Life Lesson 19

My goodness gracious. I actually thought I could no longer link to this blog, but this last month have been reviewing it and "thinking" about catching up, my last post was 3 years ago.....so much has happened in our lives in 3 years, no non boring way to catch up all of that. So Life Lesson #19, quit procrastinating! We're at our beach house and recently I made an apple crisp from an age old favorite recipe and a high school friend said didn't you have a page where you kept recipes and cooking tips.....well yes, yes I did, right here and as soon as I opened it up......poof, there's that recipe of the apple crisp but without the picture. So there's the picture of the Apple Crisp and it was from my daughters 2nd grade class not kindergarten as I had remembered, that daughter will be 45 soon...sigh. The pan I used is fabulous, it's from Lodge, a very very very heavy pan I got pretty reasonable at the Outlet. I'm going to make another while we're here at the beach and share with friends and neighbors. I have some pears I will add just to use them up.

Daisy

My sweet Daisy deserves her very own post. We were able to realize a sweet dream for her....take her to the beach and let her run and play and oh how she loved that and loved her home. Once we got her to the states she never went into a kennel again, she never went to a Kennel so we could travel again, she was with us every moment.

My Mother got sick and needed nursing care October of 2012 and we took Daisy along then too, so Mom got to meet her at last. We moved over seas with her when she was 7 months old so Mom never got to meet her until she was 12 years old. We went back and forth many times to be with Mom, and also to the beach and to my daughters in Georgia. While at the beach we took her to a vet to "get acquainted", he told us she had a heart murmur and with or without treatment she would live two more months and she did just that. After burying my Mother (we had to wait two months for that due to a military cemetery issue), Daisy comforted me as I cried. Then the very next morning, our Daisy took one last stroll out to the daffodil bed in my Mother's back yard and elegantly sniffed the air in three directions as she sat down amongst the daffodils, she then laid down and sniffed in three directions again, then laid over and quiet peacefully and immediately died. I honestly thought my heart would explode. It's been a year ago now this past April, I can't believe it's been that long as I still miss her daily. (I miss my Mother too) Just before Daisy died, I knew I would have a very hard time accepting it, so I got a new puppy, Matilda, I call her my grief puppy, I knew I would need her and she truly did help with the transition. She at least knew her big sister for about two months. Daisy helped her learn a lot of things and she was ever so patient.

How I wish I could have them both with me. I don't think we ever forget the animals we've loved, nor the people. My Mom would've been absolutely crazy over Matilda, she loved Boston's and always had one. Mom did get to know Daisy and loved her, Daisy and I spent many many hours in the nursing home together with Mom. All the little old folks along Mom's hall loved her. I loved her most of all......she was my best friend, she saw me through so much for so long.

We took Daisy to my sisters vet for cremation and my sister picked up her ashes for me until I could get back to Illinois to get her myself. While we were gone our kids got together and made a lovely small garden in our rather large yard just for Daisy....they planted a white dogwood tree and daisies and put an iron dog there. We brought home from my Mother's the rock that Daisy laid down by and that has also gone there. We will eventually bury Daisy there under her rock amongst her plantings. Rest in peace my precious girl.

Life Lesson #18...Do not let life get in your way.

I see I have not posted in nearly two years. Yes life got in my way a bit. Not that I didn't have thoughts, recipes, projects and life to share, I just didn't seem to find the time for it. And quite honestly I do enjoy blogging, it's kind of like keeping a diary. I wish I knew how to do the pretty blogs that the sweet young things do, but I'm not that advanced on the computer. Remember the long ago post about Bali Tea? Well I've just made me a cup, hadn't done that in quite a long time. It's a hot summer day, but I'm on the porch with a fan and the setting seems perfect for this cup of tea. It takes me right back to that lovely hotel we stayed in in Bali, I remember I drank that tea every meal and kept making mental notes until I figured out how to make it for myself. I made some curtains this summer for a friend. They were made from painters drop cloths, the khaki colored ones. I cut some in half and hemmed them and added ties to the tops that I made from yellow thirties fabrics. My hubby and grandson, Morgan helped to hang them using coat hooks and pvc pipe.

I really enjoyed doing this, though it took me some time to do it and some time to figure out how to make everything work. Now I'm contemplating making pillows out of the same fabric, use the ties to close the backs, add old doilies and buttons to the front. I'm in a "I want to do everything frame of mind". I made a blueberry pound cake day before yesterday, I think the cakes stands and domes I ordered from Etsy just now arrived....how cool! I've always wanted one of those, now I will have two, a regular size one and a smaller one. This is what the cake looks like, later I will publish the recipe. I got it through a feed on facebook, it's fabulous.

I had a bumper crop of blueberries from my bushes at the beach house this summer so picked and used them daily, froze some and have made this cake twice.

We're going to attend our 50th class reunions later this summer,looking forward to that. I had thought we'd both diet and get in great shape....ha.....didn't happen. We went to different high schools but graduated the same year, and dated through most of high school. I'm eager to open the boxes that just arrived, see if it is the cake stands so will post again soon. I'll put that recipe on for the blueberry and lemon pound cake.

