Family Music

Good morning, everyone. I hope you have a great day. Another weekend is here. Already!

My weekend is going to be a busy one. The kids are all coming home! Lori and her husband and our grandson #3 are coming down from Michigan. Our gr-daughter and her fiance are coming up from N. Carolina. And of course the other 2 daughters and their families, who all live close by, will be here too. It will be nice to see them all again, together in one place. I just wish I had a table like that.


Today was Bob's turn to get Ian to band practice. He let me sleep in a bit. Ian told Grandpa that he didn't feel well when he got up. He sent his mom a text to tell her he didn't feel well. She asked him if he was too sick to go to band and he said "oh, no! I wanna go!" I think he likes it. He told Grandpa later that he played his first note today. I told Ian yesterday that when he got good on the clarinet and I got good on the keyboard, we'd create our own garage band. He just he-hawed. It thrills me to no end that he likes it. I hope that doesn't change.

As for the rest of my grandkids, in order of age, Hollie sings .... Joe dances .... Curtis plays the trumpet .... Dylan's our comedian .... Ian's learning the clarinet and still wants to take drum lessons .... Jr. wants guitar lessons .... Bryan wants to learn how to play my keyboard. Oh, and their Grandpa wants to learn how to play his harmonica.  Our 3 daughters all sing beautifully. Is their showbiz in our future? LOL

Well, gotta run... things to do.
Until next time.....

Hodgepodge Wed.

1. The first week of August is National Simplify Your Life Week... what's one thing you could do this week to qualify as a participant?
Oh, there's so many things I should do, if I could. I would get rid of our "stuff"... those little things, knick-knacks and such, laying around, that drives me crazy anymore. They collect dust and it takes me forever cleaning around them. My hubby doesn't understand why I would want to just throw them away.

2. It's also National Peach Month... peach pie, peach cobbler, or please pour me a Bellini?  What's your peach pleasure?
Peach cobbler (warm with a scoop of vanilla ice cream) Oops... sorry, I drifted off into drool mode.

3. Eleanor Roosevelt once wrote: "Do one thing every day that scares you." Agree or disagree... explain.
I would have to disagree. It would be a way of facing my fears, but I don't think my nervous system could take it.

4. What's your favorite household chore?  Yes- you have to name one.
Since I have to name one, it would be washing dishes. Since Hubby retired, he's helped me clean the kitchen and wash the dishes every evening, by hand. It's during this time we talk, about anything and everything. It's during this time I have his complete attention with no TV. :) 


5. Fodors recently listed (what they've dubbed) the ten most beautiful sunset spots in America. Click here to read more and see the pretty pictures, but this is their list:

Butterfly Beach in Santa Monica CA, Mount Haleakala in Maui HI, Old Fort Marcy Park in Santa Fe NM, Laguna Beach CA, Hopi Point in Grand Canyon AZ, Four Seasons in Miami FL, Santa Monica Pier in Santa Monica CA, Gay Head in Martha's Vineyard MA, Ensign Peak in Salt Lake City UT, and Mallory Square in Key West Florida.

Have you seen the sun set from any of these spots?  If you could choose to watch the sun set this weekend from one spot on the Fodors List, which would you choose?  Where was the prettiest sunset you've ever seen?
I have not been fortunate enough to travel to any of these places but if I had to choose, of course it would have to be Mount Haleakala in Maui HI. I've dreamed of visiting the islands all my life. However, the Grand Canyon or Laguna Beach come in at a close second. 

6. What's your favorite or most used app?  If you don't use apps how about your favorite or most visited website?
I love my iPhone and I have apps! lol  My favorite is hard to choose. I use all of them but the one I use most often is my weather app. I use it first thing in the morning, again during the hottest part of the day and again in the evening to see how the weather is going to be during the night.

7. We've recently passed the halfway mark for 2013...write a seven word sentence that sums up your year thus far.
Thus far it's been joyful and uneventful.


8.  Insert your own random thought here.
My only random thought right now is having to go out in this steamy (humid) weather to go to WalMart. I've been putting it off too long. Gotta do it. :(  There are thunderstorms coming our way for this afternoon, thus the reason for the humidity.

Tuesday, Aug. 6, 2013

Today is my sister-in-law's birthday. Marrying Becky is the best thing my brother ever did. I'm glad he has her. She's a very kind and generous person. And she takes good care of my baby brother.

Not much of anything going on in my little part of the world. It's been a quiet day.

I didn't feel well this morning, so Bob got up early, picked up Ian and got him out to the school for band practice. I thanked him and went back to bed. I had a splitting headache, but when I got up later it had let up quite a bit. I felt fine after a hot shower. Ian laughed when he saw Grandpa and asked if we were taking turns picking him up. Yep.


