1 O beautiful for spacious skies, for amber waves of grain; for purple mountain majesties above the fruited plain! America! America! God shed his grace on thee, and crown thy good with brotherhood from sea to shining sea.
2 O beautiful for heroes proved in liberating strife, who more than self their country loved, and mercy more than life! America! America! May God thy gold refine, till all success be nobleness, and every gain divine.
3 O beautiful for patriot…..
God is good. Today we met the buyer of our home. She has the same first name as our neighbor across the street and her married name is Jackson. Godincidence, of course. She is delightful and loves our home as much as we do.
We will go today to measure our new apartment and make sure our furniture fits and all is in…..
Six months from today is New Year’s Day. It’s a day of resolutions that won’t be kept, it’s the beginning of election year, it’s football and parades and fireworks and family gatherings, and a time to renew hope that it will be a year of peace, prosperity, kindness, love, gratitude, and all things pleasant.
Promises, promises, promises. So, let’s look realistically at each day with an attitude of gratitude. Each day is New Year’s Day. Each day is an opportunity…..
Final decisions are hard, but in the long run, stuff is just stuff, right? Today I revisited Christmas, 83 of them, and kept one small box of ornaments, two small layered boxes of nativities, and the rest have gone to Mary and Nancy, and to the unknowns who will visit Goodwill looking for things for their homes.
There’s a bit of nostalgia involved. Ev wanted the Victorian lanterns and blown ornaments from his youth. We kept the train ornaments and…..
We accepted an offer on our house, and now we wait for closing a month from now.
One of the other offers was demanding closing in one week. We wondered how we could possibly finish everything and be out of our home of 17 years in one week. The offer was considerably under our asking price, so we never seriously considered it. Now, we have some breathing room.
The nostalgia is setting in. I’ve loved living here and will miss…..
It’s that time of year again. Where has the year gone? Do you realize that six months from today is Christmas Eve?
I have, what I think, is the best birthdate ever–exactly six months from Christmas. My birthday is tomorrow, and 1940 is ridiculously long ago, isn’t it? My how time flies. It’s a time of reflection, I suppose. Who would have thought that this birthday I’d be starting homemaking all over again in yet another setting? Two of my…..
After all the hectic activity to get the house ready for photos and ready to “show” potential buyers, we took yesterday as a time to rest. Although we know the house must be heady at moments’ notice fo people to walk through, and we know how to handle that, we allowed ourselves a recuperation day. We needed it.
I couldn’t be much help. I am still hurting from my little falling incident the other day. I look like a battered…..
Oh, my aching body! I’m feeling aches I’ve never felt! Yesterday, with the help of Sherry MacLean, we weeded and mulched the front gardens, hung beautiful hanging baskets filled with flowers and vines, Ev and Nancy dismantled a room-sized railroad, Desmond Almarales, bless his heart, put new screening on the back porch in 90 plus degree heat,…..
I guess I like it when I can look at the calendar and , with some sort of assurance, I see plans laid out. Not so easy when we’re “planning” a move. there are so many uncertainties.
We, of course, have a checklist, of sorts. We know where we want to be, we have sort of a time issue–will the house sell just when Glanbrooke has a place for us? When will we have the house straight and orderly (it’s…..
One of the advantages of this hectic time of preparation to move is going through “stuff” we’ve accumulated and reliving past encounters with people and places. I found my high school yearbooks, and the ones from several of the schools where I served as yearbook advisor. Going back to the 1960’s and after in my teaching career and our kids’ school records has been enlightening. Oh, what yearbook editors could have done with computers!
I’ve found notes from friends, old…..