Feel the Love

I definitely felt the love this past weekend.  It's so nice to see family that you haven't seen in two months.  The fun part was that the kids were surprised; they didn't know we were coming (just in case something else happened to prevent us from coming).  
  Every time we see the kids it looks like they have grown; especially Ryan and Cavan.  Ryan had his skinny jeans on and he looked so tall.  He is one inch shorter than me. He can't wait until he is as tall as me (and taller).  How can our oldest grandchild be almost thirteen?
On Saturday, Kristen took me to Geneva, Illinois; a real cute city with lots of shops and restaurants.  We went to a tea shop that was a lot more than a tea shop.  On Thursdays and Saturdays "The Little Traveler" which has 36 rooms or shops serves samples of teas, wine, coffee, mixes, chocolates and many other things.  We ate ourselves through the rooms.  It is really an old house and there is a tea room where you can have "proper tea."  I loved it and must go back to Geneva and visit the rest of the shops and "The Little Traveler" again. 
We opened presents on Saturday night and I didn't get one picture.  After waiting all this time, I forgot about the camera! 
On Sunday we took the kids back to the hotel to go swimming to burn some of their energy off.  I think we accomplished that.
It was such a short, but fun trip.  I am so glad we made it because Kristen is now sick-hoping for a quick recovery.  We are hoping no germs came home with us!

Look at those eyes!  

Okay you can stop growing anytime.  

See what I mean about them getting bigger.  This one looks like his Papa Don

Getting lots of help with the iPad.  

This Thing

This thing, an iPAD is very deceiving. In the store they make it look so easy; just touch this and this comes up. Over and over again they show you the wonders of the magic tablet. Oh, but I wasn't fooled, I KNEW it would be harder for me than it looked. But Donaldo looked so eager and later he said he was proud of me for buying it and willing to use it. Ha! He used it the rest of the week. I am scared of it, but determined to use it. So we took it to Chicago with us and the kids were so excited to SHOW me how to use it. Again it was a repeat of the Apple Store. Somehow, they knew all the right things to do. They ended up playing games on it and putting together sports cars. You can even put a keyboard on it and play the piano. It takes pictures and videos. Oh the many wonderful, wonderful things it can do! Dr. Seuss would never believe it.
Now that I have written my first blog on it, I feel quite accomplished. I think I will sign up for one of the classes at the Apple Store. And I need my friend Capri K tell me which word games she plays. I hope all this technology keeps our minds healthy and prevents dementia. I do have to say the keyboard is very touchy, as in, sensitive. One slight touch of the wrong key and BAM! Who knows where you will end up! I'd better quit while I'm ahead. We say goodbye.

We Are Here

This is Ryan, Marlene's first grandchild. We came home from Cavan's swim meet and found a Ford Flex in the garage. We walked in the house and there they were. I was so surprised because I didn't know they were coming. They brought a big box of CHRISTmas presents. I am very happy they are here. They also brought a monster box of home made cookies. They are staying in a hotel and hopefully we can go swimming. It should be a fun weekend! I love my grandma and papa very much.

On Our Way

Chicago, finally here we come...finally Christmas with the youngest daughter and her family.  After two failed attempts, we will be trying a third attempt.  Hubby is making Wyoming Whopper cookies to take; they are perfection plus.  There must be something about an engineer cooking and baking; everything almost always turns out. 
I have been putting pictures in albums and I have come across some of my mom that I haven't seen in a few years.  They have been taken up at the cottage and bring back so many fond memories.  My dad and his caretakers call the cottage the "cabin" which it isn't...it will always be the COTTAGE.  My mom was very proud of the three-bedroom, two bath cottage and deck; it was a dream come true for her.  There are so many memories of good times up there and we would love to repeat them again someday with our kids and grandchildren.  Who knows, but I am glad my dad can enjoy it now and has such good care while he is there.  Here is a couple of the pictures I found.
  

This was ten years ago on my 55th birthday in the outfit Don (Karen) got me for  my birthday

Karen relaxing on the deck

My mom on the fourth of July with the berry trifle I made

Karen and my mom playing their favorite card came.  I can't believe this is ten years ago.

