Thanksgiving recap

Thanksgiving was very quiet for us. Instead of the usual turkey I decided to make pulled pork BBQ with vinegar sauce. I actually bought three large turkey breasts for the freezer, since the sale price was so good, but we'll eat those in various things (plus sandwiches) over the winter. To go with the pulled pork, I made rice, collard greens, and real heart-attach-in-a-casserole dish Southern mac n cheese. The recipe I use for it comes from Deep South Dish, and I make it so infrequently that I forget to halve the recipe. It makes a big batch. Just look at what I ended up with:
 

That, my friends, is enough mac n cheese to feed a damn army. I don't know what I was thinking, considering it calls for 4 pounds of cheese, a pound of butter, 4 or 5 whole eggs, and several cups of whole milk. I realized early on I'd have to use two pans. We still have a ton left, even after sharing huge portions with a neighbor. I don't know how I'm going to get rid of it all, but I'll admit, it's delicious. 

Here's what my Thanksgiving plate looked like. We still had cranberry/pineapple sauce left from book club last week.

I was too full to even think about dessert after that, but the next day I peeled some apples and made baked apple hand pies. 

We stumbled upon this Santa candy dish while putting away the fall wreath

 and candleholders. I added him to the picture to make it more interesting! :)

On Friday another seed catalog (from Baker Creek) arrived. I also got a new David Austin Roses handbook and Seed Savers Exchange catalog recently. These will be perfect for daydreaming over this winter!

I hope all my American friends had a happy Thanksgiving! I'm thankful for all of you reading here. xx

Checking in, and catching up

Hey friends, it's been a while, and I've missed you all! How are you?

I'm going to spend some time this afternoon catching up with everyone's blogs. I've been super busy but thankfully all the stuff consuming my time and attention is done and dusted. This week is Thanksgiving break, and last year the district started giving us the entire week off. How nice is that? 

The diaper cake was apparently a big hit at the baby shower. My friends said that several people asked if I make them to sell, and said that if I don't, I should. (Maybe I should consider a small side hustle in designing diaper cakes? Some extra cash would be nice). The most important thing, though, is that the parents really liked it and appreciated the effort. 

Last Wednesday night I hosted my book club. That was another thing I had on my plate, cleaning the house and planning food and drinks for that. Since I usually only have to host once a year, I like to make it extra nice, and it stresses me out more than it should. This year wasn't too bad, though. Since Gregg retired he does 75% of the housework anyway, and he went to a lot of extra trouble doing things like dusting blinds and ceiling fans, mopping hardwood floors, and generally making everything as easy for me as possible. I love that man!

For food, I made toasted King's Hawaiian ham and Swiss cheese sliders, hot spinach artichoke dip with assorted chips and crackers, deviled eggs, crockpot grape jelly meatballs (don't laugh, they're good!), and cranberry pineapple relish. To finish I bought three ready-made desserts from Sam's: apple pie, pumpkin cream cheese roll, and a big box of assorted baklava. There were three kinds of red wine and two white, as well as iced tea, bottled water, and sodas to drink. My guests inhaled the food and complimented everything, and I think they had a good time. We're not used to having much company, and a dozen women milling around and talking and laughing for two hours makes me feel like a hurricane has blown through when it's over. Even the dogs were exhausted. *

The next night, Thursday, I made up another huge batch of deviled eggs for a work potluck on Friday. For those and for book club I used already pre-boiled eggs from the grocery store deli. For family meals, I'd boil and peel my own, but for a crowd the pre-done ones work like a charm. There was a ton of food at the potluck and coming on the heels of book club I don't feel like I want much more rich, heavy food. I'm considering some simple alternatives to the big turkey dinner on Thursday.

This morning, I had a 9:00 appointment with the dentist, the final appointment for this new crown I've got. It's a relief to have that done, even if I am $900 poorer for it! I will say that my new young dentist did a really good job, and this has been the most discomfort-free crown I've ever had. I told him so, too. 

