We were due for a new family photo, and as luck would have it I was able to snap one of the four of us this evening when we were out walking — or rather, being buffeted along. It so windy that by the time we finished the loop around the scenic sometimes-a-reservoir walking trail this evening (when I took this shot), we were all pretty wind-whipped. We looked a little dazed and none of us are smiling, but I think it still works, don’t you?

Too late for the Christmas cards that never went out last year (thanks to the shroud of viral misery that enveloped our home for the duration of December), and that’s a shame; it’s four matching red sweaters shy of family photo perfection.

I like days
with a snow-white collar,
and nights when the moon
is a silver dollar,
and hills are filled
with eiderdown stuffing
and your breath makes smoke
like an engine puffing.

I like days
when feathers are snowing,
and all the eaves
have petticoats showing,
and the air is cold,
and the wires are humming,
but you feel all warm …
with Christmas coming.

“December,” Aileen Fisher

View of our back yard, December 24, 2004:

View from our front yard, December 4, 2009:

It was Em’s first ever experience with snow (she enthusiastically pronounced it beautiful) and Cal’s second; and it was the second time I have seen snow in Texas since moving here in 1999. For a brief time, the flakes fell thick and fast, and we savored every minute that we could.

Cheeks were pink, fingers were stiff with cold, jackets and hats and mittens were wet. Smiles were big.

Forget 2012.
Sign me up for December, 2014.

Sometimes I like living in Texas. When I can step outside with my family for brisk walk in the evening without feeling like poultry on the rotisserie, it seems downright inhabitable.

November is the month that finally gives some relief to the insane heat and humidity. The air conditioner isn’t laboring, rattling and groaning through the day, and sometimes I get to wear slippers instead of flip-flops around the house (squeal!). Now if only the mosquitoes would die off when it drops below 70, and we got just a little bit of snow (more than once ever 5 years) it would almost be perfect — at least from November through February.

Marker on natural canvas. The artist’s work is also being displayed on select refrigerators across the country.

Em, surprised and delighted, to Mr. Husband: “Daddy, did you hear that? MY BUTT BURPED!”

Hey, you, pop out of that there feed reader and check out the brand new no-frills layout. (Some might call it an Emperor’s New Clothes kind of look; I prefer to use the term “minimalist”.) Yep, this poor abandoned blog (PAB) finally got some attention in the form of a makeover — something I’ve only been meaning to do since I purchased this domain well over a year ago. At this rate, I will be regularly adding new content in a matter of mere months. Hoooooo-boy, hold on to your swiveling desk-chairs!

Bonus announcement: ohbecareful has spawned a brand new baby-blog, which you can see on the right in all of its bawling newborn glory. It’s really just a new category masquerading as a little sidebar blog. The topic: politics.

I know, I know. Who wants to talk about politics and current events and the like? Not me, that’s who. But I’m doing it anyway, for reasons I will explain in a future post.

But fear not! If you don’t want to hear my thoughts on Health Care Reform or the importance of preserving and defending our Constitution, you don’t have to (and not just because this is the internet and you don’t need my permission to click away). The politically-related posts excerpted in the sidebar will not show up in the regular feed, so skipping them should be a piece of cake.

And if you want to read the posts, you can either click on the side/mini/baby/little/faker-blog links when you happen to be in the neighborhood or you can subscribe to the feed here. UPDATE: Never mind. It was supposed to work this way but it went and showed up in the main feed anyway — the rotten stinker — so for now I’ve put it in a time-out from all RSS feeds (including the separate one I set up just for that category). Someday, when I feel like spending another hour banging my head on the keyboard, I’ll try to fix it. Sorry!

Your choice.

Isn’t it nice to have options? I think so too.

P.S. Let me know if anything in the new layout looks strangely deformed or out-of-place, and I will apply my CSS/PHP-numb brain to the task of making it worse with my coding ineptitude fixing it. Thanks!

Elizabeth Esther is hosting The Saturday Evening Blog Post, a monthly event where readers share their favorite post from the previous month. I chose my hastily composed “bedtime prayer” from September, because, um, it was the only post from September. Yes, it holds the coveted position of favorite by default.

Now go check out the other posts, and add one of your own!

Jules of Enjoying the Story was kind enough to give me this award a while ago, even though I’ve been a most derelict blogger. Thanks, Jules!

*clearing throat*

Now for the important rules that always accompany memes and awards.

In accepting this award, I need to do the following:
1) Say thanks and give a link to the presenter of the award.
2) Share “ten honest things” about myself.
3) Present this award to 7 others whose blogs I find brilliant in content and/or design, or those who have encouraged me.
4) Tell those 7 people that they’ve been awarded HONEST SCRAP and inform them of these guidelines in receiving

Ten Honest Things:

1. There is semi-crusted milk in my hair as I write this. How it got there is less important than how it’s going to smell in a couple of hours, and I hope that I have a chance to take a shower before finding out.

2. Hello, my name is Jamie, and I am a recovering pack-rat. (This is not in any way related to the milk in my hair. Honest!)

3. I have a terrible sense of direction. When Mr. Husband and I were dating long-distance, I drove from Florida to visit him at his school in Texas. When it was time to drive back, it took me an hour to just find my way out of the Texas A&M campus. (And technically, I didn’t even find my own way out — Mr. Husband gave me detailed, idiot-proof directions. Things haven’t changed much since then.)

4. I used to have a life. Now, instead of unwinding at the end of a long day, I try to keep up with current events via reliable news sites and blogs.
< sarcasm > You know, for fun! < / sarcasm >

5. Crocs are ugly. Hey, just being honest.

6. After going through the painful process of choosing and purchasing a new cell phone this morning, I realized that my husband and I are among the last of our kind. Someday soon, we will have to leave civilized society and found The Order of Cell-Phone Users Who Don’t Use Their Phones to Text, Watch TV, Record Videos, or Update Their Facebook Status.

7. The government is taxing my patience. This shouldn’t surprise me, since it already taxes everything else.

8. Shopping is one of my least favorite things to do. I ♥ Amazon, my shop-from-the-plump-seat-of-my-lazy-rear-end enabler.

9. Going to the dentist scares me. Yes, I am a weenie.

10. I’m glad this is #10, because I’m kind of tired of writing about myself. Are you breathing a sigh of relief that it’s over, too? Well, good news! I’m going to send you away now, to visit bloggers who are more insightful and/or entertaining than I am:

Here are 7 blogs I enjoy, all of whom have probably already received this award but are getting it again anyway:

The Picket Fence
Half-Pint House
Minnesota Mom
Four Squares
Books and Bairns
Supratentorial
Amy’s Humble Musings

Now I lay her down to sleep,
I pray she will not make a peep,
But close her eyes and rest her head,
And, just this once, remain in bed.

But if, instead, she stays awake,
I pray thee, Lord, my head not ache;
And when I hear a pitter-patter,
Lord, help me not to be mad at her.

Amen

Mr. Husband and I went to see comedian Tim Hawkins for our anniversary in July. (more…)