Where Have I Been?

My dearest, most darling readers. I do apologize for the impromptu hiatus from my normal blogging activities. To tell the truth, I've been busy: housewifery and CPA-ness isn't all calculators and bon-bons, you know. A good friend reminded me that it had been a long time since my last post with the gentle nudge of, "ARE YOU DEAD?"

I didn't know you cared.


Just a few of the things I've been doing of late. But I wasn't smiling goofily all the time. Don't you love how deviant she looks in the bottom left picture of cleaning the sink?

It hasn't been all the normal house and work tasks that have kept me so busy. Mike and I both had BIG birthdays in the past two weeks. And we had a great time celebrating them with family and friends. Hell, we're continuing the celebration with a dinner tonight with lovely friends.

Dante has passed his first level of what I like to call Puppy Class: How to Be A Puppy. Actually, it's a lot more involved than "Wag your tail!" "Give me kisses!" He has passed the first of three necessary stages to become a therapy dog, meaning that he and I are that much closer to being able to visit hospitals, nursing homes, and the like to bring some sunshine to others' lives. I used to do this a lot with my veterinarian grandfather in Canton, Mississippi, but regulations bave since become much more stringent. Meanwhile, Saylor down the street discovered that Dante very much likes leaves. Hold a dry one out as if you're going to feed it to him, and he barks and lunges at it while wagging all over.

Dante and I have also started going to watch Mike's soccer games on Sunday evenings. I take a lawn chair and some hot chocolate while Dante takes his little soccer squeaky ball. The SQUEAKY SQUEAKY SQUEAKY isn't so bad when he's outside, so he plays to his heart's content while I watch my hot man on the field.

I have been up to my elbows in dirt in the yard. Mom gave me 100 jonquil bulbs for my birthday, which I promptly put in the front flower beds while Mike washed and waxed vehicles last weekend. I have also almost completed the final harvest, pictured below, cleaned out the beds, and cleaned off the tomato cages to give so my good friend Laura so she can make Christmas trees out of them. It just doesn't get much more Southern than that. Next year I think I'll plant on the north side of the yard so my sasanquas don't get so choked out.


My chapter of the DAR kept me busy last week as a hostess for one of our coffee/tea meetings. I baked choclate pound cake with amaretto whipped cream and divinity while my other sisters brought nuts and cheese straws. The program was about Native American jewelry and featured the extensive collection of my friend Anna. My Little Rock grandmother would have been in heaven - she loves turquoise and pieces like that. There was even a squash blossom necklace made of buffalo nickels.

The house has been turned upside down for fall and winter. I have rotated dishes to my winter and Christmas sets, laundered and ironed tablecloths and corresponding linens, brought out the runner carpet in the back hall to warm it up, flipped mattresses, changed sheets, and pulled out and laundered the warm bed linens.

I have been making cinnamon rolls with buttermilk instead of regular milk for even more decadence, brownies with a teaspoon of nutmeg and ground cloves, oatmeal cookies with chocolate chunks instead of raisins, pot roast, chicken pot pie (thanks for the inspiration, Linda!), and other comfort foods that keep us warm.

Christmas cards and gifts have been ordered, celebrations have been planned, RSVPs sent, recipes dusted off, crystal and sterling polished, closets organized, and leaves picked up. Slowly but surely, we are getting ready.

Just call me Martha.


Housewife photo courtey of Laughing Yaffle.