And I know I have been been late in mentioning names, gifts, flowers, cards and more that I've been blessed to receive. I've been keeping a list.
Jonathan's checking it twice.
I have to stop for a minute to talk about a most timely gift that arrived yesterday from Janet Crowder and Phyllis Ward.
Though I never taught with Janet or Phyllis, per se, I've known them for years. I did have Rachel and Zach Ward at Verner when I was in the library. Janet has been and excellent teacher in the system for years and they both made the American Studies program at the Tuscaloosa City School system an outstanding one.
A knock on the door and in walks Janet, with JUST the perfect thing at the PERFECT time!
An extra large African made straw basket, huge red/straw stripes. My eyes bugged out at the pattern.
Then, I realized it was the perfect gift for me to carry my things I want/need to do, but might need to move to another room to do them...my computer, phone, new magazines/catalogs, notebook, and other things. PERFECT in every way!
Thank you Janet and Phyllis....and for the sweet notes in the card.
Love,
Penny
P.S. Will get a picture up ASAP. This basket SCREAMS Penny!
I have GREAT NEWS from the import company I design Christmas items for!
If you made it through this post about my association with Midwest of Cannon Falls, then you may have noticed that I had wanted to join with them in donating a portion of the profits earned from the sales of the 2010 Christmas items to the Lymphoma/Leukemia society for research in the field.
They called yesterday and we have come to an agreement to let this happen!
I am SO excited!
They will announce this to their sales team today, at America's Mart in Atlanta, as the gift show before they open the doors to their appointments. (They are also very excited about the fact that they have an increased number of appointments over last year at this time, so maybe things are ready for a real turn around! Let's keep our fingers crossed!)
Later we will work out packaging, info on sales tags, etc., that will let shoppers like you know that if you are purchasing a product designed by me you are helping provide money for research in the field of adult lymphoma/leukemia!
I am proud to be part of this company. They have treated me like family for years.
I hope that everyone will look back at the former post and think JUST HOW STINKIN' CUTE your kitchen will be decked out in gingerbread folks next year!
AND please, haunt your local gift shops and department stores and ask them to order this line for their stores!
Please feel free to forward this blog to ANYONE you know who owns a store, is a buyer, or who might be interested in helping with this cause!
That a brilliant young man, Walter Braswell, had passed away suddenly. I remember when Walter worked for Claude Harris, a former assistant DA while my first husband worked in the DA's office.
Claude was a fine, funny, and wonderful guy. Walter would have had to have been to have worked so closely with Claude.
Walter was 55. I am 56. I've known so many great folks who've gone before they're 60. We all must take better care of ourselves and not ignore things that we think are wrong. I know we can't prevent the inevitable, but I've really learned about "paying attention" to things.
Also, very saddened to learn that the great-grandfather, grandfather, father and father-in-law to my good friends Rick and Liz Pearce, children Davis, Libbo, Maggie, and great grandchildren had passed away on Monday.
Liz had just visited me the Sunday before after checking on her father in law who was having stints put in. Jonathan saw Rick as we were leaving the hospital as Rick was going in to check on his dad. I wonder if Rick learned to dance by watching his Dad dance with his mother? If he did, he had a MIGHTY lucky mother!
My heart and love go out to both of these families who are suffering though such a sad time right now.
Please know I love you, am praying for both families and will try to do what I can while being sort of stuck here at the house.
Wow. Woke up this morning on the old hospital routine. Brain a' racing, needing some coffee. Needing to talk but Jonathan is still asleep so I'll have to let my fingers do the talking, to play off the old Yellow Pages ad.
Plus, I think the coffee maker just beeped, so if you'll excuse me for just a minute while I grab a cup of java, maybe I can put together some coherent sentences.
Ah, yes....coffee in my red dotted mug AND the surprise of remembering that Sue Blanton Giamo had brought over some Krispy Kreme doughnuts yesterday. You better be prepared. It may be a prednisone, sugar rush, caffeine rich post!
Ok, so I got off on gardening again. I still have big plans and like I said last yesterday, the crazy stuff I did....trying to get out before the Thursday trash trucks picked up the organic gold I could get for free...have begun to pay off.
At the moment I am eyeing a pile of crepe myrtle stems that have been taken off a tree around the corner, because they make great plant stakes. It is too cold at 17 degrees to even think about it right now.....but who knows about later today!
My haybale experiment wasn't the same as the one in the link, because I used mine for making raised beds, in which to contain all the stuff I was collecting, as well as wanting to try the Ruth Stout method.
I had been impressed with lasagna style gardening which actually is a variation of the Ruth Stout method. As I read about Ruth Stout, I realized she had really made gardening EASY. AND she was doing it when she WAS OLD!!!!
Mulch with hay/straw. Keep weeds down. Keep plants moist. They grow. EASY PEASY. And it is!
I also want to point you to a blog by my old friend, William Kruidenier. He is an intensely interesting and fascinating person whom I had the good fortune of meeting nearly 40 years ago.
