not too long ago, not too far from here...

Did anyone else grow up hearing stories?  My father liked to tell us stories around the campfire.  He also liked to tell us about the stars and galaxies.  He ignored us most of the time, but he was usually in a good mood when we were camping, which is maybe why I love it so much.  (Except for when he was backing the camper in...ugh)

Anyway.  This fine morning, the sun was shining out of a clear blue sky!  What a mean trick, it was only 12F (-11.11c)!  I hadn't grabbed a mitten for navigating down the deck stairs!  I have to hold on for dear life, of course.  Brrr.  To the pool I went, and as I waded down the ramp, the water was nice, a bit warmer than it's been.  

A few people I hadn't seen in a while were there today, one had a few surgeries and was out, another was on vacation.  It's nice to be back in the water, and seeing everyone again.  Getting out of the water and walking back up the ramp is part of the price I pay to be able to move so nicely in that water.  

Home...ahh, home.  I made a hot cup of coffee, put my sweater on, covered up with a blanket, then got a text from Sonja...and yes, I would like to go bye-bye.  Camille and I were out the door in no time, she was driving!  We went to Sonja's house, and got in her car.  Aldi, which was waaaay better this time, but still very slow and hobbly.  I got more brownie mix, a cauliflower crust pizza, some cherry lime seltzer, and a present for Jamie's birthday.  

We decided to go to Marshall's, which was challenging...by the time I got out to the car, I was holding Camille's arm, and my knee was not happy.  But, it was fine once I got in the car, and I was able to go up the deck steps at home just fine.  

So...home again, with an iced Americano from Starbucks, I sat here in my comfy chair for a bit, then decided to vacuum.  I ended up doing the whole kitchen/living room/hallway without using my cane.  I was pretty happy about it, then boom, the knee sort of gave way, but...I did not fall.  But I took a rest anyway.  

My legs are sore right now, all those weeks of not much activity, now getting back into things is not easy on them.  But I am SO thankful!   I am not where I want to be yet, but I'm thankful.  One lady in the locker room today said she felt sorry for me.  for ME?!  Oh honey, I'm doing great!  Don't feel sorry for me!  

I have not started packing yet, although I do have a Target bag with some stuff in it, and some other stuff on a chair...and a list.  

So, I hate war.  Men love it, women hate it.  Having had two boys in the Army, of course I can't even imagine the anguish...and I hate that this whole new military action will have consequences.  But.  Bless Israel, and you will be blessed.  And:  Iran has dealt SO unjustly with it's own people, killing protesters, ect.  Those in power were merciless. They hate America, and cannot have nuclear weapons.  I think this had to be done.  I think it might make the world a better place.  Like him or hate him, he is a good foreign policy president.  

One thing I've learned through the last few years is that we can agree to disagree, and I don't hate anyone.  There is so much division and finger pointing, name calling, like...are you still in kindergarten?   Each of us will stand before God, and our deeds will be judged.  If we judge others, we will be judged by the same measure, so we should fear to do that!  

Anyway, you guys have a good evening, and I didn't mean YOU are still in kindergarten!  I meant when the politicians get into it...ugh.  

leisurely Sunday evening...

Can I just say that I still revel in the slow pace of my lifestyle now, after all those years of hectic-ness?  I remember one year on Mother's Day, I had three or four small children, and Paul took them for a nice long walk with the double stroller, and left me to just sit in the yard and vegetate in the sunshine.  I loved that, loved him for that.  I remember trying to read the Sunday paper when we had lots of children, in fits and starts, usually finished up by the time the next Sunday rolled around.  Life was just busy busy busy.

This fine morning, I washed white towels, then colored towels, then got out the vacuum cleaner.  Paul ended up vacuuming, and mopping.  Shh, he is such a nice guy, but I noticed crumbs he left.  He does things so quickly, but I can't really complain, now, can I?  He burned the cardboard (yeah, we are that kind of rural!), and took care of the garbage and the returnable cans.  

