by Judy Handley | Nov 21, 2018 | 2018 Life Logs |
2018 Life Logs, Day 325: More Thanksgiving Preparations
Date: Wednesday, November 21, 2018
Weather: Overcast and Getting Colder; High 43, Low 27 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
I got to spend my day today with one of my favorite little people, my grandson Ollie. We were missing two of my other favorites—Jonah and Sam. I thought I would be kidsitting Jonah and Ollie, but Jonah got invited to a friend’s house to play and he spent the entire day there. I knew Sam had spent the night with a friend and would get home just in time to get ready to go to an all-afternoon birthday party. So Ollie and I took Sam to his friend’s house for the party and then we joined what seemed like every other person in Falmouth at the grocery store. We needed to buy a few items for some fun Thanksgiving projects. We then headed home to do some of those projects and to also get a jump start on cooking for tomorrow’s Thanksgiving dinner. All of Heather’s boys love to help out in the kitchen, so Ollie made gingerbread cake that we baked in a shallow pizza pan so we could make fall leaf cut-outs and he helped me make the stuffing to go with our Thanksgiving Turkey. When Sam got home, he made ‘acorns’ to go with our fall leaves. The acorns are made with mini-Nilla Wafers, Hershey’s Kisses, and mini-chocolate chips. We made these fall leaves and acorns two years ago and boys enjoyed this for their Thanksgiving dessert. Ollie loves pumpkin pie, but Sam and Jonah won’t touch it. Thus, the alternatives. We also made turkeys out of applies, cranraisins, mini-marshmallows, and olives. I’ll have to take a picture of Ollie’s turkey tomorrow and include it in tomorrow’s night post so you can see the result.
Tomorrow morning I will return to Heather and Jed’s for Thanksgiving Day. It will be the first time I have ever had Thanksgiving Day at their house. We have often been together, but always in other places. Last year we spent Thanksgiving in Florida with Mark’s family, the year before at the home of their good friends Pax and Tim, and the year before that in Puerto Rico with Justin and Jo. As the temperature dips well below freezing tonight, Thanksgiving in Puerto Rico sounds like a great idea. Maybe next year!
by Judy Handley | Nov 20, 2018 | 2018 Life Logs |
2018 Life Logs, Day 324: Getting Ready for Thanksgiving
Date: Tuesday, November 20, 2018
Weather: Overcast and Rainy, Turning Colder; High 50, Low 30 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
Well, I should have been spending my day getting ready for Thanksgiving, but I had other priorities. I had a morning appointment with my physical therapist to see how my injured knee is doing. It is ‘doing’, but not continuing to improve. So, the therapist suggested I slow down a little bit on the exercise and methodically, and very gradually, increase some specific prescribed exercises. Then I drove north toward Boston to Scituate to have lunch with Shirley Wiedemann (the woman who owns the cottage I am renting) and her sister Doris. Both of these ladies are the aunts of my good friend Karen Baranowski. Karen invited me to drive up to visit and have lunch today. I enjoyed seeing the ‘girls’ (Shirley is 93 and Doris is 100 plus 1 month). They are currently staying in Doris’ home but are hoping to soon be able to come down here to spend some time in Shirley’s home, next door to me. They usually alternate places every month or so, but health issues for both have kept them in Scituate throughout the summer and fall. Hopefully they will be able to come down soon,
When I got back to Falmouth, I did do a little food shopping for Thanksgiving Day and then headed home. There is no school tomorrow, so I will be spending most of the day with Ollie and Jonah and I hope to be able to involve them in Thanksgiving preparations. Sam has an off-Cape birthday party to attend, so he will not be around. But I have some ideas for involving him in the preparation of a couple of dishes on Thanksgiving Day.
by Judy Handley | Nov 19, 2018 | 2018 Life Logs |
2018 Life Logs, Day 323: Shameful, Shameful
Date: Monday, November 19, 2018
Weather: Mostly Cloudy and Warmer; High 55, Low 42 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
I had a good day until I watched the news tonight. When I saw our President visiting the site of the disastrous Camp Fire in northern California and he didn’t even know the name of the community of Paradise, I was aghast. How can the President of the United States visit the site of such a terrible disaster and not even know the name of the town? He called it Pleasant a couple of times before he was corrected. It would have been funny if it weren’t so shameful. And then listening to him blaming the fire on a lack of forest management and suggesting we rake the forest floor like they do in Finland was just over the top. First of all, northern California’s climate is very different from Finland’s, but secondly, Finland doesn’t rake their forest floor. Shameful, shameful. But other than our President, I think the rest of us will be keeping the people of Paradise, the survivors, the dead, the missing, and all of the firefighters in our thoughts throughout the Thanksgiving holiday.
