Keeping Busy Hiding On Winter

Nearly half of our "hide-on-winter" time has passed already!   It takes some time to get the house and porch and yard all tidied up from the long 7 month that we are away.  Then there are always all the fun things that get put first, and rightly so.  New faces and old friends to mingle with .. a few things to volunteer to help with and a couple of trips to visit friends and family.  All this as well as the daily stuff ... meals, housework, swim, play with Miss Lizzie, Skype with grandkids, etc. Not to mention going on a few little trips with the Kayak girls, and Thanksgiving and Christmas!!   Speaking of the outing with the girls, as I mentioned before, we have a thing about making a trip to Mt. Dora to shop before Christmas but mostly we window shop and have lunch at our favorite place, The Garden Gate. At the time of my last post we were about to have our day out.  It was once again a lot of fun and our lunch tasty.

Cream puff 'swan' for dessert is lovely to look at and delicious to eat!

So all these excuses as to why I haven't written something here lately!  The holidays were nice this year and the weather has been great most of the time.

Could it be that I am getting OLD ??  Not as fast as I used to be with the chores! Well, guess I have the option of feeling a bit aged since we had our 12th great grandchild, beautiful Selena the day after my birthday in October and on Christmas Eve we became Great Great grandparents to a new baby boy, Jordan Edward who weighed in at 9 lb.8 oz. !!  He is the firstborn of our oldest great granddaughter Harmonie and her Jason. He is a beautiful baby too.  We are so blessed with all the little ones!  Lots of cuddling to catch up on in the Spring!  Will make this # 1 of my New Year's Resolutions !

Tomorrow is New Year's Eve and we look forward to seeing the new year in with our daughter Angel and hubby Paul.  They will arrive here just before midnight, Lord willing and the airports are not snowed in!  We've been seeing lots of folks here entertaining their families over the last few weeks.  SO excited to have our loved ones with us for nearly a week! Weatherman promises pretty nice weather for New Year's Day and only forecasting the possibility of a shower on Thursday, a good Friday in the low 70's and we'll hope for the rest of the days to be like that!

Here is a collage Lindsay and Patrick put together of our little Selena.  

And a picture of little Lauren, the soon- to -be famous chef!

So as another year closes we wish you all a very Happy and Healthy New Year.  May it be one filled with good things and great opportunities to be the best that we can be.

"With God's strength behind you and His arms beneath you, you can face whatever lies ahead of you. "

                                                                                                                    unknown

A Time-out and A Time Out !!

It is a lovely day here with a very blue sky and cooler breezes this morning and a promise of a couple days coming with temperatures only in the very pleasant 70's. Miss Lizzie Kitty and I are having a time-out here in the porch/Fl. room.  She is snoozing in a chair as we take a break from the hustle and bustle we allow life to be sometimes as things just get too busy.

As I sit and be still, I am joined by my sweet neighbor, Stacie who comes bearing gifts!  She is cleaning out and sorting and re-gifting things she knows she will never use.  As she finds them, she sets them aside for someone she knows who might like them...or as she says, " I thought of you" or " This looks like you". My gifts today are two lovely scarves. Thank you Stacie for your thoughtfulness but mostly, thank you for your friendship!

Today, the devotional I read each morning inspires me to tell the people I admire and love how much I appreciate how they have helped me, by themselves living good exemplary lives.  So many who I have looked up to have passed and how I wish I had spoken to them of how they inspired me to strive to be all that I could be.
The quote in the devotional today was from Joseph Chamberlin, "Some people are like mountains. You have to back away to see how big they are!"

But there are many younger than I who inspire me and who I hope I still have time to thank!

It does one's heart such good to hear from those we have inspired or made a difference to.  I treasure the notes from my long ago Sunday School students, Mary, Mitzy, Ella, Jenny and John. I get these notes out and read them now and again and remember them and those days fondly.

Our local newspaper did an article recently about a wonderful lady who has devoted a lot of her life to volunteering and serving those in need.  At the end of the article, which included an interview, she said, "Every time we hug someone who is lonely or different or kiss someone who won't be here tomorrow or provide a necessary item to one in need, it makes everything we do worthwhile."  Linda Watts 
This is the true Spirit of Christmas, this season and always.  Are we not here to love and serve one another?

