Happy Thanksgiving!

  My garden is having a second spring. Fall is the best time of year here in Mississippi. The weather is incredibly gorgeous. This little fellow is enjoying himself.

  Today we pause in all of the busy activities we are doing, to think. I have been taught to be thankful, and for that I am thankful. Thankfulness does not come naturally to us, like selfishness does. At least that is true at my house. If we are honest about it, each of us is a master at looking out for our own interests, but we work at being kind and loving to each other.

  This man is always thinking of others, he is the real deal; a good man. I am crazy about him but you know that. Today I am thinking about being thankful for him, and for 22 years of marriage. How does that happen? One day you are young and saying "I do," and 22 years later you are much older and still together and more in love than when you started; it is a mystery and a gift.

  Not to get too sentimental- today is also about FOOD!

  One of my favorite things...country style dressing. I love this stuff so it must be fattening. Wait, it is fattening!

  I start with a whole cube of butter and an onion finely chopped.

  Then add a LOT of chopped celery, I go ahead and chop up the leaves why throw those out? Then saute this until it is cooked and salt and pepper it.

  I had planned to show you the whole process, but a friend came by, and I kept cooking and forgot to take pictures. I had made stock from the gizzards and neck that I use to moisten this. This time I added up chopped turkey because this isn't going into the bird. I already cooked the turkey for Kayla to have more meat for her diet.  In fact I have already boiled down the carcass and turned it into soup stock. Busy little thing wouldn't you say? But the secret to good stuffing is to taste it and season it just right, before you cook it.
Um, and the eggs, I added 6 whipped up into a fluff of yellow, and they give that "souffle" texture to the dressing. You really can't mess this up unless it's dry so pour on the soup!  I have in the past added different ingredients for something special; dried cranberries, apples, nuts, pineapple, etc. This year it's just plain. Just plain delicious!

  These have been around since October and they have kept quite well sitting on the porch. It's time for them to be part of the feasting so they will be cut, cleaned and roasted. The big pumpkin will be soup. Pumpkin ginger coconut soup and yes it is fabulous. The small sweeter one will be pie. I am also baking sweet potatoes for pie and some to eat with roasted marshmallows on top. I love it. It might be junk food but I don't care, it's the way my Mama did it, and once a year won't hurt anybody.

 I am also thankful in a very real way for my two feet. Jojo I am praying for yours! I am grateful that both my feet are walking today, free of any orthopedic devices. I am grateful to be healthy. I have eyes that see and hands that work. I can talk. I can hear, (sort of) I can sing, ( well that is debatable too), and I am alive in this good green earth that the Lord has made. Today is a day to rejoice and praise Him the one who has given us all these good things. The one who loves us all.

"Oh give thanks unto the lord for He is good! For his mercy endures forever!" Psalm 118:1

Odds and Ends.

These stairs are going to keep us busy. The plan is to refinish the step and paint part white like the side trim. The carpet is fixing to go to where ever it is that dead carpet goes--the dump.

Saturday the down town library had a book sale. My little heart was pitter patting in excited expectation. Memories of the Santa Cruz Civic Center with it's piles of maybe a million books, in  organized sections filled my mind. What I found was one full row of books. Mostly what they are pulling from their shelves to withdraw from circulation. For $1.00 each hardback and 25 cents for paperback I managed to spend 20 bucks and took all I could carry.

It is cold enough for a fire. The perfect day to begin reading my plunder. I love book sales.

I also recovered the cornice that is above the couch and switched the couches around. I've been re organizing with the thoughts of moving everything out to put the flooring in. BIG job!!

I took the big round coffee table out and made this little one. It's two baskets and a piece of glass. I thought the big table took up too much room and competed with the circle design of the carpet.

The closets and drawers have been purged. It's a nice feeling not having too much stuff in here and now i am ready for the flooring to begin.

