WOMEN AGES 50 + FOR NOVEMBER 2018

Thank you, Katla and Barbara... Katla, hope it's not a cold! My only recommendation is a big dose of Nyquil and a long sleep the first night. It seems to reset my system and allow it to throw off the symptoms.

Allie, your family memories are truly precious to you. Write them down, girl. Of course, that's advice from a writer... so take that with a grain of salt.

The yeast made it! I invested in six packages of Bob's Red Mill Yeast almost four YEARS ago, no joke, as I read some great reviews, and I was baking a lot at the time, when we lived out on the ranch. It survived six months in an un-airconditioned trailer in NC, and moving from one freezer to the next in the last four years... Amazing stuff. So pleased.

Michele: Lisa's advice to you was spot on! Please read it several times because I really think that some of us (me right there with you) have expectations that our children just can't fulfill for us. And, it made me sad to read what you wrote because I remember that at every holiday my mom would be crying. It didn't matter that all five of us children would be there. Holidays just made her sad.

Alison: I enjoyed reading about your memories of Thanksgiving. What fun you and your family must have had.

Karen: Congrats to your granddaughter.

Machka: Nice photography!

Barbie: Enjoy you TD meal with friends.

Hope this is not too much information: I feel a bit sad about TD because my son and his wife are constantly going at it! We are all sharing TD at her mom's house and I feel a bit uncomfortable about the whole situation. DnL never says anything about their problems but we know they are there. She is 10 yrs younger than my son. They were together since she was 17 and I have always wondered if there would come a time when she felt like she had missed out on a lot of good times during that time in her life. She is very, very smart and is working on her 6 yr degree in education. My son on the other hand has always hated school due to his ADD/HD/LD . He has a good job but I wonder if she feels she could have done better. Anyway, I am praying without ceasing and hope the Good Lord will help them work through all this.

I hate Day Light Savings Time. My body just can't seem to adjust as I am getting up at 5 AM or earlier instead of some time between 6 & 7. Ugh!

Carol in GA

Lisa it will take me a little over three hours to get to your house, will the bread be out of the oven then? . Unfortunately we are getting freezing drizzle this morning and its moving east, I have no desire to navigate icy roads. Maybe next time. 🍞

Being the youngest of six we had BIG family holidays and I loved every minute of the noise and chaos. As we all got married and had children it became a truly large gathering, I wouldn't change a moment of it for anything! I won't have a large group this year for Thanksgiving, I normally have at least 12 or so, this Thanksgiving it will just be our next door neighbors but we enjoy the company.

I had planned to take my granddaughter and her new husband shopping for Christmas ornaments and decorations for their first Christmas together, but due to icy roads and them living about an hour away, we had to postpone for now.

Have a terrific day, my friends

Janetr OKC

Hi Gals,

Michele – I know a tiny little bit about a septic system (we are on city sewer where I live) and I have never heard of it filling from rain, I thought the pipes from the home went into the top of the tank, and the water exited via a leach field, so is the rain coming in via the leach field?
- as for exercise in May – my recommendation it to not worry about it till March --- who knows maybe there will be a gym up there or the YMCA you could do a guest membership at.
- Something struck me about the bit of your post about your kids, and that what you were hoping for was to change their behavior; that’s pretty much impossible. But you can change your behavior, your reactions, your language, your expectations --- I learned a ton about this in counseling my situation was super different, it that I needed to protect myself from abuse. But I wonder if some good professional help might be able to give you some insight. Just a thought! Not any form of judgement.


Lisa – Great plan on the interview. And while you could live on just Cory’s income till may 2020 – I can not imagine that you would not do something to add to the cash flow, another book? A column in the local paper….

Carol – Hang in there, Thanksgiving day will be tough for me too – I’ll send thoughts of great peace for your time together, and would appreciate yours coming this way.

Janetr – If I was you I’d hop in that car and head directly to Lisa’s !!!

My mom has a granny smith apple tree and I got a few bags of apples from her, I made applesauce – I make this chunky applesauce, with the peels left on, just cinnamon and nutmeg, and canned it up – so I have 8 pints tucked away, I’m drying some too, a great snack for my gardening days.

