Friday’s Fave Five

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Susanne at Living to Tell the Story hosts a “Friday Fave Five” in which we share our five favorite things from the past week. Click on the button to read more of the details, and you can visit Susanne to see the list of others’ favorites or to join in.

So here are five of my favorite things from this past week:

1. Going to a craft show last weekend in the town where I used to live. The show was not nearly as big as it used to be, and they included a lot of commercial vendors (had at least two booths for teeth whitening, with people having it done right there!?! OK, I guess, though I hate to pay the entrance fee for that kind of thing when I am wanting to see crafts). It was interesting to reflect on how crafting has changed over the years.

2. Going to said craft show with my daughter-in-law. It’s nice to have someone to do girl things with. 🙂

3. Getting a couple of cute things there which unfortunately I can’t show you because neither WordPress nor Flickr are uploading my photos today. 😦 It gets partway done and then stops. If I can get them up I will show them later. (Updated: I finally tried Photobucket: itworked, though the images are smaller than I prefer.) But one was a little 8″ or so tree all decorated in pink and silver. The other was a pair of 8″ or so stockings that looked like they’d been made out of quilt scraps.

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4. “The Biggest Loser” season finale. I had been rooting for Danny the last few weeks: he worked hard, played a clean game, and there were never any negative interactions with his contestants, at least that we saw. I wish him and his family the best! We also enjoyed the series finale of “Monk.” That’s not a program we watched regularly, but we enjoyed it when we did catch it, and the ending was sad in places but sweet overall. I’m glad he finally found out what happened to his wife.

5. Double Delicious Cookie Bars, which could also be called the Easiest Bar Cookies to Make, Ever. (And yes, the irony of listing these after “The Biggest Loser” is not lost on me…) I did have a photo of them, too, which is not uploading.

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Double Delicious Cookie Bars

(Note: These contain peanut butter chips, but they can be omitted and additional chocolate chips used instead if you’re taking this somewhere where someone might have peanut allergies)

1/2 c. margarine or butter
1 1/2 c. graham cracker crumbs
1 14-oz. can sweetened condensed milk
1 12-oz. pkg. semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 c. peanut butter chips
1 c. semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 1/2 tsp. shortening (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 (325 for glass dish). In a 9 x 13-inch pan, melt margarine in oven. Sprinkle crumbs evenly over margarine. Pour sweetened condensed milk evenly over crumbs. Top with 12-ounce packages chocolate chips and peanut butter chips; press down firmly. Bake 25-30 minutes or until lightly browned. Melt 1 cup chocolate chips and shortening; drizzle over bars. Cut into bars when cool. Store loosely covered at room temperature.

I’ve also used red and green M&Ms for this for quick Christmas cookies for school or some function where I am supposed to bring something, but the candy coating does melt off a good bit. I wonder if the M&Ms could be added just after taking it out of the oven. I’ll have to try that next time.

Happy Friday!

My Mom

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Four years ago today I received the call no one wants to hear telling me my mom had suddenly passed away.

I wrote this a couple of years ago for Mother’s Day:

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My mom and me: :)

From my earliest memory, my mom was my best friend — not in a way that was too chummy and hindered discipline. But we could talk about most anything, and I always knew that she was for me. I was the oldest of six, and we always enjoyed each other’s company.

She was not the most domestic person on the planet. :) I remember days cleaning the house together, snack breaks, and jokes about how no one ever came over when the house was clean.

My father was an alcoholic and very jealous and easily angry. She thought that once they got married and he was assured of her love and commitment that much of that would change. A word of warning: don’t ever marry expecting change. I love my dad, too — I’ve written more about him earlier. I wish they both could have come to know the Lord earlier. But there were rough times over the years, and Mom and I were kind of allies during those times. I think she did the best she could to be the best wife she could be, but with continued problems and without the strength God could give, the marriage ended. I struggled with my relationships with both parents during that time, but the Lord helped — it was actually as a result of all this that I was saved — and eventually my relationship with both was restored, as I mentioned a bit in an earlier post.

I always appreciated that, though my Mom didn’t share my beliefs and convictions for many years, she cared about me and tried not to offend and tried to support me in my new way of life.

