Last time I saw my Mom, she told me that she was going to get a dog.
And she was going to tie a man's tie on it.
And she was going to name the dog Ty.
Then she told me she was going to get a horse.
And ride it over to the White House.
And pick up Joe.
And then they were going to go riding together.
There was so much more! She was in rare form when I was there!
I motioned last week that I had recently been to a funeral. My mother's youngest brother, Roger, passed away in the middle of August. Since he was being buried in the National Cemetery, we had to wait for a spot to open up in THEIR calendar so that he could be interred.
The first available spot for him was Sept.10.
My sister and I ventured to Texas together to the funeral for the first trip we have EVER taken without mom.
The funeral was solemn, Taps was beautiful, and the family had the trumpeter play "God Bless America". His children received the flag that had been draped across his casket, and he was interred next to his wife who had passed away 20 years ago.
After the funeral, we all gathered together for a very large and rowdy celebration of life. We pulled all of the tables together. What is this business with separate tables that only hold 8 chairs each? We pulled 4 tables together and shoved as many people around the table as were willing to sit together.
Many stories were told. So many stories! We spent several hours piecing together the individual pieces of stories that each one of us knew to make an entire story from beginning to end! And the laughter! Oh, so much laughter as we recalled stories from long, long ago.
We decided that we need to stop meeting only at funerals. We are now working on a plan for next spring where we can gather together just for fun.
Mom's brother was 82. He was an Army Veteran. He was a husband, father, and grandfather. We are all going to miss him and his laughter.
Are you into reading Manga? I wasn't, until this summer. One of the other librarians on staff encouraged me to read a few series. And then, I go hooked. I love Manga! I love the story lines, I love the format that is so accessible to kids across the board. Whether kids are struggling to read, or accomplished readers way above grade level, manga is an equal opportunity format. The fact that it is a graphic based format makes it easier for struggling readers, and the white spaces between the panels encourage higher order thinking skills painlessly. (making predictions, drawing inferences).
Manga is different than Western Graphic Novels in that you read them from right to left, and you start each page on the top right hand side, reading to the left, and then returning to the left side and going down a line. I'm convinced that reading in this format is going to help me stave off dementia!
While I enjoyed most everything I read, I was drawn to "Slice of Life" manga. Slice of life is based around the life of a person going about their day. From chores, to school, to preparing meals.
In no particular order, here are my favorite Manga series that I read this summer:
Yotsuba & !
Yotsuba and her father encounter many adventures when they move into a new house in the big city! Every day brings new adventures! *Note, in many ways, I felt that this series was a "read-alike" to Junie B Jones or Ramona Quimby. This is the only series that I read that came out of the children's section.
Silver Spoon
Yugo Hachiken chooses to go to an agricultural school instead of the Academic School that his parents had planned for him to attend. Hachiken's life takes an interesting turn as he begins to understand the world that prepares the food that he eats, and applies his business acumen to helping the future farmers i the school grow their business models.
The Ancient Magus' Bride: Wizards Blue
Definitely NOT a slice of life! The ancient wizard has chosen a bound partner who's job will eventually be to kill her. Wonderfully fun fantasy full of action and adventure, with a touch of magic tossed in for fun.
Spy X Family
Super Spy must acquire a family in order to spy upon a foreign diplomat/businessman who has designs on taking over the world. Said spy quickly finds a family. He unknowingly marries an assassin for hire and adopts a telepath. This series is solid gold! We can't keep it on our shelves. It keeps getting checked out!
Living Room
High School student lives in the big city in her uncle's boarding house with really hot college guy across the hall who might be as interested in her as she is in him. Or is he? Very sweet series!
The Way of the House Husband
This delightful series follows the life of an ex-Yakuza gang member who retires from a life of crime and becomes a House Husband. I love the comic absurdities throughout the series!
Have you read any Manga? What are your favorite series? Inquiring minds want to know!