Once again we have held our Sunshine Village Christmas For Our Kids Cake Auction !  It is a fundraiser for the party and gift giving to benefit local, less fortunate little children, this year there are 44 and our Elves went shopping yesterday for presents of clothing and toys.  Thursday is gift wrapping day and we the 'helpers of the shopping Elves' will help with that.  We will come armed with scissors, tape and wrapping paper to work away the morning making pretty packages.  The cake  eaters did their part and very generously too, as they bid the cakes right up and paid well for lovely and very yummy homemade creations.  The auction took in $782.00 !

My "Piggies in a mud tub" cake

More of the cakes 

Tomorrow its Time Out !    We are off for a day out. I will go with 4 friends on our annual little pre-Christmas outing to look at all the sights and lights of Mt. Dora and enjoy a nice lunch at our favorite "girly" restaurant",   The Garden Gate.   Then we'll browse around in a couple of really great Thrift Shops looking for a special bargain.  And best of all, enjoy the joy of friendship.   

Enjoy this magical season of peace and joy.  

Happy Thanksgiving Day tomorrow

Well, Finally I get around to writing in my blog!  I seem to have a hard time lately getting all the things I want to do accomplished. It has been a busy and very nice fall, weather wise here in Sunshine Village.  I have had trouble with the internet here this year and find myself getting overly frustrated with technology in general!  I have a new provider as of yesterday and have so far, had no troubles with getting on and staying on until I am ready to log off!
The pool has been a great place to spend an afternoon most days as the weather is so warm thus the pool is really nice.  We have enjoyed a lady's day out at a very big outdoor mall about 50 miles south of here.  It was a fun day window shopping and having a fine lunch at a lovely Italian restaurant.

One Tuesday we tied my quilt as a craft day project.  I have been wanting to get that done for over a year now.

We had a really wild thunderstorm last night, around 11 PM and after we had gone to bed.  It woke us up with a really bright lightening flash and a huge booming thunder clap right on the heels of the flash.  Must have been really close.  The wind driven rain was sheeting against the windows with a fury.  Thankful that it didn't last long!   Today it began to cool down and was in the 60's all day.  They warn of some frost in places near us possibly for tomorrow night.   Hope it doesn't do in our pretty hibiscus bush.  Think we will cover that one up with an old blanket.  

I am cooking one of the turkeys tomorrow for our community dinner at Sunshine Hall.  Again this year there are many working to be sure that the less fortunate are not going to go without a nice meal in the area. 

 I remember last year writing about the Samaritan House in Leesburg and how wonderful an idea this is. (See blog for last Nov.)  I am happy to report that my home church in VT, North Springfield Baptist, is making a place for a warming shelter for the homeless.  A place where those in need can come in for the night out of the cold and have a warm and comfortable place to sleep safely.  A big undertaking but volunteers to staff the shelter in two shifts are signing up to serve.  Renovations are in progress and hoping soon the permits will be in place.  My son in-law, Paul, is very involved in this project.  Blessings to all who are helping this become a reality.

I have a strange looking thing growing in my little garden/flower bed.  A couple years ago I planted some collards which I have acquired a taste for since spending time in the south.  I've just left them there growing away, telling my neighbor to pick and eat them while we are away.  They don't quit!  Keep on growing and have formed a stalk that resembles a crooked palm tree trunk!  Never seen anything like it.  I did pick and eat some of the collard leaves the other day.  Not really too bad but not so good as the tender new leaves as they come up close to the ground. 

Our friends from Ohio are here now and we had a nice time tonight playing cards with them.  It felt like Nov. in VT as we walked home from their house around 8 PM.  Such a change from yesterday!  

I hope you all have a wonderful day of Thanksgiving tomorrow.  May you enjoy the precious time with your loved ones and savor the aromas and the tastes of all the results of good food lovingly prepared.

"Ten thousand, thousand precious gifts

 My daily thanks employ.

 Nor is the least a cheerful heart

 That tastes those gifts with Joy."

                                                Addison

Unexpected 'Guests'

A couple of unexpected guests, a pair of whooping cranes came to visit the front of the house today.  Yesterday they chose to visit the backyard.  They are such TALL birds!  And super friendly too.  We can walk right up to them and talk to them like pets.  

Yesterday they decided to take a little nap in back of our place.

