Yesteryear

Over the last 10+ years I thought we had covered nearly every road in Ashe County as we love to go for drives in the country.  I should have known better since it is a huge county.  Sure enough today we stumbled upon a road we'd never traveled & though it was gravel, pretty much a one lane, & the going was slow it was okay because we had no place else to go (ah, love retirement!)
If I had my old panoramic camera there would only be one picture... But since I don't, use your imagination a bit & look at this the way we saw it... one piece after another in a long string along this country road.

                                            Notice the date on this!  (1775)

               This house sat up behind the mill "complex" and was abandoned.

But isn't it nice that they didn't just board up the windows... they painted the boards a contrasting color!

                                       Love it when we find an old treasure.

Food USA

We have been on the road for one full month touring the western USA.  It has been an awesome experience and though we hate to see it end, we miss our family & friends and we have made some wonderful memories!  I have snapped nearly 1000 pictures (so thankful for digital!)  So you will may see a few of them on here over the next 6 months periodically.

But the first pics I want to share are some of the wonderful places we ate, both for atmosphere and for the food.  We tried to avoid chain restaurants altogether, and we only ate about 3 times at chains during the entire month.

 We ate dinner at this little place in the historic downtown of Van Buren, AR.  We were the only ones in the restaurant and when we walked in the hostess asked, "Are you here to drink?"

 Since there was a bar to the left of these tables in a step down room, we thought she meant did we want to sit in there or in the upper dining area.  I said, "We are here for dinner."  She asked, "What are you drinking?" and I responded hesitantly, "Water."  She then said that if we wanted a glass of wine with dinner we would need to fill out a form...  Turns out it is a dry county, so they have posted on the wall that it is a "members only club."  But to "join" the club you just will out a form with your name and address, then they give you a membership card that you bring each time.  We did sit in this area because we could sit right by the window.  And right behind my chair was this:

 I had said before we got there that I was NOT going to have dessert that night.... WELL... I gave into the coconut cream & have no regrets!

I was so excited when I saw this French bakery because I wanted my dear hubby to taste some of the delicacies our daughter and I had when he sent us to France about 14 years ago.  The restaurant was very crowded and we wanted to get ours to go so we could eat it in the park across the street in downtown Santa Fe, NM.  I specifically asked for a raspberry tart since that was the one thing we would have every opportunity we had.

I purchased this and an apricot turnover so we could share each of them.  As beautiful as this was, it was not like the ones in France.  And the turnover had a half of one dried apricot in half of the turnover and none in the other half.  It was an $8.50 "experience" for hubby since he had nothing to compare it to, and we enjoyed watching people in the park.

Now to find some clothes that I can fit into...

A House for Everyone

My sweet hubby drove me up one block and down another, slowing at each house where I said, "stop" so that I could snap a picture of it.  I was just so intrigued by the variety and number of homes in this historic district.

Ready for more?  Stay tuned.

Home Sweet Home

As I said in my last post, I am ready to share some fun things and our recent trip out west provided a whole series to share with you.  I've been in many towns/cities where we drove through the "Historic Area" and most of them have a few or several historic homes that are attractive.  But when we toured one city on our trip we hit the jackpot on historic homes: attractive, unique, and more than I've ever seen anywhere.  I'll share a few at a time and see if anyone can tell me where they are...
The first picture is a lead in to the second picture:

                                          The mailbox belongs to

                                     Did you ever see such as cute house?!

I love this one that seems to say, "Welcome, come on in."

Did I mention the diversity of the houses?

Or how colorful some are?

Or the different sizes they are?

These went on for blocks and blocks and blocks!

More next time....

Kindred Spirits

My brain has been on "blog hiatus" for the last 6 months...  I've read a lot of books, but have given up on the book reviews for now.  I was ready for something fun, and a recent trip out west gave me just the material I needed.  I have over 800 pictures from a wonderful trip (no, I won't bore you with all of them).  I plan to share some of our adventures on future blogs, but I have one that I just have to start out with.

I have enjoyed "getting to know" new friends through blogging over the last couple of years and know a few because they are friends IRL (that's "in real life" for those of you who may not know all the lingo... it took me awhile & I'm sure there are still many I don't know.)  But a few weeks ago I realized I would be in the far away state of a blogger I have followed long enough that I felt I already knew her.  I also play WordsWithFriends with her nearly every day.  Then I realized she lived in the same city of some friends we would visit, & that we would come through that town twice!  My excitement began to build, & we messaged each other back & forth to see if a meeting would work out.  We eventually set up a place, a date, and a time to meet.  As the time approached I began to have those middle school little "doubts" like, "will she like me?" "will we find something to talk about?" "will we have enough in common (I am old enough to be her mother!)?"

Well, after a 3 hour lunch my doubts were gone!  Like middle school girls, we looked at the photo (taken by my wonderful hubby who dropped me off & went off until I called him to come back) & she said, "I look old," while I said, "Wow, I need to lose weight!"
But what a wonderful time we had and I really feel like Mer is a dear friend now!  As we shared all the wonderful things God has done & is doing in our lives, He just gave me a love for this dear sister in Christ.  Though many miles separate us, though we are of a different generation, though we had never met until that day, though we are at very different stages in life, the immediate connection we made knowing that our lives are in God's hands made us kindred spirits.  What a special gift that day was!

A True Life Story

I got off my fiction path with my last review and read another fiction book since then ("The Twelfth Imam"). But I'm not ready to review it.

