Darlene DiRusso Reardon
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Wine & Glue via Lavendersun
Country and Victorian Times
I have always loved Halloween. A hundred years or so ago, kids went trick-or-treating with a group of friends. Parents were off limits. We would leave, gather as much candy as we could, and then go home again, tired and happy, already full of candy.
100 Laughs
I’m still fascinated by people’s creativity – both in kids’ costumes and in carving of pumpkins. Since we live on top of a ridgeline, some 650+ feet up a steep driveway from the road, we don’t have trick or treaters. I still enjoy the holiday.
A Better Balance
Here’s to all the working men and women in our country today.
Here’s to the people who worked all their lives and are finally retired.
Here’s to all the working people who do not get the day off today.
My hat is also off to the good people of Bowling World in Fort Smith, Arkansas, who have to work today. Because of this, my husband, our son, our long-time good friends and I will go bowling tonight – for the first time since my husband’s stroke – with ice cream at Braums after.
My dad was born on Labor Day. He loved it, thinking it was quite appropriate. :0)
HAPPY LABOR DAY!
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Jeff Jett – LinkedIn
Remembering today all the brave men and women who have sacrificed and ARE sacrificing so that we can celebrate Independence Day.
My husband and I will grill steaks out tonight and then hopefully sit on our deck, drinks in hand, and enjoy the fireworks display of a neighbor who lives down in the valley behind our house.
Happy Independence Day, everyone!
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Lisa Bearnes Richey
R.J. Bennett – LinkedIn
Manish Sharma – LinkedIn
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Graphics99.com
I hope you’re having a wonderful Christmas Eve.
We’re going to have our special dinner this evening – very quiet – just the three of us.
I put another beef stew in the crock pot this morning, since our son likes to grab a bowl here and there during the days and evenings. I’ll put the turkey in soon and do some deviled eggs- a favorite of all of us. I’ll do the rest of the fixings later.
We did errands and went to the post office to mail books we sold. Now we can enjoy being in a warm, dry house, good food cooking, and a good friend coming over this afternoon to spend some time with us. :0)
I’m soaking up every minute with our son. When he goes, we have no clue when he’ll be coming back, though we can talk to him via our chat program and a conference call app. We are so happy that he is living his dream – living where he wants to, as he wants to. You can’t ask for more as parents. But until he goes, I’m collecting every hug I can get, spending lots of time talking and laughing with him, building up beautiful memories of the very best Christmas we’ve had in a long, long time. At some point, I’ll have to insist we get some pics…
Merry Christmas!
Filed under Family, Friendship, holidays
I’m waiting until our son is home on MONDAY (whoopeeeee!) to get the big Tupperware tub of Christmas decorations out – plus our tree – but I’m starting to do a bit here and there.
This is the dining area. I have a Christmas wreath with lights, lights wrapped around the rail across the top of the window to the right of this picture, and a few decorations on the divider that goes between the dining area and the kitchen.
This is a present from a dear friend. It’s a combination light that looks mosaic and changes colors as you watch and a diffuser with a nice scent.
This is ceramic. The couple who made it personalized the heart for me. I’ve had this for years and I love it.
This one is made of wood and was also personalized for me by its creators.
Every year I like to showcase the Christmas cards we receive from friends and family. I hang each one on the vertical uprights on our stair railing with yarn. I also add ornaments or other decoration. This year I’m using wooden ‘gingerbread’ ornaments. I bought these from a company last year, stained and then painted them to make them look like gingerbread cookies.
The Christmas cards will make the decoration fuller and fuller as the season progresses. I’ll also add garlands of sparkly stuff!
Filed under Family, Friendship, holidays
This photo of our son, Brian, and me was taken at Christmas in 2007. It’s still one of my all-time favorite photos.
I’ve been a Scrooge, basically, since then because my heart wasn’t really in it. Our son decided several years ago that in order to really learn Mandarin, he needed to live where it was spoken. He packed up and went to China, attending an American language school there, leaving just before they had a terrible earthquake. He came home, but then went back, this time living in Shanghai.
Then he decided that he wanted to live somewhere more quiet, so he went to Chiang Mai, Thailand. He has made it a point not only to continue learning Mandarin, but also to learn Thai. He participates on a regular basis on an app where people can call in for translations between Mandarin and English and Thai. This allows him to get more and more fluent as he tries to help others.
A friend and his wife joined him in Chiang Mai several years ago. They work together doing computer stuff for various clients in the U.S. Before he left the last time, he set up a secure chat program so that we could leave messages or type at each other real-time. We do that on almost a daily basis. He also set up a program called ‘appear.in’ which he and his friend use in conference calls. We can see each other real-time and talk, like Skype or other similar programs, but MUCH better quality.
