Today is Wednesday, January 21, 2009. It is Glen's birthday. Yeah! Birthdays are fun. The sun is not shining here in Paradise but he had a special birthday breakfast. We are here visiting our daughter and her family.
Glen is helping to move packed boxes down to their new house. Me, I am laid up with a bum knee. Plan A was that I was to babysit while the other two grown-ups moved boxes. But the "baby" didn't want to be "sat." I am left here all alone with this fancy computer. The keyboard is about half the size if the keyboard I am used to and so i have to be very careful.
First off, i read my latest blog and was so excited to have some comments. Wow! That was fun. Then I scanned one of our daughter's favorite blogs, Confessions of a Pioneer Woman. She has lots of comments - more than 100 Wow! Will I ever have that any readers? I wonder.
I have about decided that I need to call my blog "Just Ramblin'. Today that is what I am going to do, just ramble. Now adays I spend most of the night in our recliner. We decided we could come visit in Paradise because they have a lovely leather overstuffed chair with an ottoman. That was my recliner last night and I slept fine. I've tried getting in our bed at night. I can stay there about two hours before my knees get so uncomfortable I can't go to sleep. Then I get up and sleep in the recliner. I have a wonderful soft fleece blanket. I use my Disneyland jacket as the second cover over me feet and legs. I tuck the fleece blanket over my shoulders and just snuggle in. Fleece blankets are so soft and cuddly.
Our son-in-law came home from his job and we all had a wonderful breakfast - breakfast scramble, I guess you could call it. Sausage, potatoes, cheese, egg, and onion all cooked up together. It is a favorite breakfast treat for us, Glen and me. Our grandson had to go off to school and our son-in-law off to work again. That leaves four of us at home - three adults and one darling little granddaughter.
I played the piano awhile and have turned now to the internet. I've read a few blogs and decided to make a new posting on my own. Just Ramble awhile.
Yesterday was the inauguration of the 44th President of the United States, President Barack Obama. He's from the Democratic Party and the Congress is predominately Democrat. These next four years will be interesting to watch For the record, I am a staunch Republican and not in favor of government taking over any more aspects of my life. I am so grateful to be an American. I hope we will go down the road that is best for our country.
There were sure lots of festivities and events going on yesterday to the tune of millions and millions of dollars. Personally, I hope there will be a settling down soon and that all the new officers will get on with the work. I'd love to see a President like "Dave" in office. That has become one of my favorite movies.
Back to the day in Paradise - Glen plans to take at least one more load down to the new house. More boxes need to be packed before that can happen. They just finished the kitchen in this house and it is beautiful. There is a skylight - I've always wished I had a skylight. New lights have been added. The kitchen used to be very dark in the evenings after the sun ha gone down, but not anymore. There are new appliances - microwave, stove, a special oven - all in sleek black and burnished aluminum. And a dishwasher has been added! Ah, such bliss - the dishwasher. There is a nice work island in the center with two different levels. One side is an eating bar for tall stools. Countertops are granite and the back splash is a modern tiny brickwork design. I don't know the exact name but it looks fabulous. Whoever rents this house is going to have a nice place with a big back yard. I hope there are some children to enjoy the yard.
It seems like it will be a cloudy day. We will stay for lunch and the head back to Sacramento. The celebration for the birthday took place mostly on Monday night - Family Home Evening. Glen's birthday dinner was roast (cooked all day in the crockpot), veggies, a green salad, homemade bread (he made that). Dessert, of course, was cherry pie and ice cream. I also made a lemon jello cake to put his 74 candles in. For years I used to try something around the pie to hold the candles - bread, donuts, all kinds of stuff Then I finally got smart and just baked a cake in a 13 x 9 for the candles. What took me so long to get smart? The grandkids don't like cherry pie anyway. They are happy for the cake.
Plan A had been that tonight when we got home we would go to Applebee's for Dinner. We got a gift certificate for Christmas. Then we decided I might be too tired after the drive. And abandoned Plan A. We'll see what the last part of the day will be.
Well, enough rambling for this day. That is ALL for today.
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
How do you eat a Snickers candy bar?
Today is Tuesday, January 13, 2009. The sun is shining brightly and the sky is blue.
Last Sunday in Relief Society our lesson was about being happy. One of the things the teacher said was that you should laugh at least 15 times a day. I've read various articles over the years about the value of laughter and humor to your health and well being. Since last Sunday I have tried to laugh more each day. Sometimes I watch America's Funniest Home Videos (some make me want to cry not laugh) and reruns of I Love Lucy. Yesterday the laughter came about at Family Home Evening.
After we had finished with formalities (tonight it was playing It Came To Pass), Glen gave each of us a Snickers bar for our refreshment. While we were all nibbling one of the girls asked, "How do you eat a Snickers candy bar?" The answer to that question got us all laughing. We proceeded from Snickers to other candies.
