I see a lot of posts on Facebook. Some are inspirational, some hilarious. Some are sad, some enlightening. Some are stupid, the worst are hateful. But this one resonated with me a little more than most: "One day I decided that I was beautiful...."! Just like that! No surgeries. No fad dieting, or pills, or grueling exercise routine. No cosmetics, or miracle creams and lotions, no lasers. Not even a shopping spree for expensive clothes to cover figure flaws! None of that at ALL! Just a mind shift, a quick change of perception that doesn't take more than a moment and doesn't cost a dime. Imagine that!

It resonated with me because I am the queen of self criticism. I beat myself up daily with abuse that I would NEVER dream of heaping on another human being. I would never say the kinds of ugly things to my dog that I say to myself! Fat! Old! Disgusting! Stupid! If you were smarter, less lazy, tried harder .....but not today! Just for today I am going to be beautiful! I hope you will be beautiful too! The world might be a better place with less frustration, less anger, fear and loathing if we were all wandering around being beautiful.

I spent the largest part of this day thinking it was Thursday. Thinking about how great it was that tomorrow was Friday. When it finally dawned on me that I was completely WRONG, I felt completely sad and dejected. Ripped off even. Cheated! Oh well, at least tomorrow really WILL be Thursday. I hope I don't wake up thinking its Friday or I might run screaming into madness at the loss.

So this week has dragged on and on. Last weekend seems like months ago. Nothing particularly awful has gone on, just monotony. Everything has been fine, really. I go to work. I come home and deal as best I can with the cat/dog situation. The cats still strongly disapprove. Penny chases them if they try to come into the den to see us. We are still a house divided. I keep hoping things will get better....

It's cloudy and chilly today after a week of full sun and mid-80's temps. Am I the least bit down because the weather changed for my weekend? Not in the least!!! Yard work is in full swing already and Bruce and I need a real day off. The past few weekends have been full of projects. These are necessary, I know. But so are days to rest up a bit. And today my friends?? Today is the day! Yay!

Oh, I will still do some laundry, and later make a small grocery run. I will also meet the kids at Anchalee's for crispy chicken pad Thai for dinner. But beyond that, I am having my day off. We all deserve that once in a while!

It's been a different experience dealing with a dog. I know, I know....we used to have dogs. But that was before I fully recognized my calling as a Crazy Cat lady. I have been so immersed in cats, and cat toys, and cat furniture etc...that I can hardly remember how to be a guardian of a dog. And to be what this dog needs without shirking my duties as cat mommy. It's a delicate balance especially right now while they are trying to get used to each other. Well, the dog is trying. The cats are having none of it.

Our house is divided. The cats have once again retreated to the bedroom end of the house. They can still access the pet door leading to the courtyard. The dog is not being allowed to venture down into their space right now. She gets too excited and jumpy and barky which freaks the cats out. They seriously disapprove. But today we had a small victory. The cats came out into the fenced backyard while I had Penny on a leash outside. Well, 3 of them did. Omen did NOT! But she is more of an indoor kind of girl most days anyway.

So 3 cats and the new dog occupied the same backyard space for a half hour or so. Penny was excited but managed to calm herself to a manageable level. The cats were wary and tentative...but brave enough to wander for a little while. It was a start. Hopefully we will have more progress soon.

So this is Penny Lane. You can't tell from the picture but she has freaky light blue eyes. We have no idea what she went through, only that she was starving when Bruce found her. She is trying to learn how to behave in a house, in a family and as the only dog in a cat household. Wish her luck!

My daughter pointed out that I have been extremely lax in posting lately. So, I will try to do better.
We have just been so busy with stuff....projects, pets, work, dentists....the list goes on and on. An update on the rescue dogs: 1 had advanced liver disease and had to be put down. 2 have been adopted, and we are left with 1. I have named her Penny Lane. We call her Penny. She has heart worms and has to go through treatment which will eventually involve having to be in a crate for up to 8 weeks. I have spent most of this week trying to get her used to the crate. The first day was awful, she wailed and howled and whined the whole time we put her in there. Seriously, it was all of 5 minutes but she acted like it was killing her. But last night she went in the crate willingly at bedtime and stayed there quietly all night long! Success!! The cats don't like any of this, but I am working on it. Penny gets a little calmer with each passing day and that will help the cats feel less freaked out by her. I hope.....

Besides that, it has been in the 80's here for the past week and a half. Which can only mean 1 thing in Eastern NC.....yard work is now in full swing! Bruce has been working on getting our grape vines and muscadines strung up on proper posts. It sounds like an easy enough project, right? But it has taken trips to Lowe's for supplies, time, effort and sweat, more trips to Lowe's, time for cement to set up, a new drill....and on and on. What we both thought was a quick-ish weekend project has gone on for 3 weeks, and taken way more money than we envisioned. But it's done, almost. Those damned grapes better grow and that's all I have to say about that!

So we have been seeing a new dentist. Our old one was really lousy. Apparently lousy dentists are more common than you might think. We feel really good about this one we switched to, even though he has found lots of things that need to be done for both me and Bruce. I had to take Monday off to have a couple of fillings done. One of them was deeper than he thought, and he warned me that it might be sensitive for a couple of days. He was right. It's better today at least. I still have to have 2 crowns done....ugh.

Anyway, I hope everybody has a wonderful rest of the week! I really will try to post more often.

And now it's April already....where is this year going?