Christmas Trees

Hopefully everyone's come out of their food coma and have rested up from Black Friday shopping. I'm resting up from putting up our Christmas decorations. I have a few things that haven't found a home for the season yet, but if I don't find a good spot they'll be ready for next year. One of these days I need to get in the mood to address our Christmas cards!

I enjoy having the freedom to decorate for Christmas on the day after Thanksgiving. It's amazing how much leeway you have with an artificial tree! They may drop a few “needles”, but you can put them up early and not worry how dry they will get. There's no potential sap running out, no potential critters or bugs hiding in the branches – and every year it's perfectly shaped.

Dad would scout our timber throughout the year, looking for small evergreens that might become our Christmas tree. It was mid-December before he would cut the tree and bring it back to the house. Some years the tree would need to be trimmed down a bit, if Dad's eyes were a bit bigger than the space in the house. We didn't have a tree stand, so Mom would use an empty coffee can filled with dirt to hold the tree.

The first task every year was to untangle the lights and check them out. We had two strings of lights, and those were the times I came closest to hearing Mom use inappropriate words. Those of a “certain age” (that would be MY age!) remember the lights were all connected on a circuit. If one bulb was burned out, none of the bulbs would light.

We tried to always stay stocked up on extra Christmas bulbs. So Mom would start at one end of the string of lights, replacing one bulb at a time until the string would light up. She would then doublecheck the bulb removed to make sure it was burned out. Once in awhile the happy discovery was that a bulb was still good but had jiggled loose in the socket. The unhappy discovery would be that two or more bulbs in the string were burned out. That took forever to track down and remedy!

Once we got the bulbs working, we would put the lights on the tree. The lights always went first. Next was the tinsel garland, then the balls, bells, and such. Mom had metal icicles that came next – strips of metal that were spiral twisted, silver on one side and painted on the other. Those were neat icicles. Last were the regular icicles. Mom always preferred they were neatly placed over the branches of the tree. After a couple of minutes, I preferred to just toss them on so we were done! Mom's way, of course, was best.

Decorating that tree was always so much more fun than undecorating it. That meant the holidays were over for another long year. It seemed so long to wait. The pine needles were always so much more prickly when the decorations were being taken off. They fell and got everywhere. No matter how carefully we tried to take the icicles off the tree to be saved, it rarely worked – which is why Mom's way was best. I remember one year when I broke out after taking down the tree....we figured it was due to the dry pine needles, but we were never quite sure.

After the kids were born, I attempted to have a real tree a couple of times. I discovered I'd developed quite an allergy to them in the intervening years. It took a couple of years to realize that every time a real tree was put in the house, I started coughing and wheezing and would eventually lose my voice.

I miss the ambience of having a real tree, but I'm glad hubby is as happy with artificial trees as I am!

Creative Success

Ah, the smells of the seasons. Can we really get enough of it? This morning I cut up the celery and onions for the dressing and sauteed them. The bread just went into the oven to finish drying. Hopefully now it won't take long in the morning to put the dressing together and get it in the oven. I cut up some carrots to steam and take with us too – I thought we might need at least ONE dish on the buffet that was healthy!! Besides, we had probably 7-8 pounds of carrots in the fridge and this is a good way to use a bunch of them.

It feels good to get that much prep work done ahead of time. I'm also patting myself on the back for today's culinary inventiveness. I ran onto an older package of boneless skinless chicken breasts in the freezer the other day. They weren't freezer burned, but I knew they'd need a little extra help flavor-wise when we used them.

Yesterday afternoon, I coat

ed them in olive oil, sprinkled with salt and pepper, and popped them in the oven to roast. Today I chopped up half of them, threw together a homemade alfredo sauce (I'd been thinking of throwing together my own recipe using some leftover whipped cream cheese I had in the fridge, then checked online and found basically the same ingredients I'd been thinking of), and cooked some whole wheat spaghetti.

Hubby needs to watch his carb intake, so I did my own tweaks to the recipe – besides using the whole wheat pasta, I used light butter in the alfredo sauce, cut the amount of cream cheese called for in the online recipe, and used a mixture of skim and 1% fat milk instead of cream. I increased the amount of parmesan the recipe called for, and the mixture bubbled to a nice thick consistency. I added the spaghetti and let everything just sit in the pan and get acquainted for about five minutes. We were both impressed with the intensity of the flavors. And two hours after eating, hubby's blood sugar tested out at 87 – woo hoo! Success!

That was just half the roasted chicken breasts, and we have leftovers. I have a package of creamy wild rice soup mix in the cabinet – I intend to make that over the weekend and include the rest of the chicken. Gotta love taking three older frozen chicken breasts and not only resurrecting them but turning them into multiple yummy meals.

Sometimes I miss not being the one to make our Thanksgiving meal, but it's fun going to someone else's home and having everyone pitch in. I always loved the planning and prep work, as well as all the wonderful smells......and taste testing. I remember the year son was adamant that he wanted a “perfect” brown turkey as the centerpiece of our holiday meal.

Hopefully now that he's an adult and has his own home, he can do that. But unfortunately for him, I always opted to bake my turkey rather than roast it. I always wanted all that good broth to use for making both the dressing and noodles. In fact, it wasn't unusual for me to cook our turkey a day or two early – that way the broth was all ready when I wanted to put together the dressing or start the noodles. The turkey was also all carved and just needed to be heated up, instead of my having to haul myself out of bed in the wee hours of the morning to get it in the oven!

It's always interesting to integrate new people into holiday gatherings. We have Thanksgiving at younger daughter's home. She and her hubby are both creative cooks. The past several years, the Thanksgiving turkey has been deep fried, which is yummy. His family attends, too, and that's where the paths go in different directions. One of my kids' favorite part of the meal is mashed potatoes topped by noodles cooked in turkey broth. His family wants gravy. So they serve both and everyone eats what they want. She loves deviled eggs and usually has a big platter, even though we don't consider that “holiday” food. That's the good thing about holiday gatherings – it can be whatever you want!

