Day 30: NaBloPoMo complete!

I broke from my normal town office/farm routine today for an appointment and a lunch date with my girls and these two cutie pies. Ivy was behind me and didn’t make it into the photo. But she was definitely there! 

We stopped by Aldi for a few things. I love that store. I’m not a shopper, unless it’s one of my favorite grocery stores, that being Aldi and Trader Joe’s. 

I can always find something seasonal and unique at those places. 

Today I picked up a little tub of sugar cookie flavored dessert hummus. That was interesting. Yes, it tasted like sugar cookies, but it also tasted like blended chick peas. 

Sugar cookie in a fiber filled spread. 

Yum. 

Ho-hum

I’ll eat it though. I think it will be good with pretzels. 

Aldi sometimes has household goods I like. 

Today I found a print that I liked for cheap. And it’s reversible with another print on the back! 

I grabbed that and added it to my mantle when I got home, along with some greenery from Chelsea’s shrub trimmings , lol. 

I plan to add some nandina berries and pine cones too.

Doesn’t look too bad for starters, does it. 

Today is the last day of November and therefore the last day of my 30 day blogging challenge. 

I posted a little something every day except one. Nothing of much consequence, but a little something, something. 

Making myself write every day feels very much like a writing exercise at times. In the sense that exercise is sometimes difficult. It feels hard to start. There’s always a million reasons why we don’t have the time or energy. 

I have found that inspiration rarely if ever “strikes” before I write. 

It’s just one of those things ya have to sit down and do, then the creative juices flow. Maybe. 

I’ve written little snippets about my rather boring life, but they’ll be fun to look back on one of these days, just to see what we were up to, if nothing else. 

Thanks for reading! 

Until next time… 

 

Day 29: A little snowy scene

 Maybe I should have brought this snowy little scene home with me from the office and used that in place of my Christmas tree. 

Because my big tree is still not decorated. 

I’ve barely been home since we put it up. It will get done eventually, I guess! 

My aunt once had a tree in her basement decorated with lots of clear lights and a single red cardinal perched on a branch. I thought it was simple and chic…I wonder if I could get away with that? 

***

At dinner tonight, my husband informed me that today is the day Thanksgiving leftovers should get thrown out. I think we have pretty much cleaned up the leftovers from Thanksgiving day, but we are still working on round two’s leftovers. 

So tonight I made turkey salad with some of the leftover turkey. I added diced celery, onion, dried cranberries and a dab ‘a mayo. 

Yum, yum! It’ll be good tomorrow… just before the expiration date, lol. 

Joy and bliss

One of my girls took this last week and shared it with me. I thought it was just the most precious photo. The boys’ goofy grins express pure joy, reflected, no doubt, in the loving smiles of their mommas and in the warm bright sun beaming down on them from a blue sky. 

Pure innocent bliss and plain stinking cute! 

That’s about all I have for tonight. I had a late meeting and my brain is “tard.” I’m tard. 

But this little pic was a quick pick-me-up; maybe it’ll do the same for you. 

Another Thanksgiving dinner…

 We enjoyed another big turkey dinner with all the trimmings this afternoon. 

As usual, the kids keep things interesting. 

Ivy was obsessed with the kittens and trying to catch them, but they were elusive, always slipping away when she got near. 

And Finn got introduced to the mooing cookie jar. 

Granny G has had that thing since my kids were little, I think. 

Whenever she lifts the lid on the cookie jar—the lid being its head—it bellows a loud moo, which tends to startle the little ones.  Even so, they keep coming back for more. 

Mwoooah!!

Finn’s eyes were big as quarters. 

Granny G. has always enjoyed seeing the kids reaction to the cookie jar. She giggles like a kid herself. 

It’s funny the random things you associate with certain people. 

The things they’ll go down in family history for. 

The things we will forever have fond memories of. 

Like mooing cookie jars. 

Or chalk horses. 

When we were kids, my aunt Myrl had a scary looking chalk horse on a kitchen cabinet. 

