I've done it again....

...left you all hanging for a while. I think it's pretty obvious by now that I'm a lousy blogger. Guess you'll just have to take what you can get from me. :)

So, what's been going on?....Because of my neglect, now I have to sift through my short term memory (which often fails me) to give a boring list-style summation of what's been going on.

Not that the only thing worth posting about is Harley, but as of recently, it always seems the most eventful thing. But, since the last post was completely devoted to him, I'll let a picture and a few brief words be his only part in this post:

Growing like a weed. New nicknames: "Little Ewok" and "Charlie"...though he doesn't respond to either. Potty training is going well. He must really like the treats he's getting. ;-)

Moving on....

I've got this "audio books" app on my phone--things have become so convenience-oriented--where I downloaded this book called "Think and Grow Rich." From the title of the book and from chapter one, I was fooled into thinking I found a treasure here, but somewhere in chapter 2, I quit and UN-downloaded it. Here are a few things I took from chapter 1:

>Opportunity comes most often in the form of misfortune.

>One of the most common reasons for failure is the habit of quitting.

>If you would have held on a moment longer, you would have succeeded.

>Success comes to those who are success-conscious. Failure comes to those who indifferently allow themselves to become failure-conscious.

>Thought habits: What you habitually think about is what you are.

>"I am the master of my fate, the captain of my soul" (Henley). You have the power to control your
thoughts.

>Our brains become magnetized with the dominating thoughts we hold.

To my disappointment, however, the following chapter talked about how you must be obsessed with money in order to obtain it. Phooey. I took the title "Think and Grow Rich" to be talking about growing rich in thought, and therefore in character, but it turns out, it's really talking about material wealth. Nothing wrong with material wealth, but to make it an obsession is fruitless and is a misdirected goal. I could have overlooked Chapter 2, and given it another chance with Chapter 3 but the disappointment was too great. And so, the book is gone, and has since been replaced with a biography on Lincoln.

Did I mention that Sam has started school? Well he has! He's taking a class on sales management. After High School, he went straight into the workforce and has excelled tremendously without the college experience. But he's excited that he's been given the opportunity, and he seems to be enjoying it!

Sam's first day of school.

 

On to the weather: it's been cold, rainy, warm, chilly, windy, calm, sunny, icy, and then rainy again...did I leave anything out? 

 

We're looking forward to having a garden this year--last year was our land rest. We don't really have a convenient location for a garden--the year before proved that--but we'll try again anyways. The only produce we got were the habaneros that I had mistaken for regular bell peppers--quite the surprise--but I was able to make some jars of salsa with them, so it wasn't a total loss. This year, with a year of experience under our belt, we'll make a few adjustments, including some pots on the back porch for our tomatoes. They need more sun than our shady little spot-of-a-garden. Previously, the tomatoes have been snitched by some squirly creatures in our forested back yard, so I'm still not sure what we'll do about them, but Sam will think of something. *wink*

And here's a new houseplant I potted just last week to go along with our lonely money tree.

I know I said only the one picture and mention of Harley, but I just had to post this picture from today. Harley and I have been walking up and down our road where he usually finds treasures to sneak into the house (of course, since Mama is sneakier than him, he can never remember where he put his treasures), and today, his delicious find was a plain old stick that he carried for our entire walk!

 

 

That's it's for now. I'll make an effort to improve my bloggery....