*If you're curious to find out more about Manga and how it supports reading, you can find out more here: https://www.ncwlibraries.org/the-benefits-of-manga-and-graphic-novels/
The last two months has seen a lot of upheaval in our lives. Among other things, we moved to an apartment in another town so that our house could be renovated. (There are no affordable apartments near where we live.) We are back in the town where we first lived when we got married and started raising our family. The move-out slowly continues. Here are some random photos from the past couple of months.
Hermie in our new apartment. Not only did she discover the space over the refrigerator, she also discovered how to open the cabinet over the refrigerator! Gotta love cats!
The path around the lake. I find myself walking this a lot.
Sunset from the hilltop at home. #nofilter.
A floating island of weeds in the middle of the lake!
A pretty sunset! #nofilter
Mushrooms abound after all the rain we've had in the Mid-Atlantic recently. I found this little fairy ring on my Monday morning walk.
The lake is very pretty! Considering we live very close to here, I'm really glad that it's so easy and fun to walk around.
Above and below, pictures from the Rachel Carson Greenway in Montgomery County, MD. You can find more information about these trails here: https://montgomeryparks.org/parks-and-trails/rachel-carson-conservation-park/rachel-carson-conservation-park-trails/
I haven't been on for a while. I was just checking the dates. It's been over 2 months.
Mom is still hanging in there, and we are treasuring every day that we have.
Her youngest brother passed away about 2 weeks ago. I just got back from the funeral last night.
I've had many - too many - "get down here right now, this is it" phone calls. We head down, the crisis passes, and then life slowly limps along.
But I am still here. I am spending many days with Mom.
I'll keep blogging as I can. Thank you for checking in, and thank you for thinking of me!
Well this has been a hellishly stressful month. We thought we would be out of our house and into an apartment by now. But no. The management company called us on Wednesday and told us that there was a maintenance issue that would keep us from gaining access to the apartment until July 5. When we called the moving company to reschedule, the next available date will be July 15. So, we will be moving small things over slowly over the next ten days.
We spent this weekend moving stuff over to the storage unit and the thrift store and to the shred mill.
But, thinking that I was going to be moving out this past weekend, I have been continuing to pack things up as if we were moving this weekend. I honestly think the biggest challenge was tracking down all of the library books. I consistently have 50 books checked out at any given time. I had to track them all down and make certain that they were returned. I didn't want to accidentally lose one somewhere in the chaos and then end up paying for the book, only to find it a year from now when unpacking some random box.
In spite of all the chaos here, I did work on my goals for the year!
1) Post 1 book review a month on my YA blog.
I have posted 6 reviews so far. Most of them were published in June, as that is when I was looking for and reading books to talk about with the schools.
https://librarynut-booksforteens.blogspot.com/
2) Renovate the Master Bedroom & Bathroom.
This is happening!!!!
3) Find good homes for the books
They have all been homed outside of my house.
4) Go explore 2 new to me places
Who
doesn't love an adventure? I have a list of places that I want to go
see. I'm going to put out a map, and get some darts, and see where we
end up.
1) Oregon
2) Turkey Run Park in Virginia
5) 40 Bags in 40 Days Lenten Challenge
These were kitchen size garbage bags full of stuff, along with several BIG boxes.
6) Get together with 1 friend each month
I
don't think I should have to write this down, but you know, it's been a
weird couple of years. I want to make seeing people we love a priority.
Doing this after 2 years of COVID Restrictions is going to make this an
extra special challenge.
January - Jim & Kathy! We had a fire outside in the fire pit and got to catch up over a couple of hours!
February - Joe, James, Dan
March - Crissy, Gloria
April - This was the month we had Covid, so we saw nobody and went nowhere.
May - Vince & Suzanne, Judy
June - Sharon
The Mission Trail in San Antonio!
8) Landscape Front Yard
This has been on the list for several years now. I really want to get this checked off this year!