Today I finished an amazing book: "Because I Can" is the true story of Janet Oberholtzer's path from avid runner/active mom to 3 boys/busy woman, to nearly losing her life/nearly losing her legs/nearly losing her marriage/nearly losing her faith/nearly losing her mind. Her story is touching, riveting, thought provoking, and told from her own perspective with no holds barred.
I admired her candid way of opening her heart to her readers without making disparaging remarks about her family or friends. I cannot imagine all that she has gone through, but her presentation of her circumstances made for very good reading.

Though I usually prefer Christian fiction, I highly recommend this book!

Double Dipping

Since I got my Kindle, I rarely buy a book.  But recently I saw one on Amazon that looked interesting, so since I was ordering something else that would mean free shipping, I decided to get it.
 The strange thing is that this must have really sounded intriguing to me because without realizing it, I had already downloaded it onto my Kindle.

The book is Organized Simplicity by Tsh Oxenreider.  Having recently decided that I needed to purge my belongings and really clean out, this sounded like just the ticket for me.  We've never lived in a house longer than 5 1/2 years, and we are celebrating 10 years in this house in a few weeks.  It has enormous walk-in attic storage (one huge and another very ample), and I find that the more storage I have, the more I "store."  It also has lots of closets, bookcases (I'm realizing that I "hoard" books...), drawers, and shelves. And I seem to have filled them all up!

The subtitle of this book is "The Clutter-Free Approach to Intentional Living" so I thought it would be very helpful.  Granted, much in it is for families and we are down to just the two of us.  I can overlook all those parts.  I did find it quite interesting how this family worked toward being able to live abroad (and accomplished it!)  Many of the ways they simplified translate to those who just want to simplify without moving.  I also like that she redefined "simple living" (so we don't  have to ride a bicycle everywhere, which is a relief since we live 9 miles from the closest grocery... or eat only from our garden, because my thumb is only a light shade of green and we'd starve if we had to do that!)  She defined it as realistic simple living, which is: 1) More time for people; 2) Improved health; 3) Financial Well-Being; and 4) An Ecological Step in the Right Direction.

There are some really good ideas and points in this book.  There are some great templates/charts in the appendix that you can copy and use.  There are also some good questions with pros & cons and her "thoughts" on different issues in the appendix, too.
There are great lists of things to have/do, and there are recipes for "home cleaners" & "homemade toiletries" (this is where I jumped off the band wagon... I'll take the drugstore, thank you very much.)

It is a book that you can jump around in which is what I did the first time around.  I jumped to the kitchen section first and I have to say that I disagree on the list of "10 basic items that will equip the average home cook with everything he or she needs" ("from a former personal chef and editor of Simple-Bites.net").

 1) "a 6 1/2" chef's knife & a small paring knife" - I use a lot more knives than that! 2) "Melamine mixing bowls" - I'll take my glass/pottery bowls.  3) "Large hefty wooden board" - I finally got it about having separate cutting boards for chicken/meat/vegetables!  And wooden?!  They are the worst offenders at letting bacteria seep into the grain!  And they are heavy!  4) "Immersion blender may be a kitchen's most versatile tool after a knife."  I don't have one, I don't need one, I don't want one... but don't deny me my mixer or processor!  I've loved my processor so much that after 25 years of use I just ordered exactly the same one that I've had and used all those years. (I needed some new blades and they were enough cost that I didn't want to take a chance on the motor going out after purchasing them.  So with some "Amazon bucks" saved up, I replaced the whole thing instead.)  At the end of the list there are two other appliances that she suggests "can be a huge help if you use them at least once every week or two;" a coffee grinder and a stand mixer.  I love my stand mixer, but my hand mixer does nearly as much.  And I know some folks are coffee aficionados who only want fresh ground, but not us.

Though I haven't completely read the book cover-to-cover, I've read most of it and since I was already on the warpath ready to purge and simplify, it gave me a good start which I did this week.  I now have a cleaned out pantry, bathroom closet, magazine rack, and a good start on the attic.  Much more to do, but it had to start somewhere.

I'd say this is a "fun" book and useful, but one I'd watch for on sale or check out from the library.  Just my thoughts....

Keep Reading...

Well, this hasn't worked so well because I've been doing more reading than blogging....
I won't even tell you how many books I've read... (keep in mind, that I read very fast, but I retain very little.)
But recently I read one that I got free for my Kindle that I would recommend if you like action, intrigue, nothing nasty, & a little romance.  Dead Reckoning by Roni Kendig was so riveting that I think it would make a good movie.  Many of the free books from www.inspiredreads.com are fairly short (& don't last long for me since I read so fast.)  But this one lasted me a few days & I wasn't ready for it to end.

Another that I recently read and enjoyed (and learned so much from!) was Out of Mormonism: A Woman's True Story by Judy Robertson.  This one is a true story about a family.

Code Blue by Richard Mabry is a medical mystery that held my attention very well.  I've read other books by this author (Diagnosis Death & Medical Error) & this one didn't disappoint.

You might notice that many of the books I recommend are fiction... That's because that is relaxing to me & what I do instead of TV most evenings.   But I do have several non-fiction books on my Kindle and hope to "review" some of these when I get them read.  One non-fiction I have on it is THE best book ever: The Bible!  It's the only book I've read more than once and every time I read it I see something new.  Gonna keep reading that one!