Ten Little Celebrations – December 2022

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Ten little…and big…celebrations for December 2022. The big ones include:

A 70th wedding anniversary. That’s a lot of years for a relationship to thrive….and for both to still be healthy enough to enjoy life and the celebration!

Winter holiday. They happen every year, but it doesn’t reduce the joy of the virtually back-to-back family celebrations that flow into January: a birthday, an anniversary, Christmas, New Years and then another big anniversary. I’m celebrating now and savoring the anticipation of more still to come!

And then there are the little celebrations that are more like the other months of the year:

Finding puzzles. When I first started looking for puzzles, I didn’t find any that I likes and then I found 2 at a thrift store and another 4 at a pharmacy….and celebrated the finds!

Gardens Aglow at Mizumoto Japanese Stroll Garden. Celebrating a walk-through holiday light display in Springfield MO. If we hadn’t found it, I would be missing the Brookside Gardens lights in Maryland.

Getting the wreath on the door. The kittens prolonged the time it took to get our house decorated this year (some trial and error with how they would respond). The wreath was one of the last things we did…and I celebrated that the decorating was done!

Getting to stay home on a rainy day. Celebrating that I can usually rearrange plans to avoid getting out on a cold, rainy day!

Hot tea with orange peel. Celebrating a little hint of citrus….and probably the vitamin C as well.

Macro photography at Springfield Conservation Nature Center. Celebrating the beauty of native plants through all the seasons…..particularly close-up.

New glasses. This is my first time to get transition lenses. I am celebrating not needing to juggle my sunglasses on and off on road trips!

The plastic vase works. I was a little skeptical that the flat plastic vases would expand and hold a large bouquet....celebrated when the one I tried worked great! Now I feel more confident giving them as gifts!

Happy Holidays!

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I don’t send cards anymore, but I’ve been saving cards for a long time. Every December, they decorate the house: attached to metal doors with magnets, attached to giant scrunchies with miniature clothespins, and under plastic mats on the kitchen table. The collection is large enough to always have a few extra and I’ve scanned some to share in a slideshow….wishing everyone a great holiday season!

A 70th Wedding Anniversary

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My parents have been married 70 years this month. We’re celebrating on a smaller scale than their 50th in keeping with the types of gatherings they enjoy now. We’ll be having mini-celebrations spread over several days around one big meal with most of the immediate family. I’m thinking about various perspectives of their 70 years together.

There are contrasts between their growing up  years and personalities:

  • He was an only child of 1 generation US citizens and didn’t speak English until he started school; she had 8 brothers/sisters and many in her family had been in the US since the Revolutionary War (or before).

  • She was gregarious, he was more introverted. That aspect of their personalities has continued with her doing most of the talking!

  • He grew up on a farm and she grew up in town.

  • She had part time work at the drug store in town while she was in high school; at the same time, he was using farm profits to buy land, cars, and an airplane.

  • Going to Stillwater for college was the farthest she’d been from home; he had made road trips to Tennessee and other places.

But some aspects were similar:

  • They went to small town schools where there was only a small group of students at each grade level (she in northeastern Oklahoma and he in western Oklahoma).

  • Their parents had elementary educations, except for my maternal grandmother who had graduated from high school.

  • They were the first in their families to go to college.

  • They were close to their families and sustained relationships with them after marriage.

They spent their first few years of married life in Oklahoma: Stillwater for my dad to finish college, back to the farm in Willow where my dad had grown up, and then to Muskogee for my dad’s job. The following 67-68 years were in Texas: 15 years in Wichita Falls, 21 years in Dallas, and the rest in Carrollton. There were 7 houses during the Texas years. My mother returned to college and got her first degree when they were living in Wichita Falls…her masters after they moved to Dallas.

They started out their life together with a single income but by the 1970s they were a 2-income family to support their 4 daughters through K-12 and then undergraduate degrees.  They retired in their 60s – enjoying grandchildren and travel and participating in various home improvement/maintenance projects.

They are still living independently (with increasing support from their children and grandchildren) in the house they purchased shortly after they retired.

The whole family is benefiting from their example of aging gracefully together!

Finley Park Light Display

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My daughter recommended the drive-through light display at Ozark, MO’s Finley River Park. She had gone with a friend and then had dinner at the Ozark Mill Restaurant on the other side of the river.

The park was not crowded when we got there, and we enjoyed a leisurely drive through the lights – many of them animated.

Ozark is a suburban community south of Springfield…population of about 22,000. Kudos to the community for providing this display!

