Ordinary Time

Negativity bias is the description of our brain's tendency to focus and remember the negative or scary things that happen to us. It really did serve a purpose because it's how humans stayed safe from saber toothed tigers and the like. It's important to remember the times you saw a predator or the near misses to ensure they didn't happen again. This was great until it wasn't. There are very few predators in our modern life, yet the way our brains are hooked up didn't change along with civilization.  This is not unlike modern domestic horses living in fenced pastures and barns far from grizzlies and mountain lions. They are still going to assume the plastic bag floating on the wind is a predator and run away before doing anything else. It doesn't matter how many times you tell them there are no mountain lions in the forest preserve because it's how their brains are wired.  Our negativity bias doesn't have us running away from the random blowing bag. In

Taking a break from cleaning out yet more flower beds, I decided to sit in the shade next to the hot tub pond. If you sit very still while the chickens are out, they will wander over to you. Some may even pose. The roosters even joined the fun.  Fluffy, who is now six years old. See his spur? They are wicked looking things. And Zorro who is about nine months old and just starting to grow a longer tail, but the spurs are yet to grow. And spring is officially here because the very large frog that lives in the pond has reappeared.  This picture makes him look bizarrely huge. He's probably four or five inches long in reality.  We have done our very best to enjoy this beautiful weather. We have one day left to go before the weather turns again. 

Today was one of those beautiful though somewhat rare days that are both the perfect temperature (high sixties, in my open) and sunny and fall on a weekend with nothing on the calendar. We did quite a bit of cleaning up outside, but some time was also spent working on the tree house.  Floor boards are getting installed, so I sent L. up with my camera to the some pictures.  The ones of J. and L. working on it I could manage myself. Here is a better picture of how high up it is. I sat for a while and watched. It was a perfect day just to sit outside and enjoy spring. I had a pretty nice view. It almost felt as though I could almost see the trees leading out. I'll admit I still pinch myself that this is where we live. I get the same feeling when we're working outside that I had when I was little and would build the outline of cinder block houses in my backyard pretending that was my house. It feels like play. That's not a bad place to be. I did do some gardening. I got the lon

I spent the evening at our church's inaugural disability inclusion game night for older teens and adults. I think it went very well. H. had a great time.  But since I have nothing left, I'll leave you with a fritillary picture. This afternoon I discovered the fritillary in our side garden was blooming, but I hadn't noticed because it was hidden in the dried ornamental grass I had yet to clean out. I freed the fritillary and discovered this year it has six blooms! I was so excited because I love it. 

I made the realization today that it was seven years ago today that we signed the contract on this house. (You can read about that day on God's Provision .) It made me sit back a bit and appreciate how much has changed in the past seven years. It is also a little painful to read all my emotional roilings from that time. We were in the throws of possibly the biggest change in our married life and I was a mess. I knew I was a mess, but couldn't be anything else. There were too many unknowns and too much imminent loss which could not be counterbalanced by the vague hopes and dreams I had for what was to come.  Yet here we are, settled in a good place with friends and connections of many varieties in the community. There are even horses, five of them!, in the barn. In those first years I didn't think we would ever really feel comfortable here, then just as we thought we were finding our feet, Covid hit and we very much went nearly back to square one. It feels good to be on this

Today was a gorgeous day and the first day where it felt comfortable enough to have teatime outside. Here was our view. Everything is starting to bud out and there is a light green haze beginning to cover all the trees and plants. I do love this part of spring.  But onto Lonesome Dove. After three months, we are now a little bit over halfway through. Yesterday we read chapters 57 and 58. They were brutal. In my looking to see if this was an appropriate book for high schoolers I never saw these chapters mentioned. Had I known they were coming up, I would have skipped them and given a synopsis. Of course that would have meant I had to read them beforehand, and really I would have preferred a synopsis as well. You would think someone would have mentioned them. We were caught completely by surprise. And not in a good way. Plus, I have never been so angry at an author for killing off characters that I liked. It was just traumatic all the way around. Today when we sat down to read, I said th