We are going to go to Stewpot and serve folks for Thanksgiving. Kayla is really working at losing weight. I didn't have anyone to invite over and just don't feel like cooking. We thought it would be good this year to just go pitch in and help out with the hungry. I'll make a sweet potato pie to have when we come home.

Just Cute.

What's different in this picture?



Do you see the real "toy"?
Maybe he was feeling lonely and decided to snuggle with some buddies.
I thought it was too cute not to share.

I'm still cleaning and going to the Goodwill. Just about done. The house is looking GREAT. Drawers are getting emptied out, closets debulked, it's liberating! It's so easy to get dressed when the only things in my closet are items that I can actually wear. No more shopping for the current size either. We (Kayla and I) are trying to lose weight so we aren't cooking. No pies. No cookies no nada. Not eating much. Meat and vegetables how interesting is that? No photo ops.
But you know what? It's time for all that celebratory food and I never lost what I gained last year! I refuse to get bigger, no no NO! I mean for Pete's sake; my feet are breaking under the load now. To me that is a big hint, the body would prefer to lighten the load. DUH...

Books? Well, yes I am reading but if I keep talking about it, I might get labeled and that will never do. Just a nice heart warming story you say?

"Heart In the Right Place," by Carolyn Jourdan. This is a true story about a woman who has it all, money, high powered job, a Mercedes...and her mother has a heart attack. Her father is a country doctor in a rural area of Tennessee and her mother helps run his very old fashioned practice. She goes home to help out and from there her whole life gets turned upside down. Its sweet, hilarious, and well...it's true. What can be better than that?

Currently I am tessering through "A Wrinkle In Time," series and am reading the last book. I have a different perspective after reading the Crosswick Journals and can see that some of the settings are from her farm. It's been a very enjoyable rerun. Children's books can be for everyone, especially these. These would be good read aloud books for family time.

How are you? Do you have big plans for Thanksgiving?

A Lover of Books

Ever since I was very young, I have loved books. There is something about a new copy, not yet read that is magical for me. I love to smell the paper and gingerly run my hands over the front cover and feel of the pages, savoring the text before reading it. It's a memory that goes back as far as I can remember.

Smell is connected to memory isn't it? Did you ever deeply inhale of your new shoes? When I was young we received shoes twice a year and had two pair, one for church and one for school. When Keds came out we were crazy with joy to have play shoes! I quickly worked on my mom to let me wear the tennis shoes everywhere. I hated saddle shoes and loafers. They may have been stylish but it felt like walking in cement, and the heat so much hotter in those clodhoppers.

I am digressing a little but not really. It was as a school girl that our parochial school often held book sales for fund raisers. We were allowed to go into the main auditorium where piles of books were laid out on long tables. They were placed by grade level but that never mattered to me. What I was after was the front and back flaps of any book that caught my eye. Often my parents would buy me everything that I selected, it was so much better than any holiday. I saved most of these lovely books and left them with my daughter when I moved here. They may be gone.

There is nothing to this day that I like more, than to read curled up in a cozy spot and get completely lost in the world between those two covers. Adversity can be a blessing. I learned to love books when I was young because of profound, undiagnosed near sightedness. My grades did not suffer from my myopic vision because often during the recess I would go up to the black board and look at what was written. It trained my hearing very well to remember what was said.
When discovered by a routine school screening I could not see the big E on the chart. I had to walk nearly up to the chart to read anything. Mother was naturally horrified and also confused why none of the usual signs had presented. She asked me how I managed in school and I told her about staying in at recess; it was perfectly logical to me. I hated recess balls and other objects that would periodically come hurtling threw the air and hit me. It was always to late to react by the time I saw them coming. The world of imagination was much safer and also much more exciting. When driving home with my first pair of glasses on I was amazed that leaves actually grew on trees! Mother wept, and I couldn't understand why.

I already knew how to read when I started school. The primary grades were sheer torture. Each time I received a new "reader" I would go home and read it, then try the next day to return it. Those exasperated teachers would try to explain to me that it was a "reader" and I was to use it at school. The exasperated child would try to explain the book had been read completely and wasn't to good at that. Fun With Dick and Jane were pretty elementary reading.