What To Do When It Gets Cold

We have been experiencing some chilly, windy days and nights as I am sure many others are.  The winds on Saturday night had some BAD gusts.  Things were knocking around all over the place.  This is NOT my favorite time of the year or my favorite weather. This year in particular has been hard for me to cope with.  I DO NOT want to go out so this is what I have done instead: 
(Before you say it out loud-I know I am a wimp)!  I remember all those years I had to go to BSF in a skirt and I know the leaders don't have to wear them now, but there is no way you could ever get me to go out in a skirt again in the winter.  So I:

*Stay home whenever I can
*We finally finished seven seasons of West Wing and loved it.
*I have been putting pictures in photo albums (over 700 pictures so far). I am still going to scrapbook, but I have far too many pictures to put in scrapbooks.  
*We are going to start Season I of Downton Abbey tonight
*Read.  I am reading Mitch Albom's newest book "The Time Keeper." It is very good.
*Journal.  I have been journaling and also started a new prayer journal.  It has been nice to spend my mornings in Bible Study and prayer.
*Swimming.  Okay this one probably seems preposterous given that it is at 7:00 a.m. in the morning.  We didn't go Saturday or Sunday; we went yesterday but not this morning.  About four days a week Donaldo has to drag me out of the house; he spoils me  by dropping me off at the door.  I have to go and get my preferred form of exercise.  It is really something to see it snowing outside when you are inside swimming.
*I drink a LOT of tea and eat little cookies; thus the swimming.    
*We will make a third attempt to go to Chicago, but we aren't telling the kids in case of sickness and/or bad weather.  They are feeling better and hopefully the parents won't get sick.  
*Finally, I am still addicted to Pinterest, but it doesn't cost me anything except time. The chef is trying another recipe tonight.  So far, they have all been good. 

How have you been coping?

I love this picture of papa and Cavman from the summer of 2003!

                               

From The Heart....

Some beautiful Carmeila 's my sister Magnolia sent me from South Carolina.  Imagine having these blooming in the winter.  

Life's little disappointments or....life's bigger disappointments...we have experienced that this week.  The fact that we couldn't meet in Chicago this week seemed like a BIG disappointment especially to five kids who were marking down the days.  To them another two weeks seem like a long time.  I guess when you are young time goes by slow; unlike us older ones-the time is flying by.  As I listen to the wind howling outside I am wishing for summer, but it also brought to mind a hymn I haven't sung in a long time.  As I try to take my mind off myself and my little bouts of depression that crop up, I am glad that the Lord put "How Great Thou Art" in my mind this morning as I asked Him for a word from Him this morning. I have a small prayer journal that I write in almost every day as I sit quietly and listen to a word or phrase from Him and this morning it was this hymn. 

How Great Thou Art

O Lord my God, when I in awesome wonder;
Consider all the world thy hands have made.
I see the stars, I hear the rolling thunder;
Thy power throughout the universe displayed.
Refrain
Then sings my soul, my Savior God to Thee;
How great thou art, how great Thou art.
Then sings my soul, my Savior God to Thee;
How great Thou art, how great Thou art.

And when I think that God, His Son not sparing;
Sent him to die, I scarce can take it in.
That on the cross, my burden gladly bearing,
He bled and died to take away my sin.

When Christ shall come with shout of acclamation
And take me home, what joy shall fill my heart!
Then I shall bow in humble adoration, 
And there proclaim My God how great thou art. 

We don't sing these old hymns as much any more, but there is a wealth of truth and worship in them.  God is all powerful and He is Sovereign.  

