A Thanksgiving without left overs?

No leftovers! What? That is almost unAmerican! But it happened.

Well, it's weird. I got 'some' leftovers;
1. corn (boring),

2. cookies and brownies (fattening - but I ate them any way),

3. creamed spinach (I don't know about anyone else, but I don't trust creamed spinach that's been sitting out. It looks bad enough when it begins, but it's ending ...don't know that we would recognize it!)

4. a pumpkin pie that I made for my son Bill who did eat a piece and the rest they gave to me because Bill went to Gainesville to see the Gators do something -- something with sports and a ball of some kind.

5. raspberry tea (guess no one liked it so that gave it to me)

6. 2 globs of stuffing. I ate it for breakfast.

7. 2 packages of the 4 packages of rolls that I had brought. They are the Hawaiian Sweet rolls, so I've been eating them, and I'm sure I've gained 6 pounds.

8. Now I ask you, how can anyone have a successful left over feast with that?

So, I decided I am cooking a Turkey dinner. What day? Maybe Monday or Tuesday. Depending on wheather or not the turkey I buy is frozen. I have a friend who didn't know that you had to thaw the turkey, so she cooked it frozen. Interesting. This is the same friend who preheated her oven to make cookies and didn't know that her husband had loaded all the dishes, tupper included in the oven....the smell revealed all.

Anyway, I'm going to cook the whole shebang and I think this will become my Thanksgiving tradition. After Thanksgiving - I'll cook a proper Thanksgiving meal for all the people who didn't get the proper amount of left overs for a proper go at a second time around with Thanksgiving! Hey, sounds like a plan!!

Go ahead and be thankful right out loud

He is a wise man who does not grieve for the things which he has not, but rejoices for those which he has." ~ Epictetus ~

Ah, Thanksgiving ...it was so much easier when I was not one of the cooks! Hahaha.

What a child waits for on Thanksgiving Day is just to be called to the table. Then, they graduate to setting the table. Then, they bring the food to the table and then, they all try to disappear before clean up and hope that Aunt Nan and Aunt Sheila just keep on washing those dishes!

It's like a graduation process, this participation in the food preparation for Thanksgiving ....

After I moved away from home, there came the day I was assigned things to bring - it began with bringing paper plates and napkins (she's young, she can't cook yet). Then, rolls were added to my list. Maybe after that, I brought some cans of something the corn or green beans, or maybe the cranberry sauce.

Then one day, after I had kids to be called to the table -- I made the turkey! and someone else brought all the other stuff. (And since then, my daughter has made the turkey!! Of course, now, she wouldn't eat a turkey ever/never.)

And then one day, I made everything, and people came and brought stuff besides what I made!

I became exhausted, and held a new appreciation for my mother and mother in law, but it was always a great time.

Many Thanksgiving years in the Tallahassee house, I put three tables together in the dining room, so we could all sit down together. Nobody cared that the tablecloths didn't match. What a challenge that was to get the food on the table, still hot, at one time! -- and to make my mother in law SIT DOWN so we could say the blessing! She was always serving, serving, serving, and still is, bless her heart.

But all the Thanksgiving memories are good.

I remember when my oldest niece was born. My sister was in the hospital for an extra day because of a complication, and we had Thanksgiving dinner at a restaurant after our visit with her and our newest family member, first niece, first grandchild...

This year we are having somewhere between 22 to 25 people for Thanksgiving dinner. How much food is that? If the turkey leaves the train station at 4 PM and travels at 35 mph (hahaha, not really...turkey's never take the train, know why? They don't have to - they fly!)

How much turkey per person? One is called upon to do the math, but only after one decides whom to believe. One site says if you are cooking a 12 lb turkey, that's leaving the train station at 4 PM going 60 mph (hahaha, not really, I just threw that in there about the train station) -- one site says 1/2 lb person, one site says it depends on how much turkey you want them to have, another site asks you what else are you serving (like anyone has just turkey?).

Anyway, up to a 12 lb turkey, so it says you are to figure 1 lb of meat per person. But if your turkey is 12 lbs, you decrease that to 3/4 lb per person. I haven't figured out why that is ....We have two 10 lb turkeys and one boneless turkey breast, and one ham, and 25 people. Oh well.

