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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What’s In My Bag

Hello friends, today is day 9 of the 30 day blog challenge. I will have to say I am enjoying the blogging and getting to know many new people. It has also introduced me to a lot of new sites I didn’t know about. If you are a blogger it really is a great challenge. But get back with me on that in another week or two and things may be different haha.

So the topic for today is What’s In My Bag? I am assuming it could be a purse or a bag I carry daily with me to work. I tend to be a little high maintenance and like to have a lot of things with me at any given time.

So what I usually do, instead of carrying two large bags, is carry a rather large purse and put whatever I need for my work day in that.

So first of all let me tell you about this brown bag.  It is my favorite bag of all time.  I bought it several years ago at Christmas at the mall.  I got it at American Eagle.  It was on Black Friday when everything in the store was 40% off.  I had just ask one of the sales associates if that included the bags and she said yes.  This bag was only about $40.00 but I was thinking man, 40% off of that is awesome.  Well of course when I got to the register they told me the bags weren’t included.  The sales lady happened to be standing nearby and she said yes she had told me that so they let me have it for 40% off.  Score!!!  This bag has seen me through so much.  I take it with me every time I travel because it is perfect for taking on the plane.  After all of the hundreds of times I have carried it it still shows very little wear.  

So as you can see quite a few things. Maybe more than some people maybe less. As I said I’m a little high maintenance. My husband tells me I will take everything from home but the kitchen sink if I can.

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I always take my laptop with me and usually my charger that I didn’t show here.  My wallet is very plain I don’t believe in all that matchy matchy stuff I just like a basic wallet. That little white thing is a screen cleaner roller and it is amazing.  Mark ordered several from Amazon and you can roll it across any of your devices and it cleans lint, fingerprints whatever.  To clean it all you have to do is hold it under water and then let it dry.  I carry a tape measure because we are constantly measuring things at work. I like to take knitting with me because if I find myself with a few minutes to spare I just whip out my knitting and knit a few rows. It’s very calming.  I like to have a book with me.  This book is Into The Wild by Jon Krakauer.  I love his books. I read a lot of books on my phone through Tennessee Reads but I still like to hold a book sometimes when I Read.   The smaller brown bag holds a little make-up for freshening up and I always have several lipsticks and chapsticks with me.  A brush, emery board, ink pens and I’m all set.  Oh I often take a snack to work with me also. Whew!!! does you bag look like that? or do you have more? or less?


 The knitting that I take with me is something easy to work on like this scarf. 

  I love having my MacBook with me and I always use this cover for protection. 

So that’s about it for what’s in my bag.  Of Course if I am just going out for the day shopping or to eat or go to a movie, I don’t carry all of this.  

So what’s in your bag? do you go big or small or carry a bag at all? I have a friend who doesn’t even carry a purse she stuffs everything she carries into her pockets!!!  Man, she’s low maintenance.  I just can’t be that way.

Tomorrow’s post is about the best trip of my life.  I don’t know if I can say it’s the best but it is the trip Mark and I took to Ireland and Scotland several years ago.  Lots of pics. Stay tuned. 

Happy Monday 

Always remember,

Love your day your way!!!!

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5 Current Goals That I Have

I know that goals are important to have but I just hate them.  I like to try and think of different words to use for goals, like challenge, opportunity, a new focal point, you get the idea.  Every time I formulate a plan in my head, and it  becomes a goal, for some reason it is doomed to failure.  I think I probably put too much into it and when I haven’t achieved said goal in two or three days or seen the results I want to see then I give up.


         Photos by dreamstime

While there are a lot of things I need to do in my life to help make my life better I don’t really want to think of them as goals.  For instance I know:

  1. I need to get more exercise.  I am at an age where I am losing muscle mass by the second.  I know how important it is to have more weight bearing exercise in my life.
  2. I need to eat more vegetables I know that vegetables are great antioxidants and can ward off cancer and heart disease and bad things like that and are packed full of vitamins.
  3. Better sleep is something I really need.  I have terrible sleeping habits.  I can tell such a huge difference when I don’t get good sleep.
  4. Finish projects that I start.  Stay focused.
  5. Lose weight!!  nuff said.

So with all of that said why can’t we set goals that are fun?  I know what is good for me.  I know that I need to get more exercise and lose weight etc etc.  Most people do.   We know what our bodies need.  But having fun and living is just as important to our well being and our souls.  One cannot exist without the other.  So 5 things, remember I hate that G word, I need to do:  (And these are just 5 of many)

  1. Spend more time with family and friends
  2. Get a manicure whenever I feel like it
  3. Eat a salad and have a chocolate sundae for dessert
  4. Start a million projects if it is something I want to do.
  5. Enjoy Life to the fullest

Do you set a lot of goals?  How does that work for you?

No matter what

Always remember

Love your day your way!!!

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