Change Is Hard

…but change is certain.

Tag Archives: New Year


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Happy New Year!

Penny here.

As you can see it’s already January 4th and mom hasn’t posted since Christmas! When I decided to adopt my parents I didn’t realize that I’d have to do everything around here!

Anyway, I didn’t want you all to think we aren’t thinking about you, and reading your blogs and stuff, so I hopped on here to bring you up to date. (OK. I just hopped on here cause I like the attention. I really have no idea what’s going on!)

My dog mom, me, and my dog mom’s bff.

All I know is that mom and dad had some stuff to do and they asked my breeder if I could go live with her for a few days and she (of course, cause she loves me) said yes!

In fact she said she would be more than happy to have me visit because she has a new puppy named Sarah, who is my niece, and she thought we might like to play together. And maybe then Sarah would quit bugging her mom to play all day.

This is my niece Sarah. She’s 6 months old and she’s a pistol!

Well! I am nothing if not willing to play all day!

And so, my breeder tells my mom, we did. All day, every day, for three whole days. It was sooooooo fun! That little Sarah is in high gear all the time! Sometimes even I had to jump up on the sofa and tell her to settle down.

But mostly we played.

Me and my dog mom on the sofa avoiding the puppy and checking if anyone had treats for us.

And when mom finally came and took me back home I fell asleep on my sofa next to my dad right away. And I slept all night too.

Yep…I don’t know what’s going on around here, but I hope they send me to visit Sarah again soon! I have great expectations for lots of fun in 2025! I think Sarah and I will be good friends. Even if I have to tell her off once in awhile.

Zonked out at home with my dad.

I hope you have a wonderful 2025 too.

Meanwhile I’ll try to get mom to take her blog responsibilities more serious. She says she’s still struggling with all the new stuff but she’ll try. I have less than high hopes that she’ll figure it all out.

My breeder trimmed my ears too, don’t I look GOOD?!

Well, I guess I’ll talk to you all later, I gotta go supervise the birds at my feeders. I don’t know what they did when I wasn’t here,

Your Auntie – girl, Penny.


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Another year flies by

Somehow we’re headed toward the new year already. Day after tomorrow will be the first day of 2024, and nothing I can do will stop it.

Time is moving so quickly, it’s all a blur.

It hasn’t been easy, 2023, and part of me is happy enough to see it go. But it’s all moving so fast I wonder, if in a week or so, I’ll be welcoming 2025. 

We all need to spend more time sitting still and listening.

It seems I blink and whole months have evaporated. I’m almost afraid to blink again.

Here’s hoping 2024, an election year in the US, encourages us to work together rather than against each other, helps us find new ways to connect with each other, and highlights the good inside so many of us.

Santa has headed back to the North Pole, now it’s on each of us to find our own joy.

I am hoping. But maybe I should just blink us into 2025.

We can hope.

Happy New Year everyone. I’ll see you in 2024. 


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Finishing up 2022

I’m sitting here watching my birds at our feeders. We have a lot of feeders, starting out with one we thought they could all share…then realizing that some birds aren’t sharers at heart.

Waiting his turn.

Now I fill 4 feeders every morning, and hope I can go the rest of the day without heading out to fill them again. But with the weather this week, all the wind and cold and snow, the birds were ravenous and I ended up out there more than once on each cold, nasty day.

Make room for one more!

Anyway, the year is winding down and I feel like I should be reflecting on 2022. But, in our family, it was a difficult year and one that might best be let go without any formality.

Grab a seed and go, little buddy, before that big woodpecker comes back!

Best, maybe, to anticipate next year. I am very hopeful about 2023.

It’s hard to wait your turn when you’ve got snow melting on your beak.

I’m hoping there are camping adventures waiting in the woods, perhaps even near a dark sky park.

A fluffy downy woodpecker checks out the inventory.

I am hopeful for clear warm summer nights when the moon is new, and wild stormy cloud filled skies during afternoon barn searches.

A hairy woodpecker wants to know who ate all the peanuts.

I’m hopeful for lush gardens of vibrant flowers filled with fat buzzing bees and the whisper of hummingbird wings.

A nuthatch keeps watch while grabbing a snack.

I’m hopeful for red ripe tomatoes warmed by the afternoon sun, and bluebirds nesting in their boxes way out in the yard.

Mr. Cardinal enjoys a peaceful lunch.

I’m hopeful for a long bike ride or two, and more than a couple kayak trips down a river or across a lake.

Mrs. Redbelly asks who failed to clean the snow off the suet?

I’m hopeful I’ll see Alabama again after too long away, that I’ll get to float again in the warm southern waters talking with neighbors and family until the sun slides down in a glorious sunset.

The bluejay is not known for waiting patiently.

And I’m hopeful I’ll get to see my Lake Michigan in all it’s moods a few times too, maybe even Lake Superior if I’m extra lucky.

The mourning dove is almost always the last bird in to eat.

I hope I’ll be able to roam further from home too, perhaps even to dark skies in other states. I’ve heard Michigan does not hold a monopoly on the stars.

Mr. Redbelly decides what his next snack should be.

And I’m hoping I’ll get to share it all with you. And maybe, just maybe if we’re exceptionally lucky, I’ll be able to share it with a new puppy.

A bit of peaceful coexistence.

But that’s a story that has to wait to be told.

Eating as fast as he can.

Meanwhile I’ll sit in my chair near the window and watch my birds as they devour their lunch and dream about another, happier, year.

Mrs. Cardinal eats her fill.

May you all have dreams for 2023, and may the best of those come true.

A house finch chews on an after-dinner stem.


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A New Year Begins

It’s 4:30 a.m. and Katie the dog wants to go out. Just like every morning, her timing is meticulously accurate. I shake the sleep from my eyes as she shakes the tags on her collar and together we stumble to the front door where she prances impatiently as I don shoes and coat and gloves.

And then we step out into the blackness that is early morning.

Deep silence surrounds us. No cars out on the freeway, no stirring in the neighborhood. Only the far away wail of a train intrudes on the thick blanket of quiet. I whisper to her, unwilling to pierce the silence myself, to find a good spot as we wander the yard.

Almost directly overhead is the big dipper, sitting upside down, spilling good wishes down upon us. Orion’s belt has long since gone to bed. “Hi Dad,” I whisper. “Here’s to a New Year. Another one starting without you and mom.”

And then I pause, a bit of happiness floating from me up to him. “Well, not really without you…I feel you right here. See you tomorrow morning…say hi to Mom”

Katie and I head silently back to the house. At the front porch she stands on her back legs asking to be picked up. I do, picking up her awkwardly lopsided bobble-headed cone encased self and give her a tight hug and a kiss.

“Happy New Year baby-girl, Happy New Year.”

Happy New Year mama!

Happy New Year mama!