another year

Gee, can you believe another year come and gone.  It seemed like just yesterday that we were fretting over the end of the world in 2000.  I'm not a big fan of New Year's Eve for a couple reasons, one of them I've just come to realize recently.

Where turning a year older on my birthday doesn't bother me, New Years does for that very reason.  I feel another year has passed me by.  Another year of possibly missed opportunities, un-wise spending, and unrealized dreams.  Another year closer to the unknown.  And this worries me.  Just for the day.  I'll spend the day reflecting on this past year, what went wrong, what I could have done differently or not at all, and how I can make improvements.  I'll set priorities and goals, write them down in my notebook, and work throughout the year to continue achieving them.  And every year I get better at it. 

You see, I'm a list-oriented person.  I make lists.  Long lists.  Short lists.  Lists categorized.  And lists of silliness.  I write it all down in my annual notebook, where I keep all my most important papers, ideas, and plans.  When I travel, I take this notebook with me.  Why?  I have no idea....  Other than it's important to me.  It has my life in it.  Or how I see my life.  Or how I wish my life was. 

So, today, I'll reflect.  Not a lot, but enough to put the past year in perspective and determine whether or not I'm heading in the right direction.  To set new goals, if need be.  In doing so, I'm realistic.  You won't find "lose 50 pounds" because I know, in reality, that for me to lose any weight, I need to work on five pounds at a time.  But I will include "eat healthier" or "cut down on portions" or "cut back on sweets."  Lifestyle changes.

This year I'm including a couple new goals:

1. Be more frugal.  Really consider whether I need the item I'm about to purchase.
2. Use cash for weekly grocery shopping.  I've heard this cuts back on your spree spending.
3. Look at the ingredients list of all things.  If I can't pronounce the ingredients, or know what they are, continue shopping.  We've noticed we shop more in the Organics section now.
4. To use, reuse, or refuse.  We already recycle as much as our city allows, but there's still so much waste.  I'm going to try to get away from buying products that have so much packaging, or packaging that can't be recycled.  And even if it can be recycled.... maybe I can find another use for it and extend the life a little longer before sending to the dump.  Like mail.  I keep all envelopes that come in the mail now and use them for notes or grocery lists before recycling. 
5. Pay myself first.  This simple thing.... yet so hard to do....  This year, "pay myself first" is on the top of my list.

So there you have it.  Some of my new goals for 2011. 

lump crab

Do you ever question your sanity?  Whether everything is really okay with you?  Mentally?  Or do you pass it off as just getting older....? 

We were getting ready to head to some friends the other night,for some holiday cheer.... I offered to bring an appetizer.  My first choice was going to be crab tarts but I didn't have any Dungeness in the freezer nor could I find any cracked Dungee at the supermarket.  You can buy canned crab off the shelf, but what's "lump crab"?  Seriously?  Is that the name of a type of crab--like Dungeness or King?  Maybe a combination of crab?  Anyhow, we opted against using a generic crab.

Plan B was to take some prawns over with a little cocktail sauce.  That would be festive, and who doesn't love to chomp into a nice, cold prawn? 

Unless it's a nice, cold, RAW prawn!  I don't know what I was thinking.  Mike offered to peel them while I got ready.  I told him to rinse them good, and I showed him how to then lay them on a triple layer of paper towel to dry them off good.  I'd even gone so far as to lay them on a platter, surrounding a dish of cocktail sauce.  It was all so nice and pretty.

Then it happened.  I grabbed one to take a bite and it was like I had been hit over the side of the head.  WHAT WAS I THINKING?!  How did I go from fresh frozen, in the freezer, to the platter?  When did I stop having the good sense to cook raw seafood??? 

Can you imagine how mortified I would have been had I taken that pretty little plate of tidbits to our friends for their gathering?  Really.  Seriously.  Can you???

This isn't the first thing that has had me questioning my mental state of mind.... but the worst. 

merry christmas

My letter to Santa was short this year.  I asked for peace.  Peace for my family and friends who are struggling with relationships, finances, and grief. 

If I could, I'd wrap my arms around all of you and keep you safe. 

You're in my prayers every day and my hope is that you have a blessed Christmas and a wonderful new year filled with good things and small miracles. 

I pray that no matter what kind of Christmas you're having, you can feel God's love and blessings sprinkled around you in all that you do. 

M E R R Y   C H R I S T M A S !



chillin with old man winter

Oh, the weather outside is frightful....
But the fire is so delightful...

