Hello dears! Do come in and have a cup of coffee with me. It's a little cool here in the house but it's a bit nicer outdoors. We can sit on the back porch where the evening sun will warm us slightly and watch the sunset. For cookies today we have old fashioned Nabisco Sugar Wafers.
Granny always used to buy these crisp and lightly sweet cookies. I was feeling nostalgic for these cookies the other day and sought them in vain at the local stores, even the cheapest brands of them had disappeared from the shelves...However, while out with Mama the other day I was scanning shelves as I walked down the aisle chasing her electric cart, lol, and saw them perched on the top shelf. I grabbed a box and didn't even blink at the cost. Nostalgia does come with a price tag but it was an affordable expense and I have enjoyed my few cookies each afternoon.
As I carried my prize about the store I recalled another cookie I truly enjoyed at Granny's table. It wasn't even a pricey name brand sort of cookie but one of those cheap packets, a chocolate sugar cookie. Granny often got a packet of regular sugar cookies and chocolate sugar cookies together for us grandkids when we spent a week with her. They were lovely dark brown chocolate cookies with a crisp sugary coating on top.
And then there was a name brand cookie I rather liked, this one from Keebler, the Iced Oatmeal Raisin Bars.
There are cookies I will not buy at all because I.have.NO.control when I eat them. Oreos for instance and the Keebler Danish Wedding Cookies. One or two isn't going to do. A full packet later, I have serious regrets...and rather than have regrets I simply deny myself those cookies. At least with Oreos one might occasionally buy one of those sleeves with 10 cookies in and I'll split that with John. That's doable...But no one has packaged up those Danish Wedding cookies in packets yet, so I steer clear of them.
Well I certainly didn't mean to start chatting about cookies, but there you are. Set one toe down on the trail of nostalgia and off you go! But I'm definitely in the mood for common old every day chatter so pardon me while I ramble away...
While we're talking foodie things I'll quickly share that Bess has one of those apps that tell her what size the baby is at each stage. For some reason she chose one that compares the baby's size to various animals. This month's animal was an Echidna...I was flummoxed. I asked Bess, can't you relate these things to food sizes? I can identify the size more easily. Funnily enough, Bess' mom Jenny agreed with me. So Bess later posted that her baby was now the size of a large eggplant and I can totally see the baby's size in my mind now. It would be nice had they at least chosen a recognizable animal, lol!
Katie's babe is doing just fine. He's such a sweet baby, with little fussiness and eating like it's going out of style. His little belly is getting rounder and rounder and he doesn't play about with his eating. I complained to Katie I hadn't seen him in a week and needed a picture...She suggested I just come see him. I agreed that was the better of the two ideas and so I went over to see him on Monday. He did what he usually does when I take him up and wake him. He wanted to eat. When he was done, I laid him over my arm to burp him and he did so and then promptly went back to sleep.
I had to take a picture and send it off to his grampa.
This little boy had a big day out today and he was good as gold the whole day long. Katie had an appointment at the WIC office quite early, then we visited with Mama for a good bit and then off to the pediatrician's for his second visit.
He has gained nearly a pound in 2 weeks. The doctor was impressed at how well he's done. He now weighs 6 pounds, 6 ounces. He eats on an average of every two hours all through the day and is already sleeping five or six hours most nights. His most favorite thing to do is to stretch and grunt mightily the whole while he's extending arms and legs, lol.
I had a good dose of little boys this week. Sunday Bess wasn't feeling well and Sam asked us to take the boys to church with us. It's where they normally attend, but our first time ever going through the whole nursery and signing in to children's church deal. Dear Isaac just laid his head on Grampa's shoulder and wept...Well he started crying when he discovered we were leaving the house and he needed Grampa's sympathy then, too...and then at church he sobbed. He's going through a separation issue at present and I know he'll get over it but oh my...Grandparent hearts don't have the same flint a parent's heart has, at least not in this house. The nursery worker assured me he settles in just fine once he's taken through the doors and he certainly came out with a better attitude.
Josh has no separation anxiety at all. Holding him back to our fastest pace was our difficulty with him. He pointed me in the direction of the kiosks where we were to sign him in to Children's Church and told us to come get him after church. There's just 2 years between the two boys and it was easy to see what a huge difference those two years can make.
John has continued to research and stress himself periodically over retirement. However, I've been able to find information that has soothed his worries. On the advice of one of the senior county employees, he's set his retirement date about his birthday. So in about two months we'll start this new season of life. In the meantime, we're finding already that things are falling into place. Expenses are decreasing, income is looking like it will be sufficient and John's more and more set on his retirement date. It's just a matter of getting every little thing that must be done taken care of done.
