In My Home This Week: Green Green Grass of Home

In my home this week...

...The grass is green.  Our two weeks running of rain followed by a full day of sunshine then a front of thunderstorms has left the yards and trees so freshly green that  the world here still has that spanking new look about it.   Unfortunately it also meant that though John had just spent five hours mowing the overgrown lawn, it looked within two days as though it could use another hard clipping.  And so he mowed the lawn once again.

I was inspired by all the masses of plants at the garden centers to get out in the yard and do a good bit of work.   Flower beds were weeded which was fairly easy with the mulch put in place, though two or three areas need more work.  I repotted volunteers and overwintered plants.  Now I have a bevy of empty pots to fill with something fresh and new.

Coffee Chat: When It's All Too Much



Hello dears,

Do come on in and have a bit of coffee or some cold soda if you'd rather.  It was 97f here yesterday and felt like June with heavy humidity followed by hail and thunderstorms that evening and ending with a lovely sunset and then more storms.  Temperamental is certainly the personality of June.  Stormy and sunny.  Just like life at present in my home...

I gave serious consideration last week, in a fit of deeper than navy blues, of giving up.  Giving up the house and moving out.  Giving up blogging.  Giving up Jamberry.  Quitting it all and just saying, 'Take it in the handbasket to the place it's obviously heading in and GO..."  I got as far as counting up my funds and figuring out my options.   My fight was gone.  I was in full flight mode.

This Week In My Home: To Every Thing...Turn Turn Turn

In my home this week...

… I had a flood of memories hit me after reconnecting with my schoolmate.  She placed me on our graduating class closed Facebook page and I went in and introduced myself since my maiden name refuses to show up.  A number of people tagged me which was nice.  What was unexpected was the sudden reliving of what was likely one of the harder and lonelier phases of my life.  I am unsure how much had to do with my circumstances at home and my overall depression during those years.  To be sure that time of life led me to choose to marry whom I did and enter still another very long and unhappy and lonely phase of life.

This Week In My Home: Light Ahead

In my home this week...


...there is light up ahead of us.  I feel it more than I can see it.  That same sense of something changing that comes just before I see the actual break of light on the horizon in the wee hours of the morning is surrounding me just now.  In the meantime...we push on  knowing that change is ahead of us.  How do I sense this?  For one thing, the sale is complete on the land which freed Sam to push ahead with home improvements now that he officially owns the house they have been renovating.  Mama is moved.  Katie is settling in.  John is managing the extra hours.  I have adjusted my attitude...for the most part.  There's a certain peace about other situations that we've been involved in as well.  The storm isn't over.  We got hit last week with a new lot of things but there's a slight clearing of the sky that just says, this too shall soon pass.  Something's changing...and thank you Lord!

Coffee Chat: Early Morning Chatter



Good morning!  It's early....Tiptoe on in and I'll pour you a cup of coffee.  There's toast and local honey.  Let's be quiet and speak softly...the boys are still asleep.  I shouldn't want them to awaken before their usual hour which is quite early enough.

I had hoped to talk earlier this week and indeed even began a long post but it seemed to just drag on and on and I deleted the whole thing and decided a fresh start was in order.  There are an awful lot of fresh starts going on around me at present, some more pleasant than others and I confess to feeling much in need of one myself, but it has yet to be my turn.

Spicy Apple Cake - I FOUND IT!



While sorting though Mama's cookbooks the other day I came across a Family Circle magazine cookbook that looked familiar.  I brought it home with me and flipped through it and found that Apple Cake recipe I've been trying to find for the past 30 years.  I am so stoked to have this recipe once more!  In the hopes that I shall never again lose it I am sharing here and on the recipe blog.  I haven't made it yet, but will try it soon.  I only hope that it's as good to me now as it was 35 years ago when I last made it!!

Spicy Apple Cake
Bake 325F for 1 hour 10 minutes.  Makes one 10-in tube cake

Giving Up the Guilt: Food for Thought



This week I started a course from Chabad.org called Faith and Food....I read the supplementary articles first because I've yet had time to listen to the actual video but I loved this bit of writing by one author:

Mid-September: Loss and Gain