My writing business, snow, and my son's visit

Sometimes it is better to write a little than not to write at all. I like this blog because I feel like I can write tiny posts without it harming anything.

Some of my other blogs are there for more important purposes, and so I write articles with a minimum of 500 words, and sometimes much, much longer. The pressure to write long articles is enormous because they do better in search engine results.

Today I've set before myself the task of writing 2 articles. One is a revision of an unpublished old article on what to do if your home business gets more business than you can handle. The other - I think will be on parental rights for disabled people.

And now, a prayer:

Heavenly Father, please help me with my writing. You alone know how hard this is for me. You are the only one who watches as I stumble and fall, and you know how much failure has become the norm for me. Please help me today and every day to get my work done and to write articles that are truly useful to those who need to read them. Let me do it all for You. In the name of Your Son, Jesus Christ, Amen.

It snowed all night on Thursday/Friday this week and we're expecting a lot more snow before Christmas. In the two years since I moved to Idaho, I've never seen deep snow. I saw deeper snow when I lived in Happy Camp, in California.

It gets a lot colder here, though, and the snow freezes to the pavement, whereas in Happy Camp the roads were usually cleared right away. People here drive on frozen, icy packed snow like it was just nothing.

This is what I saw when I woke up Friday morning. This is what Northern Idaho is supposed to look like in the winter... though too often I see no snow at all. The snow here is only four inches.

When I went into my office (a bedroom in my apartment) I saw that my window was iced over. I'm trying to train myself to take photos whenever I see something awesome... because I know it won't last long. Something will change. The ice melts, or light patterns change. So I snapped a few photos right away.

Once I settled into my office chair, which is a chaise lounge with a card-table desk that goes over it, I saw this sight out that window. The roofs, covered by white, and the icy window slowly warming.

That table is for filing. The little green-topped Truvia jars are what I keep little things in - like rubber bands, buttons, paper clips, etc..

Last week I decided to sponsor a poverty-stricken child in Mexico. I wrote about it on my Prayer-Power blog: Prayer for Children Living in Poverty. I love this little girl and want so much to be a blessing to her and her family, and her town. Her name is Brisia and she's eight years old, of Mayan descent.

A few weeks ago my youngest son came by to visit. I hadn't seen him in over a year so this was a wonderful event for me. I had to walk down to the truck stop on the corner, and he came rolling in with an 18-wheeler.

We ate dinner together at the Subway in the truck stop. This is how he gets his vegetables... something only a mom would spend time thinking about, I guess.

Okay, I'm ready for another visitor. Who wants to be next?

I'd better go do some serious writing now.

Winter Chill

I really feel I have not much to complain about - but this winter chill is so hard to get rid of! I live in a somewhat mild climate - far-northern California woods, a low sort of mountain range, actually the Southern Cascades, but also called the Klamath Siskiyou Mountains. There really isn't much snow here and when we get a few inches it melts. So who am I to complain about winter chill?

I live in an insulated cabin. I spend most of my time in a corner of my bedroom typing my heart out on this computer... for cash. Got to do it... this is my only income. Well, my dearheart spends most of his time on the opposite end of the cabin next to the woodstove. Thankfully he creates the fire each morning and takes care of all the firewood issues. That warms up the cabin and a bit of it eventually makes its way back to me.

Meanwhile - Brrrrrr! My little space heater (one of the tiny ones) really doesn't keep me quite as warm as I'd like. Solution: bundle up. I'm about to go put on my sweater so I can quit complaining about the winter chill.

Cooking Adventures in the Winter Kitchen

I love cooking during winter months when it is cold and dismal outside but bright and warm in my cozy green-walled kitchen. A pot of water for pasta will warm up the house, or a pot of beans, or soup.

I've already started my annual soup-making. During summer I don't bother but when winter hits - and today IS the winter solstice - I love to make soup, cook my own pinto beans for refried beans, and warm up the kitchen the natural and fragrant way.

I don't use my oven much anymore for several reasons: first, my baked goods are delicious and I eat too much of them, which isn't good for me. Second, the propane way out here in the country is expensive and hard to replace. Third, I haven't lit that oven in so long I'm a little leery of giving it another try.

I do, however, love to use my cast iron skillet which resides on my stove or over the sink on it's hook - where I dry it after each cooking/frying episode.

During winter it doesn't matter if I generate too much heat. Heat is always welcome!

Another thing I love about winter in this cabin is the cast iron cooking stove that sits between the living room and dining room. We've got a fairly traditional-looking Franklin-type stove and it has plenty of cooking surface on top. At times we cook there instead of on the propane stove. It is like a flash to the past and actually an excellent place to cook a meal while the fire merrily burns beneath, warming the entire cabin.