Gems from Ohio Caverns

 Today marks 11 years since Joe lost his mother and I lost my mother-in-law.  We've both experienced so much loss of loved ones, but her loss has been the hardest.  I don't expect the grief to ever go away.  She left a void, a crack in my heart that will never be the same.  Over the years since, rather unconsciously, I've surrounded myself with many wonderful older ladies who's friendships have begun to seep into that crack, slowly filling it.  But not of the same substance for the evidence of such deep loss will always be there under the surface.  Though different now, the mark remains, like kintsugi.  While I still wish I had more time with my mother-in-law, I'm so grateful for the time we did have and for how quickly she welcomed my into her family, years before Joe and I were even engaged or married.  ❤

Over the summer, Joe planned a trip for us and didn't tell me where we were going.  He kept the secret until we arrived at our destination.  We had a wonderful stay in an romantic escape room, explored a beautiful local park, and on a whim, went to the Ohio Caverns on our way home.  We had time before the next available tour so of course we went shopping in their gift shop.  I really loved seeing all the cool stuff they had, and I brought home these stunning gems.

I was admittedly a bit nervous that Míriel would try to pouch a stone, but thankfully she just gave them each a sniff.  I think she just wanted to be sure that there were no other pecans hiding among the gems.  Haha!

Elendil is a bit hard to photograph as he isn't too interested in food so there isn't much I can offer him to convince him to stay put.  I thought if I arranged the rocks in a circle, maybe he'd feel trapped, but he in fact was more than willing to wander out of circle, so the picture taking didn't last very long.  But that's okay.  He's still the best little boy.  😊

SETI Board Game

We got this game over the summer and have enjoyed playing it a few times.  It's longer so it doesn't make it to the table much now that we are busier with Joe being at work and overseeing IEN when he gets home from work.  We've paired down our game collection quite a bit, but we still have plenty of others to choose from when we do get a chance to play a game.  We really like this game though!

Míriel is getting old enough now that I'm starting to subtle changes in her.  She's a bit less active and her fur is getting a bit lighter in color.  But she still regularly surprises me with how crazy she is, especially when I'm cleaning her tank.  She is still quite unrelenting about trying to escape while I've got her lid open for cleaning.

Elendil hasn't been out as often in the evenings before we go to bed, so I don't see him as much as I'd like.  I know Chinese Dwarf Hamsters are known for being incredibly shy and elusive.  And while Elendil does somewhat fit that stereotype, he is also so incredibly sweet when I do get to hold him.  

Flower Favors

 At the end of May, we went to a wedding and for the favors, they had these little flower pots and packets of seeds.  I didn't get them planted right away, but eventually I did.  Not much actually sprouted and it still has not bloomed, so I'm not sure what it is.  But it's fun to have mystery flowers in the garden.  :)

Míriel was so happy to get some strawberry!  Since it's seasonal, she doesn't get it very often, and she clearly loves them!

I absolutely love how well Elendil fit in the tiny pots!  He likes small spaces as they make him feel safe, so he happily curled up in them.  So precious!!

Grey Chair

 Posting on my blogs seems to get harder and harder.  My life is busier than I'd like, but not quite so much in terms of appointments, but more in a mental load of trying to keep track of everything.  In addition to that, the new school year has started and it's been a bit of a rough transition for me.  I miss Joe when he's gone, and yet get a bit frustrated that he's home so early.  I'm losing out on about 3 hours of per day of time on our desktop.  He offers to use his laptop so I can keep working on the desktop and sometimes we do that, but I generally just let him use the desktop because his work feels so much more important than mine.  Overall, I'm slowly adjusting to the changes in our schedule and do like this new schedule better.

These pictures of the hams are so old.  I've taken new ones, but want to post them in order of oldest to newest.  Míriel is such a sweet girl with the biggest personality.  I love her so much!

Elendil is shy, but so sweet.  I think it's funny that he looks so much like a mouse in these pictures where you can't see the rest of his body.  He's a petite little guy!

Love Seat

 I was slammed with lots of extra projects for my job at my church these last couple of months, but basically everything is done now which feels so good!  The biggest project I had was putting together a new pictorial directory.  I've accomplished all that I can on it.  Now I'm just waiting for paper to be ordered so we can get them printed and into people's hands.  I'm honestly really proud of it.  I've been losing my excitement for it though since my part was done 2 weeks ago.  This waiting is difficult for me, especially because part of what I was proud of was how quickly I accomplished this major task and because my goal of when I thought we would be handing them out doesn't seem possible anymore.  Oh well.

I haven't taken new pictures of the hamsters yet, but that's okay since I haven't posted some of the pictures I have already taken, like these.  Doesn't Míriel look so dreamy next to these beautiful sheer curtains?  She's just so pretty!!

Elendil is pretty difficult to photograph, since he isn't very food motivated.  I've been seeing him so much more often than I used to which makes me so happy.  He's such a precious little guy!!

Table

 Life has been busy, and I haven't prioritized posting any blogs.  I've struggled to want to share my blog posts on social media because there is just so much garbage on there all the time now.  That actually used to help motivate me for a while because I wanted my sweet hamsters, cats, plants, and photography work to be able to be a bright spot for people in the midst of the doom and gloom that is social media.  But now social media has managed to get even worse that I can't bring myself to be posting on there.  I feel like that would be encouraging people to stay on those sites, and I just don't see the value in that anymore.  So I think if my blogs are going to continue, they will officially become separate from social media.  That probably means even fewer people will see them than before when I shared them regularly on Facebook and Instagram.  But I'm okay with that.  The writing is cathartic for me.  And thinking that no one reads this gives me a sense of freedom to let go of any facade I tried to maintain before.  

Míriel is getting old.  I'm starting to see it.  I haven't checked recently to see how old she is because I am not sure I want to face the possibility that she's closing in on the end of her life.  She has so much spunk and personality.  She's so entertaining and I just love her so much.  Honestly, I think losing her and Elendil will hit harder than many of the previous hamsters.  These two are so amazing.  I don't spend nearly as much time as I should.  And that gets straight to the heart of why I'm so desperately wanting to stay in denial that she's getting older.  She's dear to me, and yet I don't spend enough time showing her that.  I'm gonna change that though.  💗

I don't see Elendil nearly as much as I'd like.  He's never gotten as tame as I'd hoped.  He's fine once I've caught him, but he doesn't like being caught.  He brings me so much joy whenever I see him though and I really could use more joy in my life.  So I'm going to make the choice to spend more time with him and getting him more tame.  I adore the little guy and I want him to feel that warmth and love from me.  💙

White Blanket

I feel the pull of spring creeping closer as the days are getting longer and the weather is slowly starting to have more and more warmer days mixed in.  But the nights are still ridiculously cold, and I'm thankful for soft blankets to cuddle under.

I've already had Míriel for over a year which is honestly so surprising to me.  She's still as crazy as the day I got her.  But I appreciate that she is a good little model for me.  😊

Elendil had no interest in modeling for me, and I barely got these pictures.  Instead he wanted to burrow through the blanket.  He's ridiculously good at creating tunnels.  I love seeing the network of tunnels that he has in his tank.  I do feel guilty whenever I'm cleaning and have to destroy his hard work, but he quickly rebuilds them.