Tag Archives: family

Day 6

still making better meal choices. We had dinner out friday night, but once in a 5 day period is honestly unheard of for us. we rarely cook even one meal at home during the week.

spent the afternoon today with the kid, we cleaned and decluttered the desk and shelf unit in my old office room and then i helped her sort through a bunch of boxes she had stored here in her old room. we made great progress! what a feeling of accomplishment!

there were some tears as we stumbled across things that would evoke a sudden memory of some we have lost (a rock of all things was my kryptonite today), but that was tempered by finding silly forgotten things like this…

and these fangs! and bow tie!

and i still can’t find my pecan…

happy new year

2016 was not a terrible year, we played some games,  got to travel a bit, visit family and celebrate their special day.  met some new friends and found a new friday night hangout place.  got some visits from family and friends as well.   looking forward to 2018 and new adventures.

 

my mom is magic!! and merry christmas

i am going to flip the script a bit here, this wasn’t a strange phone call from my mom, it was a strange phone call to my mom!

so christmas eve day found my daughter and i making an old family cookie recipe that involves rolling and cutting the dough,while the boys talked about video games and got started on the holiday cheer. we followed the instructions and go the dough mixed up and it held together well in the bowl (as expected)

however when we tried to take a ball and roll it out on the counter it broke apart. we thought we should add a bit more milk, but i never bake and the kid leans more toward cupcake mastery, so we did the smart thing and called mom/grandma for help. i described in detail what was happening, that it seemed right in the bowl but wasn’t quite ready when being rolled. she thinks for a second or two and says, add 2 tablespoons of milk and mix it all in.

and i shit you not, from 1500 miles away, that woman somehow looked at my bowl, might have even kneaded it a little in some magical way and knew not only that we needed more milk but exactly how much we needed. MAGIC I SAY!

P.S. the cookies were excellent.

Spicy griddle cookies (no need for the oven)

3 1/2 cups sifted all purpose flour

1 cup sugar

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

1/2 tsp baking soda

1 tsp pumpkin or apple pie spice

1 cup shortening

1 egg

1/2 cup milk

stir dry ingredients together in bowl, cut in shortening til mixture is mealy. Beat egg and milk together, add to flour and mix until well blended.

Roll out 1/4 in thin and cut into desired shapes.

Heat griddle until water drops ‘dance’ on it. Lightly greas griddle, place cut outs on it leaving space between cookies

Flip when tops become ‘puffy’. makes around 4 dozen 2 inch cookies

Best served warm

T99, wait no 99k

So as i sit here this morning enjoying my coffee and a quick crossword puzzle before the rest of the household begins to stir, the phone rings.

i see my mom’s name on the screen and know it is time for  a strange phone call from mom!

i can hear a  lot of background noise and realize it is an auctioneer going a mile a minute, and Mom says, ” i need you to do me a favor ASAP look up a singer T99 and see if it is a featherweight.”

To many this may seem like gibberish, but i hopped into action and googled “Singer T99 Sewing Machine “.Mmom confirms she can’t get too close to it so isn’t sure of the model number, my google search comes back with a 99k in a search result and just about then she confirms it is indeed a 99k   As i read to her from one of the links, that it is not a featherweight, but appears to be the precursor to such and it comes in just under 30 lbs.  we discuss the prices on the ebay/etsy listings and she determines her highest bid and we disconnect the call.

i love my mom and as always, you know that i feel it is important to tell people you love them, even if it is simply by asking for an auction item lookup and delivering said data in a quick, concise response 😀

I will update later with the results, did she get it, or did someone bid higher?!  (i know you can’t wait for the results)

catfishing. no really…

today’s random call from mom was to find a way to determine the weight of a ginormous catfish based on it’s species and length.  thank you Missouri Department of Conservation, i will be forever grateful for your assistance 🙂

catfish

(the fish was 46 inches and according to the chart 44.47 lbs)
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mending the rift

I will tell you something not a lot of people know…  my big sister and I had a very very big fight a few years before she died, she actually didn’t speak to me unless it was to yell at me for about 6 months, what I did wasn’t really that bad, it was completely necessary, even. In time she realized it, ‘forgave’ me and even thanked me for what I had done that had caused the rift between us.

3 months ago on the morning that she passed away, all I could think of was how glad I was that that rift had been mended and we were again as close as we had been before it happened.  She was again one of my best friends and someone I could count on to be there for me as I would be there for her.

I can’t imagine how much greater the pain of her passing would have been if we hadn’t resumed our regular conversations about absolutely nothing, and absolutely everything…

I ask you now to take a moment and look around you… literally and figuratively… look at the people who are and have been part of your life. The ones who are still there and the ones who are not. The ones who are there, do you make sure they are aware of their importance in your life. Do you thank them for the things they do and tell them you love and/or appreciate them and their presence in your life?  Now the ones who are not there… some we obviously can’t do anything about they are beyond our reach, lost to us and there will always be a piece of our heart missing, but some, SOME, we can still reach out to and try to mend that rift and see if there is a way to bring them back into our lives. We might not even be aware of what caused them to pull away, or we might know exactly what it was, we may need to give or ask for forgiveness.

