Still Here

 No, I haven't fallen off the face of the earth.

Just now I have been working on putting together albums of old family photos.  When I am gone, I want my kids and grands to know who the people in the photos were.  And I am trying to add the stories behind the photos.  

I found a picture of my Dad holding me when I was about 2 years old.  If I don't include the stories, how will my family ever know that the coat and bonnet I am wearing then was sewn by my Mother.  And they would have no way of knowing that because money was tight back then, Mother took an old coat of hers, took it apart and made my coat and bonnet from the pieces of coat fabric.

When I do take a break, I have been trying to catch up on what is happening in the world around us.  Not an easy task.  Seems like the world situation sort of resembles the tea party scene in Alice in Wonderland.  And those currently in charge look like the Mad Hatter to me.

We are going to war.  We are not going to war.  Ukraine is getting more billions of dollars to fund their war with Russia.  There are folks in the path of the last hurricane who are still living in tents with little access to the fundamentals of life.  Many of our seniors find themselves in the position of having to decide between paying for meds or groceries.  And of course, we now know for sure that laws only apply to the people and not for the political crackheads.  And on and on it goes.

I can't change anything.  But I can say a prayer or two directed to the one who can.  Right now, I pray that those currently in charge don't completely wreck our country before January 20.  I'm not saying that the next administration will work miracles.  I just have the hope that changes can be made to at least give us some sense of the country we seem to have lost.

Posting will likely be sporadic while I am in the middle of this project.  I tend to lose myself in whatever I am working on.  And I really believe it is important to let my family know about their history.  I am old.  Time is short.  I wish I had thought to do this sooner.

Take care, my friends.  Stay as safe as is possible.  Stack and pray.  But mostly pray.

Busy

 The past several days have been spent organizing my various projects to work on after the holiday.  There are photos to organize into albums, quilts to contiue sewing, crocheted afghans to finish.  And because I have a request for family stories, those get written when my memory recalls them.

And then there are the Susie Homemaker chores to attend to, since they tend go unnoticed while working on other stuff.

I sort of feel like time is running out, and even though I am as old as dirt, it isn't an age thing that concerns me.  It is those who want war.  Those who will benefit financially from war.  Those who will send our children and grandchildren to fight a war that the rest of us do not want, while they sit in their mansions with their families who are not only safe but getting more wealthy by the day.

I hope I am wrong.  I hope that the many who see a war on the near horizon are wrong.  And I pray daily that common sense will surface and this insanity will disappear.

It is not all gloom and doom.  There is a holiday this week that traditionally brings families together.  May each of you find peace on Thanksgiving Day.  And may God truly bless and keep each of you.

Family

 If I am going to stay honest, I have to admit to enjoying watching the head explosions on the Left, concerning the election.  Sitting in cars, screaming like banshees.  Women shaving their heads and swearing off intimate relations with their husbands for the next four years.  Main Stream Media throwing 3-year-old style tantrums at each announcement of Cabinet positions in the upcoming administration.  Really?  I have seen elementary school playground fights that make more sense.

So, putting politics aside for now, I find that there are some other things that need my attention and are far more important to my family than the bs that passes for news these days.

My evenings and a day or two in the average week are spent organizing the genealogy information I have found online.  And searching for more.  Most of my family finds this dry as dust, but I would hope that eventually some of them might like to know where their ancestors came from.

In that same vein, my son asked me to write down the family stories that I had related to him as well as any others I remembered.  Some are rather serious like my paternal grandmother refusing to marry my grandfather until he signed a paper stating that he would abstain from drinking liquor.  He signed.  They married and went on to become parents of nine children.  Grandma was serious about this because sadly, her father was drunk a good share of the time.

Other stories are my memories of many of my parents and grandparents as well as my aunts and uncles who have all passed on.  I enjoy sharing my memories with my kids, especially since my family has many stories that are funny.  Like when my Dad and his brothers decided it might be fun to hoist the new car of the local banker, who was bragging about that car ad nauseum, onto the roof of his garage. (Keeping in mind that some sporty kinds of cars back in the 1920's weighed considerably less than they might now.)  Dad said the look on the banker's face when he realized where his car was, was worth it all!  We were blessed with good senses of humor in my family.  

Years ago, my Dad gave me a rather large cardboard box full of old photos.  I have since sorted them into large manila envelopes, one for each person and for family groups.  But most have no notation as to who the people in the photos are or what occasion the picture was taken for in the first place.  It occurred to me that when I am gone, my family will have no idea who is in many of the photos.

So this week I am digging out my scrapbooking supplies.  I am not talented enough in the craft of scrapbooking to fashion my own albums from scratch.  So, I am going the easy route.  Background papers will be cut to the size of 8.5 x 11.  Photos, descriptions and maybe a little bit of fru fru can go on each page, which will then fit inside a sheet protector and be organized in large 3-ring binders.  Hopefully, this will give my kids and grands something to show them who all of those relatives were.

I know that I maybe should be adding to the deep pantry stash, but I feel like there is a need to show the younger generation where they came from.  Some won't care.  But some might.  And for those who have an interest, the efforts on my part could just inspire someone to continue on with our family history.

I hope so.

Too Quiet

When my kids were still kids, they liked to tease and squabble and even on rare occasions, fight.  They were a noisy group.  But when things in my house got quiet, that's when I worried.  And rushed to see what shenanigans they were up to.

Before the election there was a lot of noise.  Campaign signs for Trump were wrecked or stolen.  The 'Never Trumpers' were loud and long winded.  Everywhere we looked, there was someone declaring that Trump was all sorts of bad things.

He won anyway.

And all of a sudden, it is quiet.

We were wrong about riots occurring after Trump won, including me.  I, along with many others were sure that cities would burn.  We thought there would be protests and violence in the streets.

