Dismantling Christmas and 2017 Year Phrase

 

It always seems like it takes half the time to take down and remove the Christmas decorations than it does to put them up. My decorations have been up over a month now since I got an early start. Sometimes I wait until January 1st to stow them away, but in the past few years I have tried to at least not display Christmas cards past December 30th. December 31st is my husband’s birthday, and I like to have a clear space to display his cards. In my opinion, having a birthday so close to Christmas must be hard, overshadowed by that holiday.

Last night I read through the Christmas cards and letters one more time, then discarded them. Today I took down my wreath and nativities and a few other items. Tomorrow I will take the tree ornaments off and put the tree in its storage box. The little red poinsettia will stick around awhile. My new “Christmas plates” are really more winter scenes than distinctively Christmas; I will leave them up probably until the end of February.

For several years I have chosen a year word or phrase to focus on. This year’s word was peace. Certainly not a peaceful year for the globe, but personally, I have kept pretty calm even during disruptive and unpleasant events, reminding myself that Jesus is my source of peace.

For 2017 I have chosen the phrase “fill the well”. I read  this in Julia Cameron’s The Right to Write. She was talking in terms of that in order to write, you have to have something to write about. You need to expose yourself to things and events and people out of your ordinary routine. My use of the phrase is not so much to write, just to get out of my rut. I will try to visit museums, art galleries, antique and consignment stores (not to buy so much but to see a variety of things), nature trails, parks, gardens, etc. In January, my husband and I will cruise the Caribbean for one week. Starting the year with a bang and definitely filling the well with new experiences.

Hope your new year is full of enrichment, too.

Chicken salad cracker spread or sandwich filling

 

I found the chicken spread tasty and several ladies asked for the recipe so I will post it here. The recipe comes from the blog Home Is Where the Boat Is.

Cha-Cha Chicken Salad

A creamy chicken salad that’s pressed into a mold and inverted onto a plate or cake stand, made 8 – 24 hours in advance.

Ingredients

1 (8-oz.) package cream cheese, softened (feel free to use lite cream cheese)

¾ cup mayonnaise

2 teaspoons curry powder

1 teaspoon salt

6 cups chopped cooked chicken

1 (8-oz.) can crushed pineapple

2/3 cup orange-flavored sweetened dried cranberries

1 cup chopped roasted, salted almonds

Garnishes: fresh herbs, dried cranberries, chopped almonds

Preparation

1. Whisk together cream cheese and next 3 ingredients in a large bowl; stir in chicken, pineapple, and cranberries just until blended.

2. If desired, spoon mixture into a plastic wrap-lined 8-inch round cake pan; cover and chill at least 8 hours or up to 24 hours. Invert chicken salad onto a cake stand, and remove plastic wrap. Gently press chopped almonds onto sides of chicken salad. Garnish, if desired.

This was one of the photos that disappeared during the photo mishap

Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up

 

In all fairness, I should probably wait until I have tried implementing some of the KonMari method to give an evaluation. For now, I will simply point out some of the differences in this method from the standard decluttering advice and some areas of agreement.

Indeed, there are some aspects I have no intention of following. Her belief that inanimate articles have feelings and that they are sensitive to the owner’s emotions is too far-out for me. Instead of thanking an item of clothing for how it enhances my life and when getting rid of it telling it thanks for its part in my life and wishing it a happy future life, I would rather thank God for providing the item. I do think it is important to treat one’s possessions with care and respect, but I do not believe one has a meaningful dialogue and communication with an inanimate article.

The biggest difference in the KonMari method in my opinion is that one is told to go through one’s items category-by-category rather than room-by-room. This requires gathering together like items in one place and spreading them out on the floor. I can see how this helps a person to grasp how much stuff they own (especially if scattered in different rooms and closets and drawers). It has the added benefit of bringing together items for logical storage. When one creates a “home” for a category of items, it makes it easier to find them.

