Day Of Rest

Sunday is a day of rest, and that's exactly what I did today.  Well, mostly.  I did get a wild hair and decided to make a buttermilk pie.  I hadn't had one in ages, but here lately, I've been feeling nostalgic.  I was thinking about my Aunt Martha, my dad's oldest sister.  She loved buttermilk pie, and when they used to come for Thanksgiving, I always made one for her.  We usually fought over the last piece...but not really.  I'd always let her have it. 

I had an extra pie crust in the freezer from Thanksgiving -- yes, I cheated and bought frozen crusts -- so when I was at the store Friday I picked up some buttermilk, and this afternoon I made a pie.  I'm not sure which recipe I used.  I just googled and picked the first one I saw that didn't call for lemon zest, which I don't have on hand.  It's out of the oven and cooling even as I type this.  I might have me a piece later.  

Other than that, I spent most of the day watching Christmas movies on Great American Family channel. They're kind of like Hallmark, but family friendly and faith based.   While I was doing that, I dragged out my wrapping paper to wrap a gift.

I guess I never paid that much attention until I got it all laid out together, but I'm seeing a theme here.  I guess when I hit the after Christmas sales this year, I'll have to look for some non-snowman themed wrapping paper, just for variety.  Of course, having my siblings and nephew's gifts shipped directly to them really cuts down on wrapping paper use, not to mention shipping costs.  

The only other thing I did was to winterize my outside faucets.  The one on the South side of my house, I put one of those Styrofoam faucet covers that you can buy at any Walmart or hardware store, but this one on the North side is a bit more difficult, because it's a double faucet.  I looked and looked and couldn't find any sort of cover that would fit.

In the past, I've wrapped it in towels, old t-shirts, even a pair of old sweat pants last year.  This year, I saved the insulation from when I bought more snake food and so I cut off a couple of pieces of that, wrapped the pipe, and secured it with zip ties. 

I left the faucets exposed so I can a) use them if I need to, and b) drip them if it gets really cold.  I don't usually have problems until the temps get down into the low 20s, so it should be OK.  I may get out later and wrap the insulation in plastic to help protect it from getting manky when it rains.  And by later, I mean tomorrow.  I've already showered, and don't want to fool with insulation again. 

And now, the moment you've all been waiting for, today's advent figure is another lamb.

And today's advent scripture is:  He will feed his flock like a shepherd: he will gather the lambs in his arms, and carry them in his bosom, and gently lead the mother sheep.  Isaiah 40:11

Full disclosure, I don't actually know what translation they're using in the little booklet, but that's the one I'm copying.  Also full disclosure, though I'm trying to find songs related to the figure I'm adding each day, there are going to be days when that just doesn't happen.  Today is one such day.   I only discovered this song a couple of years ago, and it's too good not to share.