We would eye that thing warily as we walked past it to get a drink of water from the water bucket on her enamel farmhouse sink. 

(The water was drawn from a well behind the house and always seemed to taste so good.)

It looked to me like the horse was eyeing us back as we sneaked by it. It had big black circles painted around its eyes! 

Creepy! 

Makes me wonder what quirky and random thing my grandkids will associate with me after they grow up? 

Still decking the halls

 Decorating is a big job when you’re as unorganized as I am—and when you have kept nearly every piece of garland, every ornament, ever ratty-looking stocking you ever did own in all the 40 years you’ve been housekeeping. 

Who would do such a thing? 

But, I’ve been real busy and got a lot done the past coupla days. I’m still debating whether or not to put up the last two trees…

If I do, I’ll just have to take them back down in January. I’m not sure it’s worth the effort. 

I will eventually finish decorating this one, I hope. 

But for now, I’ll just enjoy it with the lights on! 

Transitioning into another season

 

Now that Thanksgiving is past, I’ve launched straight into Christmas prep. 

I’ve been messing around and decorating all day. 

For lunch I made myself the tastiest sandwich. I grilled a big ol slice of sourdough in a cast iron skillet with a little olive oil. 

I piled on some turkey, lettuces, a slice of sweet onion, some Mayo, some cranberry sauce and a spoonful of leftover cornbread dressing. 

Yumm! It was soooo good. 

Better than the original meal, I think. 

I’d been simmering the turkey carcass for several hours, and I had 5 quarts of rich bone broth to pour off! 

I put four in the freezer to add to soups, and I kept one in the fridge to heat up later to drink. 

Bone broth is very nourishing and a good alternative broth for cooking ramen noodles. 

Yummm. I need some ramen noodles now.  A sprinkle of green onions and a bit of fresh ginger would make them especially nice! 

Good gravy, what a day

 I had the turkeys baked, the dressing made, and the pies made, so all I really had to do this morning was make gravy for today's dinner at my sister’s house then we could pack up and head up there.  

Gosh, I struggled with that gravy. I made one batch without much trouble, but it didn’t yield very much so I started another. 

The second batch was so lumpy! I stirred and whisked and scraped ad sweated over the stove. Despite my best efforts, the lumps refused to dissolve. 

I think Mom would have laughed if she could have seen me  trying to beat out those lumps. 

After what seemed like hours, I gave up and poured the gravy through a strainer. 

It tasted decent, most of it got eaten, and no one complained. 

I’m still scratching my head though; why does turkey gravy cause me such problems while my breakfast gravy is never lumpy?!

Another of life’s great mysteries, 

Anyway, it turned out to be a lovely day, and we spent a lot of it outside. 

This picture of dad with some of his grandkids and great grandkids was a challenge to take. 

Well, it wasn’t hard to take, but it was hard to get everyone to look at the camera at the same time! 

Bunch ‘a turkeys! 

I love them tho. 

Birds without feathers bake together

Turkeys were a little harder to come by this year. 

I ordered mine from Kroger last week, requesting a 25 pounder. 

They substituted a ten pounder! 

Seriously!? That won’t go far with my bunch. 

So, I made a trip to an actual store and was able to snag a 14 pound turkey too. 

10+14 = 24, right? Twenty four pounds of turkey. 

But two birds have double the bones, double the waste. 

So, the way I figure it, these two birds may produce less meat than we’re used to. 

I’m sure we won’t go hungry though, with 47 sides and a coupla dozen desserts accompanying the main attraction. 

The cushaw pies were a success. I’ve “sampled” so much of the one, it’s about gone! 😆

While baking today, I took down my fall decorations. I felt  a twinge of sadness. Where did the season go? 

Where do they all go?

Round and round and round, it seems. 

We were blessed with a beautiful fall though,  and plenty of good memories were made. 

As our little granddaughter sings, we have to “let it go, let it gooooo.”

Time to move on and prepare for the next big thing—Christmas! 

My hubby helped me get the trees down from the storage shed, and the big tree is now in the house so if we have a rainy weekend, I’m ready. 

