Christmas Eve 2012

Gee Whiz, we have been running the roads since Friday, and I'm about pooped out. We have been eating and enjoying the visits with all the kids. We were in Dry Creek on Friday for a nice visit and meal. Saturday we went to Alexandria for another nice visit and party with the relatives there. Sunday we were in Baton Rouge for more eats and visiting. Somebody like me isn't going to be happy when the doctor puts me on the scales next week. And now we have the big day tomorrow. Oh well it's Christmas.

I'm sure glad the girls are all good cooks and I don't have to do too much in the kitchen any more. It was fun then, but its better now that I'm not responsible for all the food. Still have to get my hands messed up once in a while though, I still like to put things together, and I still get requests for dishes that are usually tradition on our Christmas table. But I like to sit back and watch this year.

I went out in my back yard this morning and cut some beautiful red berries off a bush and put then on my dining table and they look so fresh and pretty. That the good thing about living in the country, the natural growing bushes produce such beautiful things. We live in the pine forest so we have all kinds of natural decorations.

I'm looking forward tomorrow when the family comes for dinner. It's always a joy to watch the little ones play.

Merry Christmas everyone. May God Bless.

Christmas Shopping

Yesterday my daughter and I went Christmas shopping. We started out before noon and returned home five hours later. Today I feel a little excited that we got so much done in such a short time. The next big job was getting all these bags sorted out and get down to the wrappings. Lucky for me I found enough paper and ribbons to get it all done, but I forgot about the name tags, so that will have to be another trip. Oh well, I have to go grocery shopping tomorrow anyway, so that's not a big deal.I just hope that I did the right thing and got the little gifts that I could afford instead going hog wild. Christmas isn't meant to be a greedy time when you get all the things you have wanted all year long. It's Christ's Birthday, so I try to give from my heart. That's the lesson that I've learned through the ages.

My sister and I were talking about the Christmases we had when we were kids. We were happy to get a stocking full of fruits and candy. Makes me wonder what would be the reaction if my grandchildren would wake up to a stocking like that on Christmas morning. It's a different world.

My good friend who helps me keep my house clean brought me a nice box of home made cookies as a present. They are so good and I love her for it. Needless to say I don't need all the sweets, but I surely do like them. I like to bake them,too. Next week I'll try a little baking myself. Nothing is better than warm cookies and milk. It would be nice to have some right now.

My gifts are wrapped and the mess is cleaned up, now I can think about what to do next.

Remembering December 6, 1983

We were preparing for this day, had been for nine months. My daughter announced the good news to us as soon as she knew for sure about this event by telling me to start making Raggedy Ann Dolls. I had made those dolls for other grandchildren. We started planning a trip to Amsterdam to see this little one. It was an exciting time. This was our gift for Christmas that year.

We made arrangements to be off from work, and that wasn't easy. This was the Christmas season and the most important time of the year in the place where I worked. But they OKed my months leave anyway.

One the day we fly out of the airport it was snowing and the plane was late coming in. We sat and watched the snow come down and waited and waited. The plane arrived and we were on our way. The trip was uneventful and we were then in Amsterdam. My daughter and the proud daddy brought our little grandson to meet us at the airport. What a Christmas present? We got to enjoy our present for two weeks and then it was time to come home again. It was a special two weeks.

Yesterday was his Birthday. HAPPY BIRTHDAY !! Hope you had a good day. Love you. MM

Another Good Day.

This warm weather makes me think spring. Even I know it is just the beginning of December, but I think the maker has gotten things mixed up a bit. Don't get me wrong, I love this nice warm weather and my check book does too. I hate the high heating bills, but what I hate most is the repair bill. I had one of those this past week. On the coldest morning and days we've had this year my heater went on strike. I got out of bed in a cold house and when I turned the heat on I had no heat. I just did what any little ole lady would do. I went to the closet and got a blanket, curled up in my lounger with a hot cup of coffee and watched a movie.

Lucky as I am, it turned out to be a pretty nice warm day. The service man came the next day and fixed the problem. And then it turned warm again. Thank goodness it isn't so warm that I must turn on the cool air again. I don't like to pay big heating and cooling bills.

I'm beginning to think Christmas. Today my daughter and I drove out to a Christmas tree farm. I was not in the market for a live tree, but I did want to get some good cane syrup to put in my gingerbread men. I like to make them for my little grandchildren or whomever likes gingerbread. They make cute tree decorations also. It's nice to have some edibles on the tree. I like to make them and love the aroma when they are baking. So good. I like to decorate my packages with them. I tie them in the bow. They are really cute. I'll keep you all posted about how they turn out.

Oh! By the way, I didn't get the syrup at the farm. Have you priced a little jar of cane syrup lately? Don't worry, I'll get some somewhere.

