Using What I Have Celebration

 I have an iron clad rule: no buying Christmas decorations until I finish Christmas shopping and I am not quite finished.  So nothing new for me though I did see something I just longed to have last Wednesday.  Even if I had been finished with my gift buying I'd have hesitated over the price of those two items...but you know, there's nothing like wanting something new to make you even more tired of what you were already tired of using for Christmas decorations, lol.

A few years ago I wanted to go glitzy/glamorous with my tree and it was just beautiful.  But in the past year or so I've been trying to change over my rooms to better reflect the beauty of a farmhouse home.  I've made good progress, but the tree stayed the same.  This year I mean to change things up with my Christmas decor and because I am frugal and get such a kick out of 'making do' as Granny used to call it, I've been looking for ideas that I can use.

Simply Southern At Heart posted a photo of a cute Christmas pillow on their Facebook page the other day and immediately I knew this was something I could do for my own home.  It plays in well with my natural farmhouse theme. This design is NOT my own, nor original to me, but it is my variation on a similar look.

More November Fun: A Stormy Sea, Sweet stuff, and Intrigue

We started our journey very early.  We left the house far earlier than we've managed to yet.  It was cold and drizzly and bleak and for once we kept the heater on in our car all day long.  I brought along a sweater and my fuzzy warm slippers, too.  John chose to drive along old state highways to Florida.  We thoroughly enjoyed the change of pace from the usual interstate route.  I didn't take many photos that day.  It was so dark and drizzly and foggy and drear that none of them turned out very well but it was a journey worth making all the same.  We drove along Highway 341 at first, very familiar territory to us as we've taken that portion of the route so many times now in visiting the oldest son and his family.

In Baxley, we turned onto Highway 441 and drove South to Florida.  The surprise wasn't the tiny little towns that 'used to be' and still clung tenuously to life.  The surprise to us was Douglas, Georgia which appeared to be a very good sized city, a college town.  It appears seemingly out of nowhere in an area of the map that is dotted with lots more blank spaces than tiny old towns and when you leave it, you're right back in the middle of seemingly nowhere all over again.

I noted that cotton in the fields was white as snow, ready to be picked.  And blueberries, field after field of blueberry bushes that stretched to the horizon.  Honey refineries, too, with big 50 gallon drums stacked high all around them.  The sheer volume of honey manufactured in south Georgia stunned me.  I had no idea and I've lived here all my life.

I do find it interesting to compare what I see growing now to what crops were grown when I was young.  In my youth, pecans, cotton, corn, oats, rye and soybeans were king.  In my teen years, watermelons and soybeans and pecans were the main crops.  Now I see sunflowers, more corn this year than in years past, cotton, soybeans and things like blueberries and honey.  Of course in my area the fruit crop is mostly peaches, and up north of us, it's apples, but blueberries are a fairly new crop and so are sunflowers.

On the Mend...

Wondering where I've been?  Under the weather, sick abed.  But I'm on the mend and feeling a bit more ambitious than I've felt in a couple of days.  I'll be back shortly with plenty to share.

Our Fun Friday

Two weeks ago today, we were expecting the son and daughter in law and grandchildren to come up from south Georgia.  John knows I tend to (a) work too hard in preparing, and (b) get anxious and a bit snippy as the day goes on and I get more and more tired.  He'd taken menu planning in hand himself for this particular visit, leaving me to tend to the shopping only.  Then he said on Thursday night, "We're going out tomorrow," which tossed me into a momentary panic but he added, "after all, I'm on vacation."  Well he knew full well that would put me more in a frame of mind to leave the house and let go of my 'must do' list.  I asked only one question: "Shall I pack a picnic lunch?"  This time he said "Yes, do." lol 

So we started another journey on a bright fall morning.  I took all sorts of photos along the way and filled my memory card long before we got to our destination.  Sadly I had to delete most of them in order to take other photos, but since most were of blurry autumn leaves, you'll appreciate the deletion more than the photos.

We took a winding roadway, an old federal highway, and when I say federal I mean Revolutionary federal.  It's known as "The Old Wire Road" but historical plaques state that General LaFayette traveled that roadway from the U.S. Capital to New Orleans in Louisiana territory, not yet a part of the U.S.  I thought this over as we traveled.  Yes, I am a history buff and I deeply appreciate walking or riding in the paths of history.  I doubt seriously the road we traveled was the original roadway since I could see at intervals some old stone bridge piers in the woods near us.  Old roads followed Indian trails, and most highways still run along or very near those old pathways.

Coffee Chat: Time to Put Your Feet Up

(Started Thanksgiving Eve)  Hasn't it a been a long while since our last chat?  And a long day today for many of you I'm willing to bet.  Some worked outside the home and have been hurrying about this evening to put the house to rights and start as much of tomorrow's great feast as possible.  Not so in my home...No, not at all.  I've a tiny turkey breast roast thawing in the sink which I'll pop in the crock pot tomorrow morning for sandwich meat for supper.  And that my dears is the big Ta-Da! for Thanksgiving in my home.  Don't think that sounds too sad, please.  I've had a perfectly lovely two months of time with my husband which culminated this past weekend in an early Thanksgiving dinner at my eldest son's home combined with a celebration of one year of life for the twins.  So no sad tears here for what I've already had and enjoyed thoroughly. (And now I'll wish you all Happy Thanksgiving. I'm sure many of you ARE sitting with your feet up about now.)

