The Contents of My Heart and Soul

It is finally Friday.  Following along with my 30 day blogging challenge I was supposed to be blogging today about the contents of my refrigerator.  Well I’m not going to do that.  First of all I am not really sure what all is in my refrigerator and I think I would find that about as interesting as watching grass grow so I can only assume you would find it even less so.

This has been quite a week.  With the Coronavirus updates constantly, closings, the rush on tissue paper and hand sanitizer and every other scary thing it’s just been too much.  I feel exhausted just thinking about it.  I feel like I want to go to a remote area and just be for awhile.  Wait!!!  I do live in a remote area so that much is already taken care of.  But the constant threat and fear that is consuming the nation is growing and growing by the hour.  I am a christian and I have faith but it still doesn’t keep me from being concerned.
I am more concerned about the hysteria and loss of common sense by people than the virus itself.

 

I work at a tourist attraction.  Will we be shut down because of the amount of traffic we have coming and going?  If that happens how long may we be out of work?  How will this affect me and my co workers?  Who in our family will get the virus? how will they be affected?  Will regular medications be readily available?  My husband takes immunosuppressants will he have any problem getting those?  I know I am not the only one with these concerns there are literally millions of day to day concerns by everyone.

My mother in law lives in an assisted living center, it is currently on lock-down.  They are not allowing visitors. She doesn’t seem to be too upset by this yet.  I am sure if goes for much longer she will become very unhappy and agitated.  I am calling her everyday so that she will have a connection to us.  She doesn’t have a cell phone, she doesn’t face time or anything like that so I am sure she is feeling somewhat isolated. I do know however this is the safest things for the residents.

Along with all of the coronavirus issues it has been less than two weeks since the Tennessee Tornado that ripped through much of Tennessee, killing, wounding and leaving many many people homeless.  Volunteers are still working around the clock to get people back in their homes or relocated.  The area hardest hit was about 3 hours from where I live.  I see the faces on the news of the ones who lost their lives several of them were children.

So tonight I came home from work and snuggled my family I will just sit and enjoy being near them realizing how much I appreciate everything that I have.  My heart hurts for all that is going on.  I guess we will all just have to take it one day, one hour, one minute at a time.

So you can see that the contents of my refrigerator are not as important to me at this very moment. I’m sure they’re not to you.

Always remember

Love your day your way

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My Favorite Childhood Book

Do you remember what your favorite book during your childhood was?  I remember mine and it was also my younger brother Joe’s favorite book. Ribsy by Beverly Clearly.  And guess what? I still have it!!!!

 


  Look how worn this book is it has been loved and read over and over.


  Amy and Kim are my nieces. They left their mark here when they were little.  This is on the first page of the book.  They are both grown now with children of their own.  They were probably about 4 or 5 years old at the time. 

Beverly Cleary is an American writer of Children’s and Young adult fiction.  She wrote all of the Romona Quimby and Beezus Quimby books as well as the Henry Huggins books. She is still one of America’s most successful authors.  Born on April 12th 1916 she is still alive and well at the age of 103 very soon to be 104.

I loved all of the Ramona and Beezus books but my brother didn’t’ get into those.  He loved the Henry Huggins books.  His favorite was Ribsy.  As soon as I read Ribsy it became my favorite too.  I guess the fact that I am such a dog lover had something to do with it.

Ribsy is Henry Huggins’ dog and best pal.  They do everything together.  In the Ribsy book Ribsy gets lost in a shopping center parking lot and is desperately trying to find his way back to Henry.  This little escapade sends Ribsy on quite the journey.  It is a wonderful book.  You will be holding your breath hoping for Henry and Ribsy to be reunited.

Several years ago after my mama passed away, we were cleaning out her house to get it ready to sell.   I found the Ribsy book in a box of other old books.  I screamed!!!  It’s Ribsy!!!! I took the book home and read it for old time’s sake.

My brother and I were very close in age.  I can still remember fighting over the Ribsy book.  I can see him standing in the doorway of my room saying “hey where’s the Ribsy book?” He would have it for awhile and then I would take it back to my room. I even remember looking into his bedroom, after he was practically an adult, and see him lying across his bed reading Ribsy. It was comforting and familiar. A piece of childhood.

