A new year and living realistically

Happy New Year's Eve! Hard to believe we start all over tomorrow. We really don't, but society tells us we do, so it must be true, ha ha. I have zero expectations, only hope, which is something I try to always hang on to. I don't need a new year to work on having hope, I let hope work on me all year round. Even on my worst days, hope hovers, ready to take the reins if I will let go and hand them over. Sometimes it's easier said than done, I know.

New Year's Day looks beautiful, 75 and partly cloudy with a slight breeze. I cannot imagine a more perfect weather day! I plan to enjoy it as much as possible. The cold comes back on Monday! It is December, but you wouldn't know it these past few days. I'm ready for the rain and the muck to end for a bit, though. I'm over it in a pretty big way.

The picture was taken on one of our fall drives, not too far from where we live. It’s one of my favorite pictures from the past year and sums up nicely the peace and tranquility most people crave. I literally stepped out of the car and snapped it on my phone. The picture doesn’t do it justice. In person, it takes your breath away on a golden autumn day.

Love to you on this last day in 2021. We’ll be here again soon. In the meantime, let’s make the most of it, shall we? Swords drawn, and away we go, straight ahead into the foray of 2022!

When cats have no thumbs and the good blue stuff

Yesterday was gorgeous - balmy (interpretation of that is windy), cloudy with the odd sunshine break-through, and 68 degrees at its warmest point. Today is a repeat with a high of 71. Heaven. It's incredibly hard to not want to plant the garden, which is ridiculous. You don't plant gardens in December in our neck of the woods.  I need a greenhouse. 

Speaking of balmy and warm-ish, look who changed their logo colors! I love the new blue. It's gorgeous, but I do miss the yellow and red that it was for donkeys years. I'm not complaining, though. Still got the same great ocean water drink with yummy coconut syrup in Sprite. I also ask for lime in mine. It's warm weather in a cup! Picture of it below, isn't it pretty?! I had this one yesterday in honor of our warm weather spell.

Kitties enjoyed (not really) time outside, too, as you can see, lazing around in the dirt and dead leaves. That's what cats do outside this time of year. We thought they'd enjoy going out after lunch, but no, they dragged around like they were dying. Apparently, taking them outside during what is their normal four-hour afternoon nap time is not the best idea. We gave up after about an hour and put them back inside their house. They did not put up a fight to go in and go to bed.

We've got house projects going on. Today will include some additional de-cluttering if I can get my act together. The guy below wants to help with contact paper in drawers. I personally think he's just going to make a mess, but he'll be cute making that mess. Seriously, ever try to do any project around cats?? They are "helpers" in the loosest sense of the word. They lay on everything, get in the closet or drawer you're working on and root around, get under foot, decide they need to lie in your lap for a while, then get up and walk around and yell for a bit. You get the picture. But they're fantastic creatures. They get a pass every time. If you've ever been around cats for any length of time, you realize pretty quickly how highly intelligent they are; it has creeped me out at times. I've got one that can let himself in and out the back door. Every now and then, when he does that, it makes me jump.

I've been giving thought to the New Year. By that, I mean mostly the garden at the bottom of our property. We are foregoing the pumpkins in that area this year. They've not done well the last three years, so I think probably it's best to grow something else there. Since that runs right up against one of the giant zinnia patches, I think I'll do haystack/branching sunflowers there en masse. It is in direct sunlight all day, every day, so they'll do well. We did a few there last year, and they were stunning.

We have zero plans for the New Year, we don't generally do much except maybe order a really good pizza and watch movies until sleep calls. No ringing in the new year for me, don't want the muddy brain that goes with it. Some folks do just fine with that, but I've always been the person that got the severe headache the next day from wonky sleep hours. Not a good way to spend January 1st, so we'll wake up refreshed and ready to celebrate the new year with waffles or pancakes, eggs, and vegan sausage or bacon.

Today is a cleaning out the fridge kind of day, then off to the store for some salad stuff and bread and milk. Rain system starts rolling in tomorrow, so I'll make the most of today for sure. Love to you on this last week in December and the last week in 2021. Hard to imagine, but here we are. Be careful with the new year, expectations can diminish quickly when met with reality. If you are a person who makes resolutions, balance your new goals with realism. Life will disappoint enough without self-sabotage. Be kind to yourself, create your own peace and happiness. Before you know it, we'll be at this place again with another new year. Each day is a chance to grow and learn and do; you don't have to wait for a new year to roll around.

I'm getting a second cup of coffee and a gardening book and settling in for a bit until the sun comes up. If you need me, you'll probably find me outside, avoiding the decluttering and playing just a little bit.

Jesus is born and the Jell-O got made

Merry Christmas, y'all! And more importantly - happy birthday, Jesus, my whole world!

As you can see, the Christmas Jell-O got made! I finished mixing it all up this morning. The Jell-O base set up beautifully, and it took a whopping three minutes to put the remaining ingredients together with it, bringing the 1970s to life once again. There's a close-up below . . . . this will go great with the 1970s earrings I picked out last week, ha ha. Always dress for the occasion (I rarely dress for the occasion, incidentally; just cannot be bothered).

Not spending much time in this space today, as there are things to do, but I wanted to take a moment to say hello and wish you a Merry Christmas. I've begun thinking about the new year quite a bit. I'm looking forward to the turn of the calendar page, hard to imagine that we are full-on into the winter season now, and it's supposed to be 70 degrees on Monday! Yep. I'm pretty excited!

