Thursday, November 21, 2013

Can I Just Say. . .

As we approach Thanksgiving week,  I'm trying to take some time to "play."  I want to make something special to celebrate the holidays, to center my heart toward those I love, to enjoy the gifts I've been handed.  Being retired can be incredible... No early deadlines, no frantic feeling, just time to relax and become more of myself...  But I want to like her --- that self I'm becoming!  

Today a happy little shoebox arrived from Payless...  I'm kind of ashamed of my former shoes.. Or lack of them.  I've been known too often for wearing a beloved pair of sandals too, too, too long.  Years, winter and sumner, actually...   That's not the legacy to throw around.  Today's pair was only a little suede-like moccasin, black and fur lined...  Oh, my!  Comfy, warm...  My little feets were so pleasantly happy...  I'm working on just enjoying and not "stewing." 

Time for a little cup of chamomile tea and my date with the television...  Not sure what's on, but it could be one of those sappy happy Christmas movies...   The rain is trickling but the temps are falling.  It sounds like a wintry mix on my window by my bed...  Stay warm, safe, and happy...  


Friday, November 15, 2013

Cozy November


Cozy times, these mid-November mornings...  It seems the beauty this year just continues to pour out!  Even fallen, crisp, and win-tossed, the loveliness wraps around every tree base...  A few sunny moments at the lake yesterday brought time to think, plan, and spread my arms in true Thanksgiving.

This morning the sunshine quickly tempered last night's cold..  A clear and moonlit frost had spread over the earth while most of us snuggled, warm and cozy.   Mom has been hungering for cherry pie for three weeks...  Today was the day.  I'd love to take full credit, but dear Mrs. smith was more responsible than I!  A lovely friend an deader of this blog(you know who you are, NM) once gave yes a hint to transfer store purchased pies while frozen to a glass pie pan.  There's no looking back if you try that tip.  Crusts are flakier...  It's prettier.  The pie cuts beautifully...  Just try it!

I used tiny crystal dishes, part of a fruit cocktail set from my grandmother...  And of course I added a scoop of vanilla bean ice cream...







Sunday, November 10, 2013

Good News!

Welcome to the newest little girls in our community.  Their names have been carefully chosen, but we are waiting to hear them from their mommy...  Here they are with one of their sisters ( on left) and another friend.  They make number 8 and 9 of children in a very happy family.

In Bevier family members and friends bond over tragedy and rejoice for joy...  Today we celebrate nothing short of a miracle.  These little girls were born Saturday, and then their mother began a close glimpse of ending her life here on this earth.  After repeated setbacks she was flown to St Louis Barnes Hospital.

We waited.  and we prayed.  Today the better news arrived.  Although still critical, this little mommy is improving and should get to come home and raise her children.

If you feel the pull, she could still use your prayers.  Don't you love good news?

Update!  Their names are Giovanna Natalia and Stefania Isabella...  Did I mention this was a happy Italian family?


Monday, November 4, 2013

Little Dark Days... My Favorite!

"Oh, isn't this a pretty day?"  Every time the sky is blue, the sun shines cheerily, the dew falls light...  That's what I hear.  I always nod, agree, and play the game of popular opinion...  But days such as today remain my personal favorites...  Dark, overcast ones with wind, rain, snow, or portent of such... Any patch of Sunshine quickly scuttled by simple gloom...  A typical, November-grey offering

First, I slept in...  Following the confused, excited-for-no-reason, sleeplessness due to the change from Daylight Savings to Standard, I really snuggled in this second day of standard time...  I stole an extra hour and twenty minutes to add to the extra hour I already had!  It. Was. Yummy!!!

I spent the rest of the lovely, cloudy morning at my Sister/cousin's...  Sipping vanilla coffee, nibbling on orange-jalapeƱo spread on crisp flatbreads...  We took a turn at solving the world problems, but settled for being very grateful for our families...  She is a gentle person---so good to me, so good for me.

Then the rest of the day has simply evaporated into the hours of a little cooking, a smidgen of cleaning, delicious reading, some online Christmas shopping...

Time to slip away in this come-early dusk, slide into my softest nightgown, and drink a hot cup of coffee and Almond Joy creamer in my Mickey Mug...  Oh, what a lazy little bum I have been today...  And no wonder I prefer these dark, cloudy, moody Mondays to event filled Sunshine...  It speaks volumes... But I prefer not to listen.


Sunday, November 3, 2013

Indiana Maple Gold...

Once upon a time a little Indiana girl moved during her senior year of high school.  Her very first weekend she met and fell in love with a small town Missouri boy...  Of course, they married on a crisp August afternoon...  And four years later they welcomed a baby daughter, a fairy princess actually...

When that little girl was only three years old, in long ago 1957...  The three made a visit to my Mama's relatives in Indiana.  Her precious Uncle Alta tended a grove of Indiana sugar maples, every spring coaxing a tiny batch of golden sweet syrup.  As the couple and their little daughter left this farm, my great Uncle Alta passed a little sprout, a tiny Maple sprig, planted with a little smidgen of magic, proudly transported in a rinsed out pork and bean can...  Once planted in my Mom and Dad's front yard, the sprout grew... And grew...

And once again, as it has so many years before, this little transplant from Indiana produced an Abundance of November Gold...  Sweet syrup for an Autumn morning from "back home in Indiana," nearly 57 years ago...




Saturday, November 2, 2013

Dancing on the Roads of Autumn

Is it possible to think that perhaps my mother and I are dancing?  How amazing to dwell in fragile, clumsy bodies with souls that graceful, swift....pirouette across a horizon made from colors of flame...  We cannot stay in one place...  United by our love for these beautiful, majestic woodland giants, we have traveled close by our home...  Today I'll share road pictures, but tomorrow I'll tell you a story...  A little family legend of a magical golden tree that grew from a bean sprout...

Along Highway 36 to Brookfield...






Even the Moberly business districts had the imagination to plant gorgeous trees.





Moberly Rothwell Park had beauty Lakeside






Finally we head down Meadow Lane, back to my mother's home.

Friday, November 1, 2013

All Saint's Day

Late yesterday afternoon the sun broke through...  This beautiful day gave us everything and more!  Trick or treaters, trees of brilliant gold, even a lucky rainbow....  Today, November begins her journey, borrowing October jewelry to wear just a few more days...  Love it!