Thinking Thursday Thoughts

Ok, time to clean up my act here and bring the witty and wise and wearying words back to the forefront.  But on a side note, if I ever offer up tea when you come to visit, be sure you know what you're getting!

I've had four emails this morning asking about the location of different neighbors recycling bins.  It seems they've all run off and had a recycling bin party somewhere.  Wonder if they complain about people that don't rinse out the containers before tossing them in and then there's tomato juice and syrup dripping about.

Just recently I made an observation.

As soon as both daughters get home at their respective times, they both say hello and walk straight to the piano and pound out a few numbers on the keys.  Then when they've had about five minutes or so tickling the ivories, they come back to the kitchen and ask for a snack and want to visit.  Music decompression?

I saw this video today.  It's probably what I look like at a Sunday afternoon g.m. after a very large dinner at someones home but I hope not.

I'm done with winter.  Do you know why?  We have a mouser-turned-into-a-housecat-this-winter that is driving me nuts.  He insists on meowing at our bedroom door at exactly 5:30 each morning.  I turn over.  I cover my head with a pillow.  The meowing gets louder.  I get up and look almost exactly like Aunty Acid.  And I don't even feed him breakfast.  I can't wait for summer when he hunts the night away and comes home to sleep in the garage.

Well the weekend looks full and wonderful and promising to be filled with fun and friends.  Monday Musings might have more to muse this time!

Tea and TMI...

Yesterday, daughter #1 and I were at a local grocery store by the name of Woodman's that carries everything.  And I mean everything.  There are entire aisles dedicated to certain ethnic foods.  Rows of natural foods.  You name it.  Well we were strolling down the Asian aisle because she loves it all (go figure) and I stumble across some tea.  

Now don't be alarmed.  I am not dieting.  I simply don't diet.  I just eat a couple less cinnamon rolls per week and call it good.  However, this very inexpensive tea seemed intriguing.  Drink a cup of tea and I'll be dancing like a ballerina!  Why not!  Daughter #1 encouraged me to throw it into a cart.

We return home.  After doing a few things I boil up some water and steep my bag for exactly five minutes.  I drink it down.  Tastes a bit like hot water poured over grass clippings, but hey!  I'm going to lose weight!  

We eat our dinner together as a family and I chase that all down with a coffee cake muffin that I had just made.  Yum.  I figure if I'm going to drink tea to diet, that took care of the extra calories I just consumed.

Well I meander off to bed early.  I'm sick with a cold you know and rest restores health, right?  The Chairman comes to the bedroom to chat a bit and turn out my light.  I settle in.  I am suddenly awake by about 4.  I think I don't feel so well.  What is that strange feeling?  Oh my.  I'm cramping up a bit.  

I doze off but at 4:30 my body says, 'get out of bed and get to the bathroom right NOW!!!'  I try to quietly run to the bathroom.  I then pretty much void myself of every food particle I've eaten since 1986 and it wasn't by throwing up.  My loins were not girded.  They were on fire!  I head back to the bed.  I lay there awake for a bit and just as I'm dozing off feel another incredible urge to get out of bed immediately or there will be trouble.  I finished off part two and took care of all the nourishment I've had since 1973.  Oh.  My.  Word.  If this is what it takes for ballerinas to dance, well I'm not donning a tutu anytime soon.

Today I've felt icky off and on all day and I'm quite certain Ballerina has something to do with it.  So if you're feeling that winter doldrums are getting you bogged down, I have just the remedy!  Just stop by for a tea bag and you'll be good to go!  Pun very much intended.  

Monday Musings

Back up just a bit.  Not too close you know.  Ker-CHOO!  I have a cold and I think I'm contagious yet, so don't want to be responsible if you get it too.  I haven't been sick for a very long time so I feel like I really want to whine and complain about it.  You don't want to hear?  Ok fine.  Our kindly elder told me yesterday morning that I look like Rudolph.  I took that as a compliment because Rudolph brings gifts.  Mine just happened to be the cold virus.

Our dear daughters were away for the entire weekend.  They were whooping it up at my slightly older sisters doing crafts and cooking projects and running a sewing machine and tea parties and you name it.  Now they are looking at me with a jaded perspective wondering why I'm not as fun as she as.  Guess that's the last time I let them ever go anywhere.

It was sweet that daughter #2 wanted to draw a bubble bath for me last night.  I was envisioning dim lights and a possible candle and some deep quiet solitude.  The reality was that I had a cat investigating the water,  the lights on bright, and a daughter talking non-stop while reading me a magazine very loudly next to my right ear.  Quiet, soothing bubble baths can wait.

I had posted a video on Saturday that I found funny.  However, after one of the MYP informed me that there was something 'bad' on it, I decided it wasn't up to the extremely high standards at the Chairman and company.  However, if you want to watch this clip it does meet the standards.  

