Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is: ends with “grate/great.” Use one or bonus points if you use them both. Enjoy!
Isn’t it weird that the word that starts that whole, deep emotion of grateful has to do with open screen to hold logs for the fireplace or something to grate cheese?
And yet the even larger word makes me think of Tony the Tiger
Not this cutie.
Spelled so differently, meaning thankful or largely wonderful. Words!
The stream goes sideways here.
When my oldest was a toddler, we had to walk up the block to pick up a few groceries. That five minute walk took nearly an hour. Toddlers can be infuriatingly curious.
Anyway, he saw these grates at the bottom of buildings. They looked like windows for small people. He would peek in. Then turn around and tell me about it. It took all my will-power to not roll on the sidewalk laughing. His forehead had the rusty crisscross of the grate from leaning his face on it.
The postcard of the cottage we were blessed to stay at during the week of my daughter and new son’s wedding.
One of the many beautiful quotes on the walls of this cottage.
Outside the back door
Taken from the enclosed back porch
One of the many seating areas outside.
The enclosed patio with pellet stove.
My son’s and my shoes at the back entrance to the home. Aw. This makes me smile and miss the place even more.
The kitchen is the first room after the patio. It is spacious with all the amenities one could want, and more.
I love the layout of the kitchen, and at the two places you might need to fill with water, say a teapot on the stove or the Keurig coffee maker, coming up, there is a separate faucet. Not something I would need, but handy for those that like to spend time in the kitchen. A bit of the one at the stove is on the far left of this picture.
What catches your eye when you first enter the home are the cute pictures and, well, the beauty of the cottage. Oops, I took this as we were getting ready to leave, and that box was heading to the trash.
Every window opens to scenery worth enjoying. My son was laughing while washing his cup one morning. He said he witnessed a bunny and a squirrel scampering out this window. Again, pardon the box.
A better view from above the sink in the kitchen. Isn’t it lovely?
A nice breakfast bar sits at the end of the kitchen. My son and I enjoyed this often. There are welcoming notes in the notebook sitting there and a little to-do notebook to add things that might need to be attended to. By the way, there are many antiques and clocks that look like they could be.
Directly across from the kitchen sink and next to the back door is the coffee machine I mentioned above. A drink cooler? Now I show my unsophisticated ways. We just have a refrigerator at home.
Looking from the coffee counter toward the dining room. The huge modern fridge. Yes, my suitcases are ready to go. So sad. I still live in this place at night, in my dreams, daytime wishes, in my heart, feeling the love here.
This is the wall behind the breakfast bar. I loved all the quotes and pictures tastefully displayed all over the home. I loved the welcome on the chalkboard. We left a thank you there before we left.
To the left of the welcoming chalkboard.The exercise machine. LOL. I did get a lot of exercise as what I needed was always at the other end of the stairs.
The door to the left of the stairs.
I think I already included this downstairs restroom and shower. I love how it is all arranged in one of the YouTube tutorials. Wish I would have captured the picture above the sink in the toilet room.
Guess I don’t need to say anything here.
The sink in the shower room.
The shower.
Storage for towels.
The dining room. At the end of the kitchen, where the fridge was. This is so pretty that I decided not to make it a smaller picture.
To the right of the TV table is the dining table. We used this room to gather Spouse 1 and Spouse 2, family, and friends together to make plans for the rest of the week. Great memories here.
Across from the dining table is a little sitting area. Yes, that is my coat on the one chair and my son’s backpack on the other as we are getting ready to go. So sad.
Outside a squirrel scampers on the fence.
From the dining room we enter the foyer. Probably backwards to coming into the house from the front door.
Another seating area outside.
Scamp.
The scamp is there again.
Pics in the foyer.
A napping bed in the foyer.
Antique phone above the bed.
Front door.
Never got around to it but there was a whole antique store across the street.
This across from the napping bed, the top drawer had crayons and paper. That came in handy when the friends and family visited.
Beautiful front door.
More foyer artwork.
Foyer furniture
Another nap bed or reading corner at the far end of the foyer.
Window seat or napping?
Artwork entering the living room or sitting room. I loved this room best. The sofa fit me best. This was where I did the most knitting and tinking.
Obviously, I hadn’t fluffed the pillows but that was quite comfortable!
Cute little end table.
A most comfortable living room. Great for relaxing after such a busy week.
