Thankful Sunday--August 4, 2013

I am thankful that Lucy's head wasn't really caught between these two posts.

Cats don't usually get themselves into situations that they can't get out of. But you never know. Especially with Lucy. She had to twist her head a bit, but she was able to extract herself just fine.

My Blogging Approach

Some of the everyday things I have blogged about.

Before I started this blog, I thought about stories I wanted to tell. They were stories about personal struggles and triumphs. They were funny stories and serious stories. However after two years, I haven't told one of those stories here. That is because they involve details about other people who didn't ask to be part of my blog. They were about friends and family who would rather not have some important parts of their life shared in a very public way. So, I have tried to respect that. 

Therefore, you may know what my family had to eat last week and that we went on a hike, but you won't know the individual struggles we are having--the ones that make us angry with each other and the ones that make us cry for both sadness and joy. You may know that we got a good deal on a garden tool but you won't know how that savings fits into our overall budget. It's not that I think that others shouldn't share these things on their blogs. In fact, some of the most meaningful and inspirational stories come from reading about others personal journeys.

 As time has gone on, I have thought of my blogging community more like a family. I am ready to share more personal things like the death of my father, but others still are not ready for me to bare all. I ask permission if a post involves anyone other than myself before I publish it even though we all have an alias. You may have noticed that most of my pictures don't show faces or show them only from a distance. If you see a whole person, the picture is quite old or a stranger I have gotten permission from. Some place names are real and some are not. If you read much, you should know what area of the USA I live in, but not much more than that.
  
"With this blog, I am trying to take time to notice everyday things around me with both appreciation and curiosity."  That was one of my early statements about the purpose of this blog and I think Live and Learn-Toss and Turn has helped me to do that. I do know that this blog has made me a happier person overall. I spend more time appreciating the outdoors around me with A Second Look. I take time to be reminded of the simple things I'm thankful for with Thankful Sundays. I remember fondly Wally and Theo's early years with Ponderings and Boy vs. Girl. I am eating healthier and more frugally with Food Waste Friday and True Food Confessions. And the list goes on. 

Upon reflection, I declare my blogging approach a success for me. For now, I will share some of my personal stories with just my family and then enjoy reading yours.

Food Waste Friday and True Food Confessions--Aug. 2, 2013

It's time for Food Waste Friday, when the Frugalgirl encourages us to post pictures from the previous week of wasted food from our household. This accountability hopefully will help us to be more careful with our food and maybe save some money. Also, I am using this public forum to encourage us to eat out less which includes better meal planning. You can follow how we are doing in this endeavor by reading True Food Confessions.

This Week's Food Waste 

Nada

although I did have to cut some bad places

out of several tomatoes to save them. 

This Week's True Food Confessions

A Sampling of food we enjoyed this week. 

Let's see, I'm too tired now to make this post especially witty or enlightening--and I might need more interesting subject material if I were going to do much of that. So for now, I'll give you the facts, just the facts. (Anyone out there remember Dragnet?)

--Ate out once on the weekend after I came home from working on Sunday. A good choice as far as I was concerned because I was really tired. A good choice as far as Wally and Ward were concerned because they had been hoping all day that they could convince me to go out for Mexican.

--Ate a lot of fresh cucumbers and tomatoes. Nothing better. Okay, maybe homemade ice cream is better. Or chocolate chip cookies fresh out of the oven are better. Or corn on the cob is better. Maybe I should rephrase the opening statement: We enjoyed a lot of fresh cucumbers and tomatoes this week.

--No new recipes this week, but we did try salmon burgers from Costco. They were very good. No one liked them better than beef burgers, but would be happy to have them often since they offer nutritional benefits that you don't get with regular hamburger.

 Did you try anything new this week on the food front?

Until next time...

 

A Second Look--July 31, 2013

Here's what I saw this week during a Second Look.

While some tiger lilies are still blooming, many are dropping their petals as you can see behind and to the right of this one.

The hydrangea are still going strong.

These two begonias were both yellow when they were planted. However, the one on the right was exposed to more sun and turned orange.

While some day lilies are done blooming, a few colors are still making a show.

The ever-faithful spirea.

These celosia are all volunteers from last year.

One of the sparrow eggs has hatched. When this baby first hatched yesterday, it had no down on it. I have seen a lot of growth in just 24 hours

I found four more eggs in the bluebird nest. That makes three clutches in one season. This is an unusual but not an unheard of occurrence.

Quilts

Quilts from museum exhibit

I love quilts. So when the neighborhood museum opened their exhibit on quilts, I hurried in to see it. On display were many quilts made by local quilters. Some of the quilts were old and some were new, but all of them were beautiful.

 As I was perusing the exhibit, I thought about the quilts I grew up with. I had one with a flannel backing for the winter and a lighter weight one for the summer. I slept with one of those two quilts every night for years. They were made by my grandmother for me and all of the work was done by hand. However they looked different than the quilts I was seeing in the exhibit as neither one of my quilts had a particular pattern with regard to color or shape. My grandmother used whatever inexpensive source of fabric she could find whether or not they matched. Those quilts were very representative of much of the way my family was (is)--very practical.

I also remembered another quilt of my youth--one that I started as a teenager using squares of fabric cut from old jeans that I had. I pieced several squares together, but never got much further than that until a couple of years ago when I got it out and decided that I was going to finish it. I got additional fabric and made it big enough to fit a twin bed. However, I ran out of steam. Maybe someday I will finish it. In the meantime I like to look at it and remember the different jeans that are represented and what was going on in my life when I wore them.

Now, I have a new quilt interest--barn quilts. These are large quilt squares painted on wood and hung on the side of barns or other outdoor structures. I see them occasionally in my travels and it's always fun to find them. Also, Uncle Billy has started to make them and if I can figure out how to hang one, he will make one for me.

Did I mention, I love quilts? See some of them below.

Part of the quilt exhibit at my local museum.

Quilts made for me by my grandmother. Left: Winter, Right: Summer

Lucy checking out my in-progress quilt.

Some of Uncle Billy's Barn Quilts.
(Patterns in a clockwise direction: Lemon Star, Bear Paw, Rolling Star) 

Another one of Uncle Billy's Barn Quilts. (Pattern: Indian Maze)
 (Picture from Shelley at Intermittent Farm Report.)