quick trip to Jekyll

Posted on April 8, 2019 by Shanda

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Good morning, so sorry for my absence here, it felt long to me! I haven’t posted in over a week! Because………

……..last week at this time I was flying to Georgia with my husband for a very quick visit to Jekyll Island. What can I say about it? It was a whirlwind, I was tired beyond words because we had to get up at 3:30 in the morning to make our flight, and it was freezing cold. However, on the positive side, I didn’t have to worry about my children with good ol’ Michael in charge here at home, I was able to relax and look at some beautiful magazines on the plane and start a good book, I ate good food, and I was able to see some lovely sights and visit my brother!!

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We stayed at the Jekyll Island Club resort where it is beautiful all over and there are huge old trees draped in spanish moss.

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The little coffee shop at the resort. (love the floors!)

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This is what I wore on the plane and I’m smiling because I have my coffee in hand and there are pink flowering shrubs behind me.

The trees, the trees, the glorious trees. It was a treat to feast my eyes on the green and the flowers.

Rich had to work in the hotel room so I was off on my own for several hours and managed to get cold and wet in the rain, although quite happily.

driving

A little place we found.

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visiting

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view out the back of the cottage

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It was raining hard, with lots of wind……

The next morning it had cleared some, but it was still chilly so I wore the black leggings again plus a long skirt, a black shirt, and a sweater.

We had an appointment that morning and then went shopping.

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The shops were next to the ocean so I ran down to put my feet in.

The clouds and the sea.

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And then, guess what? By God’s providence we were down on Jekyll Island the very day David and his girlfriend arrived for vacation!!! I was able to meet dear Ann and it was an instant friendship. The four of us met for a nice seafood lunch.

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With a beautiful view out the window.

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My very first best friend, and we are still the best of friends these 40 years later.

I love you Dave!!!!

One last walk on the beach (Tuesday evening) by my lonesome, Rich was out running.

I sat by the window and Rich sat on the aisle, with an empty seat between us. I thought my thoughts and read my book and even dozed now and then. It’s always a little bit of a relief when the plane lands for the final time (we had a connecting flight) and you realize you survived yet another trip (I’m a slightly anxious traveler)…….I was happy to get home (Wednesday afternoon) and see the children again although the house was pretty messy. It didn’t take too long to get it back into order (the kids did most of it).

Happy Monday!

book giveaway/maple syrup photos

Posted on March 26, 2019 by Shanda

(from a page in a book David is sending me)

The cats absolutely love to go outside and roll back and forth back and forth in the dirt. Bagheera was at the window wanting to come in (we have low porch windows that they can easily jump through) and when I walked over to open up the window he jumped through with his shiny black fur just as dusty and dirty as can be, I had to laugh!

I was gone for a few hours this morning. After I got Seth and Sarah on the bus and wrote a long long letter to a penpal, I received a text from a friend wondering if we could go walking together. I’m finally feeling better and energetic after the awful cold I had so I happily said “yes!” and off I went to her house. We walked over 2.5 miles together in a bright and cold New England morning, with the sky as clear and blue as the deep blue sea.

We walked past a wooded lot that had maple trees tapped for sap. The sap was dripping from the trees into long thin plastic tubes, which led to clean white plastic containers but I like the looks of the old fashioned way the best (although I admit for large operations it’s much better to use tubing and tubs!).

My Mom and Dad boil sap in the spring and collect it using hooded metal buckets.

I’ve never been able to be home on a boiling day, but my brother David took some wonderful photos on Saturday (full of freshly fallen March snow!) and sent them to me and I wanted to share them here.

Mom was talking about how to make Pesto while Dave took this video. I asked Dave why there was a big pot in the middle of the pan of sap and he said that they add the cold sap to the pot to start warming up so that they can add it warm and keep main tray of sap at a constant good boil.

Mom and Dad in their open shed, with their dog and wood and small homesteading maple syrup operation! So satisfying.

This is how they do the final straining of the syrup.

They make jars and jars of syrup and can use it all year long.

Leave a comment on this post or on my FB page and I’ll draw a name tomorrow and send this book to the lucky winner! As you know I’ve been reading through all the Newbery books and this 1957 winner was so charming and perfect to read at this time of year. I will order the book for you on amazon and have it mailed, so you will have to give me your mailing address. I’ll post the winner tomorrow at this time!

One of my little pleasures is warming up the children’s pancake syrup. Rich’s Dad also boils sap for syrup and he gives us lots and lots of it every year. Later on, after breakfast is over and done and I’m cleaning up, I like to stand and dip my finger way down into the leftover syrup and then pop my finger into my mouth for a nice clean mouthful of pure, sweet NY maple syrup goodness! What a blessing!

‘”The sap running gives me a feeling I can’t describe,” Mr Chris said. “Like it’s the blood of the earth moving.”‘ Miracles on Maple Hill, by Virginia Sorensen

lunch and christmas gift exchange with Dave

Posted on January 3, 2019 by Shanda

Too many of us never understand what we owe to our dear ones — until there remains no further opportunity of paying love’s debt. JR Miller

I just downloaded 44 photos that could be grouped into a gazillion blog posts. I was tempted to just dump them all into ONE but I can’t, I just can’t. They deserve their own posts. (Okay, It really might be ten, but with the rate I’ve been blogging it would take me a gazzillion days to post the ten. I’m determined to do a blog a day until I’m caught up.)

I’m sitting on the couch in the livingroom. Three of our four cats are prowling around. Walter is sitting like a king by the kitchen door, Sherlock is sitting on the counter watching over things. Bagheera snuck up behind Sherlock wanting to play and was hissed at, meanly.

Grace is also prowling around, warming up a cornbag and preparing a breakfast bagel.

