365 Thankful

A handful of my 365 photos from this year:

The Women of our church!  What an amazing well of resources!

My church.

Books & More Books.  The wisdom of the ages, at my fingertips.

Food on the table.

The people that provide our food.

A car that keeps on going & going & going, long past when you think it should. 

Oldest child's textbooks spring semester.

Thankful he can understand this stuff!  

The Jones Falls/ Baltimore.  

Luna- the best rescue kitty ever.  She's been a part of our family for 4 years.

An Attitude of Gratitude

At the beginning of the year, I made a resolution to work on my Gratitude.

I've done this through 2 means this year:
1) a gratitude journal - this is a small spiral bound art journal I carry with me. I've drawn pictures, written anywhere from a sentence to a paragraph,  and included notes I've received from friends, to which I leave a reflection if why I'm grateful for them.

2) 365 Thankful - a project I first found on the internet, the challenge is to take 1 picture a day of something or someone for which we are thankful.

Now that the year is drawing to a close, it's time to reflect on this for a while.

There are so many small things, wonderful things, in my life and in my world. Singly, they don't seem like much, but all together, they add up to a beautiful day. From the gloriously changing leaves on the trees, to the person in the parking lot who lets you know that the air in your tires looks low to the unexpected gift of a tea bag from a friend, each small thing is a bright spot in my day. I like to share those bright spots with others whenever I can, and help them to have a moment of joy in an unexpected place.

For me, the picture project has been the most powerful. I am a visual learner, and the visual power of the images has truly made me think about my life. I have pictures of the altar at church. Hundreds of pictures of my husband & kids. Some pictures of my Mom, and many pictures involving nature.  Gods world, his creation, in all of its glory. It sustains me, provides me with everything I need to live, and provides us with riotous beauty every single day - day in and day out.

There are times when I fall into complaining and whining about my life, or the current moment I find myself in.  Even in the midst of the bad, I try to remind myself of the good.

Mom & I were engaging in some of this recently.  She was in a nursing home/ rehab facility for a week. She was very low, and feeling very sorry for herself. I took her down the hall to get a change in scenery, and we sat with a couple of other families who were their with their loved ones. Many of the other residents were younger than Mom, but they had more serious problems. 1 gentleman was recovering from a stroke. He had lost control of his right arm, but was telling us how thankful he was that he was still able to speak & eat. He was working hard on learning how to use a fork with his left hand. Another woman, similar in age to my mom had fallen and broken her hip.  The devastation from a broken hip is significant. She was complaining about the pain, the fact that she couldn't walk, and the bathroom situation - she was at the mercy of others to get her on & off a bedpan - and she had to wear a diaper because of incontinence issues.  But, as we were talking, she kept telling us that she was going to her great granddaughters wedding, and that she was going to find someone to dance with her at the wedding!

As Mom tooled back down the hall with her walker, she was very quiet. When we arrived in her room, she said something we've been praying we would hear for over 8 weeks.

"I am very fortunate. I don't know why I lived through this when others have died of this. But, I still have all of my mental capabilities.  I can still walk. My cataracts have been fixed & I can see well again.  I can go back to my own house and live on my own. I don't have to stay here. I might have to poop in a bag for the rest of my life, but honestly, that really isn't that big of a deal in the grand scheme of things."

Gratitude.  It's an attitude. 

It's Not Thanksgiving Until the Smoke Detectors Go Off

It's a tradition in our family.  Burning stuff on Thanksgiving Day.

Before the advent of smoke detectors, a smoky kitchen was just that - a smoky kitchen- the neighbors didn't know, and if you acted fast enough, you could turn on enough fans and open enough windows that nobody else would know.   Now, everybody knows when you have a cooking disaster on your hands.

The weekend before Thanksgiving, we begin to take bets as to when the smoke detectors will go off. Since I start much of the prep on Wednesday, that is the day that we decide that we are most likely to experience a kitchen disaster of some kind.  The person who guesses the correct 2 hour window for the advent of the smoke detectors is excused from washing the dishes after dinner.

Since we were eating at home this year, I decided that I was going to make the pies on Wednesday.

Pies have always been a weak spot for me.  Actually anything with a fruit filling has been a problem for me.  A particularly memorable occasion comes to mind when I attempted a pineapple upside down cake that ended up setting my oven on fire, as well as setting off the smoke detectors in the apartment building and summoning the fire department bright and early one Thanksgiving morning 25 years ago.

