THANKFUL THANKSGIVINGS and MORE TO COME

TRAVELING TO OKLAHOMA FOR THE THANKSGIVING HOLIDAYS went well.  With the weather turning wintery, we came HOME on Saturday, but the time between Wednesday evening through Saturday morning were delightfully spent with family.

No troubles with driving the distance there.  Our automobile ran smoothly and there were no incidences.  A true blessing.  Traffic going to Oklahoma was awful around Tulsa with concrete barriers on the side of the road due to serious roadwork, but the traffic HOME went well due to traveling a different way.  I was so very happy to safely get HOME.  We had a real good visit with our oldest Son's family.  

~Our Oklahoma Grandchildren~
-2025 Thanksgiving-

Our short Son.

As older Americans,
we crashed on the sofa.

Right at the moment, I'm sipping HOT LEMON WATER on an empty stomach.  Doing some laundry and debating on what to do first with unpacking from our trip.  One thing at a time sometimes becomes a three ring circus.  

I'll unpack throughout the day.  Laundry as it goes. Thanksgiving and AUTUMN decor put away.  The start of CHRISTMAS gently comes to mind.  I have a wooden pumpkin hanging on the porch that will be replaced with a glittery, wooden snowflake on the ornament arrow.  update: done! 

Saving some of the pumpkin seeds from the homegrown pumpkins that are sitting in our yard and bench.

To save pumpkin seeds, 

First scoop out the seeds and pulp, then rinse them thoroughly to remove all stringy bits. Spread the cleaned seeds in a single layer to air-dry in a cool, dry place for several weeks, flipping them occasionally. Once completely dry, store them in a paper envelope in a cool, dark place until you are ready to plant them or roast them. 

I should have purchased some ornamental pumpkins of various colors for HARVEST TIME to save the seeds, but never thought of doing so.  Next year perhaps.  I'd like to have some white and bluish colored pumpkins for the porch next AUTUMN.  

ONWARD.  This is the week Hubby said he'd help me with this downsizing task as the out of doors is freezing cold.  Snow is expected.  Maybe rain. He won't be working on the porch until next week when it's a touch warmer.  I have to use his help as much as I can this week.  Right now he is taking a nap and I'm blogging.

Plans for the week are working like a banshee to get the living room and dining room cleared out of BOXES, BOXES, BOXES.  With the short Thanksgiving vacation, I am now fired up to get this done. 

WEEK ONE of DECEMBER.  🕯ADVENT SUNDAY is before the month of December begins being the fourth Sunday before Christmas.  Taking heart this ADVENT SUNDAY.  As I want to slow down, I am.  
The rooms will be worked on getting organized.  Put a smile in my heart and get after it with JOY.  Music please! 🎵
WEEK TWO.  Christmas cards and Christmas decorating done. 🎀
WEEK THREE.  Baking. 🍪
WEEK FOUR.  Celebrate Hubby's birthday and the Lord's.  Merry Christmas.
WEEK FIVE.  REST and move towards New Year's Day.

Holiday Time observed and prepare for the new year.  Physicals and deep thoughts about LIFE.

Thank you for visiting today.  God Bless and may LIFE treat you kind.

~d 

IMPROMPTU PIZZA WITH ME BOYS

OUR St. Louis SON drove into town around 1:30 Friday morning.  We knew our Oklahoma Son was coming through Friday afternoon.  We gathered at the local Pizza Restaurant and ate together with the conversation flowing.  It was so great to get together.  

Oklahoma Son was surprised that his brother was with us.  SURPRISE!  It was much needed time together.

Hubby and I went HOME to take a nap and the boys went to play Disc Golf together in the afternoon.  They seldom get to see one another so my heart is HAPPY that they get to spend some time together.  Later they will see their Sister.  