Recap

Yep, I fell right off the Blogosphere Radar this week.  So I am here to tell you that I am alive and well and kind of behind things, so to speak.  That ole Pinterest has me hooked and hooked good.  So I spend a lot of time (more than I should probably) checking things out.  It is kind of like shopping without spending any money.  Free recipes, free pictures, free advice and organization ideas are some of my favorites.  Other than that I have been trying to keep warm.  I DO NOT LIKE the cold.  I am a wimp of the first order-I am the president of the wimp club when it comes to going outside.  I am sorry to whine and happy that Florida is four weeks away.  I am counting the days.
Speaking of counting the days, Megs was counting the days on her calendar until we went down there with Karen and Company.  And then....all the kids got the flu.  So here we sit in Michigan and there they lay around in Chicago coughing and aching and their poor mom is not only their homeschool teacher but she is now a nurse.  We are hoping she doesn't get sick.  The kids are all disappointed and I understand Riles cried and cried.  Oh, the little disappointments in life.  We will wait 2 weeks and hope everyone is well then.  We still have CHRISTMAS PRESENTS to exchange.  
We got a new Toshiba computer and Don is enjoying it.  I haven't tried it out yet...I am afraid of it.  I am still thinking about the Ipad.  I have trouble with new technology and it sort of floats around in my brain until I finally get it.
I have been doing some scrapbooking and I am enjoying that.  It's inside and nice and warm and I use my sun lamp trying to keep things bright and happy.  
That's about it; stay warm and cozy!

New Fangled

There was a time (when I was young) there weren't too many options in appliances and electronics.  I remember my mom getting an "ironer."  She sat at it and it was wide and you opened it up with a foot pedal and the padded roller went around as she "fed" the clothes through it.  I am sure my friend Dottie remembers it; she loves to iron.  Back then, you took your broken appliances to be fixed; you did not buy a new one.  Remember:
*electric can openers; I had one in Avocado green (lovely)
*electric frying pans
*when toaster ovens came out
*microwaves...our first microwave was like a small oven; it sat on it's own stand
*your first calculator
*and your own computer with a big ole, heavy moniter and something called a "mouse."  And then you had a special line put in so you could have "dial-up."  Your minutes were usually limited and your paid for extra minutes. 
 Now this brings me to the point of this whole blog.  We have two old computers.  The laptop is six years old and by today's standards that is old.  We bought a new laptop "Windows Eight."  After many calls and lots of work Don decided the (Oh boy, I don't know what it's called) was not working, so he packed it up and took it back.  
Now I am talking about buying an Ipad and don't know if I should.    I guess my main question is, can you download pictures from your camera on it?  If not, I guess we will have to try another new computer.  I want Donaldo to get an Apple computer, but he said they were too much money.  Any opinions out there?  

Thinking About Sundays

I was thinking about Sundays in the past and realized I already wrote a blog about my childhood Sundays.  But did I write about Sundays when our children were young?  I think not.  
The Donald and I just got back from lunch and I was remembering how we took the kids out to eat when they were young.  Sometimes if I was really energetic I would have dinner ready in the oven; most often pot roast and that meant that Grandma H. was coming over with her apple pie.  Grandpa H. had died a week after Kristen was born and she lived alone. Because she lived alone and Sundays were a big deal for her.  She stayed most of the afternoon, but we didn't mind....and her apple pies were the best!  She loved to talk about all her friends and neighbors.
Otherwise if she went over to the cousin's house we stopped for lunch either at McDonald's or Wendy's.  Sometimes we got carry-out from Church's Chicken.  That was before we knew that all that kind of food was bad for you.  
After we moved here we would often stop at the local grocery store; back then it was LaRose and get hot dogs, chips, and root beer for root beer floats.  Now THAT was a Sunday dinner, ha ha!
Sometimes we went to our friend's house in Dearborn after church and have lunch or dinner with them.  We almost always went back to church at night so it made a long day of it for us.  I never liked going back to church at night.  It meant getting all dressed up again and going out right around supper time.  Sometimes we went out AFTER church at night.  There was a place called Farrell's that served great ice cream and they saw quite a lot of us on Sundays.  
Sometimes one of the kids would go to someone else's house after church or have a friend over and we would get them back at night.  It is hard to imagine going back every Sunday night.  
This has been a quiet Sunday for us; we don't meet with other people like we used to....I was thinking maybe we should. 