This friendly fellow offered to pose for a photo/portrait

We seem to be all settled and most of the cleaning done.  Porch windows the exception !  Always leave those until last and after resting up a bit.  The weather has been lovely with a nice rain on Sat. morning. It nicely stopped before we traveled to St. Cloud just after lunch to spend the afternoon and evening with Mikayla and family.  Mikayla turned 18 on Sat. and it was fun to celebrate with her and Nick, Joanne and Gary.  Then to go out to a feast at her favorite restaurant, the Golden Coral, for her birthday dinner.  

Kayla and Russell have cotton candy for dessert !

It was fun to go to the flea market with friends on Monday.  We went to the smaller one, a couple miles up the road this time.  They too have fresh veggies as well as all the 'flea' items.  It is cool and refreshing at 8 AM when we get there.  Only had a couple hours to browse this time as the guys were starting work at 10 AM.  Time enough to do some good looking around.  Found a few little items I was looking for... a stitch holder, and a 29" circular knitting needle size 6, and a row counter to wear around my neck so I don't forget what row I am to knit next!  All for $ 1.50 !   Wonderful FRESH from a garden Kerby cucumbers selling 8 for a dollar!  NICE for cucumber sandwiches!  We'll have these for supper tonight as we are pretty full from the Sunshine Burgers we had at the Hall at noon today.  They make the BEST Turkey burgers, YUM!!  

Tomorrow night there will be music at the Hall as the musicians will come for their Jam session.  Twice a month they come here to play and entertain us.  Some pretty good singers too. Things will be booming around here again now that most of the snowbirds have arrived and gotten set up and ready for the new season.  

Had a nice Skype session with Angel and with Debbie and Natalie this week.  So nice to be able to 'step into' their kitchen or living room and sit a spell and chat.  Seeing what they are doing and chatting awhile is almost like walking up to the door and going in for a cup of coffee.  Sometimes we catch each other with a bad hair day or before we get out of our pj's but it is always so good to feel close.

Got nice pictures from the grandkids of their kiddos in their Hallowe'en finery.  I do miss seeing them in person but the pictures are great.  

I continue to be thankful for so many blessings.  I have shared this before but I think it is worth repeating.  It is from "God of the Open Air   by Henry Vandyke.

 ....  "These are the things I prize 

And hold of dearest worth:

Light of the sapphire skies,

Peace of the silent hills,

Shelter of forests, comfort of the grass.

Music of birds, mummer of little rills,

Shadow of clouds that swiftly pass,

And, after showers,

The smell of flowers

And of the good brown earth.

And best of all, along the way, 

Friendship and mirth."

With these thoughts I leave you till next time.  Take time out to remember the good times of our lives as we remember with love the loved ones who we have lost ... for awhile, and to thank our God for letting us have them for as long as we did. 

 Have a blessed late fall.  

Snowbirds Have Landed

Once again we are settling in at our winter quarters.  Like some Native Americans years ago, as Autumn turns cold and frosty, we've packed up our belongings, loaded the car to capacity and fled to a warmer place.

Each year the trip seems longer and more tiring, more traffic everywhere and our little Miss Lizzie sure dreads the long ride.  Mostly she dislikes the strangeness of the motels.  She seems quite content while we are at Cousin Janice & Phil's for our second night out. {Thank you Janice and Phil for your hospitality and the wonderful supper you always prepare for us.}

We arrived on Wed. at mid morning.  Home-away-from- Home.  After unloading and getting some tidying up and unpacking done, I took a break and went for a nice long swim in the pool.  Actually I just mostly 'noodle' around!  The water was SO warm... 85 degrees.  Warmer than the late afternoon air which was 80 degrees.  Then home to have some homemade soup brought along frozen in our cooler and nearly all thawed out.  Finally, early to bed for a good nights sleep and in the morning, a new day.

The warm sun and gentle breeze reminds us today that the trip wasn't so bad after all.  Friends from home email to say the first hard frost this fall came on the night of our departure.  Snowbird friends stop by to welcome us back and more are expected to arrive today.

Today is Sunday, just a week from the day we left VT.  After church today the Sunshine Village Fishermen put on a great Fish Fry for all to enjoy. It was really good!  So it seems we are off to a good start of another season with our Sunshine family.