I sliced and cubed chicken breast (a five+ pound package) and marinated it in soy sauce, garlic, sesame oil, and lots of pepper.  I froze some, but put the rest on a baking sheet in the oven, sprinkled with sesame oil.  A bag of stir fry veggies with lots of red peppers, and some fresh broccoli florets on another baking sheet with sesame oil, into the oven.  A pan of jasmine rice, and dinner was underway.  Oh, for a sauce, I used butter, honey, ginger (a lot of ginger!), garlic, soy sauce, some orange chicken sauce, orange marmalade, rice vinegar...mmm.  Char mixed up a pan of brownies, she went with Camille to their friend's house and took them warm from the oven, leaving a few here...which I do not want to eat, ha.

We had our friend Annetta here for dinner, it was so very pleasant.  She left a bit ago, and it's just Paul and I here with Sunny and the kitties.  We didn't have church today because there was a mentors' weekend, and we watched a broadcast of a meeting today instead.  

Yesterday we were bare feet on the deck, this morning we woke up to more snow.  It's cold out, 19(-7.2c) right now, going down to 6  (-14.4c)tonight.   brrr.  I plan to get up and go to the pool...

My suitcase is in my room, ready to be packed.  I have a list (Passport!  Charger!  Plug converter!). I will be wearing my new wool sneakers, even with dresses.  I usually wear my Birkenstock knock-off clogs, but they are harder to walk in these days.  I plan to practice in the next few days, to see if I can manage them. 

Ah well...have a good night!  

then Friday comes along, again!

 Life is just speeding by!  The days and weeks and months...I still can't believe I'm sixty years old.  A sixty year old, in my book, is an old person.  Sometimes my body feels old, but I am personally NOT an old person.  Sometimes I think If I'm lucky, I'll get another twenty years..., and we all know that twenty years is nothing, goes by in a blink.  I've been writing this blog for over 18 years!  We know that it's not our business how much time we have, and I am not dwelling on it, just a thought that goes through my brain.  

Anyway, I am thankful for today.  My day has been excellent.  I got up and went to the pool.  It has gotten a little easier, more routine to go.  I park in the back, phone the front desk, and they so nicely unlock the door for me and I don't have the long trip down the sidewalk.  

The locker room and the pool deck can be very wet and slippery, so I go slowly as to not lose traction with my cane, and the water shoes help.  The ramp into the pool is a nice gradual decline, with a railing...I take the slowest mincing steps, but then when I reach the bottom, ahhh, in the water I can walk so nicely!!!!

When I got home, I was taking off my shoes when I heard Cam talking to Sonja about going someplace.  They dithered and discussed, then decided it was a good day for Target.  Yes, I would like to go too!

Sonja dropped me off in the front, so I didn't have to navigate the parking lot, with Char.  We went in and ordered a coffee and sat down to wait for Sonja, Kaia, and Camille.  Traipsing through the store was rather uneventful, I did buy a new pair of "readers".  I wanted something new for my trip, a dress or a sweater, or a top that looks fantastic, makes me look really thin, and was cheap. ha.  I did not find anything.  There was a really pretty button down sweater, with elbow length sleeves, but it was cropped.  I did buy peanut M&Ms for the flight, unless someone has  a nut allergy, and also some beef jerky, and some gum.  I bought stuff for a salad for dinner, and a new sweatshirt for Miss Char.  

I didn't want to speak too soon, but as soon as I got in the car I said:  my knee didn't buckle one single time in Target!!!  I walked around more than last time, too!  Now I'm not saying I was racing up and down the aisles, but it is getting slowly and incrementally better.  

I need to get up and move again.  I'm chilled because the pool water has been rather cold.  But, I have laundry to put in the dryer, and a load of towels to wash.  Charlotte Claire gave Sunny a bath, and used a pile.  :)

Now it it Saturday night.  I got up this fine morning, after a rough night:  Sunny whined to go out around one a.m., then again around five.  I don't know if she wasn't feeling well or what, but I hobbled down the hallway and let her out, waited for her to come back in, and settled back into bed.