The Weather is Changing.

After spending a really good day with the family , I felt exhausted and went to bed. Before I went to bed I did the usual things. Locked the doors and turned the temperature in the house to it's usual cool for  good nights sleep. Surprise, It turned colder through the night and I awake cold and miserable. I got out of bed and reset the thermostat and went back to bed. At this point I couldn't go back to sleep. I got out of bed, made a pot of coffee and watched the sun come up.

Last night when it was bed time, I made sure I wouldn't have a repeat of the night before. I set the temperature the same as usual. I pulled out my cozy long sleeved warm gown, and then pulled out a warm blanket to put on my bed if I felt cold during the night. What a surprise? I didn't need the long sleeved gown nor the blanket. I slept with my arms over the covers. I used only the sheet to keep me comfy. That's the kind of weather we have in the southwestern part of my state.

You never know if the few drops of moisture that is on the door steps are from a shower we had before dawn. or if it moisture from the humidity. It was a little wet around here this morning. Now we can enjoy the sunshine.

Thanksgiving Is Over, But Still Feasting.

Two days after Thanksgiving Day and we are still eating. I've got to stop this. Today I had a bowl of cereal for breakfast. Nothing different from usual. Then lunch time came and I snacked on crackers and peanut butter and waited to eat with the family. Well, it was a big meal again. I had promised myself to eat lightly, but I didn't. We had the best macaroni  and cheese, creamed spinach and pork roast. Just couldn't say no, and the apple dumplings with ice cream were out of this world. I'll diet another time.

It has been a good holiday. I've enjoy the days with the family. It's always fun when there is a little one learning to grow up. They are learning so fast. I dropped a bowl on the tile floor and it broke in tiny pieces. The little one said very quickly "Memaw made a big mess".

We've been blessed with a beautiful day today. This was a cool cloudless day. So pretty. So much to be thankful for.

Back Yonder

Did you ever realize you didn't have hot water when you needed it most? Last night I had to clean up a big mess and realized I had no hot water. I just knew that I would have to get up this morning and go shopping for a new water heater. Mine is getting a little old and I thought it was giving out on me. I tried all the taps and still came out with cold water. I was beginning to look for my old kettle that I use to heat water on top of my stove. Thank goodness I didn't have to get down on my knees and dig it out of the cabinet where I put it many years ago. I'm not sure I even have one anymore.

My neighbor came over and we discussed what we would do, and then she discovered the switch to the water heater had been turned off. She turned the switch back on, we were'nt sure it would work. Bingo, I turned the hot water tap on and it worked. Who turned that switch off? Did I do it? And then I remember my sweet little granddaughters playing when they were here visiting. The little one was so proud that she had gotten tall enough to reach the light switches. They went all over turning switches on and off. This one didn't turned back on, but it is now, and I have hot water again.

When I was a little girl that age I didn't know what a light switch was. We didn't have electricity in our house. The water was pumped from the ground with a pump with a handle on it, and pumped the handle up and down to get water. We brought the water into the kitchen and heated it on the cook stove to have hot water.  Imagine what it was like at bath time.

Saturday Night.

I've read all the newspaper all over again. I've watched the LSU football team win their game, barely, and I''ve even taken a little nap. It's not bedtime yet, and I've watched enough TV for one day. If I was like our dog Buzz I'd find a stick and chew on it. That's what he does when he gets bored. He is a lot of fun to watch when he does that.

I don't like long winter days. It is dark when you wake up, and it has been dark hours before it is time to go to bed. I do like to cuddle up in my warm bed and sleep under a warm comforter when it is cold. Guess you can't have everything you like all the time. You have to take the bad and hope for the good.

I hope these cold nights don't kill my plants. My little porch is full of hanging plants. I pray that they are sheltered enough

A Visit From The Girls

Sunday morning when the phone rang at 8:00 AM I wondered "What's Up?" I was my granddaughter with her usual "What are you doing Memaw?' I told her I was eating my breakfast. I was hungry and made some muffins and bacon and egg. She said she was coming to visit, so I said I'll save you a muffin.

I hung up the phone, finished my breakfast and then started to plan what I could fix for an easy fast lunch. She was bringing my two beautiful little blonde haired great-granddaughters and their mother with her. I made a salad for us big girls, and had hotdogs and chocolate pudding for the little cuties. We had a really good visit . The girls played and we enjoyed a long visit. To me it was an early Thanksgiving Day. Thank you girls for making a good day for me.

We have another lovely fall day today. Cold nights and mild sunny days. Who could ask for anything more? I was told that I need some vitamin D, so I should go outside and soak up some sun. I plan to do just that this afternoon.

