Try it. You'll like it.

A co-worker asked me to name my favorite holiday food. My answer came so rapidly, that I didn't even skip a beat. At the top of my "all-time holiday treat list" is leftovers. For my daughter it's all about the sides and for my husband it's the dressing, but for me, it's the leftovers!
My all-time favorite treat of the holiday season is a sliced white-meat turkey sandwich on plain, fluffy white bread. I like the 2 slices of bread, lavishly buttered and spread with jellied cranberry sauce, right from the can. And, I must have a glass of cold milk to wash it down.  It's a long time favorite and I look forward to it all year long.
Lest this recipe seem mundane and horribly dull to all of you gourmands, I feel the urge to tell you that I can and do cook new recipes regularly. This year's Thanksgiving feast featured two new sides. We nixed the green bean casserole for a timely, yet elegant, corn souffle and instead of Waldorf Salad, we tried cheese-stuffed sweet piquant peppers. It was a delicious change up, everyone agreed.
And, because we just don't buy fluffy white bread any more, I had to substitute some kind of healthy bread with seeds and nuts (or actually, it might have contained saw-dust), for my leftover turkey sandwich.
No problem, I am adaptable.............I enjoyed every bite.

Sweet Jesus: You allow us to enjoy so many things in life. We are grateful for our many blessings. Sometimes it's the simple things that give us extreme pleasure. The simple things often make us realize that many of our blessings are truly astonishing. Great and small, we thank you.

Being Thankful

My favorite holiday of the year is Thanksgiving. As usual, we will celebrate with all of the traditional hoop-la. We have a big afternoon meal planned, and we've invited family and friends to help us celebrate.
Thanksgiving, in my opinion, is way better than Christmas. Thanksgiving is all about the fellowship and food. Christmas is about presents, decorations, travel plans and making sure everyone is remembered and happy. By the time we get all of the required present buying, wrapping and mailing finished, we are often too tired to enjoy the season.
We have grandchildren and children who live hundreds of miles away, and we like to send them real gifts instead of gift-cards and or money. Last year, I decided to use those "stuff all you can into one  box-for one price" mailing packages. It was going to save us a ton of money.
Not this year. Limiting the size of packaging, put more stress on me, the mailer, because I knew I could only select gifts that were a certain size and bulk, so that they would fit in the box.Whatever the cost, my new motto is "it's the gift that counts, not the mass." Size really does not matter.

Lord. I am very grateful for my many blessings. I don't know why I worry. I need to improve my "faith attitude." Help me to manage my stress. Show me how to focus on the present. Your steadfast love endures forever.

It might just be too late!

Last week, I elected to make a quick run to the local Fabric/Craft Store (they actually sell a lot of other items, but I was looking for yarn). My idea, and I thought it was a good one, was to make the trek during the telecast of the local NFL football game. My theory went along the path of " the store would be less crowded, because a lot of folks would be home watching the game".
I was so wrong. It seems most of the women in town were all thinking the same thing, because the store was packed. The store has one of those "take a number" machines at the fabric cutting table and when I wedged my way past the crowd, toward the yarn aisles, I heard the sales clerk call out number 436. I could see that number 555 was already taken and the holder of that number was, no doubt, waiting impatiently, in a nearby aisle, for service. Oh my goodness.
I hastily picked out my yarn and headed toward the check-out lines. As I waited for my turn, it dawned on me that my good intentions for making every one of my co-workers a hand-crocheted item for Christmas, this year, was probably only a pipe dream. Standing there among the countless women, all with the same or a similar purpose, I knew my goal was way beyond my Yuletide reach. I'll never get them all done.
So little time, so many dish cloths.

Sweet Jesus. My intentions are mostly good. I want to give all that I can, but sometimes I just bite off more than I can chew. Help me to face reality.  Please, watch over me and lead me down the right road. Show me how to give more and worry less. Give us all peace.

It's all about change.

For the past several weeks we have been engaged in a home remodeling project. We have owned our home for nearly 40 years and although we have painted and redecorated numerous rooms, numerous times, we haven't updated the flooring in a really long time.
Our plans are to change the flooring in the kitchen, living room, dining room and two baths. We might tackle the other rooms at a later date, but that's what we're doing right now. Our goal is to have the current project completed by Thanksgiving (3 weeks from now). We are on schedule and we have absolutely no reason to think that we won't get it done on time.
I find that I am able to handle the stress of living in remodeling chaos quite easily. But, then I get up every morning and leave for my job for eight hours. The dust isn't particularly bothering me, nor is the fact that our "stuff" is in boxes, placed where it doesn't normally belong. I just come every night and manage to work around the mess.
My spouse on the other hand, appears to be a bit discombobulated with the remodeling process. He tends, by nature, to be very orderly, and he is living in the clutter 24/7. In his mind, we cannot be finished with the changes soon enough to please him.
As a good friend of mine once said, " This too shall pass." We will get through this chapter in our lives and live on to start more adventures in the future.

Good Lord: Help us to realize that change is a real constant. Nothing ever remains the same. Familiar faces and places are comforting, but fleeting on the path of life. Be with us and we make changes.
Guide us and show us how to make our lives the way you want them to be. Make us your stewards.

Here kitty, kitty.

Most everyone is familiar with the humorously descriptive term "herding cats". Although most of us have never taken part in corralling a rowdy bunch of felines, many of us have had experiences that could be described as rivaling that of a kitty wrangler.
I've never taught preschool, but I can only imagine the task of attempting to get 3 and 4 year-olds to stay in line-up or sit still for any period of time. No doubt, it is crazy difficult. Trying to control preteens, during their 15 minute lunch hour, has been about the extent of my cowgirl experience.
However, yesterday it was my job to transport 6 octogenarians, along with three multi wheeled walkers, home from a scheduled lunch date. And, had my passengers suddenly grown pointy ears and tails, it wouldn't have surprised me in the least!
My first task was to get all 6 ladies into their appropriate seats and get their seat belts fastened. It's sometimes difficult for folks of any age to locate the right belt and place it into the matching receptacle. Arthritic hands and fingers find it particularly hard. So, I took it upon myself to secure the belts in the proper manner. I did this by stretching and tugging my passengers, the belts and myself, in all manner of ways, over the van's three rows of seats.
Then, dealing with the loading of the walkers was another issue. They had to be folded, in order for the vehicle to accommodate them. That meant the baskets had to be removed and stowed separately, from the chariots. Only one of the walkers would fit in the back storage area of the vehicle. Since I am just a smidgen too short to close the hatch of the van without assistance, I had even more logistics issues.
I'm not even going to tell you about the problems we experienced with the 6 handbags and the portable oxygen tanks.
But, once loaded, we made our journey.
Arriving home, we started the process all over again, as we proceeded to unload. Herding cats.

Lord: Give me patience. You have placed me here to do your work. Thank you for all of your creatures and thank you for Michaela (without her help I would have had to drive both ways).