Didn't happen.  And now I am worried.

There have been a bunch of criminal lawsuits.  And a couple of impeachments, including one when Trump was no longer in office.  And assassination attempts.  Do any of us believe those in power have given up on getting rid of Mr. Trump?

Nope.

Time to get serious about praying.  For the safety of the President Elect and his family.  For our beloved country, for there are still those who want to wreck what we have.  For those of us who, to quote Obama, "cling to our religion and our guns."

As Mr. Trump has said, "They're coming after you --- and I'm just standing in their way." 

 I just cannot shake the feeling that something wicked this way comes.  Pray.  Pray without ceasing.  

Hope Renewed

 But with caution.  I can't believe that the left will quietly accept the results of yesterday's election.  Considering how many times they have tried and failed to get rid of Mr. Trump, I have no reason to believe they won't try again.

For now, I have hope that the country I love may be saved.  I have hope that all of the things we have been told divide us will fade away.  I even have hope that common sense might have a fighting chance to appear again.

Today I will ignore politics.  And politicians.  Today I will do some quilting or some reading or something else I enjoy.

And I will be spending time giving thanks to our God who answers our prayers.

This and That

 Anybody else looking forward to the campaign ads going away?  There are some I wouldn't vote for based on just how annoying their ads are. Between the ads and the spam phone calls (Of course you are from Medicare and I'm positive you are calling just to help me out.)  I think I have invented several brand new swear words!

There are ads for a local judge.  Seems he is the most wonderful human being ever.  I kind of want to give him a well-placed kick.  Yeah.  There.

And then there is the Daylight Savings thing.  In the words of Pooh Bear, "Oh, bother."

So, to get away from all things crazy, I spent the last couple of days working on freezer meals for one.  I have several cases of meals in jars but thought it would be good to have some in the freezer as well.

I combined chicken that had been cooked, the meat removed from the bones and then diced.  Added three small bags of diced onions I found in my freezer, and a couple of bags each of frozen corn and peas.  Peeled, sliced and cooked 6 lbs. of carrots.  Sliced and cooked three bunches of celery.

Dumped all of it into a plastic dishpan.  Filled it nearly to the top.  Stirred it all together and then filled quart sized Ziploc bags with two heaping cups of the mixture per bag.  Into the freezer went 26 chicken-based meals.

To use the meals, I will thaw, add either water or broth and seasonings and heat for soup, thicken and serve over biscuits or make a pot pie.  There are other uses for these meals, but those are what I mostly use them for.

There is a reason for wanting easy to fix meals available.  I am old.  I live alone.  I have arthritis.  Some days I just don't feel like standing by my stove, stirring food from scratch in pans.  Or heating up my apartment with the oven.  There comes a time when, even if we are healthy, that we just want to make life a bit easier.  The meals help.

A couple of days ago I watched some white, fluffy stuff falling from the sky.  This is not unheard of in Minnesota.  A number of years ago there was a blizzard on Halloween.  But this time, by morning the snow was gone.  

Part of my son's job is supervising several snow removal crews.  Every fall he asks me to pray for snow so he can keep his crews busy.  And he has a kid in college.  He sent me a photo of the rain gauge in his backyard, telling me that if the amount of water in the rain gauge had fallen as snow, there would be about 36 inches of the white stuff on the ground.  

That message was followed by this.  🙏

One of my greatest blessings is having children with great senses of humor!!

Take care, friends.  And keep an eye on what happens this week.  I don't know for sure what will happen, but I'm thinking it might not be very good, depending on the outcome of the election.

Stay safe.  God bless and keep each and every one of you.

Well, Friends...

 I have been busy trying to stay calm until at least after the election.  It has become easier now that I automatically shut down the annoying political commercials.  Won't miss those at all!

I think what amazes me the most is that so many running for office seem to think that the ones who might vote for them are dumb as a box of rocks.  Which tells me politics has nothing to do with the care of citizens and everything to do with money and power.

So, until the votes are counted (Does anyone actually believe elections are fair anymore?) my time is filled with things that make me happy.

I just love retirement.  After years of working jobs, sometimes more than one - kids need to eat so we do what we need to do - I am enjoying this time immensely.  No alarm clock.  No spending time doing things I dislike.  OK - there is still mopping floors and laundry.  But I get to decide how to spend my time.

Right now, my kitchen table is covered with file folders and manila envelopes full of genealogy paperwork.  Found my mother's high school diploma from 1942 and a postcard written by my dad to his mother in the middle of the Depression of the 1930's, letting her know that he and his brother had found work picking up potatoes from a field in Montana.  When work in northern Minnesota couldn't be found, they rode freight trains west in search of a way to make money for the family.  Found a letter written by my paternal grandmother, describing her encounter with a black bear while in the woods picking blueberries.  (She ignored the bear and exited the woods slowly and quietly.  Me... probably would have run away, screaming!)

Many would find this activity dry as dust, but I love the research about ancestors.  I find that my adult children seem to be a bit interested as well.  And a granddaughter was asking about this, so I have hope that my family will find it interesting.  They should know where they come from.

I haven't abandoned preparing.  Earlier this week I cooked up some odds and ends of poultry and pork that were languishing in my freezer.  My grocery order for next week includes veggies to add to the meat to make 'meals in a jar.'  I love having the jar meals on hand so I can just heat up the contents and dinner is served.  Think this time I will cook the contents together, cool and freeze in quart freezer bags.  I am pretty much out of shelf space for jars.

And I have rambled on long enough.  Sometimes these posts are more like emails between friends.  Take good care.  Stay safe.  Things might just get crazier when the election results are in.  And may God place a veil of protection over all of you.