Yes, life is sweet.  I take a big bite and it’s sweet nectar drips wet upon my lips.  Sorry, I’m feeling a bit poetic today.

Not many people know this about me:  when I was younger I used to write all the time.  I used to have journals of poetry, I’m sure I still have them (somewhere).  I imagine this may be where my daughters’ interest in writing has come from.  Both of them have amazing talent in this area.  Cass used to write for the high school paper and yearbook, then went on to write for the OSU O’Colly and became Editor-In-Chief her sophomore summer (one of the youngest editors I believe).  She has followed her heart in other directions now.  Kati has also written for the high school paper and has been praised by her teachers on her paper writing.  Although she is majoring in journalism at OSU I believe she will also be heading in a different direction.

But, my talented daughters is not what this blog is bout.  Today’s blog is about simplicity and the little things that make life and love worthwhile.  Most people who know me or have visited here (this blog) for a while, know that I lead a simple life.  We live outside a small farm town in the same house J and I helped to build shortly after we were married; the same home both the girls have lived all of their growing up years.  As a matter of fact, on the very same land that my mother-in-law grew up on.  We plant a garden every Spring so that we have fresh vegetables through the summer.  We live day to day simple lives and find the greatest pleasure in visiting with family and friends (our greatest treasure).

I also get my truest pleasure and the greatest signs of love in the smallest things that people do.  I know I mentioned to you the gift of the pedicure.  This gift was from a wonderful friend who has many day to day problems of her own and also gives her own time to others more than I can tell you.  Yet, she thought of me and my poor aching feet after the Centennial Celebration and made this gift to me.  A true gesture of friendship and love.

Yesterday, J, having lots of things he needed to do, took me to Porter so that I could get some fresh picked peaches.  I also bought half a peck of fresh peaches each for my mom and for J’s mom as a tasty sweet gift.  I could have went by myself, Porter isn’t hard to find but J knows I love it when we slow down our lives a bit and take drives together.  We enjoy each other’s company and simply talking and seeing the towns and areas along the way.   When we were a younger couple we used to take off and take whole weekend drives.  Ah, when life seemed simpler.

Kati also gave me a sweet little gift last night.   I’ve had a favorite gum for a few years now.  About 6 months ago I began having a hard time finding it, as a matter of fact, I couldn’t find it.  I would look everytime I went to the market and never could find this gum.  I have tried different brands and flavors trying to find a different chewing gum that I like as much or at least, as well that I will continue to buy it.  No luck.  Last night Kati had went into town to show her new (to her) Jetta to her friends and she stopped in at Dollar General for something.  As she was checking out she saw this gum and she bought a box for me.  Of course, when I saw the box of gum I was so happy and was flooding her with questions of where she found it, and excited thank you’s.  I think she was almost as pleased by my reaction as I was to have a box of my favorite gum.

I love that I can hand my teenage daughter a fresh picked and washed peach and that when she takes a bite out of it, letting the juice drip down her chin and arm, a wide beautiful smile comes across her face and her eyes light up with the pure pleasure that comes from life’s sweetness.  I love that my husband of (almost) 31 years still likes to take drives (and maybe do just a little bit of “parking”) with me.  I love that after having my parents for dinner we can sit on the back porch and visit while watching my sweet little niece play.  I love that we can slow down our lives and spend time with each other  simply feeling the love that we have for one another.

The Lord has blessed me with many things, but a simple life is a most treasured blessing.

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I absolutely can not wait until this tomato, along with it’s garden companions, are all cherry red and ready to eat.  We have been enjoying fresh yellow squash and zucchini, cucumbers, snap peas and even a handful of green beans all out of our summer vegetable garden this week.

We had my mom and dad along with niece, Courtney, over for dinner on Tuesday.  We reheated the Chicken Cordon Rouge and squash casserole that I had served the Rotary and enjoyed it along with a sliced cantaloupe and cucumbers (from the garden), sliced onions and tomato wedges heavy with a soaking of vinegar and water.

After dinner we went out to the patio and visited while we watched Miss Courtney run around the yard and play in my patio fountain.

