Let’s Get Christmas Started

Hello friends, happy Monday!!! how was your Thanksgiving? As I mentioned mine was very quiet. I cooked only for me and hubs. Although we did take food to a friend in town. It was very nice. My husband said I was cooking too much and too many different things. I told him that just because it was us two we still deserved to have a nice food filled Thanksgiving.

Even though I put my Christmas tree up a couple of weeks ago, I alway think the official “Kick off for Christmas” is the day after Thanksgiving. My sister and I usually stay out all day on Black Friday and shop. However we haven’t done that in a few years. Because of Covid and some other things the last couple of years and my sister having the flu this year it was pretty quiet once again.

I did do a little shopping on Friday in nearby Athens. I had heard that Home Depot had orchids for $5.00. WHAT??? Now I don’t have anywhere to put another orchid and I am not sure how Delphine, Ophelia, Saffron, Zsa Zsa, Oliver and Olivia would feel about another orchid sibling but I just can’t help myself. We don’t have a Home Depot near us but in Athens there is a Lowe’s. That is actually where I bought one of my first orchids, Olivia I think it was. But no such luck the orchids there were a staggering $30.00. No Way!!!

I did stop at the Berks store in Athens and Hobby Lobby and Dollar Tree. At Dollar Tree I picked up the supplies to make my Christmas wreath. I can’t wait to work on that. But overall it was a pretty quiet trip.

On Saturday I decided to shop local as everyone in town was being encouraged to do. I knew there was a Christmas Craft Sale going on in nearby Tellico Plains. It was being held at Riverbend Farms. This farm is a venue for weddings and other events and it is beautiful!!! I did find a few things there. The barn where the crafters were set up was a bit crowded but there were lots of good things. I just love attending things like this at Christmas. It puts me in such a festive holiday mood. And it was just what I needed this week.

I bought a few ornaments. Some of these were handmade from the lady who first rescued our big orange kitty Gus. She, Heather, has a booth at a local antique mall and she is so talented. And of course I am so grateful for her connection to getting us our precious Gus.

This is my bird tree that I keep up in my kitchen all year long. I collect bird ornaments from different places that I go and add them to my tree. I have them from lots of special places and each one has a story.

I just had to have this Cardinal for my bird tree. There is a saying that the sighting of a Cardinal brings a message from a loved one who may be far away. This is the way it goes:

When Cardinals
appear, you will know
that I am near.

Though we may be apart,
you need to know that you are
always in my heart.

The Cardinals presence is reassurance that your loved one is always with you when you need them…all that you need to do is look for them.

After leaving Riverbend I ventured into Tellico Plains and stopped at one of the gift shops my niece and I had been to a couple of weeks before. This gray jacket caught my eye last time and I decided to go back and get it. It’s reversible and from Simply Southern. I love this brand it is always so cozy.

I then picked up groceries and headed home. Sunday was also quiet. How was your weekend and Thanksgiving? Did you have a huge gathering or just a few people? Are you getting in the Christmas Spirit yet?

Always remember

Love your day your way!!!!!

Hello Monday

Hello friends how was your weekend? I took a few extra days off. The end of the year is coming and I have some vacation days that I need to use before the year ends. It was also my husband’s birthday so we have had a few days of celebrating. Nothing fancy just a couple of dinners out. I made my hubs special pancakes and bacon for breakfast on his birthday and I made him a pumpkin pie. We actually spent most of the weekend settling my MIL back into the Assisted Living Village where she had been living until a few months ago. It has been a bit of a somber weekend. Life happens and you deal with it one day at a time. Sometimes one minute at a time.

Back in July my mother in law had an episode and had to be taken to our local hospital ER. She was unresponsive and after many tests the doctors told us she had had a mild heart attack. After spending several days in the hospital she was released but wasn’t ready to go back to the assisted living center where she had been living. The doctor recommended that she go to the nearby nursing facility where she could get care and therapy. After three months of being there she was finally set to be released about two weeks ago. She was so excited. I had planned to take a half day off from work to help her get settled back in.

