Scattered Saturday...Post Views....14, 638

YEP.....that is what today is....We had.....
Thanksgiving Thursday....
Black Friday.......and now....
Scattered Saturday.....

That's because while we are still processing our Thanksgiving turkey....both internally and on the stove..... we are thinking Christmas elves, pumpkins to throw away or cook or save the seeds, bargains to buy, pilgrims to put away, tinsel to get out, are we into orange, green, red or blue color, is it fall or is it winter.  We are "over the river and through the woods" to grandmother's house, or is that grandfather's house, is that for Thanksgiving or for Christmas?  Even our weather today drifted from sunny, to dark clouds to light rain to snow to hail, to sunny in various combinations. Is this Saturday meant for "having fun" or for "clean up and get ready"?   Well, you know what I mean.  Right?  We stuff ourselves on Thanksgiving, then slide right into the Christmas season.....

      I stuffed myself at Deb's house on Thursday.  So much so that some of us grew piggy noses....

     Grandma G gets really tired on Thanksgiving day.....her alter ego manifests and...... 
       The Happy Turkey that got away emerges to gobble for one more year..... "Gobble, Gobble, Gobble" . The family Thanksgiving is not complete until The Happy Turkey gobbles at all of them.....30 victims (I mean, folks) give or take a few.   That's a lot of happy gobble.....(I hear rumors that some of my offspring inherited the gene and were gobbling that day as well.)

The Thanksgiving Miller Gang......

       
    The next day I gave into the pull of Black Friday and went to buy me some half price socks at Freddy's.   There were several more shoppers gathered around the tables.  It was close to the end of the sale time.  At 1PM the socks were very quickly whisked away to where ever unboughten socks are whisked away to. 

       I have also come to realize the difference between WA and WI.    Besides the A and I.   
       In WA boots are a fashion statement...





       In WI boots are survival gear......

       




      After all that gobbling and sock buying with rain pouring outside, I experienced much satisfaction in cruising along with the Enterprise crew as they Star Trekked  across the universe to "go where no man has ever gone before"....from 2PM until 1AM....that's a lot of light years and adventures. (I did do some kitchen work, exercising and "cleaning out" my emails during those long expeditions.) 

       Even with all that traveling I was up at the almost crack of dawn (8AM) to go to water aerobic.  There were only 2 of us there on this Scattered Saturday.  
      So on with the Scatter....more turkey processing, washing sheets, cleaning off the back deck during "sun breaks" between the rain and hail, practicing piano, finally finding a way to display my music on this blog (thanks to granddaughter Angie), and , and, and.......
      Christmas music!!   Let the grand music play.....Yeah!! 

    This has been a good 3 "scattered" days in the life of Grandma G.

     "Clap your hands, all you nations; shout to God with cries of joy. How awesome is the Lord Most High, the great King over all the earth."  (Psalms 47: 1 & 2)

     

Turkey-trottin' thru the week....Post Views....14,486

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!

     Saturday was the day of our park's Thanksgiving dinner. Yum! My only regret is that I couldn't eat more.   I did have fun playing piano for a short time while folks were waiting for everyone to come.  I have decided there is not enough music dedicated just to Thanksgiving.  I think some fresh melodies are in order. 

Time to send out Thanksgiving cards to family.

       Monday I spent several hours at Freddy's, shopping for Thanksgiving and a few Christmas items.  They were preparing for their big Black Friday sale.  Half price socks are their big attraction.

That's a lot of socks......

      While there I posted some "544 Christmas Special" fliers from Grandma G's teaching studio.......5 lessons for the price of 4. 

(Last week I was disappointed because I had been pleased with myself that I finally made up fliers to take to the schools and then was informed that they don't send home ads for businesses.  It was difficult to work up the courage to go do this and then a bummer to be turned down.)

      

Tuesday was Midwest homemade chicken noodle soup cooking day......with PNW organic carrots and celery....yum.....

  

 Then on to an economical
(cheap) evening out with granddaughter Angie.....
half price appetizers and $3 movie.Guardians of the Galaxy
Very entertaining...