She loved to give. Her “love language” was definitely giving. She loved to find things that would be “just right” for her kids. She would collect things all through the year to give at Christmas. She always gave generously yet always wanted to give more. She was also a delight to give to. I enjoyed just as much looking through the year for things to give to her.

She loved to call rather than write, and our conversations were easily an hour or more. She would call for special occasions or just to catch up. Since we always lived 1,000 miles away and were rarely together over holidays, phone calls became an unplanned but welcome tradition. Usually we’d talk in the evening after the rest of the holiday’s festivities were over and everyone had gone home. That’s one of the things I miss most.

When my husband and I first got married and moved away, we traveled there to visit: it would have been hard and expensive for her and my step-father to travel with five kids. But in later years they did come here, and it was a joy to visit with her on my turf. :) One of the times I enjoyed most was one day when they were visiting and my husband rented a boat to take everyone on the lake. I don’t know when she developed a phobia about the water, but she didn’t want to go, so she and I stayed at the house and I took her out to lunch. That lunch out together with just the two of us is one of my best memories.

She passed away in December of 2005: I wrote more about that day here. If I didn’t have faith that God’s timing is perfect, I would have felt it was much too soon for her to go. I don’t know why the Lord chose to take her so soon — I trust He will work all things together for good as He promised. One hope was that some of the rest of the family would be saved as a result, but as far as I know that hasn’t happened yet (if anyone feels led to pray to that end, I would be much obliged.)

Love and miss you, Mom!

Though this song does not exactly characterize my relationship with my mom in every part, much of it does:

Wednesday Random Dozen Meme

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The Random Dozen meme is created and hosted by Linda at 2nd Cup of Coffee. She has a Mr. Linky set up if you’d like to see others’ responses or join in.

1. Which physical trait do you now accept–maybe not love, but accept–and no longer feel extremely self-conscious about?

My nose. It’s probably my least favorite feature.

2. This week Meredith Baxter Birney, best known as the mom on the favorite 80s sitcom “Family Ties” came out of the closet, which led me to formulate this question: Who do you think is/was the best TV mom?

My favorite was Carolyn Ingalls from Little House on the Prairie. Patient, kind, thrifty, industrious, creative, sweet — all the things I wish I were!

3. Do you speak any foreign languages? Are there any you’d like to learn?

No and no. I had Spanish for years, both elementary and high school, but only catch a few words here and there  when I hear it and can’t really speak it at all except a few isolated words. There are a number of things I’d like to learn, but languages aren’t really on the list.

4. Who is your personal hero?

Jim Lubin, who is paralyzed from the neck down due to transverse myelitis, is ventilator-dependent, yet created the Transverse Myelitis Internet Club, which was a tremendous support to me, a similar subscriber list for vent-dependent quads, and an abundance of web sites for the disabled, besides having one of the most even-tempered and sunny personalities that I know of. I get so angry when I see any program on TV that seems to indicate life is over the the plug should be pulled when someone is put on a ventilator. I’m sure it is not the life anyone would choose, but people can have a productive and good life even on a vent.

5. What is one holiday food that you find extremely difficult to resist over- indulging in?

Just one? Ho, ho ho, that’s a good one. But I’d probably say Harvest Loaf Cake, which, though it has a fallish name, we make in December. Haven’t yet this year, but I am hoping to this week. It is hard to keep my hands off of it, though — I am tempted to cut a “little sliver” almost every time I go through the kitchen.

6. Tell me about a Christmas decoration that has special meaning or sentimental value.

Oh, many of them do. When my older sons were in elementary school, moms got together to make ornaments for the kids to take home at the class Christmas party, so many of those are special. A couple of things my mom gave me are special not only because I like them but because she passed away in December a few years ago:

Christmas decoration from my mom

This plays through several songs when you push a button on the back, and the lights in the church flash.

This is one of my most special treasures, also from my mom. I collect Boyd’s Bear figurines, and somewhere she found this Christmas tree with little miniature scenes all though it.

Boyd's tree house

I talked about these last year in a post titled The Island of Misfit Ornaments — our odd or offbeat ones:

These were little wax candle ornaments that we got our first Christmas together.