Life Lesson #17

My my my, I so need to catch up. I quit blogging when my hubby told me to keep it to myself that we were not going to renew his contract at the university and transition back to the states this year. It was too difficult to keep that secret so I just didn't talk to anyone for a really long time.....Life Lesson #17, if you want to keep a secret, just don't talk and certainly don't blog so I didn't....wasn't I good? But I have so much to say and no one in particular to say it to but my little blog here and I've also discovered some new bloggy friends and I'd like to link them to my blog so we can share all things cooking, gardening, crochet and quilting and sewing etc....I rather enjoy all of that and love it when an old friend stops in and leaves me a message. I'm currently working on a Granny Stitch Afghan that I just love and is totally mindless to do.....that does not mean that there aren't three so far that I've found mistakes in it, but unless you're totally picky you're not going to find them, but the Shadow knows where they are! I need to take a picture and post it and will do that soon....for now I'm just finding my old blog spot and saying hello.....and now for that after breakfast catch up on lost sleep nap.

Time for a recipe

Apple Crisp Recipe.....

Butter a 9x13 inch pan.
Peel and cut up 5 to 8 apples, I like a variety and they must be crisp ones, place in the pan.
Sprinkle with 1 teaspoon cinnamon and 1/2 to 2/3 cup regular sugar, depending on sweetness of apple or your tooth.
For the Crust: Mix and spread over apples, 3/4 cup flour, 1 cup brown sugar...lightly packed, 1/2 cup butter, pecans, chopped (optional). Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour or until done.

30 years ago my youngest daughter was in 2nd grade and all the kids submitted apple recipes for a cookbook. This was back in the days of mimeographed papers. I may have even run the mimeographs as I did do volunteer work at the school back then, I remember I loved the smell of the ink!

This recipe is simple and is so good served with either whipped cream, vanilla ice cream or a drizzle of heavy cream while the crisp is still warm. I used to make up several and pass them out to the neighborhood...oh this was back when we lived on a farm.

I have more news, but will make a separate post. I haven't blogged in a while, been busy relocating. So today made a foray into the mess that was once our den here in the states and did an I Spy on this old children's cookbook, what a find! I'm now more encouraged to clean out the room and set it back to rights. I wonder what other treasures I will find. For now I must make a grocery run for apples...ummm....can't wait to make this again.

Life Lesson # 16

Don't go so long without posting might be a good life lesson, but even better...find some joy in each day! Such a great life lesson, joy is so easy to find if you only let yourself stumble over it.
I've been emailing with an old high school friend who is troubled just now, I have been trying to help her find a new path so that she can enjoy her life again, as I've done that I think of my own life.
My own life is complicated right now due to my husbands job and our locations. He is in Abu Dhabi and I'm home in the mountains in the USA and it is so glorious. I do worry about my hubby as he is there alone and men don't do right alone do they. Mine doesn't eat right or exercise without my nudging. Thank goodness for Skype, we are on it twice a day and his weekends I'm sort of locked into it with him. I'm nudging him just now to get on the exercise bike while I do the same.
I'm not totally alone...we brought our dog home at Christmas time and all our kids and grands are here nearby. Our dog is a boxer as you know and our vet said since you're going home for the holidays you really should take her now so we did as my husband's contract ends in late July so we had thought we'd come home for good this year. Now we're undecided as the economy still struggles at least for our grown children and our grandchildren and my hubby has this wonderful job and we help as much as we can with the struggles at home. So what do to now? We have not decided, we'll stumble along and "see how it goes" as a Dr I worked with for years used to say.
Meanwhile I'm sitting here listening to my dog snore, my hubby occasionally talk, and the wind rustling the trees...do you ever turn off all sounds and just enjoy listening to the outdoors, so your own spirit can talk with you? Oh my...how wonderful it is! The wind just rushed by our house and made this amazing rustling sound...and I just stopped everything and watched and listened. Well...may the spirits move you all to enjoy this day and those simple wonderful things that happen in it! This picture I posted reflects the trees surrounding my home that I can hear and see from where I am sitting posting this note, I took it yesterday during our mountain walk.

Life Lesson #15

Never leave anything that resembles food out where Daisy can spy it or possibly find it because she will find it. I had bought an interesting looking pasta and left it on the counter...not thinking there would be any smell to it or appeal to it at all in it's plastic wrapper. This little past resembled rice, or a small risoto but it was called Italian Macaroni. I was thinking of making a soup with it, but Daisy had other plans. It ended up trailed all through house like Hansel and Gretel had used it in the woods. Daisy snatched it off the counter and opened it in the family room, but then wandered the entire house (all 4400 sq ft of it) with bits dangling from her jowls I'm quite positive. Later all that dried pasta seemed to be a bit upsetting and there she was pacing the floor in the bedroom until I got up and came down stairs with her, after a few trips outside (thank goodness for that one) she was ready to settle in for the night, though I was wide awake by then. So the moral of the story is to always close the kitchen door when away from the house, also be sure to put non removable (by Daisy at least) objects in all the chairs and on all the couches. And don't believe that poor pitiful me look as you go out the front door, it's all an act.