It’s a gift to have her home on break for the next few weeks. Her older brothers already had to drive back to Castleton on the 1st. We are thinking about going to visit them at some point, just for the fun of it.

But today Grace and I are picking up Seth at the school at 10:30 for an orthodonist appointment. He has an expander on the roof of his mouth, and a habit breaker, and I wonder if he’ll have either one of them removed today. That would be nice for him.

Rich and Dave have a wrestling meet today after school.

This would be a nice weekend to visit us if you want to see the boys wrestle. Dave has a meet on Saturday. Caleb and Seth have their first meet on Sunday. They will both be half- a- day long affairs, I will be taking headphones, a charger, and a book so the noise and activity doesn’t daze and confuse me. I’m already praying they have fun and do as well as they can. I’ll let you know if they place and get medals.

Sarah Joy was rummaging around the shelves this morning searching for lost school library books until I finally said, “You should have done this last night!” and she went to school with one missing. She’s wearing blue pants, a purple velvet-textured shirt with ruffled sleeves, her trademark ponytail. And a smile.

This morning I’m thinking about way back on December 18, 2018 when I drove to Clarks Summit. The purpose of the trip was first and foremost to get my daughter home for Christmas, but at the same time I was able to spend time with Joanna and stay the night all by myself in a hotel.

I was also able to visit with my brother Dave. He drove about an hour to meet me for lunch at a favorite little Greek diner. He did all the ordering and we had the grandest time sitting and enjoying each other’s company while eating delicious food.

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Dave is one of the best brothers in the whole wide world (I have two others). We are a year and two months apart in age and we like to tell each other, “You’re my original best friend.” It’s true. We’ve been together all these years, and now, even though we live 4 hours apart, we text each other almost daily and talk on the phone once or twice a month.

This was before our main lunch plates came out! We had spinach pie, a piece of cheese that the waitress lit on fire next to our table so we could eat it sizzling hot, and pita with a sour cream/feta cheese dip. All of the foods had Greek names that I now cannot remember, (I should have taken notes.)

Then our meat kabobs came out and we kept right on eating.

We ate and we ate and we ate and then had dessert. We were stuffed full of good food.

The waitress cleared away our dishes and packed up the remainder of my cheesecake, which I would finish eating at 9 o’clock that night. I asked her to take a photo of us and now I have this picture to remind me of the day Dave came to meet me for lunch.

I’m leaning toward the computer screen right now, looking at it and smiling because I can’t help it.

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I posted the quote at the beginning of this post as a reminder to me to take every opportunity I can to spend time with the people I love, and to show them that I care about them.

i just love a good story (but not this one)

Posted on December 12, 2018 by Shanda

The strangest thing happened yesterday.

One of my perfect children came home from school with a funny story to tell me. It began this way: “Mom. Do you remember a while ago when I had you sign that form for Science?”

Okay, so……I sign A LOT of forms. And when I sign them I promptly forget about them. Unless of course there is something I have to remember like a field trip, which in that case I run to my calendar right away and write it down because if I don’t I WILL forget about it promptly.

So I said to this child, “I think so?” And he continued on with this amazing story about how he had the form in his backpack for a while and then when the day came that it was due to be handed in he couldn’t find it. So the teacher said, “You’ll have to stay after school with me today.” (in another word: detention).

So then my perfect child went off to his next class and (he told me this) when he took out his folder for that class, out fell the missing form! As soon as he could, he ran back to his teacher to hand it in. Wow, that was close! He almost got a detention!

I just love a great story, I laughed through the whole thing, believing every single word with my whole heart!

Later on, the perfect child told his dad the same story in the kitchen but my mean husband didn’t believe the story like I had!! He was suspicious! I jumped to my perfect child’s defense! This child would NEVERRRRRRRRRR lie like this! He wouldn’t even THINK of forging my signature! Never!

Then, true to my nature, I promptly forgot the whole thing until this morning when I got the following email from his teacher:

Good Afternoon,

Last Monday students were given a form explaining some exciting STEAM work we have the opportunity to partake in over the next 2 months. Parents/students were asked to read and sign the form that they were informed of what this opportunity was all about, it was not a permission slip. Students were asked to return the form on Friday, Dec 7. ***** didn’t have his in on Friday. ***** also didn’t have his form Monday or today. He mentioned you had signed it but he couldn’t find it. He came to me after 6th period with the form signed. There is a copy attached. It doesn’t appear to be your signature, but I thought I’d check with you.

I dearly wish I could show you the photo of the form with “my” signature written on it but the perfect child had the wherewithal to include our last name, so I cannot. Suffice it to say it looked NOTHING like my beautiful signature! It looked sort of the way I would have written it…….. when I was a little kid!

I could NOT believe it! This child told me a story and I believed every word! My mom instincts failed dreadfully. I can usually determine truth from fiction just from a child’s face! Honestly, there is still part of me deep in my heart that still believes him, so stay tuned!!

I contacted the teacher and my husband, both of whom have consequences to deliver.

Rich didn’t think any of it was funny, which is very ironic because he forged his Father’s signature all the time when he was growing up. ALL the time. Which actually gives me hope because if that little signature forger can grow up to be such a good man, I guess his son can, too.

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This past weekend Grace and Brittnee had their holiday concerts at college and Rich and I were not able to attend. So I was delighted to receive some music clips, videos, and photos from Joanna AND my brother David!

Happy is the heart that can rely on family and friends to stand in the gap!

I love this one of Joanna’s husband Steve with my brother, both with their amazing beards!!!!!

My daughter Grace, Brittnee (my son’s beautiful girlfriend & Grace’s BFF) and my BFF Joanna (who is also Grace’s second mother while she’s away at college!) God is SO good.