Wednesday, July 31, 2013

Last Day of July...

If I could choose a perfect day, today might be it...  Lurking clouds, low temperatures, gray skies...  the kind of day that bounces me awake at early pre-dawn and informs me to get ready...  

I, like many of you, really enjoy the art of puttering.  I was recently talking to a woman who had retired from teaching math for 30 years..  She said she carefully planned a vacation to Cape Cod to coincide with the first day of school.  Another friend took the day a few years ago and went to the Casinos to celebrate her freedom...  I have a different plan if that day is free...  I will have to see what emerges, but I do dearly know what my ideal day would be...  Any guesses?

 Today's lunch was fresh corn on the cob, a fancy-cut tomato with a scoop of tuna salad...  Not too shabby, if the cook is allowed to say so.  Then a quick trip to the grocery with Mom riding shotgun...  I'm hoping my son comes this afternoon to help me move some boxes and do a little "rearranging."  Shhh...  Mom thinks it is only boxes!
I'm working on some ideas for either Etsy, online, or something shoppe...  I don't really know which venue is best.  I see some of you have both a regular online shop and an etsy shop...   Any help and advice is going to be soooo appreciated...

Have a super end of July...  Tomorrow is the Feast of Harvest, the ancient Celtic Lughnasadh or Lammas.  Tomorrow, August 1st, or tonight is the night set aside to burn a bonfire and dance, dance, dance...  I saw the famous movie Dancing at Lughnasadh with Meryl Streep...  Oh, my..  slow and quite sad, hauntingly so...  One year I thought it would be wonderful to watch it on the actual day...  Well, I think I'd rather have been outside with my chiminea myself...  but it has its place.  My son always says, "It's an Irish tale," when movies don't end all tied up in a pretty box as we love them to in America...  

For this year's "feast" I decided it would be fun to set the table tomorrow with Mom's pretty wheat china, purchased years ago piece by piece from the IGA Grocery Stores...  I have set the menu as a large crock of Navy Beans and homemade cornbread...  Come on over and we will celebrate together over steaming bowls of Harvest Beans and our family cornbread baked in little corn muffin molds...  


Monday, July 29, 2013

Slow Rain


 Wish I could take credit for these awesome photos...  They are both taken by Ken Ralls of a cold air funnel located almost directly over our farm!  I would have been scared, but they are not dangerous.

Today was cold, dark, slight rain, just exactly perfect for a couple of steamy cups of coffee, almond joy creamer, and warm zucchini and tomato on bruschetta.  (I like to call it bruschetta, so don't remind me it was actually 45-calorie skinny bread!).

Mom and have settled in for an evening of American Pickers...  What a cool way to end a July's drizzly evening after rummaging for treasures in Mom's closet...


Sunday, July 28, 2013

When your son calls to say the police are looking for you...


Um..  Yeah.  After a typical Saturday of  a usual drive for Mom and me...   I mean the usual drive, the usual restaurant, even the usual order, we headed through our normal Amish route and bought fresh vegetables.  We even opted to come on back home where I promptly snoozed in my chair... Ordinary Saturday, right?

Suddenly...  My son's special cell phone ring jars me awake...

"Uh, Mom?  You in Moberly?"

"No."

"James (a young friend of his) just came in (to my son's workplace) and said he heard on the scanner that the Moberly police are looking for you and headed down to get you for questioning."

"Huh?"  I'm like that,  quick on my feet.

Seems my car got turned in as a drive off from the Moberly Shell station.  I am a bit challenged when it comes to self serve gas...  I'm spoiled by Rick in Bevier who pumps gas, washes windows, and checks everything... But we were headed the other way with less than a half tank.  I had suggested a run to Bevier, but it's a 30-mile round trip, out of the way...  .  Mom urged me to do it this way and gave me confidence ( or guilt) to do it myself.

After a little fumbling and muttering, I pumped the gas and felt pretty good about myself.  Just by luck, we wadded up the receipt printed for my gas...

Next move for me? I had to call the station, call the Moberly police, crawl around on the car floor and find that precious piece of trash...  Then the Moberly police insisted to be free of this problem I had to physically take the crumpled receipt to them...  It was a ( guess what?) 30-mile round trip, out of the way!!!!!

Then I stopped by the Shell Station, not high on my list of faves, and asked for something free.....  I really didn't care what.  I was told by the man in charge that the morning shift guy was ....  Shall I say "unintelligent."  If I want, I can call the manager on Monday...  

Through all this Mom was pretty hot...  Her blue eyes snapped..  She was mad at just about everybody except maybe my son and me...  I think she feared my reputation was coming undone...  Poor woman, I thought she realized that halo raveled long ago...  

Turns out the CRIME happened a little after 11:00 a.m.    My ticket checked out at 10:56...  The culprit made off with sixteen bucks of  " golden petrol"......  And next time I'm going to Rick's DX.

This post was in no way paid for by Rick's DX...  ---or Shell Oil....