I love the answer to How much Turkey to buy for 40 guests. Actually, I could put in here plenty of discussion on line on how much turkey you need per person, and they are hilarious -- as people can get cheeky being asked to pinpoint such things as How Much Turkey Do You Really Need?

The winning answer, and it's mine is -- It all depends.

1. Do you want leftovers?
2. Does everyone eat turkey?
3. Don't forget kids will waste, so you have to figure them a least a half of the adult serving not a quarter. Parents will put the food on their plates, and they may or may not eat the turkey depending on how good the Sweet Potato Casserole is.
4. Are Des and Gene and Don going to be there? Then add an extra turkey to serve the three of them.
5. Count up what you think you need, and then buy more than that.
6. Bring ziplock bags to send home the leftovers in.

I know the story of Thanksgiving is being told differently than when I was in school. I know that a lot of people don't believe in the Pilgrims and Squanto and the first founding fathers sitting down together. But, all that aside -- What can you do on a day about Thanksgiving?

Just be Thankful. Right out loud. Go ahead and be thankful. Tell your spouses, parents, children, friends, neighbors ~ anyone you need to ~ all the things that you are thankful to them for. No one gets through this crazy world without the help of someone. So go ahead and be thankful - and say it right out loud. No better sound could you make.


"Thank God--every morning when you get up--that you have something to do which must be done, whether you like it or not. Being forced to work, and forced to do your best, will breed in you a hundred virtues which the idle never know."
~ Charles Kingsley ~

Thanksgiving Week 2007 - Day Two

1. Woke up late. Again. (Must make note: see therapist for underlying reason for waking up late when there is so much to do!)

2. Wash hair. Haired turned out worse than it ever has. Ever. Wore a pony tail. (Must make note: Don't bother to wash hair on busy days. Wear a pony tail.)

2A. Put contact lenses in backwards. When wearing monovision contacts this makes everything blurry.

3. Went Shopping. Did not have a pencil to cross off items on list that looked like it had been through the washer and dryer and than rolled in oatmeal exploded from the microwave. Bought pencil.

4. Came home. Unloaded groceries. Found that I had bought wrong Items for Madam Blueberry's special dessert of something that looks like a turkey you can eat. Got too many of one thing and wrong thing of another thing.

5. Went to work.

6. Came home from work.

7. Cooked dinner.

8. Turned television on to catch Oprah. Immediately turned it off, as Oprah's show was about buying gifts that costs way more than I make in a day for each gift!

9. Wrote down a list of things to be grateful for --

10. Turned on some music and danced

Thanksgiving Week 2007 - Day One/half way through

1. Got up late. Very late. I've been getting up at 7:30 AM and today I got up at 9:45. I thought, surely, _surely_ I had my clock set it's usual 45 mintues fast - at least. But no. I had overslept.

2. Went to Home Depot. I needed plants. Doesn't everyone need plants during Thanksgiving week when they have so many other things to do besides buy plants and play in the dirt? I took my mother in law, so I'll count that as a good deed.

I am expanding my butterfly garden. I bought a Scarlet Milkweed along with a couple of other things. I want to build a Butterfly House! I'll expand on that later.

Mr. B says I have attracted a new type of bee in my garden. It's one he's never seen and he has been stung by many bees. I got stung last week, and good grief, I thought I would cry forever!! Anyway, I want to help bees and butterflies exist.

3. Exploded my oatmeal in the microwave. Good Grief. What is the matter with me. Do I not think I get enought attention?

4. Go shopping. Make list. Come to terms with the fact that you will make more then one trip and it's okay!!

What do you Want Then?

1. Want wealth? Then don't need much.

2. Want happiness? Then be happy.

3. Want food? Then work.

4. Want music? Then sing.

5. Want to be comfortable? Then relax.

6. Want to bear the mark of a distinct individual? Then think for yourself.

7. Want to live life without regrets? Then learn from everything that happens to you.

8. Want to be right all the time? Then plan on learning to live alone.

9. Want to be loved? Then love people unconditionally

10. Want to turn your whites a creamy salmon color? Then wash them with yours daughter's pink socks!

Kitchen Confessions

1. My oven is full of salt. There was a fire in my oven. A big fire. I stared at it for a little while and then said some Mark Twain words under my breath. Thought I might be in a wee bit-a trouble there, and salt was the only thing I could think of. I had no baking soda. And I did baking soda once and it's a bigger mess than salt. Salt works. And, I'm here to testify, salt does not change after you turn on that self-cleaning unit. Salt is still there waiting for you.

