March 6, 2013

• It’s a cold and windy day in Milford, Delaware.  The basketball pole at Shady Acres finally succumbed to the years of wear and tear and laid over on its side, snapping at the base.  There are limbs strewn about and the furniture on the upper deck keeps changing places with itself and making me jump.  I keep thinking that this time, for sure, it sounds like one of Certain Man’s trees has decided to come crashing down on the house.  That is one of the few things I don’t like about all the trees. So far, it’s just the furniture. 

  The temperature has been slowly dropping — literally by tenths of a degree all day.  It was 41.9 when I got up around six ((later than usual, since I decided that there was no way I was going to send my poor ladies out in this mess) and now it is 39.6.  Every now and then, I will see some stray snowflakes, but not enough to alarm even Certain Man. (Who, by the way, announced back in November, “I saw two snowflakes go by today, and that was one too many, and enough to last me for this year!)

  Youngest Daughter and I have been working at tax preparation.  She reads me numbers from the bank statements and I enter them into a ledger.  Yes, I should have done this long ago, but I find that doing things this way has some advantages.  There is method to my madness, I promise you, but it’s complicated and I don’t feel like explaining it.  Besides, people have been known to criticize, so I keep this a somewhat secret procedure.  Besides.  Our accountant has been known to mention that he would like to hire me because of the state of the information that I turn into him, and though he would never approve of how I keep my records, I suppose that if the end result is that acceptable to him, I can keep on doing it the way it is the most comfortable for me.  It really isn’t all that different from most commoners.  The one thing that makes my husband tear his hair out is that I just cannot bring myself to put it on computer and keep it up to date all the time.  (Hold the advice.  Don’t even bother.  If I haven’t changed for that Daniel Yutzy guy, I probably won’t change for someone else.)

  It has been a most comfortable day.  I’m still in my housecoat, and the pellet stove is burning brightly.  I’m still dealing with a most aggravating stuffy nose and have drank copious amounts of hot liquid and ate some wonderful soup that we made when I was at my Sweet Mama’s house yesterday.  I feel thick and stupid and slow because of how stopped up my nose and ears are, but it is so nice to be where it is warm and dry that I am so happy.

  I said to our girls a few hours ago, “This is a good day for us to be grateful for a Daddy that provides so well for us and to be very, very grateful for this warm and sheltering house.”

  One of them said, “Because he has to be out in it?”

  I said, “Well, yes, that, too, but when you think about not only how he goes out in this weather, but also how his provision for us at every turn makes it possible for us to be in where it is warm and dry, it just is such a blessing.”  I had ventured out onto the deck to put lids back on the containers of bird seed lined up by the railing, and it was really COLD and really WINDY and the boards on the deck were slippery and I almost fell.  When I returned the few feet back into the safety of the house, I couldn’t help but think of how hard it would be to have to be going in and out of a truck, inspecting houses.  He stopped by home briefly this afternoon and he was damp and cold and tired.  But still cheerful in spite of it all.  What a guy!

  We just might still get some snow tonight, but not nearly the amounts that others are having to deal with. 

  Whatever is going on in your part of the country, I hope you are all just as warm and dry and safe as we are on the little farm called Shady Acres.

   

  • 3:53 pm
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