Happy 35

Thirty-five years ago today, there was a snowstorm in Oregon's Willamette Valley. Snowstorms don't happen often in the Valley – in fact, I only remember three in the six years I lived there. This New Year's Eve snowstorm was the second one. And it was memorable because I had an appointment that day with the stork. The normally 20-minute drive took a little over an hour.

When the hospital was finally reached, the maternity ward was overrun.......there was not only a snow storm, there was also a full moon. It took almost three hours from the time I arrived until I finally got into a labor room. It was a memorable day. 1) There was the snowstorm. 2) There was no heat in my labor room, and there was no other room for them to move me to. 3) There was a TV in my labor room, and the NFL playoffs happened to be on.....the Los Angeles Rams were playing that day, and the obstetrician on duty was a Rams fan and kept coming into my room to check on the progress of the game.......I probably saw more of that obstetrician than any other person in labor, though he wasn't necessarily seeing me! 4) I can't forget my labor nurse, who had been called in on her day off because of the abnormally busy delivery day......she wasn't exactly in a good mood and took it out on me.

Son finally arrived at 6:52 pm. I was very glad to see him, even though he weighed a pound and a half more than his older sister had. Mom and Dad had come to Oregon for that winter, to help me out with the kids. This little guy came along 16 months after his older sister. The first night home from the hospital, Dad was holding and inspecting his grandson. Not completely thinking through what he was saying – or who he was saying it to – he looked at me and said, “did you see the broad shoulders on this kid?” The only answer I could come up with was, “Yeah, Dad, I noticed!” Dad was a little flustered.

His big sister was so glad to see him come home – it was like I brought her a new toy to play with. There was nothing the two of them couldn't think up together. Like the time they emptied out their dresser drawers and threw all the clothes out the window. He was only seven months old when Big Sis did something and he looked up and said, “I can do it” - and did exactly what she had! Luckily, I had an unbiased adult witness to that spoken declaration.

He always loved watching TV and at a very early age could quote commercials verbatim to entertain everyone. When his baby sister came along just six days after his third birthday, he told me very solemnly that he would be a good big brother, “just like Richie is to Joanie”..........Happy Days, in case you didn't catch the connection.

As he grew, so did his imagination and his willingness to do anything outrageous. His beloved cowboy boots had to go away because he used them to kick his sisters. His first BB gun had to go away because his shot his older sister in the knee. He got another one when I thought he was old enough to be responsible with it – I was wrong, and the same sister will attest to that!

In high school, he competed in Speech and Debate. Out of self preservation, I had to learn debate tactics as well, because he would use them on me when I was trying to give him a serious talk. In fact, I learned he would listen to me better if I made him laugh first, then transitioned to the serious talk. I've often said that this kid has given me every gray hair I have. And yet I wouldn't trade him for anything.

One time when he was in grade school, another parent asked me if I were his mom.......my kneejerk reaction reply was “why?” I wanted to know what he had done before admitting that we were related. And yet now, 35 years later, he's a hard-working, responsible husband and father who still calls to check in every few days and ends every conversation with “I love you, Mama”......what more could a mom ask for?

Some Assembly Required

Our Saturday ended up being a little more exciting than I had anticipated. We did have a pretty quiet morning and an uneventful lunchtime. In the afternoon, though, the outside temp rose to a beautiful 52 degrees. That's unheard of for the last Saturday in December! So we decided we needed to get out for awhile.

That said, we decided to check out the local store and see what kind of TV stands they had in stock. We'd talked for awhile about getting a new one, and both of us felt it was time. We checked over the three models they had. I immediately found my favorite – and just as immediately dismissed it when I checked the dimensions and it was only 21” tall. I began to feel like Goldilocks.

After checking everything out and talking it over, we agreed on the same style as the one we should get. We got checked out and spent a bit of time chatting with the beautiful college-age twin girls that belong to my childhood best friend.

Once we got home, we divided up chores – I quickly chose to unpack and put together the new stand, letting hubby handle the electronics side of things. In the big picture, electronics and I do not get along very well. And since at one time I put together a new lawnmower and had it running properly, I figured I could handle a TV stand.

I got the pieces out of the box and was pleased to see they had letter stickers on them, correlating them with the directions. And the directions had not only words, but pictures. Yay. I've known for a long time that I'm a visual person – I can read the words, but it's much easier for me if there are drawings to go with those words. I laid out the wood pieces and counted out all the hardware pieces. Things went pretty smoothly – I only had to back up once and change how I'd done something.

Hubby had everything disconnected and helped me finish up the new stand. We took the old one out, put the new one in, and instantly both commented that the new one looked even better than we anticipated. Some days it takes so little to make me happy! Hubby reconnected all the electronics – we have satellite, a DVD player, a Roku box, and we also put up an outdoor antenna a couple of months ago and have that cable coming in as well. He did a fine job of labeling everything as he disconnected it, so the reconnection process went quickly.

We really, really like the new stand. It's a little taller than the former one and when hubby hooked everything up, he repositioned where the satellite box sits......it's now in the middle of the shelf instead of at one side. And that little adjustment has made it to much easier for us – especially adjusting the volume or changing the channel once we've gone to bed. Yes, we watch TV in bed. Yes, I know the so-called “experts” say you shouldn't. It's never kept us from going to sleep. And it's a lot more comfortable falling asleep in our bed than in the living room chair!!

Oh, and if you're wondering why in the world I ever put together a lawnmower – it had to do with a cheap ex who was tired of my asking him to get the lawnmower fixed so I could mow the lawn, so he bought a new mower that we couldn't afford and then brought it home in a box and told me if I wanted a lawn mower that ran, I could put it together. I put that mower together and had it running and mowing, so I had the last laugh.......I think!

The Cleaning Grinch

I just checked over yesterday's blog, and I wrote some very nice words. Unfortunately, now I need to retract most of them! I got up this morning and knew it was the day to put away all the Christmas decorations. It's appropriate for everyone to feel sorry for hubby – changing my mind quickly is pretty much the norm!

