The 25th Hour ~karenjcardoza.com~

It’s 12 degrees out but it’s one of those early mornings that just doesn’t  feel cold. I guess it’s because there’s absolutely no wind and there’s a grey blanket of clouds in the sky with the promise of more snow ahead. The feeling of not being cold was the first thing I noticed when I took the girls out but the stillness also brought a heightened awareness of nature’s sounds around me. The snow definitely was crunching underfoot and I could hear lots of birds tweeting and twittering in the small bushes and at our feeder out back. Loud CAWW, CAWWs could be heard in the distance contrasting the soft chatter in my yard. A pair of squirrels chased each other up the neighbor’s huge tree, nails clacking against the bark.

I’m hoping that we get some more snow today to add to the beautiful blanket of white that we already have. It’s got that snow smell in the air mixing with the smells of lit fireplaces and wood stoves in the neighborhood. It’s something that we refer to as “mmmmm… smells like Nordic” which reminds us of a favorite winter vacation spot in New Hampshire that we used to go to for many years.

Yesterday I took down all of my Christmas decorations upstairs and brought out the winter decor which will be up for a couple of months. I’ve got the tree downstairs to take down and need to reorganized/purge my Christmas stash before putting it all away. That’s going to be  big job but I’m so thankful that I still have today and the weekend before heading back to school. I’ll just pace myself and alternate between that job and getting some reading done, taking my dogs out, and spending some time online today.

Jake is off to a wrestling tournament for the weekend and Kelsea isn’t happy with me because she wanted to take an overnight trip to PA with a friend and I nixed it. She doesn’t understand but sometimes parents just have gut feelings about things and need to say no. I’m not keen on two girls driving, especially with a car that has been acting up. It’s not because I don’t love her, it’s because I DO. When she’s  mom someday, she’ll understand.

First on the agenda is to enjoy this cup of coffee, light a few candles. smile at my clean upstairs (and shiny sink!) and scan the inboxes before setting off for a bit on my task. I’m not one to make New Years Resolutions per se, but I do have some goals that I set for myself in this year of change. One is to be more PRESENT in what I’m doing and really take the time to pay attention to the little things and all my senses.

Hi All.. Happy 2009! One of the things that I want to do more of in 2009 is video. I’m hoping to incorporate it more into my seldom used Muse with Me podcast. I’ve also submitted my 12seconds.tv feed to itunes so that I can post little snippets. You can subscribe right now by going to the advanced tab and putting in the 12 seconds feed:

http://12seconds.tv/channel/mrsb/feed

If you’re an aggregator type, the feed will work in gReader and others as well. I’ve also added the widget into the blog sidebar too. You can catch it here but why not have it delivered to you directly? Little snippets of daily Mrs. B goodness!

Hope you’re enjoying the last day of 2008.  Getting ready to just relax and and welcome in the new year. A pot of tea, stack of books, and 3 dogs cuddled up with me here is a great way to spend a snowy day and evening.  Happy New Year All!

Quiet final day of 2008 

Now that Christmas is over and the HUGE Pats game on Sunday is done, it’s been pretty low key around here.. just the way I like it!  I’m very proud of my team and all that they accomplished this season despite the injuries and adversity. Although they won on Sunday, the Jets didn’t so our playoff hopes were dashed. It’s time for them  to rest, rehab and get ready for next season.

I’ve been catching up on things around here and doing some cleaning and starting to take down my Christmas decor. Because of the way that the holidays have fallen, we have another weekend after the first before heading back to school. I love it!  It’s hard to believe that tomorrow is the last day of the year. It certainly flew by and a lot has happened over the last 12 months: some good and some NOT so good. Regardless, I’m thankful for each day and look forward to the year of change ahead.

Speaking of a year.. here’s a video that has popped into my rss reader a few times this week. I’d like to share it here as I think it’s cool and since I love nature,  it puts a smile on my face. Eirik Solheim captured One Year in 40 Seconds. Enjoy!

One year in 40 seconds from Eirik Solheim on Vimeo.

