A Little Chat

The trouble with having been away from blogging so much is that I either have nothing to say or too much to say. Today will just be one of those mindless chatty posts. Wish that I had something to offer you besides a cup of tea and leftover candy. Alas, no baking in my recent past. But wait! How about a cinnamon toast? Marshmallow toast? (my personal fav) Toast with jam? A poached egg perhaps?

Let's see, this year is my year for Thanksgiving. My nine-year-old grand keeps me informed. I don't know what is quite so confusing about this, but I believe that it involves Easter. That's right. When it is my year, it is my year for both Easter and Thanksgiving. What further complicates things is when Easter is more like Thanksgiving in the weather department. Last Easter we had a snowstorm. In my mind, we just had Thanksgiving, but noooo, that was Easter, even if it was wintry weather. Do not attempt to explore the depths of this old mind. Impossible!  So I have now determined that odd years are my years and even years are J's. Got it! At least for now. Good thing I have Sam to depend on.

In the United States, Thanksgiving is a holiday to be reckoned with. It takes me weeks, not counting all the time I have spent on my secret Pinterest board gathering recipes and ideas. Lots of cleaning and lots of planning. The grocery list alone is formidable and the table linens must be spotless. The silver must be polished and everyday dishes just won't do. I am biting it off in small chunks.

  For example, it has taken me two days, with John's help, just to clean the living room windows. The dining room window is scheduled for tomorrow. I have yet to find the perfect window cleaning product. We used white vinegar today...don't let that Windex bottle fool you. We'll see how that works out. *I'm waiting on word from Kathy about the product she used.*  I think that I just got it with her comment below. 

This week, I read a fun story by a classic Maine author of yesteryear who wrote They Took to the Woods. It was about a walk in November with her husband and little boy. They were putting in a friend's canoe as the friend was not there to do it himself. After the task, which proved more trouble than they had thought, they were famished and so raided their friend's pantry finding beans, tea, and a tin of evaporated milk. They had a feast, did up the dishes, and then walked back home through the woods. Suddenly, the sky turned dark and ominous and the treetops began to sway. A snow squall overtook them. They held hands and ran for the cozy warmth of their own home. The author's little boy was asked to find a radio station and the first words they heard were, "Happy Thanksgiving." The author's husband said, "You've got a couple of lousy parents to forget that this is Thanksgiving Day!" 
Fast forward four years and the family was gathered twenty strong around a table laden with bounty that the author had spent a week preparing. At the end of the meal her son asked if his parents remembered the day they had walked in the woods, seen the snorting deer, the geese heading south, and ate beans and drank tea. Yes, they remembered. Then the boy pushed himself back from the table and "with all the nostalgia that an eight-year-old can possess said, 'that was the best Thanksgiving we ever had.'"

Bittersweet is abundant this year and my secret stash was loaded. I have placed it here and there outside and inside. Inside, I usually just allow it to dry, but this year I am trying a glycerin and water mix to keep the colors a bit more vibrant. I also have some very colorful azalea branches in the mix. And I'm trying a preservation formula with said glycerin for some leaves I want to keep from fading away altogether. 

They have two more days to soak so I'll give you an update on that later. I read about this long ago in Country Living, but the information is also on Pinterest.

We had just one taker on Saturday night. That child did not spend a fortune for an Iron man costume at Disney World for nothing! 

This means that Piglet has overdosed on candy. What? Well it couldn't have been John or I! 

The elder decided that he was finished with "the event." Earlier in the afternoon, he had been walking between his home and his maternal grandmother's home when a police officer in his cruiser stopped and offered him some candy. My grand declined. When questioned, he said that he was not supposed to be taking candy from strangers and that he definitely did not know that police officer. Smart boy! ;D

Guess before this chat gets any longer that I should close it down. See you later this week perhaps!