Frost on the Rooftop.

There is a nip in the air today. What a lovely sight to see frost on the rooftops this morning? It looked like fresh fallen snow. We know better because this is just November, and snow in the south is very rare. It does mean that there is frost on the pumpkins and it's nearly Thanksgiving. It is just a week away.

I can always remember the joy we had of being out of school for the holiday, and all the good food we would have on that day. My aunts and their families would come for the day. The house would be overflowing, and the smells from the little kitchen would make you wish dinner time would get there soon. My aunt always brought the right seasonings to make the dressing and baked chicken taste so good. We didn't have turkey, because we didn't raise turkeys. We raise chickens. The ladies must have been baking all week, we had all kinds of desserts. My aunt made a cake she called log cabin. It was baked in cornstick pans and iced with chocolate fudge icing. Boy, was it good. I've never been able to make one like that.

I can also remember the Thanksgiving when we were out of school. This year we still had cotton left in the fields that need to be picked. We had to help my dad pick the cotton that Thanksgiving morning. I can remember all the crying we did because we had to work on that day. But when we went home to lunch we had a big surprise. Mama had caught a couple of guinea hens and cooked them and made a big feast for all of us. We were so excited because we didn't expect a big Thanksgiving meal on that day. We grew pumpkins, so there must have been a couple of pies on the table,too. We were finish picking cotton for that year. 

Sweet Potato.

This morning as I was thinking of making myself lunch, I noticed two large sweet potatoes or yams in my vegetable basket. They are one of my favorite things to eat. I got to thinking about when we were in grade school and had to go outside the building to eat our lunches. One of my little friends always brought baked sweet potatoes in her lunch. I always wished for that potato. Of coarse I didn't asked her for her lunch, but I did want it.

In the fall when we were all in the fields picking cotton, Mama would stay at home and prepare us a picnic lunch. I don't know how she could manage this, but she would bring a full cooked meal to the field. The thing I liked most was the baked sweet potatoes. That's why this morning I baked two nice big potatoes, and when they nice soft and juicy, I doused them with butter and ate one of them. So good!

The last time we were to see the Doctor,we ate lunch at a place where french fried sweet potatoes were on the menu as a side order. They were delicious. Mama use to make those, but not in strings like those were. There are so many ways to make sweet potatoes. I especially like the pies and candied potatoes.

Thanksgiving is just a couple of weeks away and I know there will be some kind of dish on the table that will contain this root crop.

Country School House.

In 1932 when I started to school, this was a whole new world to me. I had never been too far from home. We were sent to Sunday School and Church at the little Methodist Church on the corner of the street across from the Baptist Church My parents didn't go with us, I guess Mama was too busy with the little babies and trying to find food for all of us. We did go into the little town on Saturdays, as that was the day everybody gathered to visit and do their shopping, if they had the money to shop.

You have to remember the country was still in the depression, and there was the drowth, so times were hard. I don't know how the public schools got the money to open to the public again, but we were all happy to get to go to school.

Our school had two buildings, one for grades one through fourth grades. The other building was a two story building for grades five through twelve. On the first day of school all grades met for assembly in the auditorium in the big building. I can remember how scary that was to be in that big room with all those kids. We were told to follow our teachers back to our home rooms. This was a big day for me, I finally got to go to school.

Our school didn't have running water into the school. We didn't toilets inside the building. Our toilets were in outhouses. One for girls and one for boys. Each were on opposite sides of the yard. These little houses were not real close to our class rooms, so I,m sure there must have been a lot of wet panties before the day was over. Thankfully mine stayed dry. Imagine having to run to outhouse today. How lucky our children are today.

When we had recess we had to go outside to play. We had a slide and seesaws and a place to play ball, but on rainy days there was no place to play.

We had no lunch room, so we would take our lunch pail, paper bag or newpaper wrapped lunch and go outside to eat our lunch.  My lunch usually consisted of whatever we could find to put between a biscuit. Mom would make a special pan of biscuits just for lunch every day. If we were able to have meat at the time, we would have meat between the biscuit. If there was an egg, we had egg. Then were times when we had mashed beans in our biscuit. My brother said he would never tell what he had for lunch. If someone asked, he'd say this is so good. He would be too imbarassed to tell them what was in his biscuit.

At least we didn't go hungry.

Good and Bad Times.

For those of us who have survived all the ups and downs and good and bad times, we have a lot of stories. Let me share one of mine.

I am one of the depression children. Calvin Coolidge was president when I was born. His term was 1923-1929, and then came Herbert Clark Hoover who served from 1929-1933.These were the worst financial times in the history of our nation. It was a bad time for every body, especially for farm families like us. The banks were closed because there was no money and our little school closed because there was no way to pay the teachers. In our family there were five school age children who needed an education.

