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Yes. It is Christmas here. We are cooking and calling family and friends and walking dogs and looking for Christmas orphans in the caravan park so I will just wish you all a blessed Christmas and will be back tomorrow. Xx
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Merry Christmas to all of us in the North America time zones. Last night we went to our daughter's house to have our cChristmas celebration. I may be repeating myself here but I don't remember if I told you details of the adult gifts. Instead of giving gifts to the adults, we are giving "experiences" over the next year. Each family is in charge of an activity. We will be having a Valentines party in February, a trip to a giant carousel in May, a trip to the Renaissance Fair in August, and a picnic in a park with a water feature and a petting zoo. We will also make a trip up to our mountain property some time in the Summer but not all will be able to go with us. It sounds like we will be doing a lot of traveling back here to Denver to be involved in these activites. This morning we slept in and ate a breakfast casserole, bacon and waffles and now three of the four of us are taking naps. They did get up earlier than I did so I guess I will let them get by with it. LOL All the gifts I recieved were really useful and I am so grateful especially for my oldest daughter who has been having financial problems was able to make home made gifts from what she had around the house. She is the one that takes care of our house here in Denver while we are living in Grand Junction.
Judith - I am so glad that you were able to spend time with your family last night. I hope it did not tire you out too much. Please rest well today to get your energy back.
Susan - that is so nice of you to look around your area to see if there were any "orphans" you could celebrate with. That is truly the spirit of Christmas to share what you have and bring joy to others.
Marilyn - Thanks for the blessing of peace for all of us. Peace can be hard to find when the world around is so busy. I wish you peace also.0 -
Marilyn, peace be with you.
Linda, I love the gifting of experiences in your family. They are gifts that will certainly last all year long! And building memories like that is priceless. How did they like their aprons?
Judith, I hope you have recovered some spoons to use today. Bless you.
Merry Christmas for all celebrating today.
We spent a lot of the morning calling and texting family. Our meal at lunch time was good. Col and I ate alone, then needed a traditional Christmas nap.
About 5pm we joined five other Christmas orphans for nibbles which lasted till about 8pm. Some were from Queensland, some from New South Wales and one was from Ireland. We ate a light meal and headed for bed again.
May your own days be merry and bright.
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Happy Boxing Day Everyone, Hope you all had a most Blessed Christmas and were able to be with Family and Friends all those who are held close to your heart. I was blessed as I spent Christmas Eve day and evening with my family who both live out of town. My son lives the furthest but was able to make the trip in to be with us all. I ended up by leaving my phone at my daughters so am without all my data and ability to complete all the things I would like to do here, but know in spite of that I hold you close to my heart in thoughts and in prayers.
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Susan - after all the work I put into the aprons, I forgot to take them. I told her I would mail them to her since we will not see her before we leave again. I was really disappointed in myself for forgetting to take them!
Happy Boxing day to all who observe it. I had to google to see what it involved. It has a rich history attached to it and sounds like it would be good for everyone to celebrate to help the less fortunate.
Judith - I am sorry you left your phone at your daughter's house. It seems we are all so attached to our phones, we do not know what to do without them. I think it would be good for me and many others to "loose" their phones for a while to we can see beyond the screen to see what is going on ourside of our own little virtual worlds.
It is time I start using my new Christmas gift - a long handled scrub brush to clean the shower. I am excited about not having to get down on my knees to scrub the shower floor. I can get down but the shower is very narrow and long so it is hard to find anything to help me get back up after I finish scrubbing. Now I can stand up and do the work without my having to awkwardly trying to find how to get up. I like to get practical gifts and this year was a good year.
Marilyn - gratitude is so important for a happy life. I love that in your team we have a daily gratitude thread to keep us thinking positively.2 -
Hello, friends! Just stopping in briefly to say hi as we are going exploring. Will pop back in later if I can 😀
I'm back!
We are in Richmond today, where there are some old buildings made of sandstone to explore. First we went into Hobart and saw a replica of Mawson's Hut, one of the first scientific research stations in Antarctica.
