Tag Archives: Family

After Thanksgiving

26 Nov

SUNDAY MEMORIES

Judy Wills

Well, Thanksgiving 2023 has come and gone.  It’s amazing to me how fast that happens!  You gear up for it, then POOF!  It’s over.

So what do you do now?  Well, Christmas is on its way now, and there is soooo much to do to get ready for that.  However…there’s still some turkey left over.  Okay…more than a little turkey left over.  What to do?  Well, there’s always turkey sandwiches…made on a hoagie roll with thin slices (or thick if you like) of turkey, lettuce leaves, tomato slices, sliced onions, pickles and any condiments you like (mustard? Mayonnaise? Oil and vinegar? Some kind of salad dressing?).  Cheese of course.  Warmed in the toaster oven perhaps? Or just eaten cold.  Subway…eat your heart out!

But our very, very favorite way to eat up that leftover turkey is by picking the turkey carcass clean of all the meat (light and dark) and cubing it up in about 1″ or smaller pieces, and making my Mother’s recipe of Turkey Tetrazinni.  Fred says it is his favorite part of the turkey!  I’ve included the recipe below.  I cook it in either a 9″x13″ glass pan, or a 10″x10″ Corning Ware dish.  It works well with either.

This recipe makes quite a bit, and with just the two of us eating it, it takes a couple of days to finish it off.  But we manage to do just that!  We really enjoy this dish.  I’ve never tried to freeze any leftovers, so i don’t know how it would work.

I hope you will try this – and enjoy it as much as we do.  It’s a GREAT way to finish up the turkey!

TURKEY TETRAZINNI

By Agnes Lites Yearout

1 cup cooked rice**                                                             2 Tbsp flour

2 sticks diced celery                                                            2 cups (total) broth and milk**

½  onion, chopped                                                               Salt & Pepper to taste

1 small can mushrooms with juice                                    1 tsp Worchestershire Sauce

¼  lb. butter (1 stick)**                                                         ¼ lb. grated cheddar cheese

                                                                                                Cooked turkey, cubed

Cook celery and onion in butter until transparent.  Combine vegetable mixture, flour, broth, mushrooms and juice, and seasoning to make the sauce.  Add turkey and most of the grated cheese to the sauce.  Cook until cheese is melted and mixed in with the sauce.

Put cooked rice in a greased casserole and cover with the turkey sauce.  Top with remaining cheese.

Bake in a 350º oven for about 20 minutes.

**SOME NOTES:  

  1.    Instead of butter you can substitute ½ cup Olive Oil
  2.    For the “broth and milk” – if you have any turkey gravy left over, use that and top it off with milk to make the two cups.  If no broth or gravy, use chicken bouillon and milk.
  3.    This is really good over cooked thin spaghetti or Vermicelli (we like Angel Hair pasta the best).  We like the pasta better than rice.  We’ve not tried it over Couscous, but I think it would be good, as well.  Cook the Couscous in chicken bouillon.  I’ve also made it with egg noodles and that is good.
  4.    I like sliced mushrooms, but stems and pieces can be used as well.
  5.    I am usually more generous with the cheese – we like cheese!

Enjoy!!

Photo Credit by Google Search and Betty Crocker website

Judy is living in Central Florida with her retired U.S. Air Force husband of 50+ years. Born in Dallas, Texas, she grew up in the Southwestern United States.She met her husband at their church, where he was attending the university in her town. After college and seminary, he entered the Air Force, and their adventures began.They lived in eight of our United States, and spent six years in Europe, where their oldest daughter was born. She was a stay-at-home mom for many years .

  Judy has always been involved with music, both playing the piano and singing. Always interested in exercise, she was an aerobic dancing instructor, as well as a piano teacher for many years, and continues to faithfully exercise at home.

After moving to Central Florida, she served as a church secretary for nearly nine years.Her main hobby at this point in time is scanning pictures and 35mm slides into the computer. She also enjoys scrapbooking.She and her husband have two married daughters and four grandchildren, including grandtwins as well as a great-grandson and a great-granddaughter. She and her husband enjoy the Disney parks as often as possible.