Actually, I woke up feeling tired and out of sorts this morning. So naturally, turning into the post-Christmas grinch was appropriate. I did check in with hubby, to make sure he was okay with what I was about to do. I started removing decorations room by room and laying them on the bed in the spare room. Hubby helped take down and put away some higher things, to save me from hauling my step stool around the house. I cleared out and checked each room, then had hubby follow behind and double check everything. We still missed one decoration, but luckily it has its own container - so I realized when I found the container that the decoration was still up.

Undecorating the tree was my final move. I got all the small decorations packed away in their containers, then packed away the trees. We decided it was time to take a break – so we went to a local store to check out the after-Christmas sales. I didn't find anything I wanted, except for a half-price bag of Christmas chocolates. I checked out the gift packs, Christmas decorations, clothes. I didn't see anything begging to come home with me.

I did find some reusable filters for our Keurig coffeemaker, so we can use our regular coffee with it. We've tried them out, and they work well. I also picked up a box of Chai Latte pods. It's yummy. And since we couldn't find anything else we wanted or needed, we decided it was time to head home. We did make use of the Dollar Menu at McDonald's for lunch.

This afternoon I put all our “January through November” decorations and photos back in their normal spots – and I cleaned off the spare bed and got all the Christmas stuff packed away for another year. When I sat down and looked around, the house looked kind of bare. I have to admit that I miss the Christmas decorations. But the regular stuff looks fresh and I'm glad to have it back.

Older daughter posted on Facebook this morning that she was scrubbing floors and steam cleaning carpets today – I think she inspired me to get stuff cleaned up and put away. Regardless of the reason, I'm glad I got it done. Now I can read, watch football, or whatever I choose this weekend. I like to get away from our normal routine on the weekend, to help me differentiate one day from another!

After The Holiday

It's a gloriously sunny, mid-40's day. It suddenly doesn't feel like the day after Christmas! It's nice to have some of this ice and snow go away. We didn't have as much of that ugly stuff as a lot of the country did – but when it comes to ice, it's all nasty.

Hubby asked me this morning if I wanted to go shopping anywhere. As much as I wanted to say “let's go!”, I was good and we stayed home. I'm a big sucker for after-Christmas sales. I won't touch Black Friday with a ten-foot pole, and I really don't care to shop between Thanksgiving and Christmas at all. But get me to December 26^th, and I'm ready! I love trying to hit the marked-down Christmas merchandise before it's sold out. But I bought our 2014 Christmas cards last week at Dollar Tree. That's the only necessity I have for next Christmas.

I've made some good purchases over the years – most of my Christmas shirts (and there are many!) were purchased after Christmas at 50 – 75% off regular price. I've bought Christmas pj's, Christmas cards, wrapping paper, occasionally Christmas ornaments and decorations.

My favorite post-Christmas mark downs are the Christmas gift packs – Christmas chocolates, hot chocolate, tea and coffees. One year I scored several summer sausage and cheese packages for about 75 cents each. Once in awhile you can get lucky on overstocked Christmas gifts – my mixer, for example, cost me just $3 one year after Christmas. I'm not surprised – I wouldn't imagine too many people would be excited to get a mixer as a holiday gift.

For the first time in a long time, I'm still comfortable with the Christmas decorations. They'll probably come down and be packed away over the weekend. Normally I want them to disappear as soon as Christmas is over. In fact, a year or two I've had to stop myself from taking them down before Christmas Day! Somewhere in the recesses of my mind, Christmas is over once we've had our celebration with the kids and grandkids.

I have a selection of Christmas dish towels that I did take down this morning, but only because I was doing laundry and wanted them washed before they are stored. I also took down my birthday cards, washed and packed away the Christmas shirts, and put away the Christmas CD's. But that's as far as I've gone.

Packing the decorations away is always somewhat of a challenge. I tend to go through each room individually, clearing the room out as I go. Once everything is packed away in the containers, I make a final sweep through each room. I still seem to miss something and find it a week or so later, after the containers are all put away. At least I'm consistent!

So our Christmas is over for another year. If yours is over, I hope you had a memorable one. If not, please take time to enjoy your celebration. Life's too short to stress out over the holidays!

Merry Christmas

It's a bright, sunshiney Christmas Eve, though the outside temp is only 26. That's twice as warm as it got all day yesterday, and we had an overnight low of -5. It still feels pretty chilly out there.

It's been a very quiet Christmas Eve for hubby and me. We're both fine with that. I can think of a lot of Christmas Eves as the kids were growing up that weren't quiet. Often we were busy cooking, preparing a special supper or getting things ready for our Christmas Day meal.

Many years we had Christmas Eve services to attend. That was always hectic with kids – especially in places that opted to have Christmas Eve services at midnight. That was not my idea of fun! Midnight always has been far past my bedtime.

Some years were challenging for Santa, trying to time his visit. Son never wanted to go to bed, while his two sisters were both early risers. Sometimes Santa's window of opportunity was very, very narrow!

As I was going through photos last month, I found several Christmas morning photos I'd forgotten about over the years. They brought back so many memories. There was one year in Oregon, before the last one was born, that the women's organization in the church made my kids the recipients of their Santa project. The kids were amazed – and so was I – at all the clothes and toys they got as a result of that generosity. One lady who did knitting used up some of her scrap yarn and made both kids sweaters – with the pouch on the front for their hands, attached hoods, and their names on the pouches. Older daughter's was done in shades of brown, son's was done in shades of blue.

At Christmas 1983, central Iowa was covered with snow and in the middle of several days and nights of frigid, windy weather. A few nights before Christmas, the young adult group from the church went caroling – we found out quickly that we needed to pile back into the vehicles and warm up after every house......even if we did two houses next door to one another, we needed to warm up in between. It was a farm community, which meant a lot of large thermometers outside the back doors. Those thermometers that night read -20. Heaven only knows what the wind chill was.