Sorry it's a little blurry. We found it impossible to slow down or stop for photos in Hobart, so I get camera shake. The streets are narrow in many busy places and offer no parking spots, and it is busy today. Not only are post Christmas sales on, it is also hyper due to the Sydney - Hobart yacht race. People are pretty thick on the ground with their vehicles and spectator boats! The main part of the city is right on Constitution Dock and the Derwent River, where the race finishes in about 24 hours.
Some of the Pinkest Hydrangeas I have ever seen!! These are in Richmond.
Will return with more photos once we explore Richmond.
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I got all my squares cut out for my patchwork piece to cover the top of our piano. It is long and narrow so I tried to create a pattern with only three rows of material. I had to have my husband help me figure it out because I am making a diagnal pattern and I ended up with a few squars as duplicates on the end and front. Of course with his mathematical brain he knew what to do. I am so grateful he can help me with these areas. When I homeschooled the kids, I did all the language arts, Bible, writing, reading, science but he was the one that did the mathematics.
Today we are going out to look at sofa beds. The couch I have in the house is a used one and it is loosing it's loft and is hard to get up from. It also has a pattern that does not match my color scheme so I have to put a cover on it. I really need to have a couch that turns into a bed so when family comes, I have enough places for them to sleep. A sofa couch will work but we want to get the best deal we can so we are checking out several places.
Susan - the Hydrangeas are beautiful. I'm not sure I have seen pink ones. The ones we have here are a blue/purple mixture.
Marilyn - good quote today! If I quit when I was tired, sometimes I would not even start. LOL
Judith - praying for you today for strength.
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Linda, may you find just the right couch. The piano cover sounds interesting. When I was quilting I always needed help figuring out the maths. I never used to teach math either, except for basics. Glad you liked the Hydrangeas. Mine were always blue, pale yellow and lilac.
Marilyn, am cheering for you. I know it takes great strength to stay your course, but with the Lord's help, you can.
Judith, thi ki g of you and praying for you too.
Today we are moving to a new site within Hobart Showgrounds. We've had more trouble with our water system and need to be on mains water with a Gray water drain. They have expe Ted Colin to haul our sink/shower water away in buckets rather than let it out on the grass. And the pump system we have for our tanks that was 'repaired' caused us to lose a whole tank of water on the grass last night.1 -
Susan, in one of your posts you mentioned Richmond, here in BC in the Greater Vancouver area we have a city named Richmond! It’s a small world after all. Loved the Sandstone pictures! Glad you got a long handled scrub brush for cleaning bathroom, will make your life easier!
Linda, so sorry you forgot your aprons. That would be both disappointing and frustrating for you. You mention when you home schooled go never taught Math, I hear you as math was not one of my strengths. Your piano cover sounds like it will be so lovely!
Marilyn, good quotes; I so agree with both, yes, don’t stop until you are done.
I have my phone back, yay me! It’s good in some respects but in others it’s not good! With not having it for few days I learned to live without it but yes, I missed it but did learn I could get around it and use my computer and my landline, which did seem quite ancient! 😁
Will say Good Night and God Bless 😴🙏0 -
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I am taking a break from sewing for a little while. My daughter's sewing machine is not working well and I need to see if I can figure out what is happening. It seems to be the bobbin but I do not see anything wrong. It just wants to jump up and down rather than move forward and therefore creates a huge bundle of threads in one place. My daughter says it happens to her also so maybe it just needs a time out to rest since I have kept it so busy lately.
Susan - I am glad that you were able to move spaces so you do not have to haul all your gray water. That would be very hard work for Colin! I am sorry that the repaired pump on your water tank also lost water on the ground last night. I hope this new spot is better for you.
Judith - I am glad that you have your phone back. When my phone is low on battery or charging and I can not use it, I realize how attached to it I can be. A phone can be a blessing to keep in touch with people but also it can take away time from doing something more constructive.