Love to you on the Christmas Day, 2021. "Let the bells ring out for Christmas at the closing of the year!" - Trevor Horn/Hans Zimmer

 

Jell-O makes you lose your mind and other Christmas Eve ramblings

Good grief, Charlie Brown. How many times do you think I made the base for tomorrow's mandarin orange Christmas salad this morning? You gotta plan for Jell-O. It doesn't just happen. It's super easy, but also. You gotta plan for it. So this morning, on this blustery and starry-sky Xmas Eve morning, I made the base for the retro Christmas Jell-O salad for tomorrow's meal. Twice. 

No, I didn't have to use a second run of ingredients, but I did have to take that hot mess out of the refrigerator once and re-boil it as I recalled it needed to boil for five minutes and not just be "brought to a boil" (like my temperament when I started making it for the second time). The color has to be what you see below, nearly a clear tomato soup color rather than a cloudy orange color (this has pudding AND Jell-O in it, fancy, right?). 

Needless to say, the base of it looks correct now, and it will chill overnight. Tomorrow, I will add the drained mandarin orange slices and the Cool Whip and wah-la! 1970s on your Christmas table! It'll be eaten with the following items:

Ham (we are vegetarians, but there will be ham for the meat-eaters)

Hashbrown casserole

Green beans

Rolls

Magic cookie bars

Coffee, tea, soda

No over-doing it this year, just a good comfort-food meal with a nod to 1970s childhood and holiday citrus orange, which I love. You can see the ingredients below. I always gauge flavor versus cost, and for the few extra pennies, if I am making something that tastes better with name brand items, I will buy those instead of the store or generic brand. There's frugal, and then there's just knowing when spending the extra pennies is worth it for the taste. Nobody sponsors my blog, so these are 100 percent my taste and choice in the products. And for the record - you HAVE to use the cooked kind of pudding in this. Instant won't work. I'll try to remember to take a picture of the salad all put together tomorrow. 

Well, here we are at Christmas Eve already. We knew it was coming, but it felt a long ways off but then it really didn't, either. Time is flying. True story - we are heading into the low 70s for a couple days starting Sunday. I'm ecstatic! Monday and Tuesday look particularly beautiful, and I hope to be outside as much as possible, even if it's just sitting in a chair in the sun, reading a pointless book! The upcoming weather is God's gift to me, for sure. I hate high heat (sorry, out west, I think it's just miserable there for way too many months out of the year), and I hate uber freezing cold (sorry Alaska and parts of New England, you're beautiful but way too cold). Give me the in-between any day with four seasons thrown in! Right now it's 29 degrees, but we go to 59 today with sun, so I'll take it.

I spent yesterday wrapping presents, so it's really nice to have that already done. I'll do a bit of cleaning this morning, then we'll spend the rest of the day doing whatever we want. Salmon patties over a big salad tonight will be our Xmas Eve meal, no miles of finger foods and holiday goodies. I like all that stuff, but I find as I get older, too much of it just sends my body into gag over-drive, and a big goal of mine is to try to enter deep into my 50s and then my 60s without having to rely on any medications. Tweaking some things will be necessary but worth it.

Hard to believe, but we haven't had a cheese ball yet this year! I think we'll do that for New Year's Eve. I love a good cheeseball with crackers and a bowl of tomato or broccoli cheddar soup. I'll worry about that later, though. First, we have Christmas! 

Love to you on this Christmas Eve, 2021. I hope your day brings you rest and contemplation and peace. Christmas has no room for chaos or celebrations outside of its true meaning. It's a sacred acknowledgement of a baby sent to earth who would later on become the savior of mankind. Love came down that night, and I am redeemed because of that love. I am forever grateful. Peace to you. 🎄💖🌟

At 10:59 a.m.EST, please wish yourself happy winter on my behalf

It's hard to believe that we say goodbye to another season later today. I think we are going to have Japanese miso ramen bowls with Peggy Ann rolls to help ring in the new season. Buckle up tight, lets get through it together. I predict that winter will be very mild, right up until the time that I start to get excited about the gardening season, then we'll get hit with snow, ice, and  hard freezes. (Honestly, that's not really me predicting anything, that just kind of happens often around these parts.)

Our Christmas shopping is 2/3rds finished for the family gathering.  I already know the rest of the stuff that I need to get, so I will take care of that today. I'll wrap it all on Wednesday, and then we'll be all set, hopefully. Today, I have two lovely get-togethers to celebrate Christmas with friends who, over the years, have become family. It will be so nice to see everyone. One friend in particular has not been well, and I cherish every minute with them. 

I leave you with a truly beautiful version of "The Little Drummer Boy." The God-given voice on the guy with short hair is pitch perfect. His falsetto when he sings the harmony above the melody line gives me chills. And no matter how big or small, towards the end of the video, ya gotta love a drumline. It's shot in soft evening grays and blues and is wintery and touching.

Love to you on this Winter Solstice in the year of our Lord, 2021. Stay warm and safe.

Winter solstice and why it matters

Well, the shortest day of the year is nearly here. Two more days, a looong night, and then the days get gradually longer by seconds gained daily. It's a long haul, isn't it, waiting on a truly longer day? They eventually arrive, but it takes forever. Woke up craving that universal language of love, fried potatoes. You make fried potatoes, and you're a hero. Throw in some hard-boiled eggs, top all of it with a fake béchamel sauce or gravy, and you have a really good meal. The sheen on the potatoes is butter. Mmmmm.

It's pouring rain this morning. I am hoping the rain moves out and skies clear so that I can get a glimpse of the full "cold moon" tonight. Technically, it was full last night/this morning, but thanks to the rainy skies, we can't see it. The weather forecast shows mostly clear by 7 p.m., so fingers crossed!