Sorry this Musing wasn't very amusing.  I have a nose to blow and a tickle to cough.  I have three MYP home on a vacation day from school (rotten timing!).  So I'll step away from the prose.  Happy Monday!

Wednesday Words

I do my best to remain free of political banter on this page.  However, there are some people I love in this country and we have been riveted by the events happening in there.  This video is touching.  And we are touched by the unrest.

So I made these cinnamon rolls on Monday.  (I didn't heal the world by cooking dinner as my towel says.)

I was out of my comfort zone because I like my tried and true roll recipe.  The consensus?  One of the MYP didn't eat one bite because that's how she is.  The next one took the first bite not knowing it was a new recipe and said, 'these are absolutely the best rolls you have ever made'.  The last child ate four in a row until I realized what was happening.  And yes, she ate little for supper.  The Chairman?  He said that they tasted more like a cinnamon doughnut than a roll.  Me?  I thought they were a bit too sweet, but I'll definitely do them again.

I tried out this cookie recipe yesterday.  Yum.

Ok no more food pictures.  I promise.  

As two of the MYP were eating breakfast this morning, we were discussing electronics and little kids.  I'm a bit out of the loop but I finally noticed they have special covers and even special devices for teeny-weeny-little kids to use to play games or watch videos.  I've recently noticed a rash of them in stores.  I told the MYP that in the car we didn't have so much as a DVD player.  We would put in the cassette tape and sing at the top of our lungs listen to Wee Sing (several versions) or Raffi.  To this day I think I know every song on each one and which song comes on next.  One child looked at the other and said, 'wow, we grew up in the old days'.  It's all perspective I guess.  I liked the 'old days' better.

We are experiencing a temporary thaw here.  However, the long-term forecast puts us down below the 0 mark again in a few days.  When I finally see the first robin of spring, I just might rush out and give that little redbreast a big hug.  

This is enough words...

Monday Musings

Ahh yes.  The simple joys of winter.  Woke up to the flashing red sign saying we are in a winter storm warning today.  Meh.  Been there.  Done that.  They even keep school going through it these days.

This will be somewhat abbreviated because life isn't offering up a lot of interesting musings of late.

I think the longer I cook and bake, the more hesitant I am to try new recipes without wanting to 'fudge' them.  No, I'm not talking about making fudge silly.  I have an especially hard time with bread/roll recipes.  However, I am going to try for Pioneer Woman's cinnamon rolls today and I promise and pinky-swear that I won't change the recipe one iota.  Except for maybe the maple flavoring since I don't want to drive through a winter storm to get it.

We had some more friends over yesterday to share our food and fellowship.  I love what friends bring to a home.  New perspectives, struggles, joy, and Spirit.  It seems the more you have company the more you want to.

Daughter #1 brought home information about this site from her health class at school.  You can enter in the products you use to see if they are toxic or not.  Seems in the past that Johnson and Johnson had some bad stuff in their baby shampoo and such.  I hope I didn't shorten the lives of the MYP.  Tears would maybe be better.

I saw this video last week.  The little girl reminds me so incredibly much of what our dear daughter looked like as a toddler it almost made my heart hurt watching it.  She loved to get wet in the rain.  She still loves to be sprayed with a hose.  It still is such a blessing to have her in our family.  I'm thankful for little reminders of that.

Well I've got a date today!  It isn't considered a 'hot date'.  Rather it could be a 'cold date' with the big ol' mutt we call our dog.  Don't tell her I said that...

What love looks like...

Love looks like lots of things.  To some people love looks like flowers or dinners or certificates to a massage parlor or even a heart-shaped box of mystery chocolates.  To me, love doesn't look like anything.  It feels like everything.

I have known love all my life.  My earliest memories are being nestled in the crook of my mama's arms, feeling the gentle rock of the chair, and hearing her sing some hymn just slightly off key.  That was a love personified.  Dad would come home from work and have time for us kids.  We would all share our days and just be together.  We always had a family vacation together with our little pop-up camper following along.  That was love personified.

I found my true love in my mid/late 20's.  I didn't know my love would be a smart, somewhat reserved Slovenian/Italian man with a full beard (at the time).  I didn't even know I loved him for awhile.  But then it hits like a wall.  I love him.  And I still do.

What does love look like for me these days?  A constant presence of someone that loves me as much as I love him.  It is the text message that comes in an hour after leaving saying, 'are you ok?' after I had been particularly surly (yes even I get that way sometimes).  It comes in the late-night visits we have about our shared love and sometimes concern for the MYP.  It is giving incredible amounts of time at work to provide for our family.  It is the compliments given nearly daily (unless it is really icky) for meals I prepare for our family.  Yes, it isn't a fairy tale existence or expectation.  It is the reality and challenges of life that you share with another with care and consideration.