Because of the snow, howling winds, and the dangerous temperatures, Christmas Eve services were canceled that year. The kids were in their jammies, watching TV. A single friend from Oregon (who worked nearby and had no family in Iowa) was staying with us for the holidays. The wind sounded horrible outside and could be heard above the TV. Then I started hearing another sound – I swore I could hear sleigh bells. I thought I'd gone over the edge and lost my mind.

There was a knock on our front door, and the kids' eyes got very wide when we opened the door and in walked Santa – and yes, he was ringing sleigh bells. Santa gave each of the kids a candy cane and an orange, asked them if they were about ready to go to bed and if they had been good. I'm not sure any of the three did any more than nod back. Actually, I was pretty speechless myself.

I've never forgotten that generous man who stopped by our house on that nasty Christmas Eve, on his way to play Santa for his grandchildren down the road. I'm not sure if the older two kids remember that special visit from Santa or not.......the youngest one wasn't quite two yet. But I remember. And for 30 years I've been very thankful for that special guy who took his time to make a special memory for my kids.

I wish all of you a special and Merry Christmas!

Family Christmas

Well, it's certainly been a few interesting weather days! We picked up a new toy on Saturday – an indoor/outdoor thermometer. I've almost regretted that purchase today – the highest it reached was 13 degrees. We didn't get nearly the nasty weather that was predicted over the weekend, but we did have a thin film of ice covered with an inch or so of snow.

Saturday ended up being a very nice birthday. Since the nasty weather stuff hadn't arrived yet, hubby took me out to the local Mexican restaurant for yet another birthday lunch. It's such fun to spread the celebration out over a few days! We did some local shopping afterward, then had a quiet evening. It was mid to late afternoon before it started raining here.

Sunday was fun. When we got up and it got daylight, we could see that we were missed by most of the storm. Even though there was a bit of snow, we knew we would be able to get to Grain Valley for our family Christmas. Hubby started cleaning off the walkway and the Jeep, and I started making the soup we were taking. I definitely had the easier set of chores!

We picked up Mom and took our time with our drive. The roads were really in pretty decent shape. We were the first to arrive at older daughter's house. Younger daughter and her hubby in Parkville had about five inches of snow to dig out of their driveway, so they were a little later arriving. Son and his family drove up from the south part of Blue Springs and said Highway 7 was not in good shape. So all in all, we may have had the least eventful morning of all!

We had a yummy lunch – everyone pitches in and we keep it simple: there were four soups to choose from, appetizers, and all kinds of yummy sweets. For many years we've taken a photo every Christmas with the grandkids – it was an especially good photo this year. The little girls were especially ready by that time to open gifts.

Jocelyn, at 5, could pick out her name on name tags and piled her gifts up. Cayley could read the rest and they handed out gifts. The next part was amazing and fun to watch – Jocelyn quietly sat back and let Cayley open her gifts first. She was perfectly content to do that. She ooh'ed and aah'ed right along with Cayley. Then when it was Jocelyn's turn, I think she said “Oh, I've always wanted one of those” with every gift she opened. The boys were gracious with their gifts – you can't go wrong with cash or gift cards for teenage boys!

Cayley got a loom for making the rubber band bracelets that are popular with younger girls now. The two 15-year-old boys ended up in the kitchen with that, watching instructional videos on their smart phones to try to figure it out for Cayley. It was nice to see them working together trying to figure it out.

The time to leave always comes much too quickly for me. Those times that we're all together are much too few and far between. But, we have quite a drive and prefer to be home before dark. It was a beautiful drive home. The roads were completely clear, and the snow made for some beautiful landscapes.

So now, before the 25^th, Christmas for us is over for another year. We plan on having Mom over for lunch Wednesday, but it will be a really quiet day. At least I didn't get up this morning feeling like it was time to put away the Christmas decorations! That actually happened last year......though I didn't follow through. I'm not a Christmas grinch, after all!

Upgrades

It's a cold, damp afternoon with some nasty weather on radar. So far the ice has stayed north of us – now, if the snow will just follow suit we should be able to forge ahead with our family Christmas on Sunday! And wow, do I sound selfish or what?! If we don't get the snow and ice, that means someone else will and may have their family gatherings canceled. I really don't want to wish the weather off on someone else.....but I don't want it either!

We had a lovely pre-birthday lunch with Mom today at Burger Bar. Nothing could be better for birthday lunch than a beef burger and hot fudge sundae. On our way home, we stopped by the group home where my cousin Randy lives and dropped off Christmas gifts for him. He had gone out with one of the workers, so we left his gifts under the tree in his room.

One of the things we picked up for the house yesterday was new phones. We dropped the phone company over a year ago and are using a system that goes through the wireless internet. I'd had a few issues over the past few months with strange noises coming through the phones. We realized that neither of us could remember how long it had been since we replaced our phones......and probably newer equipment would be more technologically compatible with the newer internet system.

I put the phones together last night and let them charge overnight. This morning we hooked them up and tried them out. Not only are they a fraction of the size of our previous equipment, but everything sounds so clear! So, maybe my hearing isn't getting as aged as I thought – maybe it's just a matter of aging equipment. Now, if I can have a conversation without having that loud high-pitched beep I've been hearing sporadically, the new equipment will be 100% successful.

I don't know why I'm always surprised when I realized how comfortable I've become with something that shouldn't be comfortable. Like the phones. These new ones are so much better. But, things decline gradually and they are how they are. I know I'm not the only one in this situation.

Last spring I was cleaning out my closet and relinquishing those things I haven't been wearing. Because I'd picked up several nice, new sweaters last winter, I decided I needed to turn loose of some of the older sweaters. There was one particular sweater I was really having trouble letting go of. I finally knew I needed to give myself a dose of reality and thought back to when I bought the sweater. I knew I bought it when I lived in Indiana. I lived in Indiana June 1985 through June 1989. It was time for that sweater to go!

