A Whirlwind

Hello, I'm so sorry to be awol lately but things have been a whirlwind lately...Please oblige for my absenteeism.  You all have been on my heart and mind...So many people have.  Life is funny like that.

We have a new little granddaughter, Margaret Rose, Isn't that a pretty name?   Jem and I just celebrated 45 years of marriage, now isn't that something?   

Being a wife, Mimi and Mom and only child daughter of a 95 year old mama with dementia is serious business I tell you, being a homemaker is also serious business and actually it's a wonderful creative outlet as well, composing nice cozy meals gives me joy.  Ministering to our grandbabies is also serious business.   Those little children know the grandparents who take time for them and think about them.  They are not fooled and I want to be that grandparent that was thought of well, I want my grandbabies to say...."My Mimi and Popo took time for me and made stuff with me and were thoughtful and showed love, care and time to me."  It doesn't have to be expensive, they want our time, for us to be thoughtful and pick little things up for them here and there, to make stuff together when possible.

 

Little JJ sporting a hat Mimi made for him.

My life lately is quieting my studio.   Things have gotten so very out of hand there for this creative messy, and I'm just moving all things out and going through them on a separate table.  There are art supplies, sewing supplies for my designs and Little Dresses for Africa, party and school supplies...Books, and more books.  ...The list goes on.  

I'm decluttering.  I've decluttered some very-hard-to-declutter things too.  It was time, my heart and soul felt a release.   I'm glad I waited and did not force the release of these things prematurely.  

I must say some of the decluttering is exhilarating!    

Some of the harder things though... is I have given the huge modern glass platter that was my dad's at his restaurant to our daughter and her pastor husband, our son in-law for their church, I have given away the pretty nautical sleeveless  shirt I wore the last time I saw my father in the hospital that horrible day.  I have given away a bottle of cologne my dad gave me probably twenty years ago at least.  

...I've been thinking of my stepdad, Al and how he was such a good man and oh how I miss him.  Things were never the same when he suddenly passed from a heart attack in '91.   It left my mom by herself.  Not easy.  Not.  Easy.  My mom is not an independent person, she depended a lot on me to make her happy.  It was a very alone time as far as friends went, at that age not many had lost anyone in their lives.

But on with life, we all have disappointments, some more than others it seems.  I'm not sure what I would have done without God.

This  brings me to a video that Jem and I heard yesterday, I thought it was so good and so meaningful.  I love the late David  Wilkerson, When my stepdad, Al passed suddenly I called the World  Challenge ministry and a lady answered the phone, I was so in the depths of  despair and the lady was so kind  and I noticed she said the word, God in an interesting way...Kind of like, Gawd.   It sounded like the way David Wilkerson said it, and I asked her who she was and it was David Wilkerson's sister, Ruth. She helped me so very much that day over the phone.   I was home with our three little girls, one was a little tot at the time, our fourth was yet to be born.  I was a young homeschool mom and we had just moved out to the country.  Gravel roads and all friends were long distance.  

It's funny, some of the things that I was so not used to in the country, and in smalltown are the very things I am so charmed by now...

Allow me to share the youtube video here, For Those Who Carry Pain by David Wilkerson.   

If you would like to look up David Wilkerson, I think you would be fascinated with his life.

If you tell me this afternoon you don't have any disappointments, I want to know what planet you came from.

~David Wilkerson

Me and Jem on our Anniversary.

  Admiral Nimitz and  I, we are very close buds don't ya know?

Jem holding down the fort!

 Me and Jem holding little Margaret Rose.

I'll close with a cozy recipe I have made several times and just love it.

Pasta Fagioli Soup

Diced onion.   2 cups

3 cloves fresh garlic or 3 tsp. jarred (Yay for jarred when we're in a pinch)

1 14.5 oz. can crushed tomatoes

1 small can of tomato paste

1 T Italian seasoning

A little black pepper

3 cups water

Nutritional yeast to taste

1 can 14.5 oz. kidney beans rinsed and drained

4 cups baby spinach

A tiny sprinkle of red pepper

I sauté my onion in a generous amount of olive oil and put the garlic in at the last, only til fragrant or it will be bitter, who in the world came up with roasted garlic?  Haha.  My Italian grandma definitely would have made a yuck face on that one! : )    

You just put everything together and season until your heart's content.   It's a wonderful soup, very comforting and I serve this over gf pasta of course. : )   I sprinkle pre-grated Pecorino (sheep's milk) Romano over the top, I use the Boar's Head brand in the little tub
and it is delicious and is not loaded with sodium.  Bella!

 That Quiet Time in the Evening

I'm listening to audio books after supper in small increments when getting ready in that quiet time of the evening, I call it PJ time. You know how it goes, we brush our teeth fooling ourselves thinking we won't snack?  ...And then it' time to catch an old 40s or Halllmark movie with hubs and sometimes our youngest adult daughter.

The audio book series I'm listening to:  I'm so enjoying once again The Mitford Series.   I have the entire series on cassette and am listening to it on this wonderful cassette/radio Victrola player I found on Amazon, open box special.   I also have cds for some of the books and that is very nice too.  

A New Doggy!

We have a new watch dog and he's a sweetheart, just so very precious.  His name is Duke.  He had been in the shelter since a puppy for almost three years.   When our youngest adult daughter brought him home, the volunteers at the shelter cried and took pictures...Is that not so precious?

Speaking of pictures....I'm having a horrible time with any newer pics and I'm going to have to get busy and learn a different and new way it seems.  I have a new pc but it's a unique animal and it seems Pinterest has changed some things too.  Please pray I can work out some sort of system, it's become very discouraging for me. 

I sure hope everyone is having a wonderful day and are doing okay these days.   Let me know how you are, I hope to be stopping by sites this week.   I always covet your prayers.   As I wrote...It's been a whirlwind.  Please oblige, it seems I'm doing good to check my email once week and that's no joke.   ...Oh dear me 

You all are on my heart and in my prayers,  until the next time,

~Amelia