Yippee!!! Thankfully, there was an easy peasy fix to my Now Reading plug-in problem that I mentioned yesterday. Since the upgrade to Wordpress 2.7,  it hasn’t worked completely and I thought there was some kind of broken code on my end,  but it turns out that it’s due to the incompatibility since the upgrade. There was a fix though and it was as simple as choosing a different admin option among two offered. Thanks @Kate!

The technology gods like me today

With Christmas in the rear view mirror, I’m moving forward and just enjoying being home. One of my goals for this vacation is to get back to a consistent gym schedule and I’m happy that I’ve been able to stick to that. Today was spent running errands and YIKES… the traffic was nutty!  I had to do some practical things: bank, market, pet store, etc…. I would have prefered to not be out there with the crowds but I really had no choice.

I also went to Joanne’s to spend the gift card that I got for Christmas. When asked what I wanted, I said that I needed some new  knitting needles and sewing notions so my niece obliged.  I bought some nice yarn as well and some candles which were marked down 70% because they were part of red, white, and green section of holiday stuff. (I always have candles lit and had run out of tapers.)

I’ve been pretty productive so far this week too, having uploaded all of my holiday pictures, tailgate pictures, writing up the latest tailgate report and updating the website. I also upgraded all of my blogs (except the podcast one because podpress doesn’t work with the newer versions). Unfortunately, my Now Reading plugin is broken for my Book Nook. I really hate upgrading wordpress and hold my breath each time I do!  Hopefully I’ll be able to figure it out and not lose all of my information in my library. Right now, I can only see one page of entries and also have no links to add images to blog posts. It’s late now, so I’ll research it in depth tomorrow.

I hope to get a lot of reading done this week and some relaxing once the decorations are down and put away. I’m excited for the HUGE Patriots game on Sunday but don’t want to wish away this vacation so I’ll be content if time drags… Anyone who knows me knows: I Love Being Home!

As I sit here right now on Christmas afternoon in my PJs I’m thankful for our typical low-key way of celebrating. I’ve long been one to NOT enjoy the hustle and bustle and commercialism of Christmas and have been doing the low key thing long before it was chic. Ever since our kids were babies, we’ve declared Christmas day to be Family Day and have politely said “No, Thank You” to all invitations on Christmas Day.  We celebrate with Al’s family on Christmas Eve and mine on another day that we can all get together.

Nothing was worse than making the rounds on Christmas Eve with toddlers who were up too late and cranky then pulling them away from their presents on Christmas morning to get all dressed up and go to Christmas dinner the following day.  Fancy clothes, too much food, too many commitments and dragging  kids around who were in need of a nap  really put a damper on the holiday. So, I <gasp!> informed everyone that we were bowing out of the dinner quite a few years ago and it’s one of the best things we could have done as a family.  It’s ironic how many members of the family are jealous of our day, spending it any way we want… in PJs, drinking coffee, taking naps, reading, watching TV, whatever!  Funny thing is, they can do it too if they so choose. (Now don’t misunderstand.. it’s not like we don’t see family ALL the time.  We live within 5 minutes of one another and are in contact on almost a daily basis so it’s not like we’re passing up on rare opportunities to see one another.)

I’ve also been the one to put an end to the endless glut of present buying for the entire lot and would even like to pare it down more in the future. I can’t stand the shopping and desperation of buying something just because I have to. I would prefer to give to people that are in need, and not buy for the sake of buying and increasing all of our “stuff.”  Long gone are the days when we were kids and we would have to wait for Christmas and Birthdays to get clothes and things that we needed. Al and I haven’t exchanged in years, instead taking family vacations that we enjoy. At this point in our lives, if we want something throughout the year, we buy it so there’ s no sense buying more  “stuff” for Christmas “just because” it’s Christmas.

Personally, the barest bones Christmases have been my favorite.  My shopping was limited to a couple of trips this year, we slept in this morning, had a nice lunch together and everyone is relaxing. I’ve got the candles and tree lit and some Christmas music on. My dogs are all napping and there’s not tons of things that I need to find space for. Here’s to PJ Christmases and hoping that the essence of the day is in your heart, not under the tree!