The air quality in the San Francisco bay area has been heavily impacted by the Camp – Paradise fire; airflow is interesting as we were not affected as badly by the fires last year; some of which were actually closer to us. But for over a week now our air quality has been between 160-240 on the Air Quality Index – under 100 is ok (not good but ok) Over 200 is severely unhealthy. We do not have any of the problems that those living in Paradise or the surrounding communities have. But we have the ripple effect, so for a week I have not been able to work at my gardening jobs, this is having a serious affect on my income as it is about a 50% cut in my income for this week. We should have rain on Wed (day before thanksgiving) which will help clean the air. I’m hoping I can make up the lost wages in the last few days of the month. One good thing is that everyone at the Kids camp I work at will be gone, so I am taking care of the chickens every day for a week. It’s about 30 minutes each way to camp so I’ve been setting up other reasons to be out that way.




November Gratitude’s
1. Smell = clean dog
2. Technology = smart phone
3. Color = sunrise
4. Food = herbal tea
5. Sound = silence, but heard the coyotes talking, and loved hearing them
6. Nature = the waves
7. Memories = I think one of my favorite memories, is a conglomerate of memories – in the summer when I was a kid – Dad and I would go out to the grass to “pull weeds” we would pull a few, but really we would look at the clouds and point out the things we saw, or make up stories about were the airplanes were going overhead, who was in them… We were not in a flight path but way way high you would see a plane occasionally. And sometimes a small plane those were even more fun to make up stories about.
8. Book – oh so many I love – but the harry potter series as my god-son and I got them together and read them and talked about them almost every night
9. Place – I think the Grand Canyon – I did a 10 day rafting trip down the river for my 50th birthday and it was a life changing event and helped me grow and believe in myself enough to face coming home and being laid off 10 days later.
10. Taste – sweet or salty – for me it is always sweet! But favorite taste is my mom’s marinara sauce with meatballs, it cooks all day, and I could smell it from the corner of our street and knew one of my favorite dinners was that night
11. Holiday – tough one, I have a love of Christmas but it is also the day I was beaten by my domestic abuser so it has mixed memories…
12. Texture – I love cashmere
13. Abilities – I’m very thankful for my abilities – I think the one that comes to mind right now is planning, I can look ahead and figure out how to plan out things that need to be done to make the most of the time and money available.
14. Sight- my god daughter smiling at me…
15. Season- I love them all – it’s winter so it is my favorite right now.
16. Body – I have great thick hair with very little “grey” and actually the “grey” is mostly white, my paternal grandma had beautiful white hair… here’s hoping
17. Knowledge - I think the knowledge that I am in charge of setting boundaries to keep me physically and mentally safe, and how to do it…. I don’t always remember to do it, but I do know how.
18. Art – I have always loved Monet, I read somewhere that he was very nearsighted and his soft focus style was because he painted what he saw – and if that is true it makes complete sense to me as without my glasses my world is the world of Monet. My favorite of his is Water Lilies – probably because when I was in England it was at the National Gallery in London. I spent a lot of time there and always started and ended my visit with 5-10 minutes in front of that picture. I would sit in a slightly different place and just look at it – I never tired of it and it always had just a bit of a different look.

Smiles

Kim from N. California

Kim: We’ve had air quality issues from California fires, too, and we are a long way from them. The past couple of days have seemed better. I hope that continues to be true. I hope your air quality also gets better. :flowerforyou:


We have invited our niece and her gentleman friend to come to our house for Thanksgiving. I am looking forward to the visit. I’ve only met him twice, and both occasions were so full of people that we didn’t really get a chance to get acquainted. I was lost on my way to my grand neice’s bridal shower the first time we met, and he led me to the right spot. The second meeting was recently at our grandniece’s baby shower.

DH is feeling miserable, and I can’t do anything right. He has difficult health issues. The grumpier he gets, the less I am able to deal with his criticism. I’m getting a bit sad. I need to figure out how to improve my own feelings. Advice welcome. I don't think eating sweets helps.

Katla in beautiful NW Oregon