Living in the Past!

I've been scrapbooking for years.  Oh, it was fairly contained at first...a picture here, an embellishment there.  Now, well now, I guess you could call it an addiction!

Originally, I was trying to record the kids' childhood.  But my mother had made a photo album for each of us in 1986, and unfortunately she used a magnetic page album.  So of course, I had to get those pictures in a different album.  But everything has to be even, so now I have to do pages for Don's childhood...

Like the ripple effect when you throw a rock into a pond, then you have to research the people who came before you...

If you've ever read "If you Give a Mouse a Cookie" you know that this process really doesn't have an end.  I have found some relatives as far back as 1840 on Ancestry.com.  I've also found information on relatives who traveled through Ellis Island in the early 1900s, I've found information about the ships that relative served on during WWII.  My father in law was on Normandy during D Day and my maternal grandfather commanded a minesweeper group that led the advance to Okinawa.

So, if you need me, you can find me on the "scrap heap".  I know a lot of people have gone digital, but I just love paper, glue and scissors!  I can do laundry tomorrow...
Feeling blessed, how about you?

Thanks for the memories!

It has been a very busy week on the scrap-heap.  Yes, I will admit that my scrap table has exploded with half done pages.  You know how it goes--you don't have the paper for this picture or the embellishments for that paper.

I have unearthed all of DJs portraits.  These are fairly easy to scrap--just the picture with a heading with the year on a pretty piece of paper.  And therein lies the problem.  I forgot to write the year on most of the portraits.  You know, at the time, you figure you'll never forget. And you're busy, in my case with a premature baby who turned into an active toddler.  So here I am 16 years later, trying to figure out if this picture was the 3rd grade school picture or the 4th grade school picture...I have discovered I am NOT a good guesser.

So the moral of the story is--put the date stamp on your camera and leave it set.  Jot the year on the portraits as soon as you get them.  And maybe, just maybe, it would be good to stay caught up with your scrapping so you don't have time to forget!  Nahhhhh.....

Feeling blessed, how about you?

It's a Dog's Life!

This is a tough week to be a dog...or cat...or horse...

Most animals don't like fireworks.  Our dog is elderly and easily traumatized.  She was abused as a puppy and has had separation anxiety for as long as we've owned her.  And of course, as we age, symptoms magnify.  So as she ages, she has become more anxious.  We have now reached a point where it is difficult to leave her alone for more than a few hours.  When people are using fireworks, or if there are a lot of thunder storms; she doesn't do well if left for more than an hour.

Obviously this is life changing.  I might be able to convince everyone in town not to use fireworks (yeah, right!) but I definitely don't have control over the weather!

Last fall, our vet prescribed a homeopathic remedy for the dog.  He felt that this would be best for her, since she's on several other medications. We have not had good luck with homeopathic remedies in this family, but this one is a Godsend!

The last couple of nights the dog has paced all night long.  Since she tends to want company while she paces, we haven't slept too well.  So we broke out the Calm Spirit.  After about 20 minutes, she laid down and slept till morning.  We're trying it again tonight and praying she has another good night.

As I write this she is snoozing at my feet!
Feeling blessed, how about you?

Family & Fotos!

I would say that this week has been a weird week, but since I say that EVERY week that must mean that this week is normal...

School is over for the year, so this leaves a big hole in our calendar.  At least it should.  I haven't noticed the extra time yet.  Here's what happened to fill  my week this week.

We did try a couple of new recipes, baked some bread, and cleared some clutter out of the kitchen.  That's OK, new clutter will be along any day now!

My mother called "just to say hi".  Which is, of course, guilt inducing.  That means it's been too many days since I called her...sigh.  Turns out Dad has an infection and had to be taken to the emergency room a week ago Saturday night. Dad had to go back to the hospital for some tests.  Mother slipped and fell in the hallway and banged up her head and broke her nose.  They gave her the special drugs, and she was feeling fi-ine when I talked to her. I'm guessing that she's not feeling quite as well today.  Apparently she has two of the most gorgeous black eyes you've ever seen.

The best part of the week is the scrapbooking.  The table was empty and now it's full of old pictures and scraps of paper.  I'm starting on a scrapbook for Cindy's senior table at graduation next year.

I also need to make photo boards for high school and senior activities for our back to school meeting in August.

It's gonna be a fun week!  Feeling blessed, how about you?

It's Summertime in the City!

Wow!  It's been a crazy few weeks!  Ever since the convention, it has felt more like life is leading me, rather than the other way around.

 

Please understand, I am not leaving God's control of my life out of any of this...merely saying that I've been buffeted about lately.  This usually happens we have a lot of activities on the calendar.  We had the homeschool convention and enrolling Cindy in dual enrollment at St. Pete College, as well as our anniversary and Cindy's final in chemistry.  We also had our first senior class meeting and the PPEA homeschool support group meeting, which was at our house. There was also a planning meeting for VBS, and the end of year survey for the PPEA.