Memorable Thanksgivings

The Christmas ads are intensifying, and they're really starting to catch my eye. I just saw a HyVee Christmas ad for all the gifts you can buy while you're there picking up your groceries. I must admit, the Cuisinart stand mixer, with free juicer and free bowls, looked intriguing to me!

The Christmas car ads have been on for a few weeks now – hubby commented on how early they started. It's a good thing, though, that so many ads are already on, because they reminded me that I hadn't done any Christmas shopping yet. I'm not alone, but for several years I've done the vast majority of my shopping online and have done my shopping in September or October.

I got online Sunday evening and got the gifts ordered, glad that I wouldn't have to watch the calendar and hope they arrived on time. Monday, I got an email that one of the gifts was unavailable. So much for what little planning I'd done! Bless hubby, he got on Amazon.com last night and found a comparable gift. So after a brief hiccup, we appear to be set.

Now I can back up and get ready for Thanksgiving. I'm making the dressing for our annual get-together, so I got the bread out of the freezer today and got it cut up to dry out. Tomorrow I'll cut up the celery and onions and get them sauteed. I love the smells of the season!

I've been trying to come up with memorable Thanksgivings throughout my life. When I was little, Dad's family (or at least part of it) enjoyed Thanksgiving together. The gathering was usually at our house because we had more room. I liked to help as much as I could. When I was small, I got to help stir the pumpkin pie filling while Mom added the ingredients. Back then, spices came in small metal boxes. There was a sliding cover on top that allowed for sprinkling; to measure the spices, you had to pop off the lid. One year I was stirring really, really well.....and the lid popped off the nutmeg before Mom expected it to and she still held the can so it was tipped over the bowl. I stirred, nutmeg poured, and Mom got a tad bit excited. She got me stopped before I stirred the lid into the pie filling, and she was able to remove enough of the nutmeg that no one could tell what happened.

I think it was Thanksgiving the first time one of the older boy cousins brought a girlfriend to a family get together. I enjoyed having another girl in the bunch. We younger ones played games after we ate.

As we get closer to Christmas, I have tons of Christmas memories. But try as I might, I just can't come up with a lot of Thanksgiving memories. Perhaps if I'd received gifts for Thanksgiving, it would be more memorable!

Even though Dad's been gone 21 years, I can say (with confidence) what his most memorable Thanksgiving was. Mom and I went to Jefferson City with my uncle and his family to visit my grandparents. Dad stayed at home because we had cows to be milked – and his project for the weekend was to put together a metal doll house that was to go under the Christmas tree. Evidently “insert Tab B into Slot A” wasn't as easy as it sounds! From what I heard years later, before that dollhouse was finished Dad used a few words that he wouldn't have said if I was within earshot!

Luckily, that doll house and I enjoyed many happy hours together. I'm sure Dad was glad that his frustration resulted in something good.

Heaven On Earth

We had an out-of-the-box day, and I think I may have found a little piece of heaven on earth. Well, maybe two pieces!!

Hubby had a medical appointment this afternoon at the VA Hospital in KC. Yesterday was our 12^th wedding anniversary, so we decided to make today our “celebration day” since we were going to the City anyway. So I enjoyed a fun day with my hubby, which is always heaven on earth.

Don't get me wrong, we didn't ignore the date yesterday. I made a big pot of chili and we stayed snug and warm inside enjoying chili and football. Or, maybe more accurately stated, we enjoyed the chili and endured the football. All three of our favorite teams lost in agonizing last-minute losses.

So this morning we headed to KC. We took a new route and discovered a great short-cut for getting to the area near Independence Center. We had already decided we wanted to do lunch at IHOP – thanks, Mom!

And IHOP is where I found the other piece of heaven on earth – eggnog pancakes. Oh, my, so good!! Regular pancakes, with eggnog cream between the pancakes, topped with butter rum sauce and cinnamon whipped cream. It was definitely worth the trip.

We had time before hubby's appointment, so we looked around a few stores. It was good we headed to the VA Hospital early – we got in a traffic snarl on I-70 where there had been an accident. We still arrived by the requested “30 minutes early”. And hubby was in and out in record time – which means no pain inflicted on him by the dermatologist.

We stopped at Walmart for a much-needed shopping trip. It always amazes me how many people can be in the store, even at 3 on a Monday afternoon. I was so ready to get out of there. We were home by 5 and now we're just unwinding. I had half a cup of coffee, which I don't think will keep me awake. I'm ready now to just kick my shoes off and relax the rest of the evening. 

It's Cold!

We're about to have the coldest weekend of this fall. We've lucked out so far in having our cooler weather during the week with warmups on the weekends. Not this weekend. I see a pot of chili in our future!

We've had a pretty quiet day. We went to gas up hubby's vehicle a few minutes ago, just so we weren't vegetating in the house all day! I cleaned up and did laundry this morning, and I've worked on another Christmas ornament this afternoon.

I didn't used to be a wimp in cold weather. I grew up in an uninsulated house that was heated with one wood stove. We didn't have indoor plumbing, necessitating year-round trips outside on a daily basis. I was a tomboy who loved to be outside, who loved to help Dad with the barn chores. I loved tramping through the timber with my dog in the cold weather. I enjoyed playing in the snow.

Through junior high and high school, we had to go outside during the day because we had three different buildings. Even when it was freezing cold, we often made those runs without coats because it was unhandy to grab them. When I got to college, I went from building to building for classes. Even after college, I found myself in a situation where I walked to work on a daily basis. When I started working in downtown Wichita, I walked four blocks to catch the city bus, then another two blocks to the office where I worked. I've done a fair amount of snow shoveling in my day.

But let's just get it out there – the older I get, the less I like the cold! I don't mind an occasional brisk, sunny day. But if it's cloudy and damp, forget it. I don't even want to step outside to get the mail. Even in our house, which is very cozy, I end up looking looking like the Michelin man by the time I get my warm layers on! Heaven help me when we actually get to winter.

