Super Bowl Sunday. Chips, dip, soda, pizza....okay, I'm ready.  We've made quite the celebration of super bowl haven't we? Did you see the excitement over groundhog day? Fireworks? Really? for a groundhog?

I'm excited about this election year, only because there might be a chance of ousting Obama.  What I've never understood is why some states have primary elections and some caucuses.  In order to win the Republican nomination Mitt, Newt, Rick, or Ron have to get 1,144 delegates.  Now some states (12 apparently) will hold caucuses and 37 will hold primaries but Missouri will hold both a primary and a caucus.  Why?  And doesn't it seem that you would get less "votes" with a caucus since the people in that state have to go to a specific place at a specific time and publicly make a pitch for your candidate and then make a public vote? Whereas with the primary, just like an election day, you have all day to get to your polling place and make a private, secretive vote. In and out. Bamb. Done. On your way home.

And why do the candidates drop out so early when the early states like Iowa, South Carolina, Florida, etc. only give the candidates a small portion of the delegates they need.  For example, today I heard (after the Nevada caucus) that the delegates so far have been divided like this:

Mitt - 97
Newt - 30
Rick - 16
Ron - 7

That's a long way to 1,144. I'm just saying. 

On to bed sheets. My husband asked me how often I wash our sheets.  I usually do them every two weeks. I prefer to do them weekly but I don't always get to them that often.  But, I began to wonder how often I SHOULD wash them, not wanting to let them go too long to feed all those little critters that you hear about occupying the same space we do in our bed.  So I looked it up.  And I found out that I'm okay with washing my sheets every two weeks.  But it brought my attention to the bed pillows.  Who thinks about the pillows I wonder? I change the pillow cases as often as the sheets, but now I learn that the pillows need to be washed at least twice a year and if you haven't done that, you should throw out the pillows and buy new ones!  Time to buy new pillows I guess!  I love the feel and smell of fresh sheets.  I'd wash mine every other day if I could afford the water, electricity, and cost of worn out sheets! Or better yet, had someone else do them for me, like hotel room service. 

Time for the super bowl.  Go Patriots.

So, today I croched my bird feeder holder.  I can't take credit for coming up with this idea. I actually saw it on another blog and decided to try it.  Here are the photos and instructions.

Begin with some twine, crochet hook, and a bowl. I used a paper bowl but I'll exchange it for a heavier, glass or plastic bowl later.

Next, crochet a circle large enough for the bottom of the bowl to sit, then double crochet for two rows.  As a finish, chain 4, skip next stitch, single crochet on next stitch, chain 4, and repeat all the way around. You want to make sure the bottom circle is small enough so that the bowl doesn't fall through.



Finally, make sure the bowl fits.

To hang: chain enough stitches and attach in four equal spaces to the holder, hang, and wait for the birds to come by and check out your new feeder:

So today I tried creating another interesting way to teach my 3 year old granddaughter her letters.  I started with the 4 beginning letters: A, B, C, and D.  I wrote two letters on an unlined index card then cut the card in half.  So I used two index cards to make 4 letters.  Then I took each letter and laminated in plastic, put a Velcro dot on the back of each letter and the other part of the dot on a large piece of poster board.  We practiced putting the letters in proper order on the poster board. She enjoyed pulling them off the board and putting them back on again.  We would mix them up and she would have to put them back in order and stick them on the board again.  I plan to teach her 4 letters a week.  By the end of 7 weeks she should be able to recognize her letters and put them in order...so we hope.

Since the birds are enjoying my feeders this winter, I plan to hang another one this weekend using a pattern I found on the Internet, crocheted with sisal twine: 

Hello February! We've had some beautiful warm weather this winter so if we're in for another 6 weeks of this I'm okay with that Punxsutawney Phil.

This is a drawing of me....drawn by my 3 year old granddaughter.  She was very serious about her drawing and used me as her model (I was sitting at the table with her).  And no, I'm not that round.  LOL  I think that's pretty good for a three year old!  Her portrait of her dad I think was even better. 

I nanny two of my grandchildren and there are days that I wouldn't trade this job for anything and yes, they out number the days when I could just pull my hair out.  It's hard at times because I'm not as young as I used to be and overdo it often (like playing baseball with my grandson or give my granddaughter piggy-back rides) but when I see my little granddaughter take such joy in "drawing grandma" it's all worth it.  My grandson beat me at the card game Hand and Foot.  I was distracted of course while posing for my portrait so we have a rematch tomorrow.

I have another grandson in town and we get to see him every couple weeks when he does a sleep-over with grandma and grandpa.  We have fun together. We've been close since his birth and it's priceless when he comes bounding thru the door and running to give me a hug. 

There is an old Welsh Proverb that says: "Perfect love sometimes does not come until the first grandchild."  Its hard to explain that to someone who is not a grandparent but to me it's like the years of training up your own child in love to have it perfected when you have a grandchild.  My children will be terrific grandparents and it would be awesome to be able to live long enough to see one of them become a grandparent.

February 1

I am so incredibly tired today I can't really stay awake long enough to blog. I played baseball with my grandson a couple days ago and my body is screaming pain! And I think rain is on the horizon. I know I'm 62 years old, but inside I still feel like I'm in my 20's! Then reality strikes.

I hate starting my new month out this way.  I can think of lots of topics, like why doesn't the government have a balanced budget?  But I'm too tired to debate it!  I'll work on a better blog tomorrow.   

Goodnight.

Blogging

So as I was deciding my next month of blogs, I was curious to find out where and when the term "blog" came into existence and I found out that it emerged in the late 90's and as of  February 16, 2011, there were over 156 MILLION public blogs in existence! The term "blog" was coined by a guy named Peter Merholz who shortened the term "weblog" (coined by Jorn Barger in 1997). You can find anything you want to know on Wikipedia!

This has been a fun month of weblogging. ;)  Now, on to the next month of blogs.  This will be interesting so continue to follow me as I venture into February with new ideas, photos, stories, experiences and whatever else might come to mind.


Today's Quote:  "Always be yourself, express yourself, have faith in yourself, do not go out and look for a successful personality and duplicate it." – Bruce Lee

Day 30: What changed this month and what you hope will happen next month.

I learned how therapeutic blogging can be this month. I think it was really good to challenge myself to do a blog every day consistently.  I hope to find something amazing next month to blog about and continue this new adventure of mine.

I started exercising more this month in an attempt to be in better health this year.  It's a slow start but I'm feeling good about it.

I started feeding the birds for the winter. I love feeding the birds and seeing how many I can draw to my feeder.  Now that we're in Virginia I want to get a hummingbird feeder too.  I'll probably do that next month.

This month was the first month of my 62nd year.  I don't like it so far.  Maybe next month I'll like it more.

So for now I'm excited to be starting something new and looking forward to more new adventures.
Today's Quote: "Nurture your mind with great thoughts, for you will never go any higher than you think."

Benjamin Disraeli