The solstice is a turning point for me. It's when I get the signal/all-clear to break out the murder mysteries- books and shows/movies- and the Constant Comment spicy, warming tea, and any and every cookie under the sun, moon and stars to go with the tea. It signals the warm-ish day every now and then, when the cookies get to be too much, and I look at my husband and say "let's go for a run" and we go wide open until our lungs hurt from the cold. 

The solstice also reminds me that spring is coming. I don't like spring. Around here you can get tornados, destructive straight-line winds, hail, hard freezes in very late April, snow off and on regularly, and watery, thin sunlight that never feels warm and shows the grit and the dirt on all your windows. That's probably not what you expected when I mentioned spring, but there you have it. 

It's my least favorite season of all, but to get to summer and gardens and flowers and tomatoes, you have to walk through that less-than-impressive corridor of that dreaded season. I generally spend it looking through seed catalogs and plotting out the summer scary movies list that we sink our teeth into (lol, vampire pun intended) when the heat of the summer sets in for a few sizzling weeks.

The night sky is beautiful this time of year when you can see it. It's sharper than the softer summer night sky, and believe me - I know. For over twenty years, I've been up before the sun and spent time under the darkened skies, making sure to look up daily if weather permits, and to study the color of the sky and stars. In case you are wondering, the best skies are rich navy and the stars look nearly yellow in their brilliance. Ever seen a yellow diamond? Think pale, yellow diamond only a hundred times more beautiful. It's an honor to witness so many stars in a lifetime.

Before all of that, though, we still have Christmas shopping to do. I cannot believe it's less than a week away. I'm reviewing our flower set-up for one of the giant zinnia patches. I think this year, rather than growing a veg in the area next to it, I'm going to opt for cutting gold sunflowers. We grew a few last year, and they were stunning. They held up well in the wind, and when the sun hits them, they glow like you would not believe. That's something to look forward to, for sure.

If you don't want a depressing experience, stay out of the stores. Christmas stuff is on sale, and Valentine's Day is already on the shelves. I just ignore the hearts for now. I like Valentine's Day, but not yet, please.

Love to you on this rainy, muddy day. I'm heading to the kitchen to pour myself another cup of Peppermint Bark coffee. Below is a picture of part of my little home office, as you can see, it's lit up with tiny fairy lights. They wrap all around the quilt display and, paired with a small lamp I bought just for its tacky country farm scenes, it's nice this time of year. But once this winter solstice passes, I'll be laying in wait for that first truly warm day of the year. I'll open wide the two big windows in my office, dissipating that feeling of suffocation that really hits hard in the winter months. Coconut scented lotion, freezing cold drinks and iced oatmeal cookies will be here before you know it. My body, heart and mind will be ready.

                                                    

I just need the matching coffee cup

I am up early and getting a few things done before work. In between the tasks, I'm watching someone in Helsinki make a coffee-banana bread and am experiencing early morning salivating.

After today, I am on a work break for 17 days in a row. I get this break every year, but this is truly the first year where I won't have to still put in a billion work hours over the break in order to stay above water. I have one big house project planned, and I'm hoping to complete it, start to finish, minus the painting. Painting has to be done in warmer weather when windows can be opened so that fumes can escape and move on to wherever fumes go. 

Pictured below are a couple of my Christmas presents, ha ha. No, I'm not using them yet, I'll wait til Christmas day when my husband gives them to me (yes, he was with me when I pointed them out). The top picture is a cork-board coaster. I picked out three of these, this one is my favorite, all three are bee and flower themed. I'm actually going to hot glue magnets on the back and put these on our refrigerator to hold notes and appointment cards.

The second is the front of a shirt we found for a steal. For nearly two decades, my favorite sky has always been the night sky, followed by my love of the October blue sky in this region. Nothing beats those two skies. Now, I just need a coffee cup with a night sky to go with my shirt, and I'm all set for the summer months when the night sky is brilliant and you can go out with the border collie (she's a hot, beautiful mess) to run and play a little bit in the wee early morning hours under stars and moon and feel like the most blessed person in the world. The shirt even has a shooting star! I can make wishes galore when I wear it!

Until summer, we have some fun holidays coming up. I've got quite the handy chocolate stash for that February holiday of love that is generally defined by chocolate and flowers. I like both things, and in my opinion, no matter who or what you love, chocolate and flowers matter. You don't have to "be in love" or "have someone in your life" to celebrate Valentine's Day. When I was single, I was always happy to embrace the commercialism of that particular holiday and usually bought myself a box of chocolate candies and an inexpensive grocery-store bouquet of flowers. In an old, weathered vase with a bow on the outside, the flowers usually lasted a couple weeks and gave me a lot of joy.

I have a whole mixed thing about New Year's. I'm not a night owl. I don't stay up and ring in the new year. I hate starting January 1st exhausted. I've done that a few times in the past and, frankly, if you start the near year feeling wiped out, how is that a fresh new year? That's just a soggy-muddy brain fry right there, and no thank you. I don't toast the new year, and I don't make resolutions. I do, however, transition the house to winter rather than Christmas. The colored lights and Christmas decorations get put to bed, and the white and clear twinkly lights and greenery come out to play with the green and white trees and silver stars and snowflakes that make up my winter decorations. It makes the house feel clean and inviting and sparkly all over again during the setting-in of the gloomy months.

Love to you on this 17th day of December, 2021. I won't be waiting eight days to celebrate Jesus, I'll just go ahead and do that every day. I look forward to Christmas day with family and friends, but in the end, give me Jesus, my everything.

