Lamb Figurines

 I saw a comment by Christian author Ann Voskamp that had me searching for a lamb figurine to display to remind me that My Shepherd loves and cares for me. With Easter approaching, I thought I would peruse eBay. There should be lots of lamb figures for sale this time of year.

Lambs are naturally cute. How hard would it be to find something that appealed to me? As it turns out, very hard.

 There were the Precious Moment animals with overdone curly coats that looked like poodles. There were figures so sleek that they looked like deer. One stylized lamb's brown texturized coat looked like skeletal ribs instead of wool.

 There were duplicates. One little girl (angel?) with a lamb showed up a dozen times with different paint jobs. She was cute, but the lamb looked mean and ready to attack. I decided it was the way the eyes were painted in a skinny backward slant. 

In fact, who knew facial features could vary so much that the lambs sent very different messages. One with a sappy look seemed like it had eaten locoweed. Another looked like it was grimacing from indigestion. One sneered as if to say you are not good enough for this flock. There was a painted? cowboy boot on one leg of a lamb but not the other 3. What is that all about? There are so many ugly lambs for sale, they outnumbered the adorable ones in my opinion. 

The Lladro statues were fine artwork; I was not ready to pay $80 to $100 to satisfy my whim. After scrolling through 70 pages, I was sick of lambs. I had seen some with humans that were cute, and I decided maybe I was focusing too much on the lambs. Find cute humans holding lambs and I would probably be happy. I did avoid the Mary Had a Little Lamb motifs. I also skipped Baby's First Easter lambs.

 I ended up with a Holly Hobbie with 2 lambs. It is about 5 1/2 inches high so small enough to put on the ledge of my pass-through window from kitchen to study. I will see it there often.

Spring Goodies

 

Rosie the Bunny is ready to greet Easter. She says, "Help yourself to some peanut butter cups."

Today I bought at Meijer some tete a tete daffodils in a pot. I intended to buy tulips but did not like the selection nor the price. 

I can no longer find the dark chocolate Godiva bunny, so I bought a Lindt one instead. I once did a "test" comparing the two and the Godiva was definitely my favorite. 

At least Easter is later this year; maybe we will have a warm day. We can always hope. Spring is very up and down in Indiana.

 A tornado went through nearby Bourbon, Indiana Wednesday night. My sister-in-law lost power but has a generator. She had no damage to her property, but Bourbon had structural damage to homes and businesses as well as fallen trees. We heard on the weather radio alert that a tornado was headed toward Bourbon and Etna Green. Our family members answered the text we sent, and they said they were sheltering in the basement. We had rain, wind, light hail but live further east than the tornado path. 

Sushiko Restaurant

 Today we ate at Sushiko restaurant on Detroit Street for the first time. This building has seen so many restaurants through the years; I hope this one is able to stay around. It has a pleasant setting.

The menu has several pages of suishi. My Bento box had 4 pieces of California roll; my husband ordered tuna rolls. He did not think that  they were very good. I gave him one of my rolls because I am not a big fan of suishi. He said it was better than the tuna.

I found the teriyaki chicken with dumplings good. It came with California rolls and fried rice. 

Tuna suishi roll with ginger and wasabi.

Shrimp dinner with vegetables that my husband ordered.

The restaurant is on the shore of Center Lake with an outside deck. Not very sunny as we are expecting rain this afternoon. The menu prices for lunch during the week (including Saturday) are quite a savings from the regular menu. We will have to come back on a nice weekday to eat and maybe sit on the deck.

Parasols hung from the ceiling make a colorful decor.

The suishi case at the entrance had a man making more.

There are steps to climb to reach the main entrance; maybe there is a ramp to the deck which would allow one to enter without steps? Not sure.

Saw one couple eating crab rangoon which were large and looked good. For the more adventurous, a variety of suishi. Our meals included salad or soup. We chose the egg drop soup which was tasty. 

Worth a second visit on a weekday.

