Category Archives: Family & Friends

Basements

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Basements are rare here in Texas.  I’ve seen a few, but I could probably count them on one hand.  Where my m-i-l lives, however, a lot of people have basements.  Hers is really nice and has basement floor tiles, finished walls, and a ceiling.  It’s quite large and includes a separate bedroom and a 3/4 bathroom.  Plus, it has a pool table, a couple of sofas, a chair, and a full-size fridge as well as her laundry room area.  We slept downstairs for many years when we would visit because we had plenty of space for kids plus a dog.  It’s a great basement for company to stay in because there’s so much room!

Musicians in our Family

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My husband is talented when it comes to music!  He plays the guitar and has even played a 12 string guitar before.   Right now, he has two guitars and a banjo tucked away in a closet somewhere that he played occasionally years ago.  Actually, he used the banjo mostly for a few music lessons and mainly taught guitar and violin lessons.  Oh, yes, I forgot to mention that he plays the violin.  The violin was his first instrument which he started playing when he was eight years old.  In fact, he is still playing on the same violin (the sound is beautiful) and plays in a local orchestra.

Our son is in college and has played in a school band for nine years, and he’s now playing in a steel drum ensemble group.  He is talented, too, and has won UIL State Music Awards in the past.  When he’s home, our son likes to play the piano in our living room (used to be my piano when I was growing up).  One advantage to having musicians in the family is that I get to listen to great music at home and at concerts!

Meatloaf Recipe – Bev’s Recipe

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Sheila, my college roommate, emailed me this recipe that she received from her cousin, Bev, who says that she makes a “mean meatloaf.” This sounds very tasty and like it would make a special holiday dish for meatloaf lovers.

Meatloaf (serves 3-4)

INGREDIENTS:

  • McCormick Meatloaf dry mix
  • 1 lb ground chuck
  • 1 egg
  • 1 slice white bread, crumbled (let bread sit on counter to dry out for a few minutes- easier to crumble)
  • Diced bell pepper (might only use half, depending on your preference)
  • Diced  small onion
  • Brown sugar (approx 1 ½ cups)
  • Ketchup ( a few squirts)
  • 3 strips raw bacon, optional

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  In a large bowl, combine all ingredients except brown sugar and ketchup.  I use my hands, so that all ingredients really mix and there’s no meat that doesn’t have the dry mix on it.

In a square pyrex dish, place the 3 strips of bacon.  Then add the meat and form into a loaf.  My loaf is fairly flat (probably about 1 ½- 2 inches tall) because I want it to cook thoroughly in the center with no pink.

In a separate small bowl mix, with a fork,  brown sugar and ketchup.  The goal is for the ketchup to wet the brown sugar and turn it into a glaze.  The glaze should not taste ketchup-y.  spread glaze over meatloaf and bake at 400 degrees for 30 mins or so.

Serve with mashed potatoes and English peas!!  Enjoy!!

I’m Thankful For…

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There are so many things I’m thankful for!  I was sick for several days this week, so I’m just now getting this written.  Here’s top priority on my list:.

  • God’s love, mercy & grace,  His Word (the Bible), and prayer
  • My dear husband
  • Our precious children (son-in-law included) & precious young grandchildren
  • Relatives (many of whom I rarely or never get to see, but we stay in touch through email and phone calls)
  • Technology which enables us to stay in touch with those we care about and love
  • Loyal friends
  • Our church family
  • My job (even though it gets really stressful sometime with all the other work there is to do, the actual teaching part is wonderful.  I love my students and the people I work with!)
  • Our country with the freedoms we enjoy
  • Blogging and the friends I’ve made through blogging
  • All of the material blessings such as a comfortable home that is so nice to be in when I’m sick
  • A mini-van that gets me to and from work or where I need to go, and that is great for trips with the three of us
  • My health (even with the minor ailments, it’s such a blessing to have good health and the stamina to work at a job like teaching school)

Going on a Trek

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A couple of years ago, our son went on a trek up a mountain in Colorado with a group from church. They had two experienced guides with them which eased my mind about our youngest child (age 17 at the time) going up to the top of a huge mountain. I don’t know if any of them used Trekking Poles or not, but I know they wore cleated shoes to grip the mountain as they went up steep slopes.

