Sleeping through the winter. I know Hazel looks chubby here but it’s a bad angle. She really is thinner. Really!
It’s really winter! – Our outside decorations are down. It’s grey and dreary. I always forget how drab and dark January can be. We haven’t had much snow (not complaining!) but the white stuff makes the drab prettier. Time to hunker down and wait it out.
The emails change or do they? – Now that the holidays are over the urgent emails warning me that there are only 3 days, no – 2 days, no – 3 hours left for the most fantabulous sale ever, have changed. The subject line how says, “Enclosed is your birthday gift from us.” Sometimes it’s a slight discount and sometimes you get $5 off if you buy $2000 worth of merchandise. The worst thing about January birthdays (aside from the fact that no one wants to party) is that I am all shopped out so those coupons go unused. Bummer.
Best of the emails – I started getting emails for pond supplies. Yay!
Projects anyone – Hunkering down is always a dangerous time for me. I come up with projects. Perhaps we should take down the wallpaper and paint our kitchen in the spring. Maybe changing out a few things will perk the family room up. Always thinking! (The beloved husband hates this time of year.)
First robin – It used to be that robins went south for the winter and weren’t spotted until around March. This is the second year that they missed the bus. Yesterday there was a pack of 30 feasting on leftover pears and berries on my trees and bushes. I wish I could call it the first sign of spring but even I am not that crazy.
Views and Mews by Coffee Kat 
I’m already getting emails that say “We miss you” from places I made one online order from.
I didn’t plan my wedding well and my mom didn’t plan my birth well – our anniversary is close to Christmas and my birthday is in January. You’d think mothers would be more thoughtful, right?
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The good news is that we have someone to blame all of our neuroses on!
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We went to the mall yesterday for some serious shoe shopping for my wife. It was comparatively empty. All the returns have been made apparently, and everyone else is paying off their credit cards. For once I didn’t mind being there!
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Shopping in January is usually good except that the inventory is down. BTW all shoe shopping is serious!
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My sister is threatening to come from Tennessee to visit me in Texas any day now. I whine and complain because she always comes in the dead of winter, when everything is the same shade of soggy gray mush. Just once I’d like for her to see my home when everything is green. Clearly she’s too smart to get anywhere near Texas during those ridiculously blistering summer months, but does it really always have to be during the winter months? But I enjoy her visits anyway, even if there are perpetual trails of wet doggie prints on every surface, and the skies are gray.
The sun actually popped out for a minute today, but it was just teasing. Jumped right back behind the clouds almost instantly. And there’s a cold front on the way, so with my luck, she’ll probably show up during the sleet and ice that are expected to hit our area.
p.s. My Mom’s birthday was in January, too. Bet she felt the same way. Who wants to celebrate a birthday, when everyone is mourning the loss of the holiday season? Not sure when your birthday actually hits, but I’ll blow up a balloon or wear a silly party hat in your honor. Happy Birthday, eat some cake, and do something fun?
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Got another week and a half until my birthday. Just enough time for the cold to move in so no one wants to go out at all! Fortunately, I have a friend whose wedding anniversary is on my birthday and her birthday is at the end of the month so we celebrate together. If I were your sister I would wait until March or April. I bet it’s much nicer weather in Texas and not yet hot! You will have a great time no matter what.
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It is a rainy 70* here but later in the week snow flurries are expected and 32*. Winter in SC is weird. I have some projects in mind, but I doubt they will be done. I like thinking about them but doing them not so much. If you take down the wallpaper and paint wallpaper is sure to be in vogue this year.
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I have more projects in my mind than actually get done. Sometimes the planning is enough for me to enjoy.
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I know what you mean.
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It’s raining here today, but the temperature is in the 60’s….crazy. By Thursday our expected high is 31 degrees. So begins the rollercoaster of winter in the south. I saw a large flock of Robins in our backyard yesterday, Kate. Hazel doesn’t look very thrilled in that picture. 🙂
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They were both sleeping and I woke them up with the flash. I think she was worried that it was a full front which isn’t her most flattering. The robins have totally denuded the pear tree. There a few holly berries but not many. The cats enjoyed the visit. They were pacing the windows!
