Christmas is finally over and the next holiday—Erin's Birthday Month—will soon begin. Most of you know I have not always been a fan of my birthday. This year I am going to try to be positive and enjoy gaining another year of wisdom (and many more gray hairs). 

Jon is off in sunny California helping our friends Tony and Beth move with their mother to Colorado. He said it was 66 degrees there yesterday. It was 29 degrees here. I am a bit jealous. I can't seem to get warm. I am grateful for the bit of sun we have had recently though. It breaks up the dreary days a bit. 

I do feel a bit lazy lately. I honestly had every intention of being productive during my winter vacation, but those plans have gone the way of the warm weather. I read a whole book yesterday and am partway through a second. Funny how exhilarating it is to come to the last page of a novel. I hadn't realized how little time I have spent reading these past few months. Reading also makes me want to write. I found myself sitting up in the middle of the night last night to write down a sentence I had dreamt. In the morning it was a little hard to decipher, but it wasn't bad. If I keep doing this I could have a whole notebook of single lines, but very little sleep.

Maybe that's what I will write next—a book entirely out of first lines. I'm good at opening lines, it's the middle and ending ones I get hung up on.  :)

We're lazy. All of us. Yes, it is a blanket statement that encompasses every human being. Okay, maybe that is going too far, but you have to admit, it does ring true. If we weren't a lazy society, why would companies continue to produce items that make life easier and keep us lazy? I guess it's kind of a "What came first?" scenario. Do companies produce products because of consumer laziness, or do the products make the consumers lazy?

For example, the electric jar opener. People have been taking jars off lids for years without the help of an electric appliance. I think Black & Decker makes one of these. At least try one of those rubber grip jar openers before you resort to plugging something in.

There are other lazy makers. The jar opener is not alone -- it is just one in a line of products that include jars of jelly with stripes of peanut butter (because if you can't open one jar without an electric jar opener, how can you be expected to open two), electric scissors (really?), crustless bread and easy feet (shown below, and something I considered buying because it was only $6.99).

I am the first  person to admit I'm not perfect -- I have been known to call my son on his cellphone when he was just downstairs -- but I can open my own jars, mix my own pb&j, use my muscles to cut a piece of paper, cut the crust off my own bread and I can definitely wash my own feet (although I wouldn't say no to a handsome, topless man fanning me with palm fronds while another one washes my feet).

Get up off your butts and start doing everyday tasks without handholding and running up your electric bill.