Tuesday, February 27, 2018

Packing For Florida!!


Another great freebie kit from Rosie H for the members of our group called Sketchy Blue. This will be used for the outer cover of the planner for my sister.

Hello and Good Afternoon.
 I am late today. I couldn't sleep last night so I was awake until around 6:00 this morning. It is so hard on me not being able to sleep at normal sleeping times. 
 I also received a gift card from Karyn for a massage for Christmas. We are planning to go sometimes this week so I can use it. After I have the eye injection, and the ultra sound and labs, (It is going to be stressful the next few days) I think that I will really enjoy the massage. I decided on the Swedish massage as it is the most relaxing. 

 There has been a change of plans regarding staying at my sister's house before leaving for the airport. Her husband is going to be out of town and she is going to have to work that weekend so they will not be able to help me get to the airport if I fly out of Dallas. 
 I will probably just fly out of Austin, but if I do I will most likely have a layover or have to change planes and we were trying to avoid that. But what ever we have to do we will do because I cannot wait to get to Florida! I will make sure that it is set up as Handicapped so I will not have to walk anywhere! And I will put some snacks in my carry on just in case I do get stuck with a layover. 

 I received a call from the office over the weekend that I had a package so I asked the boys to pick it up for me. They forgot and so I called the office and they delivered it to me. 
 When I opened it, it was a pencil sketch of one of my old friends that someone had done of him. I think that the artist did a great job. 
 I was surprised to get it because the last I had heard from him, he was going back into the hospital and since I had not heard from him I figured that was where he was. The date of the package was stamped on the 16th of March. If he did go perhaps he is out now.

 The weather has been dreary. Not too much rain, but there are no blue skies or sunshine either. It is always a mix of mild and cold. One minute it is cold as heck and the next it has warmed up 20 degrees. I am not complaining. It beats the bitter cold that a lot of people are having to deal with right now. 

 Next door to us is a little Mexican place and they have the best street tacos. The beef are my favorite. It was a surprise to wake up and find that Nathan had bought some for me. They slow roast their meat until it really just melts in your mouth. They don't use a lot of seasonings so you actually have true taste of the meat. They top it with lettuce and tomato and add a slice of lime that I drizzle over the tacos. The lime actually brings out the taste of the meat. 
 They have pork and chicken too, but the beef is my favorite. 

 I love trying new foods. It has always been a huge interest for me. I wanted to be a chef and trained for 2 years until my incident with shellfish. Who would want a chef that couldn't work with seafood? 
 But I know that when God closes one door he opens another. I learned from the best and while I worked with every day foods and not the fancy stuff right off the bat, I have always enjoyed learning and making certain dishes. 
 I don't do much of that kind of cooking anymore. It costs so much to do some of the dishes and some of them are just so loaded with fats and calories that I have had to adjust. 
 Sometimes I will experiment with something but not like I use to do when I could afford the ingredients. These days I try to stay away from high alkaline foods and watch my pennies but there is a few different ways to do green beans lol...  By the way I don't care much for green beans! I do love the fresh green beans from the garden.

 My grandmother always had a garden and early in the mornings we would go to the garden patch and she would select the days meal. My job was to wear a little apron and she would place the days selections in my apron that I would hold out. 
 Then we would go back to the house and she would clean and prep and start cooking.
 The main meal was always cooked early in the day. A pot of beans soaking from the night before was put on to simmer. Squash was washed and prepared and those off the vine red tomatoes were so good. 
 My uncles were farm hands and would come in at 12:00 (Noon) on the dot. The table would be loaded down. Fresh greens of some kind, corn bread, beans, meat sometimes, but more often than not without. A chicken dinner was reserved for Sundays. A melon would be chilled and cut, cucumbers and her my Ma's canned chow chow for the beans. 
 We had a lady that I loved dearly named Dovie. I would sit on the steps and wait for her to come with bottles of fresh buttermilk. I have never had buttermilk that was as good as hers. I haven't had any in years now. The store bought stuff is just not as good but I think that I might buy a small carton later on. 
 Ma had a huge table cloth and after the noon meal, the dishes were cleared the table was reset and covered with a table cloth. She would heat up some things and serve others cold, but there was no more cooking for the day. The next days meal would start out with a trip to the garden.
 I have wonderful memories from my grandmother. My mom was like her in a lot of ways. 

 Now my dad's mom.... Oh what a witch she was and I mean that literally. She had a mean streak in her that 58 years later I still don't understand. She used her power in a bad way. That is one of the reasons I have such great respect for doing good in all things. 
 She had her favorites in the family and made it known. She never cared for 4 of us, nor did she care for my father and mother but that didn't stop her from taking money from my dad and giving it to another son. 
 She could be very cruel to my sister Linda and I. I was 9 and Linda 7 when my mom was hit by a car and in the hospital for 9 long months.
 She would tell me that I was going to be able to go and see my mother and I would get my bath and get dressed and be waiting to go and then there would be some kind of infraction (Mostly made up) that I had done and so I would be punished and had to go to bed or do some huge chore that no child knew how to do. 
 She did this to my sister Linda and I all the time. But my sister Susie would be the one who would get to go and visit my mother. She never had to do anything but she kept Linda and I in trouble all of the time. She was just 4 but she was my grandmother's favorite and could get away with all kinds of things. 
 My older sister Sharon had a family of her own back then and her youngest was just a few months old and when she would come I can remember how happy I was. 
 But she never could stay long because my dad was so mean to her and her children that she stayed away longer and longer and I cannot blame her for that. She had to protect her own children and herself from my dad's irrational anger. 

 It is amazing the differences between 2 grandmother's. It is amazing as well the differences between sisters, and families. How we are shaped and why we view things the way that we do. While I have these awesome memories of my mother's mother, I have negative memories from my father's mother. 
 That has been one of the ways my life was shaped when I had children of my own. I made mistakes but I was never cruel. Of course that depends upon which of my children you ask lol.
 But I must have done something right because I have awesome kids and grandkids!

 Whew this turned out to be a much longer post than I had intended so I will get off of here and go and do something fun. I might call Miss Edna and check in on her and little Pogo. 
 I do need to start packing my suitcase so I should get started. Take care and have a blessed day... BB

 

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