Twinkle, Twinkle Big Bright Stars

Saturdays are often a catch up day around Marshmallow Ranch. Mr. FixIt headed to town first thing to pick up moulding for the newly painted hallway. And, of course, like every other trip to town, they didn’t have what he needed so he had to go to another store. In the meantime, I cleaned house.

The sun was shining brightly and the windows were really dingy after having a Christmas tree in front of them for months. I don’t know if you’ve ever used Norwex products, but they have a wonderful two-cloth system that doesn’t use chemicals. With the windows all sparkly, and the kitchen clean and tidy, I ran the vacuum then sat down with the computer to do a little more work on this project. 

I’m making a lot of progress and I think I’m still on course for the big reveal in the middle of March. I gave up on the more complex program and went back to the simpler, though more expensive, version. It’s looking good, I think. And I’m getting pretty psyched for it. Feeling appropriately enticed? ?

Just after dark, Mr. FixIt was heading to the kitchen to put the kettle on when he stopped and looked out the door in the family room. He went out without saying a word and I knew that meant he saw something in the sky. My sweetheart has a love for the out of doors and especially the night sky. We had perfectly clear skies last night and after days of rain, it was lovely to walk out and see the stars.

Just over the crest of the far hill were two huge stars. Well, actually…two huge planets. Jupiter and Venus were showing off last night and I was glad I grabbed my phone to snap a photo. The iPhone 13 Pro Max has an extraordinary camera and you can take photos of the stars in the night sky which astounds me. 

I remember making the trip to West Virginia in the summer of 2016 for my 45th High School Reunion. My Uncle had just asked me to come off the road to live on the farm and take care of it. When I got home after the last party, I laid down on the wheelchair ramp out back and watched the Milky Way. It is incredibly dark out there and with no light pollution, it felt like you could reach out and touch the stars. 

Star watching is one of my favorite things to do, too. I think that’s why Mr. FixIt and I both love to camp. We can get away from city lights and watch for shooting stars and satellites. I’ve still never caught a glimpse of StarLink but I have seen the International Space Station. We are still on the roller coaster of highs and lows on the thermometer, but Tony the Weatherman told us it looks like our risk of snow is pretty much gone. We had another very mild winter. On the one hand, I am concerned by the implications of climate change. But on the other, I am relieved we didn’t have a rough winter. As a matter of fact, we didn’t have to run the snowblower even once this year.

Today will be another mild one with a high near 60°. I’ll take that any day of the week!

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“He counts the stars and assigns each a name.”

Psalms 147:4 MSG

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