webgrits

No news is good news

Today is the second full day of the Anchoress' online retreat. As part of the retreat, the Anchoress is turning away from posting about things political. She says:

Often our daily routine tends to corrupt our view, so that we begin to believe we need some things to survive - that we need to check in on the news 5 times a day, we need to answer some snarky remark in an internet forum. During this retreat time, I would urge you to resist the urge to follow your ordinary blog-reading/news-reading patterns, to step away from the computer as much as possible and consider that the time you would normally spend online might be better spent snoozing in the hammock, taking a walk, visiting a neighbor or picking up an old, discarded hobby.

While taking part in the retreat, I've decided to give up my online news addiction, and I am also avoiding watching the news on TV or listening to it on the radio. Lately, I've found the news just serves to annoy or anger me, and I decided a week without that would be a good thing.

I haven't given up the Internet altogether, though, but I have been trying to spend my Internet time more constructively. My first task has been researching how to make soap. I've read about methods, looked at ingredients at various vendor websites, and even ordered a book on Amazon. I'm hoping to try my hand at a batch of soap soon, and, if I'm successful, I'll make some for Christmas presents.

My second task has been working to set up an Etsy rosary guild. A recent newsletter from my rosary part vendor encouraged rosary makers to reach out to each other and form community. That sounded like a great idea to me, and, today, I asked a fellow Etsy rosary maker from Alabama to form the team with me. She loved the idea, and it looks like we're going to do it.

A final, unrelated note: Dear Lord, please help me get through the evening with this whiny, annoying puppy. This is the worst part of crate training, and, even though she'd been doing fairly well, she's having a bit of a relapse tonight. Too bad you can't tell a dog to use her inside voice ;)

Our new puppy

Our new puppy Maggie
Originally uploaded by webgrits

This past weekend, my husband and I made a trip to the local Animal Services to adopt a second dog. Our dog Jackson has been a bit glum since the next door neighbors, and their chocolate Lab, moved away, and we'd always planned to get another dog at some point.

After choosing two puppies from Petfinder, we headed to the pound. Once there, we were told that both puppies had already been adopted, but they had lots of new puppies if we were interested in looking at them.  We went into the kennel, and my husband and I immediately fell in love with the sweetest little puppy.

Maggie may look a bit like a Beagle, but she is half Border Collie and half Great Dane. She's 2 months old, and she's probably 3 times the size Jackson was at her age. She's about half the size a purebred Great Dane would  be at her age, so at least maybe she won't get quite that big.