But all the paperwork is now submitted to SPC, and Cindy has her A in chemistry.  The board meeting is done, along with all the other PPEA tasks.  The house is reasonably clean, thanks to the board meeting.

So today is "back to normal", such as that is!  Back to laundry, and entering receipts into Quicken, and couponing.  Back to staying indoors because it's simply too hot to run around outside (not that I enjoy the great outdoors when it's not hot) Back to running the house...and maybe trying a new recipe or two.

Feeling blessed, how about you?

Happy Anniversary to Us!

I remember bits and pieces of my wedding well.  I must say I learned a lot about planning a wedding.  It was a time before wedding planners, manicures, facials and designer dresses.  The big tip in those days was to practice your makeup before you did it on your wedding day.  I probably should have figured that that meant you didn't get your hair cut on your wedding day. Oh well!

I had $1000 to spend.  That included my dress, all facility rentals, all my family's tuxes, dresses and other attire.  It also included the  photographer, the preacher, the reception, the cake and the flowers.  Even in 1979, this was a challenge.

As I've stated before I only had 20 minutes to get dressed. Couldn't find my contact lenses...went through the wedding and receiption in a blurry haze.Important tip: if you make your own dress and don't have your contact lenses; bustling the train is VERY important. Otherwise (believe it or not) people will actually walk across your train like it is the short cut to the winning lottery ticket! Another lesson learned!

Our wedding was in the War Memorial Chapel at Va. Tech on graduation day. By the way, fun factoid--my great uncle was one of the architects in the building of the chapel.  The relief sculpture behind us is called the "Gift of Life".

There was only one baker in town.  It never occurred to me to taste the cake.  It should have.  Lesson learned.  I can't remember if there was more than one florist, but I didn't have a car, so everything had to be in walking distance.  We chose to have floral arrangements with candles so that we could carry them to the reception....save those $$.

I've already told the story about the dress.  I made my sister's dress too.  The bridesmaids each spent $25 on their outfits.

So girls, it is possible to have a wedding without all the bells and whistles.  My biggest budget item was the photographer.  I have 12 good 8X10 pix of the wedding.  And brides, I look at them every year on my anniversary, I really don't need a bazillion. Sorry to all my photographer friends.  Having said that, the day after your wedding all you really have are the guy and the pictures.  Make sure you get good pix!  Neither you or the guy are gonna look the same in 30 years.

But 33 years ago, I saw Don in one of my classes and well, "Linda like"!  I didn't know it at the time but he had mono.  A free range man with mono is actually fairly easy to catch!  So I did.

We had our first date on April 30, 1978.  We were going to a movie.  Don was on the Va. Tech Rescue Squad.  He had a scanner in his car.   A guy on a motorcyle cut off a semi going downhill.  Motorcyclist lost.  Guess where we were on our first date?  You got it!  We went to a traffic fatality!

So, of course, 13 months later I married him!  I mean, who wouldn't?  And 32 years later, we've been through a lemon car (almost killed us twice), 6 houses, 9 moves, 1 kid who almost died at 5 weeks and had 3 surgeries by age 3, 1 kid who was 10 weeks premature, 2 sudden layoffs, various hospital stays, 1 kid moving cross country...and I can honestly say that knowing all that, I'd do it again in a heart beat!
Feeling blessed, how about you?

Someone's in the kitchen with Mama...

My grandmother was an amazing country cook.  My mother didn't enjoy being in the kitchen.  In addition, we were growing up during the grand "we can freeze it or can it and put it in the grocery stores, and it's almost like fresh" marketing adventure.  It wasn't.  The final straw was that my mother had to stop adding salt and reduce fat in our food in about 1966.  We were eating healthy when healthy wasn't cool...or tasty.

My mother wasn't a huge fan of help with housework.  In her mind, an appliance used by children wouldn't last 35 years.  This was probably an accurate statement.  So we didn't help Mom in the kitchen.

Consequently, when I got married in 1979, I didn't have a lot of "housewife" experience.  I was sooo excited to have my own space.  I actually polished the copper bottom off of one of my pans the first year I was married!  However, I had grown up in a house that had a microwave in 1968 (Dad built it for my mom at Christmas).  I had the best of intentions but I kept forgetting to defrost the meat for dinner.  Eventually I got it together.  Actually I got a microwave...but it worked out the same!

When I had children, I decided that they needed to be functional in the kitchen.  Not cordon bleu, but able to prevent starvation.  For DJ, this was (and is) as good as it got.  He subscribes to my mother's philosphy of cooking--get in, get r done, get out!  Cindy is a totally different child.  She loves to cook, as long as it is a menu of her choice.

We have been collecting recipes for years.  We live on a sugar free, egg free, shellfish free diet.  This does add a few challenges, especially with baking.  We usually print our recipes on 8 1/2 by 11 paper and stick them in a binder.  About a year ago, it occurred to me that we should start copying our favorites and create a binder for Cindy.  And include information such as--copper bottom pans do not need to be polished weekly and don't forget to defrost the meat for dinner.
Feeling blessed, how about you?