Beef stew was on the menu, so I dredged the meat in flour with onion, garlic, salt and pepper, browned it up, then put it in the crock pot with beef broth, some bullion cubes, a few packets of brown gravy mix, a bag of mini red skinned potatoes, baby carrots, and some cubed carrots.  

The day was warm, I think 40 degrees and sunny!  Margaret came over with Wulf, Tenny, and Blythe, and Kathryn with Achilles, Rhys, Jamie, and Ellis, then Sonja with baby Kaia....Evelyn also came over for a bit.  We spent a bit of time out on the deck.  Marge and Kap shoveled some snow away so the kids could drive around in their Little Tikes cars.  I was out there in bare feet, it was so nice.  

Kathryn brought stuff to make little pigs-in-a-blanket for the kids (mini hot dogs with crescent rolls), she also sliced up some apples, so they had a nice snack-lunch, then Margaret made a pizza with them.  Some of them liked the stew, and we had a cozy dinner.  Sonja played hide-and-seek and matching game with them.  There were quieter times, and noisier times, but it was a really fun day that went by too fast.

Now it is quiet again...and it will snow again tonight, and get cold again...oh well.  Spring WILL come.

You all have a good night!

some things...

 ....to be thankful for:

Morning coffee.  It is always so good.  Anticipated, and never disappointing.  There's nothing like it.

Paul.  He went out and shoveled those treacherous deck steps for me this morning, after we got several inches of new snow last night.  He got out the snowblower and cleared the driveway, cleaned the snow off my car, and started it for me.  It ended the internal hemming and hawing I had going on about heading to the pool.  I HAD to go, after he did all of that!  

It's good for me to go.  I was in the water fifteen minutes before class started, so I walked forwards and backwards.  The class itself is good, all the upper body movement feels nice.  I didn't go in the deep end for the second half, just walked back and forth again, the swam just a little bit, kicked those legs, which feels weird.  

After my nice hot shower, I got dressed and headed out to the car, then walking down the hallway there in the rec center, that dang knee gave out unexpectedly, just a little bit, I didn't fall.  But it throws me for a loop, wrecks my confidence.  But, having no choice, except for just to sit down on the floor and cry, I walked out to my car.  :). 

Home for hot coffee and a nice comfy chair.  Not for long though, I have PT this afternoon.  

One of the people in the pool told about going out the door yesterday and seeing all the new snow, and having a little hissy fit.  I said, "It didn't help, did it?"  no.  it did not.  Winter is at the stage where it has been here forever and will stay here forever.  

Seven days until my trip!  I logged into my SAS app, 7 days until your trip to Oslo!  I had such high hopes of how well I would be getting around!  Last year when I got home from Norway in March was when I decided Enough Is Enough, and scheduled the surgery, as I was in a world of hurt.  The new knee, for all of it's faults, doesn't hurt like that.  None of that aching all night garbage.  (The other knee isn't as bad either, it aches and sticks but not as bad as this one did).  But I really thought this year I'd be cruising around like nothing, when I booked in September.  But.  I am going.  :)

Now I'm home again, all covered with a blanket in my comfy chair, with the snow swirling down outside. We're supposed to get another  three to six inches tonight.  I've got my coffee here, and the new candle warmer turned on...the old one stopped working, so I ordered another one.  It's a little glass lamp thing, you put a candle under it and it melts the wax and brings the aroma of the candle without any fire involved.  It's a nice warm lamp.  

So now it's dinner time again, and I'm thinking of leftover chicken soup.  Miss Char just had a four o'clock lunch of egg and bagel, so she won't be hungry.  She did a store pick up for me after her classes today, so we have a large bag of Reeses's Peanut Butter Eggs,  some Cadbury candy coated eggs, a big package of chicken breast, stew beef (there is nothing like a nice bowl of beef stew in this cold weather!), avocados, carrots, and deodorant.  

My goodness!  It's Thursday morning now!  I have no idea what the interruption was, but I generally close up the laptop if any actual humans want to interact.  