So now I have the week off, and no more pressing obligations. It's going to be a quiet week at home, with Gregg and the pups and Marco. I went to the bookstore and bought a new novel I'd been waiting for, and there are several tv shows and movies I'd like to watch. I'm looking forward to a really relaxed, hassle-free Thanksgiving.

Some random pictures from the last week or so:

I finally got around to making Gregg his belated birthday pineapple upside down cake last weekend!

I bought this pretty Christmas cactus at the grocery store and added fairy lights brighten up the dining room. 

This cat has been hanging around a lot lately, hoping for a handout. I might have been guilty of leaving some cooked salmon out there for him/her one night when the weather turned very cold. Oops.

We've ended up with three big bags of apples (don't ask) and I'm trying to get creative to use them up. Last night I made battered, fried apple rings dusted with cinnamon sugar. They were delicious warm, but soggy and oily and awful after getting cold. 

The boys!

The girl!

The other boy, my favorite. He has no idea I took this picture. Don't tell him! :)

*The book we discussed this month is a classic and one of my all-time favorites: My Antonia by Willa Cather.

Shower gift

A young couple of our acquaintance are expecting their first child, a boy. I was invited to the baby shower, but decided to just send a gift without attending. So I bought a giant box of diapers and made them a diaper cake that will double as a table centerpiece. 

Dad is a hunter, and is eagerly looking forward to taking his son with him one day. I decided that a hunting theme would be appropriate for the "cake". This is what I came up with. 

What do you think? I sure hope they like it! (And even if they don't the diapers will come in handy).

A beautiful Sunday

I let the marigolds run wild after the summer garden was finished, and the bees spent all day yesterday taking advantage of the late season blooms. Temperatures tonight are expected to drop below freezing, so it was probably their last chance to prepare for winter.

Yesterday was also my dear husband's birthday! We had a quiet day at home (the weather was glorious, like Indian Summer) with the dogs and Marco. I made all of Gregg's favorite foods, including banana pudding for dessert. I have plans to make him a pineapple upside-down cake too, but he requested that I wait until the banana pudding is finished. 

Good morning, America!

It's wonderful to wake up to good political news for a change! I feel more hopeful than I have in months.

In today's newsletter Heather Cox Richardson summed it all up nicely:

Tonight the results came in. American voters have spoken. Democrat Abigail Spanberger won the governorship of Virginia by 15 points, becoming Virginia’s first female governor. Every single county in Virginia moved toward the Democrats, who appear to have picked up at least 12 seats in the Virginia House of Delegates. Democrat Mikie Sherrill won the governorship of New Jersey by more than ten points (the vote counts are still coming in as I write this). Pennsylvania voted to retain three state supreme court justices, preserving a 5–2 liberal majority on the court. Democrats in Georgia flipped two statewide seats for public service commissioners by double digits. Mississippi broke the Republican supermajority in the state senate. Maine voters rejected an attempt to restrict mail-in voting; Colorado voters chose to raise taxes on households with incomes over $300,000 to pay for meals for public school students. California voters approved Proposition 50 by a margin of about 2 to 1, making it hard for Trump to maintain the vote was illegitimate. And in New York City, voters elected Zohran Mamdani mayor. Tonight, legal scholar John Pfaff wrote: “Every race. It’s basically been every race. Governors. Mayors. Long-held [Republican] dog-catchers. School boards. Water boards. Flipped a dungeon master in a rural Iowa D&D club. State senators. State reps. A janitor in Duluth. State justices. Three [Republican] Uber drivers. Just everything.” Trump posted on social media: “‘TRUMP WASN’T ON THE BALLOT, AND SHUTDOWN, WERE THE TWO REASONS THAT REPUBLICANS LOST ELECTIONS TONIGHT,’ according to Pollsters.” But in fact, today voters resoundingly rejected Trump and Trumpism, and tomorrow, politics will be a whole different game. Upgrade to paid   Like Comment Restack   © 2025 Heather Cox Richardson 548 Market Street PMB 72296, San Francisco, CA 94104 Unsubscribe

Trick or Treat!

