February - A Look Ahead

Raise your hands if you are ready for spring! Whoa, we better get through this next month quickly because I see a LOT of hands. There has been wicked weather for a lot of folks, and I hope that all my visitors are getting through it with a minimum of scars and exasperated sighs.

Ah, what a difference a month makes. If you had told me a month ago what my life would be like now, I would have said that you were CRAZY! When the calendar rolled around to January, I was musing here on my blog about how wonderful it was to be retired, free of the “stress and time commitment of the work grind.” So what in the heck did I do? I flung myself right back into the fray!

I have had to recalibrate my tolerance and patience level for workplace bureaucracy, particularly the computer systems. And, my robe and I don’t spend nearly as much time together. But it is a lot easier to work when you don’t have the pressure of having to work for an income. It has been a good challenge to clean the dust out of my wee noggin, and it is also a worthwhile diversion during the winter months. I can see that the pace is going to pick up shortly, but I am confident that I can muster through it.

On the health front, my hubby has gotten some needed relief from his leg pain as a result of the cortisone shot in his hip. Hooray! He probably won’t need another one until the end of the year. It has been 8 weeks now since I got the cortisone shot in my knee, and the relief of the medicine is beginning to wear off. The doctor told me during a recent check up that I can get shots every 3 months. How well the pain stays away between shots will be the primary indicator on how long I can postpone knee-replacement surgery. My fingers are still crossed that I can keep going for a while! Oh yes, I also need to stay upright and not take any sudden trips to ground level! That is marked on my “to do” list in permanent ink.

The homestead is still for sale. No big surprise there since January is a fairly slow month for house sales. We expect February to be a big yawner too. One couple with children saw it a couple of weeks ago and they were very interested. However, they have a house that they need to sell before they could buy ours. We’ve heard that story before.

My handcrafting pastimes have taken a temporary holiday. The sewing machine is getting cleaned right now at the local quilting store. I also haven’t been doing much photography lately either. The camera will be getting some exercise as soon as the daffodil bulbs start blooming later on this month. I am the hostess of the Brenda Photo Challenge this coming Saturday, and I am already picking out some journey photos that fit the theme.

I hope that the weather stays halfway decent this month. February usually delivers the worst winter weather for our area of the country. Thank goodness it is a short month. And lookie there at the calendar, Valentine’s Day is only two weeks away! Before we know it, March will be here with the beginning of spring-like weather in east Tennessee. Bring it on! In the meantime, we’re hunkering down and trying to stay warm.