Dennis has been busy getting the bushes and fruit trees trimmed and it looks really nice around here.  The grass has grown thicker and looks great.  He is doing the trimming now.  Our nice neighbor keeps the lawn mowed all summer for us in exchange for the use of our carport for his golf cart!    Den had trouble getting our golf cart/work cart going and had to take a trip to Leesburg yesterday to buy a new part for it.  Goes good now!

A few days before we left home, we were blessed with a beautiful addition to our family,  Great granddaughter, Selena Renae Richardson, born on Oct. 17th and weighing 8 lbs. 9 oz..  She came into the world, lustily voicing her thoughts about her new environment.  She arrived the day after my birthday. We are SO glad she made it before we left!  It was great to welcome her and see the happy faces of her Mom and Daddy and to snuggle her for a bit.  After her first loud comments on things, she was very serene and calm as she seemed to be looking around and sizing up all these new wonders.

'GG' and Selena Renae

Patrick, Lindsay and Selena

"A baby will make love stronger, days shorter, nights longer, the bankroll smaller, a home happier, clothes shabbier, the past forgotten, and the future worth looking forward to."

  Author unknown

Glad you came by to see what's up with us and hope you are all having a wonderful late fall.  Blessings to each or you.

Happy Happenings.

We sure have enjoyed wonderfully warm days, cool mornings and pretty foliage this autumn.  We seem to be a week or two ahead of other years as it is about peak color now.  Usually it is closer to Columbus Day.  After having plentiful rainfall this summer, we are now in need of rain.

From the back patio

As we count down the days until our annual migration to the warmer south, we delight in spending  a busy time with friends and family.  Met with class mates, mine for breakfast as we gather once a month and Den's for luncheon once a month.  Both well attended events and always a fun time.

Our 12th great grand baby, a girl is expected to arrive before we leave.  Sure hope we get to meet her before we have to go!

Last weekend I attended a church retreat with others from church at a lovely, quiet place in the hills of northern VT.  It was a peaceful and inspiring time at a beautiful spot.  I've had some really good times too with our daughter, Angel and her hubby, Paul now that they are once again living here in VT just across the meadow.  Angel and I have had some nice outings together.  On Wednesday she picked the apples at her place and we made 3 kettles full of applesauce and 4 pies.  A nice fun and productive day.

Angel and one of her apple pies.

Had a nice luncheon at church on Friday, the monthly Senior Luncheon with home made Chicken Pie and the fixings, made by Pastor George and Avis' apple pie for dessert. Yum!  We took a ride up to Darling Hill for our final trip there this fall.  Beautiful ride and a sweet time with friends for supper.  

Enjoyed a surprise visit from our Grandson and his family from the Northeast Kingdom this week too,  So glad to see them and stock up on hugs to last until Spring.

Our little Miss Lizzie kitty has to have a tooth extraction.  OUCH!  No insurance for that! OUCH again!  Thought maybe that new Obamacare might just cover that .. she IS our 'baby' and is under 26 and living at home, (she's only 9 ) But guess I'm dreaming, huh?  Oh well.

Saw lots of neat things at the Chester Fall Festival this year.  Someone is making these great warm mittens out of old woolen sweaters that have been felted (some by accident) or by intentionally putting them into the washer with very HOT water and agitating them for awhile.  Then these fibers shrink and make  nice tightly woven and really warm woolen mittens when you trace a pattern of your hand on the sweater, cut them out and sew them together.  The ones we saw were also lined with a thin fleece and the cuffs were from the sweater's wrist and bottom ribbing.  Now you know just what to do with your nice wool sweater that got tossed into the washer with all the other clothes and shrunk to child size!  I actually did make mittens without the linings, for my kids from a sweater I shrunk once years ago.  Now they are selling them for $27.00 a pair !  So it isn't a brand new idea, just a revived one made 'trendy'.  AND by people smarter than I was!  

I'm a bit weary this Saturday night.  After a whirlwind week, we went to the Weathersfield School today to attend the annual Antique and Unique Car Show.  It is a huge fund raiser for the 8th grade class' trip this coming June.  A roaring success and a good time to meet old friends and look over all the nice old and odd cars on display. Around 100 of them today.  So I think I'll just crash and turn my brain to 'off' for the evening.  Too tired to knit so the poncho I am working on will have to wait for another evening.   "Night all"!

