As a Bee

So it's Monday. My to do list this week is long. Actually my to do list between now and Christmas is long and ever growing and I have to work hard not to let it overwhelm me. I mean that in both the literal and the figurative sense. I don't want to wake up in the middle of the night and think about my list.

anticipation-the act of looking forward; especially: pleasurable expectation

Hubs had a meeting in Phoenix most of last week. He got home late Saturday afternoon and left this morning for China. I wonder if he was awake during the night pondering his to do list? We had a one day weekend which essentially was spent on the sofa alternately napping and watching football. If we are going to carry on at this pace we need regular naps on the couch. I did laundry and sat with all of my recipes and cookbooks and planned Thanksgiving menus and shopping lists. I cooked a new and delicious recipe in my crock pot which is definitely a keeper (maple braised pork chops). Is it sad that the highlight of my weekend was a meal? Okay, maybe not the highlight but definitely a highlight.

joy-the emotion of great delight or happiness caused by something exceptionally good or satisfying; keen pleasure; elation.

While hubs was in Phoenix I spent a few days at my moms. I had a birthday dinner with my brother and sister in law, a birthday breakfast with my sister and nephew and did some Christmas shopping with my mom. Her to do list more than mine but I did manage to pick up one or two stocking stuffers. Hubs and I both have big families so there is lots of shopping and wrapping and shipping to be done plus I'm cooking Thanksgiving dinner for 5 or 7 and I'm hosting my entire family, all 13 of us, for Christmas this year, and did I mention I have two little trips between now and Christmas so I really need to bring my A game when it comes to planning and organizing. Those thoughts belong in a run on sentence don't you think?

peace-inner contentment; serenity

When did this season of the year become so busy? My mother decorated and cooked and shopped and maybe she'd say it was all a little crazy but somehow I think we've managed to amp the whole thing up a few hundred watts. These days we need more than one beautifully decorated tree, side dishes that dazzle to accompany our meals, guest rooms with pillows perfectly plumped, coordinated gift wrap and clever packaging, and on and on it goes. Our expectations are so high and right along with those expectations come timetables and expenses and stress that somehow contradict the wondrous simplicity of a baby born in a manger.

love-a profoundly tender affection for another person

To be honest I don't know anyone who would say they aren't busy this time of year. We're all busy and somewhere along the road from there to here we've allowed the secular to overtake the real.

This year I want the real. I want to feel the anticipation. I don't want anything as trivial as a to-do list to steal my joy. And I definitely don't want to be the short-tempered, impatient, tired, wife/mother/sister/daughter/friend who was too 'busy' to love the people around me.

Most of all, I want to wallow in the peace ushered into this world by a baby in a manger on a long ago silent night.

this post is linked with the One Word Blog Carnival hosted by Peter Pollack

A Walk in the Woods

The weather last weekend was absolutely gorgeous so hubs and I decided to get out and enjoy it. We donned hiking boots and warm coats and we loaded up the dog and some water and some snacks and headed to one of our favorite State Parks-Waywayanda. Who else likes saying that word?

It was a perfect day.

We walked.

We talked.

We sat.

We looked.

We listened.

We thought.

And we both agreed that we need to be outdoors more.

Do you know what else I wanted to do?

I wanted to sing.

There is something about being in the middle of creation that just fills my heart up to overflowing and makes me want to burst into song. I don't (usually) but I did add some music to a few of our photos which makes me very happy.

Another photo slideshow by Smilebox

music-David Crowder Band: Everything Glorious

Hurry Up into the Wednesday Hodgepodge-Vol 52

Welcome to the Wednesday Hodgepodge...feel free to join the party. Answer the questions on your own blog or fb page and add your link at the bottom of my post. Here are my answers to this week's questions-

1. Of all the tools and gadgets you own, which do you most enjoy using?

I do love my label maker. There is something very satisfying about typing in letters and seeing words magically spit out the side. As far as the kitchen goes, my Kitchen Aid mixer is by far my favorite appliance but I will also give a shout out to my trusty mezzaluna -superb for chopping herbs and not fingers.

2. When (if ever) is impatience a virtue?

At first glance I'd say never but when I think about it as it applies to our life I might change my mind. Hubs could be described as somewhat impatient. ahem. He is a person of action and waiting around for life to happen is not his forte. Me on the other hand? Well, I might wait forever for something to happen that just won't happen unless someone demonstrates a little impatience. Enter the hubs. That old adage, 'the squeaky wheel gets the grease' is kinda true. That being said I sometimes get impatient with people who are always impatient.

3. What temperature do you keep the thermostat set to in winter? Do you have another way to heat your house besides a furnace of some sort?

68 degrees. I hate to be hot when I sleep but I hate to be cold when I get up. This is a nice happy middle.

