Good thing I had to get up at 3:53AM. I peaked through the curtain and the porch was white. We weren’t expecting snow. Just in case it’s gone by morning, here’s proof the sky wanted to give Christmas Valley a beginning-to-look-like nod.
It’s still coming down.
My son and his beautiful lady came to see us yesterday. Today, during the day, they are driving back home. Spare a prayer for them and other travelers for Christmas love.
Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is: “spruce.” Use it as a noun or a verb, use it any way you’d like. Enjoy!
So with the health issues in the house we didn’t get to do much sprucing up around here, even though we have company coming tomorrow.
I’m excited that I get to see #3 and his special lady. And we plan, if weather permits, to finally hike to Crack in the Ground. I’ll take pictures and send the YouTube if we get to go.
And right on time these socks are ready for the new owners. I hope they fit. They fit on the blockers.
My brother has been busy. Our floor in the bedroom was so bad it was like tightrope walking. My husband fell and with a lack of good flooring it was hard to help him back up. Anyway my brother got busy and made a safer floor for us. No more falling. And he was the decorator, putting up and finally lighting our tree and window. We are so lucky to have him around.💜🤗
May all of you have a blessed Holiday, Christmas Eve, and Christmas.
Really, I’m more excited about actually finishing my laundry today. Oh. I still have a couple dishes in the sink. You’ll hear my Ta-Da before I go to bed.
Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is: “to me.” Find a way to use the phrase “to me” in your post. Use it any way you’d like. Enjoy!
That’s easy! Happy Birthday to me!!! I am so blessed with so much family and so many friends. And the line blurs between.
Recently, I got the notice of over 2,000 followers. That was a shock. I’m just keeping track of my passions and my life.
Sometimes, things happen, and you see synchronicity in the works. Friday on GMA3, they shared about Dewali. I won’t try to explain as I am very new to the idea.
I was about to let it go. But today, in my writing, I randomly generated a young girl whose name is Puja. The heroes of the novel rescued her, and so that she would feel at home, they set up their house to celebrate this festival of lights. I’m still new, but it seems a great way to welcome a scared orphan.
I don’t know where my story is going. And I am 2k behind. But I will not give up because the story is still teaching me.
We were so blessed in Oconomowoc, Wisconsin, at the Greenstone Cottage. We highly recommend it if you get the chance to go, you will love it too. By the way, You pronounce the town as if you were saying, ‘I can no more walk.’. I had such a hard time saying it at first, but I practice it daily.
Thank you, Ronda, for making sure we were comfortable during our stay visiting with all of you. I think it is Cathy I need to thank for this beautiful home. I’ll correct it if wrong. Correction: Her name is Carol. Thank you, Ronda and Laura, for helping me get her name right.
Addendum. I forgot to tell you what Dana and I missed for being so tired from the week before and lack of sleep the day of the flight. I will claim the bout of diverticulitis. Whatever it was, we should have taken a few walks around the cottage. Laura pointed out that just a block away was a lake! I’m sorry, peeps! I could have gotten some fun pics of that! And there were some fun shops had we gone in the other direction. I wish I could do this again. I would have loved to check these out.
Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is: starts with “hum.” Find a word that starts with “hum” or use the word “hum” itself. Send your bonus points to Dan at https://nofacilities.com/ if you use both. Enjoy!
Humble. That’s how I feel. And Wow!
When I had to leave Reno to pursue a less expensive place to live, I had to leave my adult children. Not that we got to see each other often. We didn’t see each other frequently, with all of them working and pursuing their own lives. But at least we knew we could get together for a quick cup of coffee or tea if needed. We did get to spend the holidays together and birthdays. Now six hours away and with weather issues, we find Zoom and instant Messaging but mostly phone our way to keep in touch. I miss them. One son had to come to live with us, making it a little easier.
Then, my daughter moved to Wisconsin. Yikes! That is a long way from the Oregon Outback. And with a truck that works for the short drives, Wisconsin is too long to drive without fear of breaking down. We manage food, mortgage, and small bills on our social security. But anything else is above our abilities. I’d love to be able to get a small job, but my health can’t do that right now, and neither can my husband’s. And as my brother and son have found, there are no jobs in this desert. So we do the best we can with what we have.