His interest in organic food growing, vegetarianism, and other political interests that have to do with these issues is deep and powerful. In an older part of his blog, William Kruidenier, he has great pictures of his and or his son's haybale garden, where they got an early start last spring to have some incredibly beautiful vegetables.
William told me that his interest in healthy food grew in part from watching his parents suffer from chronic diseases which may possibly have been prevented by better diets. I have seen this same phenomena with myself, when I was following a GOOD eating plan, as well as watching others around me suffer with stuff could be prevented by just eating better.
OMG. I just realized I was a hypocrite because I admitted to eating a KK doughnut before typing this post.
But, I don't live off of them. Please forgive.
From food to plants again. This time poppy seeds.
Many of my readers may make and enjoy the famous "Poppy Seed Chicken" recipe from our great Winning Season's cookbook. Vegetarians and vegans won't find much in it but it is filled with some DAMN good recipes.
Anywhoo...back to poppy seeds. I also make a pretty good poppy seed pound cake. Actually if it more like one of those Sandra Lee things...not from scratch but Simply Homemade, or whatever the name of her show is. Cakes from scratch have always frustrated me.
But this isn't really about poppy seeds to eat, but delighting in looking at that TEENY TINY seed and realizing the power and might that lays within that tiny black thing.
The color, the magnificent varieties of poppies that spring from a seed so tiny that you just barely have to scratch the dirt in the spring (fall for us), throw the poppy seeds on the ground, lightly press
and keep moist a bit.
In the spring you are rewarded with such beauty that you can't believe it. HUGE flowers, incredible colors. I'm partial to the red/orange ones with black centers, though I love them all.
The petals fall, the seed heads are left. It is tempting to rip them up before they seed heads dry because they aren't that pretty. Better to throw in some zinnia seeds to let them sort of cover up the old poppy seed heads.
But when they are dried, those pods, each of which sprang from ONE TINY SEED are now filled with HUNDREDS or THOUSANDS of seeds, which you just have to shake into a bag and start over again the next year.
You will NOT be sorry.
I will leave you with another Secret Life of Plants video that is very meaningful to me. Please don't think it morbid.
Lasr week, at this time, I thought I'd be in the hospital for two more weeks, if not more.
Toward the end of the week, I thought I might be going home today.
Then, suddenly, I was home, on Saturday!
My, how time as flown!
Getting adjusted back to home life has, as I've already indicated, been wonderful.
The days are passing quickly and I'm trying to do a little more each day.
A load of laundry. Fix a recipe. Enjoy visits from friends old and new.
Chatter on email. Sit and rest when I need to. Enjoy being told to sit and rest.
Try to pick out a new sofa, because I think i've gotten all the use I can out of a 30 year old treasure.
Seeing my family at lunch, when the girls, Jonathan, and Mama are here.
Each day is like a beautiful present to unwrap!
Oh, and the seed catalogs have started to arrive and I'm having tons of fun circling all the things i want to get.
Note: That i WANT to get. Doesn't mean I will, but there are some darn pretty four-o-clocks in a watermelon color that I've never seen before. I think I WILL get those!
I love old fashioned smell good flowers that bloom late in the afternoon in the summer.
Last year after my big plans of 'the garden of the century" went to hell in a handbag, I did AT LEAST manage to do one thing right.
I would go out in February and get everyone's first grass clippings/last of the leaves that were shredded and bag them up. My neighbors thought I was nuts. Jonathan thought i was nuts.
I filled haybale lined "raised beds" to the top with over 80 bags of this treasure.
I now have the happiest earthworms EVER and will not have to use a shovel this year.
If I see ANYONE in my neighborhood grabbing this organic gold I will SHOOT you, unless, that is, you want to drop it off at my house.
To have a husband that plays the perfect, relaxing music for such a day.
To cook a yummy pot roast for some "faux" Italian style beef sandwiches. Send me 5.00 and I'll send you the recipe!
To have my family come see me without having to come to the hospital.
To have Liz and Kathie drop in for a visit....and bring food!
To surprise my mom when I pulled off my "doo rag" and she realized I looked like my dad, when his hair fell out after his chemo.
To have my daughters come and hang out and then work to help me clean up my messy closet. Because i am a mess. (Actually, I piled up on the bed while they went through stuff and I said "Keep", "No", or "Oooh, what was I thinking?")
To have Katie come across an old Dooney and Burke purse, in which we found some GIANT gold loop earrings that make me look like Yul Brenner in "The King and I". I really don't think I can pull them off. And I think they're circa 1992.
To have Mary-Keeley help organize the the jetsam and flotsam left after getting the closet straightened out.
Oh, and there was an almost full pack of Benson and Hedges Light 100 cigarettes in that purse. 1992 was a stressful year for me. YUCK.
To have the best Santa in the world, my mom, come in with things that came in after Christmas or she had forgotten to bring over on Christmas, so it was like Christmas again! I can't wait to take my new Kindle to the outpatient clinic when I have long days there! Thank you, Mama! Oh, and it has a nice red cover. Because I DO LOVE RED!!!!
To have friends out there like you, who have cared, prayed, read this blog, and I hope will continue to do so.