The school was finally opened, but you had to pay tuition to be able to go there. Our family couldn't afford the tuition, so when I got old enough to go to school I was taught by my older sisters. They taught me to read and write and do first grade work. I missed two years of public schooling. When I did get to start to school, I was put in the second grade. I was still one year behind the other children. I tried so hard every day at school to catch up. We had second and third grades in the same room with the same teacher. I would listen to her teach third grade and hope that she would move me up, but it never happened.

We walked two miles to school every morning and afternoon in the cold and rain  of winter. On some of the worst days our neighbor who had a car would give us a ride. Our road to school was a dirt road and it could be pretty muddy at times. So you can imagine what it was like at the time. Muddy shoes and wet clothes. We'd stand by the coal stove to warm our bodies and dry our clothes. Our clothes were hand made by our mom. She made them all, outer wear, underwear and even made overshoes out of inner tubes for the boys to wear around the feed lots. We never felt ashamed because we wore these things with pride. Our neighbors were in the same boat with us. Everybody was poor. Thinking back, we children didn't know we were poor. We had a nice family and parents who loved us.


Our lunches consisted of whatever food we could put together on that day so we could something to eat. There was no lunch room. We did the best we could.

Election Day.

I haven't gone to the polls yet, but I will go before this day is over. We have made plans to get there because this is an important day. I hope every voter will make the effort regardless which candidate you will be voting for. Just vote the way your heart tells you to do.

I woke to a beautiful day. I think fall is finally here. I don't like the time change. It takes all fall and winter for my body to catch up with the time, and then it changes again. Oh well, that's life. It's a lovely time of the year. Before you know it Thanksgiving will be here, and then the scramble to get everything ready for Christmas. Busy, busy, busy.

We had a Delicious dinner last night. We had fresh fried fish, fries and hushpuppies. The nice bass were caught yesterday morning in a fresh water lake. I had left-over, so I may make a sandwich of the fish for lunch today. I also like to eat the hushpuppies with fresh cooked vegetables. Gee, I'm making myself hungry. Wish I could share my lunch with you'all. Now you know where I live. The good ole' south.

Hope you'all have a good day.

Kyle is Five..

Yesterday was Kyles fifth birthday. How time flies? It seems only yesterday that cute little boy came to visit for the first time. He was one month old and a little sweetie, now he is a big five and still a cute little sweety. Sure wish I could see him so I could give him a big hug. I know he must have had a lot of fun on Halloween, and then the next day on his birthday. I loved the pictures of his costume for Halloween.

Kyle is my youngest great-grandson. I have three of those great-grandsons and five great-granddaughters. It's always a pleasure to have them around, they like to entertain you. Just wish I could see them more often. There is never a dull moment when they are around.

Today I have been busy with a little project I'm working on. Can't say what it is yet, but it's gonna be good. Time goes by quickly when you are busy.

This has been a beautiful day, but a little warm for the second day of November. Had to get out of the sweater and get back into tees. I like the warm weather. We had frost a couple of times this week, but not severe enough to kill the plants in the yard. They are still trying to show their colors. The reds and golds this time of year are so beautiful.

We Got Rain Today.

I forgot to reset my clocks last night, so when I woke up this morning I thought it was later than it really was. That's alright because it was really cloudy and dark and I would have thought it was late any way. Then we got rain, it looked like the sky opened up for us. It only lasted a few minutes and now you would never know it rained here. It is so beautiful out.

Little Kyle had his fifth birthday on the first of November. He reported that he had a good birthday with his friends at his party. He is such a sweetheart, I gave him a big hug on the telephone. Wish I could have seen him score a point at his scoccer game yesterday. I saw a picture, but its not the same. Kyle is my youngest great-grandson. He's a little Texan, cowboy boots and all.

Today I started a new medication, sometimes I feel like I'm a guinea pig, but if it will help me I'll just about try anything. Hopefully this is the right thing to do.

I went to the grocers today and restocked my groceries. Seem all I do is eat, but isn't that an enjoyable thing to do. So hard to keep the pounds off, but I keep trying.

It has been a good day.

Nice Ride in CountrySide.

I had an appointment in Alexandria this morning. It was a nice trip, just a typical fall day . The country side is really beautiful this time of year. The appointment was the usual and uneventful except I'm baffled at how high my blood pressure was today. Maybe I was a little bit concerned as to what would be changed this time. I did get a change in medication, hopefully it will be for the better. We shall see. I have to trust someone that knows more than I do at this time.

We had a very good lunch at Spirits and then it was home again. It was good to spent most of the day with one of my favorite people. We chatted all the way there and all the way home. We just enjoyed the time together.