Violas

 

I bought this pot of violas Tuesday at Costco. Violas like pansies are considered cool-weather tolerant, but I put the pot in the garage yesterday evening. Not because of the temperatures that would be dropping with the approaching cold front, but because of the gusty wind. I will put it on the porch tomorrow, but I see I may have to return it to the garage a few times in the next 10 days because of below-30 night temperatures. Still, I wanted a touch of spring color. It is worth the bother.

I experienced a change of policy at Costco. Before, I could go down the customer service/food court side to use the restroom. This time the man at the door that checks the receipts asked me if I was going to customer service. When I explained my destination, he said I was supposed to scan my membership card on the merchandise side of the store and approach the restroom through that side. I know what they are trying to do; they want only members to use the food court. He graciously allowed me to enter his side of the store this time. Since after using the restroom I would want a cart to go through the store, it would mean exiting the customer service side after using the facilities, getting a cart, then scanning my card a second time. Or getting a cart before going to the restroom and parking it in an aisle hoping nobody takes it. Not very efficient.  You would think they could require scanning the card when placing a food order instead. 

I have a big decision to make re my Linx device. It has migrated below where it was implanted and now sits in the stomach instead of slightly above it. Part of the stomach has gone through the device and above the diaphragm meaning it is a hiatal hernia. The surgeon said I had 3 options: decide to live with it and the increased regurgitation by modifying even more how and what I eat; have the device removed and the hernia repaired surgically; remove the device, repair the hernia, then do fundoplication where part of the stomach is wrapped around the bottom of the esophagus. I see a gastroenterologist May 13th and will discuss those options with him before deciding.

 According to the internet, only about 4-5% of patients have migration of the device and a recurring hernia. There are other reasons for explantation though. If I understood my doctor correctly, he has never removed a Linx device. It is supposedly not difficult but time-consuming because the tissue around each bead has to be addressed. There are not many doctors in our part of Indiana who have experience with the Linx so I don't think I would be able to find somebody who has removed one. The gastroenterologist I am to see has never implanted the device, but he knows how it works. 

We had light snow this morning, the first day of spring. I see daffodil shoots, buds on the maple tree, teeny-tiny green leaves on the quince bush. Mother Nature is waking up. 

 

 

Ollie's in Warsaw

 We stopped by our new Ollie's store in Warsaw yesterday. It seems brighter and roomier than the one in Fort Wayne. I really like that they have 99-cent greeting cards with a pretty good assortment. I do not remember ever seeing cards in the Fort Wayne store. 

I bought an adult coloring book for $2.99. I picked out this one because the cover illustration showed flowers with gradations of hue. I want to try my new colored pencils in that way. Besides flowers, it has butterflies and birds. When I had a limited number of pencils, making choices was pretty easy. I suspect having 180 pencils will slow things down but be more interesting.

We also bought a jigsaw puzzle for $4.99. Not a large assortment available. Ollie's is an overstock merchandise store so the goods for sale change fairly frequently. The puzzle is titled Paris Impressions. I would have preferred fewer pieces, but the puzzles with less pieces were mostly geared toward juveniles. We do not want to add lots of puzzles to the shelves we thinned out last summer. At this price, we can enjoy a new puzzle every few months and donate it to the retirement community. 

It is predicted to get to 75 degrees this afternoon. A front with rain and wind will come through early tomorrow. Then on Sunday a high of 39 degrees. Definitely March weather in northern Indiana. I now have 9 daffodil sprouts; my neighbor's daffodils are about 6 inches high. Mine obviously are not going to be early bloomers. The bulbs were planted last fall; I have no idea what to expect in terms of timing. At least there are signs that spring is on its way.

Colored Pencils Galore

 Most of my coloring has been in books I got from Swap Shop (free) or bought at a Goodwill store while we were on vacation. I have been using some pencils I have had since pre-teen years when I did color-by-number pictures. When I did an Amazon order for Christmas gifts, I needed about $8 more to get free shipping. I ordered myself a coloring book which I put in the closet until Christmas Day. It is mostly scenes of lakes, ponds, mountains, plants. All I could see before I ordered was the front and back covers.