I am HAPPY for them.
~d

 🍕🍕🍕🍕🍕🍕🍕🍕🍕🍕🍕🍕🍕🍕🍕🍕🍕🍕🍕🍕🍕🍕🍕🍕🍕🍕🍕🍕🍕🍕🍕

MONDAY MOMENTS

OVER THE WEEK-END we sat inside Retirement Cottage visiting about what we need to do to make her more livable.  She seriously needs a clean-up and cleaned out. It'll be a while before she is ready to receive guests.  On a fluke, I picked out some tile for the Kitchen backsplash that we saw at Home Depot.  Presently we are working on the Bathroom.  

Bathroom~Kitchen~Bathroom~Kitchen

Originally we went to Home Depot to look at floor tile that we are going to use in the bathroom, only to find out that the one we were going to look at was sold out.  Shucks, but we had a happy accident.   

Instead a Dove Gray Arabesque tile for the kitchen back splash caught my eye.  We looked at it and agreed that this would be a good choice for our RETIREMENT COTTAGE.  We bought some.

The sample is darker than what we got.  I like the shape and think it will perk up the kitchen that will have white cabinets, stainless steel appliances, a different floor, countertops and ceiling.  Not sure if we will go with wood floors, tiles or something else.  The ceiling will need redone.  Same with this.  Not sure if we will go wood ceiling, tin, or sheetrock.  It will morph together.  For now, we do a lot of talking and thinking and dreaming and looking AND talking and thinking and dreaming and looking...

The Pantry will be given fresh coats of paint this Summer.  The kitchen walls will need to be given a facelift.  I'll paint the wood cabinets with high humidity paint.  The trim will be sanded, primed and painted.  

I hope it turns out as nice as I am imagining.  This pic just kind of gives an idea how the tile looks with white cabinets.  I like it.  

The Kitchen, bathroom and utility rooms will have lots of white and soft grays.  I already know this with much thought.  The rest of the house will have bright whites and taupes...I think. Hard wood floors and shutters for the windows.  Time will tell if we go this route.  Neutrals add a tranquil presence and I believe that this is needed in a HOME where we call it our HAVEN. 

The Cottage is quite small, so the lighter the colors, the better.  Darker colors seem to cause the rooms to shrink and close in. 

Right now we are gutting the cottage bathroom.  In my head, I have vision.  I can see the room completed.  I hope it turns out as nice as I am imagining.  As for the kitchen tile, I thought it best to go ahead and get it since they only had two boxes.  The way things go, sometimes if the timing is right, you need to strike while the iron is hot.  So we did.

Fixing up one's HOME making it livable, attractive and pleasing to look at is a ministry all by itself.  A clean and tidy abode goes a long ways at making a house a HOME.  Hello Happier peeps.

It has been rainy and cool outside.  This week we will be receiving moisture which is watering our flowers and lawn.  

A busy week of grandchildren graduating.  We attended a party for the Grand graduating from college.  He is heading out this week for a new adventure in Florida.  New job and apartment life. Wishing him well.

Then the two 8th graders are graduating.  I found a dress and a pair of shoes that don't hurt my feet.  I will style my hair, put some make-up on, jewelry, dress up and watch her graduate.  Take some pictures and smile.  Also will hopefully watch via zoom a grandson graduate.  I won't be wearing a dress, but I will be smiling anyways.

Sunday Supper was a large salad with kale, spinach and spring greens.  Boiled eggs sprinkled with paprika, red pepper, chickpeas, black beans, carrots, cucumbers, celery, tomatoes, Kalamata olives made a large salad.  Olive oil, apple cider vinegar, Italian seasoning, black pepper and garlic powder for salad dressing.  Very filling and I stayed in my caloric zone today. That's good because on Saturday, I was over the limit.  

NOT OUT OF CONTROL, but close to it.  I'm working at watching the carbs and had two small bites of chocolate cake.  That's control I tell ya.

I continue to go through paperwork and work on bills.  I don't understand how quickly the paperwork piles up.  I will get caught up I know I will.  Paying some bills by phone helps make quick work at this, still the statements have got to be filed.

This week I will have Graduations to watch, physical therapy to endure, laundry to wash and working on gutting the cottage.  I have to pace myself and rest quite a bit.  By using the air fryer, I will try to use up some apples making apple chips that have been sitting out on the counter top. Also bake some Kale Chips.  Something I have never done.  

