Grand grands…

Feeding ducks and fish

Watching cartoons

We visited a different park every other day

Tickles

Watching swim lessons

A banana bread baking contest between mom and Grammi

Dinosaurs and trains

Origami straw rockets

Walks to the store

Noisy meals

Little boys arguing

Covid…. sigh…

Lunch at a really cool Soba restaurant

Helping address and stamp my daughters New Years cards

A snot tsunami after a sneeze

Two boys howling like wolves

Bey blades crazy

Walks to the post box

Veggie Tales Silly Songs with Larry

Quiet mornings for prayer before the family wakes

Reading a great book

Being buried in stuffed animals

Watching cooking shows with our daughter and son (in-law) after after the boys bedtime

A weekend road trip to the place my father served in the Navy

A Japanese dollar store trip

Coffee… lots of coffee. Almost daily trips to a coffee shop.

Tiny and huge hotel rooms

Smallest elevator I have ever seen

Word of the day: Magnificent

Random outbursts into song and dance during meals

“I’m hungrier than a peacock eating snacks”

Pokémon chip cards

Waking to two 4.4 earthquakes, that I originally thought were my cats scratching themselves on my bed.

Walking past the guard cat, seriously, with a pillow for a shield.

Gift giving and receiving.

Extravagant hospitality.

Aunts, uncles, cousins grandparents and great grandparents

Blowing bubbles

My father explaining crossword puzzles to his great grandsons

Wind and Sun

Used Kimono shopping with my daughter

Goodbye tears leaving them

Happy tears to see my honey again

Beautiful moments…

When your grown son reaches his arm over your shoulder during a visit and says, “Love you mom”.

When your grown daughter texts and says, “Can we call? Your grandson has something he wants to show you”.

The moment your husband stops you on a walk, puts his arm around your waist and points out the beautiful sunset.

Receiving a handwritten note in the mail. Even nicer when it is on a sweet, colorful notecard.

The first moment my head hits the cool pillow and my body knows it can finally relax.

The first lusciously creamy spoonful of raspberry mousse.

The varied sounds of the killdeer birds in our presently dirt and rock yard.

Visits from the neighbor’s affectionate Tom cats around sunset. Head butts, sharp claws kneading on your thigh when they are in the lap, when they come running to see you.

Seeing the straw wrapper on my dashboard that came whizzing by my shoulder the other day, compliments of my ten year old grandson, and remembering the laughter that ensued.

Enjoying a day of card making with our twelve year old granddaughter.

Hearing our four year old grandson tell me a story about the ‘Shamberries’ they grow.

When your daughter in law sits and chats with you, and really enjoys it.

Finding out there is another grandchild on the way into this world.

Coffee and a drive with a friend who has a day off of work, who is really more family.

The sweet, juiciness of a home grown strawberry.

Realizing God’s ever protective presence when a car pulls across a road in front of you and you miss them by inches. Or that your open pant leg was just over an active yellow jacket nest, and you were spared any bites.

Those rare talks with a distant sibling.

When something goes right in the building process, and a weight is lifted from your mind and figurative shoulders.

These are a few of the many things that I find beautiful. That bring me joy. That bring me to my knees in prayer and thankfulness to our Creator. Take a moment in the insanity of your day, close your eyes, and bring to remembrance those little things that bring you joy. Your beautiful moments.

Ahhhh…

Hugs and hellos. A month of giggles, whines and tickles. Bedtime bottles, early morning conversation over the necessary cup of coffee. Special Grammi breakfasts of coffee cake, Dutch babies, and croissants with lemon blueberry cream cheese spread. Exasperations, exuberations, tired eyes, lack of sleep. Squeals of delight, cries of “I want!”. Love tanks filled to overflowing. Spoiling a grown daughter. Spoiling her kids. Selfies, sprinklers in the sandbox, walking to the park. Dinners out, days at the beach, shopping. Doing touristy things in the town we live in. Falling behind with the garden, barely staying on track with the building. A long drive with pleasant conversation. Memories remembered, new ones made. Pictures taken, funny faces, family and lifelong friends. Goodbye hugs, lots of tears, the wave goodbye, as they disappeared into the airport masses. Deep breaths, sighs and smiles. Still tired, catching up, cleaning up, naps. Smiles when remembering. Sad but happy at the same time.