As I was driving to the nursing home to help get her clothes and everything loaded, the administrator called and said she had just tested positive for Covid. WHAT??? So she would not be leaving for at least ten more days. Also she was in quarantine with about twenty other patients who had tested positive and we were not allowed to visit. We couldn’t call her because she can’t hear well enough to have a phone conversation and she gets very agitated trying to communicate. We were so disappointed and I know that she was. We had to rely on the staff to get messages to her and try to keep her spirits up. I am sure she felt like she had been forgotten.

I did visit with her after about a week and told her she would soon be moving back to the village. So on Saturday we finally got her moved.

It is amazing how much of a set back she has had. It’s sad and depressing and it just makes my heart break for her. When we got her to the assisted living village she looked around like she was seeing it for the first time. She kept saying “well I guess I will just have to get used to this”. She seemed almost disappointed to be there. And she had been so excited just two weeks before that. She was so confused. She is almost 89 years old. I know she has been through a lot but this last bout of Covid and being quarantined away from everyone has really taken a toll. After we left her, promising that we would return the next day to check on her, I felt like we were leaving a toddler alone to care for her self. I called to check on her later that day and the staff told us she was doing well and getting adjusted. By the next day it was a little better and more and more of her friends from the village were stopping by to see her. I think that made her feel more at home. She can’t wait to have her hair done in the shop inside the village.

So hubs and I returned the next day to check on her and because my work is only about ten minutes from her I can drop in daily until she gets readjusted.

We had a quiet day today. We decided to put our Christmas tree up. We have to do things like this when we have days off together and have no other obligations. I feel that waiting until Thanksgiving is over is just not enough time to decorate for Christmas. I say why not celebrate the entire last two months of the year. I don’t feel like it is taking anything away from Thanksgiving by enjoying some Christmas festivities as well. But that’s just my opinion.

I don’t have a tree topper or a tree skirt yet but the ornaments are on. This tree is 32 years old. We have had it since our first year of marriage. We haven’t put it up every year but we have many of the 32 years. That little red rug was crocheted by my grandmother Rose, she taught me to crochet, and I use it every year. I just noticed that bottom could use a few more ornaments.

I have done quite a bit of knitting and crocheting while I have been off the last few days and Kitty Kitty has been my constant companion. She loves being near yarn.

I have one more day off tomorrow and I have a few fun things planned I will catch you up on Friday Favorites. Have a wonderful week.

Always remember

Love your day your way!!!!

Hello Monday

Happy Monday, Happy Halloween, Happy last day of October, if you can even believe that. Where did October go? It’s one of my favorite months and it just when whooshing by.

So do you celebrate Halloween. I think it is a little fun holiday. You don’t have to get too deep into all the hoopla. I dressed up as Raggedy Ann I’ve had this costume for several years. This is the first time I have worn this one in several years. We had a lot of school kids visiting at work today so it was really fun.

My weekend was fairly busy. My Saturday morning plans with my niece sort of fell through at the last minute so I had some extra time in Saturday morning. I had an extra cup of coffee and enjoyed the mild temperature outside. I did a little cleaning and a grocery pickup.

On Saturday afternoon I met my brother and sister to go to our elementary school reunion. Union Grove School. The reunion was being held in nearby Athens. The school that my older brothers and sisters attended was closed after I finished fourth grade. We had to then commute to another school. This small school held classes for first grade through eighth grade. And we found out Saturday night that in the very early days of the school being open it included ninth through twelfth grades. The school was open from 1919 to 1973. It was only about 5,000 square feet. As the community grew so did the number of students and with the age of the building it couldn’t be kept open.

I loved this old school. I think everyone was sad to see it be torn down. My younger brother and I then had to be bussed to a school about thirty minutes from us. But the bus ride was even longer.

I didn’t know if many of the people I had gone to school with would be there but there were a few and it was so good to see them. I even got phone numbers from a few. A girl who I had always thought was a mortal enemy, lol, was there and we talked and got reacquainted and exchanged numbers to keep in touch. She was just lovely and it just proves that many times what you think of people while growing up is not always the person they grow into. It seemed like there were many more people from my older brother and sister’s classes attending than mine but it was still a lot of fun and the food was great.