4. Do/did you have a close relationship with any of your grandparents?

I started to answer this question and realized I have quite a lot of memories associated with my grandparents that I'd like to record. I think I might put those in a separate post so I have them written down somewhere.

For most of my life I lived a fair distance from my grandparents but I was always close to my maternal grandma. We lived with her for one year when I was about a year old and she helped care for me. My dad was overseas and my mom was distracted by my baby sister who was a wee bit difficult. My grandma also came to stay with my mom for months at a time in her later years so I really got to know and love her in my adult years too.

5. When did you last have a family portrait taken?

2005. We had a family portrait taken by a wonderful British photographer at the start of Daughter1's senior year of high school. The setting was the Windsor Great Park and the castle sits in the background. Can't really ask for a more perfect setting, can you?

The photographer had once even photographed the Queen (yes, the Queen of England) but I'm pretty sure we were way more fun. I imagine the next family portraits we have taken will revolve around a wedding someday. So glad we seized the moment back in 2005.

6. What does the word patriotism mean to you?

Loving your country is at the heart of patriotism but I think it goes deeper than that. Living in a foreign country made me realize that patriotism also means you personally identity with your home country. You worry, defend, promote, and act as cheerleader. You want to see her demonstrate all that is good and right in the world. Sometimes she lets you down but you love her anyway.

7. Do you like to play cards and if so, what's your favorite card game?

I think it has been established here that I like to play games and I guess my favorite card game would be Hearts. Now if only I could convince my family to play.

8. Insert your own random thought here.

Today is my big brother's birthday. Actually he's my only brother but he's also older and since its his birthday that needs to be noted, right? Anyway, he is a good guy. A very good guy. I don't know anyone who doesn't like my brother.

I was looking thru my pics for one to post here today and I came across one that was taken on a trip he and my sister in law made to see us in the UK. We spent a day hiking out near Oxford and were cornered by some cows on our way to Blenheim Palace.

Such is life in the English countryside. It was such a fun, happy day. Hope your birthday is the same big brother!

Questions for the Wednesday Hodgepodge-Vol 52

Here are the questions for this week's Wednesday Hodgepodge....everyone is welcome to join the fun. Be sure you come back here tomorrow (Wednesday) to link answers with the rest of the internets.

1. Of all the tools and gadgets you own which do you most enjoy using?

2. When (if ever) is impatience a virtue?

3. What temperature do you keep your thermostat set to in winter? Do you have another way to heat your house besides a furnace of some type?

4. Do/did you have a close relationship with any of your grandparents?

5. When did you last have a family portrait taken?

6. What does the word patriotism mean to you?

7. Do you like to play cards and if so, what's your favorite card game?

8. Insert your own random thought here.

7 on 7

7 on 7 is really just a nice way of saying I have seven miscellaneous and completely unrelated thoughts to share today and it's the 7th of November ergo, 7 on 7.

1. Does anyone actually ever say ergo?

2. Sunday morning I made my way down the stairs to begin my normal routine of choosing a coffee cup, doling out the dog's meds, putting food and water in her bowl and letting her out back. Standing at my kitchen sink I glanced to the left to see if the little family of deer were on the hillside as they are most mornings when I felt something approaching from the other side of the yard.

As my grandma would say, "Land sakes alive!"

A ginormous, and by ginormous I mean HUGE!, bear strolled right under my kitchen window. It is possible I may have freaked just a wee bit. Naturally the camera was in my purse (aka the Black Hole) so by the time I'd recovered sufficiently to yell for hubs to come see, dug out the camera, focused (remember this was pre-coffee), calmed the dog so that she didn't go thru the glass door in her attempt to ge up close and personal with the bear, I only got two lousy pictures. Hubs said the animal practically sat on our furniture and I could have a whole album of pictures if I hadn't been so nuts, but honestly this freaked me out a little. I've never seen one so close to the house and I kept thinking if I'd gone out the garage door as I sometimes do I might have come face to face with him. Shudder.

They are magnificent creatures. He paid us not one iota of attention, just lumbered across the patio, around the firepit and up the hill into the woods. This little episode served as my cardio workout for the day. To quote my hubs, "You handled that well." ahem.

3. In other exciting weekend news hubs coined a new expression. He'd seen some photos of himself and he hates the way his eyebrows look in pictures. Why yes, I am writing a blog post discussing my husbands eyebrows but he's okay with that. Anyway, because they are so gray fair they are sometimes more noticeable than he would like in pictures. We were discussing this very thing on our way to dinner Saturday night and he was lamenting that he looked old. I disagreed but he said no, he was right, that he was having an 'age spurt' Ha. Kinda like the reverse of a growth spurt. Glad to know there's a name for it.

