Celebrate!

Happy winter solstice! It's officially winter now, in case you had any doubts.

With three days to go until Christmas, the weather guys are forecasting, well, a mess for the rest of the week. Rain, freezing rain with ice accumulation and heavy snow all appear to be headed our way as a monster storm system stomps across the Midwest.

I hate ice. I hate ice like Indiana Jones hates snakes.

"Ice. Why does it have to be ice?" Sorry, Indy.

Tonight I'll be in full storm prep mode. Snow storms don't bother me. Ice storms bother me. I'm still in therapy from the ice storm that knocked out our power for a week in February 2007. I really don't want to do that again.

So my theory is, if we're prepared, it won't happen. That means making a grocery store run tonight after work, stocking up on batteries and food that doesn't need cooking, digging out the lanterns and candles (yippee, camping in the house!), finding extra blankets for the bed and yeah, my stocking cap and Carhartts to wear around the house if we lose power. The Carhartts are NOT overkill. Ever sit around in a 40 degree house for a week? Body fat is not a bad thing.

At least now we have rural water at our place so we're not dependent on an electric well pump for running water. Granted, it will be cold water if the power stays out very long but I can heat it up on the grill if it comes to that. I can also grill a pizza! Oh, the things I learned in '07 . . .

Hopefully, the whole system will fizzle or turn to snow and skip the ice part totally. What are the odds?

By the way, the new header pic is the last of the Christmas card picture outtakes. The Santa hat is no longer with us.

Taking a break . . . or not

Every year, I swear I am going to give my dogs and myself a break from training for a couple of weeks. We'll still do "stuff," like play ball or go for walks or whatever, just absolutely no skill training for either obedience or agility.

It never works for me.

Never, ever.

Chris Zink (Coaching The Canine Athlete) says she gives her dogs a month off once a year. She feels it is mentally and physically helpful and they come back recharged and ready to tackle whatever performance venue she is pursuing. I always think that sounds like such a great idea until I try to do it. Then it just doesn't happen.

The reason I'm writing about this now is because I actually did go for six days last week without training. It took my father's funeral to make it happen. There have been very few times in my life when I didn't feel like training my dog and that was one of them. But after the funeral and all its draining social demands were over, wanting to work with Phoenix came back like an almost physical need.

Apparently, I am addicted to training. Like a junkie, I crave the rush I get from interacting and communicating (or trying to communicate) with another species. Take that away from me for a couple of days and I start going through withdrawals.

There are times of the year when I train harder than others but in reality, I train year 'round. I love to show and can't justify mailing entries if I'm not consistently preparing my dog and me to be ready. No, I'm not talking about hour-long sessions at the club building every day. I try to go to the building at least once a week but most of the time, we just train at home most evenings, after work or after supper, for 10 minutes or 20 minutes or whatever we feel like. 

One thing I've learned is if I'm feeling worn out, frazzled, drained, annoyed or just plain crabby, DON'T TRAIN THE DOG! Those are the nights we sit in the recliner and drink cocoa. In other words, there are times when you SHOULDN'T train and it's good thing to recognize them. If I want my dog to be bright, energetic and creative, I need to be, too.

This is a slower time of year. The holidays bring a ton of other demands on my time, plus with a foot of snow outside, going out to the back yard to train isn't going to happen. In fact, right now I'm missing the first session of an Open/Utility proofing class because it's snowing, not a blizzard, but hard enough to make me reluctant to drive the 50 mile round trip to and from Iowa City for class. 

So Phoenix and I worked finishes (doG, we're going to be working finishes until we're both old and gray) and signals in the living room, then Jamie joined us for stays. Apparently that took every ounce of energy both dogs possessed because now they are crashed out by my feet, sound asleep. Or maybe that's because we had some friends over last night and both boys were up late and stayed VERY busy keeping track of A) people and B) plates of food.

For me, the bottom line is I enjoy training very much. Even when we're having a problem with something, I still enjoy interacting with my dog and trying to resolve the issue. Training has never been something I feel I have to do. It's something I need to do, like eating or sleeping.

Yep. Addiction. There's probably a 12-step program out there for me.

What about you? Do you schedule "time off" from training for your dogs?

White sugar cookies

When the Farmer and I got married, my aunt Rosemary (Dad's sister) gave me a cookbook of family recipes. This sugar cookie recipe was in it and I stumbled across it totally by accident that first Christmas. I'd never been a big fan of making sugar cookies, mostly because all the recipes I'd used before produced dry, crumbly cookies that seemed like more work than they were worth.

Not these! They are soft and never dry. I hesitate to say they're fool-proof but in 18 years of baking them for Christmas and other special occasions, I've NEVER had a batch fail. They are simple and very good.

I know everyone has their own favorite when it comes to cut-out cookies. These are mine. Aunt Rosie said when she made them for her church holiday bazaar, women would meet her car when she pulled into the parking lot and buy them all before she ever got them into the church.

I used to spend a lot of time using different shaped cookie cutters, making colored frosting and decorating them to the nth degree but, well, let's admit it, simple is good. Or I'm getting lazy. Or practical.


