Easter 2025

 After a day of stormy weather we had a lovely Easter.  It was celebrated as usual with church, socialization and lunch, the only difference this year is that I didn’t cook lunch.  A friend was telling me what she was making for lunch and I shared “I made reservations”.  I am so funny — fun ——- ny!  Big meals laden with heavy food just aren’t in our lives right now so it was all good.

Church was VERY full — all three services.  It was lovely.  And during our service one of the littles decided to quietly sing through the homily.  It was sweet — she wasn’t disturbing the message and it was just so cute.  Coffee hour ran out of food! I think the folks who plan coffee hour need to realize that our church is growing! And we need more food.  Not a criticism to the folks who do this, they are great and we are grateful for them, just an observation.

And I just wanted to share this with you — 

I hope everybody had a wonderful Easter!

Boo!

 Ok, I am done sitting still.  The procedure was over a month ago and I seem to be back to my old self.

My husband has a new device — a continuous glucose monitor — it is driving me crazy (or HE is driving me crazy) but it is a lot better than sticking his finger three times a day especially since that approach really wasn’t giving us enough information.  Plus, this device beeps if his glucose goes too low which is really good.  It seems that he has been having hypo episodes that we weren’t aware of.  Hypoglycemic episodes are scary, scary things.  So, over all, it is an improvement.

And I think my house is haunted.

Every morning I sit here in the living room alone and I hear a door open and shut — to the upstairs.  I keep thinking it is my husband but it is not.  So, today, I couldn’t find my keys.  I discovered they were gone while we were out running errands.  I took everything out of my purse (I carry a small purse) and there were no keys to be found.  I came home and searched high and low for the keys.  I do have an air tag on them but the battery had died so that was not helpful.  So, I hunted and moved stuff and retraced my steps to no avail.

I then came back to my purse, opened it up and there, on top of everything were the keys.  It was if somebody had just set them in my purse, not like they were down IN the purse.  I asked my husband where he found them and he assured me he didn’t know what I was talking about.  Judging from the confused look on his face I am sure he didn’t know what I was talking about.

SO…….where did the keys come from and how did they wind up in the purse I had emptied and sitting right on top?  

I wonder.  Also, my purse was right by the door I keep hearing opening and closing.

That’s all! Have a nice day!

Checking In

 Hi all! Just checking in.  On Wednesday I had a second cardiac ablation.  All went well and I am doing what I have been told — sit down, be still and be quiet.  So, that is what I am doing! I mind well.  

The procedure was early in the morning I was home at 2 p.m.  I would prefer they keep you overnight but it is supposed to be a minimally invasive procedure and doesn’t warrant an overnight stay.  With the lunch they brought me perhaps it is better after all.

So, I am sitting down, watching lots of youtube videos, doing some reading, just being lazy but hopefully tomorrow I will be able to be a little more active.  I don’t do still very well — especially when TOLD to!

Just thought I would let you know where I have been and what I have been doing.  Such fun.  

Be back later after I am done sitting still, being quiet and being still.

What’s Up for the New Week —

 It is Saturday and it appears we are emerging from the arctic freeze we have been experiencing.  I am sure I have mentioned here that I am not a fan of winter.  Being born and raised in the south did not prepare me for all this northern exposure.  Yes, I realize we are talking about north and south Texas but it may as well be the north and South Pole! The weather in the two regions is so different and one is clearly preferable to the other —and it isn’t here.  Enough said about that because it doesn’t seem that I can change the weather.

But, since the weather is going to perk up I am thinking so will my energy and I am looking forward to getting my routine back in order.  It seems to have taken a wrong turn somewhere — probably between my hibernating naps.

I was doing a wonderful morning routine which  was getting my day off to a great start — there is nothing like a feeling of accomplishiment in the first fifteen minutes of the day — I mean, personal care done, bed made, dressed to the shoes (thanks FlyLady) —it just sets the tone for the day.  It worked better when I was sleeping later and got up about the same time as my husband but I am getting up before the chickens and he is sleeping in so, in an effort to not make noise and awaken him, I have put my morning routine on hold.  However, I am going to tweak that so that I can get back to it.

Hubs and I had a “discussion” about laundry some months ago — I like to do laundry on the daily so it never stacks up.  Modern appliances allow us to do this since you can control the load size with water usage and all that — so I prefer to wash a load in the evening and get it done but Hubs said I was wasting water and electricity.  I disagreed but said even if I was I was getting payback in satisfaction and the calmness of not having laundry piling up.  I quit doing laundry every day.  I am starting again.

