Chocolate, Tunnels and Presidents...Oh My!

February is one of those months where the holidays get all mashed up together and I have to pick which ones to celebrate. This year, we skipped Mardi Gras and concentrated on Valentine's Day and Presidents' Day. 

We had a family chocolate tasting for Valentine's Day. The winners were Whitman's and Godiva. The coconut chocolate from Whitman's was as good as I remember, but we all agreed that we preferred our favorite organic free trade chocolate brands to any of these. It was a family hit nonetheless.

We also enjoyed a family hike on Sunday to a state park in Virginia we have never visited. It is called Tunnel State Park and it was wonderful. We arrived to a completely empty parking lot and had the park completely to ourselves. It was a crisp, drizzly, grey day and I guess no one decided to come out. We left Tim at home so he could have peace and quiet for an "alone day," which he really enjoyed. 

The park was stunning and my photos do not truly do it justice. The water was truly blue in places where the beach was limestone. We spent a good hour skipping rocks, collecting pieces of coal that had fallen off the trains that pass through daily and just enjoying the nature around us. 

Our kids have become so used to masks that they wear them even when it isn't necessary. They said that the masks keep them warm. My dear mountain goat children wore them the entire time, even when we were climbing back up the steep mountainside that had benches at every switchback turn. 

While we were enjoying the stream, a train came through. Unfortunately, my phone had died by then. The train was awesome. The engineer waved to us and its length went by for at least five minutes. I love the clickety-clack of trains on tracks. We also hiked to Carter's cabin, which is the oldest structure in Scott's County, Virginia. On our trek home, we stopped in Johnson City, Tennessee, for dinner. We got takeout from Panera Bread and enjoyed it in the parking lot. It was an all-around lovely day.

We upgraded our Universal Yum Box to the Yum, Yum level. It comes with lots more snacks. This month was Ukraine. They all had super strong flavors -- overpowering to say the least. It wasn't our favorite box, but we had a great time laughing at everyone's expressions as they tried things. 

Has anyone else noticed that they end up doing chores around their pets? I was trying to change the sheets and left the room to get fresh ones. I got distracted for 10 minutes and returned to this. 

I kept Presidents' Day real simple this year. We looked up the Presidents' favorite food items and then checked our pantry for supplies. We picked our presidents based on what food we had and what would go well together. We decided on hoe cakes (George Washington), blueberries (John Quincy Adams), bacon (Abraham Lincoln), corn bread (John Polk), apple cider (John Adams ~ although he preferred hard cider), and cabbage (James Buchanan). We pulled out the appropriate pewter presidents from my husband's collection and made up the dishes. It was a lovely feast and our second successful themed dinner for 2021.

 

I hope you all are safe with the deep freeze and crazy ice that is gripping the country. We really were left unscathed here in WNC. We just had lots of rain and a bit of sleet. I'll take it.

Blessings, Dawn

An Adventurous Week

First, I want to say that January was rough around here. We had a real increase in tense days. I think it was the worst month since the pandemic started. Mostly, I think it is just the longevity of the situation. Over the past year, most days have been positive, but the overall picture is just draining and endless. My introverts want to be left completely alone and my extroverts want more and more attention from whoever can give it to them...which in this case is the introverts in the family. We as a family need a break from each other. However, that isn't possible for an extended period of time. I am trying a few things to reduce stress.

I encouraged Tim (who is suffering the most and is an introvert) to skip family time when he isn't interested or just needs a break. I also am encouraging him to join the Zoom classes with his day program for brain-injured adults. He was resistant before because he didn't want to deal with even more people, but I thought a change in personalities might help. The program said he could join them via Zoom whenever and for as long or short a period as he wished. He tried it this week for about 20 minutes and said he will do it a few times a week in the future.

I am changing family time activities around to include more car rides for a special drink and to see sunsets, more relaxed or junior games that will be easier for my brain-injured son and just remind us all of childhood unity, more themed family meals which always hold people at the table longer and are higher quality. Basically, I am trying to make the moments together higher quality so that people will be more filled up and there will hopefully be a more natural break during downtimes for the introverts. 