Wednesday afternoon, I started on my favorite pie.  It's just not Thanksgiving without a pecan pie.
I mixed the pecans, Karo syrup, eggs, and sugar, and poured it into my carefully prepared pie crust.  I slid the pie into the oven.  As the smell of toasty pecans began to fill the house, I knew that Thanksgiving was finally here.

With 15 minutes left on the timer, I checked the pie.  Imagine my horror as I discovered a pie that was as black as a cinder.  As I hastily pulled the ruined pie out of the oven, the smoke detector began wailing away.

As the pie heaved up and down with a life of it's own, I reflected that this might very well be my most spectacular failure yet.

I still had more pecans, so I decided to give another shot at the pie.  Unfortunately, I had no more gluten free pie crust mix.  So, I decided to make a pecan pie without the crust.

The custard and pecan mix looked beautiful in it's pan.  Even without the crust, it looked fantastic.

While the pecan mix cooled, I began on an Apple Crisp.  I filled the pan with apples, sugar, and cinnamon, and mixed up the crisp part -  with the gluten free oatmeal, gf flour, and vegan butter.  (Good heavens, do we know how to live it up or what?)
 
Remember when I mentioned I have an incredibly bad record with anything involving fruit filling?

15 minutes into the bake time, the smoke detector began wailing away as a thick, black smoke began issuing forth from the oven.

As I was pulling the crisp out of the oven, my next door neighbor came running across the yard, phone in hand, shouting "Do I need to call the fire department, or are you just cooking?"

An aside here, how sad is it, that after 10 years, my neighbors know to come and check when there's black smoke and the sound of smoke detectors before calling 9-1-1?

Somehow, for the 10th year in a row, I was excused from having to wash dishes after Thanksgiving dinner.  Purely coincidence, I assure you.

Happy Thanksgiving!

I have much to be thankful for this year.

My mother survived a horrible, life threatening bowel rupture.  Once, twice, the bowel ruptured, stoma failed, she had pneumonia, and C-Diff.  Being the stubborn person that she is, she survived.  She was released from the hospital and sent to a nursing home/rehab facility two weeks ago.  She came home earlier this week. She is very weak, and still needs her walker to get around, but her attitude is much improved since she came home!

All 3 of my kids are thriving.  The oldest is getting ready to graduate from college, and the youngest from high school.  All of them have managed to find jobs, good jobs with steady hours.  I do know we're fortunate.  I hear from so many parents of teens that their kids can't find jobs.

I found a job that I love and enjoy this year. 

We have a house to live in. It's a sturdy house.  Yes, it needs a lot of work (we really haven't even scratched the surface of what needs to be done), but it is a solid roof that protects us from the elements, gives us a safe place to gather, and a venue for our crazy family to gather and spend time together.

We have food to put on the table.  Every day,  3 times a day, we put a meal on the table.  I am well aware that not everyone can do this.  I am grateful that we can.

Both of our cars work.  One car has over 200,000 miles, and the other has 90,000.  I am so glad that we do not have to go into debt to purchase a car to get us to where we need to go.

We have libraries close by.  Free books & materials.  Available to anyone and everyone. 

We live in an amazing country.  I know we have problems.  I know that things are not as well as we would like to think the are, but we are fortunate to live in a country that allows us to get out and demonstrate when we don't agree with something.  We even have a system by which we can change things - by voting.

So, as I sit here this evening, counting my blessings, I hope that you find many things to be thankful for this year.  And I truly hope and pray that next year, you will have more blessings to count than you do this year.

The Best Cornbread, Ever

Earlier this fall, I found a cast iron skillet at a yard sale for 50 cents. 

Last year, I found out that I had to eat gluten free.  I've been changing my diet, and I've found things that work, and things that don't work.

Bread is one of those things that just aren't working well for me.

Until earlier this week.

I adore corn bread.  The gluten free corn bread that I have made from scratch or from a mix just hasn't measured up to my standards.

I made a huge pot of chili earlier this week.

I really wanted corn bread with my chili, so I dug out a package of Bob's Red Mill Gluten Free Corn Bread mix.  And then, my eyes landed on my cast iron skillet.

"Hmmm...."  I had a vivid memory of my grandmother pulling an iron skillet full of cornbread out of the oven and setting it on the table.

