Sunday, August 25, 2013

Where are you going?

This beautiful photograph of a railroad in Romania has captured my heart. ..  if you could choose any place and any time,  where would you find yourself at this journey's end....

My first thoughts were toward a happy moment in the past, and then I thought how amazing to approach this trail with optimism. ... foreseeing a lovely destination yet to happen.   I'd love to hear your thoughts, past or present or future.

Happy Last Week in August. ...

Saturday, August 24, 2013

The Uncluttering


The war against clutter is more of a siege than a battle...  It requires patience (actually one of my gifts) and follow-through...  (Not so much, thank you very much).

I toyed around with my top five rules to engage clutter head on.

 1.  Do not begin this battle in order to prepare for a certain event.  The occasion in the headlights is called "life"...  While every one of us has cleaned like a wild woman for a meeting, shower, holiday, etc. in our homes, that is deep cleaning--- and entirely different.

2.  The looks of your home will worsen before they get better.  Clutter busting requires digging out of corners and emptying of shelves.  And remember!  All that cannot go back!  Most has to go.

3.  Sadly, you cannot reincarnate the deceased... Or the detached.  This is a tough one.  Take a huge breath.  Your loved one has passed away or (gasp!) decided to live without you.  Keep a treasure, but make it special, beautiful, or precious in some way...  Keeping all Your old boyfriend's postcards won't take the two of you back to the beach house.

4.  Watch out for organization gimmicks, devices, and breakthroughs.  If you are trying to find boxes to store various collections...  Be careful...  Actually, wake up!  A "pretty hoarder"? is STILL a hoarder.  Eliminate...  Concentrate.

5.  Avoid the temptation to reload!   It is soooo exciting to see an empty wall or shelf.  You start to dream......Why not buy or dig out something beautiful to put there.? STOP!  You may want to rearrange after de-cluttering, but...  Live in the simplicity a few weeks.  See how it feels to exist in a place that brings tranquility to the eyes...
-–––––
I think I could go top ten, but...  I'm pretty busy!  It is nearly 4:00, quitting time!  ....time for my Philosophy shower and to unwind for a fun evening...  A luscious vegetable compote for supper and tv time...  Tonight Everybody Loves Raymond reruns and then taped for later, my date with the ageless Andie McDowell in Cedar Cove.

Happy Saturday!

Friday, August 23, 2013

Thursday, August 22, 2013

My Sal...


My Sal...

As I have read many loving blog tributes to special fur people in our lives, I am sad to join with the news about my Sally...

Given to me by my son and his high school girlfriend, Sally has lived a beautiful lifetime as Total Queen of our home.  Today she traveled beyond that Rainbow Bridge to join other dear friends from the animal kingdom.  Both my son and I are inconsolable.  To those who have pets, no explanation is needed.

Our lives are ever better for the gentle creatures whose characters are so vivid in our hearts.

For most of her fifteen years, Sally (Sal, as I called her) was my cat.  Day or night she glued herself to my presence, following me to the kitchen the restroom, to every room. She kept vigil at our window, one velvet declawed front paw pulling the curtain aside and racing over to growl quietly as a warning to me our home was "being invaded."
Some guests she loved; others she tolerated; and others she downright despised.   After I moved to my mom's she transferred all her love to my son.  He was her best buddy for all these years. For the past couple of years she grew to love a new kid in town and shared the spotlight with my son's cat Jonesy.  Even so, my son never failed to bring me greeting cards for birthdays and Christmas, "To Human. Love, Sally"

Her escapades are locked for all time in the stories of one great kitty.  Her mystery trip to "god knows where" for several weeks and her victorious return in her studded pink collar and gifted with the newfound ability to kill all mice in zero seconds flat.  Her little conversational chatter as she told me about everyday life as Domestic Goddess...  Legendary little endearments known only to my son and to me.  Kitties love milk tops, laser pointers, and open windows..  Mine did not love playing "cat show" or fighting real time with a stray who shattered through our window.  Never a glass of water was safe from her surreptitious "paw slide" to the edge..... and over.

Today, in typical Sally fashion, she lay on her soft pillow and made the somber obligatory visit to the vet... And back with me to My room here at Mom's.  I touched her sweet fur and told her goodbye.  I believe she heard my voice and told me the same.  Sad day.  But not to discount all the incredible joy, laughter, and love in the familiar shape of a little striped kitty---- tinged with orange.

Monday, August 19, 2013

Martial Law.....

Junque...  A pretty way to spell destructive clutter...  I have invoked the Amendment to the Constitution that allows one family member to declare a war on JUNK...  clutter...  Mine goes first...  What craziness was I thinking when I brought home boxes of classroom decorations, when I brought home BOXES and boxes of stuff that didn't sell at Shady Peanut Lane, when I squirreled away stash after stash of "treasures" trash... that Mom wanted to pitch...  I wish I had a dumpster.... And a shovel.  Grrrrrrrrrrrr.  I'm hitting my closet tonight...  It's the kind of closet that has " pieces of fabric too small to save" written on boxes in my Gramma's handwriting....  I thought was darling...  But oh, honey... It is insidious...   Time for my Rebel Yell!  Oh, sure...  The proof is in the aftermath.  I've set forth to do this before...  Grrrrrrrrr...

Thursday, August 15, 2013

The New Direction...