4. I bet you can't wait to be empty nesters and have conversations like this one with your spouse can you? And I ask you-

Does a man who rips dead trees from the side of a very steep hill while deer sleep nearby and a bear lurks who knows where look old?

5. Want to know another interesting topic of conversation we explored en route to dinner on Saturday night? Chapstick. We both agree that there is a narcotic in chapstick that makes it addicting. The more you use the more you feel the need to use. Your thoughts? About chapstick I mean, not about our pathetic mid life conversations.

6. Saturday afternoon we went shopping. Correction, hubs went shopping and I held the coat and commented on the fact that even when a store has a suit sale which is buy one get one free he manages to select the most expensive suit in the store so really, are we actually getting a deal?

Anyway, it was a little chilly here but I was wearing wedges with the toe open because in spite of the chill, I was warm. I chalk that up to my 'age spurt'. Plus I was not ready to put on my old boots...I'm due for some new fall boots or cute shoes to wear with jeans but I've put off shopping for something so far. Hubs told me to just go buy a new pair but raise your hand if you're the mom and you tend to put yourself at the bottom of the list when it comes to buying.

In my head is an ever growing list of things coming up in the immediate and/or the not so distant future-holidays, travel, furnace repair, huge trees being removed from the yard today, college expenses, blah blah blah. Now I know that my buying a new pair of shoes and a college tuition payment do not exactly fall into the same category but if you're a mom I think you know what I mean. Hubs said this is not Appalachia and I need shoes with toes. Period.

7. Finally, I couldn't sleep on Wednesday night and in a moment of middle of the night activity I signed up for twitter. I cannot get my photo to load to my profile and I don't really know what in the world I'm doing but I'm going to figure it out as I go along. I don't know how often I'll 'tweet' because I think we all know brevity is not my forte. You can follow me at Daleyjoy if you are into twitter...and if you are, send me your link (name?) so I can follow you too.

Happy Monday!

Orange Slices and Life Lessons

My mom and I were somewhere recently and somehow the topic of siblings sharing a bedroom came up. I am one of four and my younger sister and I are just a year apart so it was only logical we should be the two sharing a room. We each had our own twin bed with one nightstand between and we even shared a dresser, just a couple of drawers apiece. We alternately loved and hated the set up.

My dad built a long book/toy shelf and somehow we divided that space as well. Right down to the centimeter I'm sure. I can still remember the wallpaper we helped choose....a teeny tiny pattern of pink, red and white flowers glued to the walls and ceiling by my dad. The woodwork was painted red. Hey, it was the sixties people. We loved it...until we got tired of it, but for a while we loved it.

There is something special about growing up with a sister so near to you in age. She was my constant companion and playmate which of course can be wonderful or dreadful depending on the day. Lots of times we played with a group of girls in the neighborhood who were my age, one whole entire year older than sister2. We all know these things matter when you're nine. Sister2 would take any part we gave her just to be allowed to join the fun.

'We're playing house-you can be the dog.'

I don't remember my mom intervening in these little girl negotiations too much. The natural hierarchy of the neighborhood prevailed and somehow we managed to have a lot of fun and/or someone ran home crying while simultaneously shouting "I'm telling mom!" Hours passed, sometimes only minutes even, and then all was forgiven and forgotten. We were back to playing together only this time with a little more kindness shown towards the offended... a little more awareness of how tender feelings need gentle handling.

We had loads of dress up clothes and spent hours wearing them around the house and sometimes the neighborhood. We liked to make up plays and put on shows for whoever we could corral into watching. We played house and store and all sorts of games we made up with our very active, some might say overactive, imaginations. We had no need of a plastic pink house for our Barbies. In the back corner of our yard, really our neighbor's yard, was a great big tree. The ground beneath its branches was the perfect spot for our version of the 'Dream House'.

On Saturday mornings we had chores to do but afterwards we could usually be found with our paper dolls spread from one end of the living room to the other. Our living room was formal and rarely used but it was an ideal location for just such an activity.

When I got into high school my older sister1 had married and moved out of her 'super cool yellow room'. I got to move in to that room with its full sized canopy bed and big yellow flowers on the wall. It's the 70's now-keep up people!

I was happy to have my own room and I think sister2 felt the same. Most of the time. Much to our surprise we sometimes missed the small space between the twin beds where secrets were whispered in a room we shared. So every now and then, on Friday nights, sister2 and I would have a 'sleep over'. She'd come sleep in my room or I'd go sleep in hers.

You see for all the complaining and the bickering and the negotiating of space that took place in our shared room there was also something else. There was the cementing of sisterhood.