I was reading chapter books and had a Junior Classics set. My mother also gave me books of nursery rhymes most of them completely memorized before kindergarten. In spite of being constantly in trouble for talking out of turn, correcting the other children's reading out loud, or getting up from my seat; I didn't lose my love of learning or of reading.

When a new copy comes in the mail and I open it, I still feel that bit of flutter and anticipation to see and smell my new book. Is the anticipation because of my enjoying opening the book or enjoying having the book open me? These authors that we don't actually know but do have a reciprocal relationship with. They present something to us and our minds open to receive or we reject. It is incredible the power of written words.

Madeline L'Engle is at the very top of my list right now. I am in love with her writing. I love the way she thinks, talks, and holds discussions as if we are present in her class, or living room. She imparts such a sense of prescence that it is to imagine you are walking at her side viewing each scene that she takes you to; her world revealed. A rekindled appreciation for thinking is stirring between the gray matter in my head, and the soul in my being.

In the "Summer of the Great Grandmother," she is dealing with the severe decline of her mother. Her family spends each year at their country house in New England. Her mother has suffered from dementia for some time, but in this particular summer, just the trip itself sends her off the deep end profoundly. They realize she will never be able to return to her home.
The episodes of fear and outlandish behavior spur Madeline to remember her childhood, her relationships with her parents, and their parents to review her family history back to the civil war. It is an incredible journey, a fantastic marvelous read.

Something happened in my own response to her story. I saw great parallels between her people and mine, between her childhood experiences and mine. My grandparents rode on camels in Egypt and so did hers. Her family was well read and knew several foreign languages as did mine. These people who did not consider themselves to be highly educated because they had no degrees; lived very full and interesting lives!

Which made me think of the strong contrast between their lives and those portrayed in,"Brave New World", by Aldous Huxley and "1984", by George Orwell. The totalitarian government in BNW kept the masses happy with soma and diversions. Games and physical fitness were the chief modes of entertainment and all things "new" celebrated, old things and old people abhorred. I wonder if we have 'soma' now? Would we recognize it if it was in our lives already? What things do we routinely use to "check out" from the world we live in and distress? Zone out, tune out, take a vacation, "a gramme is better than a damn". The government had discovered that keeping people in an infantile state and away from strong feelings enabled them to be easily controlled.

In "1984", we have "Big Brother:, the benevolent government that will rewrite history and current events to subdue the masses, and again medicate and condition the people so they do not even recognize the servitude that is upon them. The interesting thing is that in both stories, books are forbidden. Learning is forbidden, it has been replaced by conditioning. Political correctness is of supreme importance, any infractions reported for the greater good of the society as a whole. Would we even see it? Isn't it already here? Would we realize if we are conditioned? "I love new clothes", "better to spend than to mend", sounds ominously like a TV commercial to me, but in Brave New World, it was part of the multitude of whispers in the night that the government raised children, were subjected too.

How did I get from grandparents that could speak foreign languages and ride camels to that? I hope you made that jump on your own. In that time there was no TV, no media, no Internet. People were very busy with living independent lives. independent of government, independent of the mainstream pressure to conform to the status quo. When you don't have "soma" you live life. People those few generations ago were very much free Americans and celebrated their freedom by working very hard to better themselves. My grandparents( legal immigrants by the way) saw the industrial revolution, the invention of the radio, the electric light bulb, indoor plumbing, the motor car, airplanes, and a man that walked on the moon. To name just a few of the milestones in their generation. It was an amazing time to be alive.

How about us? Where do we fit in? Where do you?

Fall Fest Foto Day in the Country!

Pretty much as soon as these were turned loose;I hit the ground running.
So to speak, actually I began standing in front of the stove.
Where I usually spend a lot of time. This home made chicken soup is pretty tasty.
If I don't say so myself.
It had been awhile since we had any of this too...