I understand this may need some thought, and i fully understand not all rifts can be mended. It might not be something that can be decided right now, all I ask is that you look around and think about it. Can you really live without that person for the rest of your life, without that forgiving or forgiveness? Think about the part they have played in your life up to now, and what has been missing since they stopped being part of your life.  Now imagine you don’t have a chance to make up for lost time.

Feel free to share this post if you think others can benefit from it. Family is too precious to let petty grievances keep them apart.

Book Review: The Sugar Queen by Sarah Addison Allen

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Josey Cirrinni recieves some unexpected help with a problem she didn’t realize she had and meets Chloe Finley in the process helping her as well.  So far i have read 3 of Sarah Addison Allen’s books and have not been disappointed.

Another book filled with friendships and magic. Imagine a book appearing next to you on the couch addressing a problem you might not even realize you had! Chloe and Josey help each other with their problems another’s mind is set at ease allowing her to move on to the next step in her journey.

Josey turned her head as her bedroom door began to open. Then, in a small act that changed everything, Josey reached over and pushed the closet door closed as her mother entered the room.

Josey’s decision that morning set in motion things that she could never have imagined.

i was not surprised at the end of the book when the final outcome was reached, but getting to that outcome made for a wonderful story.

You can find out more about Sarah and her books at her website: http://www.sarahaddisonallen.com/the_peach_keeper.html

Book Review: The Peach Keeper by Sarah Addison Allen

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Welcome to Walls of Water, North Carolina

From the second paragraph of this book, i was hooked.

If anyone had been paying attention to the signs, they would have realized that air turns white when things are about to change, that paper cuts mean there’s more to what’s written on the page than meets the eye, and that birds are always out to protect you from things you don’t see.

This is a story about a small town, lifelong friendships and the secrets that both of these can help keep and  expose.

As Paxton Osgood is bringing new life back to a centuries old home the secrets of those who lived there are unable to remain secret.

Family history uncovers enlightening and at times troublesome information, that will forge new friendships and open the way for major changes in the lives of Paxton and Willa Jackson.

i was quickly dragged into Walls of Water and didn’t want to leave when i turned the last page.

The mysteries were solved, but i was left wanting to know more about the people and the town.  It made me question what it means when i make my coffee every morning since i rarely take it the same way twice in a row  and why the birds sometimes gather in my backyard.  i will always think of this story and especially Grandma Georgie when i eat a peach.  I hope you will love the town and its people as much as I did

i will definitely be picking up some more of Sarah’s books soon

you can find out more about Sarah and her books at her website: http://www.sarahaddisonallen.com/the_peach_keeper.html

Memories are odd things…

So i got this great new game for my laptop, Magic Puzzles, it basically allows me to turn my touch screen into a giant jigsaw puzzle.  from 70 pieces to 630, and you can get multiple puzzle packs, from free to $1.49 (that one had 20 puzzles in it)

So anyway! long story a little bit shorter, I was sitting here on the couch doing a puzzle and suddenly had the strongest memory of sitting at my Grandma’s house and doing puzzles on their big hardwood bar.  it seems there was always a puzzle on the bar in some state of completion, as soon as one was done another would be ready to come out of the box.

evenings doing puzzles with the accompaniment of a bowl of ice cream or popcorn, depending on the season and the whim of my grandfather’s snack requirements for the evening, some koolaid to drink, and as often as not some cousins to chat with as we worked on the puzzle.  i feel like we did a lot of puzzles that were well above our ‘age range’ 1000 piece puzzles for small children you say?  of course we learned quickly to sort the edges, and then the colors and next thing you know we were putting them in the right places, i don’t recall anyone ever eating a puzzle piece, but there were a few times one was set aside so the coveted ‘last piece placement’ could be won by a smaller cousin (or sometimes by the one who hid the last piece 🙂 )

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anyway, it struck me as funny how a simple video game could pull me back in time like that.

you never know what little thing will trigger a memory, a sight, a sound, a smell. good memories and bad, they are all stored in your mind just awaiting the chance to pop out when you least expect it.

The Mother Road by Jennifer Allee

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What a great book.  2 sisters 12 years apart in age, embark somewhat reluctantly on a road trip from California to Illinois

Learning that their mother’s Alzheimer’s is progressing and each at a crossroads in their own lives, they set off across Route 66  to visit their parents learning about each other and themselves as they go.

They further explore their family relationships after arriving home, neither knowing what the next step in their lives should be.

I really enjoyed this book, the places on Route 66  brought back memories for me as well as the idea of going home, my current home is in California but I grew up in the midwest. So I can imagine without much prompting a similar trip, I even have a sister a decade younger than I am.

  • Print Length: 288 pages
  • Publisher: Abingdon Press
  • Genre : Christian Fiction
  • 5 out of 5 bookmarks