And since Tom’s been home since his surgery a month ago, we decided to brighten up our back porch and deck with some hanging baskets of flowers, as we sit out there several hours a day, some days.  This is our view from our old white wicker furniture nestled up next to our living room windows out back.

Here are some closeups of our new stand with the four shepherd’s hooks and some of God’s brightest petunias and miniature petunias.

The big window you see there is our bedroom, which faces south across the deck.

And here is a close up of my geranium I bought last spring as I’ve found geraniums to do well for me, the least green thumb gardener I know.  I call them happy plants, as nothing I do to them – or fail to do – fazes them.  They always bloom brightly, and this one is this year, more than ever!!  Thank you, God!

This photo I like, in particular.  It shows all of the bright blooms at their best, despite me breaking off and breaking back bunches of overgrown limbs from the plant last winter.

Finally – I want to share with you a wonderful glass hanging we bought on my birthday/our anniversary March 2.  It is hanging in our breakfast area in one of the windows facing west and southwest, so as to reflect the afternoon sunlight.  Isn’t it terrific, bright & beautiful?!  I hope that I can shine as much as God’s blessed child as all of these lovely things do in our home.

Here it is full length, filling our long window.

There was no sunshine that afternoon, but my kitchen was still filled with color!

It is stormy out here today and dark.  Many across Tennessee are suffering from flooding rains and tornadoes, but we pray God will look down on us all with grace and fill our lives with loveliness.

Cheers!  And many blessings to each of you today!

Dee

The news from my doctor wasn’t good yesterday, so today I bought geraniums.

I’ve only had the traditional bright red geraniums once before several years ago and I came to love them dearly.  My plants grew and grew and bloomed and bloomed all through the spring, summer and long after.  By mid-winter that year, none of the rest of my back porch garden was even alive, but my geraniums hung in there and charmed my cold days with their bright red blooms, still.

I was amazed at their tolerance in adversity; how they not only hung in there, but seemingly flourished when all others around them had faded away and disappeared.  I thought then that I should be so lucky as to be a geranium among the more fragile back porch blooms.

So, today I decided I would begin to fill my big screened in back porch and back deck with geraniums this year to remind me that as disheartening as some medical news can be . . . and it is . . . there is always hope in the dark cold winters that lie ahead.   

After all – this life is but a temporary season and those of us who are hearty in the Lord have an eternity of bright seasons to look forward to enjoying.  I will be there, Lord willing and by God’s grace, among the blessed.

Along with endless glorious music, I hope there will be bright geraniums to grace our days.

Many blessings to you all this weekend.  Dee

For today, here’s a picture of our three little Christmas trees in the corner of our living room.  We’ve been keeping them lit more hours than not and they’ve offered a wonderful glow to the house in the evenings.

Although it’s about 70 degrees out today, I think I’m going to make some homemade Broccoli-Cheese Soup for dinner.  Tom and I both love good soup.  For Christmas dinner we’re planning on having a small ham, some sweet potatoes, green peas and rolls.  Tom wants Peach Cobbler for dessert, so I’m going to make that for him.  

What are YOU going to have for Christmas this year?  And who all will be together and where?  Comment and share with us.

Cheers & Blessings to you all today!  Dee

I’m very happy about that because it lasted a little over three weeks.  But, I plowed through and have come out on the other side.  For now, anyway.

I’m certainly in much better mental spirits than I have been in a very long time, despite never feeling just real great physically (like today).  Noticeably so, according to everyone who’s been around me lately, including Tom.  I’ve been doing a lot around the house to "finish" it up since we moved in.  We still have a few boxes I’ve not had time to go through, yet, but I’ve emptied a good many, too, lately.

Among the things I had Tom get out of the attic last weekend were our three little clear lighted Christmas trees (4′, 3′ & 2′) and what’s left of our Christmas "stuff" (that’s what the boxes said).  This was a big deal for us because we haven’t had any Christmas decorations, tree, anything now in four years.

Due to my physical health, Katrina, moving into a small apartment, moving again into our house, deep depression, we really couldn’t do much for a long time and had given a lot of our Christmas lights and decorations away to family.  I’ve long been a Grinch about Christmas, as well, up until late in the season when a sudden inspirational moment will strike me with the Spirit of Christmas and I’m filled with the wonder and joy of it all.

Usually that happens when I least expect it.  Last year, I clearly remember Tom & I being in Slidell in a huge Home Depot the weekend before Christmas practically alone looking for something or other for the house.  I had to go to the ladies’ room, half a store away.  As I walked all alone along the entire front aisle of the store, Silent Night came over the speaker system.  It struck me.  