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Meals With the Family-Part 4

29 Oct

SUNDAYMEMORIES

Judy Wills

I know that at the end of last time’s posting, I said it was “The End” but I would like to add another little bit.

You see, I have another family that I like to talk about – and that is my blog family.  I’ve been a part of this family since my first posting in 2012.  My wonderful sister-in-law, DiVoran Lites, told me about her writing for a Christian blog, and how she had convinced her husband (my brother) Bill, to contribute his thoughts, as well.  I read a few of their postings, and enjoyed it.

However, I never…EVER….thought that I would be able to do something like that.  I love to read, but write?  Never happen.  But then DiVoran kept after me to write about my memories – my childhood, growing up years, my life with Fred, our girls, etc.  And then I thought about it, and thought, okay that might be something I could do. 

And so began my journey with this website.

And something else I’ve enjoyed so much is when we “bloggers” get together for a meal and just “get to know” each other.   Of course I know Bill and DiVoran, but I didn’t know our blogmeister, Onisha, and her husband, or Louise Gibson and her daughters.  Occasionally, when we met, our spouses would join us (my Fred and Onisha’s husband Mike).  Frequently, some friends of ours would join us at these meals.

Then I suggested to Jan Eckles that she might like to contribute, since she has written some books of her life.  She doesn’t contribute weekly, but she does add her words of wisdom quite often – and she really has a way with words!

I am not big on poetry, but those poems that Louise Gibson wrote were wonderful.  I can see why she and DiVoran got along so well, since DiVoran is a poet, too.  Louise has left us now, to be home with our Lord and Saviour.  We were blest to know her.

The first time we had a “bloggers luncheon” was at Sweet Tomatoes restaurant.  Here we are at Sweet Tomatoes in 2013.

2014 at Sweet Tomatoes
2015

It was nice to get together and meet everyone.  I didn’t know Louise at that time – actually I didn’t know Onisha and her husband, either, so it was a nice get-together and get-to-know each other.   Seems like we had a couple of meals together there through the years, but more recently, we’ve gone to a great seafood restaurant called High Tide Harry’s.  Food is good, and we have a nice long table where we sit a just visit with each other.  Here are a couple of pictures from those events in 2017.

2017
High Tide Harry’s

All that to say that, this is my family, as well.  And we so enjoy being together and writing about our lives.

As I said before…I LOVE FAMILY!!

~~~~~~~~~~The End (I promise!)~~~~~~~~~~

Judy is living in Central Florida with her retired U.S. Air Force husband of 50+ years. Born in Dallas, Texas, she grew up in the Southwestern United States.She met her husband at their church, where he was attending the university in her town. After college and seminary, he entered the Air Force, and their adventures began.They lived in eight of our United States, and spent six years in Europe, where their oldest daughter was born. She was a stay-at-home mom for many years .

  Judy has always been involved with music, both playing the piano and singing. Always interested in exercise, she was an aerobic dancing instructor, as well as a piano teacher for many years, and continues to faithfully exercise at home.

After moving to Central Florida, she served as a church secretary for nearly nine years.Her main hobby at this point in time is scanning pictures and 35mm slides into the computer. She also enjoys scrapbooking.She and her husband have two married daughters and four grandchildren, including grandtwins as well as a great-grandson and a great-granddaughter. She and her husband enjoy the Disney parks as often as possible.

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Meals with the Family-Part 3

22 Oct

SUNDAY MEMORIES

Judy Wills                            

Karen’s Brian loves to surprise people.  We surprised Fred on his 80th birthday with both girls and their families (minus Forrest and his family) at Cracker Barrel for breakfast.

Photo credit Google Search and Cracker Barrel website

The remainder of the day included the St. John’s River Cruise with a meal cooked right on the ship, then supper at Bonefish Grill.

Photo Credit Google Search and Bonefish Grill website

Please see my posts of March 3, 2019 and March 10, 2019 for that special day and surprise.

They surprised me (belated) for my 75th birthday.  Please see my post of September 18, 2016 for that special surprise.

They also all surprised me on MY 80th birthday with the girls and their families (minus Forrest and his family) at Dixie Crossroads. 

Credit photo Google Search and Dixie Crossroads website; Steve Hunsader

That included both of Bill’s children and their spouses.  We hadn’t visited with either of them for quite a while.  It was wonderful.  Unfortunately, Bill was on one of his trips and wasn’t able to be there.  

There was one time there was a “family” meal together, but unfortunately, Bill and his family were not available.  Both of our girls and their families were here, as well as my BFF and her husband.  Sue and Bud were visiting us for a few days and got in on that meal.  After we finished our meal, we just all sat around the table and talked.  We told stories of our lives and what was going on.  I don’t remember that Sue or Bud said very much, but they listened.  She said later that Bud thoroughly enjoyed the meal as well as the conversation.  Apparently their family doesn’t do that.  Of course, they all live close to each other, so if they have a meal together, there isn’t too much need to “catch up” on their lives…they are living their lives together.  Sue said Bud hadn’t enjoyed a time like that in, well, forever.  Made my heart glad.

I really love family – and meals with my family!