Friday, July 26, 2013

Long Summer Nights

Long summer nights...  Where do they lead us?  I have long wondered why the soul swelters and burns during the summer nights... sometimes with a passion for living, and sometimes with a restlessness beyond the scope of our rational thought.  I know that something about the rhythm of the swarming creatures in the night combines with the moon, the fog, and the heat of the day...  and I just want to run.

Running is not an option for me this summer.  Both reality and obligation, loving devotion and integrity keep me tight in the cocoon of this little room.  Tonight large boxes lie strewn everywhere.  Some are filled with huge purchases made spur of the moment for next Christmas.  Now, on closer thought, maybe a bad buy because they take up so much space, cost so dear, and simply add to my total confusion.  A few sit empty in the hope I will fill them and pack them off to a charity or auction--- anything to alleviate the space suffocation I am feeling, the clutter clutching at me from all corners of my world.

Ever logical, I am trying to trace my steps back a few days to discover what is causing this feeling of drowning in the dark and cringing in the daylight.  I am usually pretty steady, ebullient, basically content.  It has been a long time since such restlessness gripped me and caused me such nonsense, sleeplessness, and truly cranky disposition.

I suppose it is a combination of things too numerous to count.  Last night I made an after-dark run to Macon with something my son needed...  Even though the whole round trip took only twenty minutes, the cool night wind through my car windows combined with the extraordinary full moon coming up on fire in the East..  I think I put a magical spell on myself...  I have missed the moonrise, and the orange greeting along my peripheral vision was overwhelming...  I stopped the car mid-highway (no cars coming) and mentally hugged it hard.

Coming down Mom's driveway, the moon turned to silver and whistled me inside...

Thursday, July 25, 2013

Almond Joy...

Today was one of those cool, midsummer, delightful days...  The temperature is low, predicted to run probably in the fifties tonight...  All week cool...  I'm loving it.  What is on my to do list?  Well, of course, laundry...  Warm, fluffy towels and stacks of linens and tee shirts...  I burned my linen candle to keep me motivated to get the whole job done...  I tend to stop at different places in the process... So many steps to the job.


Some recipes called for regular sized cupcakes.  I preferred to make the little minis...



I also tackled a time-consuming recipe, Almond Joy bites...  Here are a few shots of these little guys in progress.  I recommend throwing the brownie mix in a 9 by 13 and scooping the "joy" part over the top and baking as a dessert.  These were a little bit of deliciousness, but the papers were enveloped in the juice from the almond joy part...  kind of a hot mess...  I delivered little plates of these to several of my dear friends...





















Ingredients are as follows:

1 box of family size Chocolate Fudge brownie mix 
1 (14 oz.) can sweetened condensed milk 
1 (14 oz.) bag coconut
1/4 C milk
1 C chocolate chips, melted
1/4 C almonds (or nuts), crushed


Directions: 

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Line mini cupcake pan with paper liners.  (Don't skip the paper liners!)

Make brownie batter as directed on box.  Fill each muffin cup about half full or less.  Bake about fifteen minutes.  While baking stir together milk, sweetened condensed milk, and coconut.   Scoop about one tsp. on top of each cupcake.

Bake fifteen more minutes.  Let cool completely.  You can stop there if you're happy.  I sure was!  Or melt chocolate chips and drizzle over bites and sprinkle on crushed almonds.

The recipe calls to take off the liners, but I couldn't...  Too stuck on with the drizzle overload.  The smaller the bite, the better it works...

Makes at least 48, probably more.  I put the last little bit in a small ovenware bowl and made a little slab of goodness...

Thursday, July 18, 2013

Ordinary Magic...

Yesterday and the day before----- charmed by an ordinary magic.  On Tuesday, a rare treat, a trip with my son to Columbia.

First, the Doc, then lunch at my absolute favorite restaurant,  Applebee's.  I pronounced their Oriental Chicken Salad, my choice for last meal if I'm ever on a Death Row....  "Good to know, Mom." He grinned...  His plate, perfectly Paleo, sizzled loudly for a good five minutes after it was served...  Steak, mushrooms, onions, broccoli....  You get the picture. (His current weight loss is 226#).  The conversation, though...  When you have adult children, you gather every opportunity to have golden times to just sit and talk...  and they are Magic...  extraordinary magic...

We did some swooping through car lots...  Boys Men love to to that forever...

For the evening meal Mom had sent for grilled K F C with one extra crispy leg!  Had a quick drop-in by my LONG-ago college Roomie.  Then a surprise guest, my dear sister/cousin joined us for supper....  Just one blessing following another until time for lovely phone calls and bed.

Yesterday was an early morning breakfast with a dear friend while Mama got a haircut and set...  Then after a drive to see pretty yards and flowers in town, a quick bite at good old Sonic for Mom and me.....

Just as I settled down at home to think about my next move, I was suddenly invited by one of my dearest friends for a mysterious drive to an enchanted garden ...  I was game.  Through the hot, Missouri countryside and down twisty black tops...   Finally came my instructions to ....shut my eyes and keep them shut...  We were near a lake, so it took a huge amount of trust as her car obviously went down.... and down.... and over very rough terrain...  Finally...  "Open your eyes!" she said...  Acres and acres of lovely, blooming sunflowers...  One of my favorite flowers...  Never had I seen so many, their sunny faces sparkling and laughing at us as we oohed and ahhhhed, meandering her big car over a clearing between fields...