I probably need to make the same decision with my summer robe. I love that robe. It's pink, it's silky, and it's still in good shape. I ran onto a photo last month of me in that robe on a Christmas morning. Again.....in Indiana. We had a really good local store in Indiana. I honestly didn't remember I'd had it that long. I guess when I can find a robe I like as much as this one, I need to replace it.

It's amazing how comfortable we can get with things, so used to having them with us day in and day out. It's such a wake-up call when we realize how long some things have been with us and perhaps we need to upgrade.

Oh, I loaded up and carried my new purse today – I really like it. I obviously don't have a problem with remembering to upgrade my purses – I'm certain I don't still have any that I got in Indiana.

Holiday Birthdays

It's been another warm day – cloudy, a little damp, but still close to 60. And hubby and I had a wonderful day together.........but, in all honesty, every day with him is wonderful!!

After we did our morning podcasts, we went to Marshall for some shopping and lunch. I love checking out their Dollar Tree store – absolutely everything in that store costs $1, and they have some pretty decent stuff. I picked up Christmas cards for next year and reminded myself to check there when I need to replenish my wrapping paper or need gift bags. Hubby got me a Garfield “Happy Birthday” balloon, which is cheerily wandering around the living room now. He knows I'm a big Garfield fan.

My next stop was Goody's, while hubby took the Jeep through the automatic car wash. I had not one but two $10 gift cards from the store, one for my birthday and one for Christmas. I wasn't sure if they'd let me use both cards at the same time, but they allowed it since one was a birthday card. Whee! Extra fun shopping! I love their winter socks, so I got three pair of those. I also got a purse. I am a purse junkie. I'll admit it. Hubby had put the thought in my head, commenting last night that I might want to check out purses today. And I had a $10 card to put toward it. Why fight the obvious, right?!

We picked up necessities at Aldi and Walmart, then went to Applebee's for my pre-birthday lunch with hubby (it's Sunday). We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. Hubby had on a vest that has a lot of metal loops and hooks on it – that was fascinating to the two-year-old in the booth behind him! She spent a lot of time playing with the metal loop on his back. She looked like she may have come from a Christmas program. She had on a sparkly red and black dress, with red and white leggings. So adorable.

It was a very fun day. If you're not born in the holiday season, I'm not sure you can fully appreciate how easily we holiday babies get lost in the hustle and bustle of Christmas and New Year's. It's not anyone's fault, that's just the way it is. When I was a kid, there was always the possibility of having to hurry through Birthday Supper because there was a Christmas program that night. One year I had to stay home on my birthday because I had an earache. You never got to have a birthday party, but it was just too close to Christmas.

One particularly memorable year, when I was a teenager, my birthday was on the Sunday before Christmas. One side of the family was having the Christmas gathering that day. As the desserts were being set out, someone made a comment about there being a birthday cake in the mix. Mom commented that it was my birthday and the reaction was, basically, “oh”. I was kind of glad that I was a teenager and old enough to not be devastated at that reaction.

Hubby has been very good over the years to make sure I feel special on my birthday. He usually tries to draw the celebration out for about a week – and I find that I'm really good with that! He threw me a birthday party when I turned 50. He buys me balloons, puts up banners, and is very careful to let me know my birthday is a special day. Mom takes me out for lunch on my birthday, which is why hubby took me out today. And over the years she's made a lot of cherry chip cakes with cherry frosting!

I told Mom yearly when I was growing up that one thing I would never do to a child is to have them during the holiday season. I guess if you do the math, I kept my word...........I don't have A child who was born during the holidays, I have TWO of them!

Volunteers

I'm enjoying sitting in my chair after two hours at the local food pantry. We've been going since last spring, and up until today we'd just gone down half an hour or so after they started and got in line. Today we decided to be wild and crazy – hubby went down at 11:45 and got a number so we had a place in line reserved when we got there. He was #45.

They'd told him they expected the truck to be a bit early, which normally means they can start shuffling people through early. So we decided to arrive at 1:30 – scheduled start time is 2:15. The truck was still being unloaded – and they brought hand truck after hand truck of food products.

The line wasn't too late starting, maybe 5 minutes after the scheduled time. We were surprised that the line wasn't moving very fast. There seemed to be a logjam at the point where people were checking in. Once we got up there, they apologized and explained the reason for the delay – the truck brought in an all-time high 20,000 pounds of food for our county, and some of the volunteers woke up sick this morning and they were short handed.

Those volunteers were doing a stellar job of keeping things going. Some of the men helped with unloading the truck, and the rest were inside opening cases and setting up the food, getting things organized, and loading the tables. Once they're ready to start, they shift gears. There are grocery carts there, and they pull out a couple and the first station loads up what goes in each cart – I don't know how they decide in such a short amount of time how much of each product we get. Anyway, the cart goes to the next station and products are added. By the second or third station, the cart is handed off to the recipient. But the volunteers continue to load up the carts. The only thing we actually get to choose is when we get to the bread table – there are so many different types of bread products, they just tell us how many we get and let us pick what we want. Today we got to pick from the dessert table. I got triple chocolate cupcakes.

Anyway, the bottom line is that #45 and I didn't get home until after 3:30. Even with getting our number, it took us two hours of waiting and then going through the line. But we're good. We plan on going early for our number again. I visited with several people while we were standing in line and the time passed pretty quickly. And I know that even though I was feeling tired by the time we got home and I got things unloaded and put away – that's nothing compared to how tired those poor volunteers will be by the time their day is over.