Ready to deck the halls! 

After we eat those turkeys. 

Cushaw pie about to happen

Cushaw pie is a pretty labor intensive process, because you can’t go to the grocery and buy a can of it like you can pumpkin. 

We grew a few cushaws this summer, mostly for fall decorating, but I like to make pies with one or two. It’s a thanksgiving tradition in our family. 

Cushaw is similar to pumpkin, but it’s lighter in color, more yellow than orange, and to me has a milder creamier flavor. The pie calls for more nutmeg than cinnamon. Actually, this recipe doesn’t have any cinnamon, come to think of it, which is how I remember the cushaw pies of my youth.  I loved their nutmeg flavor, but I think my sister did not for this very reason--they tasted like nutmeg. 

I love this pie cold, and it’s better after it’s been made a couple of days or so. 

Mom always made these pies at Thanksgiving because they are my dad’s favorite.  

I made them last year because Mom was in the hospital at Thanksgiving. She was released in time to eat dinner with us here at my house, but she didn’t get to make any of her specialties. 

I don’t have her original recipe, but this one is very similar. In the past, if I had questions about how to make it, I’d call her and ask her. 

This year, I can’t do that. I think of things I want to ask her all the time. 

But I’m going to attempt these pies, and I may shed some tears while doing it, but I need to make them for Dad, and for the rest of us who like them. 

So, I cut the cushaw, that large green striped curvy squash of a thing, into big chunks and roasted it a couple days ago. 

Cushaw is like butternut, it’s hard to peel, but if you bake it a while, it softens and is easier to peel. 

Mom did not do it this way. She somehow peeled those big old squashes with her old worn butcher knife, holding it Brenda Gandt style. She’d cut it up in neat cubes, then cook it. 

I’m not that patient, so I roasted mine so I could rip and tear and slice the soft yellow flesh from that tough skin. I was not neat about it. I'm rough on my food.  It doesn't stand a chance.  

Tonight, I cooked it some more so that the flesh is very tender. If it isn’t cooked well, it’ll be stringy and unappetizing, and we can’t have that, lol. 

It’s also important to drain the cooked cushaw in a colander before mixing in the eggs, cream and spices. We don’t want our pie runny and unappetizing either. 

So my cooked cushaw is draining in the sink as we speak. 

Tomorrow I plan to bake these pies. 

Hopefully they will be edible, good even. 

Hopefully they will do Mom’s cushaw pies some kind of justice. 

We’ll see. 

Thanksgiving prep: Bake cornbread

 What a Monday/Tuesday all rolled into one. 

Our printer gave us an early deadline and my brain is sore this evening. 

Pages sent, two meetings attended after that. 

I think I’m suffering from too much information induced indigestion of the brain! 

I sat through one of the meetings and pondered why I needed to know how many county roads there are, or how much will be spent on three defibrillators for CSEPP, etc. 

So I can pass this info on to our dear readers, of course. 

I did learn that the health department will come to you to give vaccinations if you can’t easily get out. 

Before my meetings I had a break long enough to bake a pretty pone of cornbread. 

What we didn’t eat for supper, I will allow to dry for cornbread dressing on Thursday. 

Let the festivities begin! 

Thanksgiving week begins

November has simply flown by, and here we are beginning the week of Thanksgiving— a time to be extra mindful of our blessings. 

Tonight I’m thankful for my cozy corner when it’s cold outside, for someone to share life with, for the pleasantly mindless chatter of a ballgame on tv in the next room. 

I’m thankful for the freedom to gather to worship. I’m thankful for those who have answered the call to be pastors in this age…never an easy task, but especially not now. 

I’m thankful for generations of family.  The young ones so brighten the days of the oldest ones, and it’s a joy to see them together. 

I’m thankful for the health and energy to manage days that I sometimes feel are too full. 

I’m thankful for all the reasons my days are full… home and farm and work and family and friends. 

The more we consider our blessings, the better we can see them. 