She had tons of fun and we had a grand time watching her.

I spent Wednesday morning in the glass shop/store/workshop/gallery/studio, whatever it is you want to call it.  It is actually just a place for me to express myself through my love affair with glass art.

Jim and Kati came to the shop at noon, bringing lunch with them.  I shared with them how much I was loving being able to work with patterns, tools and glass and have all this extra room to spread out. I was so thrilled about being able to leave one section out while working on another section in another area.   Can you tell I’m excited?

I think J is about as excited as I am.  He purchased and installed a new scanner/printer so I will be able to do my pattern designs and printing there instead of bringing it all home to do.  He has also been looking for a small refrigerator so that I will have my cold water and tea to drink and keep my little extras.  And, believe it or not, he has also claimed one of the offices for himself.  He is wanting to transfer his old albums (yes, song albums, remember those?) to cds with a machine that I had purchased for him last year.  He is also excited about being able to spread his project out a bit and not have to get everything out and put everything back up when he is finished.  He usually has to because he chooses to do this on my dining room table.

Although I really wanted to head back up to the shop this morning I had 3 hours of cylinder posting that needed done plus a hair appointment in town.  Kati and I had simultaneous appointments this morning, Kati’s being a gift from Vicki.

Vicki started with Kati and then in the time that she was having to wait Vicki worked on me.  We both came out with different (for us) hairstyles.  Kati always goes in with an idea what she wants.  I, on the other hand, never know what I want done.  I told Vicki “lets have fun, lets do something with a young feel”  not 25 or 30 young but maybe 35-45 young.  I knew she wouldn’t mess me up because then she’d have to hear what everyone in church thinks about what she did to me.  She ended up cutting 2 inches off the length but it really needed it and I really like the color and the style.

After my hair appointment I headed to the shop for a little bit.  I finished up the cutting of the 60 some pieces of glass for my project and have finished grinding about half of them.  I will work more on it tomorrow.  I already have 2 people coming by in the morning.  B has been wanting to work glass with me for quite a while so she jumped on the opportunity to come up to the shop.  S asked, here while back, to do an interview (because of the blog) with me for a while so we decided to meet up at the shop once I was settled in.  Another friend has asked to see my shop once I’m all settled in so I don’t know when they will be by, I’m actually hoping to learn a little when they drop by.

I’m sure you’re bored with my ramblings by now, and I am worn to a frazzle so I think I will close this and head off to bed.

Wishing you a little something to get excited about.

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My magnolia finally (finally) bloomed last week.  I have been so worried about it as it had begun to sprout new leaf pods when that last snow/ice storm hit.  After the cold spurt the poor tree began to loose it’s leaves and droop.  It’s poor little stems and branches looked so very bare and sad and I was afraid that was that; as they say.  I began to water it almost daily and send it good thoughts.  I talked to it, telling it how pretty it had always been and how much I really love looking at it full of blossoms and large waxy green leaves.  I reminded it how I enjoyed it’s fragrance whenever I stepped out of the front door.  It must have heard me because it has bloomed and has many full pods waiting to burst open for my pleasure.

Last week we made 2 trips to Oklahoma City.  There is a blue Jetta there that Kati is wanting.  We went and looked at it last Sunday and spoke to the young man selling it.  We agreed on a price and agreed to bring him a cashier’s check on Monday.  I probably wouldn’t have wanted to accept a regular check from someone I didn’t know either.  We returned on Monday, picked up the car, gave him the check and left.

We decided to go get a bite to eat before leaving the city so we drove to an Olive Garden about 5 miles from the young man’s house.  When we arrived there, Kati said the air conditioner never did get cold.  After looking at it, we called the young man and went back to his house.  By the time we arrived at the house the car was over-heating.  Needless to say, the car was returned and so was our money.

The young man knows Kati really wants the car so he is fixing the a/c and the radiator fan (the over-heating problem) and another small problem the car has.  If he fixes these items to our satisfaction we will return to OK  City and re-purchase the car.