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Linda, about your sewing machine, how long has it been since someone cleaned the lint out from the feed dogs, bobbin holder and underneath that? I found I had to do that after making each quilt or my machine would clog up like that. We got the repairman to install a turn off valve for us yesterday and that seems to be doing the trick with our water.
That's right, Marilyn.
Judith, glad you got your phone back. I think Linda is the one with the long handled brush? I use a cleaning cloth and squeegee in my shower. About Richmond, isn't there one in England? Our English ancestors used a lot of English names for things in Australia. Lol! We have a Cambridge near here, and Campbelltown in Sydney, etc. We even have a town named Texas in Queensland. Lol! It's a small world for sure.
Not sure what we will do today. Colin is restless and I just want to sit still.1 -
Indeed it is a small world! I find that even street names in other parts of the world find their place here in my part of world. Thanks Zsusan for helping me out about the long handled brush that Linda uses. Sometimes after reading all the posts I get tired and try and remember, sometimes it works other times it doesn’t!
Sorry about your sewing machine Linda, sounds like it could be what Susan said about the machine needing lint cleaned away. See if that works for you!
Thanks Marilyn for the quote. Another great one!
It’s bedtime now so I’m saying Good Night and God Bless! 😴❤️🙏.0 -
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The sewing machine and I had a talk and we came to an agreement. It would do the sewing correctly if I make sure the thread is in the right sections. Opps! As I looked at it I realized it was my fault that it was not working. I re-threaded it and wonders do happen - it worked fine. I do not know how often my daughter cleans her machine. I have a little bottle of compressed air I use on my machine in Grand Junction that does get a lot of lint out. I am going to stop working on the piano topper until I can get some plain colored cotton and make a different pattern on the other side so it is reversable. As it is, it is a little "busy" with all the squared having a pattern.
We got our year end grocery shopping done yesterday. From Thanksgiving through the end of the year we get 10% off all the food we buy as a benefit for working for 20+ years at Walmart. Even though he does not work there anymore, we still get the discount. I was carrying in a big basket of canned food and I tripped on a box we had on the floor of the garage to be put into recycling. The box collapsed when I stepped on it and I fell on the rest of the boxes. My pride was hurt more than me but I do have a pretty sore place on my hip. I am glad that the boxes broke the fall a little rather than falling on the concrete of the garage.
Today I we took our 16 year old granddaughter out to see a movie and then to eat at her favorite fast food place which is Taco Bell. Th movie we saw was "Wish" which was pretty good.1 -
Oh no, Linda! Sorry you fell! The Lord blessed you with those boxes alright. Glad you figured out the sewing machine problems! I was going to suggest re-threading it, too, even if it looks correctly threaded.
Marilyn, cheering for you.
Judith, that alright about the brush. I forget and get things wrong and I am not battling what you are battling. 😘 It's easy to do. Hugs.
It's cold, windy and wet here today so I am spending the day grooming, washing and clipping the dogs. I just finished combing them out, brushing their teeth and cutting/sanding/filing their nails. I need lunch then we'll have a go at washing, blow drying and clipping them. My trusty vacuum cleaner is charged up to catch anything I don't get in the bin.
Yesterday was a nice day. I'll do a little travel log for you.
After lunch we went for a drive all the way down to within a kilometre of Port Arthur. We stopped awhile at Dunalley to get coffee and take photos of their canal (they had a bridge thst opens up for shipping traffic), then went to Doo Town where most houses are named in ways that incorporate 'Doo' in them (eg Doo-Drop-In, Gunna-Doo, Dooin-Little, Have-To-Doo), stopping at Tessellated Pavement, the Tasman Arch and the whale watching site as well. We didn't see any whales, Colin took the photo of the Tasman Arch, and the Tessalated Pavement showed us a rare sight of rocks broken and split into shapes that looked like a tile cutter had made then, sort of.