I'm looking forward to the holidays. They are my favorite time of the year. I love to plan the big meal that we cook up. I enjoy visiting with all the kids that come home for the feast.Its always a good time.

Wish I was able to make the trip to Arkansas next week to attend the wedding. I know it will be beautiful. I wish the bride and groom much happiness.

And to my travels in Europe, have a good trip . Waiting to hear all your stories when you get home.

What A Day?

I had a some what interesting day yesterday. I got out of bed at the usual time. Went through all the usual routine. I had my coffee with a bit of bread pudding that was left over from the dinner the night before. That's not what I usually have for breakfast, but it was there and I ate.

I straightened up my little house and then showered and cleaned myself up a bit. Then I sat down to watch TV. I noticed a car coming up the drive and watched it as it parked on the drive near the lake. Then I thought it must be a friend coming fishing. They do that sometimes, but I am always told when this will happen. Then  the car move in front of my house. The door opens and a nice looking Sheriff's Deputy stepped out of the car. I thought what is he doing here. All kinds of things go through your mind. Was it gonna be good news, bad news or what?. They don't just come calling for no reason.

He walked up to the door and asked my name. He asked are you OK. Then he said my son had been trying to contact me and had been unable to get me. He called them to come check to see if I was OK. He asked me to call and tell him that I was OK,and I told him I would do so and he left. It really nice to know that everyone was looking out for me.

I immediately went to the telephone to call my son, and the telephones were dead. Then I thought of sending an Email. But before I did I went out to check if a squirrel had been hit by the transformer in our yard. That has happen two times before and I wanted to be sure what the trouble with the telephone was. I found no squirrel, so it must be the phone company. Anyway I sent an Email to let my son know I was safe and to call the phone to report it for me.

Thanks to the Sheriff's Department, thanks to my wonderful kids. I feel safe.

Yesterday.

I had a long telephone conversation with my niece yesterday. She is the daughter of my oldest sister, and she is so sweet to stay in touch with all of us older family members. We talk about everything, and she helps me to remember all those happy times we had as kids. She and my younger siblings grew up together, so there are a lot of stories.

I went away to business school after high school, so I missed out on some of their stories, but I have my own to remember.

The time was the beginning of the great war. If you lived at this time , and if you were sixteen and all the boys were going off to war, you will understand what that means. The country was trying to get out of the depression, so everyone was in the same boat. We had to make our own entertainment. Thanks to some of the parents that liked to have fun, we were allow to come to their homes on Saturday night, roll back the furniture and dance to the the strum of someones guitar. We had such good fun. No beer, no hard drinks, but a drinks of water from a bucket with a community dipper in it to drink from.We did this every week. The parents would sit back and watch as we danced the night. We had no transportation, so we walked to the danced. When it was time to go home at midnight we would be so tired it would be hard to make it home.

One of our guitar players was new in our community. He was a real handsome lad, and he fit in with our little group. He had moved there to live with some relatives. We became friends, and then he went to join the war. I don't remember corresponding with him. Maybe I did.

My oldest sister died several years ago. My niece inherited a cedar chest from her that her husband had given her for Christmas before they were married. Inside the chest, my niece found a letter that was written to me from this young friend who was then on an island far away. I never received this letter until over sixty years after it was written. My friend never got to come home again. What if?

Motivation.

Did I sleep too long this morning? Did I eat the wrong kind of breakfast? I had the usual cups of coffee and cereal and banana. It was all good and satisfying, but I've got to get motivated to do something productive today. What can I do?

In the spring you call it spring fever. In the summer you say it is too  hot to do anything, so you find a nice cool place. But fall with this beautiful weather, what is the excuse? Oh I have plenty of those and some are excusable, but really.

I went out into the yard to see if anything needed a drink of water. Our little fall flower garden looks so bright and pretty. It didn't need water yet and it's supposed to rain soon. At least that's what the weather man keeps saying. So I didn't water the garden. I'll keep an eye on the flowers and water them later.

The dogs must feel like I do today. They are curled up on my front stoop, and they are fast asleep. I want disturb them, they look so peaceful. They probably had a sleepless night last night chasing wild things in their dreams. They need the rest.

I'll just keep looking for the motivation to get up and get started on this little project that I have been putting off. The holidays are creeping up on us and I've got to get busy.

Beautiful October Day.

This is one of those days when the air is brisk, the sky is pure azure, and it's so quiet. Makes you wish you could take a long stroll through the woods. Just to hear the dried leaves crunch under your feet, that was the good days. We would drive out to the lake and take a path around the lake. We didn't know where we would end up, but it didn't matter. But I must admit that I would get a little antsy when the sun began to sink and we hadn't reached the end of the trail. We always got back safely and that was the good part.