Our short drive from our home and the park was a good experience too – on curvy two-lane roads in the dark. It provided the ‘over the river and through the woods’ vibe for the evening!

Ten Little Celebrations – November 2022

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Ten little celebrations for November. Some of them weren’t so little: a 91st birthday, a grandnephew, and Thanksgiving. There was a lot of food involved too. Celebrating November foods is probably my favorite lead up to the crescendo in December and then the beginning of a new year.

A mini-pumpkin – perfect for 4 servings. My sister bought small pumpkins for a table centerpiece; we decided to cook one of them for lunch along with meatloaf. The oven was nicely full. I pricked the skin of the pumpkin before I put it in the oven since I was cooking it intact. After about an hour, I took it out of the oven, lifted the stem off, cut it into quarters, and took the seeds out from the center. Everyone sprinkled cinnamon and added butter to melt into the pulp. All that was left at the end of the meal was the skin! Yummy!

Cranberries. I like cranberries in just about everything: stir fry, sauces for meatballs (combined with tomatillo salsa), chopping as an addition to stuffing, sauteed with apples + butter + cinnamon + honey for dessert. I used to make cranberry relish on the stovetop because I enjoyed watching the cranberries pop as they cooked, but I don’t like the relish as much anymore (too sweet) so now I enjoy cranberries pooping in stir fry or when they are sauteed. I celebrate both their flavor and their color!

Getting 141 bulbs planted. It took multiple sessions in the yard…and I celebrated when they were all finally in the ground. I hope most of them survive the squirrels and bloom next spring!

Leaves – raked, blown, shredded. Mowing is adequate for the leaves at our house but not my daughter’s. She has very large trees and the leaves were thick enough to kill grass. She and I spent an afternoon focused on leaves…and celebrated our accomplishment! The weather cool and crisp for a traditional fall activity …. always helps get me in the mood for the beginning of the holiday season.

A 91st birthday. Both of my parents are 91 years old as of November. Our family celebrates these milestones…enjoying that we still have them with us.

A grandnephew. Celebrating a baby in our family…the 1st one in over 20 years…adds a another facet to our joy during the holidays.

Walnuts. Not sure why…but walnuts have become a favorite this year. I am celebrating all the ways I’ve found to add them into food I am preparing!

Ritter Springs and Neighborhood Ponds. Celebrating the crisp air outdoors…the color of leaves…the frost on the grass.

Thanksgiving. Celebrating a day to appreciate all the recent events of our lives…a prelude to the family events/gatherings of December.

Leftovers. It’s a treat to have great food in short order… prolongs the celebration. I ate too much on Thanksgiving…did better on the subsequent days and maybe enjoyed the food more.

Happy Thanksgiving 2022!

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We are at home for Thanksgiving. Our daughter and son-in-law are coming for the midday feast. I started cooking on Wednesday – making rice pudding and pumpkin custard (pecans on top) for the desserts. I hadn’t planned the rice pudding originally, but we had leftover rice from Chinese takeout…and I decided making pudding was a good way to use it! It was a full oven!

The appetizer this year is Impossible Burger meatballs (with a variety of sauces). This is a first – an experiment to see if they are good enough to be one of the “heavy hors d’oeuvres” for my parents’ 70th wedding anniversary later in the year.

The meal with be brisket (our tradition since my husband does not like turkey), sage dressing with added cranberries, Waldorf salad (apples, celery, raisins, walnuts).

There will be mulled cider – to drink and to make the whole house smell wonderful.

I made a mosaic of Zentangle tiles under a clear plastic mat for the center of the table.

There is so much to be thankful for this year….some of the ones I think of immediately are below but there are so many more. 2022 has been a good year.

  • The addition of a grandnephew to our extended family…the first baby in over 20 years

  • My elderly parents enjoying some recent changes we made to their garden room and the flower bed just outside --- their health and well-being

  • Adding more face to face activities with our daughter now that we are living in Missouir

  • Realizing that we successfully made a long-distance move…enjoying our new house…home

  • The waning of the pandemic…and our improved understanding of mask wearing for avoid respiratory infections

Thanksgiving marks the beginning of the flurry of celebrations for our family: my birthday, my parents’ 70th wedding anniversary, Christmas, New Years, our 50th wedding anniversary….a lot to look forward too!

Happy Thanksgiving to all!