~~~~~~~~~~The End~~~~~~~~~~

Judy is living in Central Florida with her retired U.S. Air Force husband of 50+ years. Born in Dallas, Texas, she grew up in the Southwestern United States.She met her husband at their church, where he was attending the university in her town. After college and seminary, he entered the Air Force, and their adventures began.They lived in eight of our United States, and spent six years in Europe, where their oldest daughter was born. She was a stay-at-home mom for many years .

  Judy has always been involved with music, both playing the piano and singing. Always interested in exercise, she was an aerobic dancing instructor, as well as a piano teacher for many years, and continues to faithfully exercise at home.

After moving to Central Florida, she served as a church secretary for nearly nine years.Her main hobby at this point in time is scanning pictures and 35mm slides into the computer. She also enjoys scrapbooking.She and her husband have two married daughters and four grandchildren, including grandtwins as well as a great-grandson and a great-granddaughter. She and her husband enjoy the Disney parks as often as possible.

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The Last Prayer

24 Apr

My Take

DiVoran Lites


My prayer was on the last page of one of my journals from 2005

Lord, I realize the people I most admire have flaws. Only You are wonderful through and through, with no ugly edges. People, even at their best, cannot meet our deepest needs; they sometimes misunderstand, disappoint, expect too much, or can’t be available when I need them. 

This makes me glad to have You as my best friend, Lord, my Wonderful Counselor,  my Ever-present Help in trouble, immediately available around the clock, seven days a week. How wonderful that I belong to you, the, unpolluted Source from which all downstream flow. When I stop to listen to you, my life is restored. 

So I delight in people here on earth, but first and last, I come to You, the only perfect Person, the only ideal Person, the only One whose love is flawless, the only one who is worthy of my highest praise. Oh God, who is like you? There is none to compare with You! 

Photo Credit:Pixabay

DiVoran has been writing for most of her life. Her first attempt at a story was when she was seven years old and her mother got a new typewriter. DiVoran got to use it and when her dad saw her writing he asked what she was writing about. DiVoran answered that she was writing the story of her life. Her dad’s only comment was, “Well, it’s going to be a very short story.” After most of a lifetime of writing and helping other writers, DiVoran finally launched her own dream which was to write a novel of her own. She now has her Florida Springs trilogy and her novel, a Christian Western Romance, Go West available on Amazon. When speaking about her road to publication, she gives thanks to the Lord for all the people who helped her grow and learn.  She says, “I could never have done it by myself, but when I got going everything fell beautifully into place, and I was glad I had started on my dream.”

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And 2023 is Here

6 Jan

On the Porch

Onisha Ellis

We are almost a week into a new year. December is a pleasant blur. We celebrated the holidays in the North Carolina mountains. Our daughter drove up from warm and sunny Florida just in time to experience very unusual cold temperature.

