A (silly) Sad Day

There are many things we eat in our childhood that become favorites. They remind us of fun times, favorite gatherings, and foods we prefer because that is what we are used to.

In May of 2012, I moved from the heat of the deep south to the Quad Cities of Iowa/Illinois. When we got here (I remind you it was early May) we had to dig out light sweaters for the evenings. Now that we are acclimated here, we are still in short sleeves in the 60s. It’s funny how we change. I would probably pass out in the heat of the south – oh wait, we are having that heat here in the Midwest this summer. 🥵

But the thing I miss the most is the food I grew up on. Even the taste of food when eating out (at some of the same chains) doesn’t taste the same. One of the things I get teased about here (beside my southern accent) is my preference in bread. I don’t want wheat bread, whole grain bread, or other fancy breads (although rye is pretty good with ham). I want plain white bread, but not just any white bread – but batter whipped Sunbeam bread.

The batter whipped process creates a soft smooth slice of yumminess.

When I was young, we had a Flowers’ Bakery in our town (which makes Sunbeam bread), and when you drove by there the smell would just make you want to stop the car and sniff the sir. The plant closed while I was in college but the plant in Thomasville, Ga. is still going strong.

In June when I went down to Atlanta to see my brother, I brought back four loaves of bread and put them in the freezer. I was not disappointed by the smell, taste, and texture of my memory. Sadly, yesterday, I pulled out the last loaf. 🥺

I tried looking everywhere here for this iconic bread and no stores here carry this brand. They used to, as several I have talked with remember it but now it is among the missing.

So that will be a staple for every trip south to buy this bread. I thought of buying it online but can they really guarantee its freshness and keep it from getting squashed? Do you have favorites that you remember from childhood that you can no longer find? I know for some it is certain candies.

Oh, well. I will savor this last loaf because fresh tomatoes out of the garden that are made into a sandwich using this bread…absolute heaven.

Smile and laugh with me and always remember to share the kindness bug. There are so many ways to be kind to all kinds and we need to do it often.

Always be kind!

Purposeful Pain

Weird title, I know. But its true. There are acceptable pains we create on purpose – things we do anyway knowing we will pay for it later. Like going on a long hike to see nature, knowing you will have medicine and cold packs in bed with you that night.

Today its a different type of pain – its food related. Sketty. Most people with higher culinary talents call it spaghetti. While this is a common delicious dish, to those of us who have issues with tomato acid – its a night…and the following morning…of uncomfortable times. But sometimes you plan ahead, knowing what its going to do because you just have to have that taste.

Once the veggies are sautéed, you brown the meatballs in that remaining juice. Its add extra flavor to the meat.

Then you take the remaining pound of ground beef – (yes I use two pounds. If you are gonna hurt you gotta make it worth your while) and sauté it with fresh garlic – so yummy.

You add in your sauces, pour in your sautéed veggies and meatballs then let it simmer slowly for about 5 hours. The large green chunks are big pieces of celery. My daughter says celery is awful, and makes things taste bad. So I cook them in large chunks and remove them when ready to serve. What she doesn’t know wont hurt her. Yes that sounds sneaky but she loves eating my sketty, so…

Thank you for joining in on my delicious and possible uncomfortable dish. You know we all do this.

Remember to always share kindness when you can. It will put a bright spot in their day.

April 6 #1minFiction Challenge

Cranny’s #1 Minute Fiction Challenge this week made me laugh as my mind went in a whole different direction. Come join in to share you thoughts.

The Glass Box

“Hey George, come look. Those weird creatures are coming up out of the ground again. Hurry, come look before they leave.”

“Ignore them Martha,” said George as he moved away out of sight. “The more attention you give them the longer they stay.”

“But George they are fascinating to watch. Come look.”

“No.”

“One of them has that light box thingy that gets bright when he puts it close to his face. I wonder what it does?”

“George, are you listening to me? Don’t you even care?”

“No.”

Have you ever wondered what goes through the minds of animals at the zoo? I bet they think we are the weirdest creatures of all.

Regardless of the creature you come in contact with, always be kind…but if you need to run first, then run and be safe, then be kind from a distance.

