Moving Day - Tiny House

If I had a dream place to live, it would be in a tiny house. I don't need much space for myself. I like the idea of an energy efficient house with low ceilings to help save the environment and save me money.

If I had a dream town to live in it would be Chagrin Falls, Ohio. It is  quaint and quiet and there are wonderful activities all year round. There are even several craft and art shows, and local artists show in the town shops. I could go back to painting again.

Hard to believe, just a few months ago, I was struggling to survive and living with my daughter, because I couldn't even afford rent on my own. Well my bad Karma has finally been "debt paid" (I hope) because things miraculously got better when I turned 60.

My daughter's friend found this adorable little cottage, with rent less than the apartments I was looking at. The apartments sounded nice, but I love the yard and flowers and gardening. I will only do container gardening, but there is a huge patio that I can do it on. And the house, although not with much storage. is just perfect.

There are pretty gardens and patios all around the house.

The former owner fed birds too, so I'm sure they will come for me. I love watching the birds.

And where is this cottage you ask? That's right, within walking distance of downtown Chagrin Falls. A decent walk, and a pretty darn good walk to the Post Office, but unless I'm under the weather, I can make it.

Today is my last day with the family (until they're forced to take me when I'm really old) I'll miss them. Guess I'll have to get busy with my own life finally.

Counting my Blessings

I spent last night counting things I'm thankful for instead of sheep (like the song Count my Blessings Instead of Sheep" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bgZJGl101KE ). It actually helped me fall back to sleep at 4 when the puppy woke me to go outside. She's been sleeping well, but I think the growth spurt is forcing her to eat more and with more food, comes more emptying.

Everyone here survived Thanksgiving once again. Although the boys came screaming to me at 7 pm that they were starving and needed food, because they couldn't eat their other grandmothers Thanksgiving dinner. Overcooked jerky turkey that was too dry to chew, "gravy" that was just grease with no thickening agent, green beans that tasted like water, and sweet potatoes that were just cooked and barely smashed (not mashed). The only edible things were the garlic mashed potatoes and corn souffle that my DD made and the store bought pies. We filled up on that.

I had to feed the boys, because their parents went off to stand in line for black Friday deals to buy them gifts that are too nice at prices they could afford. Those boys are spoiled, but when you consider that they politely  thanked their other grandmother for the horribly prepared food, they might have deserved it.

Luna want shopping with them, because she still can't be separated from her mom at night. They took her stroller for her to sleep in, because the last deal was at 5 am. But DD couldn't make it and her FIL came to rescue her and Luna at 11 pm while Luna's dad stayed for the final deal.




Some of the things I am thankful for.

The health of my family, including my son who finally got his heart patched up and ticking in a way that will make it last longer before more surgery.

A roof over my head, small and tight, but warm, and food in my stomach.

The ability to think and work and earn an income, no matter how small it is.

All of the lovely friends and customers have because of my journey into the online retail business.

The fact that anonymous posts to this blog are blocked :)

Hope you all had a joyous Thanksgiving and can count your blessings instead of sheep too.

What's Cooking - Turkey Two Ways - Reheated

Now that life has settled down a bit for us (crazy Halloween season over, Christmas not yet started) I can give you my recipe for Turkey a little early this year. Last year for Thanksgiving we cooked two turkeys. One our own traditional way and the other a new and different way. If we cook only one turkey, we would cook it the traditional way, but if we ever cook 2 turkeys again I would definitely try the fruit stuffed turkey.

Here is a link to the recipe from my original post last year TALKING TURKEY it's my most popular post. Apparently people all over the world want to know how to cook turkey.

If you want something delicious, easy and different, try the citrus stuffed turkey cooked in a brown paper bag slathered with butter. It is easy, moist and has a delicate citrus flavor. If it's not your thing for Thanksgiving, buy one of those cheap birds and make it another day. You won't be sorry you did.

Life on Mars - Growing Puppy and Less Bruising

OK so maybe this picture is not the best example of the bruise getting better, but today you can barely see it anymore. This is about as bad as it got. As my DD said, quite the little "accident".