The kitchen — sigh — when I broke my arm my husband took over cleaning the kitchen.  He has now decided that it is his kitchen and his job.  I have decided he doesn’t know the meaning of clean the kitchen.  To him that means load the dishwasher with whatever has accumulated in the sink (never mind the odd glass sitting NEXT to the sink)— he apparently doesn’t believe in the concept of loading it as you go through the day.  That is stopping today.  I will unload the DW - as I had been doing before my routine went haywire—and I will load it during the day.  Then, his job has been reduced to pushing the button.  Hahahaha - don’t mean to ruin his good time but….

How are you with little routines?  The little things that you don’t think make a difference but do.  The small activities that make up a day so at the end of the day you can feel like you have done your job and earned your place in the recliner?  I read all sorts of things about decluttering and deep cleaning and such and I still believe the little things are what make the difference.

So, after a couple of errands this morning I am on to do the routine tweaking — I did it for a long time so it shouldn’t be a big deal to get back on board.  Looking so forward to seeing some sun today and some warmer temps — can’t get here quick enough.

Have a great Saturday y’all!  Up and at ‘em!  Oh, and apologies to the Hubs for sounding like I am getting after him —- I love him dearly and have since 1965 but retirement brings on a whole new understanding ..of everything! Haha!

Happy Birthday, Mama

 Today is my mother’s birthday.  She would be 102.  She departed this earth a long time ago, March 13, 1996 to be exact,   It seems like forever since I have seen her and I miss her.  She left too soon, too young, and she has missed so much.  I would like to think she is watching from afar

So, happy birthday, Mama, I hope it is a good one there with Daddy and the rest of the family.  I hope there is cake.

Finally — A Finish

 As I have mentioned before I am not a fan of  book challenges.  I much prefer to leisurely enjoy my books — reading is a relaxing endeavor for me not something to be rushed through just to fulfill a certain goal.  So, because of this change of attitude, I read significantly fewer books in 2024 than in the past and it appears that trend will continue through 2025. How do I know?  

I just finished the first book of 2025 and it is mid-February.  

I started the Little Maudley series in 2024.  It is a series (two books so far) about a small village in the UK named Little Maudley. It is written by Rachel Lucas.  The first book is titled “The Telelphone Box Library”.  Each book chronicles a portion of the lives of the residents, each with a different story and I found them to be very engaging and relatable.  

Not sure what my next read will be — I will be sorting that out this morning  as I picked up several books for free/cheap on Kindle unlimited during one of the specials.  It is amazing how what seemed interesting at the time might not seem so interesting now so I will have to see what is stacked up in my “library”.  I always sort of like to give it a day or two between ending a good book and starting a new one - gives me a chance to digest so to speak.  I will let you know and notice that I have started my 2025 list on the side bar of this blog.

As promised, here is the fourth Valentine card I made for my grandson.  Not sure how I managed to take the photo with the rest and not have it appear on my camera but that is what happened.  So, here is the fourth “masterpiece” with the miserable rub ons.  I have about a dozen pages of them left and am seriously considering just tossing them — hate to do that but not sure if the frustration is worth it.  Hmmm…anyway..

Clearly I am having device issues as this is a photo of the photo on my phone!  I am sure it is operator error but I am just hoping all my devices aren’t deciding to go kaput all at once.  I have been having trouble with all of them — my phone and my iPad — the kindle seems to still be ok (touch wood) but I will not be happy if I have to replace a phone and an iPad at the same time.  But, for today, I seem to be ok.

Let’s talk about youtube.  Over time I have come appreciate the platform and all it has to offer.  I am sure there is some unsavory material on it but since I don’t gravitate towards the unsavory, I have found youtube to be very helpfulin my hobbies — cross stitch, cardmaking and reading.  I have also found many historically interesting videos and always enjoy those.

I follow several bloggers and I find their offerings to be refreshing and informative.  

One that I watch regularly is Benita Larsson.  She has a vlog about minimalism and I love seeing her home in Stockholm, her approach to life and her peacefulness is “catching”.

Another that I watch is Cecelia Blomdahl.  Cecelia lives on Svalbard with her partner and her dog Grimm.  Svalbard is the northern most archipelago closest to the North Pole.  She is delightful, the area looks beautiful and horrible at the same time.  She chronicles her life in this barren community and it is all, oddly, normal!  Check her out sometime.  She has a book.

I also follow Natalie Bowers for card crafting.  I have spoken of her before and I find her videos to be straightforward, easy to understand and lovely to look at.  Very enjoyable expenditure of time.

