There aren’t many animals in my life these days. When I was kid, we always had pets. My parents adopted Freddie, a poodle-schnauzer mix, just before they got pregnant with me. After Freddie was hit by a car, we got Toasty, a sweet dog of unknown parentage. A black and white cat that accidentally ended up with the name Dinky joined the family when I was 13.

After Toasty died in 1995, we picked out Bonnie at the Troutdale animal shelter. She was a boarder collie/blue heeler mix and I still miss her. When I was in college, my parents picked up Uma, a massive calico, at a rest stop in Umatilla. Later, Raina started traveling for a living and her cat Woody moved in with my parents. These days, my parents have Little Pearl, a two-year-old cat they adopted a year ago when Woody’s absence became too much.

I am a pet person living in a building that doesn’t allow animals of any kind. Seeing all the sweet bunnies at the Farm Show reminded me how much I miss co-existing and caring for a little, furry creature.

We got so much snow over night that Scott’s office was closed and I had to cancel a scheduled canning class. We hunkered down for a snow day at home and I pulled out my two vintage sandwich makers. They are a little bit of a pain to clean, but make for a fun treat.

One of the pitfalls of working from home for me is remembering to feed myself lunch. More often than not, what ends up happening is that I get hungry around 1 pm, but then get distracted. Then, around 2:30 my brain stops working and I end up mindlessly shoveling crackers or a granola bar into my mouth until I regain my cognitive powers. It is not the best system.

When I was in Portland last week, I took notice of how my mom eats lunch. Some days she eats leftovers from the night before. On days where no such riches exist, she just grabs a piece of fruit, cuts up a couple carrots, and pulls some cheese or hummus out of the fridge. It’s easy, flexible, and is an approach I’ve decided to steal.

Today when I found myself overwhelmed with hunger, I sliced two carrots, peeled an orange, opened a box of crackers, and rummaged for cheese. Hooray for eating lunch!

I’ve done a several of these yearlong photo projects. In the past, I started them on my birthday and took pictures from one age to another. I did a pretty good job when I was 31 and managed to hold it together for 32. However, during my 33rd year, I just couldn’t keep it going and gave up entirely about a month before my second book’s deadline.

However, I can’t resist the temptation to start something on January 1 and so am taking another stab. One photo a day for all of 2014. The requirements are simple. The photo must be taken with a camera other than the one on my phone and can’t be for a work project. Beyond that, the sky is the limit.