Today…

After waking from a very decent night sleep (that’s another story), I took those old supplements that are supposed to be good for my health and wondered downstairs. Spanky, the black cat, followed quickly behind me hoping for an early morning foray in the backyard. Now that the weather had turned to beautiful, she will be begging to go out whenever I am near the back door. Oatmeal was made for my honey, and I chowed down the last piece of Sabbath sweet potato pie while skimming the local papers for any news worth reading. To make sure we are all drinking enough water daily, I fill water bottles daily. We all aim to drink what is filled at least, more if possible. I added straight cranberry juice to mine to ward off a possible UTI.

I took my dad for a walk around the neighborhood park. I know, taking my dad for a walk sounds like I am walking a pet. I have deliberately started saying that to get a giggle out of people. At 81 years old, my dad can keep a pretty good pace up, although I would consider it my stroll pace. This is just fine with me. For me it is more about the sunshine, the fresh air, the sounds of the birds and so much more. It is a time of connecting with my dad on a human level. We are both fairly busy people, and I may or may not see him throughout the day, even though he lives with us. He goes to the library, the post office, visits a friend at work and brings her the local supermarket adds, takes a short walk with another gal he knows, and so much more.

And now, I sit on the couch, blogging. One cat is on the couch with me, another is peacefully snoozing on the carpet below the couch. I have a half hour before my crazy day shifts into fourth gear. I have to bring water out to our property to water the Apple trees we planted last year. Hopefully the well will be in soon. We are in line for it. Then I head to our vacant rental. For the next two weeks I have to spend time there watering the lawns so they don’t die before the new owners take possession. I will turn on the sprinklers, head to my chiropractic appointment, then head back to the rental to move the sprinkler, stoping at a local juice bar on the way for some liquid lunch.

Since I will have a couple hours until a coffee date with a friend and her daughter, I will spend time at the rental filling out paperwork to get temporary power installed on our property so the builders don’t have to use a generator for long. I found out yesterday that this process may take up to a month to complete. YIKES! So, after coffee, I may go price out generators, just in case. I was also planning to find one of those big, water coolers that they use for sports drinks at football games, you know, the ones they pour over the coaches head when they win a big game, to make sure there is water on site. By then it will be time to head home and fix dinner for my honey and I. Dad usually goes out for dinner with friends twice a week. I think I will make a veggie quiche. Or leftover chicken noodle soup. We’ll see what I am in the mood for when the time arises.

In the past, a day like today might have exhausted me. But, I have found that when I make time for something that brings me joy (coffee with a friend), I do better with morE busy-ness. I hope you find peace in the midst of whatever chaos fills your day today!

One last hurrah…

I got a manicure with my friend, had coffee at a cute little shop, walked old downtown and had Gooeys with a heroic of ladies.

So, my girlfriend turned 50 on tax day. You can’t not celebrate a fiftieth birthday, especially when it falls on tax day. The plans for the day were her idea. She loves a good manicure as sandal season approaches. That’s a pretty rare thing for me, as nail polish usually ends up peeling off layers of my nails when I remove it. But, that’s worth it every now and then to have pretty toenails. It would have been a bit better had the weather yesterday morning been a bit warmer than 36 degrees. However, it did warm up throughout the day. I went with a red sparkly big toe and champagne luster for the rest. Of course, me being me, I had to add some nail stickers to it when I got home, because solid colors are just a bit boring.

After the mani, it was off to the newly opened second store of one of our favorite coffee houses. I know what you’re thinking… that I lied in an earlier post about not being a coffee drinker. But, I’m not, really. In our town, there are drive through coffee shops every few blocks, and numerous sit down shops. One shop is in a converted Jiffy Lube store, a couple others took over defunct delicatessens, yet another, cleverly called The Vault took over, you guessed it, an old bank. They are literally everywhere!!! So, when people get together for a quick visit, it is often over coffee. If you are meeting a business acquaintance, it is at a coffee shop. Are you getting the picture? I am not a daily drinker, just a social one. Boy, that sounds bad…

Oh! Did I mention that I bought tiaras for this celebration? I picked up a couple, one for the birthday girl, and a smaller one for me to wear, so she wouldn’t feel awkward wearing one. I find that the older I get, the more game I am to do that type of thing. I wouldn’t have worn a tiara in public back five years ago.

