January

2016 is rolling right along without many blog-worthy happenings in the Judd household. But in an effort to bring everyone up to date, here are a few things that have kept us busy:

• On Saturday, Jan. 2, we drove Tim to Waco to start his trip back home. He flew from Waco to Dallas, and then from Dallas to Albuquerque. He said it was a good flight.

• A few days after Tim's departure, Dan had some outpatient surgery to remove two cysts beneath his skin. The one on his jaw area was small, and the healing was a breeze, according to him. The one on the back of his shoulder was large, and gave him a lot of pain for several days. He went back two weeks later to have the stitches out, and he's feeling fine now.

• My friend, Janet, and I switched from the Tuesday art class to the Thursday one, taught by the same teacher. I started a new painting, which is proving to be a challenge. Up until now, all of my paintings have been studies of other artists' works. This one is based on a photo that I took, of ducks beside a duck pond. It has brought me to a realization -- that painting from reality is much harder than painting from another artist's example (DUH!) As my teacher says, "When you do a study of another painting, the other artist has already figured everything out. From a photo, YOU have to figure it all out." (If that makes sense.) So, difficult though it is, I'm learning a LOT from this exercise. Today I added in the second of the three ducks, so I'm well on my way. Here's the photo. MAYBE I'll post the painting when it's done . . . depending . . .

• My friend, Wynn, who used to live here in Temple, but now lives about three hours away, came to town a week or so ago, and the two of us plus one other friend, Susan, got together for a nice long lunch. It had been a long time, and we had lots to catch up on.

• Last Thursday (which was my birthday) we drove down to Georgetown and went out to dinner with our long-time friends, Milt and Susie. They took us to a great barbecue place, then back to their house for apple dumplings, which Susie had baked. The recipe she used was really good -- and fun. It involved wrapping the sliced apples in Pillsbury crescent roll dough, adding sugar and spice, and then pouring a can of Mountain Dew in the pan before popping them in the oven.

• While at Milt and Susie's I got a sweet "happy birthday" phone call from Chris, Kelsey and the grands. Clara and Robert had just come from a math/science event at school, and Robert was jazzed about it. He also told me that he is the first kindergartner at school to have learned all 100 of his sight words. Bravo Robert!

• During this same visit, Susie gave me a terrific idea. She said she and several friends get together, once a week, for lunch . . . via Skype, because the others are in California. That started the wheels turning in my head. Because we've moved around a lot, I have "best friends" spread along a crooked path stretching from Alaska to Texas. Maybe occasional Skype lunches would be just the ticket for us to keep up with one another. It's on my "think-it-through-and-make-it-happen" list :-)