Dunalley's Denison Canal with bridge in the background
A house in Doo Town called MuchADoo:
Tessellated Pavement
Tasman Arch, also carved out by sea water:
Whale watching beach for Southern Wright Whales, Orcas and Humpbacks:
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I did my first try making sour dough bread yesterday. Although I did not have a dutch oven as it asked for, it actually turned out pretty well using a covered pyrex casserole dish. I am trying to make some more today and it seems a little less daunting. It takes a long time to do it with the resting for 10-12 hours two times but it seems easier today. I am getting into a little routine so I am enjoying it today. My daughter gave me the starter that she got from a friend. It was supposedly over 100 years old and does not take sugar to grow. I have seen some that take sugar and yeast to start it growing but this does not. It still seems a shame to not use all of the starter each time. I do not like to waste anything. I was thinking about trying sourdough pancakes with what is left this time.
I saw a notice that my favorite fabrid store is having a sale on cotton material that I need to finish the other side of the piano runner. I know I said I was stopping for a while but at least I can have the material ready when I get back into making it again.
Susan - the pictures are so interesting! I am learing so much about Tasmania. I especially like the naming of the places in Doo town.
Judith - like Susan said, you have so many things on your mind that it is understandable that you might get details mixed up. I do the same thing and my life seems quiet next to yours.0 -
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Happy New Year Susan! ✨🎉🎈 Do you do anything special for this day? I do not make resolutions but I do try to have a focus on something I want to work on in my Christian walk. The first part of last year I focused on going through the gospels to see how Jesus loved people. He loved them in different ways depending on their hearts. I had to stop and do something different to help Glenn as he was looking at some books to use for some of his classes. He wanted me to critique a workbook he was hoping to use. Our church is doing a 40 days of prayer plan to gain direction for the church. We will be given the focus for that which I will do to begin the year then go back to Jesus love study. We will stay up until past midnight which is myusual routine so it will be natural. We have a few snacks planned and sparkling cider to drink too. Past those plans we are pretty blah.
My friend is cleaning out her bookshelves and gave me about 50 books she did not want anymore. She likes to read historical fiction, books about the amish society as well as mysteries. I like these books too so I read them then pass them on to my daughter and daughter-in-law. Do any of you have a favorite author? I like Francine Rivers although she can be pretty intense in her Biblical fiction books.
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Happy New Year! Linda, we don't really do too much for New Year's Eve. We don't stay up till midnight as Colin can't. Others do. I stayed up till midnight last night as I usually do, but he was sound asleep. We had had nibbles with some travelling orphans at the Showgrounds till about 9pm, and that was it. I did spend time last night thanking God for all the blessings of 2023.
Marilyn, good thoughts for the New Year.
Glad you are enjoying the travel logs. Are you ready for another?
We spent yesterday exploring a couple of beaches on the back roads to Dunalley. We took in Lewisham, Carlton Beach and Primrose Sands before getting back to Denison Canal where they were just opening the bridge for a couple of vessels. Then we found oysters for Colin from a working Oyster Farm and Cherries for me from an actual Cherry tree farm (I can have two a day and they are only in season over Christmas/New Year).
Some highlights of the day:
View of the Bay at Primrose Sands and we gather their cars are made for endurance there.
This Primrose Sands house had nice gates.
Carlton Beach was where we had our packed lunch. It was a dog beach and well hidden by shrubs where we parked. The swimmers were out in pretty big waves. Sorry I couldn't get photos of that. Most of the beaches were hidden from the roads and parking areas. We didn't let the boys out as they were reacting to all the big dogs around them.
Denison Canal with the bridge open behind the boat.
Col with his oysters and our big bag of Cherries (luckily Colin likes them too).
As you know, we spent some of the evening hours with our travelling orphan friends. I caved well before midnight as I wanted to get the dogs back to the van to go to sleep. Col lasted a little longer but also came to bed before midnight. I watched TV till the clock ticked over. We'll have to ask our new friends if they saw the New Year in!0 -
Linda, so sorry about your fall. Hope you are alright? And so glad you figured out how to resolve the sewing machine issues.
Marilyn, I join with Susan and Cheer you on!
Susan, thank you for sharing the Travel Log of the spectacular pictures you took. The places are so unique and I so enjoyed seeing each place. You are seeing such beautiful places as you travel along in your caravan. I see a Travel Scrapbook for 2023 of all the places you visited and stayed at. All your pictures are greatly appreciated that you have posted here. Thank you Susan.