Well, in my mind it's wonderfully delightful.
Especially on this chilly 11 degree morning. 
Makes you not even want to crawl out of bed. 

But today is a glorious day, despite the cold. 
The ground, covered with frozen snow,
with little snippets of color and past life showing through.

The promise of a better today.
Knowing that today is reserved for
just me and my hubby.

A day with no chaos.  No struggles. 
No yelling, screaming, fighting. 
No toys to trip over.  No struggles with naptime.
A free day    
To do errands.  To read.  To wrap presents.
To catch our breath so we can do it all over again on Monday.

Have a wonderful day! 

an email to my sister (just an ordinary day)

An email to my sister. 

Thursday, December 17. 
Okay... Finally, I have a minute to get my email off to you.  I had good intentions this morning, but it's getting hard for me to get out of bed at 6:00 a.m....  A combination of not feeling well, snuggling in my warm bed, and the cold bedroom.  But my trusty alarm clock is there every 15 minutes, shaking me, making sure I don't stay in bed when he thinks I should be up....   So I eventually give in.  Get up.  Sit here at the table for 15 minutes or so, NOT drinking coffee because I don't feel good.  Then I grab my book.... the same book I've been trying to get read for months now.... and head upstairs to ride the bike.  With that done, I barely have time to come down, get my shower (if there's even time), get dressed, and be ready with a smile and love in my heart for when the first grandkids arrive....  I'm almost exhausted by this time.  

So, I decided to make a big batch of cabbage salad, like I said.  I emptied the produce drawer of a whole green head of cabbage, a red head (which I ended up throwing out), a green pepper, an orange pepper, a few stalks of celery, some diced onions that were leftovers from other meals, some chopped green onions, and a bunch of parsley.  Then I chopped up some dried cherries (but you can use raisins or cranraisins) and almonds.  And the dressing is just the typical mayo/sugar/vinegar recipe.  I'm talking a HUGE bowl.  Okay, so now you don't think it went that smoothly do you???? 

I had no sooner started chopping the cabbage..... Did I mention it was around 8:10 a.m..... about the same time I make breakfast for the kids?  Yea, I don't know what I was thinking.   But they could wait.  I'm chopping away and the kids are running in and out of the kitchen, throwing open the fridge door.  At one point I went to close it and the stack of Styrofoam containers from last night's Chinese dinner went flying to the floor.  Chinese food everywhere.  So I stop chopping to clean up the mess.  Well, one thing led to another and next thing you know, I'm cleaning out and scrubbing the produce drawers out and wiping out the fridge.  While on my hands and knees, I notice how grossly disgusting the front of the fridge grate is so I pull it off, pull out the 2" thick pile of lint, or whatever-it-is.  The grate got washed down.  All this, at the same time I'm supposed to be fixing breakfast and making the cabbage salad.  But I'm good. I can multi-task.  So I keep at it.  Get the kids breakfast made.  The fridge cleaned out.  The salad made.  

No sooner did I get that mess cleaned up that the kids were at the table for their glitter project!  Lordy lordy does Hunter have a love for glitter!  This from a boy who will spend very little time doing crafts, seconds.  But give him some popsicle sticks, paint, and glitter, and he's good for an hour!  I sent several glitter "frames" home for the mommies last night, and glitter ornaments.  Let them enjoy some of the flyaway glitter for a few days!  But it makes the kids so giddy.  They're so happy with their little projects, making something for their moms and dads.  So, what's a little glitter on the table.  On the chair.  On the chair pads.  On the carpet.  On me.  On my face.  On my clothes....In the whole scheme of things, it's so minor.  But I have to come up with some new craft projects for them to do.  

I've managed to do four loads of laundry today, in between salad making, fixing breakfast, serving lunch, reading, changing poopy diapers, and craft projects.  An apple crisp just came out of the oven.  The Juncos, Chicadees, and Siskins have been fed.  Dogs have been let out, brought back in, let out, brought back in, let out, brought back in, at least that many times TIMES 2.  Hunter and Ellis are napping. 

So, this is my day.  Not much different from most other days.  Uneventful.  Boring.  Lacking substance, creativity, and love.  Just an ordinary day.  