WHITE SUGAR COOKIES
1 C. margarine, softened
1 1/2 C. sugar
3 eggs
1 tsp. almond extract
2 tsp. vanilla
4 1/2 C. flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt

Cream margarine and sugar. Add eggs, then almond and vanilla. Mix well. Beat in dry ingredients. Chill dough at least two hours, overnight works best.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Roll dough out in small amounts on floured surface to desired thickness and cut into shapes. Bake approximately 8 minutes on ungreased cookie sheets (I use parchment paper), removing from oven when they are barely brown. Cool on wire racks and frost.

FROSTING
3 C. powdered sugar
1/3 C. margarine, softened
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla
about 2 T. milk, more or less as needed

Beat all together until smooth and spreadable. Frosts about 4 dozen cookies.

These cookies freeze very well, even after frosting.

Today, I am thankful for the Christmas luncheon and cookie walk we're having at work.

Outtake #3

Christmas Eve is a week from today! Here's another outtake from the Christmas card photo shoot. Jamie apparently finds the whole process extremely boring.

Funerals are exhausting

Dad's funeral was today. I am glad it's over. It's been 48 hours of too many emotions and a totally sleepless night on the motel bed from hell. 

The service was nice. The church was beautiful. It was already decorated for a wedding this coming weekend. Guess we got bonus decorations. Actually, it looked like people sent us about 75 poinsettias and evergreen wreaths.

I am exhausted. I've done nothing for two days but sit and stand around and talk to people and cry and blow my nose and change my clothes and fix meals and go to the grocery store (3 times in two days, possibly a record, even for me) and remind my mother what she was doing when she got halfway through it, then couldn't remember.

Big thanks to Tammy and Marsha for coming down for the visitation and Mary and Liz who came to the funeral. THANK YOU. It meant a lot. Of course, it also caused more crying and nose blowing. My nose feels like it might fall off at any moment.

The dogs took it all in stride. They got to shed on all the relatives who came to Mom's house after the luncheon. Phoenix did a lot of testing to see if any of them really didn't like dogs so he could pester that person in particular, but they all passed the test. He spent the afternoon working the room in a clockwise circle, giving everyone equal time. Although I think he spent more time with anyone wearing black pants.

The Farmer and I left Mom's late in the afternoon and went back to the church to load up flowers. I was tempted to take an extra poinsettia or two but we had gotten a huge and beautiful one from Mom and Dad's bank and really, how many poinsettias does one need?

I've gotten everything unpacked and put away. Now I just want to crawl into bed and sleep for about 12 hours. 

Today, I am thankful to have the next two days off work.

Last pictures

Here are a couple more family pics from back in the day. From left to right, Jack, Rosemary and Dad. The little boy in bibs in front of Dad is his brother Dave. The two little kids in front of them are cousins. It's funny how many dogs pop up in these old photos. There were six kids in Dad's family. One died when she was a toddler. Dad was the middle kid of the five who lived. Yep, they were pretty much stairstepped.

This is the house that belonged to my Grandpa and Grandma once they settled down. They were really quite nomadic during the early years of their marriage. I'll have to blog about that sometime. They even car camped with a tent that attached to their Model T. I come by the camping gene honest!!!

Grandpa and Grandma retired from farming and moved to town in the 1960s, Dad married Mom and bought the family farm and this is where I grew up. It was a cool old Victorian, built around the turn of the century. It had beautiful woodwork, stained glass windows, carpenter's lace, pocket doors and high ceilings. Most of that is gone now, "remodeled" in the name of energy efficiency and ease of maintenance. But this is what it looked like in the 1930s or 1940s. The big tree on the left is a Dutch Elm. Obviously, it's not there anymore. 

PS. My aunt Rosemary WAS a dog person. She and her husband had a sheltie they loved very much and who traveled with them wherever they went. Meghan stood 17" at the withers and probably weighed 45 pounds. She, um, never missed a meal.

More family pics

Spent today at Mom's. Her sister Karene was there (she just lives down the road) and Dad's brother Dave from Indiana and sister Joyce from Wyoming arrived in the afternoon. Other brother Jack from Texas is coming tomorrow. He lives on the Gulf coast and is not excited about coming to Iowa in December.

Here's Dad (left) and Jack (right), circa 1938. Their bibs must have been brand new in this picture. They look like they still have the store creases and starch in them. And they don't look like they have any holes in them yet. Look how long the legs are. I'm guessing they "bought big" and expected the boys to grow into them.

This pic was taken in the early 1930s. From the left is Dad's sister Rosemary (she died in 2007), Dad and Jack. Don't know who the dog is. Notice Jack's rolled up bibs again. Dad looks jealous that he doesn't get to hold the dog. Rosemary looks like she's thinking about shoving both boys off the bench. 

Finally think we're ready to leave tomorrow. The weather sounds questionable on Monday with predictions for a freezing rain/snow mix so I ended up packing extra clothes and dog meals in case we need to stay for another day after the funeral. I really, really, really wish the next 48 hours was over. 

Today, I am thankful for support and cheer from a lot of friends and family.