Daily Treasures and some fun Apps

Where does the time go?  It's good that it's February already -- we are that much closer to spring!  And speaking of spring, this was one of my daily treasure photos that I posted to Instagram recently.  I was very delighted to see seed packets in the store and I had to take a photo of them!  Then I added to it in an app on my phone called Rhonna Designs.  It wasn't a free app, but it lets you do lots of cool effects.

 

 Last Friday the late afternoon sun was out, and I took a wonderful walk to enjoy the rare bit of sunshine. The photo below shows two trees glowing in the sunlight, but then I added a bunch of extra texture and color with an app -- I think the one I used was DistressedFX.  Lots of cool stuff on that app as well.

On Sunday, Chicago got hit with quite a blizzard.  It was also the first day of February, and my cousin made a calendar in which the February page was a wonderful explosion of lovely colors.  I used an app called DXP to blend our snowy backyard tree with her calendar page, and the result is this fun treasure!

 The photo below was of the full moon rising in the blue light of dusk, with tree skeletons in the foreground.  But I played with it in a fun app called InstaBlender and came up with this fun abstract.

 I worked on Saturday, and was perusing one of our books when I found this poem by Vachel Lindsay.  I memorized this poem in grade school, and haven't seen it since, but snippets of it have been floating around in my head.  It was fun to see the full poem and realize that I had remembered a good bit of it!

 Today it was time to begin work on my Valentine bookmarks.  Here's two versions -- both a little rough, but I think I can tweak the design and come up with something by Valentine's Day.

Wishing you sunny days and warm nights!

How to survive this winter . . .

. . . one day at a time.  So the promised warming trend hasn't exactly arrived, the snow hasn't melted -- we got several more inches today.  In an effort to make lemonade from these "lemons", I tried to take a few photos of snowflakes after work today.  The light was fleeting, and nothing really turned out.  So I will post another creative project that has been occupying my time.  Watching the Olympics and coloring mandalas.  Turns out, it's a great way to spend a cold winter evening (or five!).

I printed out the patterns from online images, and then played with my colored pencils.  It's one way of adding color to these winter evenings.  How are you surviving this long winter?

Home made Granola

Once again, the outside temperature is below zero.  Since I had some time this morning, I decided to make granola.  It's a great way to warm up the kitchen and make the whole house smell homey!  Here's the ingredients for one batch (I usually make 1 1/2 batches at a time):

3 Cups Rolled Oats

1 Cup raw Pumpkin Seeds

1 Cup raw Sunflower Seeds

1 Cup shredded Coconut

1 1/4 Cups chopped Pecans

1/2 Cup packed light Brown Sugar

1 tsp Kosher Salt

3/4 Cup Maple Syrup

1/2 Cup Olive Oil

Dried Fruit

 As you may be able to see from the ingredients above, I made some changes.  I didn't have any coconut or pecans, so I added some Walnuts and about 3/4 Cup of Wheat Germ.  I also added 1 tsp of Vanilla to my liquid ingredients.  After combining all the dry ingredients in a bowl (except for the dried cranberries), I heated the maple syrup and olive oil in a measuring cup in the microwave to warm them a bit.  Then I added the vanilla and stirred the liquid ingredients into the dry.

 The baking is the most time consuming part because it takes about an hour.  Preheat the oven to 300 degrees, and spread the granola mixture evenly onto two rimmed cookie sheets.  Bake for about an hour, stirring every 15 to 20 minutes until granola is golden brown.

 Stir occasionally as it cools, and add the dried fruit.  Pour into a bowl and enjoy!  (Or just munch on it!)

 While it was baking, I decided to take some more photos of the flowers I bought last week.  They are still lovely!

Finally, for my February spiritual discipline, I am coming up with a six word touchstone for each day, based on my quiet time reading in the morning.  In a previous blog post, I shared the first three days.  Here are the latest:

February 4:  I'm so full of answered prayer!  (from Psalm 13:6)

February 5:  God of Angel Armies protects us (Psalm 46:3)

February 6:  Learn the unforced rhythms of grace (Matthew 11:29)

February 7:  Start with where you are now (from Romans 8:28)

Overcoming SAD

I have SAD.  Seasonal Affective Disorder.  Or, as I like to say, I'm solar powered.  No sun and I start to run out of energy.  First the physical energy and I start craving sleep, hitting the snooze alarm too many times, etc.  Then the emotional energy starts to go, and it's a quick ride to a very bad place.  Trust me, I've been there before.

The past two winters, at the suggestion of my "shrink", I have taken winter vacations to sunny locations.  And I haven't experienced much SAD.  So this winter, I decided that maybe I don't have to worry about the winter anymore and I'd be fine.  And it has been a pretty mild winter.  Which is why it took me completely by surprise when Monday at work I realized that all the things that I've been experiencing more and more the past couple of weeks was very recognizable:  I was slipping into the dark pit of SAD.

I immediately called my shrink, who is a very wonderful lady.  She changed the dosage of my meds right away.  The other things that always help are exercise and sunshine.  So yesterday I ran two miles on the treadmill (OK, so it was great for the endorphins, but pretty bad on the calf muscles this morning!)  Today was my day off work, so I planned to get together with a friend at the Arboretum to walk in the sunshine.  No sooner had I finalized the plan that another friend (my walking buddy) called and said she was free to walk this morning.  The sun was out, the temperature was mild, so I agreed to meet her.  We ended up walking three miles.  Here's a picture I took with my phone during our walk:

You can see it was a beautiful day for a walk.  After walking, I worked on a couple of projects, had some lunch and left for the Arboretum, where my friend and I took a leisurely mile long hike.  Then I got a text from my son, suggesting that he come over and walk the dog with me.  Since I never turn down my kids on any offers like that, I agreed.  A half hour after getting home from the Arboretum, Jordan showed up and we walked the dog -- to the Post Office, around the lake, through the wooded area and back home -- a total of three miles.  Here a picture I took with my phone from that walk.

So now I'm home, with my calf muscles screaming at me.  But it sure was a fun day.  And I'm thinking that I've staved off SAD for at least another day!  I hope so, because I may not be able to move tomorrow.  :-)

Playing in the snow

Yesterday our family decided to enjoy a somewhat mild winter day by going to Waterfall Glen, a forest preserve not too far from our house. After trudging through the snow all afternoon, we came back to our house and feasted on pizza while we decorated our Christmas tree.  I was too tired to get any tree pics, but maybe another time!

 Lovely daughters staying warm in the late afternoon sunshine.

 Even Skyler was able to come with us and get a workout running through the woods.

 The sun set pretty fast and we had to move along.

Our son reflected in the frigid water.

Happy winter!