Sunday Snapshots from a Holiday Week

Today I have that tired feeling, that achy, let me just sit here and stare at my computer, gosh I'm tired feeling.

I also have that oh dear goodness, the first week of Christmas vacation has zoomed right by.  If I'm not careful, I won't get everything done that I had planned to do.

In writing terms, here's what I want to accomplish this week:

--I want to finish the story I started in early November.
--I want to get back to an earlier goal of writing two poems a week.
--I want to make some plans for 2016.

I should be able to do that, right?

In around the house terms, I want to get a bookcase sorted.  I'm almost done.  We need to figure out what's going on with the pool pump.  We need to sort through the Christmas leftovers--we are not going to be able to eat all this food before it goes bad.  I have some seeds to plant.

Let me also this morning capture some of the events of past days, so that I don't lose them:

--My spouse took out the garbage yesterday.  He said, "It's going to be some smelly garbage this week, with all the wrappers from the meats and the rotting pumpkins from the front yard."  The interesting juxtapositions of holidays continue!

--Because the pumpkins rotted in the front yard, we have some pumpkin seeds that have sprouted.  Will they be able to survive and give us pumpkins?  Stay tuned.

--We have a tomato plant flourishing in our front window box.  Will it give us tomatoes?  Stay tuned.

--Because we are lazy gardeners, our plants in the back have a second chance at giving us veggies.  A few months ago, worms and ants stripped the plants (peppers and tomatoes) of all their leaves, leaving desolate stalks.  But now, they've regenerated, and we have some teeny tomatoes and peppers.

--Yesterday, I had a craving for cheese straws.  I vaguely remember my grandmother making these at Christmas, although it doesn't seem like something she'd make.  Still, it's a tradition from the U.S. south, and we had a late afternoon invitation, so they seemed like the perfect take-along.  I made this recipe from the Smitten Kitchen site.  I was a bit disappointed, but we ate them all, and my spouse woke up craving them.

--The Smitten Kitchen site kept launching a Home Depot ad--what makes Home Depot think that a person on a quest for interesting recipes would be a do-it-yourselfer when it comes to home repair?

--When we left the mosque on Christmas Day, a member pressed some presents into our hands.  One of them was a magazine/ad collection publication.  The front proclaims an ad for a company that is "The leader in Sharia-compliant home financing."  We get all sorts of advertising in our various mailboxes, but we've never gotten that one.  Clearly some companies understand their demographics.

I sense an interesting poem brewing.  Epiphany approaches--always a time of interesting juxtapositions!