Hot salsa on a cold day

 The day began with a thick layer of frost. It was 10.30 or so when I took this photo of lingering iciness on the car! 

The sun shined bright today though; it’s been a beautiful day. 

Beautiful but chilly, so I spent most of the day indoors, canning salsa, making tomato juice and putting out a few Christmas decorations! 

While I appreciate still having tasty homegrown tomatoes in mid- November, I’m kinda over the garden, on the other hand. 

I’m sure the 16 degree cold killed everything except the cabbage in the high tunnel, but we picked all those maters the other day, and I couldn’t let them go to waste. 

So, I canned salsa and started Christmas. 

Maybe I’ll leave salsa out for Santa or give it as gifts. 

Reckon Santa would like that? 

I hope the woolly worm is right!

 Old timers say brown in the middle of a woolly worm means there will be a mild spell in the middle of winter—the black represents a cold beginning and a cold ending to the winter. 

I hope they are right! We seem to be in the thick of a cold beginning, which I’m hoping won’t last long. 

I really do not like being cold.

However, I am grateful for a relatively warm house. It’s painful to think that there are people who don’t have a warm place to stay. 

Brrrr!!

Day 17: Giving credit where credit is due

Since I typically only write these blog posts in November, 

the photos of the landscape that I use tend to be monochromatic. 

So I thought I’d dig a little deeper in my camera roll and find something a bit  more colorful. 

Ahhhh, green grass and wildflowers. Who else is ready for winter to be over soon? 

Anyway, tonight I covered one of my favorite events to cover for the newspaper, and that is the Kiwanis Club’s Farm-City Banquet. 

Every year, the Kiwanis Club presents awards to a couple of farmers and a farm-related business. 

Being a farm gal myself, I’m always happy to see farmers be appreciated. 

Farming is not a job that people typically associate with accolades and achievements. 

Farming is humble and dirty work. 

Farmers wear grimy jeans, sweaty shirts, and muddy boots instead of suits, ties and shiny shoes. 

Although farming might seem like menial work, feeding the world is pretty important, don’t you think? 

Did you know that only two percent of the United States population are farmers? 

Adversity is about the only guarantee a farmer has, whether they deal with supply and demand issues or the weather, but  every farmer I know is a pro at figuring out ways to work around whatever daily challenge presents itself. 

For all these reasons and many more, I’m happy to play a part in giving credit to the hard-working farming community. 

 

The pie was good!

The pie was good! 

I don’t make apple pies very often, so I was pretty pleased with the way it turned out, except the crust was placed a little crooked in the pan. 

I drizzled a little bit of melted caramel on it too. Yumm! 

I had some visitors today.

We convinced Ivy to try on this fancy dress so we could send her daddy a picture and surprise him. 

She’s a hard one to photograph—hardly ever still. Pretty girl, nonetheless! 

It was so cold out today! 

So cold that Miles didn’t pull his hat off… I imagine it felt pretty good to him. 

I didn’t get pics of all the cuties.  Those grandkids hop around like a roomful of jackrabbits! 

 

Pie, but which way?

 

We were gifted some locally grown Granny Smith apples the other day, and they were developing some dark spots,  so I figured I’d better do something with them.

I debated with myself about making apple bread, apple cake, apple pie. I’ve decided to make pie.

But which kind of pie? 

A lattice topped apple pie?

A Dutch Apple pie? 

A pecan crumble apple pie? A caramel apple pecan crumble pie? Or a pecan oatmeal caramel crumble apple pie? 

Ummm, that sounds good. They all do. I think I’ll make an oatmeal pecan crumble caramel apple pie.

I have my apples all peeled and sliced and sugared and spiced with cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg. 

My house is going to smell soooo good tomorrow. 

And I’ll probably burn my tongue in my hurry to taste the pie because I’m impatient like that. 

Maybe I’ll take a picture to share if my apple pie topped with pecan oatmeal crumble and drizzled with warm salted caramel sauce and served a la mode isn’t a flop. 

Maybe. If I don’t gobble it up before I remember to take a pic. 

😁

Shucks, yeah, we’ll eat cornbread

 A few days ago, when it was warm and sunny, we shucked our Hickory King corn and placed it in crates where it will be well ventilated and can dry out good before we have it ground. 

How can it not be dry already, I asked my hubby. 

After three months with little rain?! How could it not be dry?

This was before we got some rain. 

Soon we will have this little corn crop ground into cornmeal. 

Then, we’ll eat cornbread! Hoecakes. Maybe even try some cornmeal mush or something. 

It’ll be good! 

Barn art brings back memories

The cold weather discouraged me from lingering outside today for long, so I snapped this photo through my car window. 

This barn quilt has found a new home. 

My sister and I painted it years ago for our aunt, who was just captivated when she saw my barn quilt, also painted by Sis and myself. So we decided to paint one for Aunt and surprise her with it on her 90th birthday, I believe it was. 

After my aunt passed, her farm was sold. The new owners removed the barn quilt to paint the barn  and graciously allowed us to take the quilt and keep it in the family. 

My brother hung it on his tobacco barn this weekend, and I think it looks right at home. 

Every time  I see it, I will think of Aunt Ruth and how impressed she was that a quilt could be painted and hung on a barn. 

Being a talented seamstress, she recognized the work and detail that went into beautiful handmade quilts, whether they be painted on or sewn. 

I like to think that the sight of the barn quilt out her window lifted her spirits a little during her last years.

Winter’s here?!?

 Wait! 

What happened to that extended Indian summer we’ve been enjoying? 

Overnight, it feels like winter. Brrrr. I’m ready for spring. 

Because we’ve had a long warm fall, our tomatoes have survived and flourished. With subfreezing temperatures predicted, we figgurred we’d better pick ‘em.  

So we did. Eleven trays full, and some green ones too. 

This afternoon we entertained three sweeties. 

We watched football, ate chili, made s’more dip, read board books and snuggled. 

After the kiddos went home, pops and I did something we seldom do. We watched a movie! 

Where the Crawdads Sing is now on Netflix. 

I had read and enjoyed the book, and was pleasantly surprised that the movie was good too! Better than I expected, really. 

Check it out one of these cold evenings. 

A whole different kind of day…

 

 

I don’t know when I’ve ever been so happy to see rain. To hear it on the roof, to smell the dampening earth and the freshening air as the rain dispersed the smoke that had settled in the valleys. 

On my way to work this morning, I had to stop and snap this photo from just out the road, overlooking our farm. 

I thought the layer of smoke/fog looked so pretty. 

And so different from yesterday’s hot dry smokiness. 

I never get tired of looking at these mountains! They are constant, but always changing, if ya know what I mean. 

I’m sure all those directly affected by the fires were happy to see the rain too, whether they lived close to the stricken area or were battling the blazes. 

We can all breath easier, literally and figuratively! 

Natural disasters have a way of putting us in our place, don’t they? 

They remind us that we are no match for the elements, and sufficient rainfall is not to be taken for granted.

They also remind us that we’re all connected in unexpected ways, that we breathe the same air and that a careless act can have some serious repercussions. 

So dry the fish are dying

 In very dry years, the creeks will turn black from all the decaying leaves that have dropped into the water. 

I’ve always thought that was interesting to see, but this is the first time I’ve noticed fish dying in the black water. 

Maybe it has something to do with this beaver dam slowing what little flow there is in the creek here because this is where I saw the dead fish. 

This photo was taken last week. I saw one fish that appeared to be dying, but this week, I saw 8-10 dead fish caught on this dam. I saw others surfacing and sucking air, poor things. 

What a stink…a peculiar odor of dead fish, rotting leaves, then there was the smoke hanging heavy in the air. Yuck!

This is but one more reason why I am eagerly waiting for tonight’s forecasted rain. We need it to sweep away some decaying leaves and fill up ponds and branches and creeks. 

A lot of folk’s livestock are drinking this black water too!

I don’t see how it can be good for them. 