Sister2 is celebrating a BIG birthday this weekend and in honor of that I'm going to write down a little story that does not paint me in the best light but remember I was the big sister and it was my job to keep the little in check-

We didn't get candy very often when we were kids so when we did it was considered a very special treat. I don't remember now why we had candy on this particular afternoon but my mom had given us one small bag of the candied orange slices to share. The gummy kind that are rolled in sugar. We were in heaven.

As was our modus operandi back in the day we very carefully counted them out-one for you, one for me, one for you, one for me.

Even steven.

Fair and square.

We were sitting on the floor of our bedroom playing a game of some sort and when sister2 wasn't looking, I stashed my orange slices behind my back. She noticed they were gone and in a precious moment of spontaneous sibling love and generosity said she would share the rest of hers with me. She then gave me half of all she had left. Which I gobbled up pronto.

And then, in a not so precious moment of spontaneous sibling naughtiness, I whipped mine out from behind my back and laughed. She did not. In fact I'm pretty sure she told mom. And I'm pretty sure I was scolded and had to hand mine over to sister. The end.

Its funny what you remember. Out of all of childhood's million moments we both remember this one in exactly the same way. Last year we exchanged bags of candied sugared orange slices with one another on our respective birthdays. And we laughed. Because its the good the bad and the ugly that binds two sister's hearts.

Happy Birthday little sister!

Footloose in the Wednesday Hodgepodge-Volume 51

Welcome to the weekly Wednesday Hodgepodge...add your link at the bottom of my post and come join the party. Here are my answers-

1. Who taught you how to cook?

My mama. She is an excellent cook and I learned mostly by watching and helping. I think my own girls have done the same.

2. Have you been told you think too much? Are too much of a perfectionist? Are too sensitive? Were they right?

What a question! Who wrote this??? It's possible I've had one or more of these statements said about me. It's also possible they were right in saying them. That first one has my name all over it. I definitely think too much. Better than thinking too little though, right?

I'm not an across the board perfectionist, but I do require perfection in certain areas. I used to be more sensitive but as I've gotten older I've developed a thicker skin.

3. As a child did you have a favorite blanket or toy? Tell about it.

My baby doll Catherine-I called her Cathy. She didn't come from the toy store with that name and I'm not sure why I chose it, but my older sister had a friend named Cathy so maybe that's where I got the idea. My doll had auburn hair and didn't do anything really special-no talking or walking or rollerskating or anything else some dolls do now...she was just a regular ole baby doll.

I gave her a plastic bottle, swaddled her, pushed her in a buggy and in general mothered her to pieces. She slept in my bed and every Christmas Eve 'Mrs. Claus' would sneak into my room and quietly take her downstairs. 'Mrs. Claus' bought her a new dress or outfit every year and part of the Christmas morning tradition for me was coming around the corner and seeing my doll sitting beside my stocking dressed in something new.

4. What 'institution' do you have the most faith in?

In spite of what the Kardashians would say I'm going with marriage. Someone remind me again why they're famous?

5. Chrysanthemums, pansies, burning bush, ornamental cabbage...your favorite in an autumn garden?

e. all of the above. Pansies are absolutely irresistible to me...I see them in the garden shop and I just want to buy great big trays full of them. That being said, it would not be fall without the fiery red of the burning bush (euonymus)-

It's my favorite shrub and we have a whole hedge full of them.

6. What superpower do the kids in your neighborhood seem to posses?

Some can fly. Our house sits up on a fairly steep hill and the boys next door like to strap on their skis or snowboards and fly down our hill, across their yard, over the jump they've made from freshly fallen snow, high into the air where they turn a flip just as they soar across their driveway. Then its back to earth on two skis with nary a broken bone. Hubs watches with envy from the sidelines.

I attempted to capture the action during our freak snowstorm last weekend, but it was tough (click to enlarge). If you look at the splotch of red in the center of the picture you'll see Superboy mid- air. You'll also notice three grown men snapping pictures from every angle, wishing they were as young on the outside as they feel on the inside.

7. Are you a fan of the cranberry?

Oh yes, definitely! Wouldn't be Thanksgiving without cranberry sauce/relish. I also love to make my mother in law's wonderful cranberry bread recipe at Christmas time and most mornings I drink cranberry juice mixed with my oj. Love them dried too. I wonder if there will ever be a food question in the hodgepodge that causes me to turn up my nose and say ew, no way!. Somehow I think not.

8. Insert your own random thought here.

I went to see the movie Footloose with some friends last night. As far as remakes go it was pretty good but I think I like the original with Kevin Bacon and Lori Singer better. That scene where she stretches between the moving car and her boyfriend's pick up while a tractor trailer is barreling towards them still gives me the shivers.

Course the main reason the original was better is because it came out in 1984. How can you not love the 80's?