Marla and her husband brought Carsen over yesterday to trick or treat, along with a one of Carsen's little friends (and her parents).  Look how cute they were! And this picture really doesn't do their costumes justice: Carsen's long sparkly veil, Ella's equally sparkly Wizard of Oz red slippers and little plush dog carried in a basket...

The sweet young couple across the street from us had their two-year-old, Georgia Kate, out trick or treating. Three little nieces and nephews showed up, too, and also three of the grandparents to help hand out candy while the neighborhood trawl was going on. One grandma even dressed up! 

Georgia Kate as Minnie Mouse! She's just

 turned two and is the most darling little girl. 

The neighbor's niblings. Everyone got lots of candy!

We had a handful of other kids from the neighborhood: a Policeman and a Wolf-Man, a Devil and Spiderman. I didn't take pictures of them, but they were awfully cute. 

 

It's all about the candy!

Last week I went ahead and bought Halloween candy while on a big monthly shopping trip to Sam's. I decided on a large bag of assorted chocolate "fun size" bars.

Today at work I decided I should have some non-chocolate candy to offer, so I stopped at a Dollar Store on the way home and bought Nerds Gummies (they didn't have the regular ones, which I would have preferred), Laffy Taffy, Sunburst chewies, and miniature Chick-O-Sticks. Remember those?

Then I made up about a dozen treat bags full of a little of everything for the children I know, including four at school. My little best buddies. :)  Tomorrow night Marla will bring Carsen and a friend of hers, and our neighbors across the street will be coming by with their toddler and three nieces and nephews. I have treat bags made for all of them, plus plenty of leftover candy for any other trick-or-treaters that may show up. We always have a few!

Not so little anymore

Last Friday morning I got a text from my friend Judon, mom of Little P. She told me he had a city league football game the next afternoon and would love it if I could make it out to see him play. I don't know (or care) anything about football, but I love Judon and P., so I went. 

It was a crisp, beautiful fall day, and I got to see this young man and his team win the game!

Look how much he's grown! I guess I should stop calling him "little". The three of us went to lunch afterwards, and as we were leaving the restaurant, I was shocked to realize he's as tall as I am now. He'll be 13 in March. Unbelievable.

Still good friends all these years later!

Show your friends some love

This is the old ice cream bucket where we store peanuts for the squirrels that visit our back yard. We leave them on top of the compost bin and then enjoy watching them have their afternoon peanut feasts.

Whenever we go out to the back porch, after a few minutes two or three squirrels will present themselves for feeding along the back fence. As soon as one of us walks out there and leaves a handful of peanuts, they rush over and help themselves. It's cheap fun.

Speaking of fun...my book club met this past Wednesday night. The book wasn't very good, but it was great to see my friends. As we were getting ready to leave I saw Karen H. preparing to take a selfie and said, "Hey! Can I get in on that?" and she said, "Sure!" The next day she sent me this montage. 

Last but not least, I finally put up a little bit of autumn decoration on our front porch. While I was out there arranging the wreath just so, my sweet Georgie showed up and watched me. I sure love that old boy.

Back to the grind

Well, I got a new phone late last week after dropping mine in the goldfish container pond. What a hassle! None of my contacts (or photos, which hurts) were recoverable from the drowned phone, no matter what the nice young guy at the Verizon store tried. On the bright side, I was still able to trade it in for a good discount on the new phone. Gregg went ahead and traded his in for a new model, too. He'd been having charging issues for a while, so when I killed mine off it seemed like the logical time to replace them both. It seems like a luxury to have the very latest model of our phones. We're not given to buying stuff for ourselves just purely for enjoyment. 