Christmas Is Finally Over

Christmas wreath turned Valentine wreath

                           

Yep, it's over, finally!  I got all the decorations back in their boxes and the boxes are waiting for the Chef to put them under the stairs.  What a thankless job that was.  I grumble and whine (sorry Capri K) and say "This is the last year I get this stuff out."  And I didn't even have it all out; half of it was still in boxes.  But I persevered and the job is done.  
We got our last Christmas card with picture and letter this week and it was worth the wait because the picture was good and the letter informative and interesting.  I have it ready to put in the Christmas Scrapbook; which isn't done yet, but hopefully I will get to it next week.
I put pink and red hearts in the wreath on the porch and got out a few valentine things to make things look a little festive.  After dusting I will get out the things that were originally on the bookcase shelves.
Now if I can just stop eating so much, things will be back to normal.  Oops....we have one more celebration in Chicago next weekend with presents to exchange and fun and games and hopefully Kristen's cookies and treats are gone :) 
I am glad the spirit of Christmas always gets to me and I get into it.  I don't want to be a Scrooge!  I really want to focus on the reason for Christmas; the celebration of the birth and life of our Savior and King.  It was a good Christmas!   

Hair

I took that broom that Capri K mentioned and chased those blues away; felt some prayers coming my way too.
I was thinking about my hair; something I think all women think about from time to time.  It's at a good place right now, which means it will need cutting in a week.  One day, I will wake up next week and it will be horribly too long.  Someone will probably mention how nice it looks on the day I am getting it cut, ha ha.  
When I was young, I had strawberry blond hair, sort of the color I choose now.  My mom kept it fairly long and she would put rags in it so it would curl in Shirley Temple ringlets which were in fashion then.  I wore it in a ponytail in the summer and my mom would curl the ponytail by wetting it and "winding" it up.  Later she would use bobby pins to curl it; two pins to each curl forming an "X."  Then she would tie this stretchy band around them.  Oh how lovely I looked.  I hated it. Ha!
The worst thing that happened to my hair was a perm; the new "Tony Home Perm."  Ugh!  It was all frizzy and curly like an old lady.  There is a horrible picture of me on the first day of school with that lovely hairstyle.  My mom often cut my bangs too short too.  Oh the things mothers do to their daughter's hair.  
In high school it was the bouffant style, curled under or...the flip.  That one did not suit my hair at all, but I did it anyway.  We went to bed at night with wire brush rollers in our hair that were held in with picks that made dents in your head; just so comfortable-NOT!!  
Through the years I have had it short, longer, really short, medium, permed, reddish, light blond and the famous Toni Tenille which my mother just loved.  
I think I like it best now just a little on the long side.  It even has a little curl to it and is light golden blond.  One thing I will never be is gray!  Don't even say never though, but I am almost sure of it.

Depression

I've Felt This Way Before ... And I'll Feel This Way Again ... But I Will Survive

"Be of good courage and He will strengthen your heart all you who HOPE in the Lord."  Psalm 31:24

From the Heart

We will never be perfect here on earth; perfection is in Heaven.  Perhaps this is the year of the Lord's return.   I find myself looking for the signs all the time.  

C.S.Lewis

Striving for perfection used to be the mode I operated in, but progress, even a little bit everyday, is much easier.

Creativity

Thanks to Capri K for being the only person to comment on my blogs.  But this is always a sticky subject because a person blogs for oneself also, so it still gives me great satisfaction.  
Everyone seems just as busy after Christmas as before because all the normal activities have started again.  And...we have to put away all our Christmas stuff; I still have to finish that.  
Yesterday I spent the day at Scrappy Chic scrapbooking.  I had lost my creativity (I thought) and I was pleased to see it come back.  I went in the morning and I was the first and only person there for quite awhile before people started trickling in. It was kind of peaceful; I enjoy alone time sometimes. 
At 1:00 Donaldo picked me up and we went out to the local Coney Island, which was packed, and had lunch.  Then I went back to the task of being creative.  
At about 3:30 a gal came and sat across from me and we became fast friends; talking and laughing and helping each other.  We took each other's email and plan to meet back at Scrappy Chic on another Friday crop.  I managed to fill fifteen pages from this Christmas and patted myself on the back.  It gave me a much needed boost.
Dinner was Chicken Marsala with wild rice and salad, and was very good.  I managed to hold out until 9:00 p.m. and then I cleaned up and came home; one tired but happy girl.  I will post some pictures when I get the chance. 