The leaves of the tallow trees are beautiful this fall, and the yellow wild flowers along the roadside and in the fields are breath taking. What a lovely time of the year?

It's really quiet here today, the hunters are in the woods today, but not near our house. I told them not to kill my Bambi. We live in the pine forest and deer roam near the house. I enjoy watching them and we feed them in winter. They know where they are safe, so they come to the feeder. I watch for them everyday.

This is a good day!

Voting.

Today I was in a salon getting my hair cut. As I sat there getting my hair cut, I was listening to the young operators as the visited and did their work. They had all listened to the debates last night and they all had opinions. And I was very impressed that they seemed so intelligent. They were having fun with their arguments, and I got some laughs out of them.

One of the girls said that her husband said he was surprised that she was interested in the debate. He was interested because he had registered to vote. I asked was she going to vote, and she said no, she didn't register to vote. She said she thought about it after it was too late to register. One of the other girls she had done the same. "What a shame", if we all felt that way?. It's too late for this important election, but all elections are important. Be ready next time. Be a good citizen and register. If you don't, don't complain how things are done. I don't know if there was a winner or loser in the debate, but I do know we are losers if we don't express our opinions at the poles.

I remember my first vote was for Harry Truman . Go Figure!!


 

Son-in-law's Birthday.

Today is my son-in-law's Birthday, so we thought we would take a trip out to their house. to wish him a Happy Birthday. We baked some brownies for a treat and drove the thirty miles out to celebrate with him. It is a nice drive, and we arrived to find him asleep. That makes twice I've awakened him today. First thing I did this morning was to call to say Happy Birthday. My son-in-law is Dutch and it is one of his customs to call or visit the Birthday person. We took him a treat, but their custom is to treat their guest. We had tea and a good visit. Everybody was happy with that.

We took a walk around their beautiful yard. The roses were so pretty in their yard. Left us feeling very invious as our rose garden was eaten by bugs this summer. They have a fig tree that is loaded with figs. Hope they get ripe before frost comes. I love fig preserves, maybe I can have some.

This has been a long day for me. I woke up early this morning and have been feeling tired all day. I hope to do better tomorrow. So until then...

Grandparents.

Most kids these days have grandparents that are still in their lives. I wasn't that lucky. All of my grandparents were dead before I was born. I've often wondered what my life would have been like or different if I had known then. They must have been wonderful people because they produced some very good parents for me.

My parents were good grandparents to all our children. If they were living today, I can't imagine how happy they would be to see what has grown off their tree. The little house they lived in when we were growing up would be overflowing. My Dad would say "Come on in.", and Mom would add more water to the gravy. It would be a fun time. They didn't come to see us, we went to see them. On Sundays when we went there Mom never knew how many she would be cooking for that day But we always had enough to eat.

Things changed in my generation. We went to see our grandchildren. We drove miles to be with them for a short week-end. They were what we lived for. When they visited us we were so excited to have them there. Now I watch my children take care of their grandchildren the same way. What a blessing?

It's always great to have them around on holidays and special occasions. But it would be greater if they were not so busy with their own lives that they would pick up the phone and say hello once in a while between visits. I do miss them all.

Elastic Stocking.

My sister called this morning and asked what I was doing. I was gasping and answered that I had just finished putting on my elastic stockings. If you have never done this chore, and I say that lightly, you've never worked very hard. First you must get down to your feet, and that's not easy. Now you've got to stretch this inner tube of an ugly stocking over your toes, then your heel, and then up to your knees. It was'nt fun. But I got it done, and I hope it does the job it's supposed to do.

My sister and I had a good visit on the telephone. We don't get to see each other as often as we'd like to, but can spend time just talking. We talk about aches and pains, how things use to be, our grandchildren or whatever comes to mine. She is the one next to me in age, so we were pals while we were growing up. When we left home and got jobs, we lived together until we found husbands. Then we lived nearby for several years.

My little family moved away first. My husband got a better job and it was in another city. And then we moved to another state. Soon after she and her family moved to a different state. That made a great distance in mile, but we are still close sisters

A Clean House.

I feel good today. Nothing feels better than to be in a clean house and you didn't have to do all the work yourself. It smells nice and you can't write your name in the dust any more. All my clothes are nicely washed and put away. What a relief?. How lucky can a gal get?

I was beginning to think that my friend had forgotten me this week, but I just got my days mixed up. Thanks friend for coming today. We enjoy the day while she is here. We visit and laugh and talk while she dust, mops and clean. She has a large family, so she has a lot of stories to tell about her grandchildren and family.

