Here it is the first Thursday of the new year.  I have not yet been to work this week, so am faced with trying to get 15 hours of work done in 5 hours.  We all know that's not possible, so either some things won't get done or I'll be working tomorrow too.  I usually try to never work on Monday's or Fridays.  Remember, this is a part time job with flexible hours.  That is why I took it.  Flexible hours.  I am anti-schedule.

We still have a couple of inches of snow on the ground - nothing compared to my friends "back east".  But it is enough to hinder my fine feathered friends.  They will get fed this morning before I leave! 

Last night the church quilters were back at it after a two week Holiday break.  We put in a new quilt.  Ironically, it is a beautiful Christmas quilt.  Think we might get it done in time for next Christmas?  I would hope so.  A quilt usually takes us a month or two.  We only have 6 quilters.  Three quilt 2 hours on Tuesday morings, and 3 of us quilt for 2 hours on Wednesday evenings.  It is hard for me to get motivated to leave the house when the temperatures are below freezing and snow is on the ground.  But I'm always glad I do.  Last night there were four of us.  After putting the new quilt in, we stitched and talked.  The conversation flowed about family and celebrations and the weather.  None of us broached topic of the political world.  I don't think we wanted to upset the ease of the evening.  We were thrilled when our two more experienced and faster quilters were able "to roll".  That is always a good feeling to be able to roll the quilt before heading home.

Well, Whiskey is warming my lap, but that is soon to change.  Many things to do today.  I will leave you with a quote from one of my favorite authors:

“All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.” 
― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring

Just One

Happy New Year everyone!

Do you do New Year's resolutions?  No?  Me neither.  Usually.  But this year I've made an exception.  I am making only one New Year's resolution, and that is to begin blogging on a regular basis again.  Wish me luck.  If I'm not able to keep this resolution, then my resolution to not make resolutions will be validated.   Capiche?

Since I haven't been feeling very good, we chose to ring in the new year with a quiet evening at home.  I fixed spinach spaghetti covered with shrimp and scallops in a tomato/garlic sauce, and a lettuce salad with homemade blue cheese dressing.  I've always claimed I'm not a blue cheese anything fan.  Last night changed that.  The dressing was just a mixture of Hidden Valley Ranch dry dressing with milk (1/4 to 1/3 cup), 1/2 cup sour cream, 1 cup mayonnaise (not Miracle Whip please), and 8 oz blue cheese.  I'm definitely a convert. 

After our" gourmet meal", we retired downstairs to pool.  I won when Jim sank the 8 ball before its time.  First time that has every happened (yea right).  Normally we play at least 3 games, but I've been dealing with a pinched nerve in my neck, and a stiff, hurting, neck and pool are not good playmates.  I have to thank my sweet daughter, Julie, for bringing some left over muscle relaxers to me a few nights ago.  I know, I know... sharing prescriptions is a no, no.  But desperate hurts call for desperate measures.  I'm sure nobody else has ever shared medicine with an ailing someone else before.  I won't tell if you don't.  After our dismal pool game we tried playing cards.  Jim wouldn't play with me anymore after I beat him at two games of Rummy, so we tried our hands at a few rounds of Black Jack.  He ended up with more chips than I did, so technically I guess he won, but I figure we both won since we both had chips left.  Right?  Yea, I'm gong to go with that. (Can you tell I don't like to lose?)  Then we watched mindless television until it was time to ring in the new year and head for bed.  A rather uneventful beginning to 2013, but there it is.

We didn't fall off the fiscal cliff, by the way.  Don't those bozos have a lot to be proud of?  They wait until the last minute to find a compromise and then expect us all to be oh so grateful to them.  Really?  I don't know about anyone else, but I would have been fired from any of my many jobs if I'd have performed as dismally as our elected officials.  Can you imagine missing deadline after deadline, and then at the final moment, after you took a vacation in the middle of the crisis, you come back with a solution?  And, "Oh by the way, boss, this is only an interim solution.  I need to work on this some more.  I'm sure you understand."  No I don't understand.  I cannot imagine any boss not handing out a pink slip.  And yet here we are.  No pink slips were  handed out during the last election, so nothing has changed.  I'm not pointing at the Democrats or Republicans.  I am pointing my finger at each and every one of our elected officials.  While they are passing laws, they need to consider passing one that fires themselves if they aren't able to cooperate and compromise to the betterment of the USA.  They have pissed me off.  All of them.

Jim and I went to see the Hobbit the other  night.  Our first ever 3D movie.  We about passed out when we saw the tickets were $8.50 each - for the early show after the Senior discount.  It has been ages since we've been to the movies, so that was a rude awakening.  Have you ever been to a 3D movie?  Oh my goodness that was an experience!  I actually ducked a few times when things started flying off that screen towards me.  The action packed, panoramic views, Hobbit was a perfect 3D experience.  It would not take much to talk me into going again. 

Catch you again soon.

Huh

That is what I thought when I finally logged into my blog this morning and saw that I have been away for well over a month.  Closer to two months.  Huh.  How did that happen? 

Sometimes the creative juices don't flow.  I think maybe a topic specific blog would be easier than a general blog.   But then there are those who have a blog with tabs.  You know the ones - cooking, crafting, kids, pets, day-to-day. Do tell me how they manage.  Where do I start?  I guess from the present, huh.

We had one of the best Thanksgiving ever.  All of my children and their families made it to our house to celebrate.  We spent the day visiting and eating and eating and visiting and eating.... The weather couldn't have been better, which is a good thing, because with over 20 people here, we quickly figured out we needed to overflow to the screened in back porch.