Anyway, the clock is ticking before the kids will be awake and I need to do a few more things.  It's only 1:30.  I should be able to accomplish a few more things before the day is over.  Mike will be leaving at 4:15 today for a Lions training session.  They learn how to load and unload passengers on to a helicopter in preparation for tomorrow night's Flight Night.  This is where locals can take a helicopter up and over the Mendenhall Valley to look at Christmas lights.  It's an annual event and one of their  biggest fundraisers.  But it will be a long, cold night for the volunteers.  So I need to get all my stuff done before he leaves tonight so I can give the kids my total, undivided attention. 

Glad you're having a good trip.  Be sure to tell the kids hello for us and a Merry  Christmas.  N.

harvest day

Harvest day on the farm!

We have a couple apple trees, that are mostly ornamental. Our summers are not long enough or warm enough to actually grow full-term apples. But this year our trees were loaded with the little guys. Mike counted well over 150 apples on two trees!

They're not the oh-so-sweet-and-yummy kind where juice runs down your chin when you take a bite. They're more a cross between sour and not-so-sour.

But the little kids love eating them anyway.

We harvested them today. Decided to get them before the bears did....

I'll probably make applesauce out of them.

moving forward

When I retired almost five years ago, I really didn't know what that meant for my husband and I. We had visions of traveling to Maine to eat lobster, to cruise through the Panama Canal, to soak up the sun in Hawaii all the while sipping tropical drinks, and so much more.

We envisioned having adventures of some kind. Possibly even moving South.

So far family has tied up most of our retirement, which is okay, because it's giving us time to figure out what we want in our next chapter.

But the time has come to move forward with plans.... we're not exactly certain what those are yet, but we know they may involve sunshine... maybe some sand.... possibly an extended stay in Hawaii at some point.

Mostly, I want adventures again. I want to throw our daily routine out the window, do nothing at all if the mood suits us.

I want to live in Hawaii for a year's time, then pack up and move to a cabin in the woods, filled with books waiting to be read. I want to wake up in the morning and look out over a stream or small river.

I want to grow a vegetable garden. Visit Farmer's Markets. Ride Amtrak.

I want to experience rain somewhere else. And maybe not be quite so cold, somewhere else.

I want to spend time with family that I have lived away from for 40 years.

Yes, it's time for some adventures. To throw caution to the wind and just go for it. If it doesn't work out, so what? At least we would have tried. So from this day forward, my focus is going to be on the next chapter and what we need to do to get there.

being spontaneous

My hubby and I love to experience the greatness that is Alaska. The trails. The glaciers. The rivers. The fishing. Okay, so that's partially a true statement. We love to experience it from the car!
We go for a lot of rides. Every week we go in a different direction. Then on the third week, we start over again....

Juneau doesn't have a lot of roads. We're land locked, meaning the only way you can get in or out of the area is by boat, ferry, or plane. There are no roads to take us from Juneau.

Some times it's hard to live such a limited and confined life. There are those days that you wake up and want nothing more than to pack a picnic lunch and head down the road; just keep driving until you're ready to return. Or explore a different area or attraction. We don't have that option.

Being spontaneous takes on a whole different meaning living here. It all pretty much requires advanced planning and a ferry or airline ticket. So much for being spontaneous. Oh, you could wake up in the early morning and decide to go to Seattle for the weekend. That would definitely be spontaneous! But you'd have to be out of your friggin mind to do it! Or rich.

You see, Juneau has only one airline that comes into town. Alaska Airlines. And since they're our only form of commercial transportation, they can pretty much charge us whatever they want. So when people in the Lower 48 are experiencing price wars and low prices, we are not. When people down south decide to travel at the last minute, chances are good you will be able to find a very cheap fare because the airlines want to fill seats. Not so here. As your travel date grows closer and closer, the price of the ticket will go up. If I wanted to fly to Seattle tomorrow or within the next few days, it would cost me well over $1,000 to get there versus the normal fare of $600. We pray that there won't be any deaths in the family without advance warning!

We do enjoy the beauty that is Alaska, from the roadside, from our car. It works for us. Our longest road is about 60 miles from one end to the other. It's a gorgeous drive. Along the mountains, through the groves of trees, along the water. There are many islands between us and the open ocean but we'll see boats of all sizes out fishing. Maybe a cruise ship or a ferry on their way North. Kayakers. Maybe a whale breaching. Or sea lions. I love when the dolphins (or is it porpoise?) follow us along the road.

Yes, Juneau has a lot to offer. So much beauty and we enjoy it every week.

And there's always something new to see at the glacier whether it be eagles and bear or icebergs in the lake from calving.

