Wednesday Wonders: Lacy Tree

There is a tree outside the church building that catches my eye every time we come to church.  Which is actually pretty often. I do not yet know what the is called.

In my mind I call this the lace-y evergreen.  It is unlike any trees I have seen in Vermont.  In fact, there are many trees here in Oregon that are unlike any trees in Vermont!

A few Sundays ago it was very very windy.  This tree's branches were blowing in the wind.  It looked like an old-fashioned lady's skirts billowing out around her.  Such a lovely sight.

Early Morning Yarn Project

Last night I came to the end of one of the skeins of yarn I was using to make a Garter Squish blanket.  I needed to add in another strand of yarn but wanted to do it from yarn cakes instead of skeined yarn.

Since all the remaining yarn I wanted to use for this blanket was in skeins, I got out the trusty Stanwood yarn winder. I LOVE that winder.  So sturdy.  So easy to use.  So trustworthy in winding up lovely yarn cakes.  Yarn cakes which do not roll all over the sapworks when you are using them which can be a problem with some skeins.

The two blue cakes and the two white cakes are the ones I wound this morning before breakfast.  The gray and purples I spruced up a bit by tucking in the ends to keep them tidy.  Now I can go to town again on the blanket.  I hope to have it done by the end of the month, but that may be wishful thinking.

One thing I have found is that you can quickly and easily wind a skein with 6 ounces of yarn in it.  A skein with 7 ounces of yarn in it stretches the capacity of the Stanwood but can be done by slowing down and helping it a little bit.  That is not really a problem since most of the yarn I wind is 4 ounces.

It was a good morning's work and started the day off very well.

Munchie Monday: Food Fail. Again.

We are trying to eat mostly plant foods.  This is going well.  Well, sort of.  Recently I saw a food product on social media somewhere that spoke highly of seitan.  I happened to find some at a rather high end grocery store.  It was Chorizo Sausage Seitan flavor.  How can you go wrong with sausage flavor?  I chose not to resist the urge to purchase it.

Today I made dinner with that Chorizo Sausage Seitan, a can of diced tomatoes we had in the cupboard, and some Miracle Noodles, fettuccini style, plus a few herbs and spices.

WELL!  It was really something.  It was so spicy that our mouths burned for ten minutes.  I decided to pack up the leftovers and take them so someone I know who appreciates spicy food.

It turns out the diced tomatoes were laced with roasted chipotle peppers!  I think it would be a good idea to take more time with grocery shopping and look CAREFULLY at each label, being sure there is a connection between my eyes and my brain...!  Dear One would certainly appreciate it.  Or so he says...

Thursday Thoughts: Sleep

Sleep is critically important to our health.  The older I get, the more I realize this.  I am hoping some day to get it together with sleep.  When you read the magazine articles/scientific studies about how to have good sleep (go to bed same time every night, wake up same time every morning, have a bedtime ritual, stop screen time 60-90 minutes before bedtime, eat or drink no caffeine after 6 PM, etc)  I have done most of those--except the screen time--for a long time, and yet, there are nights where sleep is just plain elusive.

For the past few years, when I wake up at night, I go back to bed and try to drop off again. If I don't fall back to sleep within 30 minutes, I get up and do something productive, such as read my scriptures, knit, quietly clean up anything that needs cleaning up--and there is ALWAYS something to clean up that I did not do before bed!

Sadly, these stay-up times can last for hours.  Even with positive self-talk.  Such as, I am only going to knit two more rounds, or I will only read today's scripture goal, or I will only read one Spanish chapter, or, or, or.  Or even, at 2:30 I will definitely go back to bed.  Staying up seems to feed on itself.

Lately I have noticed that the nights when I am up for three or four hours during the night, I wake up with very nasty blood glucose levels.  Rats! 

So I was talking with Dear One.  Griping, actually, and he said he just stays in bed, tosses and turns for a while, then eventually falls back to sleep on those rare nights when sleep is difficult for him.  I think I will try that one for a while to see if that works.  I am definitely tired of feeling tired all day. 

Night-before-last was an up-most-of-the-night night.  Not surprisingly, last night I slept from 9:00 to 5:30!  Score!  And my blood sugar was happy this morning, even though I had not eaten smartly last evening.

May I say that I hope everyone who reads this post has better and better sleep.  It makes the days so much easier.

Food Friday: Quick and Easy Waffled Grilled Cheese Sandwiches!

Somewhere I got the idea to try making things other than waffles in the waffle maker.  Some time ago, actually.  The latest thing we tried was a grilled cheese sandwich.

To do this, I buttered one side of the sandwich bread and put the sandwich into the heated waffle maker, butter side down.  Next I buttered the top slice of bread and put the lid down on the sandwich.  Because the bread is already cooked and the cheese just needed to melt, I think I only let it cook for about one minute.  Next time I am not going to butter the bread and see what happens.

Dear One liked this sandwich.  Quick and easy, and the next one will be healthier without the added butter...

Wednesday Wonders: Rome Italy Temple

Dear One and I started our marriage together kneeling at an altar in the Cardston, Alberta, Canada temple nearly 46 years ago.