It's hard to realize that a week from today Thanksgiving will be over. And, if all goes as planned, our Christmas decorations will be up.....or at least in progress. I'm starting to feel excited about the idea of putting up the decorations.

I have quite a few decorations that were used during my childhood. I always enjoy the warm flood of memories I get when I put them on the tree. I love going back to my childhood in my mind, to remember what it was like to get up on Christmas morning and find the gifts under the tree. I still vividly remember the Christmas that I heard Santa playing with wind-up toys in our living room! I laid so still and so quiet. Ironically, we had a blizzard that Christmas Eve and the snow plow went down our road in the middle of the night.

I hope when my kids and grandkids are my age, they'll still have at least some of the Christmas ornaments I've made them over the years and have the same good memories as they put them on the tree.

Food

Another rainy, cold day. I'm on Day 3 of an intense sinus headache. It's one of those right behind the eyes that makes it difficult to focus, both mentally and with the eyes. It was a good thing that I had a couple of calm days. I haven't spent the past two days sitting in a dark room, but I haven't done a lot, either.

With the cold rain, we decided not to go walk yesterday or today. That gave me the opportunity yesterday of popping a pot of ham and beans on the stove for lunch. And at the risk of not being “PC”, I must say that may be the best ham and beans I've ever made! Yummm. I had a large ham bone, as well as a lot of tiny pieces of meat. Any time you have as much ham as you do beans, that's a yummy pot! I'm never satisfied with “just” anything I put together. My ham and beans has tiny minced carrots, celery and onions in it – if I'm in the mood and have the time, I'll sautee them in a bit of olive oil before adding the rest. I throw in a couple of chicken bouillion cubes for extra flavor, and a couple of dried bay leaves. As they say in the South, it's “slap yo' mama!” good.

I've enjoyed “doctoring up” my cooking for years. It's been a number of years since I discovered the flavor that bay leaves add into things. In addition to the ham and beans, I always throw some into vegetable or vegetable beef soup. It also ends up in a pot of beef and barley. If you've ever used bay leaves, you know they're not edible. They add great flavor to your dish, but eating them would be akin to picking up dried leaves off the ground.

If your families are like mine, if anything goes wrong it always seems like it happens to the same person. So it was with my bay leaves when the kids were at home. I made a lot of huge one-pot meals that provided leftovers (three teenagers). I tried very hard to stir through everything and take out the bay leaves. But sometimes they just refused to surface. And if that was the case, they ALWAYS ended up in oldest daughter's serving. It didn't matter how hard I tried, she would end up with a mouthful of bay leaf. It happened so many times that it became a family joke.

The food pantry was in town yesterday afternoon. I'd never seen the parking lot so full – probably a backlash of a lot of food stamp cuts. It was almost two hours from the time we left home until we returned....and the food pantry is held only a few blocks from our home. We're stocked up on potatoes, onions, carrots, cabbage, apples, yogurt, potato salad, bread, and other goodies. If you shop at Walmart, I highly recommend you check out the Butterscotch Bon-Bon Danish

.

I cooked the apples into homemade applesauce this morning. The house smelled wonderful. Or at least it did, until I steamed some cabbage for my lunch. I lit a candle to smother the scent. The cabbage was good.

I'm seeing a graphic for our first Winter Weather Advisory for the year on the TV. I really hope that's wrong. I'm so not ready for winter weather!

Random Thoughts

We're enjoying the sunshine today, in spite of the chill in the air. In all the ways that count, it's been a great day. Sadly, though, outside the front door it's left a little to be desired.

Construction next door continues. The bobcat ran until nearly dark yesterday, and I heard it start up about 7:30 this morning. Noise has gone on basically all day – and I have a headache! A gravel parking area was dug up, smoothed out, forms set, and a concrete parking pad was poured. Now the bobcat is filling in dirt around the pad and replacing gravel between the pad and the street. We can only imagine that when more money is available, the concrete will be continued to the street. Yay. Hopefully it will be remembered that the water line runs right down the edge of the street to our house when that happens – it makes me nervous as to how deep the water line is and whether the weight of the gravel and vehicles will cause a problem! I had visions this morning of getting lathered up in the shower and the water stopping. Luckily, I was able to get rinsed and squeaky clean!

We've lived next door to this current construction project for nearly 4 ½ years now, and we really don't see an end in sight. I try to be nonchalant about it, but my attitude goes in spurts. I have to keep reminding myself of when we had a huge tree removed from our yard, and that took around nine months. Or when we had our house sided. Of course, neither of those projects took 4 ½ years!

We've been trying to figure out what's going on with our mail service the last few weeks. We're not into the pre-holiday season yet. But our mail consistently is coming later and later in the day. In fact, I checked at 3:45 yesterday afternoon and found an empty mailbox. I think it was closer to 5:30 when hubby went out to check on the construction next door and found our mailbox full. Today's mail was here by 1. Maybe they just want to keep us guessing.

I remember how exciting Thanksgiving week was when I was a kid. Not only would the family get together and we would have great food, but I had a four-day weekend from school. Kids don't understand how much they need to appreciate those times out of the classroom! We were lucky if we got out of school early on the day before Thanksgiving. Now, I think a lot of schools don't even go to school on Wednesday.

Once I started working, I got all too accustomed to the funk that is working the day after Thanksgiving. I have to say that I greatly enjoyed the employers who thought it was appropriate to give everyone the Friday after Thanksgiving off.....especially after I had kids who could much too excited about a day off school while Mom had to work. That was always scary for me.

I never participated in Black Friday shopping, except for two occasions. The year younger daughter was a senior, she and I were moving into a new apartment just after Thanksgiving. A local store had glider rockers for cheap – only a few on hand, no rain checks. I was standing at the door when the store opened at six, made a beeline for the rockers – and I actually sat in the only one visible, figuring I could claim squatter's rights if that happened to be the only one in stock. Luckily, there were others in the storeroom.

