2010 Recap

Although I think making resolutions is silly, I do like to look back over the past year and see what it brought. As in every life, there is good and bad ~ roses and thorns, so to speak. This is my last blog for 2010 and I have decided to make it a list of all the roses and thorns I can remember, both big and small. I am so excited to be turning my blog into a book. Most of what I write isn't earth shaking. It gives my overactive brain an outlet for some of the thoughts and ideas that hit me and, maybe, just maybe, something my grand kids can pick up years from now and read and laugh at what a character their grammie was.

ROSES
running my 1st half marathon
Sunday night dinners & good bottles of wine
trip to Austin to see my friend
changing jobs
family camping trip
San Francisco 3 times in 7 months
movie with girlfriends
grand kids getting older
reading some great books
freedom
dinners out with hubby
consistent running each week
writing my blog
running errands with my daughter
Jack saying I'm the "best cooker" ever!
Maddy making me laugh
Abbey's "looks"
continued good health

THORNS
broken bones in the Riley household
too much rain for the guest house schedule
more gray hairs and wrinkles
changing jobs (yes, rose & thorn!)
juggling family finances
too much time on my hands
forgetting to "be here now"
grand kids getting older (yes, R & T)
worrying about my adult children

My husband is constantly telling me what a great life I have and I need to be more grateful for it. After looking over this, I see that there are more roses than thorns. The roses are not really big things, but a lot of little things that make life good and worth living. Then again, the thorns are not big things either, nothing tragic or awful, just life. All in all, pretty darn good. Just don't tell my husband!

Ziploc Omelet

Here is a clever and fun way to make a quick breakfast when you have a house full of people. I wish I could say I invented it, but it was passed along to me my a dear friend who saw it somewhere. She tried it and says it works wonderfully. Sounds like the perfect thing for New Year's day morning when you may have been up a little late toasting the new year.

Have guests write their name on a quart-sized ziploc bag with permanent marker.

Crack two eggs (large or extra large) into the bag (no more than two) & shake to combine.

Put out a variety of ingredients: cheese, ham, onion, green pepper, tomatoes, hash browns, salsa.

Each guests adds the prepared ingredients of their choice to their bag & shakes. Make sure to get the air out the bag and zip it up.

Place the bags in rolling, boiling water for exactly 13 minutes (we did 15 minutes). You can usually cook 6 - 8 omelets together in a large pot. For more, make an additional pot of boiling water.

Open the bag and the omelet will roll out easily. Be prepared for everyone to be amazed.

This is nice to serve with fresh fruit & coffee cake. Everyone gets involved in the process and it's a great conversation piece.

Instant!

I like to consider myself a modern grammie ~ I email, I Skype, I text. However, sometimes I question if all of it is making our world better or worse. Maybe it is making kids today only satisfied with instant gratification. Asking them to write a thank you note seems silly to them when they can email their thanks. INSTANT! Teaching them to cook a meal is too much work when Costco has ready-made meals you just pop in the microwave. INSTANT! When they are bored, instead of begging mom or dad to take them to the store to buy a new game, they simply download the app on their device and there it is. INSTANT!
This is all well and good, but some things take time and patience. Where do they learn this lesson? As modern as I claim to be, I hope I am the one who is also showing my grand children that waiting also has value. Waiting helps us to see a bigger picture. It helps us get outside ourselves and realize that we are only part of the world and not the center of the universe. Waiting for something can make attaining it all the more satisfying. It's not an easy lesson, but a necessary one for us to learn.
Tonight, we wait for Santa and his reindeer. We have discussed his arrival for weeks. We have debated how he flies, how he gets to every house and more. The wait will be worth it!

Rain, Rain & More Rain

After almost a week of solid rain, I had to share some thoughts about it. California hasn't seen the likes of rain in this volume in many years. Many say we needed it and I agree, but after days and days of nothing but rain, you kind of want to yell, "Enough already!"
Isn't it just human nature to long for what we don't have? When it's hot, we wish it would cool down. When it's cold, we long for sunshine. Are we never satisfied or are we blind to the goodness around us only when its gone?
The rain started out being a pleasant diversion, but now, even the simplest of errands become a soggy, difficult mess to navigate. In and out of the car hardly seems worth it. Do I really need to go to the market? Can it wait another day? Driving across town to a Starbucks with a drive thru window beats racing across the puddle laden parking lot of my local one. On second thought, maybe I can just make coffee at home and forget the whole idea of getting in the car at all. Spending time fixing my hair in the morning seems a waste. Frizz finds me quickly in all this dampness. I wish I looked better in hats. Tomorrow is my monthly appointment to get my roots done. Much like the postman, neither rain, nor sleet, nor hail shall keep me from my appointment! Rain versus red hair ~ red hair wins every time!