Then I learned that my daughter and her husband are getting married. I longed to be able to be there. Especially when she said they were doing a costume wedding in Halloween fashion. It seems like it would be so fun! I picture something like this:
One son is pulling out the stops to fund my live-in son and me to fly to and from the visit and wedding. As I mentioned, flight son is six hours away. There is no airport near here. The nearest is two and a half hours away. That would have made an eight-and-a-half-hour drive for him. I nearly gave up. It seemed impossible.
That’s when my friend volunteered. She wanted to visit again before the snow and freezes start in earnest as Fall rolls in. She is coming up as of tomorrow. We will visit, and then she will drive my son and me back to her place in Reno. We will spend a day or so there.
The flight is at 6 AM, and we must be at the airport at 3. That means a night of no sleep. You know I can’t fall asleep before 3ish. So that won’t be the problem. Flight son will pick us up at my friend’s, and the next adventure begins.
Now, more of the humble pie, as if I didn’t feel so grateful for the flights and drives received. The only thing I could figure out would be to stay with my daughter and her new husband once I was there. That’s not so great. The honeymooners would probably not want to have Mom and brother underfoot, ya know? They’re only human! But I certainly didn’t want to put the financial burden on the son footing the flights and drive home.
That’s when the groom’s mother jumped in and became another hero in this story. Not only is she covering catering and heating (the wedding and party will be outdoors to keep it anti-covidy. The groom has health issues that would make it deadly for him. Anyway, she found and is funding a couple bed and breakfast homes for a couple of us in this wedding party. Both are near the lake. I cried when I heard that. She said she knew how much it would mean to my daughter and me for us to be there. I can’t wait to give her a massive hug of thanks if allowed.
Back to the end of the wedding week in Wisconsin, the flight son has the return flight set up. Unfortunately, they could only get a flight to Portland. That’s five hours north of us. That means the flight son will have to rent another car to drive us home. Then, another six hours back to Reno.
Maybe for some of you, this isn’t much. Doing all the finances would be, well, doable. Perhaps leaving your husband and brother behind would be easy, or you would be able to bring them with you. My husband can’t fly. It would have had to be a car or train for him. My brother, again, with no income, can’t afford to go, and we are already taxing our family and friends’ finances. They are not rich by a long shot. Besides, who would stay and take care of the chickens and cats? So that’s where I feel more humbleness. They are both being so kind and selfless in making sure I don’t feel the guilt of leaving them behind. I know I will miss them. We’ll probably spend hours on the Zooms or Instant Messaging. I’ll try to take a lot of pictures.
Now for the exciting, fun things. I’ve made the witch’s hat (pics here and here). I bought a cheap wig that I’m still working on to make it more me.
I’ve given her bangs and will rat her up for the witch costume, then brush her out and use her as needed. I plan to trim my own hair and purple up before I leave.
I have some black broom skirts to wear, one as a skirt and the other I will slice up and make into a cape. I’ll take pics when there. Even I don’t know how it will all look. I’ll take as many pics of the area and the fun as possible. I don’t want to involve names or faces that don’t want to be on the internets.
Speaking of pics. The afghan is nearly finished. I need to make a trim around the edges to prevent curling. I’ll try to post that later in the week.
And that reminds me. It will be a busy couple of weeks. I will try to post as much as I can. But I may still miss a few days. That disappoints me, I’m sure, more than it disappoints you. I do my Duolingo and blogging every day. Whereas I have 1,520 days on Duo, I am only on day 118 on the blog. That is because I post after the languages. Often, I don’t get to the publish part until after midnight. 😒 I know I should do a bunch of blogs ahead, but I find I can’t. I feel like it is like a journal for me, so I like to hit it daily, and when I’m done, I’m done. I do have a couple ‘freezes’ set up on the Duo.
So there you have it. Let’s all hum the wedding march in minor key. But enjoy this, too.
Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “record.” Use it as a noun, use it as a verb, use it any way you’d like. Have fun!