I washed 6 large mason jars and will fill with nutritional goodness.  My little pantry will have a farmhouse look to it with mason jars and baskets.  Okay, I am getting with the program after all. grins.

I continue to watch videos on health issues and research them.  Much reading.  I believe I will get healthier eating organic veggies and fruits, grass fed meats, low carbs, avoiding sugars and artificial sugars plus so many added ingredients that aren't real food, but chemicals.  I can do this thing.  I want to and I believe I can.  I am doing this thing.

Blessings to you,

🏡HOME LIFE is for me,

👵d

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GRANDPA

Sun shinny day as I look outside.  Cold, but then it's January.  The anniversary of my Grandpa's passing 43 years ago comes this week.  A lifetime ago.  My second born was just a tiny baby.  We traveled with my sister and brother in law to Colorado for the funeral.  My dear Mother in law watched my boys as my sis brought her new born along with us for the journey from Kansas to Fort Morgan, Colorado.

Terribly cold when we went.  Bitter cold.  I was 21 years old at the time.  A spring chicken. Grandpa was about 84.  Everyday, he'd take a walk around the block.  He and Grandma had moved from the country into town to live in large bungalow.  Their country home was once a crude log cabin that they modernized and stuccoed white.

When I was a little girl I remember visiting them while they were finishing the dining room floor. Grandpa with his brother in law Ben were down on their knees laying tiles.  SO they took a primitive cabin and worked it over into a nice ranch style HOME.  3 bedrooms, one bath, attached garage, living room with the dining area to the side.  A nice size kitchen with a mud room that lead to the out of doors.  The back yard was dirt with clumps of grass and native shrub. Isolated in the country.  Dirt roads and blue sky for as far as you looked.  

Grandpa would have been a man in his late 60s early 70s when he and Grandma moved to the log cabin.  He still road horses ranching sheep and cattle.  This was his lively hood. 

In his younger day he was quite the cowboy that was an award winner with the lasso. 

When he married my Grandma, he was 25 or 26 and she was 25.  Today's standards would not consider this old, but back in the day it wasn't considered young.  Grandma would have been an old maid.  Grandpa served in the Navy crossing the ocean many times and before he came back to civilian life he stopped off in Philadelphia to buy a wedding ring for my Grandma.

For some reason Grandma's father did not like Grandpa.  He had a great dislike toward Grandpa's father and for this he told my Grandma that he hoped he'd never see her again.  So I do not know if he attended the wedding or not where Grandma picked wildflowers for her wedding bouquet and sewed her own wedding dress.  She gave up her homestead to marry Grandpa.  

After Grandma and Grandpa went on their honeymoon, Grandma's father got his wish.  He'd drown in a flash flood.  SO I don't know if Grandma attended her father's funeral or not.  It's sketchy.  

Imagine your father telling you that he hoped he'd never see you again and then would die while you are on your honeymoon. Grandma's mother always thought that her son in law was the nicest person.  

Grandma stayed true to her Husband and Grandpa stayed true to his wife.  They made their HOME together and lived through thick and thin.  Becoming one flesh and married for 56 and a half years.

x♡x d

AFTERNOON AT THE PARK

A NEW WAY TO GREET ONE ANOTHER OR TO SAY GOOD BYE  is by bumping elbows.

We headed out to see our FAMILY and watch a GRANDSON run Cross Country, but as we were on the road to get there our son phoned us to let us know that his race start time had changed and they had already ran.

Sudden changes are common these days.  Not everyone lives with a phone attached to their hip.  We were already several hours into our drive before we knew that our Grandson missed his meet.  We had planned a PICNIC afterwards, so we ate

LUNCH UNDER THE SHADE TREES.  

A cool breeze with Family time at the Park was wonderful.

Seeing them in person made my heart HAPPY.

In March 2020 we saw them as social distancing was sprouting out.

We chatted for several hours then said our Good-byes until next time.

ON THE ROAD AGAIN FOR 5 HOURS.  

We made the best of it.  

Saw lovely scenery on the way HOME.

LOVE to all,

d