Once A Bunch of TIme...

this is about a week's worth of wood

  
      Another busy day.  It takes a lot of energy and organization to live our lifestyle.  Moshe spent a good bit of the day  pulling, chopping, toting, splitting, and carrying wood for the wood stove.  (Hope I didn't inadvertently leave out any verbs... There's a LOT of work involved in keeping up with the wood supply.)
I spent the day doing various things, including all the mending which had piled up over the past few months.  Of course, there were the usual chores... cleaning, mopping, doing dishes, laundry, cooking. 
     We had an awesome lunch in the midst of our toils.  Moshe picked a huge amount of cabbage yesterday afternoon.  He chopped it up for me, and I cooked it in one of my canning pots, adding sauteed onions and garlic, and a little bit of olive oil.  Most of it went into containers and into the freezer, but I kept one mess of it - probably about a quart or so - and added some sauteed turkey bacon.  I let this simmer all morning, and we had it with baked potatoes.  Who would've thought that cabbage could be so tasty?

"Recital" - my watercolor, based on my old living room where we had piano recitals

    
     I had wanted to redo the living room today - change the decor to Winter - paintings, candles, etc... but, I ran out of energy. There never seems to be enough energy.  Even though this living room is a fraction of the size of my old one,  the task was daunting.  Maybe Monday... "Once a bunch of time" - that's how my daughter, when she was four or five years old, started stories that everybody else started as "Once upon a time"...
     Once a bunch of time I had lots and lots of energy.  Really, more energy than just about anyone I knew.  I worked more than 40 hours a week - often 60 hours or more - yet, still managed to keep up with a really big house,  garden nearly every day, and do art and craft projects. Oh, and I taught piano and voice lessons.  We had recitals four times a year.  I started walking for exercise, then one day decided to run!  So, I ran and walked... walked and ran.  Every day, in addition to my full schedule...
     And then along came fibromyalgia and lupus.  Followed by a stroke.  The fatigue, oh, the fatigue.  And the depression that goes along with it.  But even so, God took something that "the enemy" meant for evil and turned it into something good.  With the slowing down of my body came a speeding up of my spiritual quest.
I don't teach lessons any more, but there are still many, many lessons to learn. And so,  "I press toward the mark for the prize of high calling of God in Christ Jesus." (Phillipians 3:14)
                Shalom Y'all - Twyla

The Sky Is Falling

left to right - Blondie and Chicken Little

    Okay. What a strange day.  The oddest thing happened this afternoon.  I was in the kitchen and had just put the lasagna noodles into the pot of boiling water when Moshe came in the back door.  He had the funniest look on his face; somewhere between incredulity and being in on a private joke...
     He said, "Come outside."  I hesitated.  He said it again.  A bunch of thoughts raced through my mind... Did we have unexpected company?  Maybe someone I hadn't seen in a long time?  Or, was there a new puppy or kitten out there?  He said, "Turn to your right."  I did so.  He then instructed me to walk down the side of the house and toward the chicken arks.  By the time I got to the steps leading down to the yard, I spotted her;  a pretty little white chicken.  Almost identical in size to our peeps.
     Moshe got some corn and pellets to throw to her and we approached her from opposite sides.  She was REALLY easy to catch - obviously not wild like some we've tried to catch.  I picked her up and held her, carried her to the coop and put her in with the peeps.  She got up on one of the roosts, and seemed pretty happy there.  The other peeps tolerated her presence without many ruffled feathers.  "Blondie" made a point of letting her know that he IS the boss of her,  but moments later they were side by side eating. 

"May I have this dance?"

 
 I've decided to call her "Chicken Little".  She looked so tiny when I first lay eyes on her... AND, the sky must be falling, 'cause it seemed as if she fell out of it!  A week or so ago, I wrote in my blog titled, "Reigning Cats and Dogs", about windstsorms carrying animals and depositing them in odd places.  But, there wasn't any wind today.  We suspect that someone who knows we have chickens needed to get rid of this little chickie for some reason, and they just dropped her off, much like people drop off unwanted puppies, kittens, and - sadly - babies. 
     And so we have one more peep to add to our menagerie.  Next time somebody wants to drop off "spare animals", how 'bout a pygmy goat or two???
               Shalom Y'all - Twyla

Okay, this is simply too funny not to post!  Remember the old song, "Grandma Got Run Over By a Reindeer?"   W-E-L-L-L-L-L,  take a listen...

Miracles of Medicine

Mom and Dad, with my daughter Melody, at her college graduation

       In yesterday's post I mentioned that my Mom had surgery Monday.  Today I thought I'd expound on that a bit.  She had a carotid endarterectomy.  We are hoping this will help relieve her dizzy spells as well as prevent a stroke.  Her doctors have been watching (per scans) the increased build-up of plaque in her carotid arteries; then, discovered that she had had a small silent stroke at some time in the past.
     Having been an RN for nearly three decades, and having worked several of those years in the Operating Room and Recovery Room,  I've witnessed quite a few medical miracles... Sometimes even when people are given incredibly bad odds, they survive and thrive.  Occasionally, as well, people succumb druing the most minor of procedures.  (Thankfully, I never witnessed that, but I've certainly heard about it and read about it.)  I believe that it is entirely in God's hands.  The doctors, nurses, and technicians do the best they know how, but God is the One and Only deciding factor.
     Here's what  SurgeryEncyclopedia.com  says about carotid endarterectomy:

"Carotid endarterectomy (CEA) is a surgical procedure that is performed to remove deposits of fat, called plaque, from the carotid arteries in the neck. These two main arteries, one on each side of the neck, deliver blood and oxygen to the brain. Plaque builds up in large- and medium-sized arteries as people get older, more in some people than others depending on lifestyle and hereditary factors. This build up is a vascular disease called atherosclerosis, or hardening of the arteries. When this happens in either one or both of the carotid arteries, they can become narrowed, a condition called stenosis. During a carotid endarterectomy, a surgeon removes the fatty deposits to correct the narrowing and to allow blood and oxygen to flow freely to the brain.
Purpose
Carotid endarterectomy is a protective procedure intended to reduce the risk of stroke, a vascular condition also known as a cardiovascular accident (CVA). In studies conducted by the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS), endarterectomy has proven to be especially protective for people who have already had a stroke, and for people who are at high risk for stroke or who have already been diagnosed with significant stenosis (between 50% and 70% blockage)."

Mom, with "Puppy"... aren't they cute???

     It is amazing that Mom went into the O.R. at 9:45 Monday morning, spent the night in ICU, then came home Tuesday  afternoon around 2PM.  Moshe and I spoke with her on the phone and she sounded chipper, like her usual self.  She was laughing at the irony of having washed and curled her hair "so that it would be nice and clean and pretty afterwards", only to find that it has been painted liberally with Betadine as part of the surgical prep.  I reminded her that she used to be a redhead, and that now she sorta' was again, but she wasn't exactly buying it. Regardless of hair color, Mom is happy to be home, we are happy she is doing so well, and I KNOW her dog, Puppy, is elated! 
     Meanwhile, if you read yesterday's blog, you know that I was pretty tired out from my recent traveling.
 (I am definitely a homebody!)  Despite my threats to do nothing all day, I managed to do a couple loads of laundry,  do the dishes, sweep the kitchen, and make lunch and supper... I even made a vegetable kugel to go with the baked chicken for supper!   I took great pride, however, in managing to go the entire day without making the bed!  What an accomplishment, huh? I guess for me, overcoming my compulsive tendencies is a modern miracle as well...
            SHALOM  Y'ALL - TWYLA

Even Felix Unger gets tired!

the Hanukkah table...

   Folks laugh at me alot for being such a Felix Unger.  It's even funnier now that I'm married to an Oscar Madison.  If any of you don't recognize these names, you are either terribly young, or you are old enough to have forgeotten the names of "The Odd Couple",  first a Broadway play, then a long-lasting TV show starring Tony Randall as Felix and Jack Klugman as Oscar.  Tony was a neat freak to the point of OCD (Obsessive-Compulsion Disease), and Oscar was an absolute slob. Now, I'm not quite as obsessive as Felix, and Moshe isn't quite the slob that Oscar was, but it still makes for some interesting moments... 
     Most of the time, we are able to just shake our heads over each others' oddities, and we even laugh out loud over God's great cosmic joke of putting together two people at such opposite ends of this particular pole... Most of the time.  I  try to leave the odd little items where Moshe sets them, and he tolerates my putting things away before he was really finished with them.   We joke about our differences...
     For example, the other day, I glanced into the dining room.  I have it decorated for Hanukkah with royal blue, white, and gold.  I have candles, an angel, stars of David,  Gelt, the Hannukiah, etc.  When I glanced into the room, I saw a small object of royal blue;  I got kind of excited, thinking that Moshe had either found or purchased some little item to add to the Hanukkah decor.  Upon closer inspection, the royal blue was the handle of a screw driver he had set down on the handiest flat surface.  I found him in another room and thanked him profusely for his "decorating assistance".  We both got a good laugh.  And, that's the way it usually goes... I LOVE a good laugh, and I am well-known as someone who laughs more than 'most-anybody else.

One of the Hanukkah gift baskets...

        WELL... Saturday morning we were preparing to go visit friends out-of-town.  (Yes!  We went down the mountain!)  The day before, I had selected my outfit, had everything laid out in the bathroom - towel and washcloth,  underwear,  clothes, jewelry, makeup, even two choices of barrettes for my hair.  I had also gathered several canned goods (relishes, jams) to take to the party, made a platter of cookies, prepared gift baskets for our friends, and prepared a big pan of macaroni and cheese - ready to pop in the oven Saturday and take "down the mountain" in my insulated Pampered Chef casserole carrier....  Good plan, huh?
     Meanwhile, Oscar, uh, I mean Moshe had set his wet rubber gardening shoes by the back door.  It had been rainy for a couple days, and they just never seemed to get dry... On a whim (I guess!?!) , he placed them in the gas oven so that the pilot light would help dry them out.  Good plan, huh?
     Teamwork.  Always teamwork.  I come along about 30 minutes later and turn on the oven to preheat so that I can bake the Mac and Cheese,  timing everything just right so that it will stay as warm as possible on the trip to our friends' house....  A few moments later,  we both smell this incredible burnt-rubber stench which has permeated the entire house.  (Oh, by the way, did I mention that I had a migraine that morning???  This always adds to the joy of this type of event.)   I walked up the hall to the kitchen, and found Moshe very solemnly studying the wood stove;  he said he was worried that something was burning in there that wasn't supposed to be... I followed my nose, walked over to the oven, and - voila - the stench of the rubber garden shoes got even stronger.   Like I said, teamwork, always teamwork...  Good plan, huh?
     Okay, so I aired out the kitchen, ran the exhaust fan,  put the Mac and Cheese into the oven, set the timer, and continued getting myself ready for the trip.   It worked out just right... by the time I was ready, the timer went off.  I took some of the stuff out to the Jeep.  (Did I mