Sunday Reflections

Caracal Kitten at our local zoo.

Deep thoughts haunt me this time of year. It is my favorite time...I wish it could always be Fall. 

I won't share my deep thoughts today. You will thank me.

The little guy in the photo above hasn't a care in the world. Play, eat, sleep. Wouldn't it be great to have at least one day to be like a child again?

Yesterday Madley and I planted some bamboo in our back yard. Whenever I'm at our local zoo, I look around to see what I like that's growing there and find out what it's called. They have little signs around naming different plants. If it grows there, it will grow in our yard! So we also planted another Japanese maple tree.

I have plans.

We've hacked through the bush cutting out azaleas that are ancient and seen better days. Nasty little buggers. They don't want to die.

I have a corner in the front yard that is the bane of my existence. I cut down most of the "plants' and will dig them out and we plan to put a bench and a tree there...

...but we work very slowly. So this will take time. Slowly but surely, we are getting things done.

Only 4,091 projects to go.

Good kitty in an enclosure at the zoo.

We have cats. Not our cats. We don't own any kitties. We chase them off. They poop in unsuspecting places that our Crocks find. Bad kitties. I'm planning on putting up a white picket fence, 8 feet tall with barbed wire atop it. Maybe an electric fence. Or a solid wall with cameras. My neighbors will be so jealous.

If these kitties roamed the neighborhood, we'd be eaten by now.

Today is Sunday. We are resting from our labors. Pretending to be kitties or children with no worries. Nothing to do but sleep, eat and poop.

Don't worry, we are house broken.

Guilt? Never.

I wish this were me. I miss this me. I need some horsey in my life.

Thoughts flow through my head like ghosts in and out of windows in a haunted house.

Fleeting...yet sometimes filled with guilt, sometimes joy. Sometimes a longing for past pleasures.

This is what getting older and having rheumatoid arthritis feels like for me.

The monthly injection I give myself keeps the beast at bay, somewhat.

But my hands and elbows manifest the disease. You may not notice it.

Without the medication...I can barely do this. These are Little Indy's hands.

It's Fall. My very favorite time of year.






With my RA, and the medicine I take...which lowers my immune system so it stops attacking my joints...I am very aware of my surroundings.

 I need to avoid sick people. Little people can be very snotty and green.

I have two little green snotty people living with me.
But I can avoid them when they are sick.
Since we homeschool...they don't get sick as much.

 I get my yearly flu shot and a pneumonia shot.

My family gets their yearly flu shots for me.

I was called to work with the children in our ward.
I had to say no. I've never said no to a calling.

In our church we share the load and are called to different positions.
This is one calling I just can't do.


Guilt?


No.


I need to stay healthy for me and my family.


But I wish I didn't have to say no so much.

I do like being healthy.

So there you go.

Friday Confessions-Pumpkin Oatmeal Cookies

I confess I made these last night...yes I did :)

Pumpkin Oatmeal Cookies


Ingredients

2 cups Flour
2 cups Rolled Oats
1 tsp Baking Soda
3/4 tsp Salt
1 tsp Cinnamon
1/2 tsp Nutmeg

***********************

2/3 cup Sugar
1/3 cup Canola Oil
1 cup pumpkin
1 Egg, slightly beaten
1/2 tsp vanilla

Preheat oven to 350◦

In a bowl mix first six ingredients. In second large bowl, mix next five ingredients. Pour dry ingredients in two batches into wet ingredients and stir just until mixed.

Drop by rounded tablespoons onto baking sheets and bake for 15-16 minutes. Cool on wire racks. Makes approximately 36 cookies.

Hey! It's OK Wednesday

It's okay to make art your own.

Your own style.

Your own way.

Your own expression.

Speak your mind through creativity.

Own it.

I's okay to see things from a different angle.

Reflect on your work.

Have a Coke.

It's okay to welcome Fall in an unorthodox way.

It's okay to miss someone who was always by your side.

Friday Confessions

I'm a Gleek. I started watching Glee with Madley last year and we didn't quite get it at first because we didn't watch from the beginning. Then we decided to give it another shot and we watched the re-runs from the beginning and...we fell for it hook line and sinker. It has great sound quality. Madley is an audiophile geek. We listen to Glee...loud.

It's not a show for kids...even though it's about kids. The actors that play the kids are like 25...like when 90210 was on. They were all 25. I looked 12 when I was 25.

For some reason, I identify with Glee. Could it be that I was in drama club and not a cheerleader in high school?

I also took ballet and dance classes.

Football players thought I was something to push out of the way on their way to class. I thought they were brainless wonders with big necks.

We didn't have a glee club but we did have drama club and I loved it. I was shy and really liked dressing up in costume so I didn't have to be myself.

In my thespian years I played...

Dracula's wife in "Dracula"
A milk maid in "No, No, a Million Times No!" (Run to the round house Nellie, he can't corner you there!)
A call girl in " No Sex Please, We're British" (yes, yes I did)
A hippie extra in "Hair"
An ugly step-sister in "Cinderella" (*spoiler alert*...the shoe fits)

And a few other bit parts I can't remember right now.

If there had been a glee club when I was in high school...I would have tried out.

...and I would have fit in.

I'm a gleek for sure.

I would have had slurpees thrown in my face if the football team knew it was an option.

But my friends were true and honest and good.

Now...I am a camera/photography geek. A Ceek? Phreak?

Yup.

...and I don't regret a thing. (well...at least anything I'll admit)

Hey! It's OK Wednesday

It's okay...

I love my big bowl that was my mother's. Many a dough has been mixed in this behemoth for many a year.

 

...to make a ton of PW cinnamon rolls and take them to a pot luck and only eat a half of one to ensure they are divine...they were! Recipe for them here.

 

Photo by Ree Drummond

...to then open up Pioneer Woman's blog and see she has this recipe and now I have to make these. Chocolate Chip Sweet Rolls.

...to tell you that my tummy has hurt ever since I went to said pot luck where I broke my own cardinal rule and ate something from someone I don't know and now I am paying for it.

Remind me next time to follow my rule to a T. Anything that color should have been a warning to steer clear...even if the person who made it is standing next to me telling me it's okay...it's not okay. I've never seen her kitchen. It could be germ infested and Freddy Krueger scary.

On a lighter note...

 

...it's okay to make a big splash in the world while learning something new.

Swimming lessons are going very well, thank you very much.

I'm going to take an antacid and have a lie down before homeschool starts.

*burp* sorry.

***Post Coming Soon***

Just so you know I'm still around...I'm just very busy and admittedly tired.

Manic Monday

No school today.
Shopping.
Shampooing carpeted stairs (note to self...no stairs in next house).
Take some photos.
Rest.

Barbecue hamburgers tonight.
Watch movie with Madley.
Go to bed early.

Happy Labor Day!

Sunday Reflections

I love to watch a child discover the little things that have been created by a loving Heavenly Father.

We adults don't always stop to smell the flowers anymore...an old but wise saying...stop and smell the roses...I'll add, go ahead! Do it!

When I was stricken with rheumatoid arthritis and Graves disease, I was forced to slow down. Now I have them both better controlled and I am a different person. I don't watch the clock as much. I go with the flow more.

It shouldn't have taken illness to slow me down.

So now...

I sit and play with my granddaughters when they ask me to.

I drop housework like a hot potato if Madley wants me to go somewhere with him on very short notice.

I've stopped feeling guilty. 

I don't drive as fast.

I take pictures of the little things in life.

 I sometimes feel like Geordi LaForge from Star Trek the Next Generation when I constantly have a camera stuck in front of my face...so I will, at times, leave my camera home and just see with my own eyes and document life in my mind.

I'm enjoying the journey because I have little precious time here on the earth...my destination is worthy of my presence here.

This next week, I challenge you to slow down a little...to realize that it's okay to let some things go. To enjoy your journey.

Cooler Weather=More Pioneer Woman Recipes

Now that we are heading into Fall...I am set on getting the rest of the recipes in this cookbook made before the end of the year. Wish me lots of kudos or if you are the prayin' kind...go ahead and pray for me...I'll need all I can get.

The Pioneer Woman was featured over at The Secret's in the Sauce SITS...well deserved Ree!

I can tell you that she has lots of exposure -but I run into more people who have never heard of her than those who have...so I take it upon myself to enlighten them :) then I plug my own pitiful blog.


I plan on giving away another PW Cookbook for Christmas so watch for that post in the next couple of months...no...really. I'll keep you posted.

I love you like I love my favorite pair of sweats.

Friday Confessions-Handcart Trek

Once upon a wonderful time...Kimmie and I were privileged to be involved with a youth pioneer handcart trek reenacting the Mormon's long and arduous journey to the wild west and the Salt Lake Valley... where believe it or not...they could have some peace and freedom from angry mobs and build there lives and homes over again with the freedom of religion that should have been theirs wherever they chose to live in the USA.  

 Horse trailers and trucks?

I was on the handcart trek planning committee and worked alongside some great people for months making this the most wonderful, but heart wrenching, difficult, exhausting activity any of these young people had ever dreamed of participating in, just so they could know for a short couple of days a squeaky wheel glimpse into what the pioneers endured when they made that rugged trek quite a few decades before their time. Some of these kids had pioneer ancestors that actually did this for real. FOR REAL.

Wow...that was deep.

This is me on a horse named Casey.

 ...and this in my BFF Kimmie on Mulligan.

Kimmie and I had the most coveted jobs in the whole outfit...and it was my idea. You see...I'm lazy. And riding a horse seemed more like something I could handle. I coerced, begged, bribed talked my superior planners into this. I'm no example, let me tell you. I thought it was a pretty great moment of genius... if I do say so myself.

Four other co-planners thought so too and rode horses along with us. Four men. We were supposed to be men.

But...

 ...Kim wore her gardening hat and I wore my Shania Twain Cowgirl hat. We really didn't fit in at all while also wearing our spiffy matching brown gaucho pants that I got on eBay... but we were... stylish for the time...shall we pretend?

This is mine and Casey's view. Pretty cushy job we had, huh? Look at those "pioneers" trekking along while I sit upon my steed with a camera, documenting my laziness and superiority to the fullest.

See...a man. A real man. I think he too was happy he wasn't walking in the heat of August in the hills of dead and moaning grass...on hard dirt roads.

Seemed pretty realistic I think. Casey wasn't sure what the heck was going on. He'd never seen a handcart or girls with bonnets...and water bottles. But he was a good sport.



So...I confess. I rode a horse in a handcart trek. And I'd do it again anytime. You betcha.

♫Put your shoulder to the wheel -push along...while I ride upon my horse singing a song...we all have work...let no one shirk...put- your -shoulder -to- the wheel. ♫

Thursday Writing Assignment

Prompt 2.) Write a post that begins and ends with a merry-go-round.

Merry-Go-Round horse you make me wish I had a real steed of my own again.

You spin, you glide, you move up and then down...to silly, wonderful music.

If I could be like Mary Poppins...I would jump off this confining circle with Burt and Jane and Michael and ride across green hills and over rivers. I would join a race in mid stride, I would carry a parasol and wear a bonnet and a fine dress....but... I would turn my fabricated horsey real... if I were Mary Poppins.

But alas...I'm just on a lovely Merry-Go-Round.

Dia Dhuit Ar Maidin!

Nature is sometimes weird. Tulips are beautiful...but their guts are weird freaks of nature. This is what attracts bees? ... Why? It must be one of those life secrets they keep.

What secrets do you keep? I don't want to know them...I just want you to think about them.

I have a few myself.

I'll tell you one secret of mine. But you are sworn to secrecy. You must pinkie swear with me you'll never tell another soul...living or deceased. Pinkie swear? Double pinkie swear? Triple Virtual Cyberspace Pinkie Swear? ...works for me.

As some of you know because you follow my blog...we are learning Irish. It's hard. I only know a few phrases and words by heart...I understand more than I can spit out. I love it. It fascinates me. I want to move to Ireland. I want the accent. I want a picture of the Loch Ness Monster. But these are no secrets.

My secret has to do with a specific Irish/Scottish phrase I love. It doesn't fit my personality at all. I would never say this in English. Ever. I may think it...in Irish... but never would I say it out loud...well...okay...

I'll admit I say this one...in Irish... all the time to my daughter and my hubby.

...in jest.

In Irish it's Póg mo Thóin
In Scottish it's Póg mo Thón


I even have a bumper sticker above my desk...see? I saw it in the Celtic shop window when we were in Seaside a few months ago and she was out of them. She can't keep them from flying off the shelves. So when we went back a couple weeks ago...we made a beeline for the shop and she had some!!!!

As Linda, my favorite Scottish bard and Celtic shop owner where I purchased the above sticker which is still in the wrapper would say..."People ask me 'Does this say 'Kiss Me I'm Irish'?"and she replies, "Aye! It's up to you to tell them where, eh?" I love her.

This is about as racy as you will ever see me get. You'll never find me in an Irish pub or gamblin' out back...but this is my well guarded secret...and if you don't approve...well...see above sticker.

Now back to your regularly scheduled program of Lindy the Mostly Boring, Irish learning, Writing, Pathological Picture Taking, Homeschooling, Wife. Nana. Mother. Wanna be racy, WEIRDO FREAK OF NATURE.

P.S. We haven't told the girls what this means...or how to pronounce it.

Slán!

Sunday Reflections-Punctuation Matters...

Jen over at cake wrecks shared this video...

and now I am sharing it with you :)

I love Victor...

I wish we had more comics like him these days.

My Boyfriend

I have to admit it.

I just can't lie to you anymore.

I'm not ashamed of it.

In fact, I'm proud of it.

I have a boyfriend...

He's actually very cute and funny.

He's younger than me.

I text him all the time with intimate messages.

I leave notes for him in unusual places.

I meet him for lunch.

We hold hands.

We sneak kisses.

We look longingly into each others eyes.

We talk about what we'll do when we're alone together someday.

I get tingly when he touches my face.

I let him get his way... sometimes.

We have dreams.

We share meals.

I don't nag my boyfriend.

I never. Ever. Tell anyone about our private matters...

...or say anything bad about him to anyone.

I cook for him.

We take walks together.

He buys me ... things.

I buy him ... things.

I hope to be with him forever...



okay...at least I treat him like he's my boyfriend.

...but with the privileges of being married.

You guessed it...Madley is still my boyfriend. Even though we are married.

So... if you are young or young at heart and want to keep your marriage young and happy and close...

...treat your husband like he's still your boyfriend...except, you have way more things you can give him now that you are his wife :)

Friday Confessions-A day in my life sans pictures

Thursday August 26th-

I woke up and and said, "YAY! It's Madley Date Day! We get to be alone!
I went ooh la wee wee.
I brushed my African Bush Monkey hair.
I washed my face in cold water.
I put on my sweats and socks.
I went downstairs.
I heated up my rice woobie in the microwave oven.
I opened up all the windows in the house to celebrate the coolness outside.
I made my chocolate soy milk and took my medicine and vitamins with it.
I played Yoville on Facebook.
I made hot cocoa for my granddaughters.
I wrote some of my book on my computer.
I kissed Madley goodbye as he went to the gym.
I listened to Little Indy make breakfast for her girls.
She put the dishes away.
I read.
I put dirty dishes in the dishwasher.
I went up to make the bed, Madley had already made it.
I kissed the girls goodbye.
I read.
I picked my toes (I got the idea from Ree).
I ate a Hershey Kiss.
I drooled over recipes on Tasty Kitchen.
I filed a fingernail.
I kissed Madley hello when he walked in from the gym.
I took a shower.
I got ready for my date day.
I started a load of laundry.
I watched Madley package up some car rims he sold on Craig's List.
I kissed Madley goodbye as he left to send them off at UPS.
I read.
I kissed Madley hello when he returned the UPS store.
I put the laundry in the dryer.
Madley got ready.
I shut all the windows and locked up.
I said goobye to my dad as he left for who knows whereville.
I carried stuff to the car for Madley and got in.
We drove away.
I ate veggie sushi with Madley for lunch.
I stuffed my fortune cookie in my purse.
We went ooh la wee wee.
We drove to the car dealership and browsed.
We met a girl with the same name as Madley.
We laughed.
We sat in cars I want... then in cars Madley wants.
We gave our pro and con arguments about which car is best to the sales Lady with a boy's name.
She smiled and nodded.
We didn't buy a car.
I went ooh la wee wee.
We got in our old car and drove away.
I ate my fortune cookie.
We drove to IKEA.
We got frozen yogurt cones.
We walked around IKEA eating them.
We found the towel rack we wanted but they were out of them.
We went ooh la wee wee.
We left IKEA.
We needed gas. We drove until we almost ran out of gas looking for a station and then hit traffic.
Madley pulled over so I could drive.
Traffic makes him crazy.
My car said we had 8 miles to go before we would run out of gas. Madley found a gas station on his iPhone app. We turned around and found said gas station.
We got gas. They pump it for you in Oregon.
I put on lip gloss while we waited.
Madley washed my windows.
We left the gas station full and happy.
I drove a different way and found less traffic.
Madley ignored the traffic by playing a game on his iPhone.
We finally arrived home.
I went ooh la wee wee.
I made tuna sammies.
We ate tuna sammies.
We watched Pawn Stars and Master Chef.
I ate 4 8 Hershey Kisses.
Madley went to bed.
The girls and I cleaned up.
I typed this up for you.
I played yoville on Facebook.
I read.
zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Cleaning the Edges

Do you clean the edges?

How deep do you clean? Are you obsessed and use Qtips everywhere...or do you just swish a rag around the room and call it good?

I only use Qtips in my ears. 

But I do clean pretty thoroughly.

I like to vacuum the edges of a room. It's where people look to see how you rate as a Domestic Goddess. (or is that just me?) Beware...if I come to your house...I will check the edges. Especially in the kitchen and bathroom.  It's a habit of mine. I don't judge YOU...just your laziness factor. It makes me feel a bit better about myself, since I have an inferiority complex and I want to excel in something. Cleaning the edges gives me an ego boost. 

Kinda sad, huh?

I like a clean, neat home. Not everyone in my house has my "Cleanliness is next to Godliness" philosophy...to put it mildly. Some of us are heathens when it comes to neatness and should be taken out back and beaten senseless with a feather duster.

I'm diligently trying to teach my granddaughters MY philosophy...and I think it's starting to work a little. This morning, one of them noticed a "stain" behind the garbage can. I freaked out and ran over to where she was standing and pointing...and she deduced it was pizza sauce from a careless dumping of food from a plate after a meal. She is my favorite person now. She is starting to notice the edges.

I have them cleaning with me regularly, trying to raise homemakers...and so far, they like it. They are even pushing the big vacuum around...and they will vacuum a whole room, including...the edges. Score!

Now, I am no Fly Lady.

I don't polish my kitchen sink every night before I go to bed, I only clean it out.

I don't wear shoes around the house...just socks or slippers, or dare to chance...bare feet!

Right now, and for the past few weeks, I am in a organizing mode. I am in a 'throw it out if I don't love it' mode.

It's a great feeling people!

So I frequent organizing blogs. I search for containers. I am color coding. I am labeling. I may need a new home soon, if I make everyone crazy here. At least if I had my own place, it would be spotless and neat at all times. Hmmm...

Pet Peeve #2

This is why I won't eat anything at a pot luck dinner, unless I know you and know you clean your kitchen regularly. I have seen kitchens almost this bad. If I've never seen your kitchen, I won't eat your food. My fear is someone brings a casserole, and this is where they made it. Extreme...but it could be true! The horror!!!! The humanities! I'm melting!

So, get out your vacuum...I may be coming over today...

and I'll be checking your edges. But don't check my house right now, because I am not the maid and I may be sick of being the only one who cares about the edges.

I love you more'n peaches and cream with a cherry on top!

...now where is my feather duster? ...

 

Hey! It's Okay!

It's okay...

...to be an airhead sometimes and put the milk in the cupboard and shoes in the refrigerator.

...to have a colorful past and never tell anyone about any of it.

...to sometimes be the only one in a crowd to stand up for something you truly believe in.

The last two photographs I enhanced with Paintshop Pro and Photoshop, you can click them for a larger view.

I Wanna Live on the Beach.............please?!?

Every time we visit the beach...I don't want to leave. I want to buy a shack and play my ukulele and beach comb and photograph every inch of the area for the rest of my life. These are more pictures from our last trip a couple of months ago and I am itching to get the heck outta Dodge and go back.

I love signs...

I don't know about you...but when I saw this sign in downtown Seaside, OR...I really wanted me some Roasted Gralic Spinach Tortelloni Tossed in Olive Oill.

I'm not sure who they have writing their specials on the board in the morning...but they better check to see who's been dipping into the cooking wine bright and early.

Now, I love Bob Dylan as much as the next Hippie wanna be...but what I don't understand is why our society, as a whole, can't follow the philosophy of this downtown Seaside merchant. These are my kind of hours and I think this type of attitude could bring world peace. We'd all be so laid back.

A cute young couple leaning on Lewis and Clark.

What child wouldn't love "World of Gifts" at their disposal?

Starfish that light up, line the downtown streets. It makes me so happy, I could weep!

 So now you know more reasons why I want to move to lovely Seaside, OR. Plus, I can take pictures whenever I want.

Must. Convince. Madley.

P.S. I don't know how to play the ukulele :)

I NOT HAS A PMS! ~Friday Confessions

I'm post menopausal so I have no excuse for any anger. Right?

I never snap. A few days ago, I snapped, so that statement wasn't entirely true.

It was just that I...

I have no excuse.

Ever.

For snapping.

So, I had my yearly PMS moment.

Post Menopausal Snap.

It happens.

But making up is fun.

Now go eat your Wheaties and pretend you never met me.