Melted ornaments

The brown-haired boy represented Jim, and the blond girl represented me. But one year they got a little melted up in the attic. I couldn’t even get them out of the plastic bags because they were stuck. I don’t know why I haven’t thrown them away — I guess because of the sentimental value. I do keep all candles out of the attic now!

7. How do you feel about snow?

I like that here in SC we only get it once or twice a year, and it is enough to close schools and some businesses for a day (because we don’t have all the equipment that states have who get snow all the time — it would be too expensive for just once a year use). It’s like an unexpected day off when we get it. Within that context I think it is pretty and fun. I don’t think I’d like living where we had a lot of snow all through the winter. I don’t like to be that cold; I’d be nervous about driving; and I have balance issues, so it’s nerve-wracking for me to even walk in it.

8. On average, how many hours of sleep do you get each night? Not that I’m jealous of any number over three or anything.

About 5, which is why I often take a nap.

9. Tell me about your first crush.

My parents used to tell me I had a crush on my cousin when I was two. I don’t remember that, but, unfortunately, I went through most of my childhood with a crush on somebody. That’s not really a healthy way to live. The first crush I remember was in fourth grade on a guy named George. He had a really unusual name which I am not going to put here both for his privacy’s sake and mine — I would be embarrassed to death if he ever Googled himself and found his name here. Unfortunately a lot of girls had crushes on him, and he was totally uninterested in girls at the time. One of the great mysteries of my life was that he whispered something to me one day, but I didn’t understand what he said, and I was too shy to ask. I fantasized that it was something like, “You’re cute” or “I like you.” But it was probably more something like, “Can I borrow a pencil?”

10. You’re stuck in a room for 2 hours with only a chalkboard and chalk. What will you write/draw?

Chalk is not my favorite writing instrument, but I’d probably write rather than draw. I’m not sure what I’d write, though — it would depend on my mood at the time. If I was with someone else we’d probably play tic tac toe or that “connect the dots to make squares” game.

11. Do you dress for the current temp or for the day’s forecast?

I dress for the current temp with the forecast in mind. I love long-sleeved knit tops in the winter time so I can push the sleeves up or down according to the changing temps. I am often hotter than others, so I dress lighter but keep a sweater handy this time of year.

12. Favorite Christmas movie is?

White Christmas with Bing Crosby and Danny Kaye.

Christmas funnies

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This morning I played around with three different ideas for a post, kept nodding off in my chair, laid down for a nap, slept too long, and really need to get moving! But I resurrected a post from three years ago when I didn’t know most of you, and added a few new ones at the end. Enjoy!

These have been collected from various places over the years. Enjoy!

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Planning a Christmas weekend of entertaining guests, Sue made a list of things she needed to do, including taking food out of the freezer and grocery shopping.As it happened, a friend whom she had been promising to take to lunch asked if they could make it that Friday. So, hopping into the car, Sue taped her “to do” list to the dashboard and went and picked her up her friend, Amy. As Amy settled into the car, her face dropped.

“Thanks a lot!” she sulked.

Then Sue glanced at her list and saw the first item: “Take out the turkey.”

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A kindly 90-year-old grandmother found buying presents for family and friends a bit much last Christmas. So this year she wrote out checks for each of them to send in their Christmas cards. In each card she carefully wrote, “Buy your own present this year.” and then sent them off.

After the Christmas festivities were over, she found the checks under a pile of papers on her desk!

Everyone on her gift list had received a beautiful Christmas card from her with “Buy your own present this year” written inside–without the check!

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There was a woman who had waited until the last minute to send Christmas cards. She knew she had 49 folks on her list. So she rushed into a store and bought a package of 50 cards without really looking at them. Still in a big hurry, she addressed the 49 and signed them, still without reading the message inside.

On Christmas Day when things had quieted down somewhat, she happened to come across the leftover card and finally read the message she had sent to 49 of her friends. Much to her dismay, it read like this:
“This card is just to say,
A little gift is on the way.”

Suddenly she realized that 49 of her friends were expecting a gift from her–a gift that would never come.

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Jan decided to get her husband to address Christmas cards, as she had so much to do. She arranged everything they needed, then hopefully pulled up a chair and said, “Come on, Dear, let’s get these out of the way.”