The other time I partook in Black Friday was the year hubby and I got married. He had just started a new job in another state and was five hours away from me. He had to work on Friday morning and wouldn't be home until after 5 Friday evening....our wedding was Saturday morning. The two kids who were at home with me decided I needed a distraction – so they took me to the mall in Independence for Black Friday. Even though I enjoyed the shopping, I vowed Never Again!

So I don't do Black Friday – is it an oxymoron, then, that I love to hit the day after Christmas sales??

Getting In the Christmas Mood

It was quite a wild weather weekend. We got a few sprinkles here, but mostly it was the wind. We didn't have nearly what other areas of the Midwest had......but suddenly there are very few leaves left on the trees. I made the dubious decision to run to the grocery store Saturday morning. The door of the SUV nearly blew out of my hand when I opened it. The only positive thing I can say is that the temps were pretty mild, so it wasn't a cold wind!

I spent a good bit of the weekend working on a Christmas ornament – 7 done and #8 well under way. It makes me feel good to know I'm making good progress. I'm trying to keep a panic from squeezing into my brain about Christmas cards, though. Normally I try to have the Christmas cards addressed and signed by Thanksgiving. I'd like to say I haven't even thought about them this year......but obviously, that wouldn't be a true statement! I have thought a couple of times. I did see see cards today when I was in the desk drawer. Before I panic about doing them, though, I need to send off a couple of emails for updated addresses. One stepdaughter has moved from Long Beach to Simi Valley, and one sister-in-law has moved from the Bay Area to southern Oregon.

I'm trying to stay calm and relaxed about the time going by – after all, we're supposed to be retired.....and relaxed....and not under a time schedule. Hmmm. I'm trying. I must admit that I'm starting to feel a little tickle in the back of my mind that keeps saying “Thanksgiving is next week, and I can get out the Christmas decorations”. I think I'm ready to get that done and enjoy it – hubby will be home to help.

Now is when being unemployed is starting to be more of a reality. Not that it hasn't been, but we've managed pretty well so far. Now we're looking at the end of our unemployment payments, have the city property tax bill here (and the county tax bill won't be far behind), and it's almost the holidays.

I've enjoyed the past several years having a reasonably decent holiday budget for gifting the grandkids. But we planned out months ago what we could realistically spend on them this year. I know it's the right decision, but it's starting to sting a little. I just can't get myself into that aspect of the holidays yet. The 15-year-old grandsons will be fine with receiving money....in fact, they'll be happier with that than a gift. The 8-year-old granddaughter might be happy with money, too – but I enjoy buying stuff for her. And the 5-year-old granddaughter.......well, she's happy with money, but she still doesn't have a concept of amounts.

Grandma needs a good healthy dose of remembering what Christmas is all about – and that the important part is just being together as a family. And every one of the grandkids has everything they need.....and most of the things they want!

For today, I'm looking forward to sundown. There's been a bobcat operating about twenty feet away from the front corner of our house all afternoon as a new parking area is being created. Surely by sundown my world will once again be quiet!

The Day Off

What a nice day. I got up this morning fully intending to clean up the house. Instead, I ended up giving myself the day off. Sometimes it's really nice to be your own boss!!

My son had asked for some early adult photos of my dad and his brothers. There's one particular photo of my youngest uncle that he wanted, so before I got sidetracked this morning I pulled out my family photos. I didn't come up with the photo in question, but I got lost in going through family photos.

There were just tons of photos of my kids at all stages of their lives. There were older photos of me as a little girl, with my folks, with my grandparents, with my cousins. There were even “pre-me” photos of my folks, grandparents, Mom as a teenager with her parents and brothers. I even found a photo of my grandparents' home in Jefferson City – I'd forgotten that photo even existed.

It was a fun trip down Memory Lane. And by the time I finished it, the clock said 10:45. It was time for me to get lunch started – so much for getting the house cleaned up! Yes, I could have done it this afternoon. I just decided to wait until tomorrow. Again, it's nice to be your own boss!

I read for awhile after lunch and hubby worked on his personal podcasts. We decided to break with the norm and got an ice cream cone to enjoy while we cruised around town. And I totally got caught – as we went around the town square, there was Mom walking down the sidewalk and watching me eat the ice cream cone! You can never fool mom.

I've enjoyed my day. It remains to be seen how I'll enjoy cleaning up the house tomorrow, but I'm sure it'll be just fine!

Everyone have a wonderful weekend!

Christmas Goodies

I just finished the seventh Christmas ornament. I feel good about that. Usually once I get to the halfway point, I choose a couple that have less detail and go faster, just to help me “over the hump”. But with five left to do, it shouldn't take much longer.

Hubby asked me how long I've been making ornaments for the family. I can't really remember when I started......I laughingly told him that I know I started doing this before there were 12 people in the family! My kids could probably tell me how long I've been making them Christmas ornaments – based on the number they have on their trees. I don't know why I didn't make ornaments for myself, to help me keep track.

When I was little, the grandmother in Independence often gave my cousins and me Christmas ornaments, with money attached. She would usually come on the train for Christmas, and it was easy to transport. I still have some of those ornaments and put them on my tree every year. I hope my grandkids will still have and use their ornaments when they're my age.

When I was really small, this grandmother would bake special things when she came for Christmas. I have very vague memories of watching her, stealing samples of butter and other goodies. I know she brought her own ingredients, but I don't know if she brought them on the train with her, or if my dad's youngest brother would drive her down. She made a yeast coffeecake filled with cinnamon, sugar and nuts. It was really good.

But even better was her applesauce cake. I've never seen another one like it. It made a large cake, baked in an angel food cake pan. It was very dense, spicy and flavorful, full of nuts and dates. It would feed people for a long time, because it was so dense and filling. We all loved it.

Grandma would also make candy for Christmas. Her specialty seemed to be divinity. She made really good divinity, and she would make several different flavors. She probably made other things, but at my age at the time it was the sweets that held my attention.

Grandma wasn't really what you would call a loving grandma, which makes those early memories more precious. She was, simply put, pretty self centered. She seemed to think we would all just naturally be fond of her because she was our grandmother. She and my grandfather had divorced when Dad and his brothers were very young. Grandpa always got along with her just to keep peace – she thought they were good friends. Grandpa would always come stay at our house when Grandma was down, mostly to be a buffer for Dad. Grandma wasn't always logical with what came out of her mouth!