The one you forgot about that pulls you back to softer times

Every now and then you hear a song and there's that "oh, wow. . . . I forgot so-and-so recorded that." This is one of those songs for me. Re-introduced on a blog I read, I had to re-share. It's beautiful. It's summer and longing and those moments in time where we felt safest. No life-jading experiences, no realization yet that sometimes, although hope never dies, it changes unexpectedly and often not to our liking. Early in life, most of us subconsciously believed that hope was steeped in our own expectations and desires. As I grew older, I realized that hope is there; it just doesn't always result in the picture that I envisioned. 

There's beauty and wisdom in age. There's also loss, that knowledge of a far sweeter time in life, and now it's gone. Left in its place are memories that bring us happiness, but can also cause us to drown in the bittersweet of loss if we are not careful. I find myself at that road sometimes, looking behind me at the perceived smoothly-paved path that we often see through rose-colored glasses. It wasn't smooth, though. We've just chosen to remember the good stuff, and that's okay, sometimes. But it can be good to briefly remember the hard things that shaped and changed us, too. It's not fun, but everything we go through creates a definition of ourselves, the good and the bad and the in-between.

My mind and body responds to smells and places and food and funny, odd little dreams that pop up in my sleep and pull me back to the "long-ago." I don't stay there long. There's good and happiness and hope to be found looking at the way forward, just as much as there was in the long-ago. There's also going to be more loss and more of the hard things. But summer looms ahead, and with it comes more "stars lit up like candle lights" and beautiful, "sun-kissed skin." Even when summer ends, there is still the promise of that season to come again until we simply are no more.

Love to you on this 11th day of December. Hope can change and look very different from where we stand each and every day. The comfort is that it is there, sometimes buried deep, but it's there.

"I saw myself in summer nights
And stars lit up like candle lights
I made my wish but mostly I
Believed

And yellow lines and tire marks
Sun-kissed skin and handle bars
And where I stood was where I was
To be"

The fancy cloth, gettin' lit, and the front porch

For years, I have bought flannel-backed, vinyl tablecloths with the changing of the seasons. I won't pay a lot for these, and many times, I get them for a buck at the end of each season and use them the next  year. So, I'm fashionably late and very fancy, in a sense, ha ha. 

Frankly, I tend to look for tacky ones, the ones that make me feel like it's a bit of a throwback to the 1970s, particularly when it comes to spring and summer. I do love a cheap, white vinyl tablecloth splattered with bright yellow lemons for summer. You can almost smell the 1970s when you look at it.

I digress. It's December 7th, so this unveiling is the Christmas vinyl (not the Bing Crosby-type vinyl, although I do have some of that).  Ta-da! The pictures are crooked, I'm no photographer, but you get the idea. On December 26th, this vinyl will go away and be replaced by a navy vinyl covered in white snowflakes for winter. The vinyl pictured below has 20 days to live up to they hype of the holiday. 

This year's Christmas card, pictured below, is an Ollies' bargain, very sweet and actually has the word "Christmas" inside. I won't pay more than a dollar or two for a box of cards, and this was a big box for less than $2. I don't actually mail out cards. These will be used for family and friends nearby and for workmates. 

I used to mail out cards, but I'm sorry to say, that tradition ended long ago. While it does make life easier to not bother, it also removes an element of the season that used to be a real thing with many people before technology kept everyone connected on a much tighter rope. Remember long-distance calling plans? Now it's just easier to do the all-inclusive plan for cell phones because you know you're going to use a ton of data and make tons of non-local calls. In the end, the trade-off is good, though, particularly if you love your family and want to talk to them often.

We finally got the outside Christmas decorations put up in the back part of our property this past weekend. Just a few pictures below to help me remember what we did next year in case I want to repeat. Obviously, I'm not great at taking a picture that isn't crooked, but this is just for the sake of chronicling, so that's okay! With the number of lights, we are straight-up lit!

Smokehouse door, garage, front of smokehouse, the tree in front of the smokehouse that my dad made us, 150 feet of red and white checked bunting through the apple trees, two pictures of Georgie just because, peppermint stick ice cream just because, and the side of the smokehouse, which still needs a little something extra, not sure. We also put a wreath with a bright red bow on the gate of the fenced-in area.. I just forgot to take a picture. 

The front porch needs done, as well, but I think that this year, I'm going to do it in winter decorations instead. I have several wreaths left that we did not use in the back area of the property. I think I'm going to do some bows for the leftover wreaths in winter blues and whites to match our navy porch ceiling so that I don't have to take those down until March 1st. It's just easier. 

Geriatric kitty Georgie wanted to say hello. Hi, baby girl. 

This has been breakfast more than once. Darn you, Publix, and your addictive peppermint stick ice cream. Please, stop making it. Those of us with zero self control are dying out here. I've switched over to their rum raisin ice cream this week. Just as addictive. Sometimes, I sit and think about ice cream.

I'll be spending my lunch hour seeking winter ribbon for those front-porch wreaths. Wish me luck, my concern is that I'll only be able to find Easter or spring ribbon, ha ha. I mean, let's face it, consumerism doesn't often let us enjoy the current moment. We have to rush on to the next one.😒

On a final note, today is National Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day. On this day in 1941, the United States' World War II destiny was born with the killing of 2,403 Americans on the attack at Pearl Harbor. Sometimes, no matter how peaceful we want to be, there are days that we just have to stand up and fight for what is right and to seek justice and to protect freedom. 

In 1941, one of those days came along, and the history of the United States was forever changed. Enjoy the gift of freedom as much as possible. That gift comes with the dearest of prices, paid for by people we have never met. I pray for blessings on their future generations, that they may know and continue to know freedom and love and peace. Love to you on this 7th day in December. I'll be checking in with Santa soon to see who all is on the naughty list! 