I had a dental appointment yesterday. I need a crown (and possibly a root canal) asap. I knew it was coming, but I still hate it. I had to put down a hefty deposit to book the initial appointment, which will be November 3 (if the tooth doesn't fall apart before then). It had a huge filling from long ago that got decay underneath, and while it doesn't hurt, apparently it's pretty fragile. Sigh. I've had so much dental work, and it never seems to last long term, no matter what. The woman cleaning my teeth made me feel so much worse when she informed me that even zero sugar sodas (the only kind I drink) have citric acid that wears away tooth enamel and contributes to cavities and decay. Sugar, of course, is a non-starter. And then it was with the high-fluoride toothpastes...and mouth rinses...and always rinsing/brushing after every soda or coffee... and on and on and on.  It was so discouraging when I'm already upset about the uncomfortable work to come plus an $800 out of pocket expense after my dental insurance pays. I hate the dentist and I hate their bills even more.

Work has been super busy. Our annual fall festival and costume parade is coming up next week, and that means loads of money coming in for tickets, requisitions to pay for all the supplies and vendors, contacting payroll to arrange for overtime for custodians, arranging for transportation for the high school bands and cheerleaders that lead the parade, plus all my other regular duties. This first week back from fall break has been hectic and I'm already tired. 

Thankfully, today's Friday and I have the weekend to look forward to.

Book club, corn dollies, and a phone fail

On Sunday I hosted a book club party for my friends Marla and Martina. I'd been planning this little get together for months now, and it wasn't anything like I expected, but still fun. 

The book I chose was Harvest Home by Thomas Tryon. It's an American folk horror novel from the early 70s that I stumbled across as a pre-teen in my small town's limited public library. It's appropriately creepy for this time of year. 

In addition to chicken corn chowder, I served a charcuterie board for my friends to enjoy.

I also attempted to bake an apple pie and pumpkin bars with brown sugar icing. Both ended in failure. I got the spices in the pie wrong, and it was all but inedible. As for the pumpkin bars...I meant to double the recipe because of the large can of pumpkin puree I wanted to use up, but I failed to double the amount of baking soda and sugar and what I ended up with was a flat, bland mess. I threw it in the garbage along with the pie and went to the grocery store at the last minute and bought desserts to share instead. Oh, well.

When Marla showed up, she was not happy with her husband. He was out of town helping a friend with something, and he didn't make it back in time to watch their daughter, so Carsen had to come along. Fortunately, I'd had the idea to do a craft related to the book, and Carsen really had a good time participating. We made traditional corn husk dolls! Carsen put googly eyes on hers, and I thought it turned out really cute!

Martina's doll turned out really pretty, with rosebuds and marigold flowers hot-glued on.

I didn't get a separate picture of the doll I made (and couldn't for reasons I'll explain in a minute) but here's the four dolls arranged all together out on the back porch. Mine is on the far right.

And here's mine and Martina's after Marla and Carsen had left.

Right after I took these photos, I accidently dropped my phone into the container pond on the back porch. Arrrgggh!!!!!!!!!!! I also dropped a massive F-bomb in front of Carsen when I did it. 

I snatched the phone out of the water, and for a while everything seemed to work normally, which is how I got these photos saved, but by the next morning my phone was dead. No amount of rice is working, either. That's everyone's first suggestion, to cover it in rice to absorb the moisture, but it's been no good. I have to get a new phone. Luckily, I'm on fall break this week and I plan to take care of that tomorrow. It's really weird to be without a phone, though, even if it's just for a few days. On the bright side, my phone was really old and getting glitchy, so I guess this is a perfect excuse to upgrade. 

\

So that's how my fall break is going! 

Eighteen!

 This beautiful boy turned 18 years old last month. How time does fly.

Fall Bucket List

 

Personal day

Last Wednesday was a really nice day for me. 

I took a personal day off work and drove to Aiken, SC (about two hours west of Florence) to have lunch with my aunt Linda. Aunt Linda is my dad's older sister, and his only living sibling. 