Things were quiet here. Sales almost at a standstill. The kids all went to Halloweekend at the local amusement park. I cleaned the house. Everyone partied but me. There was even a clambake in the neighborhood, but I really didn't think that $70 for a bake was reasonable for my budget. Someone who visits the food pantry every month, however, found it in their budget to buy for 3 members of their family. Guess that's why they visit the pantry.

Anyhow the party was down the street and loud and fun sounding, but I didn't even crash, because I was trying to fill jewelry orders and make gifts for the Birthday girl who will soon be one, and the teen and trying my best to straighten out the explosion that happened to our house the past 2 months. I was not successful. Had one of those everything went a little wrong kind of weekends. Not disastrous, but just lots of little problems.

I also just had to post more pics of the pup. They aren't great because the best light is in the kitchen and the floor is black and white and the pup is black and white. There are also a lot of leaves on the floor from taking the pup in and out all day, but I didn't feel like cleaning it again just for the pics. I also clean the floor about 5 times a day, maybe more, because the pup is not quite trained yet. But for the most part, she is the best smartest puppy I've ever known. I did have a very smart dog once, but she was a little hyper. This one seems to have a calmer disposition. Not that she's calm, she's a pup, but she's better than my other dog.

Pup pup, who does not yet have a real name, rings a bell on the door, or grabs the leash when she wants out. But she mostly can't hold it long enough for me to get her in time. She sleeps in her crate for 10 hours at night. She sits on command when I give her a treat. She climbs the stairs and has since she was 8 weeks old, and yesterday when I took her for a walk and she came across a puddle stretching across the whole street, she jumped over it.She is only 10 weeks now. I think I can train this dog for shows. I was really mad when DD brought her home, but now I love her.

Life on Mar - The Ghosts of Family Past

I've been thinking about my family a lot lately. Mostly the family that has left this mortal coil. I recently lost a cousin to cancer. Fortunately he didn't suffer long. Unfortunately, I didn't get to spend much time with him his last few months.

Thinking about my cousin, and things we did together, reminds me of my other family, the older ones, most of who have already moved past this life on Earth. Today, for instance is either my Grandmother's or my Aunt's birthday. I never remembered which, because one is the 30th and the other is the 31st. So I kind of have to wish them both a Happy Birthday at midnight on the 30th. Works!

I've been thinking about my cousin, and his mother, who have passed. I loved his mother, a very young great aunt, and both of her sons dearly. I will miss him as I miss her. His brother, is my closest and dearest relative, as is his wife. Oh yeah, I guess I love my kids too. But I was thinking of the relatives on the other side of my birth. There are really only a few of those left now.

I've been thinking about my mother and father too. Both are gone now. My favorite uncle and his sister (the one born today or tomorrow) another favorite.

I wonder sometimes if that is why we finally let go. Is it just that there is a certain balance of friends and family that go to the other side and we feel awkward without them here. I know my cousin who passed, was talking about his work reunions, and how there were less and less people, because the all moved on. So many of his friends and family were gone too. I think he liked his reunions. I hope he's having a big wonderful one now.

It's funny how we get so sad when we loose family. If you have faith, most religions have us believe that there is a wonderful glorious reward waiting for us. We should be extremely happy for our loved ones. But we are mostly extremely sad for ourselves. My cousin who just past was pure joy. He was nothing but fun to be around. I'm sure he had bad moments, but I never saw them. He never even expressed suffering while he was obviously weak and dying. I will miss him and all those others too.

I'm not big on the thought of Heaven, Spending eternity with family and friends. I guess I'm not a person who likes to think in terms of anything forever. I'd rather reincarnate as an ant than be in the same place with the same people forever. But that's theology and not the subject of this post.

I only know that the ghosts of family past have been visiting me lately. The good and the bad. And I'm missing my friends and family.

Life on Mars - Senior Moments

I haven't posted here in over a week. Sorry friends. I've had interesting events, shops I like, recipes, and tips to give, but no motivation to write about them. I don't even feel funny. I guess I've been working too hard and needed another break.

Yesterday was such an event filled day, and I could make it funny, but I only had a few hours sleep, and I'm not in a humorous mood. The GS (Dink) has been watching this movie, Mary and Mas all weekend and trying to get me to watch it. I'm not doing a good job. It looks wonderful, he's 8 and loves it. It's a claymation, about a young girl with life problems in Australia, who become pen pals with a 300 lb man with Aspergers in NYC. It's a bit mature for most young kids, but really wonderful.