2. I opened the burritos on the wrong side. I never notice that one side is correct or incorrect. I am not of the generation that recognizes these types of rules.

3. I cut through all the plastic things that say "tear here" with a knife. If I tear them, they do weird things that defy scientific terms of explanation of all things plastic. I detest them actually. I'm not sure what would make me happy. I think if someone just served me a burrito, that might make me happy.

4. I forget to run my dishwasher.

5. I spill things in that teeny weeny tiny little space between my oven and the counter top, gosh, I am still seething at the person who invented such a thing as that space. It's like you might as well put up a sign that says, "Welcome all bugs of any species. Come dine in the crawl spaces of my oven walls."

6. I never clean my refrigerator often enough. That is one of the problems of refrigeration. It keeps bad stuff as well as good stuff at a reasonable temperature. But soon, there will be no mistaking that you need to throw*X* out. However, sorry to the one who tried to eat something that was nearing it's time of being *X*, but not quite reaching *X* point, still looks like a *V* maybe ...Nahhh, stay away from *V*, too. I think too much refrigeration is responsible for global warming.

7. These are not necessarily in the correct order of importance, but I store things in whatever I find handy to put a left over in. I've put whole pots in the 'fridge. I know all about the to quick cooling of pots ruining the pots (how do you think I found out?), but that does not stop me. When I am in a hurry to get out of the kitchen, let's say it's almost time for Ugly Betty -- anything could happen.

8. That's all I can handle posting right now. The tea kettle is whistling away and that means that steam is going all over everything and there won't be any water in the kettle when I get there ...and, oh yeah, burnt pot bottoms, hmmmm, that's another thing....

From "Just Here for Now"

It's a Friday -

Again --

When I first started blogging, I lost my blog. I'm not sure why now, that was so long ago and life continues on at a perpetual pace of 5th gear with a grinding tranny and unbalanced tires. But since this was my official first blog post, ever in the whole entire world, I wanted to save it and I decided to repost it ---

So here I am, and there you are, and we are looking at the same sky.

You be well.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
It's a Friday
August 26, 2005


I do believe it's the last Friday of the month of August. August being such a long month. And August being the reason February has only 28 days because of being jealous of Julius and all...did you know about that? Augustus Ceasar was jealous that Julius got 31 days in his month of July, so the calendar had to be redone so that Augustus got 31 days in his month. But I don't think that's what makes August a long month ~ I think it's because it's hot. And somehow when we get to August, we are ready for a change. But that is probably not the case in Figi.

Perhaps I should introduce myself. Hello. I hope you are doing well and all is fine in your world.

My world is crowded with things to do.

I am married with children.
I am older than most of my friends.
I am taLLish with hair that graying, and I can't decide what to do about it.
I am bad with commas and proper spelling, but I try.
I am currently homeschooling one daughter who is 30 somewhere in her head, but 15 according to her birth certificate.
I have two boys that are not living at home. One is living on his own, and the other is attending a junior college and rooming with his brother. Look for the expansion of that relationship! LOL!
I am a mediator for many.

Today was a normal day by most standards in that it was boring and I was safe. I say safe because there is a war in Iraq and I can't quite understand a war in which men and women are dying and we are safe at home going through the drive through windows of the bank and shopping at our local markets.

In all of history, I am trying to remember about times that wars were fought and people were comfortable in there homes watching their favorite tv program ~ well, it just doesn't seem right that there should be a war and not all are involved. I find this very confusing, and honestly admit, I feel some guilt about it.

I don't mean to leave you feeling down or sad. But if you are a person of prayer, please pray for those young men and women who are serving in the armed forces.

And in my part of the world, it's that time of the evening where one would go and clean a kitchen and make their husband lunch for the morning ~ yes, he is working on Saturday.

And I am leaving on a trip tomorrow!

So ~ this is my first official blog posting. I guess now ~ I am a blogger!

tu tranquilo,

Miss Roxie
(who really is, Just Here For Now)

God, clouds, diamonds and love

Got time for a chat? It's kind of a long story.  I
hope I can remember it all, so I need to get it down
before I forget it ...