Yesterday to prove my love, I shoveled and dug and chipped away at months of ice/snow buildup on our driveway.  After three hours with the help of the MYP at the end, we accomplished much.

No, I didn't ask Lisi to pose for the picture.  She was patiently waiting to be leashed so we could go walk.

Just so you know how incredibly coordinated klutzy I am... yesterday I hopped up on the mudroom bench to grab my gloves from up high and came down, rolled my ankle, and collapsed in a heap on the floor.  Son #1 looked in shock and awe as he saw his mother take a nose dive.  I only have a puffy ankle bone to show for my talent.

Have I told you about this cookie recipe?  If so, pardon the monotony.  Our family really likes them and they pack wonderfully for school lunches.

Twenty-eight years ago, someone special was born into our family on this date.  He was just a little sweetheart.  A chubby little nephew with a ready smile that liked to line up his Hot Wheels cars.  Then he became a Sweet Tart.  He was still a nice boy, but he liked to tease and taunt his sisters often.  Then his heart grew and grew as he did and it became so big that he had to share it with others without reserve.  He even offers up hope for the broken-hearted.   Happy birthday N!

And finally, this is what love looks like to an overweight tiger tom cat.  Kitty massage on a cold winter night.  Love his relaxed hind feet.  :-)

Monday Musings

Mundane Monday to you!  Actually my whole last week was kind of mundane too.  Mid-winter blahs have not only set in but settled down for the long haul.  "Only" a feels-like temperature of -18 as I type, so it must be warming up!

Here's a little something to ponder.  Someone yesterday mentioned something about a PIN number.  But doesn't the "N" stand for number?  So are we really saying your personal identification number number?  I looked it up and it has a term.  RAS syndrome!  Redundant acronym syndrome syndrome.  ATM machines are another.  Or are LCD displays.... get my drift.  Or snowdrift in light of the weather.

I believe the print is getting smaller on the pages and on my iphone lately as I seem to be needing to be grabbing my reading glasses more often.  It certainly can't be my eyes.

I overheard this last night in the kitchen.  'I don't want the butt!  Don't give me the butt!'.  So I ask yell from another room, 'what's going on???'.  'He's cutting the bread and I don't want the butt!'  Dear, that is called the heel, not the butt.  Although sometimes it almost looks more like a butt than a heel it's more polite to say heel than butt.  But eating too many 'butts' might just give me a bigger one.  Oh never mind.

Interested in personality tests that only take five minutes of your time?  You are?  Then go check out this site.  Someone recommended we take it for fun (thanks JW!).  I was skeptical, but it kind of nailed all five in our family.  We have a reliable realist, a social realist, a spontaneous idealist, an energetic doer, and a determined realist all living together in peace and harmony (well mostly!) here.

So yesterday, we were gone from home for nearly nine hours.  I luckily didn't have my phone with me during g.m. yesterday as a couple texts came in as well as a phone call from my picture-taking neighbor.  'Lisi has been over to our house for awhile.  E. took her home, but she went on to S's (another neighbor) house now.'  I texted back an apology and thanks and said we'd be home in 20 minutes.  The response was 'sometimes it takes a village'.  Apparently, Lisi was on the lam yesterday.  I think the level of frantic increased as time wore on as she was worried above all else that supper wasn't coming.  Spoiled?  I think so.  Both the cat/dog came rushing inside and collapsed on the floor and slept like none other for the rest of the evening.

Noticing at this time of Olympics that there are many 'proud sponsors'.  Are there any reluctant sponsors?

A mountain of warm, freshly washed clothes await my efforts.  And more mundane things ahead.  Mostly because it is a mundane Monday.  Riveting stuff, eh?

Rumination

Just a few things that I've been chewing on lately.  Seems an appropriate term to use since we are in Dairyland and all!

I love cooking and baking and all things in the kitchen.  However, I have a very love/hate relationship with knives.  There's a saying that a new knife is safer than an old one.  Not for me.  I cut myself just getting it out of the package yesterday and today while using it chopped off part of my fingernail.  Raw talent I tell you!

Speaking of purchases.  I bought a new swimsuit this week.  This is what I thought I'd look like in it:

This is what I really looked like in it.  Sigh.  My daughters thought it was a hoot.

A new mother on FB posted a picture of her baby a few months ago and how he appears now in a bassinet.  The growth was obvious in such a short time span.  Soon she will be filling out the paperwork for him to enter high school as we just did with our son.  These MYP have their own goals and dreams and hopes for the bright future that lies before them.  It's been very evident to me again that "parents hold their children's hands for awhile and their hearts forever".  I find it fascinating how much the MYP reminisce about when they were little.  Our old home.  The racing down the big hill on their triciycles.  The times they had with their little friends.  Grandparents and Aunts/Uncles/Cousins.  Trips.  Some day we will be reminiscing about today. Well maybe not since this one looks like it'll turn out to be very ordinary.