Our weather today was still very nice, even though the humidity and the temperature have been climbing up a bit the last few days.

The high today got up to 83° with some cloud cover. The low tonight is suppose to be around 63°. Not as cool as it has been.

We're still sleeping with the windows open, no A/C, but I kept waking up during the night, too warm. That might have contributed to my morning headache.

In the news:  would you eat a "lab-grown meat product"? It was all over the news yesterday, that the first lab grown hamburger was revealed. It looked like real ground beef, but it wasn't. They say this is the wave of the future.

"The €250,000 ($440,525) cost of making the burger was paid by Google co-founder Sergey Brin,  who said he got into the idea for animal welfare reasons. The lab team at Maastricht University grew 20,000 muscle fibers from cow stem cells over the course of three months. These fibers were extracted from individual culture wells and then painstakingly pressed together to form the hamburger."
It doesn't sound appetizing to me.

And with that, kind folks, I will say "good night". Hope you've had a good day.
Until next time............

But I'm not complaining....

In the "old days", Monday was always considered laundry day. Women would work the whole day, scrubbing stains off the knees of the boy's pants, soaking the whites, treating and scrubbing the collars of their husband's shirts, then hauling the basket of heavy wet clothes out to the line in the backyard.... all that good stuff.

My laundry day(s)?
Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday......

but I'm not complaining.


Schools around here will be starting Aug. 21st but for some kids, today is their first day back to academia. And that has changed my daily schedule.

Grandson #4 (Ian) is in band, so he had to be out to the school by 8:30 this morning and through the next 3 weeks. Since both of his parents work, Grandma gets to taxi him back and forth.

But I'm not complaining.

Our daughter has had quite a time finding him a clarinet. She did manage to find someone with one for sale and he told her it was like new, had recently been over-hauled with new corks and pads. Not! Ian's music teacher checked it out this morning and it's not playable. Too many air leaks. So she has to take it to be fixed. You know, you want to trust people but if they have something they want to sell, they can tell you anything. "Buyer beware"

Today is going to be another beautiful day. Right now it's 66° with a high of 79°.

We do have a chance of rain this afternoon and for the next 2 days, scattered showers. But that's ok. It keeps the grass green. Last year at this time we were up in the triple digits and I can remember the grass looking like it was dead. Everyone had to be careful. Some areas in the country saw huge wildfires and they lost everything they had. I need to remember that someone always has it worse somewhere. So when it comes to our weather...

I'm not complaining.

Husbands!!! They can be so frustrating. I said: "Why'd you do it that way? I would have done it this way! Makes it much easier."  Then for the next 5 minutes I listen to his explanation.

But I'm not complaining.

In the news, it always seems to be the same old stuff that I get so tired of hearing about it, until something interesting changes the story. It seems our Sec. of State has NO IDEA why 35 CIA agents were at the Benghazi Annex the night of the attack. No one has any answers because Hillary said she doesn't know why they were there and they can't ask those 35 CIA agents because they are basically under gag orders to zip it or else. Well, it seems that now the CIA agents involved are being subjected to frequent, even monthly, polygraph examinations,” part of an attempt to keep the agency’s Benghazi secrets from ever leaking out.”  Is this America???? 

Now when it comes to our government and their actions............
 I AM complaining!! 

Hope you have a great day. 
Until next time...............

Sunday, Aug. 4, 2013

I have a family member in Texas that loves Christmas. Every year she starts getting out her decorations a little earlier than last year. And she starts the count-down. She posted her first last week. Everyone teases her, but if you'd see her big gorgeous house, and all the decorations she puts out, you'd understand why she has to start early. Anyways, I laughingly play along with her count-down. I have the app on my iPhone so I opened it last night and this is what I found  .......................

Let's get the school supplies bought before we start on the Christmas gifts. 

Today is a beautiful day. We still have the windows open. The high today is 73° with blue sky and big white 'cotton' clouds. Our nights are still going down into the 50's which makes for good sleeping. 

We went to church this morning and it was another good service. In a nutshell, the pastor talked from 1 Samuel, how David faced the giant, and how fear prevents us from facing our giants and trusting God. 

I got an email today from my cousin up north. Her and I do our family genealogy together, up to a certain point where her tree goes off in another direction. She had gotten an email from a man in Idaho who stumbled onto a name on my side of the family, my great-grandfather. He had some questions, so I dug out my book and sent the answers to her, along with a couple old pictures, and she'll send on the info to him. I should get back into my research, but there never seems to be enough hours in the day. 

After church this morning, Bob and I went up to our favorite restaurant. After a meal like that, I don't think I'll need to cook supper. I may just have a salad and I'm sure Bob will just snack. 

I hope you've had a good day. 

Until next time................................

Friday, Aug. 2, 2013

My day started out dark and gloomy. The temperature was fairly comfortable but very wet.