And last but certainly not least is Nicolas Fairford.  Fairford is a vlogger who focuses on fine living.  His vlogs are so relaxing and lovely.  This is a young man who works hard to develop a lifestyle that he wants to live himself and he wants to share with others.  He has also developed a brand of merchandise that you can purchase if you so desire.  In his current videos he is doing a lot of traveling which interests me because I get to see places that I wouldn’t get to see otherwise.  It makes for a relaxing afternoon with a cuppa — just letting myself enjoy a Scottish country house or a beautiful hotel in Vienna.  Living the fine life vicariously while sitting here in my ordinary life in Texas.

Gotta thank youtube!

So, it is Friday.  I have some errands to run and I have to say I am not looking forward to it in the cold weather but, if we want lunch……you get the picture.

Have a wonderful day, friends, and stay warm!

Cardmaking — Frustrating Hobby!

 I have been busy making Valentine cards for my grandchildren.  They don’t care but I find it great fun — until it isn’t.  

What could possibly go wrong with some cute little Valentine cards.  Well, let me tell you — it has been a comedy of errors.

First off I wanted to use some rub on transfers.  They are so pretty and so easy (ha!).  We have used alphabet rub ons before with kids school projects and now the arty ones look so much like watercolors that they are gorgeous.  So I ordered some from Amazon.  All pink and red, girly and yet some masculine stuff, sort of vintage —

Sort of garbage.  I don’t recommend at all.  At least the ones I bought.  I learned a great lesson from this — Amazon may be fast but it isn’t necessarily great.  

I messed up several panels, with the cutest images, and they got binned.  I finally got them done but it was iffy at best.  

As I have said I have been away from the activity for awhile so I had to reacquaint myself with my stash.

Oh. My. Gosh— I have a definite shopping problem.  I keep going through drawers and it just keeps coming.  I will never use all this stuff—

Yet,  I needed some stuff that I just don’t have.

What might you ask?  Space,  My little short assistant (Bean) needs to get her sassy self over here and help me organize.  I need to get rid of some of this stuff….I digress.

So, I finally got the cards together and I needed sentiments.  I had recently bought some new stamps with lots of sentiments.  Again, trash.  They are all joined together, not separate like I thought they would be.  And they don’t take the ink well.  Bother. 

Note to self — buy from a reputable company that you recognize.

Then, as I was trying to glue them all together I kept dropping the elements and getting glue all over — all over the cards, all over me — maybe having a tremor is going to make this more difficult.  I finally managed to get that done without too much wonkyness.  

I glued on a couple of little embellishments, called it done and took photos.  Came down here to share with you and discovered that my phone didn’t actually photograph one of the cards so I will have to drag myself upstairs again to get that picture. 

But, for now, here are my efforts —

What is next? A Graduation card.  Oh, and I seem to have lost an entire palette of watercolor paints.  Hmm….

Oh, I almost forgot —Bean,  my daughter, her husband and a friend and HER daughter all did a college visit this weekend.  Our family has a very long Aggie legacy so they decided to take Bean for a tour and here are a couple of picks.  I think she might be abandoning her idea of NYU and realizing it is up to her to carry on the family legacy….we will see —

Thinking About What I Have Done

 Good morning, friends!  I am sitting here thinking over what I have done.  I am a child of the 50’s/60’s which means I grew up during a time of lots of political unrest, civil rights unrest, Vietnam “war”, people were tuning in, turning on and dropping out, there was women’s lib,  free love, protest marches and bomb threats and bra and draft card burnings  — it was the best of times and the worst of times.

And, let me be clear — I did none, absolutely NONE of those things.  I was a rather dull teenager in San Antonio, Texas.  I went to school and went home.  I had a boyfriend who lived away at college who I saw a couple of times a month.  I was an average student that loved her family and would never do anything to bring grief or embarrassment to them.  I was a good girl.

I didn’t have a political bone in my body, I was very quiet and didn’t make waves — I was almost invisible.  

Until today.

I am so annoyed about the shenanigans of our school board that I wrote to the interim superintendent asking them to live stream their next secret meeting which is scheduled for this Thursday.

I imagine you are probably laughing your buns off thinking “is this as good as she can do?” I have never had any leanings toward activism, so out of my comfort zone.  So, for me this was quite the step. 

I did add a little bit of snark reminding him of who does, in fact, pay his salary but I did it in a very respectful way.  

I don’t know how I feel about stepping out of my comfort zone, regardless of how tenuous a step it was.  I hope I don’t have to do it again!  