Shortly after she arrived, the temperatures sank as far as 0 degrees Fahrenheit or -17 degrees celsius. She enjoyed the frigid weather, I did too in between praying that our water pipes would not freeze.

In recent years we have adopted a traditional Christmas afternoon drive.This year it was too cold and the roads were still icy so we delayed our drive for a day. We stayed cozy in our PJs, drank homemade eggnog and watched Christmas movies.

We live close to several waterfalls and people on Facebook were sharing pictures of them being frozen. This is not an every year occurrence and I was excited on the 26th to to see them.

We were unable to visit our favorite Dry Falls. The parking lot was full and traffic was backed up into the highway. Even so, it was a fun and memorable day. All too soon, the day arrived for our daughter to return to Florida.

She left at 7:30 am and at 9:00 am were on our way to celebrate Christmas with cousins near Boone, NC. We had reserved an adorable small cottage not far from our cousins house. To our amazement and delight, the modern furnishings were accented with an assortment of antiques. I had never seen a fan like this one.

There was also an assortment of vintage Tonka trucks and a lot of pewter pieces.

2023 arrived with no fanfare or loud fireworks and after a pleasant but tiring day with my cousins, we slept peacefully in the cozy cottage. A nice way to enter a new year. We only spent two nights at the cottage but I hope we can return and stay longer.

On January 3rd we had an unexpected visitor. My husband opened the front door and the visitor flew past my husband and made itself at home.

Not going. No way no how.

It had been a long day and we were tired but my husband tried to be gentle with our visitor. It gave us quite a bit of exercise trying to convince it to depart. After almost an hour, it finally decided to fly through the open door to the garage. We shut it quickly and decided to help it make its way out of the garage the next day. We didn’t see the little bird after that. We think it flew out when we raised the garage door.

Severe thunder storms were predicted for overnight and man, they were not wrong.. Booms, crashing and vivid lightning seemed to go on and on. Thunder in the mountains creates a serous echo! The next morning I checked my new rain gauge.

Soon, we will close up our mountain house to spend winter and part of spring in Florida with our daughter. We are truly blessed to be able to enjoy both the cool temperatures of the mountains and the sunshine and color of a Florida winter. We will catch up with precious friends, worship at our home church and maybe even throw in a trip to Disney World. A big plus…fast internet! Our mountain internet is awful and drives me to distraction

2023 is here and I will rejoice and be glad. In the blink of the eye, 2024 will be here.

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I Love Carpet-Part 3

24 Jul

SUNDAY MEMORIES

Judy Wills

continued

From Tyndall AFB, Florida, 

Photo credit WJHG.com  Credit Google search

we moved to Fort Leavenworth, Kansas.

Credit Google Search and Fort Leavenworth website

We were to be there for only one year, for Fred to have training at the Army’s Command and General Staff College.  Again, we made use of the large rug for our bedroom.  The celery-green shag carpet went in the downstairs living room. 

We had some left over celery-green carpet, so cut it in pieces large enough to be tacked down on the stairs to muffle our going up and down those wooden stairs.  The gold shag carpet went on the upstairs landing and Janet’s room.  Again, we had a white rug for Karen’s room.  However, when people moved from that base, they had large garage sales.  In one of those sales, we found a gorgeous white rug that we purchased to put in Karen’s room in Heidelberg, Germany (our next assignment).

One more note about Kansas before we moved to Germany:  the mover came out and inspected all our belongings, so he would know how many boxes, etc. to bring to pack up our stuff.  He also took note of our carpets.  When the day came for packing up, when it came to the carpets, he told the inspector that he hadn’t brought enough boxes for the carpet.  Two things could happen: 1) he could drive back to the warehouse (about 50 miles away, as I recall) and bring the boxes, or 2) they could just take the carpets with them and pack them at the warehouse.  The inspector agreed to #2.  As they were driving off, one of the packers was sprawled out on the rolled-up carpets on the truck.  I told Fred then that we would never see those carpets and rugs again.  And we never did.  I am sure they are still sitting on someone’s flooring in Kansas!  They were all gone, with the exceptions of those pieces we had cut to tack down on the stairs.  So when we arrived in Heidelberg, that’s all we had to work with.  I wanted to go to the authorities and complain, but Fred said they would probably tell me the boxes with the carpets were at the bottom of the ocean.  Oh well…

