The Journey Continues ... New Life from Old

For the past two months, I've been dealing with a cold and possible pneumonia, and it's left me feeling exhausted.  I haven't had a lot of energy to deal with my Etsy and Ebay stores, and I guess I felt a bit sorry for myself.  Until I read about a young mother of three young boys who is battling breast cancer, and had a second surgery today.  I have three grown sons, and looking at her photos took me back in time to when mine were the same age as hers. By way of explaining the background to her story ... I belong to a Facebook group where the members help each other with listing products and shipping questions.  If you want to check it out, it's called The Thrifting Board, and the head administrator is Jason from Thrift Hunters which ran for two seasons on Spike TV. One of the administrators for the group is the young mother. Her story is what inspired this post.    https://www.youcaring.com/nadene-shearstone-546811 Photo from www.youcaring.com ...

Aren't these the cutest cups of cappucino?  Perfect to serve for Valentine's Day!  Actually, we took this photo on the other side of the world from us, in a coffee shop we visited on a family vacation in Korea.  Great memory. Funny how the meals (and coffees!) we share create such lasting memories.  That's why it's fun to try to be a little festive for special occasions; your family will remember those special days. Like Valentine's Day. While I think that Valentine's Day desserts should be special and fun,  they don't have to be difficult or take hours to make.  Today I'll share a couple of my favourites. I made the first one about 40 years ago, on our first Valentine's Day, several months after our wedding.  You can make the meringue base a couple days ahead of time, if you wish.  The rest needs to be made ahead of time and chilled for at least 12 hours before cutting. The second recipe was one I contributed to my hometown's cook ...

The start of a Christmas tree skirt that I began in a quilting class.  One of many projects that I would love to finish this year.  My resolutions for the New Year are the standard type -- you know, get organized, start and finish projects, clean the entire house, work out, get in shape, lose weight, that sort of thing.  Plus some more personal ones like correspondence, blogging, reading, devotions, and some general business goals that can be summed up as "succeed".    Overall, I am trying to achieve at least one thing every day, outside of the things that I absolutely have to do regardless of my resolutions. To be truthful, I don't like the term "resolution".  I prefer "life goals" or even simply "goals".  It sounds more immediate than a lofty "I hereby resolve to do x, y, and z". I was trying to figure out how to make myself accountable for some follow-through.  I can't see succeeding at a daily blog post, but then it...

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-app...

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...

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 fami...

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 s...