I eat a Snicker bar by taking small bites from side to side, savoring the combined taste of all the ingredients.
Now I can't remember exactly who eats it what way but these were some of the descriptions.
I eat mine by licking off the chocolate on the bottom, just a little ways, then I eat the chocolate on the sides and off the top. Then I bite the mddle .
I eat off the top chocolate first. Then I do the sides and eat the center with the bottom chocolate.
I just eat it. I've never thought about the way I do it, but how do you eat M & M's?
If it is plain M & M's I just pop several in my mouth at a time and let them melt a little. Then I bite them. If they are peanut ones, I put one in my mouth at a time, let the coating melt a bit and then crunch right through to the peanut center.
Not me, I eat plain M & M's one at a time. And peanut ones I just bite right away.
There were more descriptions floating around and lots of laughter to think of what a crazy discussion it was to begin with.
From there we progressed to other forms of candy - like Reese's peanut butter cups, and Hershey's kisses, and Hershey's Nuggets. We each had to have a nugget to analyze just how we did it. If there had been Reese's Peanut Butter cups in the house, we would have tried them too.
Glen thought we should each have another Snickers bar so everyone could analyze how they eat it. He was only kidding, of course.
I think the whole conversation started because on Saturday night we had watched a TV show called Unwrapped and they were talking about nostalgic candy. It was fascinating how some of the candies are made and why they were popular. When that show was finished we talked about candy we remembered from our grade school days. Of course, the candy Glen remembered was his mother's wonderful homemade caramels and Boston creams. His school wasn't near a little candy store like mine was. He didn't have a little corner grocery store that sold penny candy like our children did. The nearest store of any kind for him was about 25 miles away from home and nowhere near the school.
There's sure a lot of candy consumed by everyone these days. What a sweet, sweet world we live in. And a lot of sweet memories floating around. Next time you have a Snickers bar get the answer to the question, "How do you eat a Sinckers candy bar/"
That's all for today.
Last Sunday in Relief Society our lesson was about being happy. One of the things the teacher said was that you should laugh at least 15 times a day. I've read various articles over the years about the value of laughter and humor to your health and well being. Since last Sunday I have tried to laugh more each day. Sometimes I watch America's Funniest Home Videos (some make me want to cry not laugh) and reruns of I Love Lucy. Yesterday the laughter came about at Family Home Evening.
After we had finished with formalities (tonight it was playing It Came To Pass), Glen gave each of us a Snickers bar for our refreshment. While we were all nibbling one of the girls asked, "How do you eat a Snickers candy bar?" The answer to that question got us all laughing. We proceeded from Snickers to other candies.
I eat a Snicker bar by taking small bites from side to side, savoring the combined taste of all the ingredients.
Now I can't remember exactly who eats it what way but these were some of the descriptions.
I eat mine by licking off the chocolate on the bottom, just a little ways, then I eat the chocolate on the sides and off the top. Then I bite the mddle .
I eat off the top chocolate first. Then I do the sides and eat the center with the bottom chocolate.
I just eat it. I've never thought about the way I do it, but how do you eat M & M's?
If it is plain M & M's I just pop several in my mouth at a time and let them melt a little. Then I bite them. If they are peanut ones, I put one in my mouth at a time, let the coating melt a bit and then crunch right through to the peanut center.
Not me, I eat plain M & M's one at a time. And peanut ones I just bite right away.
There were more descriptions floating around and lots of laughter to think of what a crazy discussion it was to begin with.
From there we progressed to other forms of candy - like Reese's peanut butter cups, and Hershey's kisses, and Hershey's Nuggets. We each had to have a nugget to analyze just how we did it. If there had been Reese's Peanut Butter cups in the house, we would have tried them too.
Glen thought we should each have another Snickers bar so everyone could analyze how they eat it. He was only kidding, of course.
I think the whole conversation started because on Saturday night we had watched a TV show called Unwrapped and they were talking about nostalgic candy. It was fascinating how some of the candies are made and why they were popular. When that show was finished we talked about candy we remembered from our grade school days. Of course, the candy Glen remembered was his mother's wonderful homemade caramels and Boston creams. His school wasn't near a little candy store like mine was. He didn't have a little corner grocery store that sold penny candy like our children did. The nearest store of any kind for him was about 25 miles away from home and nowhere near the school.
There's sure a lot of candy consumed by everyone these days. What a sweet, sweet world we live in. And a lot of sweet memories floating around. Next time you have a Snickers bar get the answer to the question, "How do you eat a Sinckers candy bar/"
That's all for today.