9) Clean out the Garage
If
you've read the blog for any length of time, you know that we bought
this house 16 years ago from my in-laws. And you also know that they
were borderline hoarders. We've made progress in the house, and while
there is still clutter in the basement, I believe that we will have the
last of it out by the end of this year. (See the 40 bags in 40 days
challenge.) There is no longer any junk in our basement! 16 years later and we have finally cleaned out the house. Finally.
But the garage is another story. 16 years, and we have not
yet been able to park our cars in the garage because of the amount of stuff. Our goal is to be able to park a car in the garage by the
end of the year. when we move back into the house next year.
10) Get the kayak out in the water once each month during May, June, July, August, September, and October.
Seriously, we have a kayak. Why aren't we getting out in the water with the kayak more often? What is our excuse? The kids have moved out. We don't have to worry about finding a sitter or getting an extra kayak for them.
We didn't get it out in May or June. We still have time left!
11) Get my Bike fixed and get out for some bike rides.
I
bought my bike over 30 years ago. I rode it a lot before the kids got
busy in high school. Now that everyone is out of the house, it is time
to pull out some of the things I really used to love. The top of that
list is riding my bike. In order to do that, I need to get the bike
fixed. The tires are dry rotted, and I'm sure it's got a host of other
issues going on.
12) Visit My Cousins in Texas (a trip postponed from 2020)
Done! We made it down over a long weekend in January! It was so good to see my cousins and my aunts and uncles! I even posted a few pictures from the River Walk in San Antonio. It's been 10 years since I last got down here. I can't wait another 10 years to get back. Family is too important. And time is fleeting.
Breckinridge Park! We met up with my cousins at the same outdoor pavilion where I had my 5th birthday party! That pavilion is just off to the right from this picture.
Other Goals:
I’ve got a couple of other goals I would like to accomplish this year, but I honestly don’t know if I’ll be able to get to them. If I do, I’ll be thrilled beyond words. If not? I’ll add them to the list of things I want to get to in 2023.
Goal #1
Get out to Kansas to visit Middle Child.
Done! We went out earlier this month.Leftovers.
I know, when we had teenagers in the house, we didn't have a lot of leftovers. When we did have them, it was because whatever I made was just so bad that nobody wanted to eat it.
But now, we find ourselves with leftovers that we can't finish before they go bad. Even worse, when I make them into something new, the something new isn't getting finished before things go bad. What to do? What to do?
Enter my giant freezer. I have been making a roast of some type on Saturday night. Sunday finds me taking the leftovers and making them into other things, and then freezing these things into smaller portion sizes that will feed the two of us. So, when I would have made a 9"x13" pan full of chicken and dumplings, I am now freezing two 8"x8" size pans. That's enough for us to have dinner, plus leftovers for lunch for a couple of days.
The huge pot of chili? (I honestly don't know how to make a small pot of chili.) I'm freezing leftovers in quart size containers that we can take out and easily reheat for dinner on a busy night.
But what about the odds and ends of meat? Meat is getting too expensive and needs to be saved up when you have it. I've been taking those weird odds and ends of meat and then tossing the meat into a food saver bag before I suck all the air out of it and toss it in the freezer. I'm not positive what I'm going to end up doing with that meat, but I do know that I just bought myself some time to figure it out. Pot of soup? Stir Fry? I will figure that out on the day when I pull it out of the freezer and need to make something with it.
Believe it or not, this has actually made a huge dent in our bottom line.
Fruit.
I've gotten absolutely obsessive about fruit lately. I'm making a point of pulling out what I know we can eat and then freezing the rest. I'll have a lot of frozen fruit for my yogurt, muffins, and oatmeal this fall and winter.
Veggies.
I've been freezing and dehydrating extra veggies as they come in. I'm putting the dehydrated veggies aside for soups this winter. My goal is to eventually mix them all into the portions I'll use for soup. But for now, I'm saving the veggies in separate bags until I have enough to put together a bag for one pot of soup.
So, what kinds of things are you doing with your leftovers? How are you stretching out your food budget?