I haven’t been camping since my children were small. Here I am at 73 trying to do the rugged adventure. And just diagnosed with diverticulitis. But the antibiotics were gone as were the fever and need for a bland diet. I was/am still tired and had/have to pace myself. That’s how I packed. Part of me nearly melting in tears like a toddler. I can’t do this! What am I thinking?
For the record, this week has been just that.
Somehow I was ready. I had a huge list and did nearly my young self type of packing. But now beyond drawing and coloring and letter writing materials, I brought my knitting, a pair of socks nearly finished and a hat. There was also a Sudoku booklet and a word search book. I had two books downloaded to my phone. I figured I didn’t need my Fires for bedtime shutdown. But my phone lost all the battery the first day.
So my exhausted first night was a word search. Boring! No brain for Sudoku no comfortable seating for knitting.
After we set up the tent and camp we finally sat in our chairs. That’s when our new friends showed up. Although there were dozens of chipmunks scurrying around one little guy came and let me talk to it. He got closer and closer. I shared a bit of crackers with him.
Then Mr. Robin Redbreast flew near. He liked chatting with us.
We were so lucky the restroom was just feet away. They were clean and well lit. There were even showers. That made those inevitable night trips a little less scary.
My first night was miserable. I hadn’t blown up the mattress quite as taut as I should. It was very uncomfortable. And OH SO COLD around 4AM. Lessons learned.
Day two I spent the time with the pump and mattress. And we drove a few miles to town and got the things we needed. I got another sleeping bag to cover while lying on the first one.
Backing up. Speaking of the distance. There were detours due to road maintenance. What should have been a short trip to camp that first day seemed nearly an hour. So we were fortunate to learn an alternate way back to town
We got a lot of steps in while shopping so we sat in our chairs a bit when we got back. We ate the wraps we picked up at Trader Joe’s. My chipmunk friend showed up. I shared bits of my wrap. He actually stood up and looked us in the eyes. It seemed to be a thanks for the food.
Mr. Robin brought either his wife or a large offspring. She opened her beak to him. Feed me! She said in bird.
I told my friend how when we were kids on our annual three-week campout my dad would lay back in his lounger and chatter with Blue Jays. Just that moment one flew nearby. But I guess I don’t know their language as he flew away.
Now we had what was needed to start a fire. My friend had more experience so I stayed out of the way. But the logs we bought didn’t want to start. I finally got up and walked to the restroom. When I got back she showed me a picture of how the fire had taken. But sadly it had diminished to smoke and hot spots. Oh, well.
We had talked about staying one more night but the reality of the rental car made us realize this was our last night.
This night I slept like a baby. Even if my bedtime ritual was another couple word searches.
The cold morning wasn’t bone deep. And faded to warm as we woke.
Again we tried to start a fire. But once again I made instant coffee with the hot water from the faucet. Lucky that was there.
Intermittent fasting is still my thing, so I didn’t need a breakfast.
We knew we were leaving this day so we broke down a lot of camp.
To cool off we went in search of the river. With a bit of a hike, we found and waded in it.
Back at camp we did a bit more decamping.
Friends from a nearby town came to visit with us. That was fun.
When they left it was time to finish breaking camp. Folding up the tent and tarps. It was so hot by now that we had to do things in short spurts. We are both prone to heat stroke so we needed to be careful.
The tent was easy. The hard part was getting everything in the car so that our stuff was easy to separate as I was only two hours away. My friend had another six hours to her home.
I was so glad to get home and unpack. I felt sorry my friend had so much driving yet to go. But she made it home safely
This was such a fun trip that we both are looking forward to another camping trip soon. Am I rugged? I’m getting there?
Working on my series: Haven.
Doodler (zendoodle.com)
Music major: voice and piano
Mom of four great adults
Reiki II practitioner
I have been on disability/retired for 10 years now from depression, anxiety and fibromyalgia.
Hello and welcome to Heartland Echoes! I am thrilled to have you here. So, sit back, relax, and stay awhile as you explore my diverse range of written poetry, mental health articles, motivational quotes, and ten captivating chapters of my autobiography. Get ready to be inspired and uplifted as you delve into the world of Heartland Echoes.
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