I love the anticipation of holidays - the fall colors and smells, and yes, I am a pumpkin-everything gal. In fact, even as we speak my fall pumpkin candle is burning away in the dining room. Yum. Raking leaves and earning a couple of bucks, the Christmas parties at school, sleeping in, Christmas caroling, family parties at Aunt Norma's on Christmas Eve, sneaking upstairs during the basement parties just to sit quietly in her cozy little living room on the couch admiring her always, very wide Christmas tree, the ornaments that were so different than ours at home, and heading to church at midnight before driving home. There was something really mysteriously sweet about the stillness of night on our way home, and all of us cousins would discuss whether or not it was true that at ... View Post
End Domestic Violence
A friend of mine reminded me today that October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month. Since I have 7 girlfriends who have experienced this first-hand, one whose husband committed suicide when he realized he was about to get arrested.... and the other 6 who are still trying to put the pieces of their lives back together, dealing with some pretty serious PTSD... Likely for the rest of their lives... I thought it was only fitting that I mention October being DOMESTIC VIOLENCE AWARENESS Month. For their sake. And maybe even for your sake. Also... All of them were too afraid to say anything, and three of them - when they did, were never taken seriously... Even by other women. They didn't just FEEL alone. They truly WERE alone. If you are living in a domestic abuse ... View Post
How To Be An Influencer
Watching my grandchildren growing up at breakneck speed before my very eyes is mind boggling. As their personalities develop more and more, it's fun to see their likes and dislikes. Maci who isn't 3 yet wants to put a tutu on over every outfit, because there's not much she wants more than to be a ballerina. Yesterday I watched her run around a basement full of 8-year-old girls for Lyla's birthday party, so excited to be with the big girls, to look like them, and to do the things they do. To my almost 3-year-old Maci, these little 2nd graders are her influencers! Now, don't laugh, but I just heard that term "social media influencer" a couple of years ago when a friend pointed out that someone we knew was one... an "influencer," and said it as though this individual were a ... View Post
Leaving My Chimes Up A Little Longer
I'm not really sure what it is about my front porch chimes that make me want to just sit here, listen, and think stuff. I also had a couple of rather lengthy drives today, and since neither of them involved M59, I94, or I75, that also provided me an opportunity to just think quietly all by myself. I love my chimes, and I love days like today. I've got a box sitting on my kitchen table filled with all sorts of things for a new baby - diapers, rattles, bibs, and infant clothing for our sweet little baby that the entire family has fallen head over heals in love with. He is beautiful, and sweet, and squishy, and he has stolen every one of our hearts. No one in my family has ever been a foster parent, so this is all pretty foreign to me, but it sure hasn't taken very long to learn ... View Post
Keep the Botox
Ten years. That's how long I've been an empty-nesting, former single Mum of two sons. They are only a couple of months away from turning 31 and 33; thus, the reason I call myself a "former" single Mum. Now I'm an empty-nesting single "Gummy." I've blogged often about the journey - more so in the years immediately following - certainly not because my empty nesting life has become routine; it has definitely not! I write for a local newspaper, as well as for an online digital magazine, and remain employed full time as an RN - so that does take up a lot of my time! Also I spend evenings with my almost 88-year-old Mum, and try my hardest to get one day a week to spend with my son, daughter-in-law, and grands - in between necessary appointments and life in general. It doesn't always ... View Post
Don’t Balance – Prioritize!
There is a gentleman on my porch right now blowing away the leaves that have fallen from the trees in my front yard. There's also a pumpkin spice candle burning in my dining room, I just finished a pumpkin-pie-flavored protein shake, and today I'm wearing a bright orange t-shirt with a blue jean jacket over it. I stopped at a road-side market this morning and bought a squash and some green peppers for soup. Do you see a theme here? It's Fall here in "Pure Michigan," or "sweater weather" as I like to call it (because I probably own about 40 beautiful sweaters, including one I haven't worn yet - made by my friend's mom to resemble one I wore back in the 1970's). The seasons are changing fast, and we all know exactly how to prepare. We can tomatoes, store food, freeze soup, attend ... View Post
“Old MacDonald” Spaghetti Sauce
Ingredients: A green pepper A red pepper Small vidalia onion 3 crushed garlic cloves 1-1/2 pounds ground sirloin 1 Can tomato sauce 15 ounces 1 T Worcestershire Sauce 1/3 Cup Ketchup (this is the not-so-secret EIEIO ingredient, which makes this spaghetti sauce a little less Italian, and a lot more Old MacDonald) 4 T tomato paste 2 T honey 2 t mustard. Yes, mustard. salt and pepper to taste Instructions: Heat up some olive oil in a skillet, chop and cook up your peppers, onion, and garlic for a few minutes and then add your ground sirloin to it. In the meantime, combine all the rest of your ingredients in a bowl, and then add them to a crock pot with the rest of your fully cooked meat sauce mixture, and let it cook for about 1-1/2 hours. I like ... View Post
Please. Help Me Get To Colorado!
"I wanna call Aunt Ayley!" I hear it every time I visit little Miss Maci. A couple of visits a year just leaves her wanting more Aunt & Uncle time, snuggles, giggles, and love. And a trip to Colorado to see them this summer has left her missing her Aunt & Uncle, and Loki, their black lab, more than ever. Holly, my daughter-in-law, says Maci makes a sad face and shares her heartache of missing them all with random cashiers while in line at the grocery store. "My Aunt & Uncle are in Colorado," she says. So when I visit, she's after my phone because she knows she can see their faces and hear their voices live! A few weeks ago, Maci dialed them, and while talking she took the phone into her room. There, she put the phone down and then changed clothes into her favorite ... View Post