At this time I would like to wish you a Happy Blessed Peaceful New Year 2024. I wish you God’s Best! God Bless you my friends! ❤️🙏🤗1 -
Well I have taken some time to think about the new year and what I would like to accomplish and here is what I have come up with
-- Eat according to the plan I now have for kidney failure
-- Track all food making not of 'no salt', low sugar and low flour
-- Drink 72 oz of water each day this month
-- Walk on treadmill 30 minutes each day
-- Read through the Bible with my husband again this year
-- Make prayer a priority as there are many issues that we are all dealing with that we need the Lord's help with
Matthew 6:31-33
Therefore do not be anxious, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or ' What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' For the Gentiles seek after all theses things and your heavenely Father know that you need them all. BUT seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things will be added to you.
Matthew 7:7-8
Ask, and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; know, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knows it will be opened.
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My daughter, granddaughter and I are "night owls" so we had not problem staying awake until after midnight. Actually I read until 2am one of the new books I got from my friend. Glenn went to sleep at 12:15am and slept later this morning to get his rest. We drank sparking cider at midnight and before that we all talked about the good thing and not so good things that happened during 2023, Even with the difficult things we were able to see good things come from it. We have become stronger and more resilant and also more aware of people who are going through hard times and to have empathy for them.
Our other daughter who just came back from Kansas vising the in-laws last night will be coming over this afternoon and will stay to eat with us. We will be having our usual black eyed peas, saurkraut and pork as our family traditions taught us growing up. Of course, we do not feel that we will have bad luck if we do not eat this, it is just fun to keep up the South states and German roots we have.
Susan - thanks again for including us on your journey. I love the picture of the little car attached to the big trailer. Did you cook the oysters or were they already prepared? My aunt always brought scallopped oysters to our New Years day celebration. I did not carry that tradition forward though.1 -
Linda, I don't eat shellfish due to my allergies and Colin likes raw oysters. They are all gone, directly from their shells. A friend did suggest he try Oysters Kilpatrick with a little bacon and Worcestershire sauce on them then pop them under a hot grill for next time. He's keen to do that. You have reminded me that I need to buy some sauerkraut! Enjoy your time with your daughter.
Marilyn, those are good goals. I'm still thinking about mine.
Judith, Happy New Year to you also. I'm glad you enjoyed the photos. I have never been a big traditional scrap booker but might create a digital book one day and get it printed. I tend to put tags on my photos and keep a little diary as we go instead. It can get overwhelming for me otherwise, given how long we are on the road.1 -
Marilyn, thank you for sharing the scriptures in your post two of many favourites that have ministered to me over the years. You have many of the goals I am already putting into practice regarding my Food intake and Fitness.
Linda, you mentioned about traditions for New Years and about oysters, I continued our family tradition but as a Christian gathering. Every New Years Eve I had Friends and Family to my home and this is how we celebrated. I always had smoked oysters on a platter with a variety of crackers, and had shrimp cocktails and a variety of hot and cold finger food like BBB wings, meatballs in sweet and sour sauce, sausage rolls, cheese and cracker trays and pickle trays, 2 kinds of chips, veggie and fruit trays with dip. I made a Fruit juice and pop topped with a rainbow sherbet for us to sip on all evening. I had large groups of friends in and we also shared Communion and prayed in the New Year and then toasted the New Year with Martinelli Sparkling Juice. Friends always provided a variety of Baked Goods we had with coffee and
tea to finish our night out!
Susan, I like your idea about creating a Digital Book of all your travels and the fantastic pictures you include, I would be very interested in reading your Digital book should you create it and make it available online. May I encourage you and Cheer you on to Create your Digital Book!
Have a Blessed Tuesday! I have a follow up appointment with the Cancer Clinic and on Thursday I’m back to see my Surgeon. Will keep you posted! Good Nite and God Bless! 😴🙏❤️0