Every community has organizations like this Food Pantry that exist because of volunteers. They put in hours of what is often tiring – and thankless – work helping take care of their community. Hopefully all of us who come in contact with these people remember to smile and say “thank you” to them. The lady who checks us in at the Food Pantry and helps us figure out how we're supposed to be doing things (#45 should have gotten a number for me as well today – now we know that – and luckily nobody got crabby at me for being in line without a number......I told someone that I was #45 ½) has been so nice and so patient with us and is with everyone. I thought this morning that I wished I had thought to make a Christmas ornament for her. Maybe I'll remember that thought next year.

When you come in contact with volunteers during this Christmas season – and all year, really – remember to smile and thank them for taking time out of their life to help take care of their community.

Kitchen Creativity

A much warmer (46 degrees), sunny day than we've had for awhile. I'm enjoying the sunshine. Hubby even ventured out today to find the car wash, with no luck. Both automatic car washes in town are broken. And it was still a little too cool to get splashed washing the car with the wand thingy. We're taking a shopping trip out of town Thursday, so we'll try to wash it then.

Hubby asked me mid-morning what we were having for lunch and actually cheered when I told him it would be leftovers. What a supportive guy he is! I made chicken and dumplings for lunch yesterday that turned out really yummy (it was a new recipe), and we finished it up today. While we were eating, he commented that he hoped this recipe became part of our regular routine.

I am really enjoying being home fulltime and having the time to cook. I cooked while we were working, but it was quick easy meals. With our staggered schedules, there wasn't all that much time between my getting off work at 5 and time for us to head to bed before that early morning alarm clock. So, like so many busy families, quick and easy had to be enough. I enjoyed being able to cook on the weekends, depending on how busy our schedule was.

Late last week I was planning on doing a pork roast for lunch the next day. I knew I would need to get it started about the same time I was having breakfast in order to get it cooked through. I made a comment to hubby to please help me remember to get it started. Good thing one of us was thinking! He asked why I didn't just bake it then (the afternoon before I'd planned on serving it) and just warm it up for lunch. Genius! I had the time to relax and enjoy the prep work, then we had a wonderful aroma in the house for four hours.

Tomorrow I'm going to figure out a chicken pot pie for lunch. I know what I want to include, but I'm pretty much going to make it up as I go along.....maybe basing some of the herbs off what worked so well in the chicken and dumplings. I have some potatoes and carrots, so I can cut them up in small cubes and use them. There's some diced celery in the freezer that will work well. I had a package of three chicken breasts; two of the three went into the dumplings, the other one will be cut up in bite-sized pieces for the pot pie.

I get frustrated with people who think they can't prepare healthy food on a small budget. If you take your time shopping, watching carefully where you shop as well as what's on special, it can be done. Hit the less expensive stores like Aldi's. Utilize your local food pantry if there is one. Check out the dollar stores. Watch the sales and in-store specials. Stock up on canned or frozen vegetables when they're on sale. Use your imagination. Invest a gallon or two of gas to drive a bit for good grocery deals. Realize that, if you insist on pasta, whole wheat pasta isn't much more expensive than regular pasta......and serve it mixed in with fresh veggies sauteed in a little olive oil instead of heavy spaghetti sauce. Roast your fresh veggies for a yummy taste treat.

I've been trying to stock up my pantry staples in the past couple of months. In cooking those quick meals, I'd used up things like herbs and spices without replacing them. Because I was no longer baking cookies for the kids, I'd let myself run out of baking soda and baking powder. I have those staples again and am finding myself pleasantly surprised at all the things I can concoct for us now.

One of my next projects is re-learning bread baking. I feel the urge to be able to make us a decent loaf of bread in case we run out between trips to the not-so-expensive grocery store. Wish me luck!

Today's Update

We had a really quiet weekend, thanks in part to some rather nasty weather. Friday we had freezing rain, then regular rain most of the afternoon, followed by more freezing and then snow. It was pretty chilly on Saturday – and since I didn't need to go outside for anything, I didn't. Hubby put out some ice melt leading up to the front porch for the mailman. We stayed inside Sunday as well, though sunshine cleared the ice off the street in front of the house.

We no longer get winter sunshine on the front yard or the driveway, so we'll have to hope for the warmer temps that are forecast for this week to melt the ice off. It's kind of a pain, but what do you do? Since the church extension was built next door, it blocks the winter afternoon sun from reaching us at all. We find ourselves turning on the living room lights by 2 or so in the afternoon.

It's really nice to have the freedom to stay inside when it's slick outside. The past several years, hubby would drive me to work and deposit me at the front door. He kept plenty of ice melt on our sidewalk so that I wouldn't slip. I've really appreciated that TLC, and I'm really glad he doesn't have to go that extra mile any longer.

My sad reality of staying away from slippery surfaces is all tied up in that wonderful Healthcare Marketplace. In early summer 2007, I had knee replacement surgery. Being the curious nerdy type that I am, I kept track of the total billed cost of every phase of the pre-surgery, surgery, and rehab services. Once I had all those insurance EOB's in hand, made a list of everything and hit the “=” button on the calculator...........it was somewhere north of $47,000!!!!

I was very grateful for having good insurance that negotiated much more reasonable amounts and then paid at least 80% of everything. Our bottom-line out of pocket amount was reasonable. But that billed amount was, to me, absolutely mind blowing.

I have a different health insurance now, complete with a pre-existing condition clause and my signature on a piece of paper saying I'm fully aware that they will cover no expenses that have anything to do with joint replacement, degenerative joint disease, or osteoarthritis. So, if I should slip on the ice and cause a dislocation of that knee, or fracture the kneecap, either of which would require a new replacement – we'd be up a financial creek without a paddle.

So I stay inside as much as possible when it's slick outside and try to take care of that pricey titanium joint. And give myself more gray hair trying to navigate the Healthcare Marketplace in hopes that I can find an affordable policy that doesn't have a pre-existing condition clause.