Monday, January 12, 2009
Quilt Blocks and Recipes
Today is Monday, January 12, 2009. The sun is about to shine. It is cold outside. But it is nice and warm inside.
My "good knee" has now turned into a "bad knee." I am doing a lot of sitting down these days. Glen said to me, "While you're sitting why don't you finish that sampler quilt you started? You can give it to me for my birthday." (He had found the parts of it again as he sorted through the garage.) And he brought me out the box of quilt blocks. I started working on it. Oh my!
In 1982 - twenty seven years ago - I took a quilting class at Bakersfield College. I loved the class and we learned a lot of techniques. I actually had four completed blocks quilted and sewn together. That was the final class assignment. I had several more individual blocks completed - piecing and quilting. Then I had several of the blocks made which I had never started to quilt.
I spent several hours checking it all out to decide just what I needed to do. The original "plan" was to make a queen size sampler quilt for our bed. In lap quilting you had to make a plan on graph paper showing which pieces would have the dividing strips sewn onto them before you started to quilt. I knew right where the plan was. As a part of the class we also had to create a notebook with notes from the class and other quilting information we gathered through the semester. The plan was in that notebook.
I've always been interested in quilts. My grandmother was a quilter - a very skilled quilter. She could get 5 tiny stitches on her needle as she quilted. She was admired by all her quilter friends because of her skill. Well, Grandma sewed everything. She made me several dresses, all hand sewn, and we all marveled at her tiny stitches, more precise and even than the sewing machine.
And Grandma collected quilt patterns from The Grit and The Capper's Weekly, two popular weekly newspapers received through the mail. Well, when we started this notebook I gathered up all of her clipped out ideas and added the ones my mother had also collected and began to watch for some of my own. Mother and Grandma created some designs of their own, too. My notebook began to bulge with all these quilting ideas.
I decided I would make a unique cover for my notebook. So I did a strip design with some of the most gorgeous scraps of silks, satins and velvets I had been given by other people. I added some lace and kept sewing until my piece was big enough. Lo and behold when I sent one of my daughters searching for the notebook, it had expanded into three. I'd forgotten that. In fact the first notebook she dug off the bottom shelf of the bookcase did not have the "plan." She came up with the next one. It didn't have the plan either. Finally she got the right one. Now, all three of these notebooks, mind you, were covered with fabric. The first was all puffy and fancy - a gift from some friend. The other two were ones I had covered with my strip quilting. And all three were bulging with pages of ideas and information about quilts. Oh my! I am such a collector!
I know that somewhere in all my "stuff" I also have quilt pieces my mother cut for a double wedding ring quilt. I just cannot bear to part with them. And I know there are some 9 patch quilt blocks she pieced together and never got sewn into a quilt top. I can't part with them either.
Anyway, I spent some hours looking through the notebooks, savoring memories of the past. I started working again on this sampler quilt. I can barely get three stitches on my needle and I have decided this is a hard way to make a quilt. It is true that it can be done on your lap. You don't have to set up a quilting frame that fills your whole room. But it is sure a hard way to get a quilt done. Not only do you have to make with quilt blocks but you have to cut the backing and batting apart and then stitch it together again. Oh my!
I was discussing quilting with a friend yesterday. She said, "If you can't get to heaven without being able to quilt, I am not going to make it." Well, I have proved I can quilt and I love quilts. I'm not sure I love the making of them. My sampler quilt is progressing. I am changing the "plan." It is much smaller than the original but Glen will never run across the unfinished pieces again as he sorts through the garage. I AM GOING TO MAKE IT COMPLETE.
And I know I will keep watching out for those quilt patterns I keep running across in various newspapers and magazines. I think it must be a hereditary charastic. Just like collecting recipes. I inherited that from my mother and my grandmother, too. Grandma, of course, didn't have so many sources for recipes as we do nowadays. But she had quite a lot. Arm and Hammer Baking Soda had a little printed booklet - darn, it doesn't have a year printed on it. Calumet Baking Soda also had one. I can't part with those old recipes.
Now Mother collected cook books. Oh boy! I never counted how many she had. She collected them from everywhere she traveled, all across the United States. Mostly she liked to collect ones made by Ladies Church Groups - all tried and tested on families and friends.
Once you start collecting cookbooks that is the gift of choice from everyone you know. Lo and behold, I can't resist looking at cookbooks either. My favorite one in my collection is a hand printed, decorated one I picked up at an Antique Store in Cameron, Missouri. Talk about devotion, hand printed with original drawings, and made on a mimeograph machine. Who remembers those old things? Man, are we ever spoiled with our computers, printers, and copiers?
Anyone remember the 5000 cookbooks we made for the Sierra Band to raise money to go to Ireland? Whose brainy idea was that???
Speaking of recipes, the recipe for breakfast this morning is about to come off the stove so I will stop this rambling and say - That's all for today.