I was taking my 8-year-old nephew, Zack, to Hebrew
School. As we rode along, over to the west we saw this
beautiful sun setting into this dark cloud formation
and the sky was brilliant with the sun streaming
through those ominous clouds.  Somewhere in between
talking about the clouds being dark and the sun
shining through them and marveling at their beauty,
Zack asked me if God had a beard.

I told him, "Well, I didn't think so myself, but that
people might think so because people most often think
of things in a way they can understand, and they might
think that one as wise as God might have a beard, in
their minds.  I said I thought God was more like the
clouds than like an actual person like we are.

We talked about what God might be like if he wasn't
like a man, and how God would be like clouds.

I told him that we can see clouds, and we think
because we can see them that we can feel them, and we
think we can imagine exactly how they feel.  I asked
him if he had ever been in an airplane.  He said no.

I told him that when you are in an airplane, you can
fly over the clouds and you can clearly see them, they
even look like you can walk on them! But when you fly
through them, they don't appear like anything you have
seen from the ground or from above them, but you know
you are in them.

He declared to me, "But clouds are made of water!!
And you would be flying through water!"  I told him,
yes, but the water was "fine, fine, fine."..He
interjected quickly "Why did you say fine, fine, fine?
Why did you say fine three times?"

I said I used 'fine, fine, fine' three times in an
effort to explain something that is more than you can
imagine it to be from the word you actually know.  I
used the example of 'really, really, really tiny' -
"How tiny is that?" I asked him.  "Oh yeahhhhh", he
said, and I could tell by the way his voice sounded
that he had gotten the idea.

And we went back to talking of what God would be like.

I asked Zack, "What is the strongest, most beautiful
thing you can think of?"

"Diamonds," he answered.

What a  a very good analogy was to be made from his
choice of examples of what God might be like! -

I agreed with him that he was making a very good
point. I began, "A diamond was a good example of
something that illustrated people thinking they know
what something is, but that they might not really know
what it is because if they didn't know about diamonds,
had never even seen a diamond, and didn't know what
the properties of diamonds were, they would think
diamonds might be ...what?" I asked him,---and he
filled in the blank ...'glass', he answered assuredly
.

Then we talked about the different properties of
diamonds and glass (I'm not even half way to our
destination yet) - Zack knows all the differences
between diamonds and glass!! LOL -- He gave me a
qualified, scientific, genuine correct answer!

So, I said, God is like the diamond (we discussed the
good things about diamonds).  But, if someone doesn't
know about diamonds, they might think that God was
like glass, and all the while they might be thinking
they were looking at the very same thing.

Then, I asked him, how would you describe what love
is?  (hummms from the backseat)

"Can you see love?" I asked him.  (I hear, louder
hummmmmms, from the back seat) and I heard the door of
understanding open as he breathed, and I knew he did
understand.

He said, "You could sort of see love, but you really
couldn't because love is a feeling."

I said, "To me, God is like love, too.  Something you
can feel and maybe see evidence of, but maybe not see
clearly, but you do know it is love".

Then he said, "Without love there would be nothing.
Without love," he said (or more exclaimed), "Nothing
would be here at all.  If Adam didn't love Eve," he
said, "and didn't kiss her and make a baby with her,
there would be nothing here at all," he declared this
emphatically!!  I told him, he was right, that love is
that important.

We also talked other things; like about the sun being
93,000,000, miles away and that if you can't look
directly at it here on earth that must be an
indication of just how hot it must be, and Pluto not
being a planet and we couldn't remember the name of
the new planet, maybe it was Sharon, he said, but it
has a small moon and he could ride his bike around
it!!

Then, as we road past this little airport we pass
every Wednesday on the way to Hebrew School, he hoped
excitedly that we would see another airplane that
looked like it might land on us (as that had happened
last week).  "Remember that Aunt Sasha?  Wasn't that
cool?"

"Yes, it was, Zack," I said, "It was very cool."

Then we talked about what he wanted to be when he grew
up.  He said he didn't know. But, he wants to be
something that's hands on, but not dangerous.  Not a
fireman or a policeman because those things are
dangerous but he wants something that is definitely
hands on.  And he also said he can't bother making up
his mind now because what if he changes it when he
turns 9?

That's all I can recall at the moment, and I am
smiling.  There aren't too many things more
stimulating to the mind than riding to Hebrew School
with Zack on a Wednesday afternoon.