You may have heard that her criteria for keeping an item is that it sparks joy as you hold and touch it. I do like flipping the perspective from what should I get rid of to focusing on what should be kept. It is a subtle difference but I think it probably has a better outcome in reducing what a person owns.

To train one in identifying this spark of joy, Ms. Kondo has a specific order of which categories to go through first. Her other biggie is that she thinks the tidying (sorting, reducing, storing) needs to be done quickly as one big project. As she says, “Tidy a little a day and you’ll be tidying forever.”

My first thought was that the owner doing the tidying would be overwhelmed and never start. Knowing where to begin is overcome by her strict category order, but fatigue and giving up would certainly come into play. Then in a later chapter she clarifies that she is talking about mostly a 6-month timeframe, doing categories over that span, category by category. And at least in the miscellaneous category and subcategories she admits the order is not so important, especially for someone living alone.

Really, she is in agreement with other declutter writers about the degree of hardness for some categories such as papers, photos, sentimental mementos. That is why she wants you to start with easier categories. She also agrees that in deciding what to get rid of, you are in some ways processing your past. This can be painful at times, but to bring healing or allow you to move on, this step is necessary. All tidying professionals insist that you reduce your stuff before even thinking about how and where to store it. Ms. Kondo is on board with that.

Ms. Kondo has almost a fetish about folding clothes. Without any diagram or picture, I am not sure I totally comprehend her method. She thinks it is better to have few items hanging in a closet and more clothing items folded and standing vertically in drawers. I may try her sock folding/storing idea, but for me, if it is hanging in the closet I see it, if in a drawer I tend to forget about it. This is especially true of tops and pants.

The magic of tidying using her method she says is that you gain confidence in your decision-making capacity which leads to general confidence in your judgment in other areas of life. You will be ready to let go of the past or to not worry about the future, but instead be content with what you have now. Because you love (or need) what you own, you identify what is important to you and what your values are. You will be a happier person.

I have been yearning to get rid of more of my stuff, and I may try doing it in the order she suggests and by touching and holding items. Of course, I share a house with my husband, so there will be things that spark no joy in me, but hopefully touch his heart. One must lead by example, not by trying to get rid of others’ belongings.

Ms. Kondo has some other quirks besides the folding and vertical arrangement of clothing. Give her a try and see how you feel about her ideas, especially if you have put off reducing your possessions. Her method may get you started.

 

All Decorated

 

I finished my Christmas decorating yesterday. The tree was last. I ordered a small tree skirt from CharsStars. I had wrapped napkins around the base of my artificial tree in the past, but they were looking kind of faded.

I hung my cute wreath at the patio door like last year.

The biggest change this year is that I got rid of the Debbie Mumm plates and bought all new ones on ebay, each different. There is a cardinal in three of them and the ribbon motif also in 3 to tie them together some.

I am enjoying the change.

I still need to get out the Christmas placemats.

Next week is very busy for me. My helper in the library is gone December and maybe January; I will need to go over and shelve more often. Choir is fine tuning the music for the December 16th concert; my husband will come to C Lounge Monday evening around 5 p.m. when practice ends, and we will walk around for the open house to see how folks decorated their apartments. Then, we will go out for a bite of supper. Tuesday is the condo neighborhood Christmas lunch (prime rib). Wednesday I am co-hostess for Literary Club. Since it is the holidays, the two of us are going to supplement the refreshment provided by the caterer. I think I am going to make a chicken-based cracker spread. If it turns out OK, I will share the recipe in a future blog. Already bought the little red plates and some M and M’s. They have almond instead of peanut candy and the non-nut ones have mint flavor. All of these are in red and green.

We will have snow this Sunday. Hope the roads are clear enough for me to get to my dentist appointment Monday morning. It feels like winter.

Lamb

 

The Advent photo I posted reminded me of some cute lamb pictures from Carogil Farm blog.

Every time I see this little lamb with straw, it reminds me of how I probably look to the Good Shepherd. Untidy, messy, definitely in need of clean-up help. This lamb has probably been up to mischief. The photo always brings a smile to my face.

