guess what's sneaking back into my life?!

 Mmmm hmmm, I can taste my coffee!!!!  It's much more subtle, but it's there!  I sniffed the Tide the other day, as I go around sniff-sniff-sniffing everything, and I could detect a hint of that lovely laundry freshness, and yay!  I ground up those coffee beans, and got a whiff of yum, yay!  

Tasting things is back too, but not glaringly so.  It's different, it's muted.  I hope it comes blaring back, full strength, but hey, even if it doesn't, I'm pretty happy here, enjoying the coffee!

It was so bad, when it was gone, I couldn't even detect a hint of mint with toothpaste, there was the menthol feeling in my mouth, but no smell at all.  So it's a joy to have it back, subtle as it is.

Yesterday, we had last minute plans to have some of the older kids over...some we haven't seen since Christmas, because of the sickness we had here.  (We've been hanging out with Margaret and Adrian and Wulf and Tennyson right along, because they got it at the same time as we did, and Evelyn, too).  So Emily and Abigail and Mariel were coming over, and Molly with her little girls, Lydia and Ophelia.  Yay, I was cleaning the house and humming some happy songs, then Jonathan tried to start his car...he has a Volkswagen with closer to 3k miles than 2, and it wouldn't start.  He determined he needed a new battery, and had to go to the suburbs...well, I had looked at grocery ads online, and one of the stores had sirloin steak for $3.99 a pound...in these days of inflation, burger costs almost that much!  Perfect, I could go with him, he could drop me at the grocery store, get his battery, and pick me up!

I was able to get nine pounds of steak, a giant cookie birthday cake marked $5, some fresh donuts, a loaf of pheasant bread, fresh from the oven, for $2, and some fresh broccoli and cauliflower.  (I cut up potatoes, sweet potatoes, carrots, tossed in olive oil and salt and pepper, roasted in the oven, added the broccoli and cauliflower to roast a bit, and mmm.)

Emily's birthday is tomorrow, so we decided last minute to celebrate it!  I had gotten her a few things already, so why not?  She brought her guitar, Margaret her violin, Evelyn her flute, and Camille got out her violin, Paul his mandolin, and they played music again...it's so nice.

The flaw in the grilled-steak-in-January idea:  the cold wind!  It was freezing out!  I threw it all on the grill, cranked the flames for a bit, flipped it once, then piled it all on one side with the top closed, burners on low, other side on high, then went back in the house for a few minutes...Abigail casually said, "Wow, the grill is on fire!"...oops.  I managed to get them all off, and would you believe they came out perfect?  There was some well done, for those of us who don't like to eat it still mooing, and plenty red and rare, with some in between.  It was truly a feast, we don't eat steak very often, it was tender and good.

I didn't take an after picture, but it came out beautifully.  

We sat around the table solving the world's problems and laughing about times past.  The grand kids were busy playing with dollhouse stuff, blocks, and ride-ons.  The living room was absolutely strewn and littered with toys, and I said, it's like days goneby.  This is how it looked ALL THE TIME, way back when...

I didn't take enough pictures, of course...

Happy birthday Emily, my sweet girl, the one who made me a mama 37 years ago...

Ophelia...Molly and Josh's little girl.  Lydia was here too, and oops, I didn't get a pic of her.

This is blurry but I like it,  Paul and Molly looking at a silly dog cartoon.

Adrian, and Abigail with Tennyson...Tenny is such a happy little guy!

And, we had a snowstorm last night, and are staying put at home today.  It's very cozy.  Paul took the day off to go ice fishing, but I guess there's such a thing as it being too windy and snowy to do that.  So he has a fire going in the furnace, and it's nice and warm in here.

The problem with having my taste back is that now I want to taste everything, just what I need, ha.  I made a huge crockpot of beef stew on Saturday, and the girls had gone out and about with Evelyn...came in the door with food from Chik-fil-A, so they weren't hungry.  I couldn't really taste yet, but there is so much left, and it's what's for dinner tonight, so I'm looking forward to dinner, oink oink ha.    

My son-in-laws who are brothers, Adrian (Margaret's husband), and Darius (Kathryn's husband) lost their grandpa yesterday, he joined their Grandma in heaven, she had just passed a few months ago.  Their grandparents had seventeen kids, and I don't even know how many grandchildren.  They lived in Winnipeg, (Canada), where Adrian and Darius are from.  Adrian was quite sad, as his grandpa was as quiet and meek as a lamb, but had faith like a roaring lion, he was tender and good and patient...he's obviously in a better place now, but it's still sad to say goodbye.

Sonja is having a nice time out in Oregon, we miss her though.  Emily is planning to bring Charlotte Claire on a trip out there sometime soon.  I don't like having the some of the kids so far away, but I am so thankful that we can at least stay in touch so easily, and I can see the grandkids on the screen.  

Ah well...thank you all for being so nice to me, so encouraging and supportive.  I appreciate it more than you'll ever know....