wednesday's words and wanderings and wonderings

Last Wednesday an early morning trip to New York started out with the de-icing the plane. Yes, it was that cold in Ohio! This window matched the foggy state of my brain from going to bed late the night before and then rising at 4:30. The sunrise was glorious!

My friend has always wanted to see a Rockettes performance and we put together a girls' trip with our daughters to see the Rockettes, an off-Broadway play, and get immersed in the holiday decorations that make New York sparkle. 

When our plane landed, my daughter, who had flown in from Chicago, sent a text message telling me that there had been a shooting in midtown Manhattan and not to tell Annette and Annie. The shooting was at a Hilton where we have stayed many, many times and six blocks away from where we were staying. They would flip out. Long story short, we dropped our bags at the hotel, took a walk along 5th Avenue to look at all the beautiful Christmas storefronts and decorations, and Annette's husband sent a text, "There was a shooting in Manhattan and the shooter escaped through Central Park." They flipped out. "Did you hear about this?" (Yes, when we landed.) "How far away is Central Park?" (Two blocks.) The shooting happened at 6:45, it was 11:00 as we walked along 5th, the shooter was long gone. An unsettling start to the trip, they were scared and this would be on their minds the whole time we would be here.

Rockefeller Center

Radio City Music Hall

New York Public Library

Christmas trees shine everywhere and add to the holiday spirit wherever you go. And boy did we go: Midtown, East Village, West Village, Chinatown, Little Italy, either walking or taking the subway. There was shopping - LOTS of shopping. New York is a shopping mecca. My daughter and I had created a flexible itinerary before the trip. Other than dinner reservations, the Rockettes, and the play, Bloomingdales, Macy's, the souvenir stores in Chinatown, and other shops along the way became the compass. 

"New York is not a city, it is a world." How true is this? It's the meeting place of people from everywhere. You can make your world as big or keep it as small as you want here. There’s something about New York that embraces you and makes you a part of it.  When you’re in it, you know, and when you leave you, you miss it.

My tradition on the last day in NYC, a Manhattan in Manhattan. Cheers to the next visit!

 

reflections

Three weeks (that's 21 days!) are left in 2024.

Even though I'm sort of frantically getting ready for Christmas (the kids will be back next weekend), I've been reflecting on 2024 - it's blessings, it's challenges, what I might change or do differently, what I did that made me proud.

Do you ever find that no matter how hard you work or how much you accomplish, you end up focusing on everything you didn’t do or you could have done better? That's what humans do. Sometimes we get so fixated on what we didn’t do that we become blind to all we did do. Think about what made you the most proud of yourself, the small ways you've improved yourself over the last year and write it down. Take a minute to reread and celebrate all that happened over the last 365 days. Then, take all those successes and brainstorm what you want to make happen in the year ahead. 

Some questions, a little food for thought, from Psychology Today may spark some food for thought now and ideas for the new year:

1. What was a new discovery you made this year? What did you discover that you loved? 
2. What was one of the biggest pleasant surprises you experienced during the year? 
3. What achievement are you most proud of from this year? (If you find it hard to recall, try thinking back to each season of the year. For instance, what did you achieve during winter, spring, summer, fall?)
4. What was your favorite purchase of the year and why? 
5. What was a new habit or routine you created this year that has improved your efficiency at home or work? This can be really small or it can be big. 
6. What did you face head-on this year rather than avoiding? 
7. What did you ask for help with this year where you're glad you did?
8. What relationship was the biggest positive surprise to you this year? 
9. Who do you need to thank for their role in your life this year?
10. What's an aspect of self-regulation you've gotten better at this year? (anything from going to bed earlier, using moisturizer, putting your appointments on your calendar so you don't forget, or eating more vegetables).
11. What's a goal you gave up on this year, and you're glad you did that because objectively it wasn't your highest priority?
12. What's a skill you have gained confidence with this year?
13. What simple pleasures have you especially enjoyed this year?
14. What was a goal for the year that you followed through on, or partially followed through on?
15. What's a type of technology you've integrated into your life this year and it's working out well for you? 
16. What did you change your mind about this year?
17. What did you try that didn't work out, but the process of trying it moved your thinking forward in a helpful way?
18. How did your self-perception change this year? In what ways have you started to see yourself more positively than you did previously? 
19. What's a thinking bias you've become aware of this year? 
20. How has what you enjoy shifted this year? 

funnies

Sigh of relief.