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It’s a funny thing about house projects… when I’m in the middle of one (like right now), I can’t wait to be finsihed and have my normal life back. Then, just a few months after getting everything done, I start to think about another one. I think having one area all shiny and new makes other areas look in need of a touch-up. Fortunately, my husband and I suffer from the same sickness. Good luck with your wallpaper!
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My husband and I are the exact same way. Our friends always ask what we have going on. Right now he is working on a new cabinet to house his guitar/music stuff. He had a perfectly good one but he has changed out some equipment so he is redo-ing. I have cushion covers to make but I’m trying to think ahead too. The wallpaper is 11 years old and nicked on the corners. Of course, no one does wallpaper anymore but I do like subtle ones in the kitchen. However, I will paint for a change.
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I’m with you, Kate. I hate January and wish I could hibernate in my house with my husband, kitties, books and a mug of tea.
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Then you need to retire. Although you would get cabin fever fast!
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I always enjoy your Sunday 5 🙂
We had a brown Christmas but it’s white now – and last night – freezing rain! What do I care? I have this coming week off and 8- count ’em – 8 new books to read — whee!!
Happy Sunday!
MJ
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A week off! Wow! You will be so mellow when you go back. (Usually that doesn’t last all that long.) Our Christmas was brown too but you are so much farther north.
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Southwest Iowa is fffffrrrreeeezzzing! Our high temperature might make it to 6 above today. Wind chills (wind was brutal last night bringing in this front) were are waaaayyyyy below that. On a positive note – the sun is shining and I have no where I must go today.
I just completed the remove the wallpaper job in the dining room and re-painted everywhere including a large built in shelf unit. Moving the mountain range of books on and off the shelves was an accomplishment. I swear the books (except for my gardening books) could all go to a recycling place but since the beloved husband was gone for the weekend I didn’t have permission. I know he no longer refers to Thorek’s “Anatomy in Surgery” but still not my call. Off to finish painting the downstairs bathroom.
Enjoyed this post – silly robins!
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That is cold! We are expecting the low 60s today but a drop to the 20s this week. There is intermittent drizzle falling but other than the dreariness it’s not a problem. I have no where to go so it really doesn’t matter. More time to dream up work projects!
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Have fun planning your projects . . . I see your husband getting scared, very scared.
Perhaps you could move the calendar up by playing an April Fool’s joke on him ~ describe an ENORMOUS project that you just must get started on right away. Today. If not sooner.
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That’s not as crazy as you think. I am itching to take down the kitchen wallpaper and that will be a multi-day project as we will need to clean the goo off the walls. I have to decide if I just want to paint or maybe texture the walls. Decisions, decisions. Then there is that off-white loveseat (why would I buy off-white with 4 cats?). Perhaps it can be recovered? I get the worst case of spring fever where I am in a trance just looking at the pond and first sprigs of green so I’m not good at projects then!
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I would wake up to 30 or more emails wooing me into the sale vortex, now I feel like I was left at the alter! Obviously my purchases mean nothing in January. Their loss!
The birds are just as confused as me … 64 today …. really?
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That’s a perfect way to describe it! I have dropped at least 20, maybe more emails a day. Christmas is way too commercial but truth is that I buy things at the time of year that aren’t holiday-related just because the inventory is up. Weather — I know! 64 degrees! Woo hoo! 20s this coming week.
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January is a bummer. 😦
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I’ll drink to that!
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I think hazel looks positively svelte, if you close one eye. Lighting is very important, especially for we women of a certain age.
Those poor robins…they’re confused. I get it…like me who keeps changing her closets. Cold, not so cold, warm, hot, freezing.
Nature is taking the heat, so to speak.
Love the R5…missed it last week 🙂
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In our area the weather is like a menopausal woman. Hot one minute, cold the next! Last week’s R5 had a picture of Morgan and Mollie boxing (almost) on the cat tower. It’s your kind of picture!
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Maybe you’ll post it 🙂
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I must delete those emails without looking since I only shop when I need something specific. What bothered me were all the charity emails saying there was only 3, 2, 1 days left before the end of year to make my donation. Sigh. We are having winter here in Phoenix–all week the plants and flowers have been covered with blankets. They can’t stay on any longer–need sun and water–but will it rise about freezing at night? That is the big question.
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We have been watching the cold weather across the southwest. It’s coming to the northeast this coming week but they are predicting 60s right now.
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