She was, though, a pretty good cook. There are some specific things I remember her making besides the Christmas goodies. One thing that I loved was what she called Green Tomato Ketchup – other people called it Chow Chow. It was green tomatoes, onions, green peppers, hot peppers, all kinds of spices, salt and vinegar.

Mom ended up with Grandma's recipe box and books. I made sure that I got the recipes for the Green Tomato Ketchup, the Cinnamon Coffee Cake, and the Applesauce Cake. I was duly warned, though, that Grandma was a “let's add a little of this” cook! She'd start with a recipe, then add a little dab of this, a little dab of that, and it would turn out great.

I've tried a couple of her recipes over the years. Even though the applesauce cake has an ingredient list a mile long, I followed the recipe and it tasted like Grandma's. One year when I had a big garden I tried the Chow Chow, and it tasted like I remembered. Even though we were never best pals, it's nice to have some good memories.

Photos....And The Marketplace

Okay, I really wasn't going to dive back into the Black Hole of the Healthcare Marketplace again today. But, since I have more time invested in it, I'll update you with my saga.

Last night I decided to try the Marketplace again. I still haven't found out how to access that important message I supposedly need to read. But, I was able to go further into the site. It was astonishing to finally get to the point of seeing what is available.......and the cost! Since I was anticipating being eligible for the Federal tax credits, I was aware that I could only shop the Silver and Bronze level policies.

By comparing, I realized that the Bronze level policies only pay 60% of medical costs after the deductible, and the Silver level only pays 70%. This is less coverage than most people are used to. I opted to stay with the Silver level, to lessen my out-of-pocket costs. The least expensive policy I found cost $614.56 per month. That's almost three times what I'm currently paying – and thank goodness the policy I have is grandfathered in, so if I can't find better coverage at equal or less cost I'm not left without coverage.

After a 20-minute phone conversation with the Marketplace this morning, I was told how to initiate the appeal process to see if I might be allowed to use the tax credits toward insurance cost. This information, by the way, never appeared in the 12-page Eligibility Notification I received. I've downloaded and printed off the 7-page appeal document. My next step is to actually fill it out and get it in the mail. We'll see from there. The one thing I've realized all too well is that anyone going through this needs to be patient!

Other than that, I haven't accomplished much today! This morning I was looking through my childhood photo album for some specific photographs. Hubby sat down with me and was looking through photos. After several minutes, he told me he needed to do something else. I was laughing as I told him that he couldn't leave, we'd only gone through photos from birth to first day of school!! That album goes through high school, by the way. Some days it's easy to tell that I'm an only child.

It's always fun for me to go through those childhood photos. It's fun to see the different family members as they were when I was young. I came upon a photo of me with the kitten my cousin gave me when I was little. I found the Easter photo from the year I got a live baby duck along with my Easter candy. By the time we stopped with the first day of school photo from first grade, we had seen three dogs. Pets don't always last a long time in the country.

The best of all was looking at the early photos and seeing all the smiles looking down at me when I was a baby. I should keep this album in a spot where I can grab it whenever I feel down. I can't imagine feeling blue when I look at the photos where everyone was so happy to see me.

Mom worked very hard to raise me in a “normal” environment rather than one where I was spoiled. But I know there are times that it comes through. Heaven help my hubby!

Blogging And Coping

Well, if there was any doubt that we're heading toward winter, it's been dissolved! When we headed out for our morning walk about 9:15 this morning, with the sun shining brightly, it was 21 degrees. After confirming our expected overnight temperature yesterday evening, I swapped out the regular sheets for the flannel ones before bedtime. They felt so good!

I had a somewhat successful morning. I took a deep breath and made another foray into the Healthcare Marketplace. The site was functioning, and I was able to set up my account. I got far enough into the process to know that the State of Missouri has no health care discounts that I'm eligible for. I still had the option of continuing to see what plans were available – and to hopefully see if I still qualify for Federal tax credits due to income......or lack of income.

That's when I hit a black hole spiral – I attempted to continue but got a notice that I had an important message to read. I would try to read it, but I could not see a link for the message. I tried logging out, logging back in and continuing. Every time I got to the same spot and was stymied. By the time I realized my head was spinning and my eyes were crossed, I determined it was time to walk away and try again later. At least I have an account now – that's progress!

I've worked for the past hour and a half on another counted cross stitch Christmas ornament. It's a snowman, so I'm working with white thread on a white background. And still it's easier than navigating the government health care site!!

When I started this blog, it was with the thought of chronicling our mutual unemployment. While I've gladly strayed from that thread frequently, it's still lurking in the background. But not for long. We knew we were on the downhill slide, so we checked our account balances online. At the end of the State portion of our unemployment, hubby got his last two weeks in a double payment. We don't know why, but that's put him a week ahead of me. So he has 4.6 weeks left, and I have 5.6. During the Federal portion of our unemployment, three weeks of our payments have gone to the Federal government's pockets instead of ours due to the sequester. I have no doubt the government's pockets are more empty than ours, but it seems a crazy way to recoup money!

It's a crazy time of the year for the unemployment payments to end, just before the holidays. The good thing is that overall, we do have pretty low overhead. We've looked ahead and have lined things up to minimize our financial needs even more than we already have. And thank goodness we are at the point in life we are – our children are grown, so we aren't trying to care for children on a limited income.

We both feel settled with the decisions we've made and the direction we have chosen. I find myself occasionally thinking about other people who are surviving on unemployment payments -people who are younger, people who have children. So many people have been unemployed longer than we have without the “perks” of receiving Social Security income, having Medicare and V.A. Health care.

In the big picture, it's scary to think of where we may be heading financially as a nation. I don't want to sound cliché, but if there was ever a time to pray for wisdom for those in power, this is it.