Cards

One of my favorite things about this time of year is receiving all the Christmas cards in the mail. Seeing the designs and updated photos of people is such a treat. I have been making our family cards for, well, as long as we have been a family. Each year an idea pops into my head and develops into a photo card with a corny saying to go along. Over the years, my children complained about taking the photo each and every time. It just seemed like part of the tradition at our house. Now I have the grand children to include in the card making process. As anyone with small children knows, getting a photo of little people, all looking where you want them to look, all doing what you want them to be doing, is a daunting task. Even if they are far from polished and professional, I think the cards reflect who were are. Looking back over some cards from many years ago, long before we had the advantage of computers and photo shop, I cringe at how amateur my efforts were. They still make me smile. They still show a moment in time that I remember capturing, sometimes easily and other times, through angry tears because no one was cooperating with my brilliant idea. Either way, in the end, it was worth it.
I've already got a few ideas for next year's card!

Chocolate Classes

This year, I have been teaching chocolate candy making classes. Many of my friends have been kind enough to host a class. I show up with all the necessary tools, chocolate, molds, melting pots, pretzels, cookies, marshmallows, etc. to help them create some really fun and tasty treats. Each time I hold a class, I am always amazed at the creativity of people. At times, they come up with something I had not thought of before and I love it! Often, I hear someone say, "I am not creative or crafty at all. I can't believe I made this myself!" This makes me really happy because I know they go away from the class feeling good about themselves.

So many things in our daily life do not make us feel good about ourselves. We are in a pressure cooker society always racing and striving for bigger, faster, more. The negative tapes run louder in our heads than the positive ones. If I can help people, even for a short period of time, feel good about themselves, I am happy as well. Worry a little less. Love a little more. Although not easy, it IS worth trying each day ~ especially over chocolate!

Christmas Changes

Christmas has always been a BIG deal at our house. Everyone received many, many gifts, both big and small. This year, however, I decided to take a step back from the over consumption and get some perspective. I told my two kids we would buy them one, big, hopefully, practical thing and that was it. I asked most of my friends not to exchange gifts this year. My husband and I are not buying each other anything. We want a new, really good mattress and that's what we are doing instead.
It has a little to do with the money, but more to do with the realization that we have too much, or, at the very least, we have enough. We don't need any more things to dust. I want to spend time with the people I care about more than spend money on them. I want to go out to a nice dinner and laugh and talk and make more memories. I want to go on vacations and see and do things together that, again, will create memories.
Toys get lost or broken and clothes are outgrown. What once seemed so important to have, loses its lustre far too fast. I will not be on this earth forever. I hope and pray they measure my love for them, not in presents given, but in time spent and memories made. Now that sounds like a good Christmas!

Whirled Peas

At this time of year, there are plenty of words written about what the world needs and what we should REALLY want for Christmas. I know I should be an informed adult and want the economy to get better, understand the importance of Wikileaks and how it affects national security, wish for wars to end...you know, whirled peas...I mean, world peace!
Here's the thing. My world is a lot smaller and simpler than those problems. I do long for there to be peace and happiness throughout the world, but, for me, I long for it more in my own house. Selfish as this may sound, I think it is an honest feeling and one most people can relate to more than world problems. I want my husband to be healthy so he can continue to be here and take care of all of us as only he can. I want my two children to be happy adults and embrace life, both the good and the bad, with kindness in their hearts. I want my grand children to enjoy being kids and laugh and play and experience all of life never doubting how much they are loved. I want them to end up being happy and productive citizens of this world.
On a smaller level, I want gas prices to stop climbing every week. Nobody's talking about it, they are just sneakily raising the price. I want all my bills paid with a little left over to do fun things and make memories. I want to stay healthy enough to keep running as long as I am crazy enough to want to keep running. I want to keep learning. I want to remember where I laid my keys, why I walked in this room, and my own name!
And, yes, I want whirled peas too. We had zucchini last night!

Abigail

Abigail is a very unique child. Now, I know all parents and grand parents feel this way about their kids, but she truly is her own person and not even three!
She is queen of the dirty looks. When you give her an answer she doesn't like, she has perfected this growl that is somewhere between a grizzly bear and an alien. She stands her ground on the smallest of issues and won't budge an inch. When told that simply saying you're sorry to your brother for hitting him will release you from the Time Out bench, she would rather sit there longer than give in to the request. She eventually does it, just in her time and not yours. I was relating all this to a friend last night and they listened, then looked at me and said, "Sounds just like her grammie!"
Clearly, this darling child will go far in the world!