It’s been three years since he’s been home. We communicate more than a lot of families who live in the same city, so he hasn’t really seemed a world away, though he gives wonderful hugs, and my ‘hugs bucket’ has been empty for a long time now.
Recently he talked about MAYBE coming home for a visit. I put it out of my mind because a lot can happen in a short space of time, making it impossible – although intentions are the best.
He is actually coming home! We will pick him up at the airport on the 10th of this month!!!! He can stay until January 2nd, when he will fly to see other relatives and good friends before returning to Chiang Mai.
I am definitely feeling the Scrooge in me thawing this year. This morning I got out the two Christmas wreaths I kept after my purge of ‘stuff’ in our home and put them up. I then got out one bag of decorations that I’ve put up in the past, when I wanted to look at least a little bit festive. These are up in the dining area now. (I’ll take some pictures to share a bit later today.)
My husband and I decided that this year we would decorate a Christmas tree and get out all the decorations we haven’t used in years. This means we will need to move furniture in the living room to accommodate the tree – plus haul the huge Tupperware bin of decorations and the tree up from the basement – something we haven’t done in a long time. I’ve decided to wait until our son is home to do the tree, so we can do it together as a family.
As the fact that he has his tickets, and we have a flight arrival time now (the trip from Chiang Mai to here will take a total of 28 hours with layovers, etc) the fact that he’s REALLY coming home is starting to sink in. My heart feels full, plus lighter and lighter. I keep finding myself smiling.
The very best Christmas present we could have – except for when I gave birth to him 40 years ago on Dec. 13th…
Filed under Attitude, Cause for Celebration, Delightful Surprises, Family, holidays
Laughtard
MyModernMet
GAHA-Entertainment
itoptopics.com
GardenSeedandHoneyBees via MinionsQuotes via Doreen Adamson-Liber
This post is especially for Dezzi, since we’re both bacon-o-holics….
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H & L
Happy Valentine’s Day!
Filed under Favorite Pictures, Favorite Quotes, holidays
We had a great Thanksgiving and hope that you did, too.
We managed to have an almost completely low-carb dinner, with roasted turkey breast, cauliflower “mashed potatoes,” gravy, a big salad, and deviled eggs. The only ‘carb’ stuff was wine and cranberry sauce.
Amber was her usual puppy self when our friend Nora first arrived, but then settled down and was good the rest of the evening. It made Nora laugh when Amber just walked right up my husband’s front to sit in his lap.
We had lots of good conversation, catching up on what’s been happening since we saw each other last. One piece of entertainment for the evening was when my husband put drops and goo into my injured eye.
When we were getting ready for bed, my husband thanked me for making the deviled eggs – one of his favorite things, and said everything tasted good, particularly the mashed potatoes and gravy. I then told him the mashed potatoes were pureed cauliflower with butter, garlic , salt, and parmesan cheese! He was amazed, admitted he wouldn’t even have tried it if he had known, but admitted he thought it was delicious. I can now feel free to serve it from time to time – with gravy, of course. :0)
Tonight we’ll have one of MY very favorite things – turkey sandwiches! Another thing for which to be thankful.
Filed under Friendship, holidays
“I’m thankful for my parents’ ability to discern that one grunt mean yes and another grunt means I’ve gone #2 in my diaper.” — Dad on behalf of Finnegan, age 2
Source: Christina Holt – “Kids respond: What are you thankful for?”
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Testimonies of Hope
I hope you had a wonderful Mother’s Day today.
Filed under Favorite Quotes, holidays
Our Continent – Our Culture – WordPress.com
I can’t remember where I was or how old I was when I actually got to do this one year, but I remember it was loads of fun. I vividly remember the excitement, the laughter, the delighted faces of everyone around me, young and old. I regret I am unable to give credit to the kind people who made this possible for me. It was the one and only time I did the Maypole Dance, and it was a high point in my life.
I looked up how one is actually supposed to do a Maypole Dance, since I don’t remember any particular rhyme or reason.
1
Put the Maypole together. Unless you have access to a Maypole that has already been made for the purpose, you will need to make your own. Find a tall pole and attach ribbons or strong streamers at the top of the pole. These ribbons will need to be an even number, the same number of ribbons as there are dancers.
2
Divide the dancers into two groups. For example, you might have them count off one, two, one, two, one, two around the circle, or A, B, A, B, etc. The A’s can go clockwise and the B’s go counterclockwise. The dancers go alternately right and left of the dancers going in the opposite direction.
