Learning Restraint

Our First Little Snow!

It's been a while since I posted.  My computer desk has been hidden under a pile of junk for a week and a half.  The whole downstairs is a mess.  Two years ago I made one of the upstairs bedrooms into a sewing room.  It was a nice quiet place to work most of the year, but in winter it's COLD up there!  I have been doing my sewing on the kitchen table, which is not the ideal situation. 

Recently I found out about an industrial machine that was for sale in Bedford County.  Sunday a week ago we went and got it.  It's BIG and HEAVY!  It's NOT going upstairs!  No Way!!!  So now I am in the process of setting up a sewing area in what was supposed to be a living room.  But since we don't usually lounge around watching TV and doing nothing else, it was more of a Work Room.  The TV, Zip's fly tying desk, and the comfy chair have now been moved into what had been the dining room near the woodstove.  We hardly ever used the dining room table for eating.  It was more of a depisitory for books and papers and anything else we didn't feel like putting away at the moment.

Needless to say there was a lot of furniture being moved around and lots of junk that needs to find a home elsewhere.  Elsewhere is becoming harder and harder to find.  My storage spaces are FILLED!  The industrial sewing machine was parked in front of my computer desk awaiting it's space.  I read everyone's blogs, just didn't have room to sit down and respond.  So I must apologise for not commenting lately.

Things are now getting back to where we can move around and not trip over the mess.

We have been spending a lot of time with the cats.  Reggie is fitting in nicely.  The initiation process was accomplished with a minimum of hissing and growling.  He's a sweet little guy!  He looks like there may be Maine Coon in his ancestry.

We have always allowed cats to pretty much wander where ever they want in the house.  We don't yell at them for being on the countertops or table.  Mostly they are pretty well-behaved while we eat.  Deiter and Isabell are not interested in 'people food'.  Tipper will wait politely and we will give her three small pieces of meat.  All she ever wants is three pieces.  Penny is our Hungry Cat.  She wants anything that we eat.  We had sternly talked to her about staying back a reasonable distance from our plates and waiting till we offered her something.  Her manners were improving.  But you can see that she is not happy.

Reggie, with his feral outdoor upbringing, is also a Hungry Cat.  It's a grab-n-growl world out there!  So with two who seriously want to raid our plates, things have gotten out of hand!

Here Penny is just a little too close and is giving me that 'aaaw, Mom!' look when I tell her to get back.

She will try to hide next to Tippy because Tippy doesn't get chastised because she quietly sits back out of the way.  She is making herself look like we beat her!  Because.....

Sometimes we have to show her the Long Arm of the Law.  A little smack of the paper on the table and Mommy is NO FUN!

Now she is really looking pathetic.  Check the squinty eyes, the pinched and starving look!  Oh, the poor sick little darling!!!  I don't think she gets enough to eat.  Even though just three feet away there is a full bowl of kitty kibble....

Meanwhile Reggie is NOT being a perfect little gentleman either.  He's trying to climb up Zip's pants leg and clawing into the flesh.  Zip is mumbling nasty things under his breath.

So everyone has now been banned from the table while we eat.  No more people food treats until manners are firmly in place!  The one who is having the hardest time sticking to the plan is Zip.  The Old Softie!  The kitties have only needed gentle verbal reminders that they need to stay down and not beg.

Other times they may be on the table and join in whatever is going on.  Like unpacking the groceries.

Or working on my sewing projects.

Oooops!  There goes the nose in the coffee cup!  Just when you think you're making progress.....

I do know that eventually these young ones will grow up to be well-mannered adults.  It just takes time and patience.  And when they finally get there, they are a true joy to live with.  Like my darling Deiter who loves to sit and hold hands.

Learning restraint isn't easy!

Could that be why I'm sitting here amid a pile of 'stuff' that I don't know what to do with???

The Machine

Hope all of you are ready for Christmas!

It will be over before we know it and we'll be left wondering why it had to be so crazy.

I just want to get back to some rug hooking.