I felt a peace and harmony that I had not felt for a long time (despite a terrible depression at the time).

This year, we’ve got our three trees up, decorated beautifully a few days ago (Tom did most of it, bless his heart), all of the presents bought we’re going to buy (not many, as usual), wrapped and around the trees.  (They are too little to put anything under them.)  I have two Yankee Candles burning most of the time called "Christmas Wreath," that have that lovely Christmas tree smell to them to fill the house and I’m listening to Christmas music non-stop.  

Some of you even contributed to my collection a couple of Christmases ago when we were in the apartment with all of our Christmas music in storage by sending me CDs of terrific Christmas music!  I cherish it still.

I’ll take some pictures in a couple of days to post here so you can see how pretty our little home looks these days.  Too bad you can’t smell it, too.  I may even make some favorite Christmas cookies this year.  I was thinking about that this morning – the cookies my mom always made every Christmas that we loved and that I always made for my kids as they grew up.

We’ll have a quiet Christmas this year, as we did Thanksgiving.  Tom will have to go into work in the afternoon and we’ll be out late the night before for our annual Christmas Eve party with our friends, so we plan to have a simple, quiet meal together.  We’ll get together with Mark, Lynn and the girls, of course, but don’t know just when, yet.

I hope y’all are getting in the Spirit of Christmas as much as I am this year.  Like I say, I never feel just real great physically any more (like today, but at least the shingles pain is gone), but am in a good mood and happy.

Cheers & Blessings to you all today!  Dee

Well . . . a day later (we’re up to last Saturday here) & $50 something bucks shorter (home repairmen husbands & Home Depot will get you every time), Tom got it "fixed." 
But, not before he had worked on it several hours Friday night and
Saturday morning, managed to end up gouging a huge, and I do mean huge,
hole in our master bathroom wall where the upper and lower screws used
to be (in two small separate holes) behind the wall plate, ripped out the plastic loose anchors in the wall, tried to insert really big toggle bolts through the plastic anchor holes, failed (but adding to the hugeness of the holes), bought new, smaller toggle bolts than the
first ones he’d tried Friday night, bought some kind of "shims,"
whatever they are (he didn’t explain that part to me too well), special
washers and a new battery operated screwdriver to work with (seems the
one he had wouldn’t re-charge anymore and who’d a thunk we’d need a new
one so soon in our new house). 

(And, I know it’s still "new," because
our friends last week from Austin said it smelled like a new house to
them, including the smell of paint.  I guess we’ve gotten used to it,
already.)   

Whew!  What a mess and what stress.  And, everyone wonders why I have shingles, which they say is brought on by stress!

But, I did get a new watch battery
for $5 bucks, which took care of the watch problem.  (Although, the
gizmo that made it light up at night when I pressed the button still
doesn’t work – bummer.)

Saturday ended up okay, sort of.  Or so I
thought.  Until I discovered early Sunday morning that the detergent
didn’t release from under the lid in the dishwasher to wash the
dishes.  I was bummed once again.  I went out to the back porch to
console myself, figuring the fresh sunny air would do me good, but
discovered that one of the tan colored plastic panels screwed to the
lower part of the back of our house had broken loose from being screwed
into the concrete too tightly.  I was miffed.  Tom wasn’t.

I
wanted to call our builder.  Tom said not to worry about it. (That was
about the time I knew for sure things were falling apart around me, but
Tom interceded, as he always rationally does.)

I ran the dishwasher again and Tom suggested
going to an afternoon movie to see "Australia."  I was excited and
determined not to let my blood sugar get low as it did the last time we
went to a movie.  Plus, it’s been running really low the past several
days for some unknown reason, and it totally incapacitates me.  I had
to change out my insulin pump site first and, being in a hurry, got it
all screwed up so that it took me about twice as long to do (and pumped
a lot of extra insulin into my system, which is an important detail for you to remember).

You can figure where this
story is going.  Yep.  About 20 minutes into the 3 hour movie (and just
barely into my wonderful buttered popcorn), my sugar crashed so badly
that not only did Tom have to leave the movie to go out to buy me a "big" (movie theater term for
humongous & humongously expensive) "real" Coke, as I call them, but then we had to leave, anyway,
because I was so incoherent and out of it – completely.

