One Part Inspiration...

If you look in my freezer in any given week you will see bananas.  I put them in there because they tend not to get eaten in time for them to still look like bananas.  Once they are in the freezer, they are a testament to the minimal baking that I do.  I move them around to make room for other things.  I look at them when the door is open and make (another) mental note to use them up.  But sometimes it is months before I do.  This week, however, when I was snow-bound, I needed an excuse to use the oven.  So out came the bananas.  I decided on banana bread.  It was a calculated decision.  The recipe required the oven to be on for a full hour, whereas muffins only call for 25 minutes. Did I mention that our pipes had frozen in the wash-up area during the deep freeze? I didn't want to use any more dishes than I had to, and it's a lot more work to clean up muffin tins in a little tiny sink, than one loaf pan...

Sunrise, Sunset No matter what the weather brings, forgiveness can always be found when the sun does it's commencement dance or gives its stamp on the conclusion of the day.  I never tire of the innovative twists the Creator gives to either one of these displays. It calls for a camera to try and capture the moment. 

Ice Rays #1 Ice Rays #2 Turned right side down Turned right side down #2 This is what happens when the power goes off, and cabin fever hits.  It's a little like crossing your eyes and seeing if they stick.  It gives you something to do, but it doesn't mean much.

One of the reasons  I like living on the "wet coast" is that the incidence of a 'snow event' is fairly low and when it arrives, it is usually short-lived. [And by short-lived, I mean it falls one day and is gone the next because the temperature rises, or the rain returns] I would be just as happy never to have another snow day in the rest of my life.  I don't like being cold.  I don't like the idea that the power might go out at any moment.  I don't like the looming possibility of running out of supplies.  I don't like the unpredictability of snow days.  I get anticipatory cabin fever when snow is predicted.  Will it last one day?  Two?  A week?  Will I have to resign myself to being like Laura Ingalls Wilder in Little House on The Prairie ?  For most of my life out here, the meterologists bat fairly low.  Their dire predictions of 'snow events' are not that accurate.  Fearmongering is...

Snow days are like ( sick days) .  Wake up. ( Wake up )  Look outside. ( Swallow ). Evaluate the snow. Is it coming down hard enough to warrant a call to the boss or is it likely to stop in a few minutes?  ( Evaluate ability to swallow - is it a sharp aching pain, or just a "I can muscle through this one" pain ?) Roll over, watch out the window for a few extra minutes.  ( Roll over, try to swallow again.  Put hand up on forehead to see if there is any fever ) Pick up the phone.  Put it down again ( Pick up the phone.  Put it down again ). Ask husband for his opinion.  Consider his opinion.   ( Ask husband to feel forehead to see if he feels the fever ). Wander up to shower.  Look out the window on the way up to see if there's any change in the amount of snow coming down. ( Wander up to shower.  Look in mirror.  Evaluate eyes to see if they look more bloodshot than usual )  Decide that if it isn't any bet...

A walk with the dogs and my husband Watching the soccer game with my mother-in-law in the comfort of a vehicle with heated seats Getting a message from my sister that she is home after her trip Getting a message from my other sister that she was thinking about me Getting a message from a long-ago friend that she would like to re-connect My son doing the vacuuming on his own initiative Having a birthday dinner with family friends and hanging out for the evening Reading a funny email from several years ago and enjoying it all over again Catching up on laundry so we have something to wear Pancake breakfasts with the family Snow day - at least a half a snow day - and safety in travel on unpredictable roads Hot chocolate with marshmallows Sometimes the little things aren't so little.

http://www.lisaleonardonline.com One of my dear friends has a birthday early in the year, and while I am choosing a Christmas gift, I am already thinking about what I will get for her birthday.  This is the present I thought long and hard about buying her this year. One of the things I loved about this present, is that it is totally impractical.  A silver bubble wand.....  I imagined my friend opening it up with a little bottle of bubbles I would include in the gift box and us going out to the back deck and blowing bubbles.  We would laugh and chat and watch the bubbles disappear into the sunset.  Like I said, totally impractical, but just plain fun, all the same. On the other hand, I imagined her opening it up and saying "A silver bubble wand?!!!????!!"  So for several months, I toggled between ordering it and then deciding on something else. Then,  I opted to try and find a similar item made locally  but I couldn't find...

When we were making plans for the Christmas season, I had to make a hard decision.  Staff party, or accept an invitation to attend an AHL hockey game from the comfort of box seating.  It didn't take too long.  The invitation, to watch the game and see how the other half lives, won. What made it even easier is that the hosts were people with whom we'd enjoyed a long-term friendship.  Our kids are similar in age, and we share other bits of history with them.  It had been a long time since we had socialized.  [Don't worry, we didn't forget how.] The game started at seven, but the invitation said to arrive at 5:30.  Dress was casual, which was nice, because it was a Friday night, and usually I'm in my jammies by 5:30 on Fridays.  [Don't worry, I didn't wear jammies.] We were treated to nachos and ribs and drinks and lots of junk food.  So far, so good.  We met the other game-goers and got acquainted with them.  Every fif...

Two years ago, we moved from the farm.  One of the things we stored there was my piano.  My in-laws have had it ever since.  I doubt that any of us thought that it would be 25 months before it got moved.  Of course there are many reasons why it didn't happen.  For the first several months, the living room at The Pokeaway went from this: to this: and then when it looked more like itself, there were still so many things  to deal with, that moving the piano was put on the back burner. We had many discussions during those months when it would be the right time to move it back home.  But it never seemed to work.  Sometimes it was because the trailer was full of other stuff and the process to get it cleared out was too overwhelming.  Sometimes it was raining.  Sometimes we didn't have the man power.  Then we thought maybe we should wait until the floors were refinished.  Plus, I am a li...

This has been a week of goodbyes.  Some of these have been permanent [at least permanent on this earth], and others have been given in hopes of seeing each other again in a few months.  Either way, goodbyes are difficult. In my cyber wandering, I came across this version of "When I Get Where I'm Going" and I liked it, so I am sharing it with you.  My favourite line is " But when I get where I'm going, and I see my Maker's face. I'll stand forever in the light, of His amazing grace."