So yesterday, I decided to attack the kitchen table area. We have a kitchen the size of a pea and Poppy insisted in having the round table that I made here there even though it sits out too far into the kitchen and caused many other problems. I finally convinced her to use a long, counter type table that we can actually push against the windows, to the cats won't knock things on the floor behind, and actually push our chairs under. It took me several hours to rearrange and clean up under the table where I couldn't reach, but I got it done.

Then, exhausted and sweaty, I heard cats screaming. The cat next door was fighting with our little girl and scratched her eye. Took Poppy a while to get her in the house, and she wouldn't open her eye, It was a bloody mess and we thought she lost it. We spent a long time calling everyone in the neighborhood to find a place to take her on Sunday, the only places were too far, as we didn't have a car. Stress Stress Stress. I finally got her to look at me and saw her eye and it looked like just the extra lid got hit. Very swollen, but eye OK. I got her an appointment today.

Then Poppy's DH called her. His brother collapsed and went to the hospital in a coma. Turns out he wasn't really in a coma, just that his father doesn't know what he's talking about and he scared the crap out of everyone saying the wrong thing. Poppy's BIL was moving and semi conscious, just not talking coherently. He's been having problems the past few days. He is on a lot of meds and it's possible he got confused and took the wrong doses. Whatever happened, he collapsed and possibly hit his head or possibly was knocked out by the strangers his father left him with. He is also not in a very good hospital so we all hope things improve for him. So after stressing about our cat, I had to go over and try to comfort BILs mother.

I finally got a shower at 11:30 pm and as Mad Men was on at midnight and I missed it earlier, I stayed up and watched it. Fell asleep about 1:30. The girl kitty woke me looking for love and padding me with her claws, then the oldest boy at 6 am getting ready for school.

The best part of the weekend was getting makeup on to go to the vet, I found 2 huge malted milk balls at the bottom of my purse. Purse being fairly clean, I dusted them off and ate them. I know, I needed chocolate. What can I say?

Life on Mars - Family and Kids

An you thought my other weeks were crazy. Last Monday I had a wonderful visit with my cousin, to spend time with him and to find out more (if possible) about his cancer diagnosis. We sat out on their lovely patio in the sun, me, and 3 cousins, one, his daughter. It was so lovely.

We found out some things about each other we didn't even know. I did not know my cousin didn't have a middle name. He didn't know what mine was or why I had it. My middle name was my great aunt's name. She died of tuberculosis in the 1920s. She was my grandfather's only sister and he loved her very much.

The rest of the week was kind of hectic, because I had a lot of aprons to make and designs to work on. My daughter had a lot of running around to do and it was her birthday Tuesday, so not only did I miss a day of work, I had to grocery shop and make a very special 3 layer banana split cake for her.

It was such a pretty week that I took a little time (very little) to sit out in the sun, I can't work on the computer out in the sun, so I took out my jewelry. My daughter took a little time off work, to go out for her birthday, and they took the next day too, to shop and enjoy the sun.

Thursday after the kids got home, we all went to the beach by our house. My eight year old grandson was swimming and playing with a friend. He has a foam board with a cord for the lake. His friend wanted him to pull her, but she was too heavy. But kids don't think and he kept pulling. My daughter and I said to stop, and just then the cord snapped out and he was hit in the face with the plastic T that held the cord to the board. It didn't just hit his head, it hit his eye, and the eye was bleeding.

His parents scooped him up soaking wed and rushed him to the closest ER. They almost sent him home with some eye drops, then the noticed he was bleeding between his iris and cornea. They had to rush him to the children's hospital near downtown Cleveland. The accident happened at 4pm and they finally got home at 1am. In the mean time, I had heard very little and was freaking out so bad I got tons of laundry done and most of the house cleaned.

We still don't know if he will be OK, but it looks like it's healing. He won't be out of possible danger for a week or two. KIDS!!

Saturday was nice. Most of the stress over, my family got together again for a nice evening out at the local pizzeria. But my daughter and I are so behind on our work, we aren't getting any rest and her son needs to see the doctor regularly until we are sure he's OK.

What a crazy week.