Okay, on to Heidelberg.  The government apartment we were assigned there did have a rug in the dining room – another of those really heavy rugs.  But it worked.  The kitchen and bathroom floors were terrazzo again, but not squares – solid floor.  I left the kitchen that way, but purchased a bathroom rug for the bathroom, in a rust color.  Then I purchased sheer curtains for the bathroom in rust, 

The bathroom curtains

and cream-with-rust trim for the kitchen.

The kitchen curtains

I liked the way both of those curtains looked.  We purchased a somewhat-white rug for Karen’s room.

Karen in her room with the somewhat-white rug

I can’t remember what we had for Janet’s room, but I have vague memories of having enough scraps of the gold shag to cover her room.  For our bedroom, we found enough pieces of the celery shag to go around our bed so we could step out of bed onto rug rather than just floor, and mostly fill in the rest of the room.  Nothing under the bed.  We found two sort-of-green rugs that fit together for the living room.  

Fred’s parents with Karen and Janet – the green rugs we bought

Later, we found a large amount of rust-colored carpet to replace those celery green rugs, and found it went quite well with our blue couch and chair.

Judy and a friend – the “new” rust carpet

I wanted badly to bring that carpet back with us Stateside, but a friend said he really, really needed it for his office.  So we sold it to him.  Eventually, we found, that was a good thing.

~~~~~~~~~~To Be Continued~~~~~~~~~~

Judy is living in Central Florida with her retired U.S. Air Force husband of 50+ years. Born in Dallas, Texas, she grew up in the Southwestern United States.She met her husband at their church, where he was attending the university in her town. After college and seminary, he entered the Air Force, and their adventures began.They lived in eight of our United States, and spent six years in Europe, where their oldest daughter was born. She was a stay-at-home mom for many years .

  Judy has always been involved with music, both playing the piano and singing. Always interested in exercise, she was an aerobic dancing instructor, as well as a piano teacher for many years, and continues to faithfully exercise at home.

After moving to Central Florida, she served as a church secretary for nearly nine years.Her main hobby at this point in time is scanning pictures and 35mm slides into the computer. She also enjoys scrapbooking.She and her husband have two married daughters and four grandchildren, including grandtwins as well as a great-grandson and a great-granddaughter. She and her husband enjoy the Disney parks as often as possible.

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The Sailboat

26 Jun

SUNDAY MEMORIES

Judy Wills

REBLOG

Credit Pixab

Growing up in New Mexico, there wasn’t a lot of water around – no swimming pools (except at the public ones), no ponds or lakesides, no oceans, etc. So, consequently, I was not really familiar with boats of any kind. That really didn’t bother me too much I had a lot of other interests.

If you have ever lived in government quarters – as we did on any military base where we were stationed – then you know that, when you leave that posting, you are required to have those same quarters absolutely immaculate! Better than when you moved into them!  And there would be an inspection of those quarters by an official inspector. If they found anything wrong – you were required to “fix” it before you were allowed to leave the base.

We had lived in quarters on Tyndall AFB, Florida for five years. That’s almost too long, actually. Our usual moves were about every three years. I told Fred that we needed to leave soon, because I was beginning to put down roots – in a government duplex!!

He was finally given orders to relocate. So then the work of packing up and moving out began. After the movers had taken our belongings away, we started cleaning the unit. We had always thought we could do that ourselves, rather than hire someone to come in and do it for us. So I set Fred and the girls to cleaning, 

Credit Pixabay

and I thought I would tackle the kitchen. I had planned on the weekend to do the entire kitchen. Unfortunately, the stove was so old that, in taking it apart and cleaning it – it took the entire weekend just for the stove!

By the time we had finished, we were exhausted.

Now….you may think there is no connection to cleaning and boats…but wait….

There was a gentleman who worked in the Weather Station with Fred, who LOVED boats! And especially sailboats. Not being able to purchase one for himself, he had contracted with another gentleman from Alabama to care for his sailboat.