11 years of Blogging

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I started this blog 11 years ago this month – November 2011. It was one of the activities I started as I prepared to leave my career behind….anticipating that I needed new rhythms to take the place of work days. Writing a daily blog was one of the first ideas I had for a new daily rhythm, and it has continued to be an outlet for the evolution of my post-career years.

The broad categories of my favorite activities – reading, writing, traveling, photography/art - have been reflected during the 11 years…with the shifts I’ve experienced over the years evident in the posts:

My reading is almost entirely digital media now – dominated by Internet Archive and website feeds (via Feedly). I’ve gone through spurts of multimedia learning/reading (Coursera courses and webinars with details charts and references) but am in a multimedia lull right now. My interest in botanical prints has continued…with a goal of finding/browsing 20 new books on the topic each month. My interest in climate change has ramped up…and I have taken/plan personal changes; I’d like to leave the earth a better place…or at least not a worse place (that idea is getting more and more challenging).

Writing has been a way to reduce stress for me since the 1980s; I’ve trained myself to ‘write it down and let it go.’ The upheaval of the COVID-19 pandemic and associated cultural divisions in the US has been a greater strain on that training than ever before and there was some faltering in late 2020/early 2021. I am realizing now that writing is, again, my most effective way to bolster my resilience to whatever happens.

Traveling for the first few years of the blog was motivated by my daughter’s location (in Tucson) with road trips to and from Arizona and traveling with her to Hawaii…then helping her move to Pennsylvania and then to Missouri more recently. My volunteer work (leading themed hikes with elementary school children, coaching high school teams doing water quality assessments in streams/rivers, etc.) enabled me to discover natural places close to home. Birding festivals became a favorite travel motivation (to New Mexico, Florida, and Texas) in the few years before the pandemic. Then it all stopped. Since the pandemic, our travel is day trips or for family visits (my parents and daughter) and then our moving to Missouri….and it has all been road trips.

My expertise (and equipment) for photography has increased dramatically over the 11 years. I go through phases…most recently an uptick in macro photography (with my phone). I have refined my Zentangles over the years…and going through phases: new tile shapes (other than square), white highlights, coloring (with different kinds of pens). There is a lot more artist creation in my life now than during my career and my blog has reflected that increase over the past 11 years.

That sums up the state of the blog 11 years in!

Here is a summary of the regular posts (weekly and monthly):

Gleanings 1st one was for week ending 12/31/2011…use the gleanings tag to see all the posts

eBook(s) of the week – 1st monthly post was in October 2012 (i.e. started out as monthly transitioned to weekly on October 9, 2020)…use the book of the week category to see all the posts

eBotainical Prints – 1st post with the eBotanicalPrints tag was on December 17, 2018…use the eBotanicalPrints tag to see all the monthly posts

Zoom – 1st monthly post was in August 2013…use the zoom tag to see all the posts

Ten Days of Little Celebrations – 1st monthly post in October 2012…use the celebration tag to see all the posts

Previous anniversary post: 10th anniversary

Ten Little Celebrations – October 2022

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Ten little celebrations for October 2022 – selected from the ones I logged throughout the month. About half the little celebrations are from my trip to London, Ontario!

Anna Scripps Whitcomb Conservatory. Our only sight-seeing stop on our road trip to London, Ontario was at a conservatory. It was just right – interesting for botanical photography and history….close to our route…and the weather was perfect. I celebrated that the stop was a great as I expected it to be!

French cheesecake. I celebrated that it tasted as good as it looked (and the Lactaid tablet enabled me to avoid a tummy ache).

Harvest festival (outdoor and indoor music at Covent Garden Market). A crisp fall day…an outdoor picnic court decorated with winter squashes…country music ---- then indoor for a salad at a bistro table on a balony above the market shops and music from a strings duo. Celebrating fall with my daughter!

The fall color in the first 2 hours of our drive (the Canadian part). The very first hours of our drive toward home from London, Ontario were the best fall foliage of the trip: maples and sumac were at their peak redness in the morning sunshine. Another celebration of the season!

Being home again. Returning from more than a week away….always brings a celebration of home….appreciating where I live.

A sunny day at home. We had two very cold days – but they were sunny. I celebrated the sun streaming in the windows…realized there were certain times of the morning that the sun shines onto my hands on my computer keyboard if the blinds are raised --- vowed to enjoy that as many mornings as possible this coming winter (and celebrate how great my Missouri house is!)

Finding a large bag of daffodil bulbs. The first place I looked for bulbs only had small bags….so I celebrated when I found one with 40 (and many of them were doubles). I am planting them in flowerbeds and around trees in our Missouri yard.