As winter approaches and the lake freezes, this area will become a playground for all ages. You'll see cross country skiers, sledders, hikers. People bundled up in their cold weather gear, holding a steaming hot cup of cocoa in their hands.

And the best part? You can experience it all from the warmth of your car!

Nancy .....

the calm after

The calm after.... after what you ask?

The first fall storm of the year. And a doozy it was.

My daughter's birthday dinner. With homemade pizzas grilled on the bbque. So good!

Eating too much good food.

A hectic day of babysitting two active grandbabies.

Bathing two dogs.

Wondering how on earth I'm ever going to be ready for the Garden Tour this weekend when I have no time.

Learning that my husband may need more spine surgery and will be out of commission for months.

Thinking vacation can't come soon enough....

it's only Monday....

This is what all the tired, 56 year-old-babysitting-grandmas are wearing these days....

Clothes that are inside out.... and neither me or Mike noticed it for hours!

And it's only Monday.... three more babysitting days to go!

dancing in my seat

Yes, I danced all night long. In my chair. To the tunes of the great James Cotton! Can you believe that we actually got someone like James Cotton to our little town? They said 800 people showed up to listen to him play his superharp. 800 people. In a small convention hall. Dancing in the aisles. Enjoying the moment.

But let me back up.

The concert didn't start until 7:30 but being the early birds we are, we arrived at 7:00 p.m. to ensure a close parking spot. Never mind that any where you need to park in Juneau is "close," we just didn't want to have to drive around looking for a place. Okay, so we arrived at 7:00 to find that the parking lot to the Centennial Hall was already completely full! And here we thought we were like 20 minutes too early! We found a parking place not far away and headed into the building. There we found ourselves amidst the silliest group of people we've ever seen in Juneau. The meeting hall was packed with people ; a good majority wearing Xtratufs! I've never seen so many Xtratufs in one place! Men with flannel shirts and Xtratufs. Young females in short skirts, wool tights, and Xtratufs. Children running around in Xtratufs. They were worn straight up, rolled down. It was evident everyone came wearing their finest clothes for this event!

Okay, so we're in the building. There's hundreds of people waiting in line. AND the "lines" are defined with duct tape taped to the carpet to help you find your way from point A to point B. Just like the ropes you'll find going through security at the airport or at the theater or banks to keep people in line, to help them move to the next counter only it's taped on the floor! And everyone was in their own line! We followed the duct tape as it weaved back and forth, back and forth, to the ticket line. It was the most hilarious thing I've seen in a long time. Only in Juneau!

murphy's law

Why is it....

You wash your car, and it rains....?

The other line always moves faster.....?

When you invite a repairman to fix your broken appliance, it'll always work perfectly fine....?

You always find something in the last place you look....?

You get the flu shot.... and you get the flu....?

Yep, I've been sick sick sick with the flu. Haven't had it for YEARS! Got my first flu shot, and I get the flu. Go figure.

i'm back!

It feels good to be back blogging.... At least for the time being. It's been a busy six months but times are slowing down, my life has a few free moments, so I thought why not. Sure, why not.

So what have I been up to these past six months? Babysitting grandbabies full-time. Working at the nursery on weekends. Landscaping my back yard in my free time. Every spare moment has been used. And now, winter is setting in. My hours at the nursery have decreased to only a few. The yard has been put to rest. And I don't know what to do with all my free time! So here I am! We'll give blogging during the winter months a try again and see how it goes.

Anyhow, this is my debut post and I'll write more later, bringing you up to date with pictures and stories.

For now.... Nancy

the end

I've been giving this blog some thought lately, and how I haven't been very good at keeping up with it. So, I believe I'm going to sign out for a while and give it a break. Maybe I'll find that I miss it so much, that I'll be back blogging sooner than later. It's been such a joy visiting back and forth and meeting so many people in so many different places of the country. I'll still visit as enjoy stopping in to see how your lives are doing and how your gardens are blooming. But for now, blogging isn't the right place for me to be. So have a great day and I'll talk to you soon! Nancy

life's just not fair

Yahoo! We've had several dry days. No rain. No snow. Just sunshine! I was going to report about our last snow fall, but it was just too depressing so I let it slide. But we woke up to about 8.75 inches of snow the other morning (I stuck a ruler in it to measure!) and got a couple more inches throughout the day. Wet, heavy snow. If I hadn't mentioned how depressed I was the prior day, I would have over this. But the good news is, it's melting! And very quickly! I bet by the end of today, our back yard will be a snow-free zone and our front yard close behind. Besides record snow for this time of year, our temperatures (low 20's) have also been record breaking every day.