Miss Sunny woke me up during the night, whining.  She's usually good in the night...she just lies down on her doggy bed in our room, and settles in.  So I got up and let her out, which left me WIDE awake.  It was before four, and it was past five when I glanced at the clock...

I have not started packing for my trip yet, but I did splurge on some travel sized Herbal Essences, and some Dove body wash, and a new tube of travel toothpaste.  My new compression socks came in the mail, I've never traveled in them before, but it's sometimes said it's safer to do so after a surgery, it can't hurt.  I have some candy for my niece Janet, she lives in Norway and misses Reeses. I got out my travel backpack, it's looking fine.  I have a list too, and some protein bars (Built bars are so good, and I'm not getting a penny to say so..they're expensive though, I get them when they go on sale, and eat them sparingly for a treat...I used to eat one on PT days, because I hated and dreaded PT so much, in the early days). 

Blah blah blah, as my father used to say.  You have a good one!

a wee bit more snow....

 ...the world outside is fresh and clean again.  I was glad it wasn't a pool morning!  It's a stay-at-home day, so far anyway.  Laundry, vacuuming, exercise bike, wondering in between why I can't walk better than I can, but plugging away at it.  

Yesterday, Miss Sonja K. came over for a visit.  

Kaia likes the kitty!

Camille was having some brekky and doing some homework...Kaia likes Camille, too.

In the afternoon, Paul let me know that Bill had accepted our invite for dinner, my dear sister Cheryl's husband.   I chopped some red skinned potatoes, and tossed them in avocado oil, salt and pepper, added chopped onions, and put them in the air fryer.  Paul made some really good burgers from Aldi waygu beef, with sauteed onions.  He cooked up a pound of bacon too. We had some buns in the freezer, so I buttered them and put them in the oven to toast up.  Bill brought in a bottle of wine from Boundary Breaks, down on Seneca Lake, it was too good (I managed a good sip!).  I also made a quick batch of brownies.  I'm telling you, without getting a penny to do so, that Aldi brownie mix, the cheap kind, like $1.50 a box, substitute the water for strong coffee or espresso, and they are SO good!  Also, when you have someone over, your house should smell like baking brownies, right?  

Charlotte Claire and Camille were very busy doing school work, they are both really enjoying college.  I'm getting a second hand education, again, as they study and talk about their classes.  :). 

Today seemed like a chicken soup sort of day.  We have the Ambitious Kitchen cookbook, and the chicken soup recipe is divine.  We ran out of couscous, although I suspect someone put it in a different place, because wouldn't one remember using the last of such a thing?  It didn't stop me, I am simply making a separate pan of egg noodles, whoever wants them can scoop them into their bowl of soup.  It's all done now, sitting there in the Dutch oven with the lid on, ready to eat.  So it smells wonderful in here...not brownie wonderful, but good.  

I miss the sunshine on my skin so badly it almost makes me cry.  Drama drama, I know.  But here in the northeast, it's months on end without that.  It was October for me, that's already a long long time.  I mean, yeah, you can go out on a sunny winter's day and feel it on your face, but I'm talking that basking.  That's why if per chance it's fifty and sunny in March, we're out on the deck in shorts and tank tops...sometimes with goose bumps. 

 Today it's very cold out, and our furnace isn't working well.  Paul ordered a part, and Jonathan is going to help us fix it.  Our propane bill was ouch, it's been a cold winter.  Why is it that we hate spending money on things like that, instead of being insanely thankful we have the money to spend on things like that?

 We can't take anything with us when we depart this world.  We all know this, yet we're like squirrels with acorns, socking and stockpiling.  "Give and it will be given to you, good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over, will be poured into your lap.  For the measure you use will be measured back to you." (Luke 6:38).   We ARE programmed to survive though, so I'm thankful that we also have some good sense.

I like it when I have  trips booked.  Norway next week, then Arizona in April, then Norway for ten days in July!  Also, five camping trips this year!   I am not as ambulatory as I had hoped I'd be, but I still have a week to prepare for the first trip.  :)  Nothing makes time fly like trying to get into shape for a deadline like an international flight!  