I kept trying to tell him (in panicked whispers) that I couldn’t figure out what was wrong with me, but it was something really bad.  I also didn’t think the "real" Coke was sweet or helping my low blood sugar.  I was sure that he had bought a diet Coke, instead.  Then, I said I had to get out of there.  I couldn’t function, much less walk down all the steps and out of the dark theater.

Tom
bought two more drinks in plastic bottles (at $4.50 a pop) from a machine on the way to the lobby (he meant to buy a "real" Coke for me, but by habit pushed the button for a diet Coke first) to
sit me down because he forgot to grab the Coke by my seat while guiding me out.  (I
was beyond doing anything for myself at all.) 

As I was slowly coming around with Cokes of various kinds everywhere around me (Tom had grabbed his large fountain diet Coke by his seat in the movies, so now we had two) and he added
up our inordinate number of purchases at the most expensive place
around, he figured we were about $35 bucks in the hole and we hadn’t even seen
the movie.  Nor did I feel like staying for the next one, which didn’t
start for another 2 1/2 hours.

He decided to go beg the theater manager for relief, so while I continued to sit there addled, he at least got the price of our tickets back – $5.50 apiece.  About the price of each of the drinks we were collecting.

I finally recovered enough that we could talk a bit.  We didn’t really want to go back home without doing something, yet didn’t feel like going out to the mall or anything, so Tom finally decided to console himself a bit (like he was the one who’d been having all the problems, although I suppose living with me is problem enough) by us going over to Buffalo Wild Wings where he could watch the Washington Redskins (his most hated team) get decimated in their football game on giant screen TVs.  It seems we couldn’t get the game on TV at home.

Meanwhile, "back at the ranch," the dishes were washing in the dishwasher for a third time, but the stupid lid on the soap dispenser still wasn’t working.  So, you can see why, by Monday, I was rather out of sorts.  It was a rough weekend after a painful couple of weeks and more and more things were totally falling apart.

Eventually, though, things began to straighten out.  By late Monday afternoon I found a Frigidaire man to come look at the dishwasher on Wednesday morning since it’s still under warranty, after all.  And not-so-bright me figured out in the meantime (I’m a little slow sometimes, I have to admit) that I could probably get the dishes fairly clean by putting the soap in the tray without putting the lid over it.  It might not dispense at exactly the right time, but was better than no soap on the dishes at all.  Although, Tom figured that after four washes in hot water they were fairly clean, anyway.

Today is Friday and while my pace hasn’t slowed down somehow, things are improving a bit.  The repair guy has to order some main electronic part for the dishwasher (figures) that is going to take seven to 10 working days to come in, but at least I can sort of wash dishes while we wait.  I had two doctors’ appointments yesterday that went well over all.  

The bad news is that I’m still in some pain all the time with the shingles, but it’s a lot better than it was.  It’s apparently going to take several weeks to completely go away, but I still have pain medication to take for it when it gets too bad (about once a day is all I’m taking it now – at night).  The good news is that I saw my kidney doctor and currently have no signs whatsoever of loss of kidney function from being diabetic!

He says there is no longer any protein in my urine, my sodium level is finally in the normal range (it’s been way too low since my heart surgery in 2004), I’m no longer anemic (although I have to take iron meds every day), I’ve lost 27 pounds, and all of my other blood tests and indicators are the very best he’s seen them since I’ve been his patient, which has been over two years.  He was quite impressed and told me whatever I’m doing right now, to keep on doing it! 

Little does he know.  For that matter, little do I know.  I have no clue how all of my functions are doing so well right now according to all my doctors or what I’m doing any differently than I’ve been doing for a long, long time.  I mean, I really don’t feel all that great a lot of the time and have a lot of aches and pains, besides the shingles.  And my catscan last week showed lots of arteriorsclerosis throughout my body (hardening/calcifying of the arteries).  But my kidney doctor says that for someone who’s been diabetic for nearly 39 years, that’s to be expected and that all I can do is do the best I can, which I’m doing, to keep it under control.

I truly believe that it is by the grace of God that I’m even alive, much less functioning as well as I am day by day.  And, that’s how I live.  Day by day, moment by moment.  I do not take any moment in my life for granted.  I live them one at a time under God’s grace and guidance and pray for His power and constant presence in my life in everything I do.  I do not expect anything beyond what He each moment gives me.

So, even when things are falling apart all around me and even in me, I live with hope and joy for better things to come.

Much love to you all today and Cheers & Blessings to each of you who pass this way!  Dee

That’s been my life, of late.