My first homemade pecan pie....hope it's yummy....

Christmas must be near......

this 3rd year Christmas cactus is only green most of the year.....

Now has lovely red blossoms.....

      This has been a good 5 "turkey trottin' " days in the life of Grandma G.  

       "We give thanks to you, O God, we give thanks, for your Name is near; men tell of your wonderful works."  (Psalms 75:1) 

Time with an Old Dear Friend....Post Views...14,419

      AKA.....time for a baking day of cranberry, nut, orange bread..YUM!
      This bread is a long time tradition for me.  It comes from an old time, tried and trusted friend....  
My Better  Homes and Garden 
cookbook....I don't know how long we have been together....I think it was a wedding present 48 years ago. Like a trusted friend, it has been with me through many celebrations, family meals, lonely days, rainy and freezing days, hot days, too much to do days, not enough to do days, cookie days, how do I cook this meat days.
      Now here in the PNW she is a loyal companion, allowing me to ignore her and then come running back to her when yearning from the past overtakes me.  She doesn't mind being stained with a plethora of ingredients from sticky fingers, having pages lie torn out and even missing a few, being stuffed with extended family recipes that are not originally hers, having her pages browned from age spots and her cover being permanently coated in blemishes of dirt, fingerprints and scattered food particles. 
     I did not realize till this very morning how much she means to me, how much I rely on her, how much security she has given me over the years and into now. Like a sheltering tree she has just been there for whatever mood I'm in or culinary need I have.  

   Today I draw on one of her reliable treasures....cranberry, orange, nut bread. YUM!  It my favorite of the  harvest season. Back in Wisconsin where the cranberries were the bounty of the bogs, buying them meant that the first frost had come, the geese were in their V formation to fly south and everyone knew the nippy chill of autumn would soon morph into many months of frigid air. Whoa!  Sure glad I am out here in the PNW. 
     But today as a chilly torrent is deluging our neighborhood, I am soothed with the busyness of home baking.  Since it is a rather long messy process I make several loaves during one session. That is.....multiply 4 times this recipe..... 

       
First problem....realizing that even after 2 years I have not unpacked my handy food chopper..... 

Maybe the little "bullet" will do....and it did....

Some processes still require good old fashioned technology....grating orange peel.....

Mixing eggs, oil, orange juice and peel....










Yeah!  portions like grandma use to make....
      Oh, wait......That's ME......

















PRE-OVEN

                POST-OVEN





                                      

Loaves to freeze and loaves to give as gifts...

And a loaf ......

Yummy to eat....smothered in butter....oh, Yah.....


You all come for a visit, a story and a snack, you hear?






   

 This has been a good 2 "old dear friend" days in the life of Grandma G.

    "He [Jesus] said to them, 'Therefore every teacher of the law who has been instructed about the kingdom of heaven is like the owner of a house who brings out of his storeroom new treasures as well as old'."

TOTP Day and Other Stuff....Post Views...14,386

 

We met today for "tea on the porch"....7 of us ladies did.  The weather was chilly, but refreshing.  We talked about Nancy's trip to Branson, Red Hat society, feeding raw bread dough into the toilet, wearing black hats, sparkies-in-the-darkies,cleaning drains by rinsing baking soda down using white vinegar, mento fizzy geysers.  Nancy showed us her bear pillow.  A native American who shot the bear, sold a chunk of tanned fur to someone who made a few pillows who sold the pillows to a lady in the park, who sold the last one to Nancy who showed the pillow to us who all awed at the softness of the fur.  Who! Who!    
    Having settled all the baking soda, fizzy geyser, sparkie-darkie issues, we climbed into 2 cars and headed for a long anticipated shopping frenzy to "Retales".... a thrift store who's earning go to animal shelters.  This was not the typical northern Wisconsin thrift shop that I grew up with.  This was full fledged, almost Walmart quality and quantity.  We each had a 20% off one item coupon.

That brought my purchase of this fine quality hand blown glass red rooster to $2.40 rather than $3.00. 
That is the telling of the tale of the retale tale. 