Ah well.  It's almost dinner time.  I was so tempted to bake some artisan bread today, but being stuck in the house with hot fresh bread, well, is it really so smart?  Maybe I'll make some when lots of people are coming over to help eat it.  It's bad enough to have those brownies out there.  

You all have a nice afternoon!

Ahh, and a day at home!

This last week, I went to the pool on Saturday, Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and again on Saturday!  Then to the celebration of life for Joe, home for a bit, then to my niece Becky's house for a gathering to reminisce about her mama, my sister Cheryl.  Emily so nicely drove me home, and helped me out to the car, when it gets icy, ugh.  

So this fine morning, I did not leave the house.  No one came over, it was a snowy-ash day, and I did a few loads of laundry, got on the bike several times, vacuumed, puttered.  Dishes, ect.  Paul left and did some work on a house, then stopped at Aldi.  We had burgers for dinner, and a nice salad, and some pickled beets.  I didn't like the pickled part much, but I do love beets.  

We watched the end of the hockey game, it was fun to see the USA win against the Canadians!  It's just that hockey is their thing, and we won!  :)

We are only getting a few inches of snow tonight, so I should be able to make it the pool.  The tricky part is managing to get down those deck steps.  The weather warmed up, so we haven't been able to bring the car up to the front porch, and walking down the sidewalk is treacherous...oh, I exaggerate, it's slippery though, and bumpy.  The deck steps are not too bad when they're clear, but they get icy too.  So we'll see.  Now that I drive myself, I want to make sure it's safe.

The days are ticking by, my trip is getting closer!  Oh, I wish I could walk better, but wishing is a monumental waste of time, unless it leads to working harder.  I am looking forward to and dreading this trip, if you know what I mean.  I do have an aisle seat on the plane, but not one of the nice ones where you can stretch out, no - I'm in the back of the plane with the regular people.  It's a night time flight, and I should sleep, but I am planning to stand up and move every hour or so, if I get too stiff I won't be able to walk at all.  

It'll be fiiiiiiine.  Worrying and fretting won't help.   

Ah well.  You have a good evening!

ahhh the weekend!

Yesterday, I went to the pool.  It sounds like such a simple sentence, but it's packed with suffering ha.  I figure I have to surge forwards as much as I can, and even if I'm taking mincing little old lady steps, I'm getting steadier and stronger, although it's very hard to see in the midst of it. 

I came home and made a batch of chocolate chip cookies, tried to keep moving.  I find alternating between taking a rest with my feet up, going on the exercise bike, vacuuming a little, sitting down...it helps.  If I were to just plant myself, I'd be so stiff.  Getting back into the swim class makes me aware of muscles I forgot I had!  It's so nice though. 

Miss Char and Miss Cam worked yesterday, then left for a weekend in Ottowa, Canada.  Paul and I went over to Kathryn and Darius house for smoked wings...and sliders, and Evelyn's homemade Mac and cheese, salad, and cookies... Emily and Mariel were there too, it was quite fun.  

This fine Saturday morning, we went to the rec center, again, Paul to the gym, me to the pool.  There isn't a class on Saturday morning, so I just walked forwards and backwards and moved, for a half hour.  It's not as daunting anymore, although I don't love hobbling back up the ramp...the water shoes have been amazing though.  

We're leaving in a little while to go to a celebration of life for our friend Joe.  He passed away the morning after my sister did, he was the same age as my parents.  He's been a church friend for 40 years, he had such a good heart, a father's heart.  

It's too quiet here, but Kitty is on the arm of my chair, where she belongs.  When I got back from the pool, I went in to get some laundry, she was underfoot every step, into the laundry room, I got her more food, more water, she was still underfoot, purring, corralling me to my chair so she would sit here and purr.  I am definitely her person, not that she has too many to choose from anymore, but she likes me.  

Anyway.  You all have a good day!