She should have more fistfights.

I like house plants, within reason. They don't always like me, but that may be because I tend to forget about them until they are gasping and screaming out for water. When we moved here, the previous owners left a couple of them. One was a giant palm tree thing that loved the sunroom. It died. No idea why. Don't palm trees like hot, dry conditions? The other one was odd looking. It was sort of spiky and had leaves that grew from one another in long strands. And the new ones were sort of red. I had no idea what it was, so I stuck it on a plant shelf with the others and watered it occasionally. While other plants withered and died, this one seemed very happy. Then one day, I noticed buds on the ends of the leaves. I thought they were just new leaves. But a few days later, this is what it looked like:

My mother informed me it was a Christmas cactus, and that if I followed the pattern of light/dark/light/dark, it would bloom at Christmas.

But I thought I'd experiment a bit (actually, I couldn't be bothered moving it to a closet, and really, do you think there's any empty space in a closet in my house?) and left it in front of the dining room window. And do you know that cactus blooms faithfully every late October? And again in November or December. And usually in the spring too. And who am I to stand in the way of this plant asserting its little non-traditional will? I'll take flowers whenever I can get them.

In other news, (World's laziest transition. My literary genius amazes even me.) Lovely, bless her heart, had a bit of a rough day. She began it by oversleeping 45 minutes, and then had the pleasure of breaking up not one but two fistfights in her music classes today. Middle school—where the hormones rage and even music doesn't calm the savage beasts. One of Lovely's co-workers refers to the children as "pre-people."

So in celebration of a truly awful day, here's how she's finishing up:

Edy's Loaded Butterfinger ice cream, straight out of the tub. My kinda girl.

Be thankful ~

Karen

ps. In case you're wondering, Wylie has a broken back (no paralysis) and bleeding on the brain. For the last few days he has seemed awake, but has been very combative and didn't know much of anything. Today he snapped out of it,  recognized his wife, and asked where he was and what had happened. Things are looking up. Thanks for the prayers.