I really didn't have much contact with my dad's family growing up. My mother hated and resented them her whole life and made sure no one could have relationships with them. It was all very toxic and awful, as I'm sure you can imagine.

Anyway, now that my dad is dead, and my mother and I have cut ties, I've reached out to my aunt once or twice and she seemed genuinely happy to hear from me. Back in the summer I'd found some information about my Polish great grandparents online that I wanted to share with her, so we started planning to meet. It turned out that she has all sorts of family history documents, one of which is the ship manifest from 1906 when my great grandfather, Pawel Czmiel, came to Ellis Island at the age of 17. She made me copies of everything: the ship manifest, naturalization applications, family baptism records, my grandfather's WWII military documents, and on and on. It was wonderful! We met up at a restaurant with outdoor seating (the weather was nice) and sat and talked for over four hours. My aunt was so kind to me, and so welcoming, and I look forward to building a relationship with her going forward. It's nice to feel like I still have some family left in this world, and learning more about my dad's relatives means a lot to me.

Thought for today

Go slowly, go gently.

Rise up, yes -

but rise gently,

You are not a machine to be driven

nor a thing to be forced into labour,

You are a soul

fragile and luminous,

finding its way through a world

that can be both wondrous and merciless.

Go slowly, go gently -

Give yourself a break

you are doing your best,

Even on the days when your best

feels like little more than survival,

Let compassion fall inward

toward your own heart

the way you would soothe a friend

whose strength was faltering.

Go slowly, go gently -

Life can be cruel enough

do not add your own hand to the lash,

Let your tenderness meet your tiredness

and may you rest in the truth

that you are already enough.

Go slowly, go gently -

All that needs to be done will be done

time is not your master,

nor are the demands

nor judgements of others

the measure of your worth,

Do not rush yourself

into an early grave

by carrying the calendars of strangers

upon your back.

Go slowly, go gently -

trust the rhythm of your own days,

What is meant to be finished

will find its way through your hands,

And may you come to know

with a quiet certainty

that your life is not a race, a test, a goal, nor can your worth be measured in transactions,

Your life is an astounding sacred unfolding

and it is the only one you have.

So, go slowly, go gently.

- Conchobhar Ó Súilleabháin.

Sicker than I thought

 By the time I woke up this morning, the congestion had spread to my chest, and I was wheezing badly and short of breath. Otherwise, I felt ok, no fever or anything, so I went to work but called my allergist as soon as the office opened. The nurse (bless her!) said, "Hold on a minute, let me go talk to Dr. Stone" and when she came back said, "Can you be here at 10:00?" I said sure and told my principal I needed to leave for a little while to go to the doctor. 

When I got there, Dr. Stone said the nurse could hear in my voice how badly I was wheezing. They did a spirometry test to measure my lung function (it's the one where you take a deep breath, and then blow out as hard and as fast as you can into a tube). Well, turns out that my lung function was only 42% of normal.

Dr. Stone said it's the worst result I've ever had on one of those tests. 

In fact, he turned to the young resident doctor accompanying him today and said, "This says to me that her lung function has been deteriorating for a while. If she'd had normal function up until today and you flipped a switch and turned it down to only 42%, she wouldn't have been able to walk in here or talk without gasping for air. She's obviously been compensating for reduced function for a while so didn't notice until it got really bad." He gave me two breathing treatments and a large dose of prednisone on the spot and made me take two more spirometry readings before he was satisfied that I was okay and let me leave. He said I could easily have ended up in the hospital. 

