It is hard to believe that another full week has passed. I am amazed how quickly time goes by. Christmas will be here before we know it. I love the Christmas season; it is so colorful, cheerful, and festive. I think the key to enjoying the holiday season is to be prepared and keep from getting overly busy; but that is how I try to keep every day – some days I’m successful and others I’m not but I keep trying. In years passed I have seen a “program” (for lack of a better word) for getting prepared for the holidays called The Holiday Grand Plan in which you follow their schedule of cleaning, planning, baking, and preparing for Christmas and you’ll end up at Christmas with a clean house and everything done. I think this plan began in the beginning of August. So I guess I should start thinking about what all I want to accomplish by Christmas and set some goals because you cannot accomplish goals that you don’t make.

This week was a fairly quiet week. Although I have to say that I am very pleased that Lauren tried another entree she doesn’t like elsewhere and liked it here. She did however, say it wasn’t her favorite though and I’m okay with that. She was so cute when she tried the first bite, again she looked at Brian and then just kind of shook her head and said nothing but it was very reminiscent of last week’s egg roll episode. I love that girl!

I saw a couple of interesting articles this week;  one was on “grounding.” It is one of those things that sounds interesting and worth further investigation. The article on Dr. Mercola’s website said it helps promote self healing. It is a shame that we have such a problem with sand burrs on our property or I’d go barefoot outside as well as inside. As it is, Tiffany and I have taken a few minutes a couple days this week, to go barefoot in the small, narrow burr free zone in front of the house. Remarkably, that small section is nearly as big as our “yard” was years ago when we lived in a very nice trailer park.

The other article was about the soil helping with mood disorders – soil, as in gardening. This makes me want to get out and play in the dirt, but definitely away from those pesky sand burrs.

I just took a minute and searched for the Holiday Grand Plan and found that it is up and running and doesn’t start until August 31st this year. Hey, I’m not late! Here’s the link in case you want to check it out too. I have to admit that I think it was this plan/program that helped me to think clearly about the holidays and get focused allowing me to fully enjoy this special season.

This is our red sunflower that Tiffany and I planted. It is definitely different. It looks bigger than it is; it measures about five inches across from petal tip to petal tip. The yellow sunflower in the background measures about eight inches from petal tip to petal tip. I’ll be saving a few of these seeds to plant some again next year.

Until next time, God bless,

Michele  ºÜº