 As I was coloring a simple picture not from that book the other day, I thought it would be nice to have more pencils so I had more choices and could do gradations of color. Voila! An order to Amazon brought me 180 colored pencils in a set. They arrived this morning.

 

It is a good thing I am not doing color-by-number these days because these pencils are arranged by color, not number. (Each pencil does have a number, however.) I may eventually put them in order by number, but I am not sure there is any advantage to that except I might see something on the swatch chart that interests me and not know exactly where to find it.

I am going to do the swatch chart with one half of the box full pressure color and the other light pressure. 

The set came in a metal case. The reviews for this brand were pretty good. The pencils are for craft/hobby use not professional use, but a few people doing reviews said they are professional artists and this brand is better than most non-professional sets. 

I am going to try to complete the swatch chart this weekend because next week I will start working on my income tax returns. Probably not much coloring going on next week. I may need to color to de-stress after working on taxes. 

An Ollie's store just opened in Warsaw. When I shopped at the Fort Wayne store for books for the retirement library, I noticed they did have adult coloring books. Maybe ours will, too. No hurry for more coloring books though because I only do a few a month. With so many fun colors, I may even try to draw a few pictures. 

I Love/Like . . .

 About a decade ago, I did one of the exercises in The Right to Write by Julia Cameron to make a list of things that I loved. The idea was to regularly peruse it to relax me and put me in a positive mood for writing. I have not edited nor updated this list through the years, yet I find most of the items on the list still are things that lift my spirits and remind me of the good blessings in my life. 

Try making your own list. Mine is in a composition book where I made notes from the books I read about writing and did the suggested exercises. I am not doing much writing now, but I still re-read the list fairly often to boost my mood. It is not a comprehensive list. I could add colorful sunsets, sound of wind in pine trees, et cetera. Maybe someday I will make a second list. For now, I am content with what I have.

I am mostly a homebody with simple tastes. Your list might reflect an interest in fashion/jewelry or attending entertainment venues or participating in active sports like zip-lining which are not part of my list. How many items on your list overlap mine?

With the exception of the first 5 items, these are not listed in any order of priority, just randomly noted as they came to mind.

Jesus--being a child of God--my husband--my two sisters--my home (condo)--pools of lamplight--sunny warm autumn days with cool nights--creme brulee--order, neatness--rain on the roof as I am dry and sheltered inside--cozy sweater--Skecher shoes--folders of decorating pictures--a good bargain--photos on computer--chili with cornbread--sleeping in my own bed--reading favorite blogs--butternut squash soup--zucchini bread--Indiana/Michigan blueberries--Lindt dark chocolate truffle--Tex/Mex food--farmers' market small tomatoes and corn on cob--reading newspapers--embroidered clothes--restaurant meals (eating out)--changing color of leaves in fall--good fiction book--hot chocolate--CD of hymns or easy listening music--rocking/gliding motion--sitting on front porch--beachcombing--meeting needs in retirement library--gratitude journaling--smelling roses--bouquet of flowers--wildflowers--watching birds at feeder--lighted Christmas tree--Willow Tree nativity--eating some meals in the sunroom--singing in choir--chocolate--freedoms living in the U.S.--wooden items made by my husband--hug and a kiss--electric blanket in winter--mementos in miniature box--being solvent--wedding ring set--walking in the woods--mountains--Big Bear--Swarovski crystal bear--cross-stitch of blue and white jug with tulips--padded hangers--crisp apple--apple cider--warm shower--people being nice/kind--crossword puzzles--jigsaw puzzles--ice cream cone on vacation--melty chocolate chip cookies--dining room set--knitted dish cloths--air conditioning--TLC when I am sick.

How to Winter

 In 36 days, the vernal equinox occurs. That fact keeps me going through my northern Indiana winter. The next 4 days we will not even get to 20 degrees. A countdown to spring helps. 

However, Kari Leibowitz in her book How to Winter: Harness Your Mindset to Thrive on Cold, Dark, or Difficult Days says that the attitude of looking on the bright side that winter will not last, soon be over, reinforces negative mindsets about winter. It means we are not living in the moment and focusing on what is wonderful about winter. Our mindsets influence what we notice and what we expect. If we have a positive mindset about winter, we will look for opportunities to enjoy winter.