We also are planning a few field trips. Some will be for all of us while others will give Tim the opportunity to stay home, so he will be able to have six to eight hours of alone time. 

My hardest challenge is figuring out what to do for Elijah. He is my extreme extrovert. He is also my child that has always been most frightened of the world, the biggest homebody and has the least amount of friends. He doesn't want to leave the house and isn't adjusting well to all of the new platforms to interact with friends such as Zoom and outdoor meetups. He is so lonely. He is resistant to getting a job because of the pandemic, although recently he has become a little bit willing to look at possibilities. Basically, he has been "sitting on a shelf," waiting for this experience to be over, but it is evident that the pandemic has been taking too long and he will have to stretch way out of his comfort zone. 

So we did have lots of positive moments this week, but we also had our fair share of hard moments. We don't take pictures of the tears, so I am sure to some it looks like everything is always great. It isn't, but we are working to make as much of our lives joyful as possible. 

Chinese New Year ~ Themed dinner number one. I am so pleased with how the table came out. Everything was pulled together from around the house and the food was all from Trader Joe's. My themed dinner worked and everyone stayed at the table for an extra 20 minutes. We had really good conversation, too. 

Against my better judgement, we pulled out Monopoly and played it with new rules (that made it faster). Sure enough, there was lots of conflict in understanding the new rules. It became obvious early in the game who the winner would be, yet the game went on for more than an additional hour. I put it away and claimed that we have to work our way through the 50+ games we own with less repeats. We can get rid of games that we don't LOVE and people won't get as bored or stressed by certain games that show up often in our rotation.

We had a glorious snow morning. I say snow morning because snow seldom lasts more than 12 hours here. My husband and I had a lovely early morning walk in the stillness. We are missing alone time, too.  I love how quiet the world is after a fresh snow. 

We had a marvelous field trip to the zoo. The weather was cold and grey. We hoped that the gloomy conditions would make the zoo uninhabited by humans (as Elijah put it). We were right and had the zoo almost to ourselves. The animals were delighted to see us and many came to the edge of their enclosures to interact with us. The gibbon and tiger were especially interested in Elijah. They adored him! We spent more than 15 minutes with each of them and they interacted with Elijah the entire time. 

My favorite picture

It was truly a blessed day and truly filled Elijah up with joy. I got so many hugs and thanks from him that evening. 

Blessings, Dawn

Hello February!

Have you ever noticed that when you start a project, it often leads to another and another? That is very much where I am this week. Last weekend on a lark, we decided to change the furniture around in our room. Our bed was on an outside wall and we were always cold at night. Our room is smallish by modern standards, and we have lots of windows and closets and almost no wall space. It has always been a tight squeeze. We switched the bed to the only interior wall that didn't have a closet and it now is warm and snug. Now I am spackling holes in the walls, painting over them and refinishing the woodwork of the bed. 

I helped Tim finish up his brain box from his brain injury day program this week. The brain box is a pilot program that Tim is reviewing for them. Each month they send out a box filled with activities, crafts, recipes and worksheets. The program has had to open and close repeatedly throughout this pandemic, and this box of activities is their latest creative way to enhance the lives of their brain injured clients while being at home. It looks like the program may continue the activity boxes after the pandemic for those who live too far away to attend the program. Tim enjoyed doing most of the crafts and some of the worksheets. He wrote a review and we mailed our opinions back in. 

Making Shrinky Dinks

Elijah has taken over dinner preparation on a more regular basis. He has been a fine cook for awhile, but his skills are really improving with each new dish. He likes to play with flavors and he is a natural with spices. He has made chili, lasagna, and grilled cheese and ham sandwiches recently. He also helped me make a loaf of bread. 