 

December 1st and why hash brown casserole is nearly as necessary as oxygen

I find that most people have a food that they identify with as that one comfort food they never really tire of (and let's face it, it's not usually health food!). For me, hashbrown casserole is near the top of that list. I admit there are ties for first place - fried green tomatoes, hashbrown casserole, a hot and spicy massaman curry, a fresh oyster Po' Boy, the list goes on and on and as the seasons come and go, the top of the list changes out with the foods of each season. But overall, hashbrown casserole is by far the easiest to make and is a no-brainer all year long. 

While summer may feel too warm for a hashbrown casserole, it's really good in the morning warmed up for breakfast with a slice or three of fresh tomatoes that have been heavily salted and peppered. Throw an over-easy egg over top of the casserole and it becomes something I'd actually pay for in a restaurant as a main breakfast menu item. (I think that if you put hasbhrown casserole on a menu, it should never, ever be taken off; that'll anger the comfort-foodie mobs.)

As you can see, it was my craving when I woke up this morning, so in the wee, dark hours of the morning accompanied by Oliver and Lacey (cat and dog, respectively) and Christmas music and a mug of maple bourbon (flavor) coffee, I made a hashbrown casserole for tonight's supper. It's better re-heated, I think, rather than right out of the oven (but I'll eat it either way). It's oxygen, isn't it? Not the kind you breathe, obviously, but the metaphorical kind that gives you an extra-rich layer to life. The one percent wouldn't understand, I don't think. But the rest of us percenters, we get it. It's a hug, a pleasure, a feeling of being centered for those few moments that it lasts. 

It's December 1st, and many of us are a tiny bit in shock. Where has 2021 gone? Halloween and Thanksgiving blew by, at least it seemed that way to me. Life does this every year, the holidays show up, and for some reason, I'm always amazed that they're here and then gone. You'd think after all these years of living that I'd realize that's actually a pretty normal year! 

The plate pictured below has no great story behind it, just the fact that I bought these several years ago because the car pictured is kind of a dream car for me. I'm pretty confident that I'll never have this type of vehicle, but a girl can dream! I wouldn't want the tree, though, ha ha. A live Christmas tree looks and smells great, but you have to water it and vacuum up pine needles constantly. Plus, when you have the number of household four-leggeds that we have, putting up a live tree is just asking for trouble loud and clear. It would be stress rather than joy.

Plans are picking up as office parties and friend gatherings get closer with the turning of the calendar page. I hope you take time to slow down and enjoy something (maybe hashbrown casserole, just sayin') no matter how big or small it might be. As for me, I look forward to this evening with my loved one, our four-leggeds, the casserole and toasted Italian garlic bread, you know, the good and chewy kind that makes you want to finish the entire loaf in one setting. 

I really think we should think of December as the dessert of each year, having weathered course after course of life each month with the movement of time. I think I'll make magic cookie bars in a week or two or maybe this weekend (heaven knows I don't really need to get started on those). Love to you on this first day in December of 2021. May it slow down at least a little bit so that we can savor the last month of 2021. 

 

Hope, love and joy

As we lean into the season of Hope, I pray that your family is healthy and safe, that you know Love, and that above all, when the world swirls all around us in chaos, we can cry out full of Joy, our pitch reaching far above any storm mankind has created, these life-affirming, all-encompassing words: "COME AND SEE WHAT GOD HAS DONE!" 

The kick-off begins.

 

Happy Thanksgiving and frequent tea time is upon us

Happy Thanksgiving to friends and family! It's here already, and I couldn't be more grateful for all of the good things that God has blessed us with throughout the years. I know that the era of Covid has been hard for a lot of people. I personally know people who have lost loved ones to the virus, and I've held my breath as people I love have contracted the virus and, finally, come out on the other side of it alive and seemingly well. I'm grateful for those who made it through, and my heart breaks for anyone who has suffered loss. 

Now we are (supposedly) dealing with inflation, rising gas prices, shortages - you name it, we've got it going on. Ironic, though, isn't it, these shortages and rising prices? In the meantime, the housing boom continues. and people are spending money like water all around me. I think if all Americans took one collective day off from spending, we could make a very good point to the world of consumerism that some of these perceived shortages are not shortages of things that are necessities. 

We are sold the idea that "must haves" are something besides shelter, food, and water. If a new holiday designer pillow for your couch is a must-have and it's held up somewhere at a port due to labor shortage or whatever, then that's a very skewed perception of the necessities of life. Also, turn off the news. The media loves a good stir-up. If there's no wind blowing to stoke the fire, it'll die out fairly quickly.

Meanwhile, as we wait around for the media to tell us the next terrible thing we should panic over, let's talk about food! Yay! I know everyone has their holiday traditions, those staples that appear every year. I have one friend whose family is not a big fan of a turkey dinner, so he spends this one holiday a year making a lasagna from scratch. They serve a big green, leafy Caesar salad and garlic bread with it and homemade tiramisu for dessert. I think that sounds divine.

We do the traditional dinner, which I always look forward to. I spent yesterday evening making two big pans of roasted vegetables. The house smelled wonderful. Full disclosure - Peggy Ann Bakery made our pecan pie and dinner rolls! With the cost of food being what it is, it ends up being cheaper to buy some things, as long as they taste as good as homemade. In this case, Peggy Ann pies can easily pass for homemade, although I never tell anyone they are. I always give full credit to the bakery. I want people to go buy goodies there so that they stay in business!