Actually, considering all that’s gone on, I’ve been in pretty good – make that extremely good – spirits.  But, alas, my composure sort of slipped this afternoon.  I was confused, irritated and impatient, for which I had to apologize. 

Well . . . of course, I didn’t have to apologize, but I did.  And to a very sweet lady at the local hospital who was reading my lab orders and trying to figure out what all to do with them and if and when she could draw my blood for the tests ordered, etc.

Sigh . . .

I suppose having the shingles and being in great pain for two weeks, despite pain meds still once or twice a day, would be enough to get anyone down.  Add to that, being out of town when the horrific pain began, coming home for one day, which was terribly busy, and then having back to back company for the next full week and you begin to get the picture.

Thanksgiving day I felt a bit better, but was on my feet in the kitchen cooking for five hours straight to prepare our Thanksgiving dinner.  We’d been so busy and I’d felt so bad that I did not prepare the first thing until about 10 a.m. Thursday morning.  Dinner was a bit late, too.  It wasn’t ready until 2:30 p.m. instead of my planned time of 1:J30.  That was because (here’s where the "minor" irritations really began piling up) my watch stopped in the middle of cooking, which I didn’t figure out for 45 minutes.  Boy, that caused some consternation on my part because I then had no idea how long several of my dishes, including the turkey breast, had been really cooking.  

It was "guess"-timation from that point on, but Tom still declared the meal perfect, so I was happy, although tired (and in pain by then).

Friday was my first day at home alone for the first time in two weeks.  I was hoping to rest all day, which I’m supposed to be doing to help get over the shingles, but instead I did five loads of laundry (I was way behind, plus we’d had a lot of company), folded all of those and hung them up, changed the sheets out on the bed, scrubbed – and I do mean scrubbed! – the plates beneath the burners on our electric stove, scoured out both drains in our kitchen sink and generally wore myself out all day long, without ever sitting down.  Luckily, Tom wanted a leftover hot Thanksgiving meal for dinner in front of the TV, so I was finished for the day.

As I was taking the dirty towels off the double towel rod in our bathroom Friday morning, I noticed the left side plate against the wall was pulling out a bit.  I showed it to Tom, who said he’d screw it back in after work on Friday. (Newspapers have to be put out every day, so he had to work all day Friday.)  Another "minor" irritation that not only needed to be repaired (like my watch that I was missing really badly), but also showed that we had now been in our new house for a few too many months.  (I mean, is that possible?  We thought we’d have at least five to 10 good years before we needed any work done on the house, and it’s only been a few months, for goodness sakes!)

Anyway, back to the loose screw on the towel rod. 

To Be Continued . . ..

I did not come to this realization on my own.  

As with most of the important discoveries of my life over the past 29 years, the number of years I’ve known Tom, he was the one who led me to this place in my thinking that I am now in.  Savoring each moment for itself, not letting it pass by in a rush to find something better.

In doing that, we have started using our "good" dishes every day.  

By good dishes, I do not mean fine china, for I never had much of that to begin with and what few pieces I had I gave away to someone younger a long time ago to cherish more than I ever did.  I’m not exactly a fine china kind of girl.

But, I do have a beautiful set of ceramic dishes – service for 12 – with a good many extra pieces that I have had since I was very young.  I’ve had the dishes for 45 years!

When our house in Slidell flooded from excessive rain back in 1995, we had to re-do practically everything and one thing we had to do was totally tear out and renovate the kitchen.  When we did so, we put in one upper cabinet with a glass front to show off the dishes, which had long been packed away.  That was the beginning.

Tom began to use the bowls every morning for his cereal.  We used them other times, too, but not just real often.  We still rather saved them.

When we built our new house here last year we again decided to have a cabinet with glass doors in which to put our good dishes.  It is a highlight in our kitchen.  And, now, we’ve started using them.  Rather, Tom since has, while I tended to still use the plain white "everyday" dishes I’d bought a long time ago cheaply at good ol’ Wal-Mart.

But I got to thinking about it and all of a sudden wondered why on earth we weren’t using our beautiful things all the time.  What exactly were we saving them for?  Who loves and cares about them more than me?  When will the day come when they will be anything more than some treasure on display, but not to be touched.  Or used.

So, now we’re using our beautiful dishes every day.  I love them and even decorated my kitchen around them.  I want them to shine, and they do.

 I have to admit that it has been a long time in coming to this place where we are using lovely things like we are.  I wish now I had come to this thinking much sooner because life is as ephemeral as fog. We have but the moment we are now in.  We must cherish each moment and savor its sweetness, because all too soon it will be forever gone.

