The season of giving

I just made my annual donation to Planned Parenthood. I would encourage everyone to consider donating during the holidays to their favorite cause. It will make you feel very good.

Winter Skin Care: Hands

The cold, dry weather has started to take its toil on me. I've noticed how dry and itchy my skin is starting to feel. We have the humidifier going in the bedroom and that has helped.

A few days ago I purchased Alaffia's Shea Butter. My bedtime ritual is now to rub it on my hands before I go to sleep. I think it's doing the trick. I even ended up buying some gloves to wear when i do the dishes. I used them once, but don't feel like I did as good of job getting things clean. I guess I'll practice on that, but I haven't gotten in the habit of wearing them yet.

Any other suggestions?

Omaha City Parks: Grace Young

So, I thought I would visit a few parks around my fair town this summer. First stop: Grace Young Park. It is the closest park to my home and it is a sad little place.

Firstly, who was Grace Young? I couldn't track any information down on the internet. Guess I'll see if I can scrounge anything up next time I pop in at the library. GYP doesn't seem to have much going for it. The location is right off of NW Radial Hwy so there is a lot of traffic noise.

The only facilities were a small playground, a baseball diamond, and one basketball hoop. The park needed to be mowed badly:
According to Keep Omaha Beautiful the park has been adopted, but whomever is looking after it must be on vacation. There was a pile of mismatched shoes in one spot that seemed as if they'd been there for awhile. Bits of garbage and weeds and no flowers dotted the landscape. The park is surrounded on three sides by houses. You think someone would do a better job of keeping it up.

I was there around 9 am this morning and had the place to myself. Hopefully, the city does a better job with the rest of its parks.

an extra day

february 29th only happens every four years and it was an exceptionally wonderful day today. although the only sign of the upcoming spring here is the melting snow, it was a truly beautiful day. not a cloud in the sky (there was actually a teeny one, but when i tried to take a picture of it, it had disappeared).


i was productive in the kitchen this morning making granola and white chip chocolate cookies.

good thing the weather cooperated and i managed to get my walk in. enjoy!