Let it rain! 

I missed a day…

 …but I had good reason. Yesterday was a looong one! I was out until nearly ten o’clock awaiting election results. 

The wait was long, but I appreciate the process of counting, checking, verifying.

People of both parties seated across from one another at a table, maintaining an election of integrity. 

People gathered in a courtroom to hear the election results announced. Smiling and cordial, accepting results with grace. People who value our democracy. 

I came home feeling some renewed hope that maybe we as a country ain’t goin’ to hell in the proverbial hand basket just yet. 

I honestly do hope and pray for a new spirit of cooperativeness to sweep this nation. 

I’ve seen over and over in small scale the results of pettiness in governing. 

Little gets accomplished except hard feelings, if you want to call that accomplishment. 

I don’t. 

I think we can do much better than that. 

I know we can!

I’ve also seen over and over the results of public servants behaving like public servants. 

We’ve seen that in the past few days, elected officials and scores of volunteers jumping in to help fight the wildfires plaguing our county and supporting the firefighters. 

It’s a beautiful thing. 

I’m missing summer—and rainy days—already

I’ve been scrolling back through my camera roll and thinking how things have changed since summer. 

For one thing, it stopped raining. 

 After the flooding in August, it’s basically just quit.

And boy, are we seeing the results in our ponds, streams, and creeks, many of which are now parched. There’s none of the lush green growth as above. 

Of course, it is the time of year for things to die back, but the loss of color and green grass is much more than that.

A few days of good soaking rain would be such a treat! 

That moon tonight!

 If you haven’t been out to see the magnificent almost full moon tonight, well, maybe you should. 

A wispy layer of clouds floating between us and the moon is creating rainbow colored circles around it, and it looks so cool!! 

This has been the most beautiful fall we’ve seen in a long time…and the most fragrant. 

Every time I step out the door, I notice the nutty smell of fallen leaves and I have to breath deep to savor it. 

And because it’s so warm, I can enjoy the moon from outside in my glider. 

There’s still time! Run outside and look! 

Or go sit a spell and watch. 🙂

Slow time

 I’m pretending that it’s almost 9 p.m. instead of almost 10 p.m. because we are about to gain an hour to sleep or do whatever. 

What are we going to do with all these hours of dark? 

Eat? 

Watch TV?

Read? 

Eat? 

I’ll probably read a few cookbooks. 

I’m reading one now, actually. 

I love this book! 

This little lady has become quite famous, and it all began in 2020, during the beginning of the pandemic, with a video that was posted on Facebook of Brenda Gantt making biscuits. 

Brenda’s cooking videos have since inspired and entertained millions. 

She now has 3.2 million followers on Facebook! And she’s written two cookbooks. 

They are more than cookbooks though, filled with lots of photos and stories about Brenda and her family.

This cookbook is sprinkled with scripture and other tidbits of wisdom and inspiration. 

Brenda Gantt is truly an amazing little woman. 

This book would make a wonderful Christmas gift if you can find it! 

I voted early

 This afternoon, I headed over to the courthouse to vote a few days early. 

No real reason for voting early except it was convenient.

I presented my drivers license to the clerk, signed my name on the tablet, and was handed a paper ballot. I was pointed toward an open cubby equipped with ink pens. 

I filled out my ballot, both front and back.

Another clerk pointed me toward the scanner, and I placed my ballot in the tray. The scanner did its work and told me my votes were cast. 

I was handed a sticker on the way out, and just like that, the process was complete. 

I felt a sense of accomplishment for having done my civic duty, and I feel very confident that the process is secure. 

I’m thankful for the opportunity to have my say at the polls! 

You can vote early tomorrow also, or you can wait until Election Day, Nov. 8. 

Woolgathering in class

This afternoon I attended the first of a series of writing workshops being taught at our public library. 

As we introduced ourselves, I thought what a varied spectrum of voices we represented-each human, unique in personality, in appearance, in background, etc. 

We went around the table, telling what we liked to read, and what genre we kinda/sorta hoped to write. 

