UPDATE: The winner is…Roxie Jones!
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Most Saturdays, I have no idea what image I’m going to choose for the puzzle when I sit down to craft my blog. I go to my favorite photo site and take a look. The photos they suggested today, based on my recent searches, produced a feed called “Bohemian Pirate Couple.” Interesting, I said. So, I went with it.

I hope you love the puzzle. Solve it, then tell me what kind of story it inspires in you for a chance to win a $5 Amazon gift card!

UPDATE: The winner is…Martha Lanham!
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Well, we thought the kids would be back in school today, finally. In fact, we were ready to get them bundled into the car for the trip to town when the 15-year-old slid on the ground and scraped up her arm and sprained her wrist (at least we hope it’s just a sprain), and we came back inside to get her bandaged up. Just as we were finishing with the bandages and splint, the notice came on our phones that they’d decided to cancel school again. It might have had something to do with the school bus in the ditch at the bottom of our long hill. No one injured, but…the bus slid into the ditch! Thank goodness my daughter drives the kids (fights on the school bus necessitated that long ago).

Anyway, the kids are back in their jammies, sitting around the living room with pets cuddled up beside them. We’ve suffered a little attrition to our numbers due to old age and illnesses over the years. We are down to five cats and seven dogs, now. Remember, we didn’t collect all these animals ourselves; we inherited my mom’s four dogs when she passed.

My betta fish passed away from old age a couple of months ago. I did try everything to make him comfortable and to “fix” him, but what I read about how he was acting pointed to old age. I haven’t purchased another. I’ll wait for warmer weather because any fish we get has to travel an hour in a plastic tub to get here. I do miss my fish though. No, you can’t pet or snuggle them, and I’m okay with that. The bunny in my art room stays mostly in its cage because when we open the door, he hops out, looks around, then decides he likes his cage better. He’s not very affectionate. The two cats that hang out with me can be very annoying when they want attention. Having one perched like a vulture on my shoulder isn’t conducive to good concentration, and I hate finding the little bits of kitty litter that stick to their paws on my art table.

But my family has always had pets. More dogs than anything else.

So, my question to you is, what is your favorite type of pet? It’s okay if you say a plant. I get that, too. If you want to share a little story about your favorite pet, we’d all love to read about it! Today’s prize is a $5 Amazon gift card! I hope you enjoy the puzzle!  

UPDATE: The winner is…Tara Leavitt!
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Here in Central Arkansas, we’re getting ready for a snow-pocalypse! It could last well into Wednesday and maybe Thursday. We may get as much as seven inches of the fluffy stuff, which folks in the north would think is not such a big deal, but we’re not made for that kind of weather. Our roads crumble, our road crews aren’t equipped to service the rural areas, and folks here don’t know how to drive on snow or ice. We have to have all our prep complete by tomorrow around 3 PM, then hunker down and pray our power doesn’t go out.

Today, the Devlin household will be deep into preparations. We’ll do a last grocery shop and pick up feed for the horse and goats. Empty the ducks/geese/chickens wading pool. Throw straw into the goat’s little hutch and the horse’s walk-in lean-to attached to the barn. We’ll get two large containers of fuel filled for the generator—just in case. Not that it will do more than power the fridge and our phones/laptops. The kids are downloading movies to their phones.

We’ll be dripping water in our sinks. Refreshing batteries in our lanterns and flashlights. Have we forgotten anything? Thank goodness for the holiday on Monday. We won’t have to worry about school until Tuesday but expect the schools to close on Tuesday and likely Wednesday. It’s going to be so much fun! Or we’ll do our best to make it so.

Anyway, here’s hoping anyone else facing this arctic blast is ready for it. Stay warm and safe! I’ll have to remind the SIL to make sure there’s fuel in the tractor in case he wants to drag an innertube around the yard for the kids. 🙂

With all this on the horizon, of course, I have a snowy landscape puzzle for you to play with today. Solve the puzzle and give me ideas for keeping three younger ones (19, 15, 10-years-old) entertained while we’re snowed in for a chance to win a $5 Amazon gift card! 

UPDATE: The winner is…Steph!
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I bought this little brainstorming tool years ago at some writers’ conference. “Story Cubes” is a brainstorming game. You roll the dice and whatever pictures appear face-up are the ones you use to riff off a story.