At 12:45 today, I got my call back from the Appeals people, checking on how I'd done with reapplying online (we'd agreed they would call between 1 and 3). I told them I got nowhere, and they offered to get a rep on the line with us (a 3-way call) so they could talk me through getting online and attempting to go to the application process again. At that point, I asked if we couldn't just process the current appeal and see where that goes. I don't think she expected that question, but she admitted that yes, we could do that. I told her I felt I'd spent enough time already with the website and that I would appreciate them just processing the appeal.

I'll keep everyone updated – if and when I ever hear from them again.

In the meantime, we're just nine days away from Christmas!! We'll have our family Christmas Sunday, and I'm looking forward to it. It's a wonderful time of the year!

Winter Weather

I found a neat show on HGTV this afternoon that I'd never seen before. It's called “Beachfront Bargain Hunters”. It has beautiful scenery – but the major impact for us today is the warm, sunny beach scenes. Quite different from the weather we're actually having outside. The scanner has been really busy today with auto accidents. Hubby went out the back door this morning and ended up at the bottom of the steps much more quickly than he'd anticipated. Luckily he was holding onto the railing, so he stayed upright.

I just can't wait for the call back next week from the person handling my healthcare appeal. After trying to forget all about it, I pulled out my file of notes and went back on the marketplace website. And I got nowhere. I went back into my incomplete enrollment, and it wouldn't let me edit any information or continue – I was locked out of actually going into the shopping area.

I backed up and chose the option of submitting a new application. It made my current application inactive – then wouldn't let me past the next page, which gave me a dire warning of “you may only submit one application per state”. I like to think I know when to quit – and I did. So when I get that call, the ball will be thrown back at them.

There's still another week of school before Christmas break (and the long-range forecast for next week actually looks pretty decent), but today's weather really took me back to one Christmas when I was either in 2^nd or 3^rd grade. We had a huge snowstorm hit on the final school day before Christmas break. Mom and Dad were monitoring the radio reports, and they headed into town mid morning to pick up Grandpa and get me from school. I hated having to leave early and miss the party. But they really made the right choice.

One bus's second route never made it out of town that afternoon. The school was scrambling to find households to take in the kids until they could make it home. My cousins were on that bus; luckily for them, their other grandma lived in town. It was Christmas Eve before some of those kids got home. I was happy to already be warm and snug in my own bed.

I believe we were snowed in for four days before the road got cleared......Mom, Dad, Grandpa, me – and a 22 lb. Turkey that was thawed and had to be baked. It was good the first day, not too bad the second. By Day 4, though, Grandpa and I had a mini-revolt and we had fried eggs instead. I wished we had a freezer so some of it could be saved until later. No such luck, though, and so we ate turkey.

I had received two pair of new pj's for Christmas, one from Grandpa and one from Santa. I stayed in them most of those four days. Mom asked me if I was going to bother getting dressed, and I remember telling her something about there not being any reason to. I'm surprised I got by with that cheeky response.

My Grandma and her sister had planned on taking the train from Independence and spending Christmas with us. A lot of people, including us, had no phone then. But we figured with the storm being what it was that they were smart enough to stay in the City. No such luck. They rode down and ended up sitting in the local train station all night thinking someone would eventually come get them. They gave up the next day and got back on the train to KC. They were furious with all of us, because that's how they rolled. I should say we all missed seeing them for Christmas that year. But Mama always taught me if you can't say something good, don't say anything at all. Bye – have a good weekend!

Insurance Update

I haven't mentioned anything about my adventure with the Healthcare Marketplace recently, mainly because there hasn't been anything to mention. Earlier this week it occurred to me that it had been almost a month since I filed my appeal with the Healthcare Marketplace, after they determined I'm not eligible for federal tax credits for health insurance........this in spite of the fact that we're now unemployed.

Over the past month I've seen all the same news stories everyone else has – the problems with the Healthcare marketplace site, the deadline extensions, the denials, the apologies. I figured that I'd better just settle in and stay patient, that it might be months before I heard anything from them.

This afternoon, the phone rang. I didn't recognize the Caller ID, but I answered it anyway. It was someone calling regarding my appeal. And, at the risk of being a little too blunt – if my appeal is in this person's hands, I'm in big trouble!!

The lady on the other end of the phone sounded like she was trying to work off a script that had been mostly redacted – and none of the blanks filled in! Oh, my. After her introduction, which included the fact that she was handling my appeal, her first question was whether or not I had gone on the website and tried to sign up for insurance. I told her that I had not been back on the website, that I was waiting to hear from my appeal.

The conversation continued, slowly and painfully. She asked if I had picked out a policy yet. I told her no, that I had not done anything further because I was waiting to hear from my appeal. Deja vu. She encouraged me to go back to the website and try applying for insurance again, that I might be awarded the tax credits this time. I asked her if that meant my appeal had been approved – or if that meant there may have been a glitch in the system that denied my initial request for tax credits. She stumbled around more and finally admitted – like America didn't already know it – that there had been numerous glitches in the system.

Hubby was listening to my side of the conversation. Once I wrote him a note as to the subject matter, he was shaking his head. The lady on the other end of the phone again recommended that I go back to the website once again (she had a hard time remembering the word “website”, which didn't increase my confidence in the entire conversation) to reapply for coverage, and she would call me back to see how it worked. She asked when it would be a good time for her to call back.

After that phone conversation, I was in no mood to try the website this afternoon! So I suggested that she give me until the first of the week to call, and that early afternoon was a good time. She started to agree with what I said, then caught herself and made a point of the fact that they only work Monday through Friday. By then I was thinking, “Okay, and your point is...??” Then she asked when she should call back. I specified “Monday” - evidently “the first of the week” was too difficult. She agreed with that, then proceeded to ask me what time was good to call. I told her early afternoon......I had that strange deja vu feeling again, like I'd just said that not too long ago.

Once she grasped the concept of “early afternoon”, she felt much better once she specified “between one and three” and verified that with me. I'm not really sure, but she may have still been talking when I said goodbye and hung up the phone – and then tried to shake the nonsense out of my head!