    We rounded out our afternoon with a lunch at TacoBell. Then headed home. But not till after we all declared it is time for another clandestine senior excursion of the questionable kind.  I would tell you what it is, but that is top secret....and it has not been decided yet.    

    Our little music group was scheduled to meet this evening. However, the organizing lady came down with shingles. And with another park event going on, the sing along was cancelled. 

    The weather was nice enough for a 30 minute walk this afternoon.  With a forecast of several days of rain, I was glad to be out in the sun and chilly air. 

     Later I spent several hours at the computer trying to decide if spending a certain amount of money was worth doing, mostly to obtain flying miles.  After much time, figuring options, computing finances, I FINALLY decided hanging on to my money was the better choice right now.  If only I had realized that several hours earlier I could have been doing other things. 

    This has been a good TOTP day in the life of Grandma G.

    "Rejoice in the Lord always.  I will say it again: Rejoice!  Let your gentleness be evident to all.  The Lord is near."  (Philippians 4: 4 & 5)

     

      
      

Some things You Can't Rush Into.....Post Views....14,375

       Since Thursday was a cold, blustery day here in the PNW  I figured it was a great time to assemble....or at least try to assemble the armoire(jewelry cabinet) that I purchased 2 years ago.   It was boxed and needed some assembly.  Now, also 2 years ago, I had bought a desk that needed assembling.  I asked my grandson to do that.  By the time he laid out the 100 or so pieces, neither one of us knew what to do with it.  Eventually I had a handyman come and spend several hours putting it together.  I guess that is why I hesitated to even look in this box.  But how hard could it be?  I did have 2 years to bond with at least the box.    



So getting out my handy-dandy tool box that my sons bought me I dug out the screw drivers and got to work.


With only the legs and top to assemble it certainly shouldn't be very difficult.  And it wasn't.....
except I put the front legs on the back and the back on the front.  


Then screwed the cover hinge on wrong so the 
top wouldn't close.....
Maybe I should stick with music and not consider a career in carpentry....





My very own armouri was                             finally finished and looking good..



I even learned how to use a box
cutter to prepare the box for recycling....






       It was a blustery day, one that called for an artificial fire in the fireplace while the snow was hollowing outside....

    It was also a great day to bake out some corn bread muffins from the stone ground mill I obtained on Sunday...

 






    Friday arrived chilly, but sunny.  By the afternoon the weather was gorgeous and beckoning me out for a walk.  

Proof that it snowed on Thursday.... 








Snow, the way I like to see it,
high up on the mountains....
green grass under my feet....



_________________________________

      I know that today is (was) Tuesday and all this excitement happened 5 days ago.  I am just lazy at blogging.  Maybe don't think daily events are that adventuresome.  Actually I am just lazy with blogging.  Too much brain effort?  Maybe...Probably....
Perhaps I am getting more involved in life and can't fit in everything I want to do.  Yes, that is it.....I am getting more involved in life, am lazy and can't move very quickly anymore.   That is life....

     I did expand my horizon yesterday...Monday.  After a short shopping trip to the mall I went looking for the Van Mall Retirement center.  Time to retire?  I didn't find it because of road construction but I did pass a different one.  My goal was to seek out possible facilities to conduct church services and provide piano entertainment.  The activities coordinator said she had lots of folks playing piano entertainment and several people offering services but she would put me on the list for substitutes.  
     This was a major break through for me.  Not that she didn't have anything for me, but that I made a first attempt at getting out into Vancouver life to see how I can get involved.  Yeah!  
     Getting home from there was a bit tricky as the familiar road was blocked off by police cars so traffic had to turn onto a side street.  I followed the car in front of me figuring he was heading to the same main road as me.  When I turned onto a familiar street I was pleased and relieved I could find my way home.  Yeah, again!!   

     This has been a good 5 "can't rush into" days in the life of Grandma G.  

    "A sluggard does not plow in season; so at harvest time he looks but finds nothing."  (Proverbs 20:4)