Anyway, after coffee we went downtown, did a little window shopping then met up with a few more of her friends for Gooeys at the local resort restaurant. Gooeys are huge, gooey, ice cream desserts, filled with candies, cookies and other diabetic nightmares. They are big enough for one teenager who doesn’t think about their health or waistline, or four adults. Even their personal sized ones are at least three of what I would consider a serving. I split one with my friend, and thoroughly enjoyed getting to know these ladies I had never met. After a couple hours, it was a quick walk to the car and a quick drive home.

After saying our goodbyes, I headed to my house down the road, and immediately dove into making a list of what needed to get done this week with preparing for the feasts and all the paperwork I needed to prepare for permitting our build. Between that stuff, mowing our rental lawn a couple times before it closes, taking my dad to cataract surgery and follow up appointments, there will be little time for fun for the next few weeks. I just hope that as our weather warms, I can squeeze in a little gardening at my own home. There are a couple monstrous weeds in the lawn that drive me buggy every time I see them.

Make time for you today, no matter how busy your day is. Set a timer if you have to to make sure you get the full amount of time in. It is hard at first, but it really does affect your emotional outlook for the better! The sun is shining, so I am off for a morning walk to contemplate the songbirds!

Liquid joy recipe

I should have shared this yesterday when I rattled on about my coffee snobbery.

I found this recipe in the Costco Connection magazine some time ago. I make the coffee, then pour 20 ounces into a mason jar, and add 4 ounces of my local Fred Meyer Simple Truth Organic Sweet Cream Creamer in. I like (used to like, 😞) keeping it in the fridge and I would take a sip, or gulp periodically throughout the day, as opposed to a cup in the morning. I know you are supposed to dilute the concentrate, but I don’t. Wonder what that says about my “it’s all about the experience” line as opposed to Admitting that I may need the caffeine?

Coffee… the most accepted, legal, addictive drug in the world. But then, I suppose there are plenty of other things that one could say that about. TV, sugar, chocolate, etc. I concede.

Coffee break!

Only I can’t have coffee!!! Apparently it nullifies the homeopathic remedies I have been trying to control my hot flashes, or power surges as some prefer to say. The real bummer about that is that I have avoided becoming a coffee drinker for 53 years. It wasn’t until last summer that I started, and only because I had found the perfect recipe for joy in a cup.

You see, there was this recipe in a magazine for cold brewed coffee, and I decided to try it for my honey, who is a two large cups a day man. Anyway, I made it with the organic Brazilian coffee that we order from Sleepy Monk Coffee in Cannon Beach, OR. On the periodic occasions that I did drink coffee, Brazilian seemed to be the only type I could stomach, that is with the right amount of sugary creamer. I know it is beginning to sound like I am a non coffee drinking coffee snob, but I can explain. I had coffee when we visited some friends for a weekend. Normally I would just sip whatever was served, and pour half out. It was more about the act then the taste. That morning’s coffee changed everything! Smooth, buttery, not acidic. If I was ever going to drink coffee, it would be Brazilian. So, I started buying it for my honey, so that I could periodically imbibe with him on a lazy Sabbath morning.

So… here I am. Taking a break from the hustle of my day, and I can’t sip on my liquid joy. Insert sad faces emoji here.

What hustle am I taking a break from? I am so glad you asked! After preparing breakfast for my honey and starting my before the weekend chores, I ran over to the rental we have sold. There were some items on the inspection that need to get fixed. Today was mostly cleaning up and clearing out. The doors and trim will be installed Sunday, and the handyman will be there Monday or Tuesday to do the things I physically cannot. Replace vent boots on the roof, create a new hole in the door jam so the door latch will go into it and keep the door closed, and other such stuff. After leaving there, I picked up my dry cleaning (yes, that is a real thing when you wear wool sweaters and dresses. It’s not just in movies), stopped by the store to see what new plants had arrived for the garden, popped by the local home improvement store to get some “black goop to coat the nail heads with” when we fix the vent boots, and return some unused pipe insulation. I polished off the last of the potato chips I keep in the car on the way home to get some lunch, which had to wait until I unloaded my car and put things away. That is the perfectionist in me.

After my non coffee drinking coffee break there will be a few more chores to finish up my Sabbath preparations. Hopefully I will have time to make a sweet potato pie to serve cold for breakfast! My favorite way to start Sabbath.

https://ohsheglows.com/2011/11/20/vegan-pumpkin-pie-three-ways-classic-rustic-gluten-free/

I make mine with puréed sweet potato, substitute three eggs for the arrowroot powder, and I add a drop of each spice in essential oils for an extra kick. I hope you enjoy this as much as we do!