My vegetable garden is growing and putting off veggies.  The tomato plants have many tomatoes growing on them and are just waiting for them to get red.  I have picked a few jalapenos (I purchased some avocados to make guacamole with those fresh jalapenos),picked  a cucumber, and eaten a few snap peas right off the vine. I have a few bell peppers that are getting bigger everyday and the squash plants show a promising harvest probably later this week.  I am very sad that my green beans did not do well, but I did plant another batch last week, so we’ll hope they do better.

My other project is setting up a glass workshop in town.  J mentioned that his sister had told him that one of the buildings owned by DF&D (a small company owned by J, his sister and their dad) is not insurable because so much of it is empty.   Because they hate to leave the building empty and the store front bare we all decided that I should move my glass art and the equipment down to the store.  This works well for all involved.  DF&D will be able to insure the building and I will be able to work on a project and not have to move it around until I am done with it.  I’ve always done my glass work in my kitchen, so I have to drag all my equipment, glass, etc out, work for a bit and then totally clean everything up so that I could fix our (or someone else’s) meals.

  Both front windows have art in them and I have taken my saw, my glass cutting tools, soldering tools, grinder, glass, books, etc up to the workshop too. I’m very excited about having a work space.  Of course I’ve already been asked if I might consider giving classes once I’m settled in.  We’ll see; we’ll see.

Tomorrow is a busy and sad day for all of us too.  J’s mom’s cousin, Robert D called on Friday to tell us that his mom had passed away after having a heart attack.  Uncle Bob and Robert have asked J to be a part of the service tomorrow and, of course, J agreed.  So my morning will be spent doing prep for Tuesday’s Rotary lunch and the afternoon will be spent at the family service.

Speaking of Rotary lunch, I’m trying a new dish.  I’m doing what I call Chicken Cordon Rouge.  Instead of ham and swiss in the chicken cordon bleu I’ll be mixing roasted red peppers with a 2 cheese mixture and putting that in the chicken.  Then I will bread it and bake it as usual.  I’m paring the Chicken Cordon Rouge with the squash casserole from last week and a large green salad.  I’ll try to take pictures and let you know how it turns out.

It is bedtime now so I think I’m going to head back that way.  I’ll try to connect with you during the week, but if I don’t, I hope you have a wonderful week.

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Actually, it is my pretty little pampered tootsies (the pedicure a gift, thanks Cathy) that are in the pink, but I’d thought I’d spare you from looking at a picture of my toes (no matter how pretty they may be).

This is actually our dinner tonight.  I took the backbone out of the chicken and flattened it as much as I could (I don’t have enough strength to actually break the breastbone that would insure it being flatter on the grill).  If you’ve never done it, here’s how you do it.

  Lay the chicken breast side down on the cutting board

Using a good pair of kitchen shears cut down one side of the backbone from the neck end to the other end (you know what end).

Now cut down the opposite side of the backbone.  You can throw the backbone away or save it so you can make stock.

Flip the chicken over so that the breasts are facing up.  With all your might press down on the center of the chicken so that the breast bone will break.  Hopefully you will do better than I did.

  You can use a rub (as I did) or a marinade/baste.  I like to throw the chicken breast side down on a hot grill to get those beautiful grill marks.   It will take about 1 1/2 hrs on a 250 degree grill.

Throw whatever else you like on the grill beside the chicken.  We added green and red sweet pepper halves, asparagus spears and butter french bread.  We added sliced watermelon once we were at the table.  It was a marvelous meal.

Give this a try if you have never done it.  I think you’ll like it.

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There are 5 blogs that I try to read at least 3 or 4 times a week.  One of the blogs I keep up with is written by a fellow Nowatian.  Even though our town is fairly small, believe it or not, I do not know J personally.  I know more than a few of her friends (even a few of the Js actually) but have never had the opportunity to meet her.  Sooner or later I’m sure we’ll run into each other, most people in Nowata do at some point.

But, I digress; on this particular day J was relating a discussion she had had with an acquaintance.  The topic of their conversation spoke to my heart.  I immediately emailed J and asked if I might pass along this Prayer of Peace through my own blog.  It has been a few days now since I became acquainted with this idea and  I have allowed my heart to wallow in the concept.  I have yet to “put it to use” but my heart knows it is worthy and workable.