He glanced at the array on the table, turned away and went into the den, returning moments later with a high stack of cards, stamped, sealed, and addressed.

“They’re last year’s,” he said. “I forgot to mail them. Now let’s go out to dinner and relax.”

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Q: How long does it take to burn a candle down?

A: About a wick.

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Christmas is in my heart twelve months a year, and thanks to credit cards, it’s on my Visa card statement twelve months a year also.

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Q: What do you call a bunch of grandmasters of chess bragging about their games in a hotel lobby?
A: Chess nuts boasting in an open foyer!

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Q: Why was Santa’s little helper depressed?
A: Because he had low elf esteem.

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The other day Dan sent his girlfriend a huge pile of snow. He rang her up and asked, “Did you get my drift?”

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10 Reasons to be Thankful You Burnt the Turkey

1. Salmonella won’t be a concern.
2. Everyone will think your turkey is Cajun blackened.
3. Your cheese broccoli lima bean casserole will gain newfound appreciation.
4. Pets won’t bother to pester you for scraps.
5. No one will overeat.
6. The smoke alarm was due for a test.
7. Carving the bird will provide a good cardiovascular workout.
8. You’ll get to the desserts even quicker.
9. After dinner, the guys can take the bird to the yard and play football.
10. You won’t have to face three weeks of turkey sandwiches, soups, and casseroles.

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I had one about the hazards to a relationship of stringing Christmas lights, but since ivman recently posted it as well as some other fun stuff about Christmas decorating, I’ll just refer you there.

Microfiction Monday and other odds and ends

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Welcome to Microfiction Monday,
where a picture only paints 140 characters.

microfictionmonday

Susan at Stony River has begun a Microfiction Monday wherein participants write a story in 140 characters based on a particular image that Susan has chosen for the day.  Design 215’s Character Counter helps keep track of the number of characters. It’s a fun exercise. I tend to be too wordy, and this helps me pare things down to the essentials while trying to keep it interesting and creative as well.

The picture for today and my take on it:

“I’m sorry I dropped you in the puddle, li’l kitty, but you’ll be all warm and dry and fluffy soon. I wonder if I should use a dryer sheet?”

You can visit Susan’s for other stories based on this photo. It’s neat to see the different things people come up with!

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“In other news….”

Thank you for your sympathies in my post about things breaking down. 😀 The first couple of things listed there had already been taken care of, but I just included them because they were fairly recent. My husband worked on the microwave and discovered a loose wire that he was able to fix — and he thoroughly cleaned it out while he was at it. He’s sweet as well as handy. 🙂 And he told me the wireless mouse had different channels. Who knew? Probably everyone but me, but changing the channels worked. Then the downstairs DVD somehow started magically working when I pushed the “Open” button on the remote, when it hadn’t been working before, and I got a new purse which had a little side pocket for my cell phone, a feature I’d been missing. We had thought the dead car dashboard might have been a blown fuse, but unfortunately it seems to be something more complicated. I have a “distance to empty” setting on a little display above the rear-view mirror that tells me how much gas I have left, so I am doing ok without that gauge — but not knowing how fast I am going makes me nervous. And poor Jane Eyre is still stuck in the upstairs DVD, which is probably sending the poor dear into a frenzy with her history.

And the sun came out over the weekend! And it didn’t snow as forecasted for Saturday, which I was very glad of since I had much to do that day!

And Jesse’s JV basketball team won again Friday night!

So things are looking up in my little world. I know ultimately happiness depends on the heart and not the circumstances, but I do enjoy good circumstances. 😀

Although the fig tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines; the labour of the olive shall fail, and the fields shall yield no meat; the flock shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no herd in the stalls: Yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will joy in the God of my salvation.

The LORD God is my strength, and he will make my feet like hinds’ feet, and he will make me to walk upon mine high places.

Habakkuk 3:17-19

‘Tis the season…

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…for things to break down, apparently.

A couple of weeks ago the furnace went out.

Then the washer developed a leak in the pump.

Now my microwave doesn’t work unless you bang on the side a couple of times,

The gauges and speedometer, etc., on my dashboard are not showing up (everything starts and shifts fine, I just can’t see how fast I am going, how much gas I have, or what gear I am in),

And the strap on my purse broke last night.

