Ramblin' Tid-bits

Ever since we started school last week my days are oh-so-full and I'm never sure whether I'm coming or going. But life is good!

One thing that has helped is that I've been doing a lot of crock pot meals on weeknights. I've been trying recipes from the Fix-It and Forget-It Cookbook. The fun thing is that I have a new camera and my cousin just set up a "share your supper ideas" blog, so I've been posting my recipes at The Persnickety Pantry. I may even get back to Menu Plan Monday soon!

We like to do a lot of weekend camping this time of year, and today we are headed to one of our favorite places in this area.
It is an amazing grove of ancient cedar trees in eastern Montana. The trees are huge! A person could live inside one of them! I'll have more pictures to post when we get back, no doubt.

In other news, I am excited to announce that I have been invited to contribute to the Inspired Bliss channel over at Blissfully Domestic. It's all rather new, so I don't have a lot of details yet as to exactly what my contributions will be, but do check it out... and I'll share more about it later.

Have a great weekend!

I Remember

Our alarm didn't go off this morning. At 6:30 my husband woke me up saying, "We're a half hour late!" Not being a morning person, it is hard for me to get in gear so suddenly after being awakened, but I did my best. I like to check my email and read a few blogs as I have my morning coffee, and all over the blogosphere the question was being asked, "Do you remember?"

Throughout my life on certain days of the year older people would say to each other, "Today is Pearl Harbor Day. Do you remember?" Or, "This is the day President Kennedy was shot. Where were you when you heard the news?" Listening in, I would shake my head. No, I didn't remember. I was too young. I guess in the back of my mind I thought things like that couldn't happen in my generation. That is, until 2001.

I was awakened suddenly that September morning, too. My sister-in-law called from Kansas. "Have you had the news on this morning?" Well, no. It was still early here in the Pacific time zone. When she told me what happened, my first question was, "What does this mean for America?" Of course, she had no idea. But we soon found out.

America would never be the same.

And, yes. I remember.

My Kitchen Window

I wanted to participate in the Enchanted Window Party going on a couple of days ago, but I didn't get my pictures taken in time... so I'll just show you my kitchen window as part of Works for Me Wednesday.

My kitchen window is my favorite in our house, because it has such a nice wide window-sill for knick-knacks, but mainly because I have such a great view of the sunset every evening. I think this is the first time my kitchen has overlooked the sunset!

Now, for my "works for me" tip... I actually borrowed this idea from Martha who uses decorative baskets for all kinds of practical things around her home. She stores her spice packets in a pretty little basket hanging on the wall. I've had the tin Coke letter sorter for a couple of years, but hadn't really used it for anything practical until I saw her idea, and decided it was a perfect place to store Kool-aid packets. Then last Saturday I found the cute coffee-themed pocket banner in my kitchen colors at a garage sale. I hung it on the opposite side of the window and stored my larger spice packets in it. I found it really helps to get those cluttery little envelopes out of the cupboard, but still handy.


So... that was going to be my "works for me" tip for the week, but as it turns out, I have a bonus tip to share, too! I sometimes receive different products from BzzAgent to try out and then talk about, and my latest product to try is Pledge Multi-Surface cleaner. When I went to take the pictures of my kitchen window I noticed that the window sill was dusty and the window was smudged. It was so convenient to be able to use one bottle of spray cleaner for both surfaces! I have found that it really does work great on both wood and glass... and Lyle discovered it is also great for cleaning dusty electronics. One step cleaning. Works for me!

A Crooked Tree

On Sunday afternoon we went for a drive, specifically to take pictures with our new camera. Lyle pulled over at this bridge to snap a few shots of the pretty little river that ran under it. I didn't think about the possibility of hiking ahead of time, and had on high-heel sandals so I waited at the top while he and the kids climbed down the bank to the water. As I stood there enjoying the view, I noticed this crooked tree growing under the bridge. It grew up straight until it reached the underside of the bridge, and then it angled around and kept growing!

Funny little crooked tree. Not worth much. Not even very pretty. But you know what? It's growing right where God put it... and reaching for the light with all of it's strength!

I want to be like that!

A Romantic Man

I'm a romantic at heart. And I'm married to a very romantic man. He claims he's not. He honestly thinks he's not. But he is! It's because he pays attention to me. He considers my input on decisions we make. He values my opinion. If something happens at work that he thinks I would be interested in, he tells me about it. He notices if I see something I like when we're shopping, and later he may go back and buy it for me. (Not always. But often enough to make me realize that he does notice things like that.)

It saddens me to hear women complain about their husbands forgetting their birthdays or Valentines Day. So what? I find it much more romantic to be surprised on random occasions throughout the year than for my husband to feel obligated to go out and buy something just because the calendar says he must.

I find romance and delight in the everyday relationship, not the lavish extravagance that many women seem to expect. That's the kind of romance that matters to me!


This summer Lyle and I had the opportunity to attend our college reunion. You may remember that we met at college 25 years ago this summer, so it was a special trip for us. I posted this picture of us sitting on a bench on campus soon after we started dating with my "how we met" post earlier this spring...

The bench was still there this summer, so I asked my brother-in-law to take a "25 years later" picture of us sitting on it...
I thought the picture turned out nice, but the pretty basket of petunias in the background clashed with my red shirt... and it looks like the flag is sticking out of my head. On a whim, I asked Lyle if he could "fix it" with the magic of Photoshop.

And you know what? He did!

Aren't you impressed? He edited out the person and flag in the background, but even more amazing to me is that he turned the flowers white!

What a guy! Taking the time to "fix" such minor details in a photo just on my whim!

Now that's what I call romantic!

Want this button?