Do you all realize that we've only about one more week of November? I haven't pulled out the vintage Christmas magazines yet...Nor my Christmas books which I mean to read over again. Typically in November I've also reviewed the year behind me and starting planning the year ahead but this year, I confess, I haven't the heart to go back over the year. It was hard in too many ways and while I can say quite happily, as I did to Katie today, that we've come through it all and are now on the backside of it, it's just too recently begun to come right once more for me to want to rehash it. As for planning next year...I think I'm going to see how things fall into place nearer January. Perhaps then my head will be clearer for thinking of making plans. And perhaps I'll be just content to let the year go as it may. I don't like to drift through life as a rule but there are seasons when plans tend to fly out of the window and you just end up winging it all the way through...Sort of like this past year!
And there is another baby to meet early on in the new year...And John retiring somewhere around the same time and so it's just plain hard to plan at the moment. Besides it feels good to just let things BE for a bit.
I know it's been a short chat today but I hope you all enjoyed our visit. I'm thinking life is going to slow down for a bit now, so hopefully there will be more chats in the days to come.
9 comments:
A friend and I were in Aldi's today and found the old fashioned windmill/almond cookies.We both bought a package. Your new grandson looks to be very sweet. my husband retired early from truck driving about 2 years ago.It has been a learning experience for us but we are adjusting.
I also cannot bring any Wedding cookies, or the old fashioned windmill/almond cookies, that Willa mentioned, into the house because I will pour a glass of milk and sit and eat them all in one or two sittings. They make lose control. Cookies that I can manage to limit myself on are Nilla Wafers. The manufacturer has shrunk them to such a small size now, but I am able to eat just a few of them. They don't seem to push my glutton button.
I laughed out loud about the baby being the size of an echidna! I guess it could have been even sillier if they would have said the size of a platypus. Maybe that was an Australian chart. Eggplant is definitely easier to visualize.
Your new grandson has such a sweet little face. He is so cute!
What a sweet boy you have there! As Layla nears her 5th (!) birthday, I am missing having a baby around.
My grandma bought Archway brand cookies to fill her cookie jar on top of the frig. There were many varieties, but the peanut butter was my favorite.
I can take or leave Oreos, but those sugar wafers I never buy because I will eat the entire package over the course of a day or two. My dad loved those - he called them ice cream cookies because his mom would serve them with ice cream when he was a kid. See, you've set me on that path of nostalgia quite easily. LOL.
I, too, was stunned when you said you could eat just few cookies at a time . I thought you were some kind of superior being.😀 But when you admitted that Oreos brought you down, I felt a kinship.
Husband and I will eat them until we're ill, take a rest, then start in again.
Oh what a sweet baby! I'm glad that he is doing well. Hope that Katie is doing okd too.
Too funny about the baby size. I can visualize an eggplant though. Hope Bess' mom is doing better.
My son requested those wafer cookies. I hadn't had them in ages, but found him some at Ollies last week.
I'm so glad that retirement is looking better for John. I think you all will enjoy this new chapter in your lives.
Hope you have a very happy Thanksgiving, and I hope John enjoys his turkey and pumpkin pie.
Do tell, where did you find those Sugar Wafers? Publix??
Lana, Yes I found them at Publix and they are available online at Walmart for a little less than I paid at Publix.
Kathy, Katie is doing quite well thank you. She's healed well from the surgery.
Anne, Since I am a former compulsive binge/purge eater. LONG before being diagnosed as a diabetic I gave up that destructive behavior and having identified trigger foods, I simply don't have them in the house.
Tammy I like 'ice cream cookies' as a description.
Susie, You are so right about vanilla wafers shrinking in size!
Willa, I love those cookies too...Most all the cookies at Aldi have proven to be quite lovely in taste and often have simple plain ingredients, too.
Mother's was peanut butter cookies. Only cookie she would have in the house, not crunchy.
Daddy's is fig newtons.
Nonna's was biscotti... she preferred lemon or orange flavored.
Hubby is snickerdoodles and Oreo's
Son 2 is peanut butter the other 5 kids is snickerdoodles.
I LOVE ALL COOKIES.
First year of retirement will change a lot as you go along. The thing I have found to help the best is stay in a routine, plan things you want down and set a date for it to be done. OTHERWISE you might just drift and not get things done. Several of our retired friends (we were the last to retire) have said this.
The baby is adorable! John will love retirement, once he gets into his groove. I retired 7 years ago, and for the first few months, I would wake up and think "surely to goodness I'm supposed to be somewhere", lol; then you find things to fill the hours and are grateful for the freedom. Danish Wedding cookies are indeed addictive, but I think the cookie I miss most is the Sunshine Lemon Coolers. There is a nostalgia brand version available in some specialty stores, but it is at a premium price and, in my opinion, doesn't measure up to the original. Those cookies had the perfect balance of sweet and tart, and a box usually didn't last a day at my house, so it's just as well they're no longer made.
Carol in NC
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