My "good knee" has now turned into a "bad knee." I am doing a lot of sitting down these days. Glen said to me, "While you're sitting why don't you finish that sampler quilt you started? You can give it to me for my birthday." (He had found the parts of it again as he sorted through the garage.) And he brought me out the box of quilt blocks. I started working on it. Oh my!
In 1982 - twenty seven years ago - I took a quilting class at Bakersfield College. I loved the class and we learned a lot of techniques. I actually had four completed blocks quilted and sewn together. That was the final class assignment. I had several more individual blocks completed - piecing and quilting. Then I had several of the blocks made which I had never started to quilt.
I spent several hours checking it all out to decide just what I needed to do. The original "plan" was to make a queen size sampler quilt for our bed. In lap quilting you had to make a plan on graph paper showing which pieces would have the dividing strips sewn onto them before you started to quilt. I knew right where the plan was. As a part of the class we also had to create a notebook with notes from the class and other quilting information we gathered through the semester. The plan was in that notebook.
I've always been interested in quilts. My grandmother was a quilter - a very skilled quilter. She could get 5 tiny stitches on her needle as she quilted. She was admired by all her quilter friends because of her skill. Well, Grandma sewed everything. She made me several dresses, all hand sewn, and we all marveled at her tiny stitches, more precise and even than the sewing machine.
And Grandma collected quilt patterns from The Grit and The Capper's Weekly, two popular weekly newspapers received through the mail. Well, when we started this notebook I gathered up all of her clipped out ideas and added the ones my mother had also collected and began to watch for some of my own. Mother and Grandma created some designs of their own, too. My notebook began to bulge with all these quilting ideas.
I decided I would make a unique cover for my notebook. So I did a strip design with some of the most gorgeous scraps of silks, satins and velvets I had been given by other people. I added some lace and kept sewing until my piece was big enough. Lo and behold when I sent one of my daughters searching for the notebook, it had expanded into three. I'd forgotten that. In fact the first notebook she dug off the bottom shelf of the bookcase did not have the "plan." She came up with the next one. It didn't have the plan either. Finally she got the right one. Now, all three of these notebooks, mind you, were covered with fabric. The first was all puffy and fancy - a gift from some friend. The other two were ones I had covered with my strip quilting. And all three were bulging with pages of ideas and information about quilts. Oh my! I am such a collector!
I know that somewhere in all my "stuff" I also have quilt pieces my mother cut for a double wedding ring quilt. I just cannot bear to part with them. And I know there are some 9 patch quilt blocks she pieced together and never got sewn into a quilt top. I can't part with them either.
Anyway, I spent some hours looking through the notebooks, savoring memories of the past. I started working again on this sampler quilt. I can barely get three stitches on my needle and I have decided this is a hard way to make a quilt. It is true that it can be done on your lap. You don't have to set up a quilting frame that fills your whole room. But it is sure a hard way to get a quilt done. Not only do you have to make with quilt blocks but you have to cut the backing and batting apart and then stitch it together again. Oh my!
I was discussing quilting with a friend yesterday. She said, "If you can't get to heaven without being able to quilt, I am not going to make it." Well, I have proved I can quilt and I love quilts. I'm not sure I love the making of them. My sampler quilt is progressing. I am changing the "plan." It is much smaller than the original but Glen will never run across the unfinished pieces again as he sorts through the garage. I AM GOING TO MAKE IT COMPLETE.
And I know I will keep watching out for those quilt patterns I keep running across in various newspapers and magazines. I think it must be a hereditary charastic. Just like collecting recipes. I inherited that from my mother and my grandmother, too. Grandma, of course, didn't have so many sources for recipes as we do nowadays. But she had quite a lot. Arm and Hammer Baking Soda had a little printed booklet - darn, it doesn't have a year printed on it. Calumet Baking Soda also had one. I can't part with those old recipes.
Now Mother collected cook books. Oh boy! I never counted how many she had. She collected them from everywhere she traveled, all across the United States. Mostly she liked to collect ones made by Ladies Church Groups - all tried and tested on families and friends.
Once you start collecting cookbooks that is the gift of choice from everyone you know. Lo and behold, I can't resist looking at cookbooks either. My favorite one in my collection is a hand printed, decorated one I picked up at an Antique Store in Cameron, Missouri. Talk about devotion, hand printed with original drawings, and made on a mimeograph machine. Who remembers those old things? Man, are we ever spoiled with our computers, printers, and copiers?
Anyone remember the 5000 cookbooks we made for the Sierra Band to raise money to go to Ireland? Whose brainy idea was that???
Speaking of recipes, the recipe for breakfast this morning is about to come off the stove so I will stop this rambling and say - That's all for today.
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