There are times that many of us (dare I say, most of us) have some sort of discord of some sort with another person.  It happens all the time, it happens with spouses, our children, our parents, a neighbor,  our co-workers, etc..  Often, these disagreements (if no quick compromise is found) serve to make all who are involved unhappy.  Of course, we lay the source of our unhappiness at the other person’s door and, more often than not, direct this unhappiness right back toward the person.

What if we were able to change the course and the tone of this disagreement?  What would happen if we, instead of reflecting unhappiness, stepped back and prayed for this other person?  How would this conflict end if we stopped, took a deep breath and thought:  “may she be peaceful, may she be well, may she be happy.”?  Depending on the “heat” of the disagreement you may have to pray it more than once I’m sure.

Could this change the whole nature of the conflict?  Could this change our relationship with this person?  Could this change our heart?   Is it possible that by wishing another person peace, wellness and happiness we just might realize it for ourselves?

I wish you peace, I wish you wellness and I wish you happiness.

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Summer is in full swing.  That means (for us who do vegetable gardening) squash and zucchini in vast amounts.  If you are like me and you plant 1 plant, it will wither and die.  If you plant 3 squash plants (just to be sure a plant will live),  it is a squash bonanza.  These 3 squash or zucchini plants will produce more than enough squash for you and your family.  You will begin to give it away to neighbors and friends.  These neighbors and friends will soon begin to avoid your phone calls and visits because they know you are just wanting to force more squash or zucchini on them.  When you knock at their door they will not answer;  you will however, be able to see someone peeking out of the window blinds which will quickly close as you turn in that direction.  They will no longer ask you to bring a dish to the backyard picnic because they know it will be something with squash and there will be enough for everyone to take some home.

In preparation for this mother-lode of yellow squash and zucchini (because I planted 3 plants) I have a new squash recipe.  I used yellow crookneck squash but I am thinking this would be nice with zucchini too, or maybe a mixture.  If you give it a try with the zucchini before I do, let me know what you think.  As a matter of fact, let me know what you think anyway.

Here is what you’ll need: this will feed 4-6, depending on their appetite.  ( Around here we use skim milk, low-fat cheese, smart-balance butter, eggbeaters, etc., but you feel free to use whatever you like, you really can’t tell a difference either way)

2 cups sliced yellow squash
½ cup (or a nice handful) of sliced onions
20 (or so) crackers, crushed (you can use saltines or something like Ritz if you like)
½ cup (or so) shredded cheddar cheese (with my family we use the “or so” which translates to more than ½ cup)
1 egg, beaten
1/3 cup milk
3 tblsp butter, melted
Sea salt & freshly ground black pepper to taste
2 ½ tsp butter for top

What to do, what to do:

Preheat your oven to 400.  Slice the squash and the onion.  I like to do this in a half moon, I just do, it makes my day worthwhile.

Heat a skillet over medium heat with a tablespoonful (or so) of olive oil.  Saute the squash and the onion just until the squash is tender.  Place this into a large bowl.

Mix the crushed crackers and the cheese together in a separate bowl.   Take about 1/2 of the cracker/cheese mixture and add it to the squash and onion.

In a small bowl beat the egg and the milk together.  Pour this into the squash and onion. Stir in the 3 tblsp of melted butter and season with the salt and pepper.

Scoop this into a casserole dish and top with the remaining 1/2 of the cracker/cheese mixture.  Dot the top with the 2 1/2 teaspoons of butter.  Bake in the preheated oven about 25 minutes or until nice and browned.

You could also bake this at 350 (if you have other items in the oven at that temperature) just add another 10 minutes (or so).

We (J, Kati and I) loved this dish.  I hope you do too.