Haircut (short and neat). Celebrating my first haircut in Missouri…I should have done it earlier.

My new floaters are evidently not anything serious….probably just some normal aging. I had a scary experience --- noticing a flurry of new floaters in one eye and some of them seemem to be very bright. They were already reduced by the time I got to an eye doctor a day later…and he confirmed (after some testing) that they were probably normal and would continue to decline. I celebrated that they were not caused by some serious eye problem.

So many good books. I appreciate the online sources of books – particularly Internet Archive. This October it seems like every time I finish a book – or a series of books – there is another one that is just as interesting. I celebrate the ‘stacks’ in virtual libraries that are so huge they would not ever fit on a night stand or even in my house (much less be affordable to purchase). There is always something on hand to read these days!

Ten Little Celebrations – September 2022

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The 10 celebrations I am featuring in the September 2022 of this monthly post are about foods and health and getting things done. There is also a lot to celebrate about the outdoors this time of year.

Frito pie. I have discovered Dickey’s Frito Pie with brisket, beans, and cheese. It is packed with the Fritos in their own bag for takeout….and I like it without the Fritos! It’s a good thing for me to get when my husband is hungry for a barbeque sandwich…celebrating that the barbeque places where we live now are much better than the ones convenient to us in Maryland.

A birthday. We celebrated by daughter’s birthday. I was chagrined that ice cream cakes are harder to find these days, but she said she wanted ice cream sandwiches…and those were easy to purchase!

Getting the flu and COVID vaccine. I celebrated that the shots were available in time for me to get the shots early enough for them to protect me during my upcoming travel.  

Legal updates completed. My sister and I collaborated to get my parents legal documents updated according to their wishes….and celebrated the completed milestone.

Rings of Power series. I don’t watch much television but I am enjoying the Rings of Power….celebrating the quality of the production and seeing more of Tolkien’s world.

Our large wind chimes. My office is situated where I can hear the wind chimes on breezy days…I celebrate their sound and the memory of when we bought them too.

Poke weeds. Yes – they are weeds…but they are native, and they do produce berries that birds eat. I celebrate that I have several plants that out of the way in my landscaping so I can leave them rather than battling them all through the season.

Springfield Botanical Garden. I find something to celebrate every time I go! This time there were lots of insects to photograph.

Spider Lilies. I don’t know how I missed the orange spider lilies in my parents’ garden in previous years…but I was there at the right time this year to see them!

Great weather for being outdoors. There were still some hot days but as the month progressed, I celebrated some cooler temperatures….the ease of getting outdoors without being concerned of high heat or poor air quality.

Ten Little Celebrations – August 2022

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The celebrations I noted in August 2022 are part of the continuum of transition to Missouri – our new home.

A neat garage. I celebrated how organized our garage looked after we set up the bunk bed frame for all the camping gear! Sometimes a quick and simple task can have a bigger impact than expected on our perception of place.

A rainy morning. It was a relief – and celebration - when we finally got some summer rain. The August temperatures have also been a little cooler than in July….and our grass has turned green again.

Roadtrip home. I celebrated my shortest time ever for the drive from Carrollton to Nixa. It was a Sunday so traffic was light…and the weather was dry.

Finding boxes of Atkins shakes. My husband only likes one flavor of Atkins shakes and I’d been challenged to find them in prior grocery shopping weeks…and then there were two on the shelf at Walmart! I celebrated (and put both of them in my cart).

Sooty, Pooky, and Puma. Celebrating new pets. Their antics are fun to watch…they demand interaction…challenge us to make small modifications to our household routine for their safety.  

Kittens napping. After times of high kitten activity (with 3 of them there are frequent chases, tussles, and a general tendancy to move small toys everywhere in the house), we celebrate some quiet time when all three are napping.

Mango chicken salad. I selected something new from the menu my daughter was ordering from….and celebrated the result!

Spider bite not infected. I went to Urgent Care with a bug bite different than I had ever experienced (painful and it looked different). They identified it as a probable spider bite and cautioned me that it might get worse before it got better. I got a tetanus shot and perscription strength topical antibiotic…celebrated that they said it did not look infected (and it never got infected although it is taking several weeks to heal).

Taking pictures through my office window. I like taking pictures through my office windows. A storm blew off one of the screens…and I’ve left it off. I haven’t taken many pictures through the window yet…but I am celebrating that I now have the physical setup to do it. I’ve seen chickadees and finches on the bird bath about 4 feet from where I sit….and a hummingbird investicated a plant nearby.