I started my day at the gym with a pilates class and biking on the recumbent bike and then came home to do some outside work in the warmth of the day. It was in the 50’s today, but on Thanksgiving Day the high is forecast to be 30 degrees colder. So today was the day to do garden clean-up and leaf raking. Yes, I did rake leaves, but I was not doing it to prevent forest fires! I also did a little Thanksgiving Dinner prep and baking. Tomorrow I have a physical therapy appointment and will then drive to Scituate, just south of Boston, to visit with Doris and Shirley, my neighbors that are spending Thanksgiving in their ‘other’ home.
by Judy Handley | Nov 18, 2018 | 2018 Life Logs |
2018 Life Logs, Day 322: Time to Give
Date: Sunday, November 18, 2018
Weather: Mostly Cloudy; High 46, Low 37 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
Today the Scouts in Falmouth were standing at the entrances to the supermarket collecting food to be distributed to needy families for Thanksgiving reminding us all that it is time to give. Heather, Jonah, and Ollie were on supermarket duty. Scout leaders were transporting the donations and Jed and Sam were at the Falmouth Service Center taking in the donations. Since I wanted to go to the gym to use the recumbent bike today, I waited until noon so I could stop by the grocery store to buy food to donate. As I entered the store, Scouts handed me a flyer explaining what I could buy to donate and it seemed like everything on the list was on a super sale. I was shocked at how cheap frozen turkeys were today. A turkey that would normally cost $35 was only $11 with your Stop and Shop card. At that price, I bought two to donate, along with all the trimmings. For less than I spent on a dinner out this week, I was able to buy enough for two families to have turkey, stuffing, and cranberry sauce for Thanksgiving and it felt really good to give.
I spent the rest of my day in the basement. There are a few things that I have been searching for and not finding, so I went on a basement explore. I ended up moving too many things around as my knee is letting me know tonight, but I did make some progress in finding a few missing items. There’s more to do in the basement, but I really need to make sure my ‘looking’ doesn’t turn into moving things. Carrying any amount of weight causes knee pain that is no fun at all.
The weather this week looks ‘interesting.’ Tomorrow is by far the warmest with a high temp in the 50’s and a low of 41 degrees F. But after tomorrow night, the nighttime temps dip below freezing until next Saturday. Thanksgiving Day is forecast to be the coldest day of the week with a high of 28 and a low of 18. Ouch! Friday is still in the deep freeze, but then the daytime and nighttime temps are above freezing for the next few days. I’m just not ready for this freezing weather. But it is here, so I’d better adjust.
by Judy Handley | Nov 17, 2018 | 2018 Life Logs |
2018 Life Logs, Day 321: Evolving Plans
Date: Saturday, November 17, 2018
Weather: Mostly Sunny; High 48, Low 31 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
Heather had mentioned to me that she needed to take the boys off-Cape to do some more clothes shopping today, but we knew they would not want to spend a sunny day riding in the car and shopping. So this morning I sent a text to Heather offering to go with her if she wanted help with the boys. She sent a text back saying she had just learned about a Wampanoag Thanksgiving ceremony at 11 am and she wanted to take the boys to that. I was interested as well, so I got dressed for going to a Thanksgiving ceremony and went to Heather’s. Jed was already gone as he was going to the Yale-Harvard football game in Boston today. When I arrived, all three boys were outside playing soccer with the next door neighbor, Joey, and I could getting them to stop to go shopping or go to a Native American Thanksgiving was not going to be easy. As Heather learned more about the Wampanoag ceremony, it became less enticing. It was actually a four-hour commitment and we knew the boys were not ready for that. So we switched back to the shopping idea. Heather decided to take Sam as he was the one that needed shoes and would need to try them on and leave Jonah and Ollie with me. In the meantime, Jonah had discovered that today was the elementary track meet and he wanted to go to that. As he pointed out, it would be his last chance to run for East Falmouth Elementary as next year he will move on to Morse-Pond School for 5th and 6th grade. Heather had not signed Ollie or Jonah up to run today as she had planned to take them shopping. Well, that all changed. Heather left with Sam to go shopping and I took off for the high school with Jonah and Ollie. It was too late for Ollie to run today, but the 4th graders were running at 11 am, so we had plenty of time to get Jonah signed up.
The boys really enjoyed spending time with friends in the high school gymnasium and Jonah really enjoyed participating in the meet. Students from all the elementary school participate in grade level competitions and East Falmouth was well represented.
Jonah won a second and a third place ribbon in the two different events,
as did next door neighbors Molly and Joey.
Everybody was happy, and that’s always a good thing. Later in the afternoon, I took Jonah and Ollie to see the new film version of The Grinch. I think most everyone is familiar with How the Grinch Stole Christmas!–a children’s story by Dr. Seuss about a grumpy green creature who hates Christmas. It is a great story and we really enjoyed our special movie time together. Heather and Sam got home before us and I was invited to stay for dinner and to play games after dinner. It was an unplanned day that just evolved and we all enjoyed it. Even Sam enjoyed going shopping for clothes!
