down cycle than screw up my brain like that.  I used to be able to rant, argue, keep long lists in my head, validate my point of view and remember to check on food in the oven.  Now, I have to write-so I can refer back to what I was just saying when I trail off in thought-or if I am speaking, pause for long moments while I come up with the word that I just thought of.  Names are the worst, my brain just does not repeat a thought with any sort of consistency.  Try arguing your point when simple nouns are beyond your reach.  Yeah.  

I have some sort of stomach...thing.  Again.  Having them used to be my hobby, it filled my spare time and supposed-to-be-sleeping hours with horrible hours in the bathroom floor, trying to gauge which end is next and hoping if I am totally, totally still, it will fade.  It got better for a long time. This is the second round in a month and it was BAD this time.

Since I don't want to detail the details, I will post a few recent pics so there's no gap in my narrative.

Ben and I were home alone, so I sang the birthday song by myself, which did nothing to disguise that I am tone deaf.  Which does nothing to stop me singing anyway, so Ben just braced himself and thought of cake.  He looks to be blowing out candles, but that's a sigh of relief.

His footprint from when he was a year old.  I used to have his handprint, too, but one of the dogs coming through our lives chewed it up.

I made them because I woke up one morning convinced Ben had stopped growing.  I'd blame all the crack, but I've never even smoked a cigarette.

Nia can be stopped by any amount of sunbeam, I have a theory that a yellow laser pointer would knock her out,  She's the Green Lantern Doggie.

The cousins are all getting grown.  Adam is 22, in training to be an airline pilot.  Chan is nearly 18 and about to finish high school, Jake is 20, working full time, Ben is 16 and still adverse to physical contact of any kind.  He cracks me up with that pose. *can't touch anyone*  Butterbean is 14 months old, finally neutered and a MUCH better dog now.  Jackson is 17 and Maddie is 16 and working after school.  They (her family) just moved back to Tennessee after living in Florida for several years.  They live half a mile from my sister, it's all very cozy.

I imagine we will see them again next year, possibly the year after.  I have given up trying to sort any actual relationship with my family.  I didn't say what Jackson was up to because other than his middle name and date of birth, I know NOTHING about the kid.  I always thought the cousins would all be such great friends, and they were for a few years.  Chan and Maddie were very close as kids.  Then my mother went (even more) insane and they flocked to her side and that told me enough.  I don't want drama, if they do then dram away, yo.  Just keep that shit away from mine.

I redid the purple in Chan's hair and it is QUITE bright!

Monday, Jake did not have Explorers, but was off early anyway, so I picked him up and we went to see the new Frankenstein movie.  Here's a spoiler-James McAvoy spits when he talks with any level of conviction.  Maybe his character does, but Jake and I were both yelling 'SWALLOW' at the screen.  It was horrifying.

Daniel Radcliffe was so good as Igor, I liked the whole movie-it looked exactly how I wanted it to. Other than the spittle bit. 

Before the movie, we had to pick up gerbil food and the pet store had these hoodies half off.

Nia goes totally stiff and falls over like a fainting goat.  You have to bribe her to move with cookies.  Then she pouts, *stupid hoodie*

Murphy Jones has NO IDEA he's wearing a shirt. 

We left them in the house Monday for a few hours and they went on a destroying rampage!  ALL the tissue boxes were emptied one Kleenex at a time ALL over the beds,  I had just bought a box per person because we all get the sniffles this time of year.  Then they got in the trash and distributed all the used tissues as well.  Then they ATE the cover off the new heating pad and Murphy destroyed his bark collar.

I imagine they had a wonderful run of things jumping on the beds and making a huge mess.  It is ALL Murphy's fault because Nia is 3 and we have had her all but 8 weeks of that time and she has never made a mess, not once.  She doesn't even pull the squeaks out of her toys.

On Friday night, Matt got rear ended.  He was stopped, signal on, waiting for traffic and a guy plowed right into him.  It was a bad few days while Matt fumed, but insurance hooked him up with a rental car so he's suddenly in a MUCH better mood.  Still no news on the car, so the bank is letting us skip this month's payment in case they total it.  The other guy's insurance is being REALLY nice, it makes me suspicious.

Hikes

We spent 'Black Friday' and 'Cyber Monday' both out hiking with friends.  I just discovered today is 'Giving Tuesday'.  These 'holidays' along with every other holiday on the calendar are all manufactured obligations that don't mean anything and yet all manage to make people scramble like mad to decorate, buy things and eat particular foods.  It's amazing how many folks toss themselves at it, adding stress to lives and budgets that are already full.  I wish MORE people would check out of the insanity and spend a few hours walking on a trail with a buddy or two.

Friday, we went to join the Huntsville Teen Scene on a hike to the Natural Well.  We arrived early and went with Kurt, Alex, Emma and Mars down the McKay Hollow Trail and intersected the end of the Natural Well Trail and hiked that to the other end at the hiker's parking lot for a total of 3.5 miles.  We met up with the teen scene folks as well as Inde, Owen, Oliver, Katy and her mom, sister, BIL, Lucky and FIL! Katy's sister is currently as I type, about to have her second baby.  She ran around contracting and we thought maybe yesterday, but Baby Grape is staying put...for now.  Ben might get to share his birthday,,,we'll see.

Saturday, Ben and Matt, Emma and Kurt ran their first 10k.  They did great!
Sunday, we all laid around being sore.  I was sore from the hike-hills are tough.

Monday, we headed to Birmingham to do First Avenue Rocks-they have a homeschool deal on Mondays.  When we got to Fultondale where we stopped to eat lunch at Full Moon BBQ (giant taters!) it was NOT raining.  It's been raining here for days.  I called a friend in town and she said it hasn't rained there at all.  ACK!  The boys QUICKLY decided they'd rather be outside, so I tossed out a few options.  Birmingham has MANY hiking spots right there in town.  Moss Rock was nearly picked, but Red Mountain won.  So, off we went!

After checking in with Matt and Amanda so they'd know about our change in plans, we hit the trails and hiked 4 miles, meandering around a while and ending up at Grace's Point, which is still a lovely trail.  We went about 3 years ago, in March and there was SO much stuff on the ground-tiles, metal, glass and loads of things like an old radio and so on.  That's ALL been cleaned up now, at least the trails we took.  It's an archaeological site, so 'cleaned up' isn't the right wording.  Removed, I guess. I hope by the people who were supposed to remove them and not random hikers.

Let's look a this more closely:

Aaaaaaaaaaa!

Monday:

this is very much a 'humor her so we can get back to the car' shot.  

Since we were so close, I drove us to the little park at Helena so the kids could see it.
We are planning a return in the spring with more friends and some hammocks.

I really like this light pole in the woods.

I love the blue and purple blend, and that she's letting her roots grow in.  It feels very organic and exotic at the same time. Perfect for a 17 year old-they are a little alien already.

The boys stayed over for Ben's birthday, we polished off an entire turkey tenderloin, a pot of rice, a pot of Indian cottage cheese and curry and some chickpeas with some kind of spiced gravy. Yum!