Dressing, broccoli cheese casserole, cranberry fluff, turkey, gravy, etc., will also be present, as we've all signed on to bring something. I also sent the holiday coffee home with my parents (they are hosting Thanksgiving this year, wah-hoo!!!!) to have with dessert and have wrapped up thick slices of the best fruitcake to hand out before everyone goes home so that they can properly kick off Christmas. And yep. We all love this particular type of fruitcake, even my husband, and he generally doesn't like fruitcake. It will be eaten in no time at all.

It has been so cold lately. That means that in order to thaw out after being outside in the evenings with babies, the hot tea at night ritual is already taking place. Normally, this is reserved for January through April (we get very cold weather and often some hard freezes in April, ugh), but I've bumped it up a month. And before you worry about the babies, they only get 30 minutes monitored time outside if it's cold. Then, back they go inside their warm house. 

My go-to tea is Constant Comment. I will drink other teas just fine and enjoy them a lot, but I always gravitate back to that spicy beloved tea of mine. It smells and tastes like heaven and, in my opinion, if you're going to dunk cookies, it's by far the best flavor for doing so. My husband is an Earl Grey guy, and I do like Earl Grey just fine. But I'll take my favorite any day over other teas.

With tea, you (naturally) get cookies! I love a good, cheap iced oatmeal cookie for dunking in hot tea or even with ice cold tea in the summer. Tea and iced oatmeal cookies go together unlike any other combination. The first picture shows you how dark I like my tea. I steep tea for three minutes, one bag per cup, not a shared bag. I don't generally use a bag more than twice, either. The second picture shows a better view of the kind of cookies I'm talking about. At a dollar a pack, they're a cheap comfort food when you are trying to thaw from the inside out.

This morning, I'm giving serious consideration to a vegan bacon and egg sandwich with a side of homemade cranberry compote. Thanksgiving dinner is at 2 p.m., so we will definitely have a hearty snack this morning. The cranberry compote will kick off the day beautifully. Macy Day parade starts at 9 a.m.! We'll tune in to see the balloons and listen to the bands play holiday music. I'm not big on the whole parade, we tend to switch back and forth, but I try to watch the very end with Tom Turkey and Santa Clause, who - just as a reminder - is NOT the reason for the season. I like Santa Clause just fine. But let me know when he dies to save all mankind, and maybe at that point, I'll change my focus to him a bit more. In the meantime, give me Jesus, thank you very much.

I did something I have not done in almost 20 years - I went ahead and decorated for Christmas yesterday. Normally, I would wait until the day after Thanksgiving. I have generally hosted Thanksgiving in past years, so I have kept Autumn on display. Then, the day after Thanksgiving, I've gotten up early to do the switch-over. Not this year! We have Friday plans, so I thought how nice it would be to come home after Thanksgiving dinner with the house ready for Christmas. That also means that I can sleep in on Friday and not hit the ground running to get Christmas situated. I'm not sharing pictures on this post, though. It's Thanksgiving today, so let's do today first. 

I hope that however you celebrate, you have a beautiful day and that you are blessed with peace and good health. I'm grateful for so much. It could fill a bookcase if I started listing things, I feel sure. Stay warm and healthy and tomorrow, we'll change our focus to the festive spirit of the next upcoming big day. Love to you!

Old time radio and Christmas 1400s style

And just like that, one of our regional FM stations switched over to all Christmas at 9 a.m. EST last Friday in this year of our Lord, 2021. We have about six weeks left before we turn the calendar page. Where did the other 46 weeks go?? I honestly love that the radio station does this. It's old-timey and isn't one of those things where you rely on Sirius xm to find an all-Christmas station for you. It's literally me making sure the dial is set to my regional FM station! Like I said - old school.

I've made some headway on Christmas shopping, but I still have a ways to go. I'm not sweating it yet, though. The new job I took means that I don't have to work my entire holiday break, so I will actually have time to get some things done without scrambling. I'm still not used to working normal hours, but I can tell you one thing - I'm SO grateful. I look forward to the deep dive into the new position. It's good to push ourselves sometimes, and while my skill set is fairly decent and has grown a lot, there's always more to learn. I had forgotten it could be this way! 

It's been in the 20s for several mornings in a row now. Time has passed so quickly in the last couple years that I currently find myself somewhat surprised when I wake up  and there's a deep freeze outside. I shouldn't be surprised - it's late November, after all. But I am surprised, and it's disconcerting. Silver lining is that we are closer to the 2022 garden season with each passing day. I cannot wait. I miss my flowers, and I miss good tomatoes and little bees and hummingbirds and butterflies.

It's the week of giving thanks! I'm truly grateful for so much. I have been combing through closets and drawers and taken some items that are still very nice but that I no longer wear to charity shops. I plan to do some cabinets next, just taking it slowly and doing one at a time. I'm glad to share what I do have in the hopes that it helps others. I don't yet have the energy for a full-on, all-weekend purge! In my 20s and 30s, I would have been all in on that. Now? There are things I'd rather do than spend an entire weekend on closets and drawers. Priorities definitely change as we age and gain wisdom.

I've started gathering some holiday favorites, particularly fruitcake and holiday coffee. I know a lot of people hate fruitcake, but the one that I have bought for years at our local bulk store is fantastic. Even people who don't like fruitcake have tried this one and asked me where I got it. I also grabbed a bag of their holiday blend coffee. We'll have it with dessert on Thanksgiving Day, and I'll slice and package up the fruitcake to hand out to everyone to take with them so that they can kick off Christmas 1400s style, ha ha. (At least I think the 1400s is when fruitcake originated.)