"I wonder?"  was the thought that ran through my head.

While the oven pre-heated, I mixed up the cornbread, lightly greased the skillet with olive oil, and poured in the corn bread.

Oh my stars....... That was, quite simply, the BEST cornbread, ever.  Gluten Full, or Gluten Free, I have NEVER had cornbread that good before. 

So, you know, if you've got a hankering for some corn bread and you happen to have an iron skillet around, I suggest you try this amazing concoction for yourself. 

College Applications

So, daughter has been madly submitting college applications and portfolios over the weekend.

4 applications, and 4 portfolios.

Funny, we visited 12 colleges with her before we narrowed it down to these 4.  And we didn't visit any of those 4 colleges before this fall.

The portfolios have been the difficult part.  While the applications have been made easier with the advent of the Common App, the portfolios have not.  Each school requires a different portfolio.  Each one requires 10-15 pieces of their very best work - whether for writing or art.  Daughter has been submitting both writing and art portfolios for every school.  With each school, she's gone with a slightly different focus on her portfolio submissions.  Each school requires a variation on an Artists' Statement, and has a series of questions that need to be answered that are separate from the questions on the Common App, and is different from every other portfolio submission out there.

With early action deadlines fast approaching, the pressure is on.  Thanksgiving is next week, and the deadlines are right after Thanksgiving.

Looking at my stressed out daughter over the weekend, we decided she needed a day off of school to finish her portfolio submissions and statements.

By noon today, all of her portfolios had been submitted, and she is much more relaxed.  "All" we have to do now is wait for the decisions to begin arriving.

When all is said I done, I think the waiting is the hardest part.

When Every Second Counts

This story surfaced in church over the weekend.  It's horribly sad, but the story needs to be shared.

An older couple in our church lives in their house.  (Both are in their 80's)  On Wednesday, the husband went out to get the mail and fell down in the driveway.  He was out there for over half an hour before the wife realized that he had been gone for too long.

She found him outside, clutching his chest and barely breathing.  Somehow, she managed to get him up off the ground and brought him inside. He was barely able to move his arm and his leg on the left side, so she pulled  him up on the right side.

She covered him up with a blanket, and held his hand.  He was trying to talk to her, but he kept slurring his words.

An hour later, she finally realized that things didn't seem right, and she called her daughter and described what had happened to her.  The daughter called 911.

When the crew arrived at the house, the gentleman was having a heart attack.

At the hospital, they determined he'd had a stroke.

He is now in a nursing home.  The loss of function on the left side of his body is permanent.  The loss of speech is permanent.  The heart attack wasn't fatal, but most likely that's only because the ambulance crew arrived when they did.  He had a stint put in the night he was admitted to the hospital.  He will never live independently again. 

So, in honor of Herb and Mary, I am listing the signs of a STROKE.  Something every person needs to know, and should be familiar with.  When treating a stroke, seconds matter.  If caught early enough, the amount of permanent damage can be minimized.

STROKE WARNING SIGNS AND SYMPTOMS

IF YOU THINK YOU OR SOMEONE YOU KNOW IS HAVING A STROKE CALL  9- 1- 1 IMMEDIATELY.

F- Face Drooping - Does one side of the face droop?  Is it numb?  Ask the person to smile.  Is the smile uneven?

A- Arm Weakness- Is one arm weak or numb? Ask the person to raise both arms.  Does one arm drift downward?

S- Speech Difficulty - Is speech slurred? Is the person unable to speak or hard to understand?  Ask the person to repeat a simple sentence, like "the sky is blue".  Is the sentence repeated correctly?

T- Time to Call 9-1-1 - if someone shows any of these symptoms, even if the symptoms go away, call 9-1-1 and get the person to a hospital immediately.  Check the time so you'll know when the first symptoms appeared.

(source: American Heart Association, American Stroke Association, http://tinyurl.com/avozasz)


If you have elderly neighbors, keep an eye out for them.   My Mom had a signal with her next door neighbors.  If the front curtains weren't opened by 9 am, they were to come and bang on her door, and if there was no answer, they were to call 9-1-1.   I used the same signal with an elderly couple that lived on the way out of our neighborhood up until they moved into a retirement community last year.  It's easy, non-intrusive, and gives everyone some peace of mind.  (With my neighbors, we also had a signal in the evening - the porch light by 9 pm.)