But, in a way, I feel a little liberated albeit it 50 years late! 

The Wrong Side of the Tracks

“The phrase "wrong side of the tracks" originated from the physical layout of many cities where railroad tracks often divided neighborhoods, with the poorer areas typically located on one side of the tracks, thus signifying "the wrong side" due to the associated lower socioeconomic status.”s

The statement above is from a google search defining the phrase “wrong side of the tracks”.  Apparently the phrase has been in use since the early 1800’s when the railroads were a “thing” and many times their tracks would bisect towns creating areas deemed poorer on one side of the tracks and richer on the other.  I have heard the term all my life so I don’t know if it is more southern, northern or universal.  No matter, I view it is as negative thing to say.  

We have often joked, as a family, about living on the “wrong side of the tracks”.  Growing up I lived south of Basse Road (no real tracks),the dividing line between San Antonio Independent School District and Northeast Independent School District putting me squarely NOT in the affluent NEISD.  Conversely, I lived north of the tracks on Hildebrand Ave. which separated my neighborhood from the affluent Monte Vista area. 

Where did I fall in regards to the “tracks”?  — Firmly ensconced in middle class mediocrity.  I lived, for all my life until adulthood, in housing that was built for the returning troops after World War 2.

So, where is this going?  Let me make one thing clear — I AM NOT POLITICAL!  I don’t care for politics, won’t talk about politics, don’t play the game and it truly is a game but….

I live in Fort Worth — far north Fort Worth —in an area adjacent to a small town named Keller.  The two areas are divided by — you guessed it — a railroad track and a state highway.  We pay Fort Worth taxes but we pay Keller school taxes and our kids go to Keller Schools.

We have modest houses on this side of the tracks as well as houses priced in the high six figures, some 7 figures.  The neighborhood across the street from us is popular with hilly terrain and McMansions.  The property in Keller is much the same — modest housing all the way up to 7 figure houses.  It is all relative.  

The majority of the schools in KISD are on the West side (wrong side) of the tracks with one high school and a handful of feeder schools on the East (right side). 

So, what is the problem you might ask?  WELL — Keller ISD is having financial issues.  They aren’t as flush as they need to be. They are blaming it on our governors insistence on instituting a voucher system giving state money to families to, in turn, support private schooling.  That wouldn’t be a good thing because our public schools would come up short.  Because the state hasn’t been able to “sell” this voucher system to the public, the governor has withheld funds to the public schools and our teachers haven’t had a raise in two years.  He really wants his way.  

So, the KISD Board of Education has decided the thing to do to save the district is to split the district in two and separate creating a new, yet unnamed district.  The KISD would have one high school and a small feeder pattern.  The OTHER side would have all the schools and, all the debt.  See where I am going here?

Basically, we on the West (wrong) side of the tracks would have to start over again, our teachers would be affected as well as our students.  We, on the West side, would lose access to some important facilities and programs as well.

So, you might say, upon further thought what is wrong with it?  Well, what is wrong with it is that the Board of Education has been making these plans without public knowledge, in back room meetings, no public vote — they were just going to make it happen until it got leaked and now it is a big ball of mess. 

How does this affect me?  Well, my property values will likely decrease.  My daughter is a teacher in this district and Bean is a student in the district.  The stress my daughter is experiencing is excessive and my granddaughter is going to join in a protest on Friday (are we back to the 60’s?).  And, honestly, I am getting tired of being called “underprivileged” and “one of those people who cant pay their bills”.  It is ludicrous that they want to deny the West side the use of facilities that were paid 75% by the West side.

I say to our students, here is your opportunity to shine — make the new ISD the best it can be, get those test scores up, show the world what you are made of.  I say, be bigger, be better and be kind — yep, be kind — and as Jean Stapleton said in “You’ve Got Mail” it is the right thing to do.

Ok, rant over. 

To Be or Not to Be — I have a question

 There is a lot in the news these days about immigration, citizenship, rights of non-citizens, etc.  This is a conversation that raises a lot of genealogical questions for me.  I am not here to discuss the current state of affairs but rather glean some information about generations past.

Everytime I hear a news story about our immigration woes I find I am thinking about my great-grandparents.  Most of my relations have been in America since revolutionary times, have a historical presence, fought in wars, helped build universities, etc. except for my mother’s paternal grand-parents.  That is where the questions come up.  I know I will have to do some research to suss out the rules and regulations at the time but I thought I would throw it out just in case anybody had any insight.