We also got Elijah a debit card and student checking account. Everything is connected to his savings account. When he gets a job, the money will be direct deposited into his savings account, and I will transfer what he needs while he learns more about budgeting. The man at the bank was a natural-born teacher and gave Elijah tons of information on budgeting. He also set him up with financial goals and apps to help him learn more. It was a great experience. 

Lastly, a board game store that we frequent said they would be happy to have Elijah's resume on file. They are hoping that business will pick up soon and they can start hiring more employees. We worked on his resume and he turned it into the owner this week. The owner said he thought he may be able to call him in a few weeks and that his resume looked cool. The owner also saw that he was good friends with one of Elijah's former employers. Sometimes it is great living in a very small city. We are considering a few other places where he could apply that feel safer to work in during a pandemic.

We have decided to go it alone on the job front for Elijah. Vocational Rehabilitation in our area is ridiculous. I have heard wonderful things about this program in other areas, but it has completely failed us here. Unfortunately, I haven't talked to anyone local who has found them helpful.

Anne is very busy. This pandemic hasn't slowed her down at all. She is currently enrolled in the Winter Festival Dance Intensive through UNCSA. It is on Zoom. She is loving it and was delighted this week to be offered a spot in the summer intensive this year with UNCSA (the director was watching the classes over Zoom and selected a few students to which he granted the chance to bypass the audition). Anne is thrilled. She was offered the opportunity to be in the ballet, contemporary or professional choreography intensive. She selected the ballet intensive and has already paid her first installment. This intensive will also be completely over Zoom since our state's roll out of vaccines is going very slowly. She has been struggling with the size of her dance room. She has very long legs and keeps kicking the walls. We are considering what to do for the summer intensive (she may take over the living room for those three weeks).

I have been concentrating lots of time on food lately. I am working on bringing us back to a healthier eating style. There has been way too many snacks, soda and other unhealthy processed foods around here. It is time to get back to proper eating. One of our relatives gave us gift money to buy some organic meat from a local farm. I love the idea of eating local, but it is sometimes cost prohibitive. However, we have been so pleased with the meat we received that I may just need to make it happen. I figure I can stretch this meat into 19 meals (minimum), since we only eat meat a few times a week.

I am looking forward to the coming week. My husband has a long weekend off because of President's Day. We hope to go to the zoo or a state park as a family, celebrate Valentine's Day (I have some fun family plans), Chinese New Year and perhaps some fun for Presidents' Day.

Blessings, Dawn

A Happy List

We had a mostly happy week. We ventured out on a hike. It wasn't perfect. Our first place to hike was a lake that we discovered on arrival had been drained for cleaning and smelled of rotting fish. So we followed MapQuest to another site and never could find it. We finally found a pull off on the side of the road near a river. We wandered through the flood plain next to the river for a bit. I am glad we pushed on and found some fun. We are trying to add more hikes into our weeks this year. 

I have been using a new cleaning system for a few months. It is an adapted FlyLady system that The Secret Slob on YouTube created. It is working great for me. I am even getting to cleaning things like the oven on a regular basis. This week I learned a trick to clean the racks. You soak them in the bath tub with dryer sheets for about four hours. Then you rub them with the wet dryer sheets. They are like brand new again! 

We watched television just about all day on Inauguration Day. We even had cake and tea on china. We are praying that the next four years will be filled with kindness, cooperation and honesty. We really need to come together and knock off all the mud slinging and hatefulness of the last administration. 

These three kitties are getting along pretty well. Salem and Eve are best buddies now. Rosie is struggling to come to grips with not being the only cat in the house. She is slowly adjusting and there have been no fights...just lots of hissing on her part. 

My Mother-in-Law gave me a Roomba for Christmas. I love it. It is so easy to use, "train" and clean. This little machine that we call Ramona is my new best friend. 

We are just loving board games as always. This week we played Stupid Deaths, Uno Dare, Beat That (a game filled with lots of challenges) and Sequence. There is always laughter with games. 