Coursera anatomy course. I celebrated completing another anatomy course (Anatomy of the chest, neck, and abdomen) from Yale on Coursera. Every module was well presented and interesting.

Ten Little Celebrations – July 2022

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Like June, July was a high stress month because of our move to Missouri - but with much to celebrate.

Family holiday gathering. The 4th of July was our first ‘holiday’ celebrated in Missouri…having my daughter and son-in-law over for veggies with hummus, steak, corn-on-the-cob, and watermelon.

An easy drive home…and being home again. The drive to Maryland and back was long…but once back in Missouri we celebrated only having one house again…and clearly it was ‘home.’

Dragonfly posing for pictures in our back yard. We seem to have more dragonflies around our yard in Missouri and I celebrate every time I manage to photograph one. The closer location to a pond might be why we are seeing them more frequently.

Being indoors during the hot part of the day. Every day that gets above 100 degrees is one I celebrate being indoors! We’ve had quite a few hot days this July – more in Texas than Missouri.

Getting boxes cleared from the garage. Once the pile gets annoying we make a trip to the recycle center – celebrating that it is convenient and that the garage is clear…until the boxes pile up again.

Springfield Botanical Garden. This is probably my favorite place for a walk in Springfield. It is a place I want to see again and again…through the seasons…finding a little celebration every time.

Little fixes completed. There were some little fixes identified when our Missouri house was inspected. I celebrated when they were completeed – particularly the one in the basement bathroom (since my office is also in the basement).

Josey Ranch green heron and ducklings. I only walked around the place once because it was so hot while I was in Texas…but celebrated the birds that I saw there (blog post coming soon).

Getting car inspected/registered…and MO driver’s liscense. It has been a very long time since I moved to a new state and I anticipated a lot of red tape. I was relieved when we managed to get the cars registered, our driver’s liscense….and register to vote…celebrated when they were all done…and glad that the process was not as difficult as I thought it might be.

Establishing the compost circle. I celebrated finding edging that was high enough to make a circle  to hold the small amount of compostable material I have from my kitchen….just in time to start it off with watermelon rind!

Ten Little Celebrations – June 2022

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What a month! It is probably the busiest, most stressful in my post career decade….with so much that has gone right in the end…lots of little celebrations.

Hearing a phoebe in the morning….seeing a crane fly – The sights and sounds of nature often become little celebrations for me…they just happen and make the day brighter.

New low weight for the year – With all the work getting ready to move and then moving, I expended a lot more energy and lost a few pounds. I celebrated a new low weight for the year in June.

A new house – Settling into a new house/location is stressful…but there is also a lot of to celebrate. Noticing all the aspects of the house that I like…celebrating that it is becoming home.

A picture taking walk around the ponds in the early morning – The water features of my new neighborhood are more extensive than where I lived previously. There were plenty of sights to celebrate in my first walks around the ponds and I anticipate enjoying them all through the year.

Internet/cable at Missouri house (just in time to make hotel reservations for the follow night going back to Maryland) – Our internet/cable access was installed the morning after we closed on our new house; I celebrated that my husband had been proactive for making that arrangement.

Made it back to Missouri even with the blowout before lunch – The drama of a blown-out tire on the trek from Maryland to Missouri was not traumatic as it could have been….and I celebrated when we made it to the new house.

The movers arrived….delivering our stuff – The house was so empty…then was full of boxes. I celebrated that it all arrived intact even though the piles were daunting.

Finding the missing piece to husband’s desk – I had packed some pieces of my husband’s desk and we didn’t find the box for about 24 hours. Celebration by all when the piece was found!

Unpacking progress (slow but steady) – We are still unpacking but every day I celebrate the progress we are making. At this point, all the critical items are unpacked and put into their long-term location.

A contract on our Maryland house – My husband and I were pleasantly surprised that we sold our house in Maryland in just 4 days and for more than the asking price. At first, we were overwhelmed…and then we celebrated.

Ten Little Celebrations – May 2022

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May was a month of preparation to move…but there were plenty of little celebrations along the way.

12 boxes packed in one day. In April I had a few days that I got to 20 boxes…but that included some that all I had to do was tape (i.e. they were already packed). Doing a good job packing a box takes some thought…and gets harder after there are fewer items left to go in boxes. I celebrated that I managed a 12-box day!