Veterans Day

I just checked the outside temperature, and we're down to 45 degrees (wind chill of 38!)......that's down 14 degrees from mid morning. Yes indeedy, it is November!!

It was a wonderful weekend. The weather both days was relatively warm and sunny. On Saturday Mom and I took a nice drive to Eldon, Missouri (a little over two hours) for the 50^th wedding anniversary of a former neighbor. She was a student of Mom's in the one-room school for two years, and I was her first piano student. It was a wonderful time, and they were to shocked and happy to see us. I was so glad we were able to go.

I find myself being a little retrospective as we honor our veterans today. We owe so much to so many who put their lives on the line. I grew up hearing the stories of World War II from my dad. He went into the Army in 1940 and was in for the duration of the war. I know he spent some time in Europe early on, but he rarely talked about that. The latter part of his military career was spent in northwestern Canada, building the Al-Can Highway. I enjoyed not only the stories from there, but also looking at the photos that had been taken.

Both of Dad's brothers were also in the Army during World War II. One served in Italy, and the other in France and Germany. Our local Courthouse has a listing of all county soldiers who served in World War II on the walls of the second level, and I always enjoy finding their names.

Mom's brothers were a little younger, but the older one went into the Navy as soon as he graduated high school in 1943. He did some training at a Navy base in Farragut, Idaho, and ended up serving on the Aleutian Islands. Mom has photos of him, and he looked very snappy in his Navy uniform. His fiancee worked at a munitions plant in Kansas. The other brother was too young for the regular service, so he joined the Merchant Marines. He later went into the Army and served during the Korean War.

Hubby was in the Army for three years after he graduated from high school. He spent time at Fort Niagara, New York, as well as Camp Casey, South Korea – the DMZ. He finished up at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri.

More recently, my son spent six years with the Missouri National Guard. We're very fortunate that he didn't end up in the Middle East.

With the typhoon hitting the Philippines this past week, I'm anxious to hear news from there. Hubby's father was shot down over New Guinea during World War II, and he's buried in the American Military Cemetery in Manila. So far I haven't heard if there was damage to the cemetery, but we hope it's safe.

I'm thankful for all the people who have sacrificed over the years in the military service. And I'm thankful we have this day to honor them.

Trees

It's a chilly, windy Friday – so glad I don't have to sit out for a football game tonight! And I don't envy all the parents who will be bundling up later. May their evening go by fast!

I've finished up five of my counted cross-stitch Christmas decorations so far. It's good to know I'm nearly halfway done. I should have started the next one today – I guess the day's not over yet, so I still could get that done.

The leaves are coming down and the ground is carpeted now, especially with today's wind. It makes us so happy that we had our big old oak tree taken down a few years ago. This tree was huge, and the person who removed it estimated its age was 150. I hated to see it go, but it had developed a habit of dropping its big limbs at very inopportune times – and on the house. We were fortunate to only have a little damage from them.

We miss the shade – but heavens! The hours I used to spend raking leaves. The back yard was covered, the front yard was covered. Leaves blew under the back porch and under the front porch, as well as in the carport. Leaves caught in the bushes growing in the fenceline. At the time, I could burn the leaves, so I would rake everything to the drainage ditch in front of the house and spend an afternoon burning them. I'm so glad I don't have to do that any longer.

We had all kinds of trees in the yard at the farm. I have memories of helping shovel snow, but I don't really remember raking leaves. Maybe we just let them blow away. We had a black walnut tree very close to the house and I do remember hearing the walnuts hit the roof and roll off – and I remember heading out to the bus and stepping on walnuts as they rolled out from under my feet.

We would usually crack open a few of those walnuts to see if they were good or not. If the majority of what we checked were good, we would make more of an effort to pick up the nuts and crack them. Very few things in life are better than homemade chocolate fudge with black walnuts! In the years we didn't have good walnuts, we would just leave them for the squirrels. We always had a family of squirrels in one particular tree in the yard, and they did a stellar job of picking up the nuts for us.

Several trees in the our back yard served as poles for Mom's clothesline. In fact, we only had one actual clothesline pole. Amazingly, I don't remember our having any issues with “bird residue” on the clean clothes! We were lucky.

When I was really small, there was a swing in that walnut tree by the front porch. I spent hours there. As I got a little older, the swing moved to a tree on the opposite side of the yard – and instead of a board swing, there was a tire swing. I used that for a really long time. And under a maple tree at the edge of the yard was a sandbox. Later, Dad used some scrap wood and made me some kitchen equipment. That also went under that tree, along with a metal table and chair set I had. In the summer, all my play dishes and kitchen equipment stayed outside in that cabinet, ready for me to play whenever I wanted. Many years later, my own kids enjoyed playing under that tree with that kitchen stuff.

With all those trees in the yard, you'd think I would have learned to climb trees – not so. We did have a small cherry tree in the back yard that I conquered – and I spent hours in that tree, including a time or two escaping Mom's wrath. She would simply walk away with a reminder that I had to come down sooner or later.....and that the longer it took, the worse the results would be. She was right.

It's nice to drive down the street now and see all the pretty leaves on the ground – and to know that we don't need to get out our rake!

Catalogs

A sunny but chilly afternoon, when a pot of decaf really hits the spot. Even with the heat on, I've felt slightly chilled today. Hopefully that's all in my mind.

We're watching another marital train wreck on Dr. Phil. You know, all anyone needs to do in order to feel better about their own life is to watch some of these daytime TV shows – Dr. Phil, Jerry Springer, Judge Judy – all those shows should make our families seem pretty tame! One particular looney-bird was being confronted by her family last week on Dr. Phil, and every time they brought up something negative about her she would respond that she would be happy to go with them to talk to a real therapist about it. It was pretty comical watching Dr. Phil's reaction whenever she said that, considering he's a professional therapist.

I love this time of the year, when the mail starts bringing all the Christmas gift catalogs. Even though I'm not really ordering anything this year, it's always fun to look through them. It's easy to understand where the term “wish book” came from.

