Can't be Bought

Pure enjoyment. Family time. Vacation time. Time together with no routine.

We have enjoyed the time we have had over December. We have spent time together. Doing nothing special yet very special. The time we have spent together has created memories, laughter and contentment. Money cannot buy what time can.

We cherish our time together. We play, bake, color, craft, snuggle. We've enjoyed visits with family members. We enjoy our special dinners. Our late mornings and large breakfasts. The day-long fires in our fireplace. The sledding and the special hot cocoa with marshmallows. Our little guy tattled on his sister stating she liked the hot chocolate from our local coffee house better than mine. He told me he liked mine better. What to know why? Because I make my hot cocoa with love! Time and love. Money can't buy that.

Pure enjoyment. It has been wonderful. But all good things must end. The day after tomorrow, that alarm will go off way too early (yes, I have been sleeping in)and we have to jump back into our routine. Work. School. Homework. Our family nights will be something we look forward to after our long swim in togetherness.

Girl Time

We did it! We made plans and we finally made the time and enjoyed our special afternoon. The guys were out running errands. We had the house to ourselves.

Our daughter wanted to have a "spa day" so I looked up at-home spa recipes and we made a cucumber facial for sensitive skin. She told me she wanted to have cucumbers for her eyes. I was given just that one requirement but I wanted to make it special. Special. I love her so I wanted to make it extra special.

So I filled the tub with warm water and added rose petals and salts. She soaked for a bit. She got out, laid on warm towels and I applied those cucumbers to her eyes. I also applied the cucumber facial mixture but she said she did not like the smell of cucumbers so I wiped it off after one minute. Then she had a rub down with warm lotion. She said she was so relaxed. While I soaked my feet, she painted her toenails (oh yes, that was the second requirement, she asked to paint her toenails as well as my toenails and fingernails). I brought us tea, then I read from her current book (a Trixie Belden mystery).

Perfect. The room was warm, a hint of rose floated through the air, the tea was hot and sweet and we were nearing the end of a good mystery. As the time approached for her to paint my fingernails, we moved to the kitchen table and nibbled on cookies as she painted.

What a great afternoon with my favorite girl! We plan on doing this once a month. Only next time, I'll make us little frosted cakes to eat with our hot tea!

Take the time, relax and enjoy the memories and cherish the conversations. Time is ticking too fast so it's best to stop and live in the present. What a beautiful afternoon we had! I love you sweetie.

That Time

The rush of Christmas is over. That one day we spend weeks, if not months, preparing for. Amid the wrapping paper and fallen pine needles, I sat there thinking...maybe planning. Yes, planning. Planning when I'd take the tree down and all the Christmas decorations. How to arrange the family room or if I should attempt to re-arrange the room.

Mentally, I prepared another list. What I need to buy for next year - organization is a goal of mine. We'll see if I do better this year! Calendar, filing supplies, cleaning supplies. As I review my holiday to-do list, I realize I haven't done half of the things I wanted to and the days are passing quickly.

So as I pack up the holiday items for another year, I think ahead of cleaning and yes, those resolutions that fade away by mid-February. I am taking it week by week. We'll be eating healthier and I'll be exercising regularly. That is all I am planning this year. I want to be successful and to do that, you need a short list.

In the meantime, I might not get everything done on my too long of a to-do list but I am enjoying the family time with the big man, our daughter and our son. Spending time, making memories and laughing. Those are the memories that will endure time, not the lists I make and the things I did not get done. Or the things I did do. Camera nearby, we have fun. We have been walking around the yard, exploring the springs in the field, cracking the ice on the ponds edge, filing birdfeeders and watching the deer nightly as they run to our huge birdfeeder to lick up any fallen seeds. They fight and chase each other as they want their share.

Yesterday and today have been very warm for upstate NY so we wore our farm boots and trodded around the wet and sloshy, sometimes icy, land. It felt good to be outside, in the fresh air. Blues skies above and well, the landscape lacks color but it still is nice to get out and wander.

We'll see what the remainder of our family time together brings...until then, enjoy life. love those around you and laugh.