Back home to tell Mom about our very next destination when we leave in the car:  Sunflower Secret Garden...

Today, the comforting rituals of home care with laundry, sweeping, and preparing for yet another guest for a taco salad supper...

Ordinary Magic indeed.



Thursday, July 11, 2013

Beauty in our midst....








Cool temperatures descended today.  So my mother and I decided to go to the lake to enjoy lunch among the trees, geese, and sparkling blue water.





Today would have been my father's 89th birthday, so reminiscent of the many noon picnics we had with him, this was our silent tribute.  During the summers of my childhood Mom and I usually bought sandwich supplies, picked up my dad at Ma Bell, and headed to one of the parks.  We had to make it quick because I think he had only thirty minutes...  Later my son and I continued that tradition.




The cool breezes this morning reminded me of the beauty available right here in our midst.

Happy Birthday, Daddy...



Wednesday, July 10, 2013

Le Sabouteur

(Photograph by Caleb Richardson, former student)

Did you ever get the feeling you were sabotaging your own progress?  Lately I have been doing so much soul searching.  I guess the idea of endless freedom is both exciting and terrifying.  I have always just had that one thing to look toward, and when it was over...  Nothing changed.  Despite the buildup, I just continued...  Which has usually served me well.  I have always marched to my own tune, but there was definitely a drummer who was happy to tell me with what rhythm to pace my habits.

Here at Mom's, it has been fine to fashion the part of my day around her after school.  But,   I can tell she doesn't expect me to simply sit with her all day....  And I can't do that anyway.  Deep cleaning, arranging furniture and keepsakes...  That is fun, but not my calling.  Not 24/7.

I have some issues to deal with my health... But what if they don't clear up?  How long does one recuperate and hope for recovery, and when do we decide to live in the now....  With all the mess, the bills, the disappointments, the soggy dreams that may not happen?

I think too many of us spend too much time waiting for this and so...  And then moving from that stepping stone to yet another future goal...or obstacle to overcome.  I think I am such a person.  I have found my truest self now standing in the far side of a river, wondering simultaneously how I got here and where is the next step.

I am frankly exhausted with any charade of joy.  We are given a cup overflowing, full measure tamped down and overfilled...  With blogland as my witness, I promise to stop the restless, martyred hopping from one thing to the next.  I think it's time for a good many of us to drink abundantly from the very best crystal, to use the fine china, and to savor any happy shadow or shaft of moonlight in each day.  While not an original, unique thought, it promises to be quite a change for me.

I will have to stop following others so much, and truthfully, I will also need to stop manipulating the situations so I often get my way without revealing it is my choice...  Herding cats, I think they call it.

Possibly it is just the dark of the moon, my 59th birthday, and fear of the unknown talking...  But whether I live long or short is not up to me...  Sadly, we cannot count on one single thing staying the same.   Laughter....  Looking around at the mess in my sphere, that is not a sad fact...  Mutability is often good....  Even great.

Goodnight, me.  Goodnight, you.   When we awaken, let's truly shake off the dreams of future perfection and live in the disorder and gentle chaos of now.







Monday, July 8, 2013

Do you believe it?

Guess what!  Hallmark is showing Christmas movies to go along with their ornament premiere....  Believe it!  I actually have bought two presents already if I can just find them next December.  In case you don't believe, I took a screen shot...




Sunday, July 7, 2013

Tale of the Rose

About this time of summer my family took one of our few vacations.  Naturally my dad was actually sent to a school to learn something new for Ma Bell Company... This is one special summer about 35 years ago my gramma went with us to Dallas, Texas.  She and I were sharers...  We sat in the back seat of our golden Oldsmobile, and also shared a hotel room.  We also shared the unique experience of a Midwesterner in the midst of the fields of roses...  I remember how excited we were, faces pressed the car windows amazed at the acres of jewel tinted roses.


We passed rose stands, one dollar a dozen!  Honor system.  My daddy stopped the car, and we bought three dollars worth of huge, quality roses....  Thirty six roses sat richly around our hotel room. And Gramma and I caught each other often with these huge, sappy smiles...  Talk about "died and gone to Heaven"!

My gramma dried a bunch of roses, and they hung on her back bedroom closet door until the house was demolished years later...  Roses at that time were 18 dollars a dozen.  Neither of us had ever had one dozen hothouse roses before...

We saw many marvelous attractions on that trip that wound us home through Louisiana and Arkansas...  Gramma bought her/my huge rose quartz at a roadside greenhouse...  Solid rose, good luck, and memories guaranteed.

Do they still sell roses by the side of the roads in Texas?  Have you ever bought a forever-treasure for three hundred pennies?  Is there anything more sacred than the gramma bond with her grandchildren?

Questions and roses in the warm summer sun.

Saturday, July 6, 2013

A magical place

 The world that she lives in is just magical, one of the most beautiful places I've ever seen.
                          Camilla Belle