Now it's on to gardening. Welcome to our lives: either snow/winter or gardening. But one thing I learned these past few days is Pansies will survive any weather. Our local nursery received their first shipment of the year and I asked my sweetie to get half a dozen to pretty up the back yard for Tracy's shower. But I never got them planted and I've managed to forget about them. But every morning we wake up to 20 degree weather and these poor little guys are hunched over in their pots, heads drooping, wondering what they ever did to deserve such treatment. By the end of the day, they're bright eyed and bushy tailed and you wouldn't have known they just froze. Their pots are frozen solid. They've been covered with a foot of snow. Yet, they still smile. What a happy little flower they are! So for any first time gardeners who live in the cold country--go buy pansies! You just can't abuse them enough.

We've had an interesting week. Besides the weather, we had a huge avalanche just out of town. Juneau has its own hydroelectric power station; we generate our own electricity. This avalanche took miles of transmission lines down. It'll be months before they get it fixed. And if that isn't bad enough, we are now drawing electricity from the diesel generator backup system.... It's predicted that our electric bill will go up, at a minimum, of 500% over the next few months. 500 percent! So if that turns true, we can expect an electric bill of about $740 next month. And the month after that. And the month after that. And maybe even the month after that. They can't even start fixing the problem because of the danger of more avalanche and are estimating work will commence in about a month's time. But they're predicting a three or four month situation.

So what are we doing about it? Plenty! The experts are suggesting that we return to the urban/camping life style for the next few months to lower our electrical usage. Here's what we've done:

1. We've replaced most our regular light bulbs with fluorescent. Yes, they don't give off the brightness, but.... it's a small sacrifice to save some money. We haven't found flood lights that are inset in the ceiling yet.... so the kitchen lights are only used as absolutely necessary.


2. We unplugged every thing that has a light or a clock and will plug it back in when we need it. I hardly use my printer, so out came the plug. The coffee pot has a clock on it. As soon as the coffee has brewed, we transfer it to a thermos and unplug it between daily uses. Spare bedrooms have been stripped of any thing using power--spare tv, vcr, lights, clock radios. I need to buy a wind up alarm clock yet so I can unplug my alarm clock. We are leaving the main tv/dvd player plugged in, for now.... Otherwise, we've unplugged most things. Even the hot tub. It's now a swimming pool! Unheated!


3. In the garage we unplugged all tools being recharged. The spare refrigerator was unplugged. It's still cold enough that the pop and beer will stay cold in the garage. We cleaned out the upright freezer, allowing room for the kids to bring over their freezer items if they want and then unplug their freezer.


4. At night, we go to sleep in the dark. No night light. No outside light to brighten the porch and yard from thieves who want to steal our oil.


5. We plan on doing more cooking on the outside grill.


6. We're going to install a clothes line outside. Never mind we don't have the warm sunshine you might need, but on those rare days when it is sunny, I'll do any laundry we have and hang it out to dry. I'm also going to search on-line for a portable/folding clothes rack to put in the garage where laundry can also hang to dry.


7. We sit in the dark pretty much at night, watching tv or reading. Keeping one light on only. Course we've never lived with all the lights on but at least now we feel like it's making a difference.

We're also taking shorter (and fewer) showers (less hair drying); using our bath towels more times between washing; letting the dishes air dry; washing clothes in cold water; use more cold or warm water rather than hot water; lower our thermostat; and use the crockpot more.

So that's just a little of what we're doing to conserve energy right now and for the next three or four months. It's scary! Our oil bill has never been higher. The economy is going all to pot. We're on a fixed income, being retired, yet the cost of living in this small town is increasing by leaps and bounds. And now this. To take this one step further, to prepare ourselves for a huge electric bill, we have to cut back in other areas besides our watt usage so we have the money to pay this additional cost. We went to Costco yesterday and instead of buying the big bag of Starbucks French Roast, we bought a different roast that cost about $10 less....