Simplicity Encouragement

Good Saturday afternoon friends. Come in an enjoy my quirky humor and my real encouragement for today. You know how some commercials you see, just kind of stick with you? I am not trying to promote this company but this commercial is priceless. Plus it shows the simplicity of life – and the value of peanut butter.

https://www.ispot.tv/ad/qPUj/chewy-com-chewy-chatty-pets-giorgio-and-ralph

Too many times we humans make life complicated. We want things we can’t have, things we don’t NEED and make poor choices in pursuing those things. Then we want to know why we are miserable when they don’t come to fruition. The old adage of putting the cart before the horse.

Scripture reminds us all the time about what our goals should be, regardless of our current station or on which side of the cart we placed the horse.

BUT…don’t you love it when a statement or thought says exactly what you are wanting to hear, then there is a but that shows the leaving out any conditions that may go with said statement. Yes, God does want us to have our hearts desires as long as those desires fall in line with the plans He has for us. He always has a plan for us.

There are people all over this world at different levels of success and we are to use our success regardless of level of life to remind the world around us of the beauty of God, especially the level or act seems insignificant. Think of the widow and her mite…she was probably below poverty level, yet she gave humbly of what she had. And she has been remembered for thousands of years for that. She did not feel any powerful at her level but look at the power of her testimony.

If you were able to see the video I posted at the top, all Ralph cared about was the peanut butter. He didn’t care that medicine was coming with it. Its a simple desire. So what is our simple desire, what is our peanut butter? While that question needs to be answer individually, scripture reminds us all of God’s purpose for us and that is His love. He created us out of His love, He sent Jesus to save us out of His love for us, and He still guides us today out of His love for us. We may not know what our peanut butter is but we are definitely His peanut butter.

Never think that what you do for Him and others is unimportant. When it is done with Love, God feels it, regardless of size or human ideas of its importance. To Him it is all important.

We are made for His purpose, so let us shine out His light in all we do, and as always remember to be kind.

30-50-30

No, that is not a fertilizer combination…its the temperature combinations of a February roller coaster in Iowa. Last night we dropped below freezing…with rain equaling – freezing rain and ice. Now we are waiting the 2 inches of snow due to start by 12:00pm…oh, it is 12:00 pm. Yep, a quick look out the window and its snowing. Yeah…not really. So what do we do with weather like this? Easy…we eat!!

I was late getting started but I finally bought an air fryer. And its awesome. I rotissered( I know that is not a real word…but you get it) a whole chicken in 62 minutes and it was yummy. So today, I pulled the remaining meat off the bones and made chicken salad. Yum!!

Then I took the carcass and put it in a big ole soup pot to make homemade chicken broth soup for supper – letting it cook real slow all day – more yum!

So what do you do on poor climate days? I eat!!! LOL.

Have a great day and remember to be kind. Regardless of what the weather is doing, you can always be kind.

Combatting the Blues

Oh, what to do when we feel so blue?

Sadness or sickness making us go boo-hoo.

So we remember things that make us smile

Like puppies in a row all standing single file

But there are other things that can make you feel better

Like hugs from a friend or maybe a sweet letter

So today, as I still struggle with this ole cold

I’ve made a decision and will try to be bold

No more whining and carrying about

A comfort food will make my happiness sprout

And what better way, in my opinion

Than warm noodle soup and my friend the minion.

Me and my minion friend are wish you a happy day filled with smiles to mark your way.

And remember as you go your way, sprinkle kindness along to brighten the day.

Exposure in Mistreatment of My Dog

Come join in with Debbie at Travel Intent to share your 6 Word Saturday fun.

And as always, remember to be kind.

Woman – Hazardous Material

Good New Years Eve friends. Hope you are safe and warm. In cleaning out my spare room to turn it into an office/writing room, I ran across some old books and papers I have not seen in a very long time. I wanted to share one that I found that, as a woman myself, made me chuckle and hope it brings you a smile for then end of this… “interesting” … year. I do not know where it came from but it was tucked in the quality control papers from my management position down in Alabama and fit the types of papers we dealt with assuring safety and quality within the automotive industry. It is titled “!!Hazardous Materials Data Sheet!!” Enjoy the chuckle with me.

Element : Woman

Discoverer: Adam

Atomic Mass: Accepted as 55kg but known to vary from 45kg to 225kg

Physical Properties:

Body surface normally covered with film of powder and paint.
Boils at absolutely nothing – freezes for no apparent reason.
Found in various grades ranging from virgin martial to common ore.

Chemical Properties:

Reacts well to gold, platinum and precious stones.
Explodes spontaneously without reason or warning.
The most powerful money reducing agent known to man.