My son’s favorite chair. And when I needed scissors I found them in the drawer behind his chair.
This wall is back at the entrance to the dining room. I love the saying and the picture.
This antique turntable was on top of a cabinet I wish I had known about at the beginning. It is full of board games.
Guess what was in the table behind the chair. Yarn!!! But I brought my own. Imagine had I not. This could have taken care of my addiction.
Look at the cute antique typewriter! I have visions of working on my NaNoWriMo novel here.
One of the many full bookshelves. The reader in me was so happy!
Beautiful fireplace and a TV that has enough streaming to get us by. Roku had Farscape, which we continued when we got home, and Netflix, Call the Midwife, and other easy watching. Isn’t the wooden goose cute?
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.
I’m doing my best to be my usual positive self despite the mully grubs of reality.
Snow. Lots. Just not all at once. It gets to this level, melts and reflakes.
We’ve got a couple more hours then it will be windy.
Meanwhile, my therapy of knitting keeps my hands moving while I process life, pets, and loved ones no longer with us.
My son and his girlfriend are traveling up. Snow or no snow. These socks are for them.
Nearly all the yarn for both pairs has been used up. I hope I’m done by tomorrow evening when they get here.
The reason for their scary mission is a memorial for my first dear sister in love. That’ll be Saturday in Portland. For my son it will be a 12 hour or more drive in much worse conditions than we have here. That’s how beloved Barb was/is for us.
I wanted to go. But my body is telling me that’s too long to be in a car. I used to handle long drives. But, especially being emotionally distraught from the losses of my furry friends, it seems far too much.
My older son is being picked up by the younger couple on the mission. I must admit to being very worried for all of them. As much as I would love to see my nieces and nephews, and sharing my condolences, I just can’t. I think I’ll write a letter or record my thoughts for them.
All of this plays on the huge housecleaning we need from our poor sickly Kali. We’ve done some but we are exhausted and can’t do as much as our younger selves could have accomplished.
One thing at a time. Doing what we can with what we’ve got. Sending and accepting love. Healthy mind and body.
For a while now my son and I have wanted to go into Bend (two hour drive) to shop and to visit the last Blockbuster video store.
Many times we have planned it and things happened that kept us from it. Last night we were sure that today would be the day. Then, a year after breaking my right pinky toe I rammed my left pinky toe into the coffee table. Yep, broken. But I refused to let it stop me. I needed to get out of the house and see something besides these four walls. Even if we couldn’t do all that we wanted to, we did go to town. I wrapped my toe. That foot isn’t needed in our automatic truck. We’d just have to stay safe and take it easy.
We hit Target and Best Buy. Then the most important part of the trip, Blockbuster Video. During lock-down we saw the movie on Netflix. I couldn’t wait.
It certainly brought back memories. If my toe wasn’t hurting I think I might have taken more time to get some memorabilia. There seemed to be a lot of business so I don’t think it is going away. I look forward to our next visit.
Regardless of IF/keto I went ahead and had Del Taco. For lunch I do the 8-layer burrito with no beans or rice, extra guacamole, extra sour cream, extra cheese. I also ordered for my dinner a spicy jack quesadilla and a small fry. That’s bending it a bit but since it doesn’t happen but once in a few months I think that is fine.
My son was having a bit of problems with his digestion so he wasn’t having a good day either. Still with masks we hit all the stores including Walmart. I got a new pair of PJs and he found all the things he needed to buy.
The highlight of the trip was the Blockbuster. The trip itself was beautiful. The weather was perfect and the scenery gorgeous. Hopefully. we will remain healthy and get to go again soon. There were so many things I wanted to do but the toe was having none of it.
For many reasons my writing goals have slipped. Today I officially lowered my goal to a possibly more reachable realm, 25K instead of 50K. I still like the story, I just don’t want to overwhelm my senses with something that won’t be fun to reach. I would rather have to chance to go do outings and hit all my fun new musical goals than get discouraged in any way.
I will probably do Duolingo after publishing this and spend a little recorder time. Writing and piano will have to wait until tomorrow. I’m tired!
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.
Welcome to my blog. I live, knit, crochet, spin and craft near the Northumbrian Coast (but not too near - the waves won't be splashing my yarn!).There's a story in every stitch, every grain of sand, every blade of grass. I thought I'd blog about it...
Darswords 
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