The season of pumpkin is beginning to narrow a bit, although I love pumpkin all through winter. In the month of February, I've very often defrosted a slice of pumpkin roll that I've frozen in October. With a cup of Constant Comment tea and a good, high-body count murder mystery to watch, that's a fantastic way to pass a gloomy January or February (or March or April around here) day. I read a lot of seed catalogs and garden blogs during those months, as well. You cannot really plant anything around here until after Mother's Day weekend. We often have late snows and even later hard freezes, so it can ruin your seeds if you get too ambitious early on.

Speaking of pumpkins, look at my little man below, with his stripes and precious crossed front legs. Baby Oscar from our first batch of rescue babies is incredibly special to me. No details that I want to share other than it was a heartbreaking rescue effort that resulted in saving two babies that have grown into giant, beautiful boys. They own my heart.

I hope your week of Thanksgiving is gentle and calm because, before you know it, we'll all be expected to be merry and bright! Love to you on this Sunday in the last full week of the month of Thanksgiving.

Snow and rain mixture and the holidays in a bowl

Last week held some really good things for me. We got great news regarding a loved one's health (thank you, God), and I got an unexpected week off in between jobs. I start a new job this Monday, and I'm excited to learn some new things and to push myself out of my comfort zone in order to continue to increase my skill set. 

I didn't do an intense amount of anything this past week during my time off, but I did accomplish the seasonal change of the house and got through the messiest part of my closet. Flimsier, lighter draperies and bedding got swapped out for the heavier stuff. This helps keep us warm at night, and those heavy curtains work alongside the aggregation of marginal gains in the area of the electric bill for sure.

My headache yesterday was not from crazy hormone fluctuations like I initially thought (so much fun to be a woman, rolling my eyes). It was a weather system that rolled in overnight. I did not realize that we were expecting a rain and snow mixture this morning. When you stick your head out the door, the air is made up of that thick, heavy, damp that hurts your bones. I'm not a fan these days. I'd much rather smell our honeysuckle vines and tomato plants floating by on a soft, warm breeze. Have you ever walked through a patch of tomato plants? That smell is just heaven.

Yesterday was a day to make cranberry compote and biscuits! Isn't it gorgeous?!! I love it the most on warm biscuits, but it's fantastic on pancakes and waffles with maple syrup, too, or for the meat-eaters, it's good alongside ham or turkey or on a turkey sandwich, etc. 

Mine is super easy. You take one bag of fresh cranberries and wash/rinse them really well and pick out the bad ones. Grab a 9x13 pan and preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Then, dice up about a half a stick of butter into the pan. Pour in the cranberries and sprinkle one cup of sugar over everything. If you like it a bit sweeter, then add another 1/4 to 1/2 cup sugar. Finally, grab a whole, fresh orange and squeeze the juice of the entire orange over top of the cranberries. Throw this all in the oven, uncovered, and baked for 25 minutes. 

Stir at least twice during bake time. If the cranberries have all begun popping open and the mixture has thickened a bit, then it's done! You can also add about five whole cloves as it bakes (and cinnamon if you love cinnamon), but remember to remove the cloves before serving. Walnuts would be good in it, too! I'm getting ready to go warm up a biscuit, throw some peanut butter and vegan bacon on top of that biscuit, then drop a giant glob of this stuff on top of all of that and eat it with a fork. This stuff looks and tastes like the holidays. I make at least two batches a year.

I've made some headway in the Christmas gifts department finally. The weekend after Thanksgiving, I'll change the house over from Autumn to Christmas/winter and we will wrap up the gifts that we have so that they look pretty until we get them delivered. Right now, they're just in their original boxes and bags, so the room that they are in looks a little clogged up on one side. Well, frankly, it actually looks cluttered. Blech.

Happy Saturday to you. Here's hoping you have sunshine heading your way! I think we have to wait until Tuesday before we see the sun in its entirety again, but it is Autumn, after all. 'Tis the season for cold and wet and damp around here. The excitement of laundry is on our agenda today, don't be jealous, I'm sure you can find something fun to do, too, ha ha.

When the goal is to smell like Thanksgiving all month long

Well, brrr. These past two weeks have not been chilly. They've been COLD. Frost several mornings in a row, and in the shaded spots, there has been a hard freeze. It is that time of year, I know, and silver linings include way fewer bugs and no mosquitoes! I fully admit, though, that I am already thinking about the gardens for next year. I cannot decide if I want to try my hand at a huge coneflower spread in full sun or a large scarlet red lantana patch. I'd really like to go for the coneflowers, but they might be tricky to grow. We'll see how it works out.

There's some real beauty in the month of November! Our leaves are starting to show off, and I begin making the odd Thanksgiving Day comfort food here and there. We had dressing and gravy the other night with our supper. Today, I've got a green bean and rice casserole that just came out of the oven, made old-school style topped with homemade sweet Hawaiian roll croutons. It smells like mid-morning of Thanksgiving Day when these types of dishes are being baked. You can imagine that the parade is on TV, and everyone is mentally preparing to overindulge in the annual sacred goodies. I think next week, I'm going to do some baked cranberries with sugar and orange citrus. Mmmmmm. So good, especially on biscuits.

One of our gorgeous trees is pictured below. Last year, the color was just okay. This year, it's been extra nice, and I will be so sad when the leaves are all gone. The casserole is pictured below, as well. Notice the close-up of the homemade croutons. I do not like mine overdone, just dried out and barely golden. They're wonderful in soups, on top of casseroles, on salads, etc. They're just straight-up tossed in butter and toasted. If I know I'm going to use them exclusively for salads, I add quite a lot of parmesan cheese. But for the casserole below, they were just tossed in salted butter.

