Valentine's Decorations 2025

 

I know you can't see it well, but I made the flower at a Galentine's Day Party

Tips for New Year's Resolutions

New Year’s Resolutions come and go. Every year we set new ones, but quickly give them up. How do we avoid the annual setting and forgetting our goals?

Here are some tips to help keep your New Year’s Resolutions going all year long.

• “Be picky about your resolutions - Only pick 1 or 2 things to work on”
• “Plan your resolution - Think through how you want to achieve your goal and how long it could take.”
• “Set very specific goals - Be detailed in your resolutions.”
• “Don’t take on too much - Start small and avoid setting high expectations for yourself.”
• “Choose a new resolution - Avoid picking a goal you’ve picked in the past and failed. Instead, pick something different that you can set a better path to success.”
• “Identify accountability partners for support - Lean on people. We function better with a community around us, motivating and reminding us why we chose that New Year’s resolution in the first place.”
• “Give your resolution time to become a habit - New routines don’t become habit overnight. On average, it takes 66 days to form a new habit.”

https://health.ucdavis.edu/blog/cultivating-health/7-tips-to-keep-your-new-years-resolution/2022/12

Halloween Outfits From the Week

 

Fall Decorations

 I didn’t get to much decorating for Halloween since I was in Argentina for most of October. So here are my September/October decorations.

Gentlemen of the Road

It was time again for the library book club. This month's book was Gentlemen of the Road. It was an interesting read. I had a little bit of a hard time following it, but I think a lot of that was because I was running on 2.5 hours of sleep from the meteor shower trip. It was an interesting read set in Khazaria (a forgotten Jewish empire). 

From Amazon: "Michael Chabon’s Pulitzer Prize-winning bestseller, The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, sprang from an early passion for the derring-do and larger-than-life heroes of classic comic books. Now, once more mining the rich past, Chabon summons the rollicking spirit of legendary adventures–from The Arabian Nights to Alexandre Dumas to Fritz Leiber’s Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser stories–in a wonderful new novel brimming with breathless action, raucous humor, cliff-hanging suspense, and a cast of colorful characters worthy of Scheherazade’s most tantalizing tales.

They’re an odd pair, to be sure: pale, rail-thin, black-clad Zelikman, a moody, itinerant physician fond of jaunty headgear, and ex-soldier Amram, a gray-haired giant of a man as quick with a razor-tongued witticism as he is with a sharpened battle-ax. Brothers under the skin, comrades in arms, they make their rootless way through the Caucasus Mountains, circa A.D. 950, living as they please and surviving however they can–as blades and thieves for hire and as practiced bamboozlers, cheerfully separating the gullible from their money. No strangers to tight scrapes and close shaves, they’ve left many a fist shaking in their dust, tasted their share of enemy steel, and made good any number of hasty exits under hostile circumstances.

None of which has necessarily prepared them to be dragooned into service as escorts and defenders to a prince of the Khazar Empire. Usurped by his brutal uncle, the callow and decidedly ill-tempered young royal burns to reclaim his rightful throne. But doing so will demand wicked cunning, outrageous daring, and foolhardy bravado . . . not to mention an army. Zelikman and Amram can at least supply the former. But are these gentlemen of the road prepared to become generals in a full-scale revolution? The only certainty is that getting there–along a path paved with warriors and whores, evil emperors and extraordinary elephants, secrets, swordplay, and such stuff as the grandest adventures are made of–will be much more than half the fun."

Meteor Shower Fun

    A small group of us went to Clear Creek Campground to watch The Perseids Meteor Shower. We arrived at the campsite around midnight. We set up our chairs to start watching the show. I saw more shooting stars in one sitting than I think I have in my entire life. Andrew and I went to sleep around 3 am. I slept in the backseat of the car. Ben and Andrew slept outside. Ben went to sleep between 1:30-2 am. Jayna decided to drive home to sleep in her own bed. She left around 2 am. Overall, I only ended up getting around 2.5 hours of sleep.

    Ben, Andrew, and I left the campsite just after 6 am. We got to watch the sunrise. I didn't expect the sun to be as red as it was when it rose. After getting home, I showered and then went to church. After church, I came home, ate, and then crashed.

Thanks all for such a fun time! A new core memory for sure.

Left to Right: Ben, Andrew, Cassy (Me), Jayna

The Sunrise

Good Morning World

Mathis Party

    On Aug. 3 we had a Mathis party. Martha, Nick, Madalyn, Andrew, and Nathan were out from Virginia. David John was out from Mississippi, and Murray, Kimalee, and Kaizlee came out from Idaho. Other people who came to the party were Uncle Stan, Aunt Ann, Uncle Lee, Anna, McKay, Kriz, Marikit, Isagani, Uncle Wayne, Aunt Dianne, Ann, Adam, Jacob, Lexi, Michael, Jenny, Aaron, Grant, Sami,  Aunt Mary, Uncle Boyd, David, Kara, Jackson, Lilly, Asher, Corinne, Anna, Paul, Bell, Millie, Evie, Mom, Mandy, Mary, Meg, Aaron, and of course, me.