My brother passed away a couple of years ago. We had grown apart as we had gotten older. He had many demons he wrestled and just couldn’t seem to get ahead of them. I still loved him like crazy and though he was my younger brother he always “thought” he had to take care of me, but he never could. In the end I had to help take care of him. We always laughed about how much we loved the Ribsy book. I will keep it forever and have only the best memories with it.

What is your favorite childhood book?

Always remember

Love your day your way!!!

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10 Favorite Foods

Hello and happy Wednesday.  Today I am going to share with you my 10 of my favorite foods.

  1. Marshmallows,  I know I know they are not good for me just as many of the things I’m going to mention are not going to be.  No judgement please.  I try to mix these things with good foods as well.  Everything in moderation right?
  2. Blueberries.  I like to freeze them and eat them for a snack and I like them in blueberry cobbler and other things like that.
  3. I like my homemade sourdough bread.  I did a blog post about it a while back and I am going to add the link if you decide you might want to try and make it.  It is a lengthy process and you have to have a cup of bread starter that you can either get from someone who already makes the bread or you can start your own but that makes the process a little longer. Here is the link.  How to make sourdough bread
  4. I love chocolate.  I do try and eat dark chocolate because it is better but basically I love all types of chocolate.  I also love to bake with chocolate
  5. I love seafood just about all types of seafood. I don’t like mussels and I don’t particularly like scallops but other than that I love me some seafood.
  6. I love pinto beans.  The soupy kind that is slow cooked on the stove.  This may be a southern thing but my mama cooked them at least once a week when I was growing up.   My husband is not crazy about them so I don’t cook them a lot at home.
  7. I love salad but I like a really good lettuce like a spring greens mix or something similar.
  8. I love pizza.  I like to make my own pizza so I can put exactly what I want on it.
  9. I love carrots.  I like to eat them both raw and cooked.
  10. I love chocolate cake.  I did a post last year about how to make a perfectly decadent chocolate cake.  Here is the link.

So those are some of my favorite foods.  I have many more but that is sort of a broad range.  What are some of your favorite foods?

Always remember

Love your day your way

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My Trip to Ireland

Several years ago my husband and I took a trip to Ireland. During this trip we also visited Scotland, Wales and London. I will tell you about those in another post.  For this and the 10th day of my blog post challenge,  The best trip of my life, I would like to share my trip to Ireland with you.   While I can’t say for sure that it is the “best” it certainly ranks up there as one of the best.

Our first morning in Ireland we went to visit the House of Waterford Crystal.  We had a tour through the factory and got to see the crystal being made.  It was very interesting and a little scary being near all of the expensive crystal.

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At one time all of Waterford Crystal was made in Ireland but now it is being produced in other countries.

 

 

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Isn’t Ireland beautiful?  It was everything I expected it to be and much much more.

Next we ventured to Avoca to visit Ireland’s oldest Hand weaving Mill and watch the weavers at work.  You know how I love weaving and knitting and everything like that so I was beyond excited.  This mill is the oldest surviving working mill in Ireland today and dates from 1723.    The original whitewashed buildings of the old mill now house the store which carries an extensive selection of clothing, gifts and food.  I did have to buy several scarves and a couple of hats.   Check out more details here

The next place we visited was Glendalough.  Glendalough is a glacial valley in County Wicklow Ireland.  The early Christian monastic site founded by St. Kevin in the 6th Century.  It was so beautiful it was one of our favorite places.  For more pictures and information check out the site here.

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And from the quiet countryside into the fast paced city of Dublin.  Dublin is a beautiful city we spent some time shopping there and just checking out the sites.

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We did go to the Guinness Brewing company and went to the top floor where the Oxygen bar is.  It was Halloween and it was so crowded you could not move!!!  It is on the top floor and the views are amazing.


Dublin


Dublin

 

 


St. Patrick’s Cathedral.

So that was the some of the highlights to our trip to Ireland. I hope you enjoyed it and if you haven’t been to Ireland you get to go one day.  I will save the days in Scotland  and London and Wales for another post because their just too good to share.

Always remember,

Love your day your way!!

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