I've been thinking about TV. Yes, I mean the talkie box thingy. I'm tired of too many streaming services and the overwhelming choices of often-mediocre entertainment. I think that, mentally, it's become exhausting. I feel it the most during the holidays. Holiday specials used to be just that - special. Now, you can own them and watch them at any time. You can watch them on a million different channels, put them on a loop, often find them streaming on YouTube - you name the special, you can probably find it and view it all year long. 

For me, personally, that's depressing. The specialness of those things that we loved as children is gone. Kids now days think that all this stuff has always been at everyone's disposal, and I have to think hard to imagine what is special to them because it is an enjoyed rarity at only certain times of the year. I truly cannot come up with anything. Maybe the every-now-and-then new holiday movie? Even those have gotten watered down and feel empty. People fight getting older, but you know what? I'm grateful to have been born in 1970. 

I'm not saying it was easy for anyone, especially those on the receiving end of prejudices and disregard for simply being a human being because they did not fit what society adhered to. I know that for many people, the experience in that time was much, much different.

But I still believe that some things were better, that the lack of materialism was a good thing. All of the things that made holidays special were only rolled out once a  year and not months in advance. The colored lights were an enormous treat, then "designers" ruined that with white lights. I like white lights for winter, but if you were this little girl in the 1970s, you loved colored lights, chocolate covered creme drops, chocolate covered cherries, hard candy ribbons in holiday colors, and the smell of orange and peppermint. You watched the Peanuts specials once because they were on only one of the major networks and those networks ran them only once.

I could go on forever, but I'll stop there out of fear of becoming a cranky old ranting coot. I plan to enjoy Sunday and that casserole and the leaves and pumpkin ice cream today! I hope you do, too. If you are my age or older, I hope you find the loveliness in the season; don't let how things have become drown out your nostalgia. We are so much more than the million-miles-a-minute stuff that gets thrown at us 24/7 these days. Maybe one day, we could all band together and say "no more" and push the initiative that more is not always better.

Love to you on this Sunday of the first full week of November. It's going by so quickly. Make the most of it!

Happy Halloween! Cue the Christmas music. Also, pie.

Happy Halloween! I bet you'll never guess what's in my Halloween mug! Oh, wait, you did?? That's right, it's coffee with pumpkin spice creamer! Not that is was a tough guess, but good for you!

Of course, if you are posh and really have it together, you have a kitty who coordinates with your favorite Halloween mug. Incidentally, I have two beautiful boys who coordinate with my mug. Below is the baby of the two, my lil' guy, and yes, his eyes are that huge. There has not been any doctoring done to the photo. He is as God made him, and he's stunning. Also, he gets held and kissed a lot, and that is because I am as God made me, and He made me nuts for babies.

                                                

Okay! Now, the pies. So, I have a girlfriend who is basically a surrogate auntie for me. My precious aunts on both sides live far away, so we do not get to see one another often. I made a friend years ago who is a kindred spirit in so many ways, I swear, we should have been born related to each other. She is someone I'd take a bullet for in a heartbeat. 

She is also a fabulous baker. Below are two pies that she made that I had the pleasure of enjoying alongside the company of a group of friends. The first pie is butterscotch, the second pie is cherry. Y'all, my friend literally cooked these pies straight from scratch, including the cherry filling. I cannot tell you how good these were, and I could not decide which was my favorite. God bless my sweet friend.

Look at this lil' pumpkin, baby Trudy.This is the "I hear the treat bag" face. Isn't it hilarious? She's a litter mate of the gorgeous lil' guy above in this post. Or maybe it was the spooky episode of Scooby Doo (LOL) that we were watching that made her eyes go big?! Either way, what a doll.

Tomorrow, the Christmas music will be everywhere, if it isn't already! My time has been so occupied with work and other things that I rarely get anywhere these days. It may already be out there, but if it's not, it seems like the end of Halloween tends to trigger Christmas music. Spooky, huh (ha, ha)? 

I've done barely anything for Christmas so far, but yesterday, I did order the gifts for our veterinarian family (yes, they're family to us). We've been going to this particular veterinarian office for two decades. They've helped us with nearly every single one of our rescues. Christmas is my chance to say a little bit bigger thank you. They have hard jobs. I couldn't do their jobs, and I'm so very grateful that they can. We genuinely love them.

I'll miss the anticipation of autumn and Halloween as we delve deeper into the holiday season. I'm a firm believer that the anticipation of some things is just as good as the actual day itself. My buildup to any holiday season is pretty plain, but for me, it's  life-affirming in the best way. It includes some good seasonal coffee and a few treats, decorations that we've used for years that feel like old family friends, and a couple of trips to some quaint places to see the remaining foliage and to look in some small-town shops for a few Christmas presents. It's calm and underwhelming and allows one to be reflective. 

I cannot believe we turn the calendar page yet again tomorrow. It's a gift to be able to do so, but it's also a bit of a shock. Where did 2021 go? I feel like I skipped so many things, and while the new year brings the opportunity to make whatever plans we feel to be necessary, we also know that within the confines of those plans that life happens. We put on our catcher's mitt and deal with whatever comes our way, the best way we know how. If I can stand up every day and in whatever moment I am standing, I am able to say "Come and see what God has done," then my days count. God expects us to put in the time and effort. He's not Harry Potter with a magic wand and spells, there to make life easy or grant our wishes. But He IS there to be our strength and our shield. I have had dark days, as we all have. But God is the Light, and if we can keep hold of that, we can hang on, even in the hardest moments.

Love to you on this fun Halloween Sunday! May your day be full of no tricks and all goodies! Eat something you love, watch something silly and, most of all, be at peace, even in the midst of whatever storm may be swirling around you. Remember, with God on your side, that storm is already defeated.