When I was a kid, we didn't get as many catalogs. But in the spring, late summer, and at Christmas, we would count on getting the National Bellis Hess catalog. It was such fun. They had absolutely everything in those catalogs.

There were many years that my new Easter outfit came from that catalog. And it would be an “outfit”, as opposed to just a dress – a dress with a jacket or light coat in case of cool weather, sometimes a fabric corsage on the coat, and some sort of girlie headgear, all matching. The second excitement would be when the package arrived and I could unpack everything.

I could take days looking through those catalogs, a section at a time. I always spent hours going through the girlie clothes. That was a time that I could escape to someplace in my mind where we had unlimited funds and I could order all those fun outfits. I would go through the ladies' clothing and imagine what I would buy if I were a grownup. Another trip in the catalog would be in the household section, and I would furnish my imaginary house.

This long perusal would occur again in the late summer when the catalog with fall clothes would arrive. Hours and hours going through the clothing, picking out everything I would order if we had limitless money. In my mind, I would have been the best dressed kid going back to school! Of course, along with all those snazzy clothes, I somehow morphed into being tall, skinny and pretty........catalogs could be life-changers when combined with a fertile imagination!

You can only imagine the time I could spend with the Christmas catalog – all the amazing toys in addition to the shiny Christmas clothes and gifts for the grown-ups. That Christmas catalog could take me to that fun fantasy life for hours on end!

Maybe that's why I have so many Christmas shirts now – I finally got to a point in my life where I could indulge myself with a few fun things I don't really need.

I still enjoy looking through the Christmas catalogs, but I guess my attention span isn't what it used to be! Instead of spending hours going through the catalogs, I'm able to flip through them once and put them in the trash. Sometimes being a grownup isn't what it's cracked up to be!

Habits

We humans are such creatures of habit. At times, that can be a really good thing. At other times, it can be downright annoying. That's why I'm sitting here mid-afternoon, drinking cup after cup of decaf coffee and trying to pretend it has caffeine and will perk me up. I'm tired because I went to bed knowing I needed to get up early today.

Since losing our jobs last February, we haven't bothered with hearing early-morning alarms, except for a few specific times. I've become all too good at sleeping well beyond the time we used to hear an alarm six days a week.

We'd made an appointment to get a new battery put in hubby's Jeep today....it's a 2008, and the original battery was still in the engine. We decided it would be a smart move to get it replaced before another winter set in, since the Jeep has four-wheel drive. Because it gave us a good excuse to get out of town, as well as an opportunity to see son, we made an appointment with him in Independence.

We planned on leaving here by 8 this morning. We didn't think it would be a problem with being ready by then, even without an alarm. I usually wake up around 6, I just needed to make sure I got out of bed then instead of falling back to sleep.

So naturally, going to sleep with that on my mind, I started waking up about 4:30. I would go back to sleep for 10-15 minutes, then wake up and check the clock again. I should have just set the dratted alarm!

We had a nice drive to Independence. The fall foliage is so beautiful this year. We had some wind last night, so some of the trees are getting pretty bare. But the scenery on the drive was particularly beautiful. Son had everything lined up and ready to go.....we were at his business less than half an hour! He was pretty busy, but not too busy to give me all kinds of grief.

We had time to enjoy checking out some of the stores, had lunch in Blue Springs, and were still home by one. Since then I've been trying to find my energy. So far, it's still hiding from me!

I always enjoy trips to the KC area. When I was small, my grandmother lived in Independence. We would go visit her maybe once a year – back then, that was a long trip! I wish I could remember the address where we visited her. It always seemed to not be very far off Highway 24. We didn't go anywhere else during our visit, so I was never familiar with the City.

My horizons have widened since then. I know my way around some areas very well now. I have no problem visiting the kids, I know my way around several of the shopping areas. I know my way to the airport. I've even managed Eastbound I-70 during Friday evening rush hour, though that's not something I'd care to repeat very often!

We're home, we're relaxing, and we're grateful to know we have a good new battery in our “winter” vehicle. Thanks, Son!

Friends

When you get out of bed in the morning, you never think of the day becoming a significant, unforgettable moment in time. But occasionally, they do turn into that. Twenty years ago today turned out to be one of those days.

On this day in 1993, we lost a very dear friend. Though he was a year ahead of me in school, he was just six months older. We'd grown up just a couple of miles apart, in a neighborhood that was generally very close. He had just turned 41, which in my humble opinion was much too young.

This friend was a friend to everyone. He had one of those magnetic, ornery personalities that everyone loved. He could tease you to the point of wanting to strangle him, but have you laughing at the same time. And you could always count on him when you needed a lift.

I have so many memories of him over the years growing up. I can't remember anyone ever saying an unkind word about him. He had such an ornery laugh. He just loved to tease and stir things up. He was a good student and an even better athlete. He was an ace left-handed softball pitcher, and I remember him scoring a very high number of points in a basketball game.

In September when I was in 8^th grade, I lost my paternal grandfather (and had just lost my maternal grandfather that previous June). I remember so plainly getting on the bus that Friday morning. Our bus driver, who also lived in the neighborhood and knew all our families well, asked me as I climbed the bus steps how my grandfather was. I felt bad having to tell the well-meaning driver that Grandpa had passed away that morning. He felt like a heel for asking me. The bus was very quiet for awhile, with no one knowing what to say. I felt a tap on my shoulder, and this dear friend said nothing but handed me a peppermint candy. And at the time, it was just the right thing!

I think it was the next night, during visitation for Grandpa, that he and my cousin gave me a break from the funeral home for a few minutes by getting me over to the local restaurant for a couple of games of pinball.

Even after graduation, we kept in contact because we went to college together. He lived off campus, so we didn't see each other much. But occasionally he'd look me up and ask if he could buy me a coke – we would always end up in a corner of the Student Union, having a long talk. I was glad he knew he could talk to me about his frustrations.

I saw him a few times over the years until his death. He always had a smile and kind words to say. He went back to live in our childhood neighborhood, so I kept up with him through my Mom's letters.