The hunny is always up for some of these...

or his very favorite.
After getting full of home cooking we decided to take a ride to the country to visit some friends.
Boys and vines that hang from trees are a match made in heaven.
We had a special occasion to make the trip. This little princess is a couple of days old, she is the 6th child in this family but there is plenty of room for her.

They have horses on their farm, Kayla wanted to brush them so they had a nice relaxing grooming.
The Dad and one of the other daughters were busy doing something here.
Which involved this kind lady named I-Lean, she has a bum foot but it doesn't slow her down much. A jersey cow, the best milk on the planet comes from such as these.
The oldest has the knack she knows just how to fill up the pails. We were given 2 gallons of milk and about that much in pure cream. I am blessed to overflowing! Just think real butter, sour cream, and ooooohhh that milk!!! My bones are getting stronger just thinking about it.

A family shot of all the children they are a joy to be around they are so well behaved, and they are very happy children.
We drove all through the country to visit them. It's not far from where we live just 20 mins from me you can be in places that look like this.
We stopped by the side of the road to take these.



Tried to get this driving and it's blurry but it's my dream place, I think it's for sale. Won't be mine it's more moolah than I have. It is a perfect farm house on picturesque acreage.
On the way home...
I love it in the town of Flora...or more correctly the countryside of Flora...

the photographer at work...
Somebody has to drive, notice my window? You guessed it perfect weather!!
This time of year we have the best weather in the country!
More beauty isn't this just a feast for the eyes?


All to soon we turned the corner back to our place. The trees declare the beauty of fall.

With a little help from my resident teen.

We are home and the day was perfect.

Just Busy or Something....

The phone rang last night and my friend who is also blogger was calling because....I haven't posted. It's so nice to be loved. I have good news, my cast is off. My bones don't feel right but I am not complaining.

GREAT NEWS about Stellan!! But the news about his leg is not good, pray about that, a very urgent need, and he is sick. What an incredible journey this baby and his family have had!

I have some ideas to write about for you...if I can get ever get my nose out of the stack of books I have. I am reading, baking, and trying my best not to be on my feet to much. Yes, this is the boring- est post ever...just touching base to let you know that--I am fine. I am enjoying the ooh so perfect--never lasts long enough--fall weather. No, my irises are not planted yet, are yours?

I will return.

What Would You DO?--Book Review

Have you ever thought about feet? Aside from how cute they CAN be? At least at the stage of the game they happen to be smoochy and adorable and make us *sigh* just so precious.

They are also an important part of being independent. They take you where you want to go and sometimes where you don't. We need them.

A popular movie made this saying famous, "Houston we have a problem," everybody knows what that means.

Something is wrong and it is probably going to get expensive to figure it out. Peoples bones do not just fracture while walking around, no falls , no twists, no trauma. Except for mine, that is exactly what my bones are doing. It has been confined to the ankles until now, this time the tibia fractured on my leg.

Houston, we have a freak out.

My prescription; is to go to the library, check out a pile of books and begin. I am supposed to keep my feet up and rest. Sounds good doesn't it? The body however, does not like that much rest, and you would be amazed at the aches that start up from lack of movement. Some rest is not restful. However the books are a welcome diversion! I even tossed in a few classic tomes.

Let me show you the pile and then tell you about some of them.

I recently finished 'A Circle of Quiet', by Madeline l"Engle you may know her from "A Wrinkle in Time' she has written 63 books! She was also married to Hugh Franklin the actor who is best known for playing Dr.Tyler on All My Children, a soap opera of long standing. I have never been a soap opera fan. When you work in hospitals they are on and staff usually can find a minute to go watch and keep up with their stories. having been exposed, I remember Dr.Tyler, he was about the only character who had real substance. The Crosswick Journals are autobiographical and a pleasure to read. She discusses learning, ideas, language, music, art and a great deal of discussion about the 70's with conclusions that are timeless in their application; appropriate for today.