A funny story on my mother-in-law.  As many of you know, she has Alzheimer's.  She really is in her own little world, making up things as she goes along, and repeating herself often.  She's always been an outspoken, rough around the edges type of gal. She didn't disappoint yesterday.  I fixed her a plate of food and set it in front of her before I went back for my own plate.  Someone asked her how the food tasted.  Her reply?  "I've had better".  We all exploded in laughter - it was so her!

I was going to share some Thanksgiving day photos, but discovered I have exceeded my free photo space limit.  Yet when I went to upgrade it showed I was only using 35% of my allotted free space.  What to do, what to do.  I don't mind (well actually I do) paying for more space if I need to.  But I'd hate to find I upgraded when I didn't have to.  I'm cheap that way.  I've gotten spoiled with the free blog!

Hopefully each and every one of you had a good Thanksgiving.  In addition to all of the other awesomeness in my life, I am also thankful for each and every one of you.  Assuming there is any you still reading my blog after all of this time!

 How did it become Fall overnight?  At night the temperatures have been dipping down to freezing.  Daytime is fun time.  I love the crispness of Fall.  Crisp temperatures and crisp colors.  Somehow it lightens my step and energizes me. 

Yesterday we worked on a rock walkway that has been a work in progress for quite some time.  Our property is mostly rock, with a little soil mixed in for good measure.  That, combined with Jim's strong German heritage's love for all things rocks, he has surrounded us with wonderful rock walls and walkways.  If it isn't rock, then it is brick.  Usually he works on these by himself, which means he is up and down.... pick out a rock, sit down to try to place it, only to find it doesn't quite fit, then back up to pick another rock, then back down.  He's never complained, but it is definitely easier when I help and he can sit and dig and place, with me bringing him rocks to choose from.  Now we can both rub our backsides and say, oh my I'm sore (or something like that). 

 

After wearing ourselves out playing with rocks, we retired to our metal chairs around the fire pit and had some wine and cheese.  I've yet to figure out who drank that entire bottle of wine.  It couldn't have been us...

 



 

I started to snap this picture and Whiskey ran up the steps to get in on the photo op.  Silly dog.

 

 

Hope everyone is enjoying life as much as I am right now!

 

What to do to celebrate eleven years of life...

You mark flying off your bucket list.
 

You even allow your mother to go with you, since she's never flown before either.





Said mother must agree to sit in the back, since it IS your birthay after all.

You take over the controls from the pilot.  After all, you are eleven!

 

You leave Grandma and Grandpa behind, protected by OCHAs
 

While you do a fly-over of the state capital and the capitol building

HAPPY 11TH BIRTHDAY DAKOTA.  HOPE YOU ENJOYED IT AS MUCH AS WE DID!

"We moved in and they forgot to move out."  This is what Uncle Cy told us about this shack in Folk, Mo.

It was the mid 1920's, a few years before 1929's Great Depression.  For some, though, Black Friday came early.  Mom lived in this shack when she was a little girl, along with her two older brothers, Cy and Tom, her mom and dad, and apparently, for a short time, with her grandma and grandpa - until they remembered to "move out".   

Mom (on the right) and her cousin

Times were definitely hard. 

Joseph Forck

 

 



As I look into the eyes of this ancestor I never knew, I have to think his heart hurt to not be able to provide for his family the way he would have liked to.  He was an unsuccessful farmer most of his life. 

This was also during the time of Prohibition.  Desperate times meant desperate measures.  As Uncle Cy tells it, "One day dad came home all excited.  He knew what he was going to do to get rich."  You guessed it.  Moonshine. 

Uncle Cy poked his finger at the picture and said, "Dad put in a still in the upstairs of that house.  But we never did get rich.  He drank more than he sold and was never right in the head after that."  As Cy got into his story, embelishing as he went along, his much younger brother sat there and shook his head.  There was some disagreement about the "never right in the head after that" part.  But there was no disagreement that times had been hard.

Seven people in a shack with no electricity or running water, bugs and mice, probably a snake or two, with an illegal still being run out of the upstairs....  I have to think they were very lucky that the weight of the still did not fall through the upstairs floorboards to the floor below. 

As the sun rose in the sky this morning, and I watched all of the Labor Day posts on blogs and Facebook, I couldn't help but think about how this season has played out. 

We had one of the most beautiful Springs ever. 

We were energized.

Beginning of Summer 2012

Our energies waned as the heat of the summer took its toll.  We watched helplessly as the virbrant colors of Spring turned to brown.  This is not how it is supposed to be.  But it is what we have been dealt.  A rain dance or two was done and prayers were offered up daily.  We needed relief from one of the worst heat waves and droughts on record.

 

We watched in horror as Isaac ravage the South, knowing it was going to bring some welcome relief, to the Midwest, from relentless heat and devastating drought.  It is strange how that works sometimes.

 

On this Labor Day I am thinking about all of the good people in Louisiana, who are still without power, as they once again work to pick up the pieces of rebuilding their lives from yet another storm with a name.  I can only imagine that they are wondering which name is going to hit them next...   

 



End of Summer 2012

I am also thinking about all of the hard working Americans - my fellow Midwesterners - who are drooping from working day after day in the intense heat of this past summer, in the end to only realize no reward for their hard labor.

Even when things look impossible - hopeless - we don't give up.

We look to the future and dream of what can be if we work hard and believe.