Random Monday Musings

The dogs' water dish on the deck this morning.
I'm glad it's not a 50 gallon livestock tank.

I don't know if it's just the point in the winter where I am tired of the same old routine, or if there is something to this funk, but I feel a little like a hamster on the wheel, endlessly turning and going nowhere. Everything feels stagnant and unproductive, a constant effort of management, rearranging, scheduling with no end in sight. I am pretty sure it is not the cold weather, because I do like the cold, and there have been quite a few days of brilliant sunshine and clear, impossibly blue skies. There's plenty to look forward to, but managing the myriad details of life feels like too much of a task to even contemplate sometimes. Restlessness is definitely a component.

And so, in that vein, some random (and some not-so-random) thoughts:

• Valentine's Day was a fun, low-key holiday. Candy for the kids, heart-shaped pepperoni in the baked pasta dinner, brownies for dessert. Flowers from the best husband ever. 

• My dad has been visiting, and since he has sold his house in Miami, his living room furniture is now mine. Yay for couches that do not hold pet hair! He also brought some things I forgot he    had, like this 50's vintage milkshake mixer we used to use when I was a kid (and it was 30 years old even then!). I love how the stainless steel mixing cup can fit on the mixer and stay there:

• I have been working on the Paper Horse (but now Fabric Horse) Project a little bit. The idea is firmly in my head, but the execution has not happened the way I want it to, yet. This is muslin, gesso, acrylics, and cotton quilt batting. I'm not in love with how heavy the legs are, but this is a pony, so I can stand a little extra heft in a pony. I guess. 

• I really wish I was a better painter.
• I get to go to a party Tuesday night for staff and volunteers at the museum to celebrate the Chihuly exhibition (it broke attendance records)! 
• The season finale of 'Downton Abbey' sucked and I hated it. I might not be watching it when the next season rolls around. 
• Winter light is very blue. And very difficult to mitigate in photo editing.
• I'm back to thinking I am going to do that horse trials in March. Yikes.
• It's been two weeks since my last run. I'm bored with running, I think. Not sure what else I would do, though, and I'm too old and too arthritic to skip exercising altogether, otherwise I'll be fat and in pain all the time.
• Motivation is lacking, however.
• I think I'm just bored with a lot of stuff. Not sure what to do with myself.

Kids are home from school for Presidents' Day. They are playing the Wii, and I am going to try to do some work. I think movies, making some homemade soft pretzels, and maybe a trip out to go ice skating might be in the works.