Another load to the landfill/recycle center. Every time we take a load, I celebrate that we have a little less to move!

Getting the pile out for curbside pickup. It was a significant effort – requiring the wheelbarrow to get the heavier items up the hill. But we did it – more easily than I anticipated!

Getting the pile out for curbside pickup. It was a significant effort – requiring the wheelbarrow to get the heavier items up the hill. But we did it – more easily than I anticipated!

Finding boxes to pack larger items. I am packing larger items now…that are generally light weight too. I like the Home Depot’s ‘large’ boxes and celebrate how many odd items they hold gracefully.

Drawing down refrigerator items. I’ve been trying to eat things from the freezer/refrig so that I don’t have to move them. So far so good. The refrigerator is not entirely empty, but we’ll have less to move in an ice chest when we move. Celebrating that my strategy is working!

Reservations made for the trip to close on the house in Missouri. I’m celebrating that the further along we get…the more we do toward moving…the more ‘real’ it becomes. There will be a big celebration once we close but the steps leading to that milestone are worth celebrating too!

Birth of my niece’s child…the first of the next generation of our family. Celebrating the birth of child…mixed with relief that all is well with the mother and child.

A phoebe in the backyard in the morning (on almost every morning). The bird has become a normal early morning sound for me…not loud enough to be an alarm clock…but reminds me to celebrate the new day.

A timely appointment to get a crown on a broken molar. I was worried that my mouth would become painful before I could get an appointment with my dentist…but it happened quickly…and 2 hours later I went home with a temporary crown! I’m also celebrating that it is (so far) my best experience ever getting a crown.

A fox in the backyard…passing through. I happened to look out my office window to see a fox stop by the base of our feeder in the back yard….and then continue its way into the forest. It was transitioning from winter to summer coat. Celebrating that there is wildlife in our forest…and sometimes we get to see it in our backyard.

Ten Little Celebrations – April 2022

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April was a whirlwind month---with more than the usual amount of drama because of our plan to move to Springfield, Missouri. More than half the little celebrations I selected for the month have to do with the move:

Finding a house we liked and getting it under contract. It was new (and high anxiety) to do the contract with only seeing it virtually…thrilling to do the walkthrough to confirm that it was THE HOUSE for us.

A good driving day is always welcome, but we particularly celebrated one of the days heading home; perhaps a sunny, spring day is balm to the stress of the drive and the anticipated events of the next few months.

Home again is always something I celebrate. This time I savored the house that has been home since October 1994…realizing that soon I would be transferring the joy of homecoming to a new place.

Initiating contact then selecting movers. This was not a single day event, but I was pleasantly surprised at virtual inventories and other options. There are some things that have changed for the better since my last long distance move in 1983.

22 boxes packed in one day. I set a goal for myself to pack 20 boxes a day for a week and I achieved that goal! I celebrated the most on the highest day (22 boxes).

There were other things to celebrate in April…

Early morning at the grocery store. I love the quiet at the store before 7 AM with spring far enough along that it is light at that time…but still full of morning color.

A medical test that found nothing. Sometimes finding nothing is worth celebrating…particularly as we get older.

No traffic on the Bay Bridge. We made a 2-day trip to the Eastern Shore (birding field trips) and celebrated that we didn’t have traffic on the bridge – coming or going.

No traffic on the Bay Bridge. We made a 2-day trip to the Eastern Shore (birding field trips) and celebrated that we didn’t have traffic on the bridge – coming or going.

A wealth of birds. There were 4 field trips over 2 days…and we celebrated that we saw so many birds – some species in larger numbers than we had ever seen before. Stay tuned for blog posts coming next week.

Japanese Garden. I enjoyed our visit the Mizumoto Japanese Stroll Garden in Springfield MO although the celebration came afterward as I looked at my pictures (too noisy from the mowers while I was in the garden).

Ten Little Celebrations – March 2022

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March was a busy month with a variety of little celebrations – both at home and traveling.

Brookside Gardens. Brookside is one of my favorite places for photography….in any season. There were plenty of plants to photograph/celebrate in March 2022.

Snow that didn’t stick. The temperature can vary so much in March. I celebrated a snow that was pretty…but didn’t stick to the streets or walkways.

Successful transition to alternative laptop. My laptop died suddenly and completely…had to be sent to Dell for diagnosis and repair (under warranty). I celebrated that my husband helped me 1) make sure I had everything off the drive (i.e. we took it out of the laptop and accessed it from another computer…I got everything I’d been working on since the backup which was about a week old…and we made another backup) and 2) provided an alterative laptop for me to use until Dell could make the repair and return it. Writing this – I realize how much I appreciate my husband of almost 50 years still dropping everything to help me through a problem.