The hikers spent the night in tents and ate campers food (the exact opposite of deli food).  Some parts of the mountain trek were extremely challenging (and sounded almost dangerous to me).  I must say that after hearing from some of the other trekkers, we were very proud of our son and how he carried the gear of weaker hikers who were about to collapse, even though that made his load twice as heavy.  That is a memory of his trek that I will always treasure!

An Enjoyable Evening

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Some friends of ours invited us to go to the Symphony with them last month. They had extra tickets and treated us to a great evening. It was on a Friday evening and people didn’t dress up as much as they do on Saturday evenings. I was glad because I wasn’t in the mood to dress up a lot. (I really don’t have anything fancy)  There were probably people there with diamond earrings and necklaces, Black diamond earrings and nice jewelry, though.  Some people did dress up more than others, but I was fine with how I dressed.

After the concert was over, we went to Starbucks and talked and visited for a while. We all share a love of various types of music. My husband plays not only the guitar (which I’ve mentioned before) but also the violin. Our friend played the viola when she was younger. So it’s just natural that classical music would be enjoyable for both couples.  It was a fun evening just to be with friends

Remembering Back Ten Years Ago Today, 9-11: Song “I Will Rise”

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Most people will never forget what they were doing ten years ago today. Some of us watched in disbelief! It was surreal, like watching a horrible scene in a movie…only it wasn’t a movie! One thing that seemed so strange that day was that we did not see one plane in the sky, nor for many days to come.
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We took our son out of school (5th grade then) and drove a couple of hours to where our daughter was in college. My husband was planning to drive there anyway that day to take something to our daughter, so we all went. We didn’t talk much. I think we prayed silently most of the way there. When we got to our daughter’s apartment, we all hugged and were so thankful to all be alive and together. But there was a sadness, too, because we knew many, many families were hurting terribly.
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The scenes we saw on TV kept replaying through my mind like some nightmare, only I couldn’t wake up and say that it was only a dream.  I, like many others, feared another attack.  We all knew that our world had changed.  Although I grew up during a time when we had air raid drills in school and feared being bombed, since then our country had developed a false sense of safety and ease that we had grown accustomed to.  9-11 was a wake-up call!
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So how are our lives different now from ten years ago? Mine has changed! I don’t worry like I did back then. Today, I have a friend who married and moved to the states 20 years ago, and a couple of years ago she converted from her Muslim faith to Christianity. Ten years ago, I would have been too scared to be around her. But God has helped me with my fears (and in many more ways than this)!
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I don’t know exactly why, but this song, “I Will Rise,” came to mind to share in this post. Back then, my prayers joined the thousands of prayers for God to ease the pain in the way that only He can! This song maybe sums up those prayers. It talks about peace, victory, overcoming, and no more sorrow or pain for those who are in Christ. Some day, we will all have a wake-up call when our life is over. Hopefully, everyone will have this peace and victory!
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(By the way, Chris Tomlin sang this song at the 2009 Dove Awards.)

Our Son Plays Steel Drums

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For those of you who don’t know, our son has played in school band since he started sixth grade. He’s now a junior in college, so if you do the math then you’ll know that he’s been playing for nine years. He’s played percussion all nine of those years. In high school, he played mostly on the marimba and vibes. But since he’s been in college, he’s also been playing steel drums. In fact, this year he will be not be playing in marching band at all but will only be doing the Percussion Ensemble where he will be playing steel drums. He really enjoys doing that!