It was a 33-foot Hunter that would sleep six people. It had a full galley and full shower. It had a small auxiliary engine to get us in and out of port. It was set up for ocean voyages and was one-person configured. Whenever the owner wanted to “play” with it, he would call and come down and retrieve it. That usually only happened once or twice a year. The rest of the time, our friend could take it out whenever he wanted.

And that’s what happened with us. He had offered to take us out for a sail, on the last day we were in town. And so we did. I was a bit confused when we motored out of port, thinking “what does this have to do with sailboating?”

But then he cut the engine and unfurled the sail. It was the most wonderful thing – so very quiet, and peaceful, and RESTFUL…just exactly what we needed after all that cleaning.

Fred and Judy on the sailboat

He even let our 8-year-old handle the wheel for a while. She loved it!

Picture by Judy Wills – Janet at the helm!

We’ve never purchased a boat of our own – never felt the need to. But it was an experience that we savored and have remembered all these years.

Judy is living in Central Florida with her retired U.S. Air Force husband of 50+ years. Born in Dallas, Texas, she grew up in the Southwestern United States.She met her husband at their church, where he was attending the university in her town. After college and seminary, he entered the Air Force, and their adventures began.They lived in eight of our United States, and spent six years in Europe, where their oldest daughter was born. She was a stay-at-home mom for many years .

  Judy has always been involved with music, both playing the piano and singing. Always interested in exercise, she was an aerobic dancing instructor, as well as a piano teacher for many years, and continues to faithfully exercise at home.

After moving to Central Florida, she served as a church secretary for nearly nine years.Her main hobby at this point in time is scanning pictures and 35mm slides into the computer. She also enjoys scrapbooking.She and her husband have two married daughters and four grandchildren, including grandtwins as well as a great-grandson and a great-granddaughter. She and her husband enjoy the Disney parks as often as possible.

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The Seamstresses in My House-Final

5 Jun

SUNDAY MEMORIES

Judy Wills

I really didn’t do much more sewing after that – mostly just repair work.  And that continues even today.

Somewhere along the way, when we lived in Panama City, Florida, I purchased a Bernina sewing machine from a store in town.  It wasn’t the top-of-the-line, but it was still an amazing machine!  I still have it.  One thing that impressed me about it, was that it could go “from nylon to leather in one stitch.”  I’ve never had to try that, but it is still an amazing machine.

Credit Pixabay Images

At the same store, they offered classes in sewing.  I had Karen take a class once, and she made a pillow case and a nightgown in the same nylon fabric – in lavender.  She wore that nightgown for many years.  Apparently it was quite comfortable.  Unfortunately, she hasn’t done much sewing since then.

Here is a picture of us in Albuquerque, at the Sunport, just before we headed off to Heidelberg, Germany in 1980.  The top I have on is one that I did make, and liked it very much.  Short sleeves, but a cowl neckline.  Cotton and polyester blend.  Very comfortable.  I believe I made the slacks I had on, out of polyester as well.

Here’s a picture of Janet and a dress I made for her when she was in high school.  As I recall, it was made out of polyester fabric.

But one of the things I enjoyed most, was making this bedspread, dust ruffle, matching curtains for both windows in Karen’s room in Heidelberg.  I think I had the pink-and-white gingham cotton fabric when we went to Germany.  The bedspread was out of already-quilted cotton fabric.  I had already made the bedspread and dust ruffle for her bed in Virginia.  But when we got to Germany, I discovered an entire bolt of the cotton eyelet lace, and I purchased the entire bolt, and added it to the curtains.  It made a lovely addition to the curtains.  Karen was thrilled.

As I said earlier, I’ve really not done much true sewing recently.  Not that I’ve lost my love of sewing, but just haven’t found the time or inclination to do so.

However, it’s been a nice journey throughout my lifetime.  I hope you’ve enjoyed my ramblings, and the pictures that have gone with them.