I will try again to sign up for insurance online and see if I get anywhere. But somehow, I've lost any small grain of confidence I may have held onto of getting health insurance through the Marketplace! Wish me luck.

Family Christmas Traditions

The Christmas gifts are wrapped, which means I'm basically done for the holiday. The only thing I have left to do is make a pot of soup for our family get-together on the 22^nd. I'm not sure what I'll do for the next two weeks to keep the Christmas spirit alive! Somewhere along the line, hubby and I will watch “It's A Wonderful Life”. It's not quite Christmas until I've seen that. I'm enjoying the peppermint hot chocolate mix I bought yesterday.

I'm one of those people who loves Christmas shirts. Not the ugly sweaters, but I do have a “thing” for Christmas t-shirts. It's kind of fun this year to be able to wear them whenever I want. I've worn them to work over the years, but I always tried not to over-do it by wearing them every day. At my last job we were allowed to wear nice jeans, but I still tried not to over-do the Christmas shirts. This year, it doesn't matter. I can wear them as often as I want!

When I was a kid, like most kids I felt like Christmas would never come! If I looked at the calendar and realized it was December 11, it would come with a groaning realization that it was still TWO WHOLE WEEKS until Christmas. It would be a shorter length of time, of course, until school ended for the Christmas break. And I'm one of those December babies, so I could look forward to my birthday being in just ten days.

Also in that very long two weeks would be a Christmas program at school. There would be a Christmas program at church. There would be a Christmas party and gift exchange at school. And did I mention that my birthday was coming up? There would be a birthday supper with our neighbors up the hill. There were Christmas cards coming almost daily in the mail to look at. It was always exciting when someone had sprung for a photo card. Those were so neat – we never did that.

When I was little, my grandmother would come down from Independence to spend Christmas at our house, either on the bus or on the train. Often her sister would come with her. Dad would pick up Grandpa and he would be at the house with us as well. So those arrivals were also a “break in the action” before Christmas. They would come a day or two before Christmas – so there was cooking and cleaning to be done. Grandma would often do some cooking and baking after she arrived.

Families have different customs at Christmas time. Our routine was that I went to bed on Christmas Eve, and on Christmas morning there were presents under the tree – tons of presents, all for me because I'm an only child. Most of the toys were just sitting there, though I think there may have been some that were wrapped. Everything Grandpa got me was wrapped – amazingly, usually with the same wrapping paper Santa had used. He often got me clothes, and they were always the right size. Did I ever mention that he went to town shopping with Mom and Dad every week?

Occasionally, I would read a book about family Christmas traditions that would trigger something in my overactive little brain. Now, I can really sympathize with Mom and Dad trying to out-think me! For instance, one year right at bedtime on Christmas Eve, I decided I should hang a stocking up. I'd never done that before, but I'd read about it and it sounded like a really neat idea. Besides, who knew what small treasures Santa might add to that stocking! We didn't have Christmas stockings, but that didn't slow me down. I pulled out one of my socks and hung it on a doorjamb with a thumb tack. I seemed to notice some frantic looks between Mom and Dad, but I didn't pay much attention. I was excited. And who knew Santa gave money!!! I believe there was a half dollar in that sock on Christmas morning!

Another year, I came to the sudden realization that while Santa was very good to me, along with the grandparents and other relatives – I could not think of a single thing in my entire life that Mom and Dad had ever given me for Christmas. That just wasn't right! Of all the people who loved me, Mom and Dad were at the top of the list. And yet I'd never had a Christmas gift from them. What was with that! As I recall, I let them know how I felt about that! I was probably around 8 that year....it's a miracle I made it to 9. But I got a gift from them that year – I think it was a bottle of nail polish, but it was enough.

Shiny Presents

Well, after saying yesterday that hubby and I are pretty low maintenance, we went on a mini shopping trip today. We'll do better tomorrow. But it's the holiday season, and even though we're trying to be good – well, some days it just doesn't happen! So we went to the local store. We have some peppermint hot chocolate mix and holiday candy now – and we stayed under $20, so I think we're still good. It felt good to get out for awhile.

Most of the snow melted off today with the bright sunshine......except for our driveway. Our house faces north, and there's a very VERY large building next door that blocks the sun off the front yard and driveway. We figure the snow will be there until spring, unless the temp gets above freezing for a good amount of time!

My cousin is coming in for an early Christmas in a couple of days. He's retired and living in Pompano Beach, Florida. He also just got back from a Caribbean Cruise. Poor guy, he's going to freeze when he gets here! I missed him during his last trip home, so hopefully we can connect for a few minutes without taking time away from his immediate family. We find ourselves keeping in touch more now that he's retired, thanks to social media.

There have been several conversations lately about Christmas cards and that people don't seem to send them like they used to. Today there was a conversation on TV about the social etiquette of actually hand addressing the envelopes and including a brief hand-written note with the card....versus having everything pre-printed and just popping the cards in the envelop, then peeling and sticking the addresses. The thought on that was definitely generational.

We got our second and third cards today – I was happy to see that younger daughter and her hubby hand addressed their cards and included hand written notes, in spite of the fact that they send out somewhere between 80 and 100 cards. She did, however, mention having their contact list of names, addresses, etc., on a spreadsheet in her computer. That's okay – I'd probably do the same thing if I had Excel on my computer!

The Christmas d-o-l-l for the five-year-old whirlwind arrived today, so I'm set for Christmas. The only thing I have left to do is wrap the gifts. I thought the doll and its clothes would be best in a Christmas gift bag with tissue paper. We found a large bag with a big penguin on it. She loves penguins, so I have to have that bag for her gift even though it's larger than necessary......that's okay, that's what tissue paper is for!

I think beautifully wrapped Christmas gifts are wonderful. Unfortunately, I'm evidently not genetically disposed to beautifully wrapped gifts! I've made peace with that years ago, I finally realized nobody but me cares how well things are wrapped.