In a very weird way, his passing set in motion the transition from the first 20 years of my adult life to Chapter 2......which has been a much happier place. When Mom called to tell me he was gone, she also told me there was a job opening at the local hospital – doing exactly what I was doing in the job I had at the time. I was able to interview for and get that job, and the kids and I moved back home to Carroll County.

I think it's fair to say we all still miss him - I still stop by and tell him hello when I go to the cemetery. 

School

What a nice weekend. The days seemed nice and long. We got a lot accomplished. The house smelled wonderful Saturday morning as apples cooked on the stove for applesauce. It smelled and looked like fall. We have beautiful fall foliage for the first time in several years, and we're really enjoying looking at it.

Sunday was a lot less busy than Saturday, but it seemed like a really long morning – I woke up wide awake pretty early.......bless the politicians and Daylight Saving Time!! I put a pork roast in the oven for lunch and we had a quiet relaxing morning before afternoon football.

This is going to be a busier than normal week, so I'm glad my sleep pattern was better last night. My body just doesn't adjust easily to changing my bedtime!

We had “Little House On The Prairie” on for a few minutes – an early episode showing Mary and Laura's first day of school in town, complete with their first meeting with Nellie Olson. Hubby asked me if my early farm days were like that.

I was usually excited for the first day of school. Getting ready for school would start in the latter half of summer. Shopping would be done for school clothes, or fabric and patterns for school clothes. It was always fun buying new pencils, tablets, crayons, glue......and a book satchel. Sometimes there would be a “frivolous” buy of a pencil box that came with a protractor, small ruler, pencil sharpener. Mom would make sure I got one that was educational as well as functional......an educational pencil box was how I learned the U.S. Presidents, in chronological order.

One of the hardest parts of going back to school for me was buying new shoes. I was either barefoot or wearing the prior year's canvas tennis shoes (likely with holes in the toes) during the summer. I did put “real” shoes on when we went shopping or to Sunday School. My toes were never happy at being squeezed back into shoes on a daily basis when I went back to school.

It was always fun to see everyone after a summer apart. Who was tallest in the class this year? How had hair styles changed? What other unexpected changes might there be? And always the biggest question, are there any new kids in school? I think I may have been the first one in my class to get glasses, between 7^th and 8^th grades. Braces weren't an issue then – we had one person in high school who had braces, the year behind me.

We didn't often have new teachers. My class got a new music teacher when I was in second grade. The next new teacher for my class was another new music teacher in 8^th grade. That one lasted two years, then we had a new music teacher every year. A new math teacher for 9^th grade was there only one year, then a former graduate came back to teach until after I graduated. We got a new P.E. teacher came my freshman year. There was also a new english and home ec teacher our senior year.

That kind of longevity is very special. I still enjoy running into my former teachers and chatting with them. After that many years together, I'm running into long-time friends when I see them. And that would be one of the advantages to living in a small community. It's like having a very extended family, all the friends and neighbors you've grown up with and who care about you. When they see your parents and ask them how you are, they truly want to know.

Family

Today's the polar opposite of yesterday, as far as the weather goes. Sunny, bright, reasonably warm. It's been a great day. I feel like I've accomplished a lot, and I may not be done yet. Who knows! I do have more things that need to be done. We'll see if my energy holds out or not.

When I was born, I was the first girl on my Great-Grandfather and Grandmother Dorsey's branch of the family tree for 28 years. When I'm feeling down, I can always remember how special they all thought I was! My two first cousins were 8 and 10 when I was born. Even with that age difference, we were always close.

There are photos in my baby album that I love of the two of them with me when I was six months or so old. We were all out in our front yard, and there are two photos........in one photo, Joy was holding me and Ted was pouting.......in the other photo, Ted was holding me and Joy was pouting. They're great photos!

Our families spent a lot of time together when I was small. Holiday dinners were usually at our house, because we had a bit more room. But apart from the holidays, time was spent at both houses. I especially remember spending a lot of time at their house, because at the time they had a TV and we didn't. I have memories of Friday nights at their house so the guys could watch Friday Night Fights.

My special memories of going to their house was spending time with the boys. They never seemed to mind too much having a much smaller girl cousin tagging around after them. I think they may have even liked it! That didn't stop them from picking on me, but I gave as good as I got.

Before I was old enough to go to school, we stayed at their house during a winter snowstorm when our road was snowed in and I was sick and needing to go to the doctor. There was a small store in nearby Mandeville, and the bus driver would let students off to shop while he made a loop dropping off local students. One of those days at their house, the boys came in from school and Ted told me he'd bought me something at the store – and he handed me a box of lemon-flavored Vicks cough drops. They were new on the market then, and he was so proud of buying them. I tried so hard to choke one down, even though I was having stomach issues with whatever it was I had. Mom was in my ear reminding me that Ted probably had spent his last dime on those cough drops. I think I did get one down, then I told Mom I just couldn't handle any more. I've never had another lemon cough drop.

It wasn't much after that when Joy let us know that he had something for me. Mom and Dad were neither one too happy when they found out his gift was a little kitten he'd found along the road. But since he'd already given me the kitten, they couldn't really say no. The cat ended up being really good at keeping mice out of the barn, so Joy was eventually forgiven.

The only time I ever remember being irritated with either of them was when I was about six and Joy got a Thunderbird convertible. He only gave me one ride in that convertible with the top down – and I had to sit in the back seat because Grandpa was in the front seat with Joy. Hmph!

My most memorable Christmas with them was, I believe, 1960. Our grandmother was in the hospital after a heart attack, so Dad and their parents went to Kansas City to see her. Joy and Ted spent the day with Mom and me. They were milking our cows for Dad, as well as doing chores for our neighbor up the hill (who was in the hospital with a broken leg). It was a 60 degree day, we were able to let the fire in the woodstove go out and open the doors. It was not a traditional Christmas, but it was a memorable one.

Those guys were so special to me, even after we were all grown and had kids. After their parents divorced and life changed, my parents became like surrogate parents to them. I couldn't think of anyone better to be my adopted brothers!