Lots of old pictures. None I could find of my class or my younger brothers’. I guess because we were the last class there.

Me my brother and sister. We had so much fun!!!

Sunday was a quieter day that I spent at home. Mark had to work so it was just me and the kitties. I decided to make lotion bars. Well it didn’t start out that way. I had planned to chill, maybe watch a movie, read my book, nap. You know the usual Sunday things. But Sunday after lunch I started cleaning out my food pantry. Ok let me just stop right here and say that it is terrible how much food is wasted at my house. I sometimes don’t even know what all I have in this closet. I threw a ton of stuff away with a pledge to myself, and all of mankind to stop wasting. But back to the lotion bars. They are all natural made with shea butter, coconut oil and beeswax. I also use the Essential Oils to scent them. I made about thirty, this one below is the largest it is 4oz. and the flower below that is only 2oz. I just enlarged it for detail. I put them in small tins and give them as gifts and sell them locally. I got a big order last night for Christmas. I love making them and my kitchen smells so good.

While cleaning the pantry I discovered a whole jar of coconut oil. I wanted to use it so that is where the lotion bars came in.

I then returned to the task of cleaning out the pantry and reorganizing all my food. And vowing my grocery bill would be half as much this week as it usually is. Guys it looks so good. I know where everything is and how much I have. If only I did this every couple of weeks. I will I will!!!!

I also made peanut butter balls to take to work for our little Halloween goody table. They were a big hit.

I have to leave you with this sweet picture of Gus and Kitty Kitty having a very serious conversation in the window and a last picture of a beautiful red bush. The color is still hanging on. It is always one of the last to leave for the season.

So how was your weekend?

Always remember

Love your day your way!!!

Fall Beauty And A Family Reunion

Hello friends and happy Monday. I can’t believe we are in the last full week of October. It seems as though this year has flown by. The leaves are falling fast but the trees still hold a beauty that somehow is more noticeable in the fall. Well to me anyway. Leaves are everywhere. I took a short walk through the woods yesterday and just enjoyed the sunshine and the colors, they are magical.

How was your weekend? I had a busy day on Saturday . We had a family reunion. We’re big on those in the south although our extended family with aunts, uncles, and cousins haven’t been together in years. It was so good to see everyone and catch up. It was a fun time. As we were putting the food out on the tables I couldn’t help but think back to years ago when it was my mama, my grandmother, and my aunts getting all the food prepared. I remember we had a big reunion once a year and it was usually around my grandmother’s birthday so it was in August. It was always hot as blue blazes and humid. My mama would cook for days getting ready for it just as I assume all the other aunts did too. We prayed for good weather and as best as I can remember it always was. Although we usually had a terrible thunder storm late in the day.

We would usually arrive around noon or a little before and unload all the food from the car. My daddy would immediately head over to his brothers and brothers in law and talk and talk. Mama would be with all of my aunts getting the food ready. Me and my brothers and sisters usually chatted with our cousins. A few babies were added every year and we would spend time getting to know them. We had cousins that we sometimes only saw once a year. So we were always a little shy at first noticing the changes in them, oh my goodness look how much he/she has grown. It was such a good time. The best part, when you’re a kid anyway, of course was the food. If you have ever been to one of these get togethers in the south then you know what good eating is all about. The food was amazing but the desserts were to die for. I think every cook tried her hand at something new, or her tried and true recipe, to make sure that her bowl, cake pan or pie plate, had the most missing at the end of the meal.

Saturday as my cousins and I helped put all the food together I couldn’t help but smile and could almost hear my mama and my aunts saying, ” no don’t put that there put it here, that looks so good I have to get the recipe, well I didn’t know she was bringing that or I wouldn’t have made mine, I always bake mine a little longer than that”. Such wonderful memories were stirred up. But at the same time new memories were made.

After lunch my nephew and his wife and I took a long walk around the park. There is a cemetery next to the park with some very old tombstones. Some of them date back to the seventeen hundreds. It was a good and much needed walk after all the food.

Sunday was a much quieter day. I worked on the temperature blanket, read, made some muffins and took another walk in the woods. It was a nice weekend.