Today in My Life .. September 25, 2016

Today is:  Sunday, September 25, 2016  

I got up this morning:  under protest.  When I finally looked at the clock it was straight up and down 6am and I thought.. "Oh well....sigh" and considered the wonders of a cup of coffee.

I am hearing:  rain.  I must have really slept last night since it rained all night.  The thunder is still rolling a bit occasionally and I have to say.. I love it.  Memories... I am about 4 years old.. in the wagon bed behind my Mom and Dad with 2 horses hitched to the wagon.  The road we are on is an old dirt road in Coal County, Oklahoma.  My dad is standing and holding the reins easily.. funny how I never consider that he should be so proficient with horses.  Mom is sitting on the wagon seat and my brother Larry is standing in back beside me.   I am fascinated with the bumpy ride...horses and wagons are a new and exciting thing.. as are most things when you're 4 years old.  :)  We have left the Hockett (pronounced Hoe-kett) place and are on our way to the Eubanks Place where my grandparents lived.   And the thunder rolled and a cool breeze rolled softly over us.  "Daddy.. what was that?"   "Somebody's potato wagon rolled over in Heaven"  he said....

I look out the window: and see it continues to rain just enough that it looks like fog as I see the headlights of cars coming around the curve in the road.  My sweet potato vines in the flower bed soak up the moisture like sponges and have grown to completely cover all the shrubs ... looks like the flower bed has been covered with kudzu.

I am thinking:  how wonderful it will be to have a visit from grandson Dustin and his lovely new wife next weekend. 

I am thankful for:  photographs and memories... facebook and old friends... 

I am reading:  again... Inspector of the Dead by David Morrell... who is one of my favorite authors.  This particular book is the second using Thomas de Quincey and his daughter Emily as the protagonists.  Wonderful books..  David Morrell's first book was .. ta da.. First Blood and it later became the Sylvester Stallone movie by the same name.   

When I first read The Opium Eater .. the 1st Thomas de Quincey book.. I had no idea that he was indeed a real person who was addicted to opium and was indeed a genius. 

Plans for the week:  would be great... but we all know that I am seldom one to follow plans anyway.  :)  There will be a great deal of picking up and putting away, cleaning, cooking and baking.  However... it's any one's guess in what order.. :)

Creatively:  I have been working on a shawl using the pattern called Old Shale .. Some people call this pattern Feather and Fan, but actually Feather and Fan is a totally different one.  Anyway.. whatever it's called, I love the look of this pattern and the feel of the finished product.  

Today will be a busy day with much to do, but I'm hoping for a little down time to paint this afternoon. 

Have a wonderful day today... Smile, laugh and hug all your family and buddies today.. :)

OMG! I'm back in....

I had decided that I would never get to blog here again.  Perhaps I have figured out the secret.  We'll see if works next time I try to get in....

Six months... I'm sure a lot has happened but with my memory I'll never get it all in here.. lol  However, I have had cataracts removed from both eyes... and no one was more surprised than me to see that my walls are a different color than I thought.. :)  I'm still about a month away from totally healed and getting new glasses, but already the difference in my sight is amazing. 

Sister's Weekend this year was wonderful.  My two sisters and I get together every year in the summer for a couple of days.. just us.. and do "something".  This year we went to McKinney, TX and wandered the streets shopping and eating and shopping... and eating.. :)  It was too much fun .

There are shops of all kinds in McKinney and we stopped in a small shop that sold everything from antiques to soaps.  The proprietor was a very personable young lady who pointed out some cards that were prints of watercolors her mother had painted.  I love them.  I bought two of them... and then had to come home and paint some pears.. 

Saw a YouTube video on how to make these fabric wrapped cord bowls.. LOVE IT!!  I'm about to get the hang of it after making several small ones.  Here's the url: 
The Crafty Gemini ..  She makes it look so easy.. and it really is easy after I figured out the size of the stitches that looked best.  Love these!! 

Must go.. I hear my sweet DH getting around and he's going to be ready for breakfast before I even get in there..

Have a wonderful autumn day.. Give lots of hugs and kisses around... :)

Bread Box and Milk Jugs..

I love Lehman's Amish Store ... It has everything you would ever want for non-electric "stuff".  My sweet DH found the breadboxes one day and asked if I would like to have one and you can guess what I said.. :)  And I do love it ..

I've been keeping dry milk on hand and making it up as I needed it for years.  Lately.. after the doctor told me I was so deficient in Vitamin D that it was almost nil.. I've been drinking a lot of milk every day.  I started mixing up 2 quarts at a time of the dry milk and adding a little 1/2 and 1/2 to it. The 1/2 and 1/2 adds back the cream and makes the taste so much better.

I guess my sweet DH got tired of constantly moving the pitcher to get to what he needed in the fridge and he asked if I would like some real milk jugs... Blimey.. I didn't even know they made these anymore!   And I do love them!

Don't know about anyone else, but I'm already tired of all the political stuff... sigh   Seems to get worse every 4 years.. sigh again..

Have a wonderful day!  :)

A Little Nostalgia

Years ago... back in the 1960s ... everyone was saving their cans and making plaster of paris log planters.  I can hardly believe that was 50+ years ago... sigh  Anyway, I was thinking about all the plaster of logs I've made over the years and decided to do it again.. :)  So I did..

This one is made with small cans and I had to hunt to find the tiny little dog to put on it.  Little whatnots like that are hard to find these days.   I found this one in a cute little shop in the old mall that was once the hub of shopping for our city.  It is now almost completely empty... another bit of nostalgia and signs of changing times.

Our little city is growing by leaps and bounds. The traffic on our well traveled streets is growing and we now (almost) have traffic jams during the early morning and late afternoon as people go to work and get off work.  This means more road construction, more housing developments and more people.  :)    Areas that were empty pasture are now filled with lovely homes or new apartment complexes.  New businesses are springing up every day.  Exciting.. :)

Have a wonderful day!  :)

Home Made Bread and Things

 I finally decided to get the food processor out that we bought last year and try to learn to use it.. :)  I found a recipe for whole wheat bread and decided to cut it in half since I didn't think the processor could hold the entire thing at once.  After about an hour watching YouTube videos of how to use it, I gave it a try... and felt entirely silly for putting it off so long.  :)  The results were wonderful..

Went out to check on our Bradford Pear tree in the front yard that was planted last year and stopped to see the pansies.  I don't know how we did it, but it seems that one of them was a different color from all the rest.  And I love it!  I'll wait until it has some more blooms and you can bet at least one or two will be picked to be pressed and kept!  This photo may also become a watercolor painting.  :)





We've had such beautiful weather for almost all winter that I have to pinch myself to remember that Spring is so near.  The temps will be in the 70s for the next couple of days and then possible rain.  :)  I didn't think I would ever welcome rain again after the flooding of last spring.  I'm still not sure about my peach tree in the back yard... Flooded and sat in standing water for a month... May not live but I'm not giving up yet.. :)

Have a wonderful day..