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I have been very blessed in this life:  I have a wonderfully marvelous husband;  I could go into all his attributes such as his wit, his generosity, his patience, his doing dinner dishes almost every single night, but we’ll just leave it at Wonderfully Marvelous.  I have 2 beautiful daughters and 1 handsome son-in-law (I could also go on about their being witty, hardworking, intelligent, etc., etc.; but we’ll just leave it at beautiful and handsome).  I have parents who love and did their very best to raise 4 children through more than a few difficult times.  I have in-laws who love me as if I were actually born to them instead of just being lucky enough to marry their son.  J and I  have the blessing of good health for the most part.  Our children (grown they may be) are all in good health.  We have a roof over our heads, food on our table, a job  and are free from any debt.

Although all of this should be enough for anyone, and is definitely more than enough blessing for me;  I also have the blessing of many amazing, helpful, loving friends.

My friends are the type of people who will stand by your side and peel and slice enough potatoes to feed an army (or at least 100 hungry people).  I have friends who will use your recipe and bake 4 enourmous cakes (from scratch) for you then show up early the next morning to frost those same cakes.  I have friends who will peel and slice onions until their shirts are wet from the tears. They will then layer the peeled and sliced potatoes and eye-stinging onions in several pans so that you can finish the dish.  My friends will core, clean, tear and shred enough lettuce, cabbage and carrots to fill a large (clean) garbage bag for storing overnight.  I have the type of friends who will tease you and laugh about your home-made, family secret recipe hot rolls.  I have the type of friends who will wash and dry the lion’s share of all the dishes you dirtied.

Then these friends, these people who have blessed your life more than you can tell, will turn around and thank YOU and compliment YOU on a banquet meal for close to 100 people.  Then these friends will gift you with roses and even a pedicure for your tired, aching feet because YOU worked so hard.

I HAVE BEEN BLESSED IN THIS LIFE.

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It is only Thursday and I think the week has already been 8 days long with 4 more to go before it is over.  The weather has gone from the high 80s over the last weekend to a pounding rainstorm and low 70s yesterday.

With the beautiful weather the first part of the week we worked a lot in the flower beds and the vegetable garden.

The Cannas I transplanted last year are doing beautifully, no blooms yet but lots of big beautiful red leaves.  The gladiola and dahlia bulbs I planted earlier haven’t done much yet.   The vegetable garden is making slow progress.  Each of the tomato plants has a tomato on it, still small and green but it is a tomato.  I’m a bit peeved at my green beans; I don’t know if the rains we had shortly after I planted washed most of the beans away or if the neighborhood guineas ate them.  Either way we only had a few plants come up, if I get a little free time I might replant.  The peppers, cantaloupe, brussel sprouts, cabbage, squash, cucumber, etc., etc. are all looking fantastic.

Also with the warm weather we had in the early part of the week we’ve been grilling and enjoying our supper on the patio most evenings.

After my Monday morning dental appointment in Collinsville I ran on into Owasso to the grocery store to get the ingredients for the Rotary Club’s lunch (and our supper) on Tuesday.  I paired the Eastern Rice Salad (see the Family Table section for the recipe) with a new dish I’m calling Asian Pork Rolls. 

These are a little time consuming as you julienne carrots, zucchini and yellow squash.  You then slice a pork loin roast or tenderloin very thinly, then pound the slice of pork even thinner: 

then you marinate the pounded pork:  Then gather a strip of carrot, zucchini and yellow squash and roll this bundle of vegetables in a strip of the pork.  I threaded 5 rolls (ladder style) on 2 skewers.

I then broiled these in the oven for about 8-9 minutes on each side brushing with the marinade which I had boiled.  At the bank the broiler set off the smoke alarm in the kitchen, fortunately it had quit beeping by the time I got Ken to come in to check it.

After the Rotary lunch and loading my dishes and equipment back into the car I had to run out to the meat market and pick up enough brisket to prepare for the Saturday evening dinner at church.

Wednesday included a trip to the heart hospital in Tulsa where my dad was having his pacemaker replaced with a new one.  I met my brother and his wife (they’d taken Daddy to Tulsa) there and we waited together while the procedure was done.  Daddy did very well and after he woke, ate a light lunch and walked around a bit so they could check to see that everything was working properly we loaded Daddy back into the car and my brother took him home.