Now, I’d like you to tell me a story based on what you see on the cubes. Do any of these symbols tell you anything? You can pick some of the images or use all of them. Comment for a chance to win a $5 Amazon gift card!

Have fun with this! Don’t overthink! Here’s the roll… 

UPDATE: The winner is…Margaret Rucci!
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My office is in the basement. No windows, no natural light. I keep a “grow” light on one corner of my desk for my two favorite plants—my African violet and my Christmas cactus. In another space, I have a huge curling spider plant on the floor with another light hovering overhead. Come Spring, when the last of the freezes occur, he’ll go back outside to my covered porch.

Those are the only plants I have. We live in the country and maintain bushes and flowering bushes outside. When I was younger and living in an apartment, my place looked like a greenhouse. I kept Ficus trees, bromeliads, ivy, ferns, potted roses… Not that I had a particularly green thumb, but I did hover over and worry about my plants and tried to keep the cat from peeing in the Ficus tree.

Houseplants are not only a lovely splash of green in your environment, but they also filter toxins from the air. If you’re afraid you’ll kill your plants, get something extremely easy to keep alive like a lucky bamboo plant. All you have to do is give it water and very rarely a little bit of fertilizer.

So, today’s word search contains some of my favorite houseplants. For a chance to win a $5 Amazon gift card, tell me about your favorite plants!

UPDATE: The winner is…Jennifer Beyer!
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Winter has finally arrived in Central Arkansas. Our winters are generally mild compared to the rest of the country, but we do get cold weather. Last night was 23 degrees, so we dripped faucets and ran the pool pump to keep the pipes from freezing up. From here through mid-March-ish, we’ll be checking the weather nightly to take precautions, like making sure we have gas to run the generator when ice takes down a power line. When Spring comes, it’ll arrive quickly, and we’ll have a bit of Spring before full-on Summer arrives. If we can get the pool cleaned quickly, we could be (temperatures permitting) getting into the pool by the end of April. God, I hope so. I live for summers, which are muggy and intolerably hot, but I LOVE swimming and hanging in the pool with the kids. Yes, I talk a lot about the pool because I am obsessed. Water baby, here. I’m a Cancer, so yeah, I love any excuse to don a swimsuit. Right now, I’m dreaming about floating in the river, renting a pontoon for a lake party, and slicing up watermelon and cantaloupe to eat beside the pool… On and on. My daughter loves “sweater weather” but I love flip-flops, shorts, and pool time.

However, the winter does have its moments. We had snow falling yesterday, which didn’t stick because it turned to rain mid-morning. Still, I snapped some pictures because it was pretty. But I wasn’t sad when it melted. My dd was. She loves nothing better than when we get a couple of feet of snow, and my SIL ties an innertube to the tractor to pull the kids across the snow. They love building igloos (again, aided by the tractor to push up the snow high enough) and snowmen. Yes, we’re redneck as hell with our winter activities, but you use what you’ve got when you live in the South and want to enjoy the weather while you can. 🙂

In the meantime, I have a puzzle with ice crystals stuck to a windowpane. Solve the puzzle and tell me what you and your family like to do in the cold weather for a chance to win a $5 Amazon gift card! 

UPDATE: The winner is…Debra Guyette!
*~*~*

I had “Word Search” on my blog list for today, and with the app open couldn’t think of a topic. So, I took a sip of the coffee I’d poured from my French press…

I LOVE coffee, so it’s easy for me to let my mind drift through all the types of brews, appliances, etc. I did a “stream of consciousness” thing, where I let my mind riff through coffee-related things, and I made my list of words very quickly.

I thought of my grandma and grandpa’s stove-top percolator that I swear made the best coffee on earth. They added evaporated milk and swirl of sugar to make it palatable to six-year-old me. I own a French press (for when I have the patience to wait), an espresso machine (for when I have the patience to clean up after I use it), and a Keurig machine near my desk. Yes, I’m serious about coffee. I have to drink 2-3 cups a day to keep me alert and my mind spinning tales. Of course, at my age, I have to stop drinking it just after noon or I don’t sleep.

Most of the time, I drink my coffee black. But there are occasions when I love an iced, chocolatey coffee. Or a cappuccino or latte. That’s for when I want to sit at the table and chat. It’s a ritual thing, I think.

Anyway, there’s a contest here. I want you to do a “stream of consciousness” list of coffee or tea related things for a chance to win a $5 Amazon gift card! Have fun!