I had a request from someone to make something in the kitchen last night.  I had just cleaned up everything and did a slight 'sigh' and she promised it wouldn't make one bit of a mess.  And she was right.  

I found a photo album I made up with a friend 6 1/2 years ago.  I really miss these two.  

I want to complain about the cold and snowy winter we've had.  But that wouldn't be encouraging or profitable so I'll say that I'm very happy that spring will be coming within six weeks according to Punxsutawney Phil!  

Happy weekend!  Soon it'll be time to muse again...

We're Twins!

Well almost!  Hello!  This is your old pal Lisi.  I think it is time for me to 'speak' from my corner of the doghouse again.  Today was a lovely day to walk.  As I was trotting along minding my own business and doing my business I was doing some simple number crunching (we dogs aren't too complex with mathematics you know).  Did you know something?  The Big Lady that yells but loves me anyway and I are nearly exactly the same age!  Isn't that just the greatest?  It would be, but I have a bone to pick with her (I'd rather chew on it quite frankly).  

Lately, I have overheard the Big Lady that yells but loves me anyway tell people some things about me that I'm not happy about.  She seems to be bringing up negatives when she should really focus on the positives.  Want to hear them?  She says that my hair is turning gray.  She says that I've been getting more meat on my bones.  She says that I have some weird lumps here and there.  She says that my vision isn't so clear.  And she even has said that my ears don't hear like they used to (don't tell her but I do hear just fine.  I just choose not to sometimes.)

But did you want to know something?  She should be looking in the mirror when she is saying those things.  Have you seen her hair lately?  How about her backside?  Reading glasses?  Telling the small people they are always mumbling their questions.  Hmmmmm?  What do you have to say about that Big Lady?

Now don't get me wrong.  The Big Lady that yells but loves me anyway is my everything.  She's my mom and bestest friend and playmate and provider and love all wrapped up in one package.  And even though she won't admit it, I think in some ways I'm that to her too.  She walks through rain, snow, sleet, hail, and unbelievably cold temperatures just so I can have my daily outing.  She feeds me at perfectly paced intervals.  She scratches me in those perfect spots.  She even comes back from the store with bones stuffed with bits of goodness like beef or peanut butter.  So yes this affection is a two-way street.

I'm very aware that I'm on the fast track and the Big Lady is on the normal track of aging.  This time that we are the same age will be brief.  If time allows, she will be caring tenderly for me as I quickly become an old lady.  I know she will do her best to keep me warm, safe, and comfortable because she does that for me right now.  I'd like to live a lot longer, but I cannot and maybe it is for the best.  For now I'll enjoy each day to the fullest. So here's to me and my twin!  At least for a few days...

"If you still think you're a young pup then you are, no matter what the calendar says"

- John Grogan, "Marley and Me:  Life and Love with the World's Worst Dog"

"The misery of keeping a dog is his dying so soon.  But, to be sure, if he lived for fifty years and then died, what would become of me?" - Sir Walter Scott

Monday Musings

Hmmm.  Where my fingers should tap to amuse the masses.

How about that picture!  Looks like the sky is on fire over yonder from our house.  This was taken by our friendly neighbor again who likes taking pictures of our house.  I'm not sure but maybe, just maybe she has a telephoto lens and is peering inside our windows.  But I doubt it.  The picture however is spectacular for some reason.  Wow.

I took one of those incredibly silly online quizzes through BuzzFeed.  This one was to tell you what your occupation should be.  Since I've been out of the workforce for eleven years now I was intrigued.  And then I was slightly surprised with my answer.  Ready?  A writer!  Yes indeed!  I just don't know how I'll handle all the fame that will come once I really put my pen to paper.  So maybe I better not.  Don't want my head to explode with self-satisfaction when I'm on the NY Times best seller list.

I am not into endorsing products very often.  However, I'll throw out a couple that I utterly love in my life.  My Sonicare toothbrush.  It feels like you have just finished up a dental cleaning each and every time.  The Bosch mixer I use more than twice a week to whip up bread dough or something else yummy.  It cost a bit up front but has paid for itself in the long run.  My Nutrimill wheat grinder.  Nothing like warm, whole-grain non-GMO organic flour going into another batch of dough.  The Norwex purple window cloth.  Our Honda Odyssey.  Yes, it isn't a swagger wagon.  I am certain I look like your average SAHM.  But I don't care.  It hauls our family and friends and dog and groceries and ski/snowboard equipment with ease.  I think that's enough peddling products for this time.

We had company this weekend!  Some came with their pj's and some came just for a meal.  One of the highlights for one of the MYP was the fact there was a baby in our house for 30 hours.

 

Well this might be enough for this Monday.  All is quiet here.  Except for the fact that Simba thinks I better get off the computer and to the back door and let him inside.  Now!