Big pictures fit in my car. I celebrated that the last of our big pictures fit in my car…got transported to Missouri…won’t have to go on the moving truck.

House hunting in Springfield. I learned a lot on my first round of house hunting in Springfield MO…celebrated that the process of moving has begun.

Getting to Carrollton…healthy parents. Both of my 90+ year old parents were healthy during my visit…something to celebrate after not seeing them since November.

Travel scale fixed. I was chagrined to discovered that my travel scale was not working….a little panicked that I would gain weight during my two weeks away from home. I celebrated when replacing the battery solved the problem!

New low weight of the year. And then shortly after my scale was working again – I achieved a new low weight for 2022…I always celebrate those days (usually with a little extra dark chocolate).

Antibiotics. I’ll write about my adventure of getting sick while I was away from home in a few days…will just say now that I celebrated when antibiotics worked very quickly.

Home again. I am home again as I write this…and celebrating as usual after a road trip. I’ll write more about how I got home and the backlog of activities in the upcoming week.

Ten Little Celebrations – February 2022

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The little things that brightened the February days…..

Rose bud in the kitchen window. I was happy that the small plant I bought for Valentines has a new bud opening before the end of the month…celebrating some color in winter.

New battery installed in my laptop. The flurry of activity to fix a problem…what a relief (and celebration) when it was done!

Winter Hike. A celebration of the outdoors in winter…and a return to a pre-pandemic activity.

Deciding to move and getting started. We are off to a relatively slow start…but it’s an exciting prospect…celebrating the decision!

Finding my husband’s favorite sausage again. Our grocery store did not have many empty places…but the sausage was one of them. Now it seems that the problem has been at least partially resolved and we are celebrating finding it again.

A sunny day from my office window (very cold outside). Celebrating winter from inside a warm house!

Frost patterns – feathers, flowers, flakes. The frost patterns have been my ‘project’ this February and I’ve celebrated the variety of the crystals that form.

Leftovers. I celebrate great meals that are easy – leftovers! All the more complex dishes I cook these days are good for more than one meal!

A warmer day. When we have a lot days in the teens and 20s….I celebrate a day in the 50s and 60s!

Finding Wick Fowler chili mix at a local grocery. For a while over the past few years, we couldn’t find our favorite chili seasonings in our grocery store - so we started ordering it and having it shipped to us. After a mix up in a recent order, we looked again at the grocery store, and they had it! Celebrating finding it locally!

Ten Little Celebrations – January 2022

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As I look at my list of little celebrations in January 2022, I am realizing that my surgery stands out so significantly that getting through the surgery itself (the 1st surgery, the reopening of the incision to release blood, the 2nd surgery) is the major celebration of the month! There are little celebrations around that big one: a sunrise and good grocery shopping experience before the surgery, an excellent chicken soup I made a few days after coming home, the hematoma beginning to fade (although it is still not completely gone 2+ weeks afterward…I am checking/celebrating progress every morning), and my first grocery shopping after the surgery (with the assistance of my husband).

The other celebration that stands out this month….more than a little one…is the death of our cat, Boromir. I was glad I held him close for over an hour on his last day….that he seemed at peace. We are still missing him but also celebrating that Boromir was with us for so many years and particularly through the pandemic when we were at home most of the time; he contributed to the positive vibe that seemed so natural…so easily sustained.

And then there were some ‘usual’ little celebrations:

A great meatloaf. I discovered that adding a little olive oil if the ground beef is very lean and using spaghetti sauce instead of salsa improves the texture and flavor!

Red velvet cake/carrot cake for our 49th wedding anniversary. We both savored our slice of celebratory cake…not having any leftovers!

Peppermint snow ice cream. Celebrating a seasonal favorite and plenty of snow to make it!

A new garage door. It was awful to have a damaged door….I celebrated that we could get it replaced quickly.

Snow on the ground. Celebrating the beautiful scene from the windows of our house….and the different perspective as I walked through the neighborhood.

Celebrating with Cake

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Three days after my cancer surgery – I reminded my husband to do a pickup order from a local grocery store that included a slice of cake for each of us: carrot cake for him and red velvet for me. We were celebrating our 49th wedding anniversary! We’ve never done huge anniversary celebrations, but this was more truncated than usual since we were in the mode of assuming I might have been exposed to COVID in the hospital.  We were masked when we put the cake slices on plates and took pictures…congratulated each other on the milestone…then we each retreated to separate floors of our house with air purifiers running full tilt to enjoy the treat.