I am reminded of one of my favorite Bible verses.

Some of us need a lot of cuddling in the Savior’s arms right now. We need to stay close by His side so He can scoop us up. Stop wandering away into the land of “what ifs” and rest quietly where we can feel His heart of love beating. Oh, wonderful Lamb of God who has given all so we can be one of God’s lambs, too.

Advent

One of the blogs I read had a link to Advent devotionals written by the ladies in her church. If you are looking for something new this year, try this pdf style gift.

Advent devotional

Sticking

 

We have our first snow of the season today. The forecast was no accumulation, but it is sticking to the grass and the roof.

 

10:30 a.m.                                                                1 p.m.

There was a brief sleet storm around noon which added to the white.

I hope the gusts of wind don’t blow off all of the pear tree leaves which just started to have lots of color this past week. The snow will probably melt away by noon tomorrow.

I do have one bright cheery spot in my house. I bought a small Christmas cactus at Aldi’s which is blooming. I might not have any blooms by Christmas if the buds develop and open quickly, but at least I should have some beauty until early December.

A good day for cocooning. I laundered all of my light-weight jackets this morning and put my heavy winter coat in the entry closet. The 10-day forecast shows no days out of the 40’s. We are going with relatives to Amish Acres which has a buffet on Thanksgiving Day.

About 10 weeks until our Caribbean cruise. Looking at the photos of the excursions with aqua water and palm trees and sunshine transports me away from my gray dreary day.

Baked 6 chocolate chip cookies from refrigerated dough at lunch. One left to enjoy with cocoa maybe? I’ll have to see how my afternoon shapes up.

International Wood Collectors Society LOL

 

Though my husband doesn’t collect wood specimens the way some do, he has tried to make little goblets (and wooden eggs) of varying specimens.

 

 

 

His acquaintance in Syracuse who sells lumber and has a huge specimen collection encouraged my husband to join the International Wood Collectors Society. When my husband sent in the membership information, he sent a dues check on our joint checking account. The person who processed the membership sent a card in my husband’s name and a card in my name. Hope nobody is expecting me to correctly identify these kinds of wood. Only one membership badge was sent; my husband quickly claimed that for himself.

Yesterday we drove about an hour to Mottville, Michigan, close to the Indiana state line. An Optimist club member had shared about Jaywalker restaurant.

This is a fairly small casual place located at US12 and M103. The main ambiance is from the wall of windows overlooking the St. Joseph river. There was a deck which would be nice in the summer.

I had salmon slightly Cajun style as the menu said. It was very tasty, not really spicy. My husband had frog legs, a really big pile. I ended up eating one of the saddles. The menu has dinner entrees like these including steak and on Sundays prime rib, but also sandwiches, enchiladas, appetizers.

The drive would have been prettier a few weeks ago. We have had lots of wind and the trees are mostly bare. We also have had hard freezes the past 3 nights. I didn’t cover the impatiens this time; time for them to go. I had been feeling for dryness some hydrangea blooms near the rehab unit every time I walked to the library, hoping to get a pinkish one to add to my bunch. I almost waited too long. All but two turned dark brown this weekend. Today I did pick one of the pink ones. Since I promised not to put any more hydrangea photos on the blog this year, you will have to take my word. The bloom is not very dry so I hope it does OK inside and doesn’t lose too much color.

I got up at 6 a.m. this morning to look at the super moon. The closest point was to be around 6:20. I was too cold to stay up waiting. I crawled back under the electric blanket. About 6:15 I heard my husband stirring. We took one last look. We could see the moon was sinking lower and would soon be in a cloud bank. The moon was large and bright, but as most scientists already warned, you couldn’t really tell if it was bigger. Tonight the moon is covered by haze. Did you make an effort to view the moon?