Since then the sky has turned blue and the sun is out. The high is around 81° and still damp, humid. This always happens after a summer rain. It turns into a sauna.


D#3 called around noon today ... needing Daddy's help. She was at work and had casually mentioned to one of her clients yesterday that she and the kids like hamburgers on the grill, but she didn't have a grill now. So, today, when she went out to her car at lunch, there, sitting beside her car, on the public street, was a charcoal grill. Since it wouldn't fit in the trunk of her car, we took the van to pick it up then took it over to her house. The boys were there, with the babysitter, so we stayed for awhile and talked to them before heading back home. We don't get to see much of them anymore and when school starts, we'll see them even less. I miss those little characters. They're growing up so fast.

Teresa also told me when she called that the skin tag she had removed yesterday didn't look good to the doctor. He sent it in for testing and now is the waiting game. If you don't mind, I'd like to ask for prayer that she gets back a good report, and it's nothing serious. Thank you. I so appreciate having you as a friend that I can turn to in times of worries.

When we got back to town, we stopped in at a new meat market that opened recently to see what they had. They completely remodeled the old restaurant and it's spotless. A far cry from what was in there before. Now it looks brand new and the meat in the cases looked very good and fresh. The prices weren't bad either. We came home with enough meat for a week of meals for $24. I don't think that's too bad.

Speaking of food..... I posted, on my recipe page, the chocolate dessert I made yesterday. The recipe is a 'keeper'; Bob liked it. It does taste good, but not like I thought it would be. It's more like a cake or brownie, baked in a pie plate. Even tho' it had a full stick of butter in it, it was not very rich. We ate ours last evening with a scoop of ice cream.

Since it is a quick and easy recipe to whip up, I will no doubt make it again. But I may experiment with other things that could 'dress' it up.

One word of warning .... watch it closely those last few minutes. If it's over-baked, the edge will turn crunchy very fast. lol

That's about all to report today. I hope you've had a great day.
Until later................

World's Longest Yard Sale

The annual World's Longest Yard Sale, also known as the US 127 Corridor Sale, starts today through the whole weekend. Since highway 127 is a major thoroughfare in our town, thousands of people will be coming through. Some travelers will staying the night in our motels and continuing their travels tomorrow. It is a huge event.

It also means it's going to be very difficult to get across town. Cars will be parked on both sides of the street, legally and illegally. Some will even try to double-park. I hate following those people down the street. They'll either slam on their breaks at the last minute, or drive 5 mph. Then you have the ones who step out of their cars into the line of traffic, or they expect traffic to stop while they walk across the street in front of you. I declare, the avid garage salers have a 6th sense when it comes to the right places to stop, or they'll try to hit every one they see, but it's dangerous for all of us. 

This year the sales extend for 690 MILES long ..... from 5 Miles North of Addison, Michigan to Gadsden, Alabama! Their web site provides lots of tools and information for those who will be traveling the route, such as trip planners and free maps.
Web site:    World's Longest Yardsale   

It looks like they'll have good weather for their weekend. Our high today will be 79° with some cloud cover and down to 57° tonight. Good sleeping weather.
 There is a chance of some light rain tomorrow and Saturday, but the weather experts say it will be spotty and scattered. 

We've had the A/C turned off for several days now and it looks like we might not have to turn it back on for another week or so. This has been a very mild summer for us so far. But this is only the first day of August, so it can change anytime. I think we'll still get more of those hot, humid days and it will probably be the first week of school where the teachers will have to deal with all those little sweaty, smelly darlings in a small room.

Bob still hasn't gotten the riding lawn mower fixed. Everything has tested out ok, all settings right on the hundreth degree, so it all comes back to that starter one mechanic tested and told him it was ok. He's off again right now to see another guy about borrowing a starter to put on the mower to see if that isn't the problem. Thank goodness we have another mower so our grass isn't looking like a jungle out here.

So far today, I've gotten a lot accomplished. I took advantage of the hubby being out of the house. I don't know why but I can't seem to get any cleaning done when he's sitting in his chair. I got a load of laundry done, cleaned the bathroom, dusted the living room, put a chocolate dessert in the oven and I just got a meatloaf mixed up and ready to go in.

My chocolate dessert is a new recipe. It's looking good, and smells so good, but the center is all puffed up so I'm afraid to open the oven door until it finished. It looks like it may fall before then. Kind of like a mousse, which I've never been able to make. I have no idea if it's going to taste good, but I'll let you know. If it's a 'keeper', I may post it on my recipe page. It was so easy to whip together and bakes for a half hour. Something that could be made on short notice. I like that kind of recipe. Have you ever tried your hand at making a mousse?

I better get back to the kitchen so I'm closing this for now. Hope you've had a good day.
Until next time.................