The Living Room

Because I have such fond memories of my grandma and grandpa and my time spent with them, I have fond memories of their first house.  
As you came down the stairs from the second floor you walked into the living room. There was a fireplace and mantle on the far wall.  To the left of the staircase was a desk and that is where I spent a lot of time.  I played "office."  There was a black rotary dial phone sitting on the desk and I can still remember their phone number. You could hold the push buttons down and pretend to "talk" on the phone.  There was a "real" old-fashioned fountain pen with a nib that you put in the ink well to gather up the ink onto the pen to write.  The ink was blue or black and I loved writing with that pen. The pad of stationary was blank but there was an undercover sheet that had lines on it so you could see the lines and write straight.  
Further to the left was the entrance to the kitchen and past that was the couch or "sofa."  Over the sofa was a beautiful mirror which is up at the cottage now.  
The floor was hardcover with a rug and the registers were flat, black grates that were on the floor.  We used my grandma's pots and pans to "cook" on the grates.  
I can still see my grandma sitting in her chair by the fireplace doing her daily crossword puzzle.  Her pencil was always short and stubby because she used a knife to sharpen it.  
I also remember the time she repaired my teddy bear by re-stuffing his nose with cotton and sewing it closed.  She also put new buttons on for his eyes.
Every night my grandma and grandpa would read their Bible out loud and then turn around and get down on their knees beside the couch or chair and my grandpa would pray.  They prayed for their grandchildren every night.  What an example they were. 
We did a lot of living in that living room.

The Little Room

I remember it so well; almost every detail...right down to the tiny window in the peak. It was on the second floor in the front of the house.  There was a black iron bed in the middle of the room near the wall.  I loved to sleep in that bed; it seemed just the right size for me.  There was a door at the other end of the room that went up to the attic; one used for storage only.  There was a window next to the door where I could see the street light and so, the room was never completely dark.  I spend many nights in that room; it was my dad's old room at my grandma's house.  One of the first times I slept there, I wasn't very old, I heard a noise that I thought was a wild animal like a bear.  I was so scared, I put my head under my pillow.  Later in the morning I told my grandma about it and she laughed and said it was probably her, snoring.  For such a tiny little woman she had a very loud snore.  I am told I may have inherited that snore.  
Some nights before bed I would lay in my grandma's bed and watch her do her hair.  She had very long hair; I don't think she ever cut it. She wore in a bun in the day and at night I would watch her take all the pins out and brush it.  She brushed it 100 times; she told me that was good to do to make your hair shine.  Then I would go into my own little room and look at the shadows from the street light until I fell asleep.  

Hope

I didn't make any New Year's resolutions this year like I normally do, but I picked a word for the whole year; the word is HOPE.  I have felt the loss of hope in the previous year; the hope that I would feel better or feel myself again.  That is why I chose the word HOPE for this year, because as a Christian we should never lose HOPE.  I was reading my new Sarah Young book "Jesus Today," this morning and she talks about HOPE. She says
"Put your hope in Me, and My unfailing love will rest upon you.  Some of my children have forgotten how to hope.  They have been disappointed so many times that they don't want to risk being let down again.  So they forge ahead stoically-living mechanically.  Other people put their hope in problem solving, medical treatments, the stock market, the lottery, and so on.  But I challenge you to place your HOPE fully in Me....Remember that I am with you continually, and I, Myself, am your HOPE.
That is my challenge for this year to always have HOPE.  "We have the HOPE of eternal life...promised before the beginning of time." Titus 1:2

May you have a Happy New Year and wait in HOPE for the Lord.