On my way home I stopped and bought groceries for the 100 plate supper on Saturday (a part of our church’s 3 day centennial celebration).  After filling the trunk of the car to it’s capacity I stopped and picked up my sweetheart of a daughter and she helped me unpack everything at the church.   I also took a lot of my own equipment (2 roasters, my food processor, my good knives, 2 sets of measuring cups and spoons, trays, 2 14″ cake pans, etc., etc.) to the church so that we would have everything we need to begin preparations tomorrow.

Tomorrow is the beginning of our giving back to the community celebration with a carnival type afternoon, hot dogs, snow cones, drinks, J’s company has made it possible to open the swimming pool for the day so that whoever comes can swim free of charge.  In the evening we will have music of all kinds, dancing and later a dj and karoke.  If you’re in the area bring a lawn chair and join us.  Saturday is the sit-down dinner my volunteers and I will be preparing.  We will finish up on Sunday with our regular service and a potluck.  It is going to be a wonderful weekend of celebration, so please join us if you are in the area.  We’d love to have you.

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It seems Orange runs deep.  Deep in our family’s veins anyway.  It began over 50 years ago (probably closer to 60 now) when J’s dad graduated with an Engineering degree from OSU, a.k.a.  The State’s University.  Following in his older brother’s footsteps, Dad’s younger brother, John also graduated from OSU.  A few years later stepping into the traditional Cowboy’s shoes boots, J’s sister attended OSU for a few years where she also dated and married her husband Mike who was also attending OSU.  A few years later, J also attended OSU for a while.

The orange continued to flow through the veins of the family when our oldest daughter entered OSU on a Journalism scholorship.  She later changed her major and graduated with a BS in Political Science.  And now, after spending 2 full days at OSU in Stillwater our teenager has been accepted, is now enrolled, and has her first semester’s class schedule at OSU.  Therefore, as the teenager is now a college student and on the road to fulfilling her own destiny we will forever more refer to her by her name; Kati.

For the last 2 days Kati, J and I have been attending workshops, orientation classes, a free breakfast, a free lunch and tours.  Kati even stayed all night in one of the dorms.  She has met new people and made new friends.  She has already met and been advised by her assigned adviser for the next year, or until the time she completes 28 credit hours, at which time she will need to declare a major and will then move on to an adviser under that major.

Because Kati has decided to keep up the tradition and attend OSU she is giving up the $10,000 scholorship offered to her by Southern Arkansas University.  Just goes to show;  money may talk sometimes, but it may not be speaking the correct language.  J and I just want her to go where she will be happy, and after seeing her interacting with other new freshmen, upper classmen, and faculty at OSU we know she is in for a fantastically awesome ride.

  J and I were invited to attend a reception in T. Boone Picken’s reserved room in the Gallagher IBA stadium.  Nice view isn’t it.

  The beautiful library.   Right in the front of the library is the fountain in which the students always dye the water orange during Homecoming.

  The Student Union;  we spent quite a few hours here over the last 2 days.

This is the steeple of the First Christian Church (DOC) in Stillwater.  It just so happens to be within walking distance of Kati’s new dorm (actually closer than some of her classes).  Kati and I have decided that the next time we are in Stillwater we are going to drop by and introduce ourselves to the pastor.  Kati says that she wants to visit this church when she can.  She is actually pretty excited about it because, as in Kati’s own words “I’ve never met a Disciple that wasn’t nice and friendly”.  I agree with her.  We thought that if the congregation in Stillwater is anything like our own “home” congregation that it will surely be another support system for her while she is away from her home and her own church.  As we all know, young people can always use another support system.

We returned home today to find our grandkitty, Nickle here visiting for a week while Cass and Travis are on an Alaskan cruise.  I hope they have a good time because I’ve already had to pull one cat off the back of the couch and break up 2 cat-fights.  I know once we move back to the bedroom for the night the cat-fights will be taking place right on top of the bed; I’m speaking from experience.

I’ll talk to you later in the week; sometime between my dental appointment, my doctor’s appointment, the Rotary club lunch, grocery shopping for a sit-down dinner for 75 and the actual cooking for the dinner.

Have a wonderful week!

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