We in the United States suffer from living in a culture that is out of sync with yearly rhythms of light and dark. This is not true of all cultures, and she tells us of places she has studied and visited where the mindset about winter is very different from ours. She lived for several months in Norway above the Arctic Circle where there was no sunrise and sunset as she experienced where she normally resides; but there were the Northern lights which inspired awe. There were warm affordable clothes which she availed herself of. Trails were cleared to make walking in nature easy. She admits that how one's town, state, country responds to weather and facilitates winter life can make it easier or harder to embrace the season. 

She has formally studied mindsets and their influences. She spends lots of time explaining mindsets. 

Her strategies to embrace winter are to appreciate what makes it special and different, to make it special with coziness, rituals, meaningful events, and to get outside. 

Winter is a time for rest. It asks us to fill our days with indoor diversions: baking, knitting, quilting, reading, listening to music, sitting by the fire, doing crafts and puzzles, playing games. Refining our ability to make our own joys during long nights or cold/wet weather, empowers us to find micro-moments of happiness in any season she says. Cultivate quiet contentment.

She describes cultures that have special rituals in winter. A major one is gathering around a fire. Some others are "polar plunges", Christmas festivities, star gazing, hygge.

She is seeking winter ambassadors who will instead of whining about winter will extoll its wonders. She did not convert me. I do some of the comforting cozy things she suggests, but I do not find pleasure in being outside in dark cold days. I do not appreciate winter limitations.

Amaryllis, Act Two

 One of my amaryllis bulbs had a second stem. It has finally opened. The flowers are smaller than the first stem's flowers, but it is a nice spot of color.

You can see it when it was a little sprout next to the larger stem.

Pioneer Woman at Walmart

 As my birthday approached, my husband asked for gift ideas. I had none, but then the feed on my Samsung tablet showed some bowls that interested me. They were Pioneer Woman items available at Walmart. I browsed the Walmart internet site. I found several other Pioneer Woman things that I put into my cart. I told my husband he could buy the cart stuff or pick something else. He finished shopping the cart. Amazingly, the items arrived in a few days in two shipments all getting here about 4 days before my birthday even though they were ordered just 1 week before.

Ree Drummond tends to stick with a certain color palette that goes well with my other household items. My husband bought [I bought :)] two Fancy Flourish pasta bowls, two Brilliant Blooms kitchen towels, four Sweet Rose braided placemats.

Comments on Walmart about the size of the bowls had me wondering if they would be useful for more than pasta. They are bigger than most cereal/soup bowls, but not really too big to be used that way. Actually, I think they are rather modest sized for pasta. They will brighten up my winter days.

The towels are not the typical terry kind I usually buy, but I think they will be OK.

I really like the placemats, but the website said they were machine washable while the tag on the mats says spot clean only. That is disappointing because the other Pioneer Woman placemats I bought 3 or 4 years ago launder up so well in the washing machine.

My older placemats are the floral ones.

Reviewers of the braided placemats suggested using them as hot pads, "doilies" under vases, under potted plants for a spot of color besides as placemats. So far, I am using them as mats only, but I could see other uses in the future.

Ree's merchandise is pretty and made a nice and convenient birthday gift.

Hobby Display

 It is quiet at home this afternoon. My husband is participating in Grace Village's Hobby/Craft display. He took some of his woodworking products to show. I reminded him that I had made a little album of some of his work; he took that along. The display is from 2 to 3:30 today.

The album is sitting in his most recent project: a poplar tote

He has done a wide variety of things from furniture, pens, puzzles, rocking horse, jewelry boxes, canes.

The album includes photos of time spent at the Grant ranch in Central Texas where he and his buddies felled Mesquite trees and enjoyed nature.

The ranch owner named this venerable live oak tree after Tolkien's Lord of the Rings arboreal character.