~~~~~~~~~~The End~~~~~~~~~~

Judy is living in Central Florida with her retired U.S. Air Force husband of 50+ years. Born in Dallas, Texas, she grew up in the Southwestern United States.She met her husband at their church, where he was attending the university in her town. After college and seminary, he entered the Air Force, and their adventures began.They lived in eight of our United States, and spent six years in Europe, where their oldest daughter was born. She was a stay-at-home mom for many years .

  Judy has always been involved with music, both playing the piano and singing. Always interested in exercise, she was an aerobic dancing instructor, as well as a piano teacher for many years, and continues to faithfully exercise at home.

After moving to Central Florida, she served as a church secretary for nearly nine years.Her main hobby at this point in time is scanning pictures and 35mm slides into the computer. She also enjoys scrapbooking.She and her husband have two married daughters and four grandchildren, including grandtwins as well as a great-grandson and a great-granddaughter. She and her husband enjoy the Disney parks as often as possible.

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The DARN Bear is back…and Other Things.

3 Jun

On the Porch

Onisha Ellis

I gave the bear top billing in the title but I think his video will be at the bottom of the post. Kind of my passive aggressive way to deal with my frustration.

Since we arrived back in the mountains, I have sort of checked out of the world’s goings on. I blame it on our porch and the sweet, cool breezes. I read a lot. The only “fly in the ointment” is that darn bear. As I am writing this, my husband is sitting with me on the porch carving and one of the two visiting hummingbirds is sipping nectar from the petunias. I am loving petunias this year.

When our daughter was here over Easter she placed a basket of petunias atop the rise behind the porch. They are now blooming riotously and bring me joy everyday.

We did manage to get ourselves off the porch in mid-May. It had been over a year since we visited my extended family who live clear across the state of North Carolina.

Image by Clker-Free-Vector-Images from Pixabay

On our way there we stopped outside Charlotte, NC to visit with my brother, his son and daughter-in-law. We had a broken relationship for 20 years and God brought restoration shortly before my brother’s wife passed away the end of February. Since my brother was alone in Florida, his son moved him up to be with him. We spent the night and had a wonderful time together.

On to the visit with the extended family. We spent three days there before heading back to the mountains. My cousin has an outdoor cat and one morning at breakfast I observed it guarding a bird feeder.

We have visited this area many, many times so it’s hard to find something different to do. After a delicious country lunch in a diner with an aunt and uncle, my aunt asked if I would like to visit a market that only sold pork. We said sure. After all, Eastern North Carolina is pig country. Think Smithfield ham. I had no idea what to expect but it was interesting and for me at least, fun. It was like entering a huge butcher market but the only meat on offer was pork. And it was pork from every crevice of a pig. There was even a whole frozen pig in the meat case. There were plenty of staff (butchers?) on hand if one wanted a different cut than was in the case.

It has been decades since I have seen country cured hams that weren’t in some sort of packaging or wrap. I had recently reminisced about seeing them hanging in stores. I remember one of my aunts kept hers hung in her utility room and would send her husband out to cut some slices.

Nahunta Pork Center

We enjoyed our visit but it was nice to be home for awhile. The lure of the porch is hard to resist. Two weeks later, over Memorial Day we returned to Charlotte for a family gathering, this time my other brother would be there. Fortunately the Charlotte family has a huge porch, so I didn’t have porch withdrawal, and we spent lazy hours talking, remembering the past and savoring the joy of all being together again.

husband chilling

My nephew’s wife is a horsewoman (not sure if this is the correct term). She rides Dressage and we enjoyed watching her practice.

I am so blessed and thankful that God brought restoration to my family. I remember a line from the last episode of Downton Abbey. The sisters who were usually at odds, were sitting together and making peace. One of them said something like this, “in the end, we will only have each other to remember the past with.”

Now about that pesky bear. We have been taking in our feeders at night but he remembers where they hang!

