The Journey Continues ... New Life from Old

Sunrise and sunset.  Hard to tell apart, although they are opposite from each other.  Both beautiful! It takes a long time for me to become enthused about a new idea or project.  Take, for instance, decorating for the Christmas holidays.  My husband will usually surprise me by putting up decorations when I'm out of the house early in the month of December.  Somewhere around the 20th of the month, I will decide to do a bit of housecleaning.  All the freshly dusted surfaces will call out for more decorations, and I will finally feel like it's time to pull out some old decorations ... or buy more, as the case may be!  It's much the same with keeping my last year's New Year's Resolutions, especially the one about finally getting organized.  Now that the end of the year is upon us, I intend to have a clean-up and organize blitz, just as soon as I have finished this blog entry. I am one of those people who seem to need the motivation of a fast-approaching deadline i

Housewives, Housekeeping, Homemaking, and Fall Cleaning A week ago I had a burst of enthusiasm and energy which I promptly utilized to begin some fall cleaning   Yes, fall has been here for some time but I didn't have the energy to tackle the cleaning.  I took full advantage of the day, and have been enjoying the results of my work ever since. We are retired, and that means there is lots of time to clean.  It also means there is an easy excuse to say, "I'll do it tomorrow".  Our main visitors are family, as we don't entertain a lot like we did when we were younger.  Retirement means a very relaxed lifestyle, pursing interests and hobbies and volunteer work, all which bring clutter into my life.  All this added up to a real need to do some cleaning and organizing. So when time, energy and enthusiasm collide, where does one begin a much-needed bout of cleaning and freshening the home?  I decided to start with our bedroom.  Why?  It is the place where we begin

When tragedy strikes, we are never prepared.  No amount of emergency planning really prepares us for the panic, anguish, and worry that are happening to us.  We like to hope that should something happen, that we can depend on help and that life will go on around us, waiting for us to rejoin our regular world.   For those of us in North America, it is hard to fathom the desperation being faced in Nepal now, following the massive earthquake and aftershocks in the past few days.  Death, injuries, loss of shelter and everything you owned ... these things are devastating.  But this is made so much worse when it is almost impossible to count on rescue efforts being in time to save those who are left.  With roads destroyed, no power, and overwhelmed emergency services, the terror must be overwhelming, beyond anything one could imagine.   http://www.gofundme.com/t4r2vg  tells the story of a family in a small village near Kathmandu.  This family is connected to me personally. I have

My last post was about sewing.  Since then I made a pair of pajamas for my granddaughter and have the fabric ready to make pajamas for my grandson as well.  I love sewing pajamas; they are easy to fit and comfortable to wear.  But right now, my focus is on a different home skill - cooking and baking! I received an email about a week ago, saying that someone at our church decided to take on the project of compiling a cookbook and requested recipes.  After a lifetime of cooking, where does one start?   Christmas baking Some of my favourites are a bit out of date, even though I still love them.  I'm thinking of summer jellied salads, tomato aspic, that sort of thing.  Some of the things I make frequently are not really recipes, but more of a compilation of what I have on hand.  Broccoli Salad with bacon and raisins is in this category and so is Pulled Pork.  I mean, really, I can hardly state "cover pork roast with bottle of some sort of sauce and cook in crock pot&

I'm in countdown mode as I prepare to go to a "destination" wedding with my sister.  Most if not all of my father's side of the family will be attending, and there's a 60th birthday party for a cousin arranged to coincide with the wedding celebration. We are not going to be at the same hotel as the wedding group, so we'll have some quiet vacation time as well.  Of course I have a million things to do to get ready, and I have lists to try to organize my time.  .... which, come to think of it, does not explain why I am blogging instead of doing laundry and packing. My style of packing is part of the problem.  I like to organize and clean my closet, the bathrooms, the laundry room, and, oh, finish every unfinished project I encounter while doing so, all before I put anything in the suitcase.  My theory is that it will be nice to come home to an organized space, and make it easier to unpack! So I'm making this post short.  I thought I'd share the sermo

I have always loved to sew.  When I was quite little, my mother taught me how to thread a needle and knot the thread so I could stitch patterns on tea towels.  She gave me fabric scraps to create clothing for my dolls.  I had a lovely sewing basket that carried my stash of sewing supplies that I proudly carried with me for overnights at my Grandmother's house. Eventually Mom taught me how to use our sewing machine, which was my Grandmother's old treadle machine.  I think it was given to Mom in exchange for her agreeing to do all the mending for her mother-in-law.  My initial projects were little more than stitching lines on towels or perhaps attaching ties to an apron ... nothing very difficult.  The biggest bit of information passed on to me in those early days was to make sure I didn't stitch through my fingers. I was fortunate that in approximately grade 8 we had home economics classes.  I recall picking out the pattern for a skirt with suspender-like straps.  It was