Here are a few pictures from the afternoon. I didn't think to take them earlier when everyone was still there, or have anyone look at the camera.  It was a great party and great to see everyone. Until next time!

 

The Sisters Brothers June Library Book Club

From Amazon: "NOW A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE STARRING JAKE GYLLENHAAL, JOHN C. REILLY AND JOAQUIN PHOENIX

A BOOKER PRIZE FINALIST

Hermann Kermit Warm is going to die. The enigmatic and powerful man known only as the Commodore has ordered it, and his henchmen, Eli and Charlie Sisters, will make sure of it. Though Eli doesn’t share his brother’s appetite for whiskey and killing, he’s never known anything else. But their prey isn’t an easy mark, and on the road from Oregon City to Warm’s gold-mining claim outside Sacramento, Eli begins to question what he does for a living-and whom he does it for.

With The Sisters Brothers, Patrick deWitt pays homage to the classic Western, transforming it into an unforgettable comic tour de force. Filled with a remarkable cast of characters-losers, cheaters, and ne’er-do-wells from all stripes of life-and told by a complex and compelling narrator, it is a violent, lustful odyssey through the underworld of the 1850s frontier that beautifully captures the humor, melancholy, and grit of the Old West and two brothers bound by blood, violence, and love."

If you want a tale of the Wild West, this is it. This book has shootouts, horse riding,  gold mining, and some romance. We discussed how the violence in this book is like other Western books, or for me, the Hunger Games. We discussed morals, how we develop them, and how they change over time. We discussed what characters we related to, if any. It was another great discussion. Thanks to all that came.

May Library Book Club: Cursed Bunny

This was the library's book club book for May. I did not make it to book club this month. I was initially planning on it, but I decided to go home for Mother's Day and did not make it back in time for book club. This book is a short story collection. I found them a little odd, but interesting. Thanks Alex for picking an interesting read.

From Amazon:

"SHORTLISTED FOR THE INTERNATIONAL BOOKER PRIZE AND WINNER OF A PEN/HEIM TRANSLATION GRANT

"Cool, brilliantly demented K-horror—just the way I like it!" —Ed Park, author of Personal Days

A stunning, wildly original debut from a rising star of Korean literature—surreal, chilling fables that take on the patriarchy, capitalism, and the reign of big tech with absurdist humor and a (sometimes literal) bite.

From an author never before published in the United States, Cursed Bunny is unique and imaginative, blending horror, sci-fi, fairytales, and speculative fiction into stories that defy categorization. By turns thought-provoking and stomach-turning, here monsters take the shapes of furry woodland creatures and danger lurks in unexpected corners of everyday apartment buildings. But in this unforgettable collection, translated by the acclaimed Anton Hur, Chung’s absurd, haunting universe could be our own, illuminating the ills of contemporary society.

“The Head” follows a woman haunted by her own bodily waste. “The Embodiment” takes us into a dystopian gynecology office where a pregnant woman is told that she must find a father for her baby or face horrific consequences. Another story follows a young monster, forced into underground fight rings without knowing the force of his own power. The titular fable centers on a cursed lamp in the approachable shape of a rabbit, fit for a child’s bedroom but for its sinister capabilities.

No two stories are alike, and readers will be torn whether to race through them or savor Chung’s wit and frenetic energy on every page. Cursed Bunny is a book that screams to be read late into the night and passed on to the nearest set of hands the very next day."

Eastering 2024

    Another Easter has come and gone. The Mathis Family got together on March 30 and went Eastering. We went to a place/hike called Wild Horse Window. On the way, we stopped to get sandwiches at Subway. That took forever. I don't know why the sandwiches for the group in front of us took so long, but I don't think we (Mom, Mandy, Mary, me, Avan, Aunt Ann, Uncle Lee, and Nathan) moved for like 15-20 min. We were a little late meeting up with Aunt Mary, Uncle Boyd, Kate, and the girls (Anna, Rinni, Millie, Evie). Meg and Aaron had gone to get sandwiches at Blipmies. They waited for us in the Subway/gas station parking lot and left when we left. 

    We finally made it and it was a little chilly up by the cars. So, we put on our jackets and ate lunch. Then it was time to set off for the hike. We went down the trail, which ended up being a lot warmer and some of us shed some layers. We also did an Easter Egg Hunt. We did it a little bit differently. The girls hid all the eggs and it was up to the adults to find the eggs as we hiked down to the caves. We found all but 1 of the eggs the girls had hidden. We explored the caves, took pictures, and just enjoyed the outdoors. Soon it was time to head back to the cars. When we got to the cars we ate some snacks, chatted for a bit, and then headed back to Aunt Ann and Uncle Lee's to spend the rest of the day together.

    It was a great day and I'm incredibly thankful for this family of mine. I love that we still get together and do things as an extended family. Thanks Mandy and Kate for sharing the photos you took so that I, along with mine, could put this post together and keep these memories.