Eventually, our writing instructor gave us a prompt, and we were invited to read what we wrote, the idea being that we would attempt to come up with a strong beginning, something that would entice readers to want to read on. 

I spent most of my time thinking about WHAT it was I wanted to start. 

I SAID I was an essayist, but what I actually started was a fictitious story. 

As I listened to each person read, I enjoyed our different voices. I enjoyed the sound of them. I enjoyed the spirit of them, the individual personalities reflected in each person. 

And yet. I’ll bet I wasn’t the only one with a little voice pecking away in the back of my brain saying I really had nothing of value to say. 

But that’s not true. 

We are all vastly interesting stories in the making. Our loves, our dislikes, our hurts, our dreams and passions, our quirks…each of us is a masterpiece, really, if we were translated to paper. 

However, fear holds us captive a lot of the time. We worry too much about what people will think. 

What if we had the courage to reveal a little more of ourselves, if we honestly believed our stories were as valid as the next person’s? Who knows what poetry, memoirs or  novels we might create? 

I also noticed that most who read aloud from their prompt assignment had not written in the genre they said they were interested in writing.

I think what came out of us was something we didn’t really anticipate in most cases, almost in voices we didn’t recognize. 

Who the heck are we?!? Lol. 

The whole writing process is just crazy, that we could each pull such different ideas out of our heads in just a few minutes.

Our ability as humans to communicate is fascinating, whether it be spoken, written, sung, painted, sculpted, etc.

Thus began the first chapter of my new novel. 😆

Yes, caring for young kids is hard!

 Our office is closed on Wednesdays, so I can often be found at home with some grandchildren underfoot.  

The youngest three are a handful, but they are more fun than a barrel full of monkeys! 

Time with the grandkids wrecks my house and my to-do list gets shelved, but when they all go home, my heart literally feels warmer, fuller, lighter.  

I'm left smiling while at the same time shaking my head at the amount of energy they require.  

During one season of my life, I was a mom with young kids to care for all day, but I sometimes forget how hard it was.  

Even deadline days at the paper are easier than wrangling three or four kids and a dog or two, lol! 

Back in the day I used to beat myself up, because I felt like I wasn't getting much accomplished.  

My house wasn't as clean and tidy as I thought maybe it should be; I wasn't as clean and tidy as I thought I should be, yada-yada-yada, blah, blah, blah. 

*Sighhh* 

Dummy me.   I wish I had cut that young mom some slack.  

She didn't do it all perfectly, but she gave it her whole heart.  Her kids' basic needs were met and then some, and they seemed pretty happy and well adjusted.  

They grew up to be fine, loving mothers, so she must have done a few things right. 

With that being said, it's about Nan's bedtime.  Good night, y'all! 

Times, they are a changin'--again

Today is the start of a brand new month.  

It's November, and some of us have seen a lot of Novembers, so the start of another one might seem like more of an occasion for a yawn than for excitement. 

Still, we aren't promised any more Novembers, or months, or days, or hours, even.  

Therefore, I'll try to appreciate the month, even though the dark season is settling in and the leaves are falling and most green things are dying back.

I'll remind myself that at the same time things appear to be dying, they are releasing seeds, scattering them to soil that becomes cold and hard, but that same soil that will hold them, keep them, for another spring when the strengthening sun and warming earth will stir new life and another lifecycle will commence. 

While I'm not exactly thrilled about the dark season, I appreciate the season of rest.  Relatively speaking.  

There's still plenty to do, but we are forced indoors well before bedtime, and because we are indoors, we are less active. 

I mean, unless I get real motivated to do some squats or sit-ups or something while watching Netflix. 

Or to clean house. 

I'm not holding my breath about that though. 

In years past, I've participated in the National Blog Posting Month challenge, or NaBloPoMo, which happens in November.  

If you notice my blog archives, you'll see that almost all the entries were written in November.  That's because of NaBloPoMo.  

I'm not making any promises that I'll post every day, but we'll see.  I'm not making any promises that I won't, either. 😁