"Commit whatever grieves thee
Into the gracious hands
Of Him who never leaves thee,
Who heaven and earth commands...     Paul Gerhardt

The Autumn Roundup

This weekend I accompained my husband on his annual trip to the hills above and beyond Proctorsville, a few miles north of home, where the Autumn Roundup is held every fall.  It is a rather unique event which focuses on antique tractors along with other old machinery.  It is pretty much a 'guy' thing but where there are guys there are usually their gals too!  We go along for the ride and enjoy each other's company, looking around and marveling at these old things.  Some participants set up shop and sell 'stuff' pertaining to motors, parts and a great variety of merchandise.

Trying to explain some of this old machinery is baffling to my female brain as I try to describe the sights there!  In 'guy talk' which I don't know if you gals will 'get', and without researching these things to get the proper terms etc, I'll just say that what I hear called "one lungers" are the old gasoline/kerosene powered motors that power up some really unusual equipment.

Handy Dandy Can Crusher

This was my favorite oddity.  The fellow has a kick start on this 'one lung' thingy that starts it running.  As it runs, its power turns this wheel.  It goes putt-putt-putt-putt-POW ( the POW being the firing that gives the push that makes the wheel keep up to speed).  Now, as this wheel goes around, the Boot lifts to the top of the shaft and comes down forcefully upon a soda can you want to crush and as you see, it flattens it real good.  Then the lady's shoe (on the right) comes zipping across and kicks the can off the block it rested on while getting squished, right off into a container !  All you do to operate this marvel is to give it a kick start and get 'er going.... quickly slip a can under the boot and keep those cans coming!! The original use for this power was to run an early 'automatic' washing machine they tell me.  (And I thought that the old wringer washer I started out with was old!)

I wandered around the field where all the things like this were displayed and being operated, marveling at man's early ingenuity.  The wood splitter run by this kind of power was really something to watch.  It split really big rounds, like tree trunk size as well as the smaller version which did a great job of further splitting the pieces to kitchen stove size.  The youngsters enjoyed splitting wood under close supervision.

The Woodsplitter

BUT the best was the ice cream churn, or should I say the wonderful tasting ice cream it produced!  Putt-putt-putt-putt-POW and while we waited it churned out some wonderful real maple flavored ice cream!! You could buy a cup for $2.00.  Also for sale were big pieces of homemade apple pie.

The Ice Cream Maker

Since my hubby had set up a table and had some other stuff there to sell, we took turns wandering around and minding the store. I sold a few jars of homemade relish.   He sold lots of old things he now has no use for and has unearthed as part of his 'cleaning out the barn' days.  Got the most comments on an old round flare that was used to warn folks away from a hole in the road back in the day.  Now we have those lovely bright red or green cones for the purpose and they never need filling with kerosene!  We had it lit and if there had been any mosquitoes in the area they would have gone to bother the next vendor.

A road sander/sawdust spreader on a trailer of its own that Dennis built 

We took this contraption to the Roundup behind the Gypsy Wagon in hopes of selling it to someone with a long driveway not maintained as a Town road.  Being on it's own wheels it doesn't occupy the back of the truck all winter or have to be taken out when you need to get another load of wood etc. The box on the front houses the battery that makes it run.  He didn't sell this but went back today (the Roundup goes for two days) with his dump trailer and did sell that.

It was a fun time and definitely different!  A cool and foggy morning there on the hill and it was pretty seeing the fog lift and the sun come out to warm the day.  Sort of a step back in time seeing how things used to be.  

Today after church, Angel and I went to Chester to check out the Festival there.  So many venders with lovely hand crafted things to sell.  The newest item was by the clever lady who made the warmest ever mittens using recycled sweaters lined with soft fleece!  LOVELY!   Also leg warmers.  Don't toss out those so called outdated sweaters !  After the Craft Festival we attended a barn warming.  Our friend Barb had the old ancestral barn which was in need of a make over all shored up and made to look so nice and now sturdy.  Wonderful party with lots of folks there to celebrate with her.  

A nice country weekend.  Hope your's was nice too.  

"The nicest place to be is in someone's thoughts

The safest place to be is in someone's prayers

And the very best place to be is in the hands of God"