I've learned to turn over the heavier jobs in my house to her. I've always done all the cleaning and cooking, and I loved doing it, but it's a little too much for me now. I've learned you don't have to have a five course meal on the table every night. But it is really nice once in a while, and this is one of those nights it would be nice.

This has been a good day. I notice that the beautiful flowers, mums, snapdragons and pansy that we just planted over the week-end needed water. I gave them a good drink of water. They raised their little heads almost immediately. They loved the cool weather we had last week-end, but that is gone and it's summer again.

Guess I'd better go and mess up my clean kitchen. I'm getting a little hungry.

Thanks for Cool Weather.

When you can curl up under a warm blanket at night, that's living. The air is fresh and cool and smells heavenly. Thankful for the nice rainy season we have enjoyed this year. Our lawn is beautiful and green on these fall days. It's really nice.

This cooler weather brings back gumbo, and I made some yesterday. We had a mallard duck and a goose in the freezer that was killed last season. So what better time to use it but now? I must say I thought it was delicious. Where in the world would you be able to find good gumbo like we have in south Louisiana?

I must admit I had never eaten gumbo like this until I moved to Louisiana many years ago. It took me a long time to really learn to make it, but I think I can now. This gumbo is pretty good. I may eat more of it for dinner.

I'm a country girl and I like home cooking. The smell of a pot of good food cooking on the stove couldn't be better. This is making me hungry. I've got to go find out what's cooking.

Lovely Fall Weather.

These cool nights are perfect for good sleeping. After being in the heat of summer as we have been for the past five months, it's such a blessing. The moon lit nights are beautiful too.

It would be nice to take a trip through the mountain to see the changing color of the leaves. We live near the pine forest and it's beautiful. And the wild flowers are pretty, but I want to get away. This journey that I am on has no destination. I can't complain, I've seen Paris, Amsterdam, London, Berne, Florence, Berlin and many more places in Europe. I've vacationed in the Alps and toured in Germany, France and Italy. I crossed the English Channel on the Hoover Scotter. I've toured the east coast of our country and vacationed in Canada. I've seen most of our United States. All this has been wonderful.

I really don't want to get away, I'd miss the sound of the little Wren that sings in the tree at my back door every morning. I'd miss watching the little humming birds as they feed getting ready for their long journey to South America. And I'd miss the little dogs that are so glad to see me when I venture out into the yard. I am happy where I am.

A Dose of Medicine.

I had a dose of medicine this morning that lifted my spirits to the moon. My grandson and lovely bride and their beautiful little blonde haired girls came to see me. It was such a joy to have them. Only if I had a little bit of their energy. Worked better than any pill I've ever taken. Thanks kids for making me feel so well.

I grew up in a large family and our medicine cabinet, if we had on, consisted of Sam salve, turpintine, iodine, castor oil, and a few other things that slip my mind. If you had to swallow castor oil once you would get well quickly. Thank goodness we were a healthy bunch of kids. There were no obese children in my family. We worked hard and ate what we grew on the farm. Our diet was mostly vegetables from the garden. You can't do any better than that.

There were two doctors in our little town, and they surely didn't get rich from doctoring us. Other than delivering a baby once in a while. That didn't happen often because the rest of the babies we attended by mid-wives. We were a lucky or healthy bunch.

Harvest rains.

I've been a little confused, no not confused, I'd rather say mixed up for a couple of days. Anyway I'm back.

This is a rainy Saturday. A good day to read a book or watch football on television. Or better yet watch a good movie and eat popcorn. All are good ideas. Any way it's a good day to relax.

When I was a kid living on the farm, rainy weather meant we could stay at the house and do the chores around there. My dad would have a long face because the fluffy white cotton was getting wet.The rain stained the white bolls of cotton and that lowered the price he could get for it. We didn't have mechanical pickers then, all the cotton was picked by hand. It was a hard tedious job, but we had to do it. My dad would hire pickers to get his cotton crop picked.

Everybody had their own cotton sack. My mon would sew them on her sewing machine. The sack was a long tube with a strap to go around your shoulder. You picked the fluffy cotton out of the bolls and put in the sack. You pulled the sack along as you moved down the rows of cotton. When the sack got full you took it to the wagon and had it weighed. Then it was emptied into the wagon. My dad kept records and when the weigh reached enough for a bale, the wagon with cotton was taken to the gin to be processed.

When we lived in the cotton country several years ago, harvesting cotton was a different story. The mechanical picker would start early in the morning and by sundown the field would be cleaned of cotton and modules of cotton bales would be lined up ready to be taken to the gin. Needless to say the operator of the picker enjoy listening to his radio, using his Iphone or whatever he could handle while he picked cotton.

I Don't Like Being Old.

