Names For My Homes

In another life the first 3 small homes were not named. Never really entered her mind. Children were busy being named.
When moving South and business venture exploded, there were several homes that she named.
Maplebrook - a farm with an old home on it was purchased. Home torn down and a long modern ranch was built. A swimming pool was put in while she was awaiting the birth of her youngest daughter. There was a great article in the city paper about her family and home. In her husbands earlier years he had been part of a rodeo. This farm was a dream with several quarter horses and cattle in the fields. Home eventually sold and family moved to an upscale city neighborhood. This home was a stone English Tudor. A beauty that sat empty for 5 years. No one wanted to tackle the remodeling. When she found it she was on a high and dreamed about all the possibilities. It was named Gray Gables. She was pleased with an article in Southern Living magazine about this home.
Living in this upscale home, much the world had to offer and older children in private schools was the saddest time of her life. It began to surface in her mind that for 20 years she had been living a charade
She found out in years to come that her soul needed simplicity and nature. Something she forgot somewhere along the way. She finally found herself.
When she ventured out on her own she found her over 100 year old farm house and once again remodeled a home. The original name was Oak Field. She continued with this name and when she returns to the land surrounding that home she may name it Oak Field Cottage.
This home also has been featured in local papers.
So my grandchildren this is a little bit of grandma's journey with homes. Will skip a number of others that she transformed.
Now in her city cottage which she named Sylvan Place because of the community it is located in.
A thought that her creating days were over and she had landed to live out her days in the middle of the city - Ugh - Wonders never cease. So will see what the year 2009 brings to your grandma.
Sharing this early morning from One Woman on her Journey Through this Life

One Chicken and One Woman

She purchased a 3 lb fresh chicken yesterday. It was simmered on the stove and then all the meat taken off of the bone. The broth was refrigerated so fat could be removed. In the past she cooked for a family and she finds it is not very uplifting to cook for one. The chicken separated into containers for a casserole of chicken and rice and another for a lunch of several chicken salad sandwiches and the remainder is going to be added to the pot of broth and vegetables for chicken soup. So that is 6 or 7 meals out of this one chicken. Not bad she thought.
She always bakes every week or two and has banana bread, pumpkin bread or cookies on hand.
There is always something sweet on hand in her home.
Since she is coming down to the deadline of next week big decision of whether to launch another project and build smaller home in country and relocate - she is trying to think of food she can take with her for lunch. Even if this plan is deleted she will be traveling to the country weekly and needs to be prepared.
When she built her current home it was a problem staying well nourished. After the long drive to and from her location she just did not feel like cooking or eating. She sometimes would stop at a restaurant and it never agreed with her.
This project she will prepare better. She cannot lose weight as she struggles with her 110 lbs.
She will eat a good breakfast of fruit, oats, yogurt, green tea and English muffin. For her lunch
she can take a sandwich of tuna, egg salad, peanut butter, roast beef or chicken. Container of green tea, yogurt, something she has baked. Some cheese, fruit, a side of nuts or a piece of chocolate and an Ensure in her small insulated box should do it. Also 3 or 4 bottles of water are always in her vehicle. When weather is warmer a salad will be made.
With her briefcase of ideas, camera and binoculars I think she is all set.
Her crock pot at home will be used to put a meal on for her return. A roast and veggies can be cooked on the weekend, vegetable soup, bean soup, butternut squash soup and chili can be made for several meals.
The only thing missing is a great piece of crusty bread. She use to make sour dough bread and stopped years ago.
For evening meals she always keeps frozen salmon cut in portion sizes for a quick meal with a baked potato and green vegetable and also frozen shrimp for a stirfry meal. There are times of just corn chips, beans, salsa and chips with cheese. Also there are always salad items and fruit on hand.
So she wonders if someone out there living solo has any other suggestions

Some thoughts this morning from One Woman - who said she was not going to post on weekends!!!

Checkers Mystery

Grandma, play checkers with me. I ask "when did you learn to play checkers" she answered "I play it all the time". I wondered did my daughter and soninlaw teach her. I think not!! I do not think they have a checker game in their home. I questioned further. Did you see someone playing checkers on a video or on television. "No grandma" was the reply. Well where did you learn about checkers. The answer - "At the Cracker Barrel - grandma."
Now if you do not live in the South you may not be familiar with this country eating place. Then maybe this country restaurant is all over. I do not know.
I do know that when you go in the front door towards the eating area there is a large checker board with checkers in front of a wood burning fire place. So that solved the mystery of my little girls knowledge of checkers.
Who would have thought that a 3 year old would be that knowledgable of the checker game from observing others in a restaurant.
Makes me wonder what else are these little ones observing when we are not aware and what they are learning.