Lancaster Ohio Trip

I had 3 things I wanted to do on our recent trip to Ohio. I wanted to drive some country roads among the fall foliage. I wanted to visit an antique store in Zanesville which advertised it had lots of pottery. I wanted to see the picturesque town of Granville.

It was cold with occasional rain on our first day of travel. I didn’t find a salt-glazed crock small enough to buy. Because Zanesville historically has been a center of pottery production, the antique store did indeed have lots of pottery. I enjoyed seeing pieces by potters I had heard about and seen on ebay. I ended up buying a small Hartstone pitcher. I will have to keep looking for a smallish salt-glazed piece in consignment and antique stores.

We stayed at Rock Mill Cottage in Lancaster, Ohio. I don’t remember what internet link I used to bring up this lodging, but the reviews were so positive I decided to book it even though it meant going through the rigors of registering with Airbnb which we had never used. The cottage is less than an hour’s drive to Hocking Hills and even closer to Columbus.

The cottage was adjacent to an 1847 house where the hosts lived. Across the street was an old grist mill which has recently had the workings reconstructed.

The covered bridge was blocked so only pedestrians can travel through.

Friday was a mostly sunny delightful day. We drove east on U.S. 22, then once on Ohio 37 we let the GPS take over to direct us to Burr Oak Park. I knew from the map that there were few main highways going from Lancaster to the state park, just small country roads. I wish I had a camera mounted on my car so you could get a sense of what we experienced. We were on Jerusalem Road, then Van Horn, then Marietta, and after being on high ridges and down in hollows we came to a numbered road. The trees often formed a canopy of gold and red. My husband was a good sport; taking these routes meant lots of twisty roads with ups and downs and sometimes while on the crest you couldn’t see what was on the downward dip until you had in faith gone over. What towns we saw were small and somewhat rundown. For what it’s worth in these days of sophisticated surveys, we saw maybe 200 Trump/Pence campaign signs and only 2 Hillary/Kaine signs.

Not far from Gloucester on flatter land we saw this decorated barn.

The lake at Burr Oak didn’t have the color I had hoped would reflect in the water. We took a picnic lunch with us and ate at a picnic table near an empty cottage overlooking the lake under a gorgeous maple tree. We did some hiking but didn’t find the trail we thought would go along the shore of the lake.

Our cottage in Lancaster had a good TV. We rooted for the Cubs but alas the Buckeye State (Cleveland Indians) was the happy winner. We consoled ourselves with chocolate cake.

Our b and b hosts worked during the week. The lady had stocked the refrigerator with eggs, bacon, milk, orange juice plus there were English muffins and cereal and a Keurig coffee machine. She also had baked a chocolate cake. On Saturday she prepared the breakfast in the main house and brought it to the cottage. We filled out our menu choices on Friday night. We chose banana pancakes and sausage. Along with that she brought a fruit bowl of black grapes, huge blackberries, and bananas. All very tasty.

After this hearty breakfast, we had a quick tour of the old house which is still being restored. We were told how they took borings out of the cellar beams to determine the date the house was constructed by counting tree rings. Apparently, the practice was to use fairly recently felled timber to build.

Granville was north of Lancaster and on our route home. Saturday was lively with a farmers’ market. A policeman directed traffic on Broad Street so pedestrians could easily cross. We were lucky to find a parking spot just across from the market. Granville promotes itself as a New-England-type of village. Part of the campus of Denison University borders Broad Street, but the main section is built on the hill overlooking the town.

The Granville farmers’ market was maybe 4 times bigger than the one at home in Warsaw and had more diversity of products.

Granville had little shops and several interesting restaurants. We used the restroom facilities in the public library.

It was unusually warm so folks made good use of the outdoor seating of food venues drinking coffee. The main street had lots of benches for resting, too.

Because of Halloween and fall, many homes had special decorations.

Being pretty close to Columbus, big-city activities and venues are easily accessible to the residents and students. (BTW here we saw only Hillary campaign signs.)

As you can tell from all the photos, I found Granville very picturesque.