When I was a kid, we were always very careful about unwrapping our gifts. I'm still careful, I don't rip into a package.......unless that's the only way to get it open! But like a lot of other people, we would smooth out, carefully fold, and re-use our Christmas wrap from year to year. If there was a small tear where a piece of tape had been, we would carefully trim that side and re-use it. I can remember a time or two suggesting to Mom that a piece of wrapping needed to be retired! But, I can say, it saved a lot of money!

I've always thought Christmas presents are fun, whether you're giving or receiving......which is probably why I'm easily distracted by pretty shiny things!

Trimming Back

It's the start of another week – and it's a very frigid week! My stars, it's cold out there! We finally had a bit of snow over the weekend. I don't think we had enough to measure at any point, but there was enough to be slick yesterday morning. It's a good thing hubby enjoys soup, because that's about all I want to cook in this kind of weather. I will say, though, I'll take the cold weather over all the snow and ice they got across a lot of the rest of the country. I felt sorry for those NFL players yesterday when they got face-planted in the snow and came up with it packed inside their helmets.

We've reached a somewhat sad milestone on our journey of unemployment – The End. Hubby gets his final payment this week, and I get mine next week. Somewhere in the middle hubby got a double payment one week and that's why he finishes first. But Christmas is almost taken care of (one backordered item will be billed when it ships, but it's under $15), as well as the winter birthdays.

With one eye on The End and the other eye on the just-paid property taxes, we both came up with the same question for one another last week: Why are we keeping two vehicles when we only use one? And neither one of us had a reasonable answer for the question. We mulled it over a couple of days, and the more we thought about it the more we agreed we didn't need both vehicles. We knew son was needing a more reliable vehicle for his wife to drive for work – as an on-call counselor, she drives a lot of hours at night traveling to different hospitals to assess the mental health of patients in the ER. She definitely needs reliable transportation. Now she has it.

We drove to KC yesterday to deliver the vehicle. We took our time, enjoyed lunch on the way – and I enjoyed my final time of remote-starting a vehicle to warm it up and also using the heated seats. That may be the part I miss most! By the time we got home last night, I realized that I had a feeling of being liberated.....saving around $300 a year on property taxes, plus $55 a month on insurance. Add to that $27.50 a year on tags, plus gas and upkeep. With that one move, I saved us a bundle!

I really hadn't thought that I'd feel this positive about letting go of my vehicle. But the reality is that we don't need two vehicles, and that's going to add up to a huge savings for us. You know, it's just what you get used to. And I'm looking at things now and realizing how many “cushy” things I'd become used to that I can do without now that we're not working. Being unemployed can be a learning experience – and a re-learning experience. I'd spent 50 years of my life pinching pennies, so I definitely know how to do it. I'm grateful for the time that it wasn't so necessary for me.

We know that we're very fortunate in our state of unemployment compared to a lot of people. We are older and have fewer bills than a lot of people. We don't have kids at home. I've enjoyed going shopping over the past few years – but I can be just as happy curling up with a good book to read from the public library. In the big picture we're both pretty low maintenance, and I think we're both pretty realistic about seeing where we can cut corners financially.

So, here we are, off on yet another phase of our unemployment......probably now we're truly at the point where we can call ourselves retired instead of unemployed – without looking over our shoulders to make sure nobody working with Unemployment hears us!!

Christmas Goodies

Not much has been accomplished today. Oh, it's Friday, so I did clean up the house this morning. But that's more of a chore than an accomplishment. I stuck my nose outside just long enough to get the mail out of the box. Otherwise, I've just tried to keep warm.

We got our first Christmas card of the season today. I need to finish up my notes and get ours in the mail. Normally they would have already been out. I don't feel as much of a push to get them finished this year. Such is the life of being retired!! Hubby's little sis moved to a different home the end of October. The card we got today was from them – they tried very hard to get their cards out ahead of everyone else this season so they could be a combination holiday card and new address card. Smart girl!

I enjoy getting Christmas cards, but it seems like people don't send them out as much. I think our technology age has a lot to do with that. And postage just keeps going up and up and up. We only send about 18 cards anymore, just to our closer family members. And we won't get that many in return. But that's okay, I keep everyone on our list from year to year.

I miss the hustle and bustle of the Christmas season that was so much a part of my life when the kids were growing up. We were over the top sometimes with our Christmas decorations, but we didn't care. We always hung up stockings, even one for the family dog. There were programs and gatherings for school, others for church.

When the kids were small, there was all the time of buying and stashing gifts, figuring a time to get them wrapped, and hoping everyone would be happy. I remember a year or two they rode in my car for a few weeks, not realizing their gifts were stashed in the trunk. Another couple of years, they went in the attic. The attic had a pull-down ladder, but none of the kids was tall enough or strong enough to pull it down.

I always enjoyed the holiday cooking and baking. I always made chocolate fudge and peanut butter fudge. The kids and I would make sugar cookies and gingerbread cookies – times to roll out dough and use the cookie cutters and get flour everywhere! Sometimes we would do chocolate-dipped pretzels or peppermint bark. Other years, if we had countless gatherings to provide food for, I would go further with peanut clusters, melt almond bark over Froot Loops and drop them on waxed paper, or do the same thing with melted milk chocolate poured over peanut butter Cap'n Crunch. We also enjoyed a candy called Tiger Bark – melted milk chocolate marbled with melted almond bark with peanut butter. Yummy! M&M cookies with Christmas M&M's were also a favorite.

Sometimes I miss doing all that fun stuff in the kitchen around the holidays. But without a houseful of kids around to eat everything up, there's not much reason to make it! I usually have plenty of that kind of stuff available when we have our family Christmas gathering, since older daughter is a teacher and gets plenty of goodies from her students. And this way, I don't have to clean the kitchen or do the dishes!