A memory made this sunny afternoon on the porch of One Woman.

Journals From The Past

While growing up I would occasionally write in a diary. My 6 year old granddaughter now writes in the diary I gave her for Christmas. She forbids anyone to look at it. Locks it and probably hides her little key. The time with a mate and children in the home there was no time or period of stillness to write. But it came to pass that in time there are quiet times and I could start keeping journals. I wrote continually at a time when my marriage was ending. These journals were destroyed a number of years ago. It was healing for this One Woman to write but I could not chance a child or grandchild reading these deeply sad thoughts. I did not sense they would be an asset to anyone in my close family. This rainy evening I filled my arms with old journals going back 25 years. Most of the time I have been smiling as I read the entries. Must share with my youngest daughter the entry about her first date with the local dentists son.

Wondering about something? So many of the entries are the same I write today.Seeking - health, wisdom, peace, guidance, love, forgiveness, understanding and the ability to accept the things I do not understand. My journals are filled with quotes from the book of Psalms. I found an underlined scripture from years past that said "We are granted 70 years and every year after that is a gift from God" guess I am in the gift years and now more then ever I need to use them wisely.

Now I am writing my journals online. I must be brave to put my thoughts out there for the world to read. At times amazed that anyone would find them interesting.

But it seems some individuals relate to what I share.

So I continue to smile and it is so apparent that I have always been protected and guided every step of the way. When I look back I realize with a thankful heart that as I go forward into the year 2009 I go with the expectation that once again all this One Woman needs will be supplied.

God cannot be found in noise and restlessness. God is the friend of silence. See how nature, trees, flowers and the grass grow in silence. See the stars, moon and sun and how they move in silence.

Mother Tereasa

Thoughts from One Woman on her Journey Through This Life

Day Continues

Trying to teach my 6 year old granddaughter how to take a picture of grandma. We have taken a dozen. Do not like them. Most too dark. Either the flash is not working properly or grandma's home on this gloomy day is not light enough inside.
One of my words for 2009 is SMILE - I need to smile more.
This made me smile. I ask Caitlin "how do you like the header on Grandma's journal?"
It's good grandma - is that when you were a teenager?"
That is enough to make grandma smile and feel ancient.
Several other remarks - at lunch she told me she had a good friend at school whose name was Caitlin like her. Shared her mother called her CaityBug like I call her. She went on to say that her friend Caitlin had dark hair and brown skin.
Some sharing from a day with Grandma.

Muse For 2009 - Live Your Best Life

The time will come when, with elation, you will greet yourself arriving at your own door, in your own mirror, and each will smile at the other's welcome.
and say, sit here. Eat. You will love again the stranger who was your self. Give wine. Give bread. Give back your heart to itself, to the stranger who has loved you all of your life, whom you ignored for another, who knows you by heart. Take down the love letter's from the bookshelf, the photographs, the desperate notes, peel your own image from the mirror.
Sit. Feast on your life.
Dereck Walcott

Thoughts From One Woman on her Journey Through This Life

Pheasant

I have always loved the beauty of the Red Neck Pheasant. I had about 6 when I lived in the old farm home and raised small game. When the time arrived to move these were prepared and put in the freezer for a tasty meal. One was taken to the taxidermist. Feel uncomfortable even writing about this and may be I should not. Well one beautiful bird was put in a cage and I had visions of it sitting on top of my English sideboard. My young daughter held the cage and would glance disapprovingly at her mother. We arrived and as the receipt was being made out the telephone rang, the owner of the shop was not present for a few minutes. I wandered around the shop. A shop filled with every type of large and small fish and wildlife. I noticed a curtain closed at the end of the counter and I pulled it aside. There on a table were the skins of a number of pheasant and the forms used to complete their presentation.

So, the question in my mind - is the beautiful bird I picked up several weeks later my pheasant or one of the pheasants in his workroom. Maybe it is one from his workroom and my bird enjoyed his days at the shop owners farm. Pleasant Thought!

Everytime I look at this bird the memory and thoughts surface once again.

Do not like this memory on One Womans Journey through this life