Day 3

After a bit of turmoil, day 2 was finally over and in the books.  I looked forward to sleep and starting anew on day 3.  

Darn insomnia ... makes starting day 3 not as easy.

I've suffered with this malady for many years - at one time, barely, if at all, sleeping through the night.  An hour here and there, but never a successful night of complete sleep.  I was younger then and dealing with life on 3-4 hours of sleep was nothing I couldn't handle.

But ... I've gotten older and fewer than 6-7 hours of sleep and this chubby lady doesn't do well.  Just not feeling it today, but I'm going to persevere.

July is almost over - can't believe summer has flown by so fast.  But ready for August and the start of new classes on the 18th.  My last two semesters of going back to school before my dream is realized and I finally, at long last, have my degree.

Well, my friends, I'm going to peruse the computer a bit and then I think I'll head out to the kitchen and see what smells I can make waft throughout the house ... chocolate chip cookie dough and the delight of pumpkin bread await me (along with last night's dishes).

Peace ~

Day 2 - Part 2 ... lol

The zucchini bread is out of the oven and, if I don't say so myself, it's gorgeous! I've made other breads but this is the first for this. 

And a funny ... was gonna do spaghetti tonight, but after tasting the meat (ground turkey cooked with onions in water and beef base), it has the most wonderful broth so added cannelini beans to it and gonna cook noodles later to add. Not usually something I'd fix in the summer, but couldn't resist after tasting the broth. 

Tomorrow is pumpkin bread and chocolate chip cookies ... and who knows what else. Want to make some yeast bread this week too. Don't know if I'll get to that yet or not. Love homemade bread. 

Ok, enough babbling for one day ... hope you all are having a great day too!

Peace ~

Day 2 of my Vacation

Well Day 2 has found me busy again. Baked 5 dozen oatmeal cookies, made double batch of chocolate chip cookie dough to bake off tomorrow, baked 2 loaves of zucchini bread, got the meat ready for spaghetti sauce for tonight's dinner, have beans soaking to put with pork tomorrow and the only thing left is to make garlic cheese biscuits to go with the spaghetti tonight. 

Whew ... gonna need a break from my vacation when I'm done if I keep this pace up!!! Oh well - time to relax finally ... think I deserve it! LOL!

Take care ...

Peace ~

Sunday ... another hot one

It's supposed to be another hot one today, but not as bad as yesterday temperature or humidity wise.  But still hot.

I need to work in the kitchen but even with the door open and the fans going, it's just too darn stuffy.  So instead, I'm sitting in my room with the window unit and doing work on the computer (and playing!).

Sunday is meant for a rest day ... and tomorrow begins my 3 week break until college classes start again in mid-August.  So I guess I'll take advantage of it. I have plenty of work staring me in the face.

Have a blessed day and week ...

Peace out ~

Still here ...

I haven't posted anything in a while.  Life has been busy, but I really want to get back to doing this on a more regular basis.

I'm going to be adding some new, different types of posts to it ... refashioning, crafting, sewing, cooking, homesteading, photography, etc.  I hope you enjoy it.

The next few posts are some I am bringing over from an older blog I used to have. 

Happy Reading!
P.

God, It Hurts

God, It Hurts

I said 'God it hurts'

And God said 'I Know'

I said 'God I cry alot'

And God said 'That's why I gave you tears'

I said 'God I get so depressed'

And God said 'That why I gave you sunshine'

I said God I feel Alone'

And God said 'That's why I gave you loved ones'

I said 'God my loved one is dead'

And God said'I watched mine nailed to the cross'

I said God 'Where are they? '

And God said 'Mine is on my right and yours is in the light.

I said 'God it hurts'

And God said 'I know'

--Anonymous

Practice Makes Perfect

This is another essay I wrote for my English class.  The topic was “This I Believe In.”  I got a perfect 50/50 – A for this one – I was very pleased and I know the three women in this essay would have been too.

Practice Makes Perfect

I strongly believe practice makes perfect. I learned this from three people early in my life: my mother, Grandma Allen, and Mrs. Mengel, my piano teacher.

Whether it was learning my ABC’s or my multiplication tables, my mother firmly believed and instilled in me if I practiced them over and over and over again, I would master these basic skills. And I found later in life, when I needed them the most, they came to me as easy as drinking a glass of water. When other kids were outside playing tag in the warm weather or bundled up in snowsuits sledding down the hill, I was at our black and white checkered Formica top kitchen table practicing my “2 x 2” and “principal vs. principle” until I knew them by heart.

In sixth grade, I competed in and won the local Spelling Bee Championship. My mother and I drilled over and over the words I would be given in this event and as they were presented to me at the Spelling Bee, what she taught me flowed effortlessly in my mind and out through my mouth. When I left home and started my family, I left my trophy with my mother as a tribute to the many hours she spent making sure I didn’t forget.