No, life is not fair! I live and love for a good cup of coffee in the morning! But we're doing what we have to do. We're cutting back wherever we can. We have to. We look at every single thing we pick up to buy and ask ourselves if it's necessary right now. Can we take Sadie for a simple ride around the block rather than a ten mile ride in order to conserve on gas? Can we eat more casseroles and one dish meals rather than all the fresh fruit and vegetables we normally do? Not only, yes, but we must. This is trying times right now. It's the worst of times and we must consider all aspects of our lives right now and its affect on our watt usage and the pending 500 percent increase. See today's article on what the city is trying to do.

City officials are trying to get federal relief for us, so it could turn out we won't have to pay much but I'm not going to sit back and expect that to happen. We all need to do our share right now. Walking into Home Depot, we noticed that a third of their over head lights were turned off. It was pretty dark. But they're doing what they have to do. Same with Fred Meyers. This disaster doesn't just involve us, in our safe little homes. It involves every business in Juneau. Every store. Every hotel. Every one. And every business in Juneau will have to pass this 500% increase on to their customers, their clients, their tourists. We not only have our own home to worry about, but higher prices at the grocery store, at the department store, every where.

So whether it's our pretty little pansy on the back porch, struggling to stay alive in winter conditions, or us, trying to stay afloat under the most extreme financial conditions.... it's all relative. We're all in this together. We all depend on each other. Yes, we could not do anything about this problem. We could go on with business as usual, living life as we know it, and our electric bill will show a 500% increase. If we do all we can to cut back and prepare ourselves for this increase, it might turn out our increase will only be 300%. And if it turns out the federal government comes in and bails us out.... then we've just put ourselves in that much better of a situation where our bill may actually be much less than normal. So for the next three months, this is what we're doing. It's actually an interesting time of our lives. An experiment. Going back in time. Learning to do with less. Or maybe it's just our future....

a visit to the store

I found this cute little primrose at the grocery store the other day. It's called Obconica Primula. I've never seen one quite like it before with its frilly little leaves and candelabra stems. Cute. Cute.

Another "first," is this Tea Time magazine. Ohhhh, if you've not picked it up before, do! It has some lovely tea party ideas, yummy recipes, and beautiful decorating. I'll definitely search this magazine out again.... maybe even subscribe to it.

I often dream of having tea parties, or garden parties, with dreamy tables covered with lovely tablecloths flowing freely from the top of the table. And vases everywhere overflowing with peonies and lilacs. And no tea party would be complete without the perfect pitcher of lemonade or iced tea. I just know my little granddaughter and I will have lots of tea parties in our life time. Until then.... I can always dream.... and start planning!

Have a great day! Nancy

it's sunday

What is your favorite day of the weekn? Even though I'm retired, I still get giddy over Fridays and the anticipation of the weekend. Silly ha? We usually get all our errands done during the week when most people are working and the lines aren't so long and just putter around the house on the weekends. Still, Fridays are my favorite day of the week.

Yesterday I mentioned how I love organizing things and working with details. This is my project this week. It's all the nursery signs, pricing tags, and other stuff from the nursery where I work in the summers. What a disorganized mess it was so I brought it home for a winter project. I finally got it finished and had to remove it from the dining table otherwise I would have continued puttering around with it; fine tuning it; changing it. My guess is in a year's time, everything will be back to the way it was originally....

Do you ever watch the Paula Deen show on the Food Network channel? She's one of my most favorite TV cook show hosts. I love her down home ways, her simple home cooking, and even the way she greets you! Do all southerners say "y'all"? I try a lot of her recipes and have never been disappointed. Yesterday I made some cookies I had been eyeing in her Cooking with paula deen magazine since March 2006. Paula's Ultimate Oatmeal Cookies. The recipe is too long to put in here but if you like oatmeal recipes (with icing!), click here. This was a good reward for getting my sign project done! Yummy!

It's snowing this morning. Just a light dusting as if God is up there with a sifter, gently swooshing it back and forth over his land. It's a delicate, dainty look for this morning. Sorry, I deflected for a moment....

Have you visited the blog, Modern Country? Beautiful. Beautiful pictures. We go alllllll the way to Norway and she does put English as a second language, but you don't need words to read at this blog. Just pictures. Lovely lovely pictures.