Because my father’s family’s genealogy had been done I started with my mother’s grandparents who immigrated from Wales late in the 19th century.  In genealogical circles they are called “new immigrants”.  I was always interested in my great-grandparents from Wales because we didn’t know much about them (closed mouth grandfather) and we didn’t know them because we were in Texas and they were in Pennsylvania although my mother did travel to see them when she was tiny — too tiny to remember anything about it except large icicles hanging from the roofs in Scranton, PA.  So, there was interest in a different locale, different weather, different accents, different birthplaces — just different.  And I was curious so that is where I began my genealogical journey.

I began learning about my great-grandparents before my mother passed away and she was able to give me some information.  She always told me that they came on a ship (really Mom?  I assumed) and that they came to Scranton and nothing really changed other than their zip code.  Their lives pretty much continued in the US as it did in Wales — they lived in a Welsh-heavy community, they went to a Welsh Baptist church, they sang in Welsh American choirs — my great-grandmother even had a cottage garden, like she did  back home as family lore shared.

I was also told that they never became citizens which is evidenced on census records where they are consistently listed as “Al” on citizenship.  They came with three children, a boy who never married and two girls.  The girls married American citizens and became citizens through their husbands.  

My great-grandparents went on to have several more children here in the US including my grandfather — a first generation American.  I assume that by being born here he was a US citizen — I don’t ever remember hearing it being questioned.  But I have a question —

Did he have dual citizenship - was he also a Welsh citizen, a British subject, could he live in Britain with the same rights and privileges as a British born person by way of his parents?

I remember my mother had questions as well because she told me of a story that when her grandmother passed away her father received a document to sign that had ribbons and fancy writing on it (she was still a child so I don’t think she perused the paper) and she thinks it came from the UK.  We don’t know what it was, if it actually came from the UK or actually what it was at all.  There doesn’t seem to be a way to find out because I can’t find any record of a will for my great-grandmother.

So, my question is, does anybody know of past citizenship rules?  They came in 1890 and she passed in 1937 so it isn’t like it was a terribly long time ago.  

I guess I need to do some more research.  Sigh.

As promised —

 I believe that I promised to share my attempts at cardmaking in an earlier post.  I have tried my hand at making cards before with various successes but the process is fun and creative.  I would like to say it is relaxing and in some respects it is.  However, trying to get things straight is annoying, sometimes difficult, and proves to be frustrating. There are lots of tools out there to help the process though and they do help.

The comical part about the whole situation is I am rubbish at actually mailing cards — not just on time — just at all! So, why would I undertake such an endeavor when a quick text to the recipient might be enough?  Art.  It is the art of it all.  The papers, embellishments, colors —- it doesn’t matter if I get them mailed, it is the process.  Plus the joy of getting the card panel on the card base centered appropriately.

So, I created an 18th birthday card for my grandson.  As plain as plain can be.  No sparkle, no movement, no bling.  But the sentiment  made the day —

So I was thinking about upcoming card requiring events and the 18 year old’s high school graduation comes to mind but surely there is something coming up sooner.  

Ah ha! I have a childhood friend that I keep in touch with and her birthday is this coming week.  Perfect! And off I went.  

I am still going through supplies and reacquainting myself with my stash and I ran across a paper packet that I really like — it is “vintage” and has tea pots and cakes and things— very “old ladyish” — but hey, if the shoe fits….sshhhh…don’t tell her I said that!

I made the card, got it all packed up with a cute little seal and forgot to take a photo.  So, this morning, after fretting about it all night, I opened it, ruined the seal, took a photo, got a new envelope, made a new seal and here we are.  When I repacked it, however, I covered the front of the card with a piece of copy paper to protect the little pearls.  I thought that was a prudent thing to do considering the condition some of my mail arrives in.

So, without further ado — my birthday card for my friend’s 75 birthday.  I hope she likes it but if she doesn’t I am sure there is a rubbish bin close by.  It is the thought, right?

I didn’t take a photo of the envelope with the seal but I made the seal with one of the little teapots cut out and made into a sticker.  I also didn’t take a photo of the inside (silly me) but it is lined with one of the pieces of coordinating paper.  

I am pleased with how it turned out, I love the paper and colors.  There were things I would have done differently but I was trying to keep it flat to go through the post.  The butterflies looked really nice with their wings up a bit but again, trying to be cognizant of the mail.

So, there you have it.  I have worked on it for several days.  Not because anything was difficult but because I was “thinking” about it.  If I make it again there will be changes and who knows you might see this again in the future.

Have a great Saturday!