Medicare enrollment is over. Hallelujah! No more emails, flyers in the mailbox, and phone calls, telling me which plan is best.

Who can relate to any of these?

1. When one door closes and another door opens, you are probably in prison.

2. To me, "drink responsibly" means don't spill it.

3. Age 60 might be the new 40, but 9:00 pm is the new midnight.

4. It's the start of a brand new day, and I'm off like a herd of turtles.

5. The older I get, the earlier it gets late.

6. When I say, "The other day," I could be referring to any time between yesterday and 15 years ago.

7. I remember being able to get up without making sound effects.

8. I had my patience tested. I'm negative.

9. Remember, if you lose a sock in the dryer, it comes back as a Tupperware lid that doesn't fit any of your containers.

10. If you're sitting in public and a stranger takes the seat next to you, just stare straight ahead and say, "Did you bring the money?"

11. When you ask me what I am doing today, and I say "nothing," it does not mean I am free. It means I am doing nothing.

12. I finally got eight hours of sleep. It took me three days, but whatever.

13. I run like the winded.

14. I hate when a couple argues in public, and I missed the beginning and don't know whose side I'm on.

15. When someone asks what I did over the weekend, I squint and ask, "Why, what did you hear?"

16. When you do squats, are your knees supposed to sound like a goat chewing on an aluminum can stuffed with celery?

17. I don't mean to interrupt people. I just randomly remember things and get really excited.

18. When I ask for directions, please don't use words like "east."

19. Don't bother walking a mile in my shoes. That would be boring. Spend 30 seconds in my head. That'll freak you right out.

20. Sometimes, someone unexpected comes into your life out of nowhere, makes your heart race, and changes you forever. We call those people cops.

21. My luck is like a bald guy who just won a comb."

~ source unknown

the tree of light

I was in a bit of a funk on Monday.

After a week of a full house, a full fridge, a full coffee pot, a full driveway, the house felt so empty, and that's because it was. Thanksgiving was over and boom, it's now time to get ready for Christmas.

So I took the day to do really not a whole lot. I started some lists and told Todd, "Please don't touch my note pads." They are my sacred organizing toole this time of year. I scribbled some thoughts for the  alphabet Christmas letter. It's been a tradition for 38 years. I wiped down the counters and listened to the Trans-Siberian Orchestra. Love "Christmas in Sarajevo." 

After a dinner of finishing off the turkey carcass soup, I realized that I hadn't been outside, except to walk to the mail box. It was time to get out of the house.

8:00 on that Monday night I drove to Carillon Park to find a little Christmas spirit. It was just me and the tree. All was calm and all was so very bright.

the friday feed: apples

Pie is such a traditional Thanksgiving dessert and I am not a pie baker. My mom loved to bake pies and back in the day I remember her making the dough for her flaky, but not too flaky crusts, using the rolling pin to get it to that perfect thickness. Later on in her life when she did not bake as many pies she discovered the Pillsbury pre-made crusts and she gave them her stamp of approval. "I like these just as much as my own and it's so much easier!"

My people wanted pumpkin, apple, and cherry pies for Thanksgiving. A call to a bakery on the Monday before Thanksgiving got my pumpkin and cherry pies on order (that was a close call) but I still needed apple pies. The bakery's pies were caramel apple, not what the fam wanted. Time for a trip to a farm market in Yellow Springs for apples and then the umpteenth trip to the grocery to buy the Pillsbury pie crusts. 