'Tis the Season

The season is upon us ~ the rushing, lists, baking, shopping, gatherings, trees and decorations. Joy. Family. Stress. We scurry through the month of December when we really need to slow down. We need to celebrate.

Celebrate the TRUE meaning of the holiday. Jesus! Have we forgotten? Jesus should be the center of all our celebrations. He is the “Reason for the Season” as you hear occasionally this time of year. He is the Lord of all beings. He is our Creator. Give Him the praise and glory He deserves. Open your heart to Him all year round. Start this month. Make a life-style change. He loves you. He loves all of us. Do you know the most quoted verse from the Bible tells us that? “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” John 3:16.

Take the time to read to yourself, your family, a loved one. Read the story of the birth of Jesus. Put the meaning back into the holiday. Share God’s love for all of us. Renew yourself. Reach out and help a lost person find peace and meaning in life. God’s arms are open and waiting for us to come to him. He does not want us to be lost. It your choice. Decide. Do you want to live with God in your life or to live life without God?

We are all sinners.
God loves us.
Christ died for us.

Receive God. Take action. Ask Him to come into your heart. You will have everlasting life if you believe in the Lord Jesus.

Being a child of God is the most wonderful thing in the world. It is not easy but nothing worth working for is easy. The Bible tells us, “In the world you shall have tribulation; but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world” (John 16:33)

God is always there for us. For me and for you! Believe. Have faith. Love Jesus!

Merry Christmas!

Favorite Room

Ok, my favorite room is….. the kitchen. The heart of our house. Currently I have been measuring and re-measuring and planning a new layout so when we have the time and money (years away), I’ll be ready to meet with a designer and review my plans, needs and must haves. Until then, life goes on.

I cook, bake and keep it clean. My kitchen is large so I have counter space and room for almost all my kitchen accessories. I spend a lot of time in this room. Someday it’ll be nice and cozy and I’ll never want to leave. In the meantime, it is a happy place.

The bulletin board has various projects attached to it made by our children. Their artwork also decorates our windows and my Country Kitchen sign. Our sun catchers hang from 2 of the windows. From our windows we can see our side yard and lower pond and the back yard and upper pond. We watch deer year round from these windows. Hummingbirds flutter by from late spring until early fall. And on one Fathers day, we watched a bear walk up the side of our yard and disappear into the woods. We have not had another bear sighting in our yard or field since.

We eat together daily in our kitchen. We study, work on homework and projects, we talk and chat over tea or hot cocoa. I plan menus and pour over cookbooks and magazines. We cook and bake. I love to bake. I am not sure how my passion started or when, but I believe the force behind it was my mother. No doubt about that. First of all, she is a wonderful cook/baker. When we were younger, she would occasionally make homemade cinnamon rolls. I can smell, see and almost taste them. They were big, fluffy and oooh so good. She has the ability to take ingredients (usually whatever she had available) and make something delicious out of it. I hope one day I can become a confident cook like her. Some day. After all, I do have goals.

I used to write recipes on recipe cards and keep them in files. My little boxes of treasure. Looking back now, I wonder if I really thought I’d use them. What was I thinking? I recently decided that there was NO way I could ever make every recipe I have written down or cut out and saved. Besides, how many apple pie recipes do I really need? Yes, the dessert category was my largest collection. (Refer to first post). So slowly, I have gone through these recipe boxes and thrown out hundreds of recipes. I have placed limits on my recipe clipping habit. If I don’t make the recipe within a month, it goes into the recycle bin. I have yet to enforce that. I laugh when I find that I have torn the same page from a magazine twice. However, I am down to a half-full box and 2 binders. I am almost there and then my recipe collection will be under control. I have recipe cards from my great-aunt that are part of my family history. These I keep. She had beautiful handwriting and she noted what family member the recipe was from. I have 2 very special items in my kitchen. Two of my great-grandmothers bread boards. I use the large one all the time. I only wish I had one of her aprons!