Snowy Day

 

We had light snow this morning. Not heaps, but enough to make the roads slippery. A good day to stay home and sit in a comfy chair and get lost in an interesting book. Instead, I have frittered the day away. I have 8 blooms on the 2 amaryllis plants now.

 I might still get to the project I had in mind: sorting through 3+ months of insurance EOBs, invoices, paid statements. 2024 was a busy medical year with 3 hospitalizations (1 after surgery, 2 with ambulance rides from ERs to bigger hospitals in Fort Wayne). I glanced at them and then let them pile up in a big stack. Now I need to put them in some kind of chronological order and match them in case I need them for filing taxes. 

I do not usually buy eggnog during the holidays. My husband's sister likes to have some each year. We were to spend Christmas Day with her, and she said she was having trouble finding eggnog. I bought some C. F. Burger brand to bring with us after reading some reviews. The plans changed, and we did not go to her home. Today I opened the carton and poured a small glass to eat with a cookie. I think it is pretty good. It is made in Detroit, Michigan. It is ultra-pasteurized so stays good a long time. It is a bit more costly than the store brands, but I am happy with it.

Odd Male Cardinal

 We have had lots of visits by cardinals to the bird feeder the past few days. I saw 4 male cardinals on our patio at one time today, 2 at the feeder and 2 on the ground.

As I was eating breakfast this morning and looking out at the patio, I saw an odd male cardinal. At first, I could not figure out why he struck me as odd. He had no black face mask! I have never seen such a bird before. I was unable to get a photo, but I found one somebody had posted on the internet with the question of why her bird was different.

There was a link to a David Sibley explanation (bird book author).

Lacking eumelanin (Non-eumelanic)

A female Cardinal completely lacking the black/gray pigment eumelanin, this leaves only the rufous to buff phaeomelanin pigment (and red carotenoids). Original gouache painting copyright David Sibley.

The most obvious differences from the normal bird include the lack of the blackish face and the greatly reduced pigment in wings and tail leading to very pale wingtips and tail tip. This condition is rare and can be very similar to some dilute plumage conditions. Note that in a species that lacks the chestnut/buff phaeomelanin pigment (crows, many gulls, etc.) this same condition – a lack of eumelanin – will result in completely white plumage.

His sketch was of a female cardinal, but the same condition occurs in males as well. It is pretty rare.

I am keeping a watch for this unusual bird, but so far this afternoon he has not returned. He spiced up my day.

Power of the Sun

 It is 25 degrees outside right now, but we have full sun today. As I sat in the den, I could see what looked like water drops falling from the roof. Upon closer inspection, it turned out that there are icicles melting. Now ten minutes later the sun has shifted and the dripping has stopped. It took the focused sun to make them drip.

The warmth of the sun has also touched the amaryllis plants opening buds and encouraging full flowering. 

With the flowers and the sunshine, today seems cheerful.

I have a Home Chef order arriving today, too, so supper should be interesting. Chipotle beef and potato medley. 

 A good day despite sad news received last night about a family member who lost his house in the California wildfires and ongoing health issues for me.

Lookee Here

 

We are just barely into 2025, and we have an amaryllis about to bloom. We had about an inch of snow last night into early this morning; it is nice to have a bright spot on a snowy day.

I moved the amaryllis with the knitted cover that had been in the sunroom to the den today. You can see it just beyond the Christmas sleigh. Since the larger plant did so well sitting on the cedar chest where it gets good light, I decided that would be a good place for the smaller one also. It is swelling so there is growth, just not opening yet. 

I have started to put away the Christmas decorations. Tomorrow I will take down our small tree. We still have some Christmas plates in the china cabinet and on the wall plus the poinsettia on the sunroom table. They will probably stay around awhile longer.

Last year I posted 46 times, the least in my 12 years of blogging. As long as I still get pleasure from sharing, I guess I will continue on even though there may be fewer posts. It is not unusual for bloggers to fade away as circumstances of life keep them busy elsewhere. I have some mobility problems so we do not travel as we once did nor do I get out on nature trails or visit museums. Not as much fodder for blog posts. May you enjoy 2025 with your own "amaryllis" type of beauty and hope.