The only bad part is the vast majority of their concerts have been during the week, and as a school teacher, I really can’t afford to take off work a couple of days to travel and see their concerts. The next best thing is video tape which we love being able to watch. I’m hoping this year is different and that they will have a concert or two on the weekend where we can attend!

B & B Retreats at the Mansion at Elfindale

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Retreats are great for revitalizing the spirit and connecting with others. Whether it’s a corporate retreat, a ladies’ retreat, a family reunion, a bridesmaids’ retreat, or whatever the occasion, atmosphere has a lot to do with allowing that revitalization and connecting to take place. After spending the night during this past summer and the previous summer at the Mansion at Elfindale in Springfield, Missouri, I highly recommend this B & B!  It’s world class!   Although it was just our family staying there, my imagination could see how this would be an awesome place for a retreat!

Isn’t it fun to get away with your girlfriends and talk “girl talk” until the wee hours of the morning?  A Ladies’ Retreat with a group of ladies from church has always been a lot of fun for me.  Getting away to a special place enhances the enjoyment of the trip, getting away from the hustle and bustle of the busy routine of life, getting to relax and share about things that are really important and things that are on our minds, and last but not least…just having fun together, sharing funny experiences and laughing so hard that we’re almost in tears.
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In order to have a ladies’ retreat, there needs to be ample places to congregate for chit chat, for sharing funny stories, and for serious discussion.  Having stayed at The Mansion, I can see how this Victorian style bed and breakfast would be an awesome place to stay.  The atmosphere of this European like castle is like taking a step back in time, yet keeping all the modern conveniences that we want to have.  The wide hallways provide many places to sit and congregate as seen in the picture below:

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This beautiful breakfast room can also be used for more than just breakfast at retreats:
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Many suites have sitting areas which are great for small group discussions. The Veranda Suite as seen in the picture below is one such room. Not only does this suite have a great sitting area inside but outside as well on the beautiful veranda seen in the second picture. By the way, this is the only suite with a veranda.
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The Rose Suite is the perfect name for this lovely suite as you can tell by the picture. It has an excellent area in the room for conversation and sharing thoughts.
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The Chapel Suite is where we enjoyed staying, and it can sleep four very comfortably. The suite is nice and spacious and also has a great sitting area, perfect for a small group meeting.
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I want to share one more of the 13 suites with you, and that is the tower suite. Note the tall tower on the right-hand side of the Mansion, the tower that reminds me of a castle:
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The Tower Suite contains two levels which makes it so charming and so much fun. There are actually four rooms to this suite being the bedroom, the bathroom, a sitting area in the tower, and then another sitting area up higher in the tower which is reached by a beautiful circular staircase. Below is the highest room in The Mansion. 

To see more, visit The Mansion at Elfindale on Facebook.
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Wordy Wednesday: Covered Glass Candy Dishes

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My mother-in-law collected dishes from thrift stores and antique stores.  She really enjoyed looking at dishes and I guess going with her to look at dishes inspired me to collect some of my own.  I collected a few covered candy dishes years ago, and I really like them for candy, nuts, or anything that is small, looks good in a glass dish, and needs to be covered. In this picture, one has pecans in it, another has pistachio nuts, and I don’t remember what the third dish has in it, maybe walnuts.

Nintendo’s E3 2011 Press Conference

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I had fun watching Nintendo’s E3 2011 press conference with our son who’s home from college.   We saw the unveiling of the Wii U with a touch screen controller to use with or without a TV.  Looks awesome!

We sat in our son’s room and watched it live online on his monitor, which is big compared to mine.  While watching, we munched on nachos and Coke (he actually had Strawberry Watermelon Kool-Aid).    It doesn’t take much to have a good time!

Western Day

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Our two little grandsons had Western Day at their preschool recently.  They didn’t wear Stetson Hats, but their pictures were so cute with them dressed in jeans and boots.  There was even a horse for the children to ride, or at the very least to have their picture taken while sitting on it, and there were other activities for them to participate in.  I sure wish I could have been there for their Western Day!