I had the pleasure of watching my daughter perform twice this week. She participated in a dance festival in our city. They performed in a vacant lot and in a parking garage. I watched her parking garage performance (below) from "back stage" instead of going outside to watch with the crowd. There were eight dancers, one on each level of the parking garage stairwell. They danced coordinated phrases with solos and freeze frames mixed in to their performance without any music or being able to see each other. They just used counts and a cow bell to tell them to transition to the next phrase. I decided to stay back stage in case security showed up to kick them out. I wanted to be able to whisk her away quickly. They managed to complete the 13 minute dance without incident and to great applause. (Sorry the window is so dirty).

We sat down and looked at some of our blog books this week. These books are our family's memories. We love them so much. They always bring laughter and happy memoires. I am slowly converting our blog to books using the website Blog2Print.

We had the pleasure of making a mom-to-be care basket this week. One of Anne's dance teachers just found out that she is having a medically fragile baby in a few months. She is a first time mom. I remember how scary it was being a first time mom and finding out that my baby was going to be born with life-threatening conditions. The people who gave me cute clothes and presents for him were so encouraging. Through those gifts, it was as if they were saying that he was loved, accepted and deserved to be dressed up cute and adored. I wanted to pass on the same sentiment to her.

Blessings, Dawn

Twenty-One Goals for 2021

I love goals and lists to check off. I am a planner. Last year was a hard year to be a planner. I suspect that this year is going to be as well. I came up with a few daily goals, a few long-term broad goals and  goals to improve our home. It is fine if I don't get through them all. I really treat them more as reminders. 

Daily Goals ~ 

• Drink more water ~ I hope to drink a minimum of 40 ounces a day. So far, I have accomplished that most days.
• Walk 800 miles by the end of the year ~ I have walked 10 miles so far this year. That is a slow start for me. Winter is hard. The best time for me to walk is when my daughter is in dance classes downtown at night. My city is not very safe to walk around at night. There are many desperate homeless people as well as strange people exhibiting mental problems, and there are very few stores open to pop into if I get nervous. I will start making more progress when it gets lighter in the evenings. We are also trying to take more family walks on the weekends. 
• Take care of my skin ~ This should be an easy goal. I am mostly in the habit already of putting on sunscreen and lotion daily.
• Read 12 Books ~ I enjoy books but never seem to prioritize them. I hope to accomplish that this year. I am currently reading The Empathy Exams by Leslie Jamison. It is okay. I am not a huge fan, but it is an easy enough read and I am half way through. 
• Convert the rest of my blog into book form ~ This goal will really depend on availability of money. Each book costs a bit over $100 and I am four  years behind right now. We will see how far I get.
• Take photos for a Billion Graves ~ This combines my love of photography, doing service and graveyards.  
• Learn to use my Dad's last professional camera that I received after his death ~ I need to buy the charger and I will be on my way.

Broad Long-Term Goals ~ I say broad goals because they are open ended. Each one has an ideal or dream plan versus a realistic plan.

• Travel to a different city at Christmastime ~ I love visiting different cities at Christmastime. We have visited Washington, D.C., Knoxville, Tennessee, and Greenville, South Carolina at Christmastime in the last few years. We didn't visit anywhere in 2020 for obvious reasons. 
• No Buying Month ~ I do this most years in January or February. I am not sure when I will do this in 2021. I do buy the essentials such as groceries and gas. I just don't buy any extras. 
• Visit a new-to-us state park ~ When my husband and I were thinking about travel this year, we just stated to nervously giggle. Who knows what is to come? It isn't looking like a fantastic year to travel at the moment. However, outdoor places are possibilities. There are state parks far and near that we have never seen. I am sure we can manage to visit one of them. 
• Visit a new-to-us national park or site ~ We have a dream one in mind, but I suspect that a more reasonable one will be our destination.
• Take an overnight or weekend trip with the family ~ or a week long trip ~ Ha! There are some destinations that are a short distance away that we have never seen. We shall see if they can happen. 
• Do something new every month with the family ~ This could be as simple as a new game, new hike or takeout from a new-to-us restaurant. It also could be a totally new experience such a going on a horseback ride together (most of us know how to ride a tiny bit).