Today, you might say, it begins for real...  The total realization of my decision to retire...  My former colleagues returned to workshops and even classes...  The Target ads, the Old Navy...  Walmart...  Payless Shoes...They've all been telling me to get my new stuff for classes...

And I did!  I purchased several pretty outfits for future fun excursions and visits with family and friends.  Tomorrow evening I am planning to attend a little soirée on a friend's deck...

 I talked to a dear friend who retired a few years ago today...   Apparently this little nostalgia pervades a bit in the fall and vanishes by September!

I do dream about school right now...  Odd classes in  out of the way places, inhabited by former coworkers and student...  No, this is NOT a depressing or depressed post...  I'm not
really sad...  Just rather aghast and amazed to realize I'm of an age to retire instead of the little girl running into a two story farm house and getting ready to take my grandfather by the hand and go into Woolworth's to buy my big 100-crayon box with sharpener....

Surely my son is heading off to school with me, photos snapped of us .....smiling by our car to mark another first day...


I am on the "Through Bus" across the span of years called a life...  But my bus is no longer bright, primary yellow... my life is heading a new direction...






Sunday, August 11, 2013

Olé

Let me say that cooking Paleo for my son is an extremely enjoyable challenge...  The possibilities open up to try anything, as long as I substitute almond flour, milk, and olive oil...  Sweet potatoes for Irish.......  Just a few tweaks...  Honey in moderation for sugar.  And oh, my!  His health, attitude, and life has simply turned around...  He has lost 226 pounds....  He is happy...  Which makes me joyful, always.


So tonight I'm thrilled to try Oven Chicken Fajitas, a Facebook recipe...  Instead of the usual tortillas, I make an almond flour flatbread...  It is so popular I'm making a double batch so we can all have it!  Slivered chicken breasts, sweet onions, tomatoes, bell peppers...  Toss in salt, pepper, cumin, paprika, tomato purée, and bake covered at 350° until chicken is tender...


Who knew cavemen ate so well?

The Bevier Homecoming is over!  Mom and I took in the annual parade....  Lots of cool decorated cars, wagons, floats...  Pretty queens, princesses, and a couple Duck Dynasty imitators thrown in for good measure.

Guess what starts back this Friday?  n. O. t. h. I. n. G!!!!  For me.  School workshops for the rest of my former colleagues.  Promised myself not to over blog, over stress, over think this new kind of Autumn...  But just sayin'!  


Friday, August 9, 2013

80th Homecoming. . .

My friend Karen took these photos of a beautiful night at the now famous Bevier Homecoming...  80 years ago in 1933 coal miners had been whisked away from Bevier to follow other veins of coal following the boom days and rapid immigration to Bevier...  Several families left their children in Bevier to finish their senior year...  Told to me by an elderly woman who graduated in  the early 1900's....  "We graduated and as a class walked the five blocks, arm in arm, under the May full moon, to the railroad depot that very night...  When the train left the Bevier Station bound for Chicago, we had said a sad goodbye to more than half our class... Some of us never met again."

The city fathers decided to establish one special time for families and friends to return for a visit.  And for 80 years anyone with heart strings tied to this tiny hamlet have tried to schedule the first weekend after the first full weekend in August as destination HOME...  Enjoy.







Sunday, August 4, 2013

Round the Block...


Today my son had to work and couldn't make it for his usual Sunday visit.  So after a little while here at home, Mom and I decided to just make a long, long drive and visit his place of work for our picnic supper...  After a quick check to discover the carnival had arrived in Bevier, we headed down O, north of town.  The roads were winding, calling us back, back...  We just followed that blacktop County Road to its end at J, and that actually took us only a few miles from Macon due to all the twists and turns...  To any traveler, we simply took the main road about ten miles...  there and back.  But we knew the difference.
Isn't that a bit like living?  To the naked eye, the many, we have gone only a few years on down the road, but in reality the twists and turns and miles and miles of dreams, words, hugs, and realities have made that journey much, much longer, and much richer for the experiences.  Wednesday I am meeting three high school friends.  Through the many several years since graduation we have come straight down that main road.  However, for each one of us there must have been an abundance of experiences, miles of family gatherings, long night vigils, ecstasy, and probably some agonies, as well.








During one lunch we cannot hope to catch up and become a part of all those past treasures of the heart.  But it will be fun to catch up a little and to try to recapture some of our thoughts about the four years we spent together.  One gal and I were also college roommates, and one girl and I also had all our elementary years together in a one-room country school in Excello...  Many miles indeed...

Mom and I picked up two sandwiches made by my son, and we concluded the afternoon at the Lake for one of our famed "car picnics"....  Ever the echo of the current weather, the lake was deep blue, framed by a bank of luscious clouds...

Have a wonderful week...  This is Bevier Homecoming's 80th Anniversary celebration...  I hope to be a part of a little of it...  The brunch begins it on Tuesday...

Saturday, August 3, 2013

Harvest Waits in the Wings

Slow rain at last, the gentle kind with healing mists and slight accumulation...  but any rain is something to appreciate in the hot, Missouri summer.  It was August 1st, and I decided to celebrate with Harvest meal of cornbread and beans.  I invited a dear friend for spinner and supper...

Despite Mom's protests, I pushed the season just a bit and used the wheat dishes and brown place mats.  Simple.  End of Summer and beginning of Harvest for some.  She is hanging on to summer because she doesn't like cold weather and snow...  I understand.  We had plenty last year, for sure.

Have a beautiful weekend.