We keep the feeders in a plastic tub to discourage mice in the garage. Not sure how he did it, but this fella got in the tub. We rescued and released him this morning.

Not all thieves sneak in the night. This brave and crafty creature was determined to score some seeds! Final picture/video. I promise.


The end. The porch is calling and I must answer.

I'm a winner

After my retirement, I decided to re-learn the canning and preserving skills I learned from my mother but hadn’t practiced for twenty years. I titled the blog Old Things R New to chronicle my experience.  Since then I have been blessed to have six other bloggers join me, DiVoran Lites, Bill Lites,  Judy Wills, Louise Gibson, Janet Perez Eckles and Melody Hendrix

In addition to blogging, I work as the publicist/marketer/ amateur editor and general  “mom Friday” for my author daughter, Rebekah Lyn. I also manage her website, Rebekah Lyn Books  

My 2021 goal is continue to use my love of photographs and words to be an encourager on social media.

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The Seamstresses in My House-Part 11

22 May

SUNDAY MEMORIES

Judy Wills

I’m going to jump ahead in years here.  While on one of our trips to England, I purchased some of Fred’s family’s tartan.  Since I had learned that daughters retain their father’s tartan and clan, I purchased that particular tartan.  It is a beautiful tartan, and unique in that both Fred’s Mother and Father were from the same Scot clan – the Gunn clan.  Here is a picture of that tartan.

I had purchased quite a bit of the fabric – in a soft, light-weight wool, and debated for several years just what to do or make for the girls out of that fabric.  I thought about making a skirt for each girl, but thought that might not be a lasting choice.  Then I thought of a “vest” – but just never got around to making it, either.  And so, I finally made up my mind to make a stole for each daughter.  A stole is a type of shawl.  So I set to making them as Christmas presents a few years ago.  

I made each one with a relatively short “fringe” all around the stole.  That probably took more time than anything else, as it needed to be done by hand, pulling the threads on both the short ends, and the length of the stole.  

Here are some pictures of the girls in their stole pinned with the Gunn clan pin:

Karen:

Karen stated:   I looked it up, and apparently normal people should wear it over their right shoulder; only important people, like daughters of clan chiefs, are supposed to wear it over the left shoulder. Who knew.

Janet:

There is a “Scottish” store in Colonial Williamsburg that we like to visit whenever we are in Virginia – The Scotland House.  I found some fabric in my family’s tartan one time and purchased enough to make a lined vest from it for my Aunt Jessie.  Unfortunately, I have no pictures of that vest, nor of Jessie in it.  Here is a picture of my tartan – very similar to the Gunn clan, but with a different color stripe in it.  My clan is Colquhoun – it’s where we “Americans” get the word/name Calhoun.  I’ve never made anything for myself from that tartan, and I’m not eligible to make something for myself from the Gunn clan.  And that’s strange, because I’ve always liked plaids.

Also at the Scotland House, we found and purchased a new tartan tie for Fred, and also one in the “Ancient” or “weathered” version of the tartan.  Interesting.

Credit to Google Search and Houston Traditional Kiltmakers website

You can see the difference between regular and weathered.

~~~~~~~~~~To Be Continued~~~~~~~~~~

Judy is living in Central Florida with her retired U.S. Air Force husband of 50+ years. Born in Dallas, Texas, she grew up in the Southwestern United States.She met her husband at their church, where he was attending the university in her town. After college and seminary, he entered the Air Force, and their adventures began.They lived in eight of our United States, and spent six years in Europe, where their oldest daughter was born. She was a stay-at-home mom for many years .

  Judy has always been involved with music, both playing the piano and singing. Always interested in exercise, she was an aerobic dancing instructor, as well as a piano teacher for many years, and continues to faithfully exercise at home.

After moving to Central Florida, she served as a church secretary for nearly nine years.Her main hobby at this point in time is scanning pictures and 35mm slides into the computer. She also enjoys scrapbooking.She and her husband have two married daughters and four grandchildren, including grandtwins as well as a great-grandson and a great-granddaughter. She and her husband enjoy the Disney parks as often as possible.

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