Valentine's Decorations 2025

 

I know you can't see it well, but I made the flower at a Galentine's Day Party

Tips for New Year's Resolutions

New Year’s Resolutions come and go. Every year we set new ones, but quickly give them up. How do we avoid the annual setting and forgetting our goals?

Here are some tips to help keep your New Year’s Resolutions going all year long.

• “Be picky about your resolutions - Only pick 1 or 2 things to work on”
• “Plan your resolution - Think through how you want to achieve your goal and how long it could take.”
• “Set very specific goals - Be detailed in your resolutions.”
• “Don’t take on too much - Start small and avoid setting high expectations for yourself.”
• “Choose a new resolution - Avoid picking a goal you’ve picked in the past and failed. Instead, pick something different that you can set a better path to success.”
• “Identify accountability partners for support - Lean on people. We function better with a community around us, motivating and reminding us why we chose that New Year’s resolution in the first place.”
• “Give your resolution time to become a habit - New routines don’t become habit overnight. On average, it takes 66 days to form a new habit.”

https://health.ucdavis.edu/blog/cultivating-health/7-tips-to-keep-your-new-years-resolution/2022/12

Halloween Outfits From the Week

 

Fall Decorations

 I didn’t get to much decorating for Halloween since I was in Argentina for most of October. So here are my September/October decorations.

Gentlemen of the Road

It was time again for the library book club. This month's book was Gentlemen of the Road. It was an interesting read. I had a little bit of a hard time following it, but I think a lot of that was because I was running on 2.5 hours of sleep from the meteor shower trip. It was an interesting read set in Khazaria (a forgotten Jewish empire). 

From Amazon: "Michael Chabon’s Pulitzer Prize-winning bestseller, The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, sprang from an early passion for the derring-do and larger-than-life heroes of classic comic books. Now, once more mining the rich past, Chabon summons the rollicking spirit of legendary adventures–from The Arabian Nights to Alexandre Dumas to Fritz Leiber’s Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser stories–in a wonderful new novel brimming with breathless action, raucous humor, cliff-hanging suspense, and a cast of colorful characters worthy of Scheherazade’s most tantalizing tales.

They’re an odd pair, to be sure: pale, rail-thin, black-clad Zelikman, a moody, itinerant physician fond of jaunty headgear, and ex-soldier Amram, a gray-haired giant of a man as quick with a razor-tongued witticism as he is with a sharpened battle-ax. Brothers under the skin, comrades in arms, they make their rootless way through the Caucasus Mountains, circa A.D. 950, living as they please and surviving however they can–as blades and thieves for hire and as practiced bamboozlers, cheerfully separating the gullible from their money. No strangers to tight scrapes and close shaves, they’ve left many a fist shaking in their dust, tasted their share of enemy steel, and made good any number of hasty exits under hostile circumstances.

None of which has necessarily prepared them to be dragooned into service as escorts and defenders to a prince of the Khazar Empire. Usurped by his brutal uncle, the callow and decidedly ill-tempered young royal burns to reclaim his rightful throne. But doing so will demand wicked cunning, outrageous daring, and foolhardy bravado . . . not to mention an army. Zelikman and Amram can at least supply the former. But are these gentlemen of the road prepared to become generals in a full-scale revolution? The only certainty is that getting there–along a path paved with warriors and whores, evil emperors and extraordinary elephants, secrets, swordplay, and such stuff as the grandest adventures are made of–will be much more than half the fun."

Meteor Shower Fun

    A small group of us went to Clear Creek Campground to watch The Perseids Meteor Shower. We arrived at the campsite around midnight. We set up our chairs to start watching the show. I saw more shooting stars in one sitting than I think I have in my entire life. Andrew and I went to sleep around 3 am. I slept in the backseat of the car. Ben and Andrew slept outside. Ben went to sleep between 1:30-2 am. Jayna decided to drive home to sleep in her own bed. She left around 2 am. Overall, I only ended up getting around 2.5 hours of sleep.

    Ben, Andrew, and I left the campsite just after 6 am. We got to watch the sunrise. I didn't expect the sun to be as red as it was when it rose. After getting home, I showered and then went to church. After church, I came home, ate, and then crashed.

Thanks all for such a fun time! A new core memory for sure.

Left to Right: Ben, Andrew, Cassy (Me), Jayna

The Sunrise

Good Morning World

Mathis Party

    On Aug. 3 we had a Mathis party. Martha, Nick, Madalyn, Andrew, and Nathan were out from Virginia. David John was out from Mississippi, and Murray, Kimalee, and Kaizlee came out from Idaho. Other people who came to the party were Uncle Stan, Aunt Ann, Uncle Lee, Anna, McKay, Kriz, Marikit, Isagani, Uncle Wayne, Aunt Dianne, Ann, Adam, Jacob, Lexi, Michael, Jenny, Aaron, Grant, Sami,  Aunt Mary, Uncle Boyd, David, Kara, Jackson, Lilly, Asher, Corinne, Anna, Paul, Bell, Millie, Evie, Mom, Mandy, Mary, Meg, Aaron, and of course, me.

Here are a few pictures from the afternoon. I didn't think to take them earlier when everyone was still there, or have anyone look at the camera.  It was a great party and great to see everyone. Until next time!