Lessons for Me

I received a text from a dear friend yesterday afternoon. It said ~ "Dinner & a movie tonight?" Now this may seen no big deal to most of you, but for me, I was confronted with a couple of things. One ~ I am a planner. While I would like to think I am spontaneous, I guess I am not really at all. I like to have things on my calendar and know what's coming up, this week, next week, etc. This was so sudden! I mean, you really don't plan it, you just decide that day to go?! What a crazy notion! When I told my husband, his response was that it sounded like fun and why wouldn't I go? What about dinner, I asked. Isn't there plenty of stuff in the frig? Yes, this was true. No one would starve if I took off for this madcap, unplanned adventure! So, I texted back and said yes, what time and where to meet? Her reply was the restaurant, the movie and that she'd pick me up. Herein lies my second lesson for the day. I ALWAYS make the plans for most things, with family and with friends. I suggest the restaurant, I check the movie times, etc. I didn't have to make any decisions!!! It felt kind of funny, but in a good way. All I had to do was be ready and go! While I know that I will continue to plan and prepare and suggest adventures in the future, this felt really good for a change. I was along for the ride. I got to look out the window instead of reading the map!

How's Your Day?

While at Joann's Store today, I asked the clerk, "How are you?". She stopped ringing up my purchase, stared at me and said, "I can't remember the last time a customer asked me that question! Thanks for asking." I was somewhat surprised by her reaction, but I really shouldn't be. Courtesy and interacting with people face-to-face are becoming things of the past. I watch
people in at the grocery store talk on their cell phones the entire time the clerk rings up their purchases. Never once do they speak to them and off they go, some still chatting on the phone. My simple question seemed to make the lady's day. She got a smile on her face and wished me Happy Holidays. Maybe her good mood continued for a few more customers after me. I wonder if the other customers even noticed? A little kindness can go a long way. We can make a difference in this bleak world, one "How's your day?" at a time. Of course, you have to be willing to listen to the reply.

The Tree

Each year, the tree is one of the last decorating tasks I do. By then, I have been decorating the house for a couple of days and I am getting tired. Starting the tree always feels daunting and yet, once I begin taking out each ornament, I get excited all over again. They may seem like dozens of ornaments to someone else, but to me they are dozens of memories. Each reminds me of a trip we took, a place we visited, a friend who gave it to me or my child that made it for me. They are a hodge podge of styles and yet they all blend perfectly on the tree to represent who we are and what matters to our family. I marvel at people who have "department store" perfect trees where everything matches. They are lovely to look at and yet, they have no place in my house. We are a rag tag bunch of people, sometimes classy and sometimes messy. Things break in our lives and we glue them back together as best we can. Sometimes the break is so bad, there is no hiding the attempt at fixing it. We still keep it, though. We have hope ~ for ourselves and each other.

Hot/Cold

My crazy sense of humor loves this silly cartoon. Hopefully, you can read the title of the book, which is "How to Turn Up the Heat in Your Marriage". It was two snowmen, but the result of their efforts must of worked, because they are no longer!
I have been married a long time ~ 35 years to be exact and this is not a blog about sex. It is a blog about long term relationships and how they run hot and cold. You can't live with someone for many decades without differences of opinions, disagreements and downright arguments. People who say they never fight with their spouse make me nervous. I wonder what else they lie about!
It is amazing to me that one day, I can look across the dining room table at my husband and be filled with so much love for him, while another day, I look across the same table at the same man and wonder how I do not strangle him. He, of course, says he is always the same and it is me who changes from one day tot he next. If I didn't know better, I might think that were a veiled comment pointing the finger at female hormones! One friend I have actually stated it like this: "In the course of any given month, one week I absolutely adore and love my husband, another week he is still a good guy, the third week he irritates me constantly, and the fourth week, I could kill him." I think she is speaking, once again, about the cycle of women. Does this make us sound like complete slaves to our hormones? I would like to think we are smarter and more in control than that, but maybe not.
Over the course of time, relationships get out of balance and sometimes, even, get lost. People often throw in the towel at these times and declare it unfixable ~ irreconcilable differences say the divorce papers. It suddenly seems easier to start over rather than fix what you already have. For me, even on the worst of days, I can still, faintly recall the good days and can't help but wonder if there might still be a few more. Besides, I'm no quitter and I'm not done torturing him yet!