This next story is beautiful, and these two people of high integrity shared 40 years of fidelity and true love. 'A Two Part Invention' is the story of their meeting, courtship, marriage and his death from cancer. It is an amazing, well done book. Madeline has the ability to draw you into her inner heart and life sharing the most profound feelings; and then giving you just enough distance so you are not completely overwhelmed. I confess to crying the most as she describes the nurses ability to handle their suffering and the situations they find themselves faced with. Her portrayal of the experience of life threatening illness, is perfectly done. If you are facing a situation like this read the book. If you want to expand your heart, read the book. If you just want to read a good book; read the book.

A book I did not care for much is 'Julie and Julia' what the movie is based on. I missed the movie. The book is filled with the f*** word and s** word on every page. So much that it does nothing to the story except cheapen it. Her kitchen is filthy. She writes of a scene where she is seeing spots before her eyes, which wait; are not spots they are flies. The flies are coming from the sink, under her drainboard are maggots...yeah well my stomach flipped too.
This book is really trash. I have heard nothing but rave reviews about the movie. If you saw the movie and liked it please tell me about it. Another surprise is the book has actually very little about Julia Child except for a half dozen letters from her husband and the imaginary part she plays in Julies head. I think the real life Julie Powell has some kind of disorder maybe Asperger's. This woman does not think, she a blanket dislike for Republicans, for Christians, and is in general a modern day bigot. When we fall to a level that we can no longer meet each other and exchange ideas but stereotype and dismiss one another based upon what politics we endorse, we are indeed in trouble.

A fun novel, a bit predictable and on the tidy side as far as wrapping up a plot; but please enjoy Peter Mayal's ' A Vintage Caper.' I love Peter, the man loves food and wine. He can describe food and wine until you feel like you are eating with him. An unfortunate response is that sometimes the suggestions are so strong I have to eat, hungry or not! The novel is a whodunit set in France with lovely chateaus and incredible wines. It is fun, just plain fun, and the food....

I am working on this book pile. I haven't chosen today's read yet. in the mean time the house is getting dirty, my room looks like a cyclone hit it, and the pile of routine housekeeping is just piling up. However, I am determined to ignore it. This is not easy for me. I like work. I like to be busy. It is enough work just to get washed up and dressed. Casts are a royal pain in the *** did I say that?

There is one more thing I wanted to share with you. I watched an incredible film. I love most anything that has Nicholas Cage in it. The man really can sing opera, no joke. The film is 'Captain Corelli's Mandolin' the setting is a small Greek Island complete with stunning vistas, houses and ocean scenes. The problem is the Nazi occupation. The story is of love, and sacrifice. This film is full of everything literary. There is symbolism, beauty, contrast, poetry, songs, pain, and death. One can spend time afterward just thinking and exploring the many ideas that are put before you. The movie is rated R for some nudity. The nudity however is not offensive it is worked into the film in a powerful way. You see I am not a prude, but swearing should be reserved to make an effect, and nudity should contribute, not be cheap titillation; at least in my small opinion. The scene is on the beach where the singing Italian soldiers, (whose main extent of the war experience has been to form an operatic singing group) are enjoying the day with prostitutes; who frolic in the waves topless. They are taking joy in hard times where they can find it. It did not offend me in the least. I think that scenes where peoples faces are grimacing in what is supposed to be a climax are much more suggestive than the beach scene in this film. If I was a movie critic I would give this film 5 stars. Yes, my teenagers may watch it, it is a good film and there is much to discuss.

What are you reading? Anything good?

Satire Sunday

I received this in an e mail. It made me laugh, sarcastic laughter, but yes a laugh.


Doesn't get any better than this!

Let me get this straight.

We're going to pass a health care plan
*written by a committee whose head says he doesn't understand it,
*passed by a Congress that hasn't read it, but exempts themselves from it,
*signed by a president that also hasn't read it, and who smokes,
*with funding administered by a treasury chief who didn't pay his taxes,
*overseen by a Surgeon General who is obese, and
*financed by a country that's already broke.

What could possibly go wrong?