Here I am.

 Dear Friends...

I have been AWOL. But then you knew that, didn't you.  :)

And if you know me as well as most of you do, you know that my kids and grands come first.  And that's where I have been.  Working on the things that might affect my family.

I found a sale on beef and ordered some roasts to be canned.  Except that the grocery delivery service sent the wrong meat and 12 pints of beef cost me nearly $100.  Partly the fault of the order taker.  Mostly my fault for not being specific enough with my order.  Better be some really tasty meat at that price!!

The quilt I am sewing for my next Great-Grandbaby due in March is nearly finished.  I have been truly blessed to have 6 grands and soon 3 great grands!!  And making a quilt for each of them has been - and still is - pure joy.

I have to admit to not being very well organized sometimes.  So time is being spent going through the jars of home canned food on my shelves.  I admit to enjoying experimenting with some of my canning.  Sometimes an experiment I see on a canner's YouTube channel looks interesting and I give it a try.  Sometimes works.  Sometimes - not so much.  So, I am getting rid of the failed experiments.  No point in keeping what nobody will eat.  Better to have jars of tried-and-true food should the time come when we need it.

Wading through my gene pool has taken up time.  There are names and dates and places that need to be verified in order to show my descendants who their ancestors were.  Working with old photos helps as do the family stories from years past.  

The political side of me is enjoying watching left leaning heads explode, what with the fast-paced work being done by the newly elected administration.  I don't agree with everything our new president says or does.  But it is purely joyful to see changes actually being made in favor of honest-to-goodness American citizens rather than for those who have broken our laws by showing up here illegally.  About damn time!

I am fully aware that our new president doesn't work miracles.  There is only one who does that and He isn't an elected official.  But miracles aside, I now am beginning to think that there may be some hope for our nation.  Haven't been too sure about that the past few years.  

Regardless, we keep stacking and more importantly, we keep praying.

Thank you to those who reached out in my absence. Each and every one of my readers is so very much appreciated.  I make no promises, but I will do my best to not disappear again.

Wishes

 My wish for all of you is for a blessed Christmas and a better New Year.

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.