Hope you're having a great weekend! Nancy

joyfulness

Are you joyful? Do you bring joy to others? Those are two questions asked by Morgan Freeman to Jack Nicholson in The Bucket List. My husband and I went to see this movie yesterday and loved it. Yes, perhaps they didn't convey real cancer and yes, perhaps they traveled around the world after chemo when in most likelihood they would have been too weak to do anything. But all that aside, this was great entertainment and we laughed throughout most of the movie. And the two questions: Are you joyful and do you bring joy to others, are definitely something to think about. Yes, I have a list of things to do before I die. It's not a serious list but after seeing this movie, it might become more real. What good is living life if you're not living life to its fullest? You don't need to travel around the world to feel satisfied with life. Often it's the little things that bring you the most joy. Like the dragonfly in your yard, eating mosquito larvae or the Blue Heron standing at the edge of the water.

I'd like to think I'm a joyful person. I try to find the good in most things, the positive, the silver lining because this is how I find joy in even the worst of times. Since I'm a simple person, I tend to find more joy in the little things. Sadly, it doesn't take much to humor me as my husband will agree with! Do I laugh a lot? No. Never have, probably never will.

What makes a person joyful? Being around family? Friends? Life's experiences? If you have joy in your life, are you also reasonably content with life? Being around my family and friends brings joy to my life yet I feel that I've not even begun to touch the tip of the iceberg on experiencing all that life has to offer and for that I'm discontent.

This is me rambling! I tend to do that a lot when I write.... It's how I come to my own conclusions about things; talking things out; sorting through details. It's probably me, not being at my most joyful state of mind! It's me thinking....

Do I bring joy to others? I guess you'd have to ask my family and friends that.... I try to be kind, considerate, and compassionate towards others. I try to be a good friend, a good mother, a good wife, a good sister. But I'm not certain what this means, bring joy to others.... Do I make them laugh? I suspect they laugh behind my back more than to my face! Do I affect lives in a positive way? If you have a bad cold, I'll bring you homemade chicken leek soup.... Do I bring joy to others.... I'm not certain.

Here's some items on my Bucket List:

1. Take a cruise through the Panama Canal.
2. Visit Disneyland with my husband.
3. Visit Maine and gorge myself on lobster!
4. Take Amtrak across the U.S.
5. Go antiquing across the country.
6. Learn French cooking.
7. Visit Vermont in the Fall.
8. Spend the night in a light house.
9. Live a joyful life.

and, lastly, number 10: Bring joy to others.

hope for a better me

Some years I make resolutions and other years I don't. But I make them going in with the understanding that most likely they'll be ignored.... Getting more exercise is always on the list.... and one that quickly drops off into an abyss of the unknown never to materialize.... But this year I wrote a few things down, so we'll see.

1. Walk around the block three times a week. I think I can, I think I can. I abhor exercising but I love to walk. This time of year though the roads are an icy mess and it makes it less desirable and there's more danger of slipping and falling. But we'll see....
2. Cut back on my fat, sugar, and salt content. I've already started buying low fat food items like mayo and salad dressings, and we're using an air popper for our nightly popcorn--with no salt added--so I'm off to a good start! It's important that I keep on track with this one because of health issues.
3. Eat more vegetables. We already eat quite healthy and I love vegetables but for some reason I love them the most when they're smothered with butter, brown sugar, and the like.... More salads is on my top ten list.
4. Have less debt.
5. Read one book a week. This will be a piece of cake to accomplish. I love to read but this year I'd like to read an occasional biography or nonfiction.
6. Be content with where I am (emotionally not physically). This one I took from Jeanetta because it's worthy of copying. And if I wish for greener pasture, something better, to have the courage to go after it.
7. Live a more healthy life. At the age of 55, things can only go down hill from here.... and they are.... High blood pressure, pre-diabetes, ripples and rolls where there shouldn't be ripples and rolls.... But my health has never been more important to me than right now. I've seen how quickly it can go downhill and it's not so comforting. When I learned I had high blood pressure, it put me in a panic and I was fearful for my life.

All my other resolutions pretty much lead up to this last one. If I walk often, I'll feel better. If I cut back on my salt, sugar, and fat content, I'll feel better. If I lower debt, I'll feel better emotionally. Reading relaxes me and that's a good thing. 2008 will bring good things, a better me. This is a promise I make to myself and to my family.

out with the old

2007 was a good year. Oh, we had our share of, uhm, shall we say, "moments" but they were just that. Moments in time. And in all things there is a silver lining. Here's my top list of silver linings.