Common Use:

Highly ornamental, especially in sports cars.
Can greatly aid relaxation.
Can be a very effective cleaning agent.

Hazards:

Turns green when placed alongside a superior specimen.
Possession of more than one is possible but specimens must never know of other possessions or make sys contact.

In reality, all women must understand their great value to all of mankind. While we can be possessive creatures, when it get down to brass tacks, we really want the best for everybody. So women – stay pure and beautiful as God made you and remember beauty is not always on the outside. Inner beauty always carries more power, courage and resolve…regardless of gender.

Have a very good new year and remember always to be kind.

Backyard Acrobatics

I enjoy watching the antics of the birds and squirrels our my windows. It is amazing how animals can adapt to the humans who have invaded their areas. We could probably learn a thing or two from them.

Twice now I have had to call animal control to come get the ground hogs who are bound and determined to dig tunnels in my yard. Guess that is better that porcupines.

Then the squirrels became creative in getting to the suet feeder at the office. I later added a slinky to the post so they can’t climb up it. It a gentle and effective way to keep them off certain feeders. They have their own feeder further over.

Then the antics of the sparrows was amusing when the suet cake got to small. I would think eating from the side of the cage would be easier…no, he climbed down inside it where no one would bother him…smart bird.

The woodpeckers we are used to seeing hanging upside down, which is why I have the bottom feeders. But they like the regular ones better. The nuthatches like the bottom feeders but are very skittish of movement.

Guess its time to pull up the dried up sunflower. All the birds enjoyed eating the seeds from them. Well, I guess they should have, they planted them. Having nature come into your yard is a fun way to help you relax. You can actually learn a lot about the hierarchy of the different birds. Think of putting out a feeder, you would be amazed of who may come by.

And as always remember to be kind…to all kinds. All of nature understands kindness and are part of God’s creation plan too.

Three Strikes, Am I Out?

There is an old saying that trouble comes in threes…

***Three puppies may be trouble but they are cute troubles***

Well I had three “accidents” last week that could have caused serious injury but I walk away with minor bruises. God is definitely protecting me and yes I need to slow down and be more careful. All three incidents were from rushing and carelessness.

Incident 1 – I posted last week about the balloon drop we did from trunk or treat but I did not tell of almost cutting off my thumb with the paper cutter, the big one at the church office. The original sign for the balloons were too large so we had to cut them down …a lot…at the last minute. My right hand going faster than my left insured that I closed my thumb in the device. Fortunately I got away with only a cut on my cuticle and now a bruise coming out under my nail. Moral of story – slow down.

Incident 2 – Doing the final cut on the front lawn and raking up the last of the gourd debris I tried to break my nose or put out my eye. My wrought iron flower pot hook that is attached to the fence was empty but the hook was still quite capable of causing harm…and it did. I never wear my glasses outside when doing yard work as they fall off easy when bending down. But today, I did and it probably saved my vision. As I bent down to gather debris, I hit that hook square on with my glasses, right on the eyepiece. I did not break my glasses but did bruise my nose from the force of the sudden stop. Moral of the story – slow down.

Damaged Eye Glasses Broken Glass Stock Illustration 1540899305 — ***Good grief!!***

We have a theme going dont we…

Incident 3 – I had a small flower pot that the plant was pot bound and so I was going top repot it. It is a cute little pink pot that is prefect for starter plants but I left this spider plant in it too long. In trying to get the plant out without damaging it or the pot, I got impatient, the pot slipped from my hands and fell to the floor hitting me square on my pinky toe before it hit the floor and broke. After a loud word of pain, I reached down and picked up the damaged pot, took the hammer and broke the rest of the pot off of the tightly bound plant. I would have never been able to get that plant out in one piece without breaking the pot. So now, 1 bruised foot and 1 broken pot later, our spider plant is correctly repotted in a correct size pot. Moral of story – slow down.

Life can get us in a bind sometimes making us be more clumsy than necessary because we THINK we need to hurry.

But when we rush, it actually slows us down. Sometime those short cuts are worse time eaters or dangerous to our health. So the moral of todays three strikes – SLOW DOWN

Cartoon Turtle with Sunglasses Images, Stock Photos & Vectors | Shutterstock — ***Be Cool!***

May your week be safe, and as always be kind. That is something you can never regret.