I know it's been a while since our last chat.  I've done so very much since then!  So much that I must share in increments all that we did. So consider this part 3 for October and then next I'll share all about the most wonderful November ever!

This Spiritual Journey...Part 4

"I wonder what it would be like to worship God the way that Jesus, His Son, did..."   What a journey began in that moment!

There was a ministry group (several members belonged to our church) which began to have monthly meetings at our church on Saturdays.  This was the day the worship team came in for practice and as things will work out we were soon asked to provide the music for their ministry.  I confess I was put out by this and didn't want to participate in this ministry at all.   I had good reason to believe that 'somebody' belonged to this group.   I was especially upset one particular Saturday, almost to the point of open rebellion.  The guest speaker had been announced (and as memory goes, I cannot for the life of me tell you who she was other than her name was Gisele something), and I was adamant to John that immediately following the music portion of the program I was going to walk out and go home.  John had attempted to coax me to change my mind, but I was having none of it.

As I stood at the dresser, fastening my necklace, I had one of those moments in which the leading of God is so particularly strong that it cannot be ignored.  "You must stay and here this woman speak.  She has a word for you."  That was what I heard in my spirit.  I attempted to argue, to reason it out, but no it came a second time "Stay.  She has a word for you."  And a third time.  "Hear her.  She has a word for you."  I wept with frustration.  I did NOT want to stay but I am a child who wants to please my Father and arguing had gotten me nowhere.  John was surprised to see me crying when he walked into the room. "What's wrong?"  "We'll stay and hear what this woman has to say."  "But if you don't want to..."  "I have to.  We have to."  "No, we don't..."  "YES, we do.  God said she has a word for us."  No more arguments from my husband who had been trying to coax me into leaving, because he thought I was just trying to please him.

This Week's Meals

It's been two months of vacation and off time and very little work time for us.  And I say this quite sincerely...If we could just figure out how to have an income and no need of heading out to work, I'd enjoy this on a more consistent basis, lol.  Well it all ends this week, the day before the holiday starts to be exact.  From here until well into next year it's routine work weeks and squeeze in what we can during the off week.

So what did we do this past week.  Rather than sit here at home we took off to go to the beach!  Yep, went to the beach and then we stopped off to visit the grandbabies, so we could have our family Thanksgiving and celebrate the twins first birthday and wish a happy anniversary to their Mama and Daddy.  We came home yesterday and as I said it's pretty much routine for the next several months.  Well, truly, life is anything but routine with my husband around.  He likes to shake things up routinely, so who knows what routine is really all about? lol

Meals come around regular enough though, as does laundry and dishes and any other form of housework.  It's one of the few jobs that knows no season.  It's work all year round, isn't it? 

You'll note there is no Thanksgiving day menu for our house.  We had our family dinner with the grands' and their parents Saturday.  Mama is having dinner at her house on Thanksgiving day and is NOT having turkey (she dislikes it, sigh).  John has a promise of a proper Thanksgiving meal on Wednesday though Lori did as good a job as any could.  John just wants the stuffed turkey (I bought a breast) and I'll make a pumpkin pie.  We skipped that at Jd's since birthday cake abounded and Mama has also NO PUMPKIN PIE, sigh, just as she said NO to turkey, sigh.  I do not understand this prejudice that she has against turkey. Oh well...Meals:

Lasagna, Salad, Bread and butter, Ice cream
Frozen lasagna from the store at that.  Yes, really.  John had jury duty today (cancelled last week but we were out of town) and I had errands to run in town since we did not shop for groceries this pay period.  I can easily get buy with what we have here but I had needed the trinity: milk, eggs, bread and a turkey breast and while I was at it, soda and something for supper and a few snacks.  We also happen to need fruit but will use canned until we can do our regular grocery shop.  There's plenty of lettuce and cabbage and carrots for raw veg this week.

Taco soup, Corn bread, Pineapple Salad
I'll attempt a leftover makeover and  use some of the leftover chili liquid base with additional ingredients to make our soup.  I'm thinking a bit of corn, perhaps some black beans, a little scrambled hamburger, some cumin.  That should make it taste like taco soup.  Fingers crossed on this experiment!

Alfredo Chicken and Pasta, Green Beans, Green Salad, Garlic Toast
I'm going to slice the boneless skinless chicken breasts the way I did the other day, so two breasts  should net me two meals worth of meat.  I'll make the Alfredo sauce from scratch and I'll check to see if I've got any broccoli before I commit to the green beans.

Thanksgiving Meal at Mama's, I am taking Jiffy Corn Pudding.

Oven Fried Chicken Fillet Sandwich, Oven Fries, Carrot Raisin Salad
My second chicken meal. Ha. Technically the THIRD since Mama is serving chicken for Thanksgiving.  Seriously.

Porcupine Meatballs, Mashed Potatoes, Coleslaw, Corn Muffins, Pineapple Upside Down Cake
Yes, I am making a lot of cornbread this week.  It's a ruse to get plenty of dry crumbly cornbread to make that stuffing next week.   I'll use up the pineapple I opened to make salad and my Lazy Day Yellow Cake recipe to make a small upside down cake.

Macaroni and Cheese, Creole Green Beans, Oven Fried Okra, Pear Salad 
I've found that having a mac and cheese main dish can be a satisfactory thing if I am careful to make a rich cheese sauce, balance the macaroni and cheese with savory side dishes with plenty of texture and make things as colorful as possible on the plate.  This menu will hopefully hit all those marks.

And there we are,  a week's worth of meals planned to please, and not a single bit of turkey in the week. Boo!