Apple pie is this non-pie baker's favorite to make. I alway hear my mom's words, "Pile the apples high because they cook down so much. You want to have a fork full of apples when you take a bite of pie." So the day before Thanksgiving, I made the pies, piling the apples into an apple mountain, covering them with the top crust with the "S" cut out, and putting them in the oven to bake. The timer went off and the pies needed a little more time. I turned the oven off, my little grandson asked me to read a book to him. Of course! And one busy things lead to another and then, THE PIES!

The pies weren't burnt but they were a nice dark, shade of gold. My pregnant daughter-in-law loves apple pie and these were just for her. I was crushed. I was tired. I held back some tears. 

Thanksgiving Day my daughter-in-law showed me an app which tracks her baby's growth and gives food examples to provide a point of reference. She showed me that my little granddaughter to-be is now the size of a tarte tatin, "an upside down tart that was invented in the 1880s by a baker who botched an apple pie and had to improvise." The pie agony lifted. Blessings come at the most unexpected times and this timing was perfect. Plus a little homemade whipped cream and/or a scoop of vanilla ice cream did wonders to disguise that crust!

wednesday's words and wanderings and wonderings

I didn't go far from home this past week. By last Tuesday everyone was here and we all cooked a ton of food, played with the the little ones, visited with one another, one-by-one shared our gratitude and then the Thanksgiving meal, the kids caught up with their in-town friends, we hosted a small engagement party for Patrick and Kelsey, and when Sunday arrived and the last of the gang had left, it was SO QUIET. 

Shoes, shoes, and more shoes!

We read lots of books in Owen's "teepee."

First thing in the morning with these little rays of sunshine on my lap. 

I used my mom's silver for the Thanksgiving meal. She set the standard for using your best dishes and china for holiday meals. And yes, I made sure it sparkled before setting the table. She set that standard, too.

The traditional post-Thanksgiving pot of soup using the turkey carcass. My mom had a set of Le Creuset cast iron cookware. As she got older, the cookware became too cumbersome and heavy for her so she gave it to my daughter when she moved to Cincinnati for her first job out of college. Fast forward, daughter got married and received a new set of pots and pans as a wedding gift. All of mom's grandchildren have fond memories of Grandma's orange pots and pans so I gave one to each of her grandkids. I kept the soup pot.

✴ ✴ ✴ ✴ ✴ ✴ ✴ ✴ ✴ ✴ ✴ ✴ ✴ ✴ ✴ ✴ 

"Be present in all things and thankful for all things." ~ Maya Angelou

50%

50% = 1/2 = .5. It's one of those math skills that should be automatic once a person graduates from high school, but for some it's not.

This past summer while working at the farm, my boss gave a recipe to me for pickled garlic and it called for 8 ounces of garlic. One of the rules is that when buying produce, another employee checks you out. I took a few bulbs, handed them to my co-worker to weigh them, he put them on the scale, and those bulbs weighed in at .5 of a pound. 

"BINGO! Got that one right on the nose!" 

What a silly little thrill and he had no idea what I was so excited about. 

"Didn't you want 8 ounces?" 

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A more recent story...

My mom collected the Snow Village series, it has been packed away for many years, and this year I'm setting it up in my new family room. I needed some "snow" to put on the shelves so off to Joann Fabric to buy some white felt. It should be a quick, easy purchase, right? It wasn't. The less expensive felt that was labeled white wasn't white. It was light gray. No dirty snow for Mom's Snow Village. The nice lady behind the counter took me to the other felt. The one that cost $15.00 a yard. Yikes. She was concerned about the price, I didn't want to pay $15/yard (I needed 4 yards. Do the math 4 x 15 = 60), but I didn't want to drive across town to another fabric store. Anyway, as she measured and cut $60 worth of nice wool felt, this sweet lady shared, "There's a 50% off coupon in the app."

I have the app. BINGO!

At the cash register, I showed the young lady the 50% off coupon. She informed me of another option - a coupon for $10.00 off a purchase of $50.00 or more. 

"Can I use both?"

"No. Only one coupon per purchase."

"Well no, thank you. The 50% off is a better deal." She smiled and had no idea what I was talking about. 

Next in line, please.