One-Twelfth Gone

Here it is the first of February.  

My poor husband is outside in 5 degree weather moving snow, in the wind.  He started out with the tractor that has no cab, but it is so cold, he went to get the skid loader that has a cab and moved snow at the shop, before coming back to do a few more neighboring driveways.

You know, he really wouldn't have to do that.  It's freezing cold out there. Yes, we get money for it, but not very much. Some of the work if for favors received.  He does this because he is a nice guy and he likes driving equipment.

After several days of 40 degree highs, then 50 degree highs, then 60 degree highs, and then a 70 degree high day.  We were loving it.  

Now we have plunged back into the arctic regions and the start of a new month.  

Going back to January, however, I have a few stories to tell.

I go take care of  the boys on Wednesdays this semester while my daughter goes to class.  She's had a few volunteer days where the little boys come to me.  

My lovely huge picture window in the front of my house is a great place to view the birds, the neighbors, the sunset and the weather.  The kids always liked to watch for Dad to come, and the grandkids like to watch the outside, too.  

However, it complicates picture taking with all the light coming in.  But, I take them anyway.  We had a table set up by the window to do puzzles on and the boys loved to be up on it.

Barry

 Christian...

...makes a really cute lump.

I know this photo was in my day by day.  This picture shows the whole yellow mirror that matches my yellow wall,  I told that story here (the last day.)

How much I love my sunrises.  We had a rainbow sunrise this morning.

I was cleaning out a closet the other day.  I was looking for my 80's prairie blouse with the side button and ruffles that was in the dress up box.  I found it, cleaned out the closet, threw out a bunch of the dress up clothes, and made room in there for some of the things lying around the basement.  

I also found this: 

There is a story behind this skirt and it is a bittersweet memory.  I was 13 years old and "everyone" was wearing long dresses to the Christmas concert that year and I wanted one.  I wanted one badly.  And I made a nuisance out of myself begging for one.  

It was the first time I made my mother cry.

(The only other time that happened,  I also wanted something really bad, and I played dirty pool on that one and it isn't a pleasant memory.)

I didn't understand then that Mom really didn't have the money to get me a new dress.  She obviously didn't even have the money to buy material to make one.  This material was some leftover in her stash.  She used a pantyhose top for the elastic and Velcro instead of a zipper.  

The sweet thing is, I loved this skirt.  I was so happy to have a long dress to fit in with the other girls in my class.  I wore it proudly to that concert with my homemade curls that soon fell out.  (My hair didn't take well to curls.) 

A good rule of thumb is to only keep things that make us feel good.  I'm not sure whether this falls in that category or not.  My mom made this for me out of the best that she had, and I loved it. 

Our garage still looks nice. (I cropped out the mess at the back of the garage since we don't have shelves in yet.)  And so does the load of wood for the fireplace. Jim went wood-cutting with the our neighbor.

The afterglow is just as pretty as the sunset sometimes.