I've discovered that you go through life thinking every day is a good day, Then you see a few grey hair show up in your beautiful blonde hair. Then a few tired lines show up around your eyes and the corner of your mouth. That's not so bad as when you notice you've gained a little too much weight, now its time to do something about that. You start a little diet to get rid of the bulge, but that doesn't last long. You've got to eat something because you fill empty inside. So much for the diet, it went out the window.

Next thing you know your eyes are giving you trouble. You can't see as well as you use to. Thank goodness your new reading glasses work really well. You can thread a needle again. Then you find out from the Doctor that your blood pressure is way too high. Thank goodness again for the medication that makes it get back to normal. Everything is going to be OK now. I'm over the hump.

Sounds like its gonna be easy going from now on. So I thought. It was nice doing all the things I love to do. I went places and did things I'd always wanted to do. What fun, that is until I had trouble with my back and had to have surgery. Now its down hill all the way.

Now let's get serious. This past year is trying to do me in. I was diagnosed as having Dermatomyositis, an idiopathic, cell-medicated, inflammatory disease of the skin and muscles. It's a miserable disease that has no cure, and the treatment can cause all kinds of bad things to a person. I spent all morning today getting my eyes checked for cataracts. I was having trouble reading fine print. Guess what? My next thing to do is have these cataracts removed. I'm not giving up yet. I've got a long way to go yet.

Monday is Washday

It's still a warm day I discovered when I awoke this morning. What should I expect, its still September. Mondays are busy days around here, but you wouldn't thinks so if you saw the way the big yellow dog was sprawled out on the driveway taking his early morning nap. He was busy all night chasing all the wild creatures of the night. Let him sleep, I've got things I need to do.

This is the day to do the laundry that I've let pile up over the last week. Anyway, this is Monday and washday. It is so easy to throw all the soiled clothes in the washing machine, add some soap powder, and push the buttons. All I have to do is turn on the TV and wait until the washer runs its cycle. Good time now to watch a movie and relax. I didn't relax, my mind started wandering to way back yonder.

When I was a little kid washdays were a lot different. There was a big iron pot in our back yard. We filled it with water and then built a fire under the pot to heat the water. We had to pump the water by hand to fill the pot. We also pumped enough water to fill two tubs. One was to scrub the clothes in and the other was used to rinse the clothes in. We used the water from the iron pot to heat the tubs of water, and to boil the stubborn stains that didn't come clean with scrubbing. The scrub board did a good job on the clothes, but it was tough on the hands. Then the clothes were hung on the clothes line to dry.

That last paragraph makes me tired just thinking about. My laundry is finished, folded and put away and I didn't get tired.

Sunday Morning

Sunday mornings bring many memories to mind. Especially one like this, when the sky is so blue and the temperatue is within reason. Fall is surely on the way.

On the farm where I was brought up, Sunday was a day of rest. The mules and plow was put away for the day and they rested until Monday morning. We kids were dressed in our best home-made dresses and mail-order shoes and sent off to church. We walked two miles to the little Methodist church in town. It was a special time. We went to Sunday school to hear stories from the Bible taught by a lovely little lady that was always there on a Sunday morning. Then there was the long walk back home.

Did I say this was a day of rest? When we got home from church we found Mama busy in the kitchen preparing a nice Sunday dinner. She didn't get to rest till we were all fed. Of course she didn't do all of this by herself, we girls helped. We cooked, we cleaned the kitchen after the meal was over and then we could rest.

Our afternoon were spent playing with neighbor friends. We made our own games. We climbed trees, played ball or any games that kept us outside of the house. We had fun!

Trip to the grocery store.

Gee, it was nice weather when I got out of my warm bed this morning,  After going to the kitchen to make myself a nice pot of coffee and to take my daily meds, I cuddled up in my favorite chair with my cup of coffee and watched a movie. You can only do this if you live alone like I do, all my little chicks have long ago left the nest and the love of my life was taken away years ago, so now its just me. I can do what I wish to do anytime I wish to do it. It's a good life.

Today is grocery shopping day. This is the chore I dislike most. I like to cook and I love to eat, but its that thing you have to do first, buy grocerys. Do I buy healthy or do I buy what I like to eat? Most of the time I do a little of both. Thank goodness for TV dinners and prepared foods. They come in really handy for live aloners like me. I do cook occasionally, but not the same as when all the family was running around in the house wanting to know "What's for dinner". I do miss that.

The sky is so beautiful today. It is so blue and there are no clouds floating around. Makes me want to get outside and dig in the dirt. Those days are gone, but I can dream, can't I? I did water my ferns that are hanging on my screen porch this morning. Every thing out therelooks nice and green after this hot summer weather. I am so thankful that cooler weather is around the corner.

Beginning of Fall

Today is the first day of autumn. This does not mean cold weather.