 If you have good dishes, get them out and enjoy them.  Or else give them to someone who will.  That is what I have been doing over the past five or six years of my life.  Giving most of my possessions away.  What remain, we use.  Our lives are much simpler now and that is good.

I hope you enjoy the pictures I’ve shared with you today.  If you’ll come over to visit, we’ll share a meal with you and enjoy our lovely things together. 

Hope to see you soon!  In the meantime . . .

Cheers & Blessings to you all today!  Dee

When we moved into our house last summer, good friends gave us a fire pit as a housewarming gift.  It was hot and muggy and while we appreciated the thought, it’s use seemed to be a long way off.

Well, yesterday afternoon about 2:30 p.m. we used it for the first time together out on our back wooden deck.  It was in the upper 40’s, but still outside and the sun shone brightly down on us as Tom made a fire with one of those fire logs you buy for such a purpose and with a couple of pinon wood logs from New Mexico.

We sat next to each other in our white Adirondack chairs close to the fire.  Talk was limited, but came easy, as it always does between Tom and me.  We rested in a quiet so grand you could hear birds chirp and leaves blowing about just a bit.  

The pinon wood smelled wonderful and the fire’s heat felt even better.  The sky was clear and bright blue with just a few fine, wispy clouds to add a touch of white to emphasize the blue even more.

We relaxed out on the deck by the fire for a couple of hours, I guess.  I felt as if I were undergoing sun therapy.

I also decided that was the place for my winter meditations when all of the circumstances should be right, and they were yesterday.

Sometimes we can be thankful to God for some of the simpler pleasures in life, like sitting quietly on the back deck in the sun by a warm fire on a cool Sunday afternoon.  

Come join us next time we do that.  We have some more chairs there on the other side of the fire just waiting for some quiet company.  You’ll be glad you came by and we’ll be happy to see you.

Dee

They always sooth me, even in the depression.  I sit out there on the white wicker love seat with the lovely light yellow and blue flower cushions under the neat white ceiling fan and watch the tops of the trees in the back yard.  That’s how high up our house is in the back.  (Check out the pictures of our house, again, at the top of this page under "Creating A Home.") 

I think the fan/light fixture on the back porch is the neatest one in our house.  It is rather nautical looking and always fun to sit under to meditate.

Where do you meditate?  Do you have a special place, or do you even meditate at all?  

Comment and share with me what you do.  I need a special winter meditating place and especially right now with the depression and all.  Winter certainly doesn’t help depression in any way with the cold, damp weather, short days and long nights.

Also, get your photos in if you haven’t already for the photo contest.  (Find the rules here.)

 Hope each of you has a good day today and a great weekend!

Cheers & Blessings to all of you!  Dee

We made it through the cold snap and it’s now back up to 48 degrees here at nearly noon today.  That’s still cold for here, but not as bad as 17 degrees and a hard freeze for a couple of nights.  I mean, we’re talking about South Mississippi.

Now I understand it’s supposed to be fairly warm all across the country for a few days.  At least through the midwest.  I see on this morning’s news that California is having heavy wintery weather.

Here’s a question for you today related to my last post.  A lot of you stopped by to visit and to comment about your weather where you are.  My question now is – what temperature do you keep your thermostat on in the winter both during the day and at night, if they are different?

Also, share what kind of heat you have in your house.  Up until we moved to Picayune, we had natural gas heat and it was very economical around here.  Now, in our new house we are all electric with a heat pump.  So, I’m wondering how that is going to effect our utility bills (electric bill).

I am very cold natured, so have been keeping the thermostat in the house set during the day at 72, with the night temperature set at 68.  However, I’m beginning to worry about  the electric bill being high, so with the new year (and really cold weather!), I’ve decided to keep the daytime temperature at 68 with the night time temperature set at 65.

I’m thus going around with a sweatshirt jacket on all day long and Tom and I both wear them around in the evening while we’re watching TV and stuff. 

 Tom taught me a "trick" to try to keep warm while sitting on the sofa reading or watching TV.  He said (and it works) to hold a pillow close against my chest.  Tom put his under his zip up jacket and that looked really funny.  He looked hilarious!  But, at least he was warm.

So . . . guys . . . what kind of heat do you have in your house and how do you keep it set by day and at night?  Comment and share those and then we’ll see if we need to share heating bills!

Cheers!  & Blessings to you all today!  Dee