3
Develop a pattern. The pattern the dancers should keep in mind is over, under, over, under, over, under etc.
On the count of “over”, the dancer raises his ribbon slightly so the dancer coming in the opposite direction can duck under his ribbon.
On the count of “under” the dancer ducks under the ribbon of the dancer coming in the opposite direction.
(Source – Wiki – How To Do Anything)
No excuses now for not stopping and participating, just in case you see a Maypole Dance going on. :0)
Happy May 1st to you!
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TimeandDate.com
My Wish for You in 2017
“May peace break into your house and may thieves come to steal your debts.
May the pockets of your jeans become a magnet of $100 bills.
May love stick to your face like Vaseline and may laughter assault your lips!
May your clothes smell of success like smoking tires
may happiness slap you across the face and may your tears be that of joy.
May the problems you had forget your home address!
In simple words ………… May 2017 be the best year of your life!!!”
Author Unknown
Filed under Favorite Quotes, holidays
Sanbornton Public Library
“An optimist stays up until midnight to see the New Year in. A pessimist stays up to make sure the old year leaves.” ~ Bill Vaughan
“My wishes for you, Great start for Jan, Love for Feb, Peace for March, No worries for April, Fun for May, Joy for June to Nov, Happiness for Dec, Have a lucky and wonderful 2017.” ~ Unknown
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(I’m on the left. My husband is on the right.)
We’re having a wonderful, quiet Christmas Day. We’re hoping that our son will call from Thailand some time today. That will make it perfect.
I cooked our big dinner last night – turkey breast, mashed potatoes with gravy, deviled eggs, and jellied cranberry sauce. It scared me when I started to cook the turkey breast, though, because it was labeled, “Cajun Style.” I thought, “Uh – Oh!” We can’t handle ‘hot,’ or really spicy. Happily enough, it was delicious!
We’ll have turkey sandwiches today, and some more cranberry sauce, since it’ll be a year before we’ll enjoy that much sugar again.
As always, I put up the Christmas cards we received, hanging them up on our stair uprights, interspersed with some wooden snowflakes I painted. It makes me feel surrounded by good friends and family for the holidays. Soon I’ll take them down, reread the notes, and write again to those who sent us news to which I want to respond. A happy time of the year!
I hope you’re having a wonderful celebration, surrounded by family and friends, eating good food, laughing and catching up.
May 2017 be a wonderful year for you!
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Waving Snowman by StarbrightAngels via Ann Gilstrap
Hopefully, if you click on the link you’ll see the cute snowman waving. If not, here’s the URL to try – https://www.facebook.com/starbrightangels.angels/videos/1244227582333241/
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Thanks to The Riflebird via The Kakapo via Ann Gilstrap
Filed under Awe-Inspiring Photography, holidays
Blingee via pinterest
“Christmas waves a magic wand over this world, and behold, everything is softer and more beautiful.” ~Norman Vincent Peale
“Love is what’s in the room with you at Christmas if you stop opening presents and listen.” ~Author unknown, attributed to a 7-year-old named Bobby
Filed under Family, Friendship, holidays
Thanks to The Riflebird via The Kakapo via Ann Gilstrap
Filed under Awe-Inspiring Photography, holidays
This is an old picture of our son Brian and me, but it’s one of my all-time favorites. He gives absolutely the best hugs I’ve ever had, bringing tears to my eyes.
He’s living and working in Thailand. He loves it there. He can live alongside good friends, also from the States, do computer work for clients in the United States, and live the life he wants, cooking for himself, working out every day, meditating, and learning Thai.
We’re very lucky, in that we’ve always been close, and he’s a wonderful communicator. We have a chat program he set up that is super reliable and private. We can ‘talk’, sometimes in real time when we’re all up at the same time (he’s 12 hours ahead of us at any given time), or we can leave messages for each other. We can send music clips, photos, etc. We talk almost daily. We tried Skype, but since we live in the sticks. we lose the connection and the images are fuzzy.
Today I checked the chat program to see if he’d left anything.
I read the second-best thing possible – (the first would be that he’s coming home for a visit) –
He’ll try to call us tomorrow for Christmas, when we’re all up at the same time!
Merry Christmas to us!!!!
And to YOU!
Thanks to The Riflebird via The Kakapo via Ann Gilstrap
Filed under Awe-Inspiring Photography, holidays
Wright-Hennepin Co-op Elec. Assn
“Christmas gift suggestions:
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Favim.com
“A hug is a great gift – one size fits all, and it’s easy to exchange.” ~Author Unknown
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