Goals for the House ~ These really depend on how much money and time I can invest into them. We made a huge amount of progress in 2020. We replaced the 1970's garage door, had tons of work done on our trees and I painted the stairwell, banister, all the woodwork in the boy's bathroom, and most of the ceilings in the house. When this pandemic is over, I think my kids are going to remember me as the mom with a paint brush in her hand

• Paint the laundry room ~ This one is a huge undertaking and makes me want to faint just to think about it. However, I know it would vastly improve the place. It is very old and dirty cinderblock that has never been painted in some areas or in other areas was painted in a sickening green.
• Replace two or three doors in the house ~ We really could use to replace six doors so I have lots of options. 
• Declutter 365 items from our home ~ This will be an easy goal. I have already gotten rid of 31 items this year. 
• Replace our bedroom curtains with shades ~ Our curtains are getting pretty worn. 
• Paint the kitchen ceiling  
• Paint the dining room ceiling  
• Make rec room into a useful and comfortable space ~ We are actively working on this project now. It is an underused space and an overflow area in our home where lost items get dumped. It is also where we enter the home, and it is not the nicest space to see when you get home. We are turning it into a multi-purpose room with a sewing area, the model building area for my young men, a closet area and a cat corner with comfortable seating. The cats love to chase their toys around in the big empty space, and we find ourselves sitting on the cold floor while we watch them.
• Paint the breakfast bar ~ Accomplished this week! CHECK!

Update ~ We got to adopt our foster cat this week. She is settling in well. She is getting along well with Salem and tentatively working out a friendship with Rosie. She is new to the concept of play and thinks that play is like a gentle waltz where you circle each other and kiss noses. Salem is still a kitten and thinks play is a full pro-wrestling event. It is a riot to watch them figure it out. The shelter folk said they really believe she was dumped in our neighborhood. She had caps on her nails (so she couldn't defend herself) and hadn't been spayed. Poor thing. She is recovering from her spay surgery and adding joy into our home. We named her Eve because she ran up to me on New Year's eve. 

Blessings, Dawn

A Week to Remember

I have sat here for 10 minutes wondering what to write. This week has left me speechless. It feels a little bit like September 11 all over again, except this time our own citizens are attacking. Our country is in so much peril. Our nation had an attempted coup. I have many friends and family that live and work in the shadow of the Capitol. Washington was my hometown as a child. The things they witnessed the rioters doing while they were just trying to do their jobs and get home safely is appalling. It boggles the mind. I don't know what kind of a country we are leaving our children -- if we leave them one at all. I do know one thing ~ we need to heal the division in our country. We owe it to our children. If we learn nothing else from this week, it should be that T***p is a divider and we need a unifier. Well, that is my opinion.

Besides All of that Crazy ~ The rest of our week was fine. We had a fondue night. Anne started her first college class. She is taking Art Appreciation online. We are staying home as much as possible while COVID-19 spreads like wildfire through our area. We had our second snow. Elijah started using the sewing machine. He is making some alterations to his costumes. 

We also had a surprise. I didn't mention her last week, because I thought we would find her family. However, on New Year's Eve this little lady met me at the door as I was coming home and proceeded to  walk into our house and hearts. She had no tags and was a very scared, thirsty and hungry little cat. We took her to a vet to learn that she also had no microchip. Now we have taken her to the Humane Society for tests, shots, and photos. We filled out foster parent paperwork. They have posted her photo on the Internet; and if no one claims her after a week, she will be ours! For now we are enjoying fostering her. She is making good progress with our other cats. I can't believe we have three now! 

Personal Goals ~ I am trying to drink more water (40 ounces a day) and walk 700 miles this year. 

Water goal ~ accomplished 5 days 

Walking goal ~ 4 miles for week one

May you all find peace in kindness in your days. 

Blessings, Dawn