A Little Piece of Peace: December 2016

Welcome to the Fly on the Wall Challenge, where 8 brave bloggers invite you to be a Fly on the Wall, and have a look around their homes and lives. C'mon in y'all!

Well, a lot has happened since I last participated in FOTW. I had my gallbladder removed, and recovery was a literal pain, but I'm about 5 weeks out now, and feeling fine. The only issue I have is finding foods I can eat, since my digestive system is so disrupted, but I stay pretty close to home anyway. I'm very fortunate to have such an awesome family that took care of me and Scarlett while I was recovering. Since I spent the first couple weeks mostly in bed, I missed some of the best moments probably, but I managed to grab a few!

Had to explain to Scarlett it's easier to put her shoes on if she doesn't ball her foot up, complete with demonstration. I pulled her foot out and straightened it, telling her "This, this is how you slide your foot into a shoe!" She looked at me like I'd lost my mind.

The weather is barely getting colder down here, and as long as the doors are closed, my house stays pretty warm most nights, or we just don't notice because we're under the covers.
-Ben: "Ceraya, it's going to be 48 tonight, we can't run the air conditioner.
-Me: "Well, okay, but we can't run the heat either."
I'm very hot natured, they sweat me out of here when they run the heat!

We were washing grease off of my grandparents carport after Thanksgiving. Joel finds a four hook fishing lure on the ground and picks it up and shows it to my grandpa.
-Pa: "How'd that come from?"
-Joel: "I don't know how it come from."

We're all sitting around the table and someone says a cuss word.
-Me: "Stop cussing."
-Joel: "You stop cussing, this ain't no democracy."
-Me: "No, its a dictatorship, and I'm the dictator."
If momma ain't happy, no one is happy, right?

Scarlett growled at me for taking something from her.

-Momma: "She growled at you."

-Me: " I know, she's so mean."

-Momma: "She gets it from her momma."

-Me: "I'm not mean, I'm nice."

-Momma: "Who told you that?"

-Me: "Yo momma."

*At this point, I do a fist pump and yell "YES! THE FIRST TIME I'VE EVER GOTTEN AWAY WITH A YO MOMMA JOKE ON YOU." Meanwhile, my grandma is standing behind me in hysterics.

Most of the rest of our past month has been spent in a crazed dash to get ready for Christmas. We're hosting Christmas breakfast with our family early Christmas morning. It was a tradition I remember fondly from my childhood. We didn't open our gifts at home until all the family got there to watch. Then we all met up for lunch at my grandparents house later. Same scenario this year, but breakfast is at our house for the first time ever!

Yesterday (Thursday, the 22nd), I woke up and thought it was Friday and my FOTW post was due. The problem was I only had 7 minutes until the deadline, and all of my tidbits were still in analog in my journal. I freaked out and started typing furiously at the keys getting started, getting my email pulled up to get the other blog links, and I see in the email it's due the 23rd, and today is the 22nd. Whew bullet dodged. That's what I get for being procrastination nation, although it's contributed to my ENFP personality.

I've also set a lot of resolutions this year. Probably ridiculous to hope to change so many things next year, but positivity is power!
In 2017,

»I'm reading all those books on my shelf that have been waiting
»I'm loving a little stronger
»I'm finding the beauty in the everything and everyone
»I'm finding myself
»I'll learn to love myself
»I'll reduce my waste
»I'll travel more
»I'll make a new lifelong friend
»I'm teaching my daughter to be kind
»I'm smiling even when it hurts
»I'm giving it my best
»I'm embracing my inner child

I saw an old friend at the hospital the other day when I stopped by to visit Ma, and he invited me to a church he pastors. I was super excited all week, and it felt like it was going to be the right fit. And it was. I'm itching to be back in the doors and serving God anyway I can. I'm so glad he led me home right at the perfect time.

I'm already sick of cleaning up after this Christmas tree. Everything is coming down December 26th. Maybe Christmas evening.

We had another old friend from Ben's days in the Marine Corps come all the way out to visit another friend and he stopped by to see us. Ben really enjoyed spending time with his old best friend.

I also received a surprise gift from another old friend. Apparently December is the month of old friends! I worked at Longhorn several years ago, and a girl who worked with me's husband blows glass now. He sent me the most beautiful ornaments he made! They are absolutely stunning. I was smiling all day from such a thoughtful gesture.

We celebrated my birthday earlier this month. Let's just say 26 was not all that exciting and leave it at that?

I amped Scarlett up for two weeks trying to get her ready to go see Santa. She was so excited, we walked in the door, and she wouldn't have anything to do with him. I loved him though!

Scarlett also had her first cup of hot cocoa the other day and she loved it!! And she's drinking out of a mug with last year's Santa picture. How cute is that?

Buzz around, see what you think, then click on these links for a peek into some other homes:

Baking In A Tornado http://www.bakinginatornado.com/

Menopausal Mother http://www.menopausalmom.com/

Spatulas on Parade http://spatulasonparade.blogspot.com/

Searching for Sanity http://singlemumplusone.blogspot.com

Never Ever Give Up Hope http://batteredhope.blogspot.com

Dinosaur Superhero Mommy http://dinoheromommy.com/

Southern Belle Charm http://www.southernbellecharm.com

A Little Piece of Peace http://little-piece-of-peace.blogspot.com

Welcome to a Secret Subject Swap. This week 13 brave bloggers picked a secret subject for someone else and were assigned a secret subject to interpret in their own style. Today we are all simultaneously divulging our topics and submitting our posts.

My December prompt is "Write a poem about what Christmas means to you, submitted by The Diary of an Alzheimer's Caregiver. I must admit I groaned inside when I received my prompt email. I used to write poetry all the time, but now even when I get a creative idea, I never get more than a few lines in before I give up. The scariest thing though,was I've never written a poem from a prompt. I generally get a spark of an idea and just roll with it. So thank you Rena, for pushing me out of my comfort zone. I'd also like to apologize to whomever got my prompt, I forgot it was December and that I probably should have went with a Christmas prompt! Anyway, here goes.