Cardston, Alberta, Canada Temple from Wikipedia.  No copyright information visible.

 At the time there were no temples east of the Rocky Mountains. So we made the long trip to Cardston by car, bus, train, bus, and car again.   In 1974 a beautiful new temple was dedicated in Washington, DC. 

This picture came from Wikipedia.  I could not find copyright information to credit here, either.

For years we did not get to go to the temple together as Dear One was teaching school and I was caring for five small children.  One year, when several of the children were in elementary school, sisters in the Relief Society took turns caring for the children in shifts so that I could attend the temple again. It had been many years, years when I began to doubt my spiritual worth.  That loving kindness by those sisters to allow me to attend the temple again re-ignited my spiritual lantern which continues to guide and direct me to this day.

As the children, grew Dear One and I together were able to make the trip to Washington, DC temple more and more regularly until we became ordinance workers there, and later, in Boston when that temple was dedicated.  The temple has been an integral part of our spirit's life for many many years.  It is such a blessing to attend and worship in the temple.

Now a new temple has been dedicated: in Rome, Italy.  It was so wonderful to participate in a virtual tour of this new temple led by two apostles:  Elder David Bednar and Elder Ronald Rasband.  I thought others of you might be interested in seeing and learning about this holy House of the Lord.

Here is that virtual tour.  This picture was taken from the ChurchofJesusChrist.org website.

Just click on the link beneath the temple to tour this glorious sacred edifice.

Tuesday Troubles: Some Days...

Today was one of those days.  I had informed Dear One that I thought we had our eating all wrong.  Instead of eating next to nothing for breakfast, a larger lunch, and a big supper, I told him we should turn it totally around and have our real meals at breakfast and lunch and let supper go.

So, for breakfast today I made him a nice big fat waffle and a plate of pan fries. Not at all nutritious but food he loves. For myself I made a small bowl of lovely leftover chili which was really good.  Well, it would have been good except when I brought it out of the microwave, even though I had pot holders in both hands, the bowl slipped out of my grasp, crashed to the kitchen floor, smashed, and spread the chili in a pretty good mess.

Fortunately there was more in the refrigerator so I warmed up another bowl and this time I chopped a small avocado and put that on top of the chili.  I put my next-to-favorite spoon in the bowl since I could not locate my favorite spoon, and when I turned towards the table, the spoon and avocado fell out of the bowl onto the floor and gave me ANOTHER mess to clean up!

Fortunately it was only the avocado that spilled, not the new chili,  and I had a nice breakfast.

A little later I went to the laundry closet  where I thought I had been soaking some whites in Oxyclean for Whites.  Even though I had put water in the whites originally, there seemed to be no water in the washer so I turned it on to fill while I took my shower.  I am a fast person in the shower (after 7 people to get through showers before school back in the old log cabin days you learn to be fast.  At least, I did...) but when I got out of the shower I heard the washer agitating.  I rushed out to the laundry closet in my towel to lift the cover so the clothes could actually soak in water. Couldn't because the lid was locked so I pressed the button to stop the agitating and lift the cover while the clothes soak.  Nope.  When I pressed the button, all the water drained out of the washer and there was nothing I could do.

Three strikes today. You would think that was enough but there was MORE!!

After ward conference where our Bishop encouraged us not to fritter away our valuable time on things that were not of true worth, I decided to do a bit of picking up and organizing our dining area.  I had thought about moving the paper shredder to live beside the patiently-waiting-for-summer air conditioner so I could use that spot for something else.  So...I put the thought into action.

This was a good idea.  EXCEPT that when I lifted the shredder, the top came off, fell to the floor, and tipped over the shredding bucket which was full of shreds.  Now the shreds were on the floor and as I stepped over the shreds to pick up the shredder itself, instead of stepping over the shreds I managed to kick them so there were little tiny paper shreds everywhere!  I considered, for about two seconds, enlisting the aid of Dear One to clean up that mess, but since I had not asked him to clean up the previous messes I thought he would appreciate a whole day not having to take care of my foolishness.

Off to the hall closet for the vacuum cleaner.  You may gasp at this, but I have not done any vacuuming in this apartment.  Dear One has done all of it.  It was a bit of a comedy of errors because that machine was totally new to me.  I stepped on both of the gray step-buttons.  Nothing happened.  I pressed the red button on the back. Nothing happened.  Finally I asked Dear One if the cleaner was battery powered.  He looked at me, then said, "Yes."  OK, then how did you turn it on?  I could NOT figure it out.

After a few moments he got up from the couch still smiling, came over the vacuum cleaner and pulled out the cord.  Duh!  Oh well.  So I started vacuuming up all the little paper pieces.  All of a sudden my long acetate and spandex skirt was caught the the roller.  That was it.  I extricated the skirt, fortunately without tearing it,  put away the cord after a laughing bit of help from Dear One, and promised the vacuuming was back in his court from how on.

And that was my day.

The good thing about the day was that I made some efforts with our genealogy which made me happy and cleaned the bad taste out of my mouth from my little peccadillos.