He's putting me back on some stronger asthma meds (that I had discontinued last year), two weeks of prednisone, and an antibiotic just to cover all the bases. He wants to see me back in three months and said to come immediately if I had any more exacerbations in the meantime. He also said that I probably had never really recovered completely from being sick last month. My regular doctor had seen me and just gave me three days' worth of prednisone since my only real symptom had been congestion and wheezing. (I had tested negative for Covid, strep, and flu so she thought it was a regular cold). In the future, I'll go see Dr. Stone for any issues like that, since a GP obviously isn't an asthma specialist and isn't the right doctor to see in those circumstances. I asked today if I needed a flu and/or Covid test; he said that if it's flu (unlikely) that I've had symptoms for several days and Tamiflu wouldn't work now anyway, and that I could take an at-home Covid test if I was curious, but that there wasn't much they could do about that but treat the symptoms, which we're already doing. He thinks it's more likely that my asthma is not well controlled these days and the slightest cold is pushing me to the brink. I think he's right about that.

You know, I've been feeling low-key bad for weeks (if not months) now. I wake up exhausted, I'm tired all the time, sometimes I have brain fog...no wonder! I'm not breathing well! For the longest time I've been looking at myself in the mirror in the morning thinking, "I look awful. My color is bad; I have bags and dark circles under my eyes. I guess my age is catching up to me. I guess this is just what I look like in the morning now" and just feeling awful about myself. Well, my age may be catching up to me a little, but the bags and dark circles and pale blotchy skin probably has more to do with a lack of oxygen more than my age. I hope so, anyway. 

I went back by work to close out the day's deposit, then left early. I've been at home since hoping to get a nap, but I can't (probably due to the prednisone) but I'm breathing a little easier at least. 

God, what a week. Thank you all for the supportive comments on my last post.

Not again!

I'm sick again. The little vectors are really doing me in this year. It's only early September, ffs!

I'm seriously considering going back to wearing a mask at work. This is ridiculous. 

Ugh. 

Mrs. Blow

We're less than six weeks into the new school year, and already it's been a doozy. I've never seen so many angry, disrespectful, and frankly, unbalanced parents before. It's like a whole year's worth of adult crazy has already unfolded around us in less than six weeks. The administration and the front office staff have been really stressed out. We joked on Friday that maybe it's the upcoming full moon making people act so wild!

I still love my job, though. One of the best parts is early in the morning when all my little friends stop by the office to say hello to me. Without really trying, I've become pals with around a half dozen kids who all go out of their way to come see me, give me hugs, and talk to me. I just adore them. 

One little girl (a first grader and the daughter of one of our teachers) is especially sweet and one of my favorites. She's also kind of shy. Thursday morning while her mama was clocking in at the office computer, she came over to say hi and give me the customary morning hug. Afterwards, she stood there, hesitating, and I could see she wanted something. Her mama prompted, "Go ahead. Ask her. It's okay." Then little A., very nervous, whispered, "Um...would you like...would you like to buy some popcorn...to help my dance class?" 

Turns out her little ballet class is doing a popcorn fundraiser where they sell big tins of flavored popcorn to raise money. I was the first person A had asked, and she was scared. It was so freakin' cute! How could I say no? :) Later in the day her mom texted me a link to an online catalog, and I went ahead and made a purchase, and then promptly forgot about it. 

The rest of my day after that was utter crap. I kept running up against deadlines and obstacles at every turn, and to cap off the day my bank deposit was off. I ended up going back to work when I was supposed to be done for the day, to figure out where the deposit problem was. I was on the phone with an accountant at the district office, getting more and more stressed out, when little A. appeared at my office door. As soon as I was off the phone, she gave me a big hug, thanked me for buying popcorn, and handed me this sweet card she'd made for me. 

That made the whole day better for Mrs. Blow!

Girl gone wild!

 Here's a little short video I took of Poppy this weekend. She was beside the banana plants, behind the fence, and acting so playful that I had to whip out my phone and film it. She's such a happy girl. Just look at those doggy grins!

PS..that's George barking in the background, from the porch.

Feels like fall

September has arrived with gorgeous fall weather. It's been cooler than normal for this time of year, and it feels amazing outside. And since today is Labor Day, it's been a day off. 

Lovely.