~~Zack's Aunt Sasha

a/ka Miss Roxie

Thoughts in a notebook

The shelves fell down again. I found an old notebook of mine -- here are some of things I have written down. These things are not dated but I got this notebook in the year 2000.

These thoughts can be recognized by some people, I am sure. I'm not taking credit away from people, I just had these things written down. I'm sure some of these things are paraphrased established quotes from someone, or even exact quotes. I have no wish to offend any writers.

1. You can't give away what you don't have. Do you have love?

2. There are no justified resentments.

3. No blame - no responsibility

4. All living creatures will respond and will cease to feel fear or enmity or anger in the presence of those who can send love in response to hate.

5. Don't die with your music still in you.

6. You can't get wet from the word 'water'.

7. A closed mind looks for ways to be offended.

8. Have a mind that is open to everything but attached to nothing. (I have some question marks after this thought and the name 'Thalopa'.)

9. No one knows enough to be a Pessimist.

10. Progress can be made in yourself if you can make an effort to give up your personal history and let go of some of the things from the past.

11. You can't solve a problem with the same mind that created it....Albert Einstein

12. Admit your error and choose differently and you can free yourself from blame.

13. We love the things we love for what they are....Robert Frost

14. Savor the moment. It is true that life is short. Live each moment one at a time. Slow Down. Find things to Savor. Find things that will wholly devour you. Find something that gives you life - something that will uplift you. Color!

15. Called Leslie from the Sushi Bar.

Life is Art

"A man who works with his hands is a laborer; a man
who works with his hands and his brain is a craftsman;
but a man who works with his hands and his brain and
his heart is an artist. -Louis Nizer, lawyer
(1902-1994) ~~

And I thought that kind of applies to me, too. And
many of you - if not all. I mean, I do work with my
hands, my little brain and my heart. I'm an artist in
this life in a way, I think. I like myself when I
think that. It feels better than some of the other
things I think about myself.

Then I was thinking - what is my medium? Myself? My
Wit? My never ending quest for information? My desire
to understand the people I am raising, so that I can
help them continue on in the world? And a zillion more
questions.

Art doesn't reproduce reality.  Art takes a spin around
it and allows things to be seen from different angles.
Is that what we do as we walk around and interact with
our children and our families and friends and strangers?
Are we not inferring some type of reality?  I.E. life is
good or life is bad, or life is boring, or life is nothing
but a string of days that are hard work?

But everything I touch is a tool. I have
to decide how to use it best to represent what I want
to have known ... or what I want to say. And then
someone else can interpet the cookies as they will?

All this, and I am still not sure of my specific
assignment. Just have an endless list of questions.

Yesterday I wanted to count all the lives I have come
in contact with and my head got really like
--boy-oy-oy-ing --. I just couldn't recall.

I had a down moment this weekend.  Just a crash and burn,
I think from so much activity.  Some people call them
'bad moods' - 'black clouds' - 'being stressed out' --
Whatever it was, it's over now.

I have recovered my heart.



   

What? What day is this and where am I?

The week has passed quickly by -- maybe it's been two, I'm not sure. I'm feeling as if I put two into one, though.

1. The bug people are going to reimburse us for the cost of replacing our shelving. (Thanks to my oldest son's cool, calm and collected way of handling things.

But, I can't complain. Because if I did, what if all the people that do things for me just suddenly stopped doing those things?

One thing these kinds of incidents do to me (I didn't post about what happened in CVS) is give me a desire to make my world a little smaller, as far as interacting with people is concerned. So, I do that for awhile, and then I venture out again. I try not to get too overly annoyed with people and things they do, but, it happens. But people do things and I get annoyed with them. (Not that there aren't nice people -- see how I am? I keep undoing my doings.)

2. Bill is in Gainesville for the Gator Game.

Sean is in New York. His girlfriend, Kellie, whom we all adore, goes to school at Columbia, and Sean is enamored with New York City! This is his second time there. Kellie has family there and Columbia is located in an area that allows them to walk and enjoy the sites of the city. So, Sean, is having a good time if Noel (the tropical storm force that followed him up the coast) isn't doing too much damage there.

It's quiet here.

3. I had to work in my garden. It is so neglected, poor garden -- all out there waiting for me, growing and smiling and falling all over each others overgrowth ... I did some pinching back, and transplanting (maybe one shouldn't transplant in October? Oh, good grief, it's November already! But it's Florida, maybe that changes all the rules?)

4. I don't know