Ten Little Celebrations – December 2021

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It’s a season full of celebrations. In my family we have celebrations associated with a birthday, an anniversary, Christmas…and then ones associated with the beginning of winter. Here’s my top 10 for the month:

A winter day at home. Being at home enjoying the forest through the window….still one of my favorite places to be…even in winter. I like I particularly in the morning when the sun first hits the treetops with golden light.

Flannel sheets. The week we change from percale to flannel sheets has a lot in common with decorating for the holidays….it is a celebration of the season…full of warmth and snuggles. It’s such a treat to get into a bed made with flannel sheets prewarmed by a heated mattress pad!

Brookside Gardens lights. Our walk around the lights at Brookside Gardens was even more celebratory this year since we didn’t do our traditional visit to the garden lights in 2020!

Pumpkin roll. Our grocery bakery has this treat seasonally. My daughter is the one that introduced me to them several years ago so the celebration is a special food of the season that prompts me to savor the positive impact she has always had on my life.

My birthday…my parents’ wedding anniversary. Celebration abounds in December for my family…every year.

Coursera course – Anatomy of the upper and lower extremities. What a great way to fill up the lulls this month. It’s challenging enough to require my full attention! Celebrating the course…grateful to the Yale faculty for producing it…Coursera for hosting it.

Druid Hill Park for birding. Celebrating the walk around the park as we did it…and in hindsight that it was before the Omicron variant was spiking in our area.  

My mother’s experience coming home from the hospital. I am celebrating that she is getting focused therapy that is showing positive results….more than any previous hospitalizations.

Telephone conversations. Celebrating all the alternative communications we have…since I didn’t travel in December. Even though we do texts and emails and zoom…somehow the telephone seems to be the one where the deeper communication is occurring (maybe because it is synchronous, one on one and not as ‘quick’).

Quiche. When I make quiche…I simple use what I have on hand – so I am celebrating that one I made recently turned out great!

Cancer Diary – Entry 6

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A month of waiting for surgery and almost another month to go….assuming that the hospital does not become overwhelmed with treatment of COVID-19 patients and the surgery is cancelled/postponed. I am not anxious about the possibility….yet; my concern has been ramping up over the past few days with the hospitalizations in Maryland increasing and the indicators that the Omicron variant’s being more contagious than the Delta variant….and knowing that a lot of people are gathering for the holidays (more than last year….with vaccinations available, a lot of people made big plans for this year prior to Omicron emergence). By early January – the medical system could be very stressed. There is little I can do to improve the situation aside from staying healthy myself; I am trying to keep myself busy and focused on other things.

There was little in my activities this month on the critical path toward my surgery other than continuing to take the medication. The surgery date was moved forward by a couple of days and an appointment made for a pre-surgery COVID-19 test. I was glad there was a lull; I thoroughly enjoyed my daughter’s whirlwind visit (road trip for her) for Thanksgiving and then had time to focus on supporting my sisters’ from afar as my mother was hospitalized. Fortunately, the hospitalization was short, and the follow-up seems to be improving her condition rapidly; her quality of life is improving beyond what it was a month ago! And I am relieved that I didn’t need to make an unplanned road trip to Texas.

We ventured out for a walk around Druid Hill Park and through the Christmas lights at Brookside Gardens. Both were enjoyable outdoor experiences…good for our mental health. There are other outdoor activities we’ve planned…but on our own in uncrowded settings rather than organized events. The more we learn about Omicron, the more cautious we are becoming.

It’s cold enough that I have ramped up indoor activities… another effort to avoid thinking too much about my cancer. I am spending considerable time on a Coursera course: Anatomy of the Upper and Lower Extremities (from Yale University). During the holidays, I spend more time cooking…making more complicated recipes and trying new things. And there are the regular things like Zentangle tiles and book browsing that I can ‘do more’ too. I’ve started buying flowers every time I got to the grocery store since the view from my window now is bare trees; on the plus side, the birds are easier to see.

Overall – this month of waiting has not been hard at all. At this point, my mental perspective is about the same as it was a month ago although I find myself bracing for the possibility of the increases in hospitalizations from the pandemic causing a postponement of my surgery…an event that would be a major setback from my perspective.