My Grandma Allen lived in Benito, Manitoba, Canada. My family visited her every summer from 1963 when I made my first trip on the train until 1978, when I saw her for the final time in the nursing home as Alzheimer’s overtook her brilliant mind. I tried to learn as much as I could from her each time we visited or on the rare occasion she came to stay with us.

My grandma taught me to crochet, sew, and cross stitch. I am left handed and my mother didn’t think she could teach me. My grandma taught me by sitting across from me so it looked like she was performing these simple tasks just like me. I have the first quilt we made, a simple, multi-colored, nine-patch, as well as the set of white, flour sack dish towels with the days of the week in counted cross stitch.
 

Grandma Allen also took the time to teach me to measure flour and sugar and other ingredients to make cookies, cakes and breads just like hers. She trusted me with time tested recipes, handed down from her mother and grandmother. One of my favorites is the Artisan White Bread and Dinner Rolls. I use her techniques to blend the yeast and warmed water and let the dough rise to hear that perfect “thump” before you place it in the oven and bake it to a hard, golden brown crust.

Out of all of the people in my life who taught me the importance of practice makes perfect, my piano teacher, Mrs. Bea Mengel brought the real meaning home every week. I began at age four, trying to sound out the melodies my sister played on her flute. My mom called Mrs. Mengel to see if she would take me on as a student. Although she normally started her piano students at age six, she made an exception after hearing me play and welcomed me to her methods of learning scales and arpeggios. She didn’t rap my small knuckles with the wooden ruler when I missed a note, but instead taught with love and understanding, instilling in me a pure love of music, not just learning notes on a page.

Mrs. Mengel called me a music prodigy: able to read a sheet of music the first time I saw it, having perfect pitch to mimic note for note the same she would play on her piano, and playing Bach, Beethoven, Chopin or Debussy with the ease of her older students. My mother didn’t have to beg me to practice. I was willing to spend an hour or more each day at home eagerly learning the new songs I was given. I spent 14 years with Mrs. Mengel, learning to play the piano, organ, harpsichord, and she was my first vocal coach as well.

I still play piano today and have taught a few students myself. I enjoy relaxing to classical pieces that still roll off my fingers like they did those many years ago I was first taught. Now I play a bit differently – more of my own style, a little blues and rock snuck in there between the Bach and the church hymns my mother used to listen to me play. Today I don’t play to make my mother or Mrs. Mengel happy; today, I play because I love it.

I know that practice makes perfect is an old adage, but learning the basics of life and hard work from my mother, Grandma Allen and Mrs. Mengel, I firmly believe that the path I have taken in my life began with what I learned from each of these women.

Quietness

Sometimes when I’m quiet you think I’m upset
But I just need some private time to be by myself
To listen to the thoughts I have and try to sort them out
To figure out where I’m headed and learn something no doubt

A lot of times I’m talking just to listen to what I say
Wondering what the day might bring and the part I’ll play
I think someone has a sense of humor to let me think like this
Why can’t I just be left alone in my bit of quietness?

I’m left to think about the news of the day both happy and sad
Some of it makes me smile but most makes me mad
I look up at the sky and wonder why it goes on and on
All the pain and suffering from what seems like dusk to dawn

The shootings in Columbine where many lives lay to waste
The fire in a little house that leaves an awful taste
The angel who rose to heaven because of careless play
One who was too young to ponder where life would lead on another day

At times I get so angry that I shake my fist and shout
Please stop the madness that abounds and take away my doubt
I want so much to care and love and bring peace to a warring world
But all I see is bloodshed and hate towards a flag unfurled

Religions become battlegrounds for those who just don’t care
Someone walks into a building brandishing a gun, pointing it in the air
Where the bullets fly and the bodies fall no one is privy to know
But in the end a child pays for all the sins that we bestow

I run around in circles trying to figure it all out
Crying in pain because no one talks, they only know how to shout
I cry for the ones who can’t and pray for the ones that do
I want so much to help bring them all a life shiny and new

But I am only one person, a single, living, being
One who sits in her private space wondering, hearing, seeing
One little voice in a broken world wanting to sing out loud
To be heard raising a song of praise that will fly above the cloud

Singing a song to tell the world everything is okay
A melodious tune to quiet the soul and bring peace to every day
A word or a phrase bringing to mind what’s in each and every heart
Now is the time to begin again, to make a brand new start

Quietness you ask as I sit and ponder about the world today
What’s wrong with a bit of quietness like the sun on a rainy day
Or the stars at night as they shine so bright and light the path I trod
To let me know all is right in the world and all is right with God

Penny Peterson, 1999