Not to mention Jane Eyre has been stuck in my upstairs DVD for weeks and I can’t get the the downstairs DVD open (though the kids can finagle it),

And my mouse keeps hanging up until I call Jeremy to see what’s wrong. He changed the battery, but something is still wrong. And for some reason he is not interested in standing near me while I am on the computer so his vibes can keep it working right.

I am not going to ask, “What else can break down?”

Because I really don’t want to know!

Friday’s Fave Five

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Susanne at Living to Tell the Story hosts a “Friday Fave Five” in which we share our five favorite things from the past week. Click on the button to read more of the details, and you can visit Susanne to see the list of others’ favorites or to join in.

So here are five of my favorite things from this past week:

1. Eating out at one of our favorite Mexican food places last weekend. I love the chicken chimichangas at that particular place. I’ve thought about trying to learn to make them…but they do such a great job, I will just enjoy theirs.

2. Jesse’s first JV basketball game of the season. It was nice because all of us were able to be there, even Grandma. And…well, let’s just say last year they didn’t win more than they did win…and they WON their first game this week!! We started out about 10 points behind, but then we got ahead, then it was neck and neck, and then we were ahead the last quarter. It was a pretty exciting game — and I am not normally much of a sports enthusiast! I love it when it’s not a complete slaughter one way or the other.

3. Our town’s annual “Dickens of a Christmas” celebration.

4. A handy husband who knew how to fix the leaky washer — had to replace the pump, which had a crack in it.

5. A sweet daughter-in-law who made meals a couple of days when I was under the weather.

Bonus:

These cute little bottle brush trees ordered from Reflections From the Stone Nest. I think the tallest one is maybe 6″. I’m afraid I am just going to have to leave you with a link to the photo of them on her site, because after spending way more time than I have this morning, I can’t get my photo of them to upload either here on WordPress or on Flickr. But they are cute!

Happy Friday!

Dickens of a Christmas 2009

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Some you may remember my talking about our town’s annual “Dickens of a Christmas” last year, an event where they close off Main Street and have different groups performing, different shops with live scenes from the Victorian era in the display windows, etc. We almost didn’t have it this year. The group that had been organizing it was not going to be able to continue. But another group stepped up and took over, so we were happy to attend again.

I didn’t take many pictures because it held everyone else up and because there were a lot of people and often a clear shot was not available. But here are a few.

This was a dancing group that would occasionally pull in some of the observers.

On the store windows were signs with the names of the participating groups, and one of the signs for this group was:

That made me envision a bunch of dancing nuns. But they were not those kinds of sisters. 🙂

This was a neat window display.

The handbell (…choir? Performers? Players?) group made me think of Quilly.

I thought these were pretty nightgowns…

But the sign said they were…

Sorry about the glare. The photo I took without the flash was blurry.

Here is a scene from A Christmas Carol:

When we came by later, Marley was there, chains and all. Wish I could’ve gotten a shot of that!

Sherlock Holmes:

Quilters:

Florence Nightingale (the guy with the cap is a reflection of someone looking in — he is not in the scene):

Our one big downtown building lit up a window display:

These were not in a window display. 🙂 This is Jason and Mittu looking cute in the matching hats and scarves Mittu’s mom made for them.

Our favorite little brass group from last year wasn’t there — at least not in the place they were last year. If they were there somewhere, we missed them.

There was also a food court where area restaurants could set up a booth. We got a slice of pizza and later on hot chocolate and apple cider.

It was definitely a fun evening, and I hope the tradition continues!

Booking Through Thursday

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btt button The Booking Through Thursday for today is:

What’s your favorite part of Booking Through Thursday? Why do you participate (or not)?

I participate because I like reading and I enjoy discussing books and reading issues with others.

I don’t participate every week, though.  Sometimes it is just due to time constraints, but sometimes I don’t participate because the question would only require an answer of one sentence or even just a few words, not enough to really bother with a blog post. I like questions that require some thought, questions where it would be interesting to discuss and gain insights from other participants. But I do understand that other readers might prefer the light, quick questions, so it is nice that the BTT varies from week to week.