1. I started blogging! I have to admit, it's not as easy as it appears. It takes more time than I care to spend on it most days, thinking of something to write about, finding pictures (or taking pictures) to go with it. I commend all of you faithful bloggers. No matter how busy your lives are, you post. Once you get hooked on blogging, you get sucked in to other's lives. It's nice to know that if I go to my favorite sites, there will be a new blog most days. Not the case with me; I may not write for a month's time! I don't blame any friends for sticking around if I can't write a new blog most days of the week. But the silver lining is, they do. Out of the blue, I'll get a post from a long-time reader asking how I'm doing and if I'm okay. So I know I've affected others "out there" with my life as well and I hope that's a good thing.


2. Brianna.... My husband's 17 year old daughter was still living with us. Wreaking havoc in our lives. Sucking the life out of us. Lying. Stealing. As I'm writing this, I'm thinking there's no way there's a silver lining in this so I will stop and think for a moment, to reflect back and maybe get a different perspective..... (This is me, thinking: Mike got divorced when his kids were just young; 3 and 5 I think. They grew up with the belief that their dad abandoned me. That's a harsh word for such young ones to use.... so you know where it came from. A bitter and revengeful ex-wife can do horrible damage; and she did. It's true Mike left his family behind and moved to Alaska and it's true he found a new family here. But if there was ever a man who loved his own children and who tried so desperately to stay in their lives and to blend families, it was Mike. He was relentless in staying in contact with phone call after phone call, care packages, cards, airline tickets, but there's only so much you can do if you're ex refuses to let you have any contact with your kids. So Bryson and Brianna grew up thinking and believing their dad abandoned them. Now 14 years later, Brianna is forced to come here to live because she has gotten out of control. She hates me because I'm the other woman. She hates her dad for abandoning them. Let's see. Silver lining.... Silver lining.... I could make excuses for Brianna. That her mother is verbally abusive. That maybe Mike should have been there for more important events in their lives. But it's hard to be there when you don't know there's an event.... Silver lining.... Silver lining.... During the year she lived with us, we tried to be kind, considerate, loving, and respectful towards Brianna. Regardless of her behavior, Mike would remain calm and respectful. It was clear this was not parenting that Brianna was familiar with. She came from a loud home where drinking, yelling, screaming, and fighting were the norm. This we learned after she came to live with us. Silver lining. Silver lining. Maybe if we just keep it up; keep treating her with love, kindness, and respect that maybe, just maybe, she'll take something away with her; and when the time is right, remember back when she lived a different, a better life, for a year's time. That there is a better way to live.... Silver lining... Silver lining.... End of me thinking.) Brianna called her dad a few days before Christmas. He said it sounded like she was a different person. She had moved far away from her mom and even apologized for her horrible behavior while living here. She even wanted to speak to me, to apologize. I'm not certain I'm ready for that, just yet. I would need to know that it was sincere, that she has truly changed for the better. And that would be proven by on-going actions towards her dad and I. But the silver lining is hope.... Hope that my husband will, one day, have the relationship he so desperately wants and deserves with his children.


3. I returned to work. I love being retired but actually love going to work more. I can honestly say I miss not working this winter and can hardly wait for spring to get here so I can return to the nursery. But when my kids found out they were pregnant and asked if I would babysit for them, I was taken back a little. (Okay, I was probably just really scared about being responsible for babies after all these years.) I love working! I want to work! How could I give up doing something I love to do to babysit? The silver lining? Now that I've held my precious little grandson in my arms, I know that babysitting will come first. Oh, I'll figure out a schedule where I can do both, but babysitting will definitely come first.


4. Hunter James.... I became a grandma! I have to admit, up front, that I never quite understood what all the "to do" was about being a grandma. I really didn't know. I had no clue..... But then Hunter James was born and I held him.... and now I know. The problem is time. I don't get enough Hunter time. There's two other sets of grandparents that also need time with Hunter--my ex-husband and his wife and Michelle's parents and all her family. Granted I deserve more time because, well, because I just do! But I reluctantly smile and wave the kids off as they head out, taking Hunter with them, to another set of loving arms.... My sister tells me this is just the way it's going to be. That I need to get used to the mother's family getting more time because that's just how it goes. The silver lining? This morning my daughter Tracy and Adam find out the sex of their baby. And if what my sister tells me is true (about the mother of the mother getting more quality time then the father's mother), then that means I'll get more quality time with my daughter's baby! Course it doesn't hurt that Adam's parents live down south! This is all said in fun and I hold no grudges against any other grandparents. Really.... ;)

As good as 2007 was, I just know 2008 is going to bring good things, good friends, good moments in time. I hope you're along for the ride.