So when I do try new recipes and we like it, I have a binder that I put the recipe in. It is appropriately call “Approved Recipes”. As an after-thought, since I started this binder collection years ago, I now note when I made the recipe and if it was for a special occasion. I’m creating a little family history of my own.

I write in my cookbooks like some people write in their Bibles (I cannot yet bring myself to do that – in time). I enjoy making new dishes for my family. Seeing and hearing their reactions. Even at their young age (5 and 8), they will grab a cookbook and look through it and pick out a recipe to make. It’s ideal as we have special dinners whenever we want. They set the table with table clothes, napkins, china and wine glasses and candles. In the winter, it is very cozy as the evenings are dark at dinner time. When the guys build a roaring fire, we move the table into our front room (perhaps to become our dining room). Candle lit dinner by the fire. Good food. Good company. Isn’t that why people gather in the kitchen anyway?

"Wow"-ed

First: Friday our son said grace. This is not unusual. Either he says grace, his sister does or both of them do. He will be 5 in December. His grace was longer than normal and very thoughtful. When we said amen, I was smiling. So was his father. He stunned us. Both his father and I told him how nice his blessing was. He gave thanks for our food, and asked for another good day. He prayed for his daycare provider and her family. Then he prayed that his friends would be safe, have fun at home and that all the students at his elementary school would be good members of their caring community! Wow!

Second: While in mass on Sunday, our daughter said she felt like crying because she was so happy about God. I told her that was okay. That she was feeling his presence and I often felt like crying also. Knowing our Lord is there with us, brings an unspeakable joy to ones’ being.

So I don’t question myself about their faith. We are leading them in the right direction. Our daughter loves to read her Bible. She has become a little evangelist. She educates her best friend and shares stories from her Bible. She peppers us with questions. She loves our at-home religious education studies. She enjoys letting her brother sit in and listen. We now read from his Bible once we finish our lesson. We want him to learn with us. We are all learning as there is so much to learn.

This journey we are on together only gets sweeter as we travel. It is a blessing knowing that we are all traveling together toward our Lord!

Crafting

I like to craft. I learned to crochet when I was 7 or 8 years old. My mother’s beauty salon was at our house and two ladies helped me learn that skill. I never made much but I enjoyed crocheting scarves and other little things. Before that, I used to draw. I drew maps and made my own world. I wish I kept those maps. I remember the “countries” had very strange, long names. Back to crocheting. I have made numerous afghans for family and friends. All different and all very much appreciated. I still cuddle with my afghan that my gramma made me. She made each of her grandchildren one. It is perfect! I remember she would sit down in her chair after the kitchen was cleaned and crochet. You did not bother her. I still cannot make shell afghans like she did. That is one goal I am striving to accomplsih - to crochet a shell afghan like my gramma.

When my sister announced she was pregnant, I decided to try my hand at cross-stitching. I completed my first sampler and mailed it to her. I have since cross-stitched many more projects. It would be interesting to be able to examine that first project, as I know my stitches did not all cross the same way. With every project, you learn another technique that enhances your skill.

Twelve years ago when I moved back to my childhood home, I started working with a group of talented ladies. Realizing we were crafty in one way or another, we starting working on our crafts. We held craft nights. We’d stay after work and devoted an hour or two to working on our project of choice. We also learned more about each other. We started teaching and sharing crafts. We learned to scrapbook and make cards together. We still have card parties. Our next card party is Monday, November 17th and we'll be making Christmas cards! We have a demonstrator lead our card parties. We make wonderful cards, learn new techniques and order products.

Within the last 6 years, I took a “learn how to knit” course. I learned the basics –casting on, knit and pearl stitches and casting off. I was told that was all I’d need to know. Not exactly true. However, one of my best friends, helped teach me more about knitting. She helped me knit my first hat for our daughter (way too big) and she has assisted me on other projects since then. She is developing that confidence I need to be a secure knitter.

Then there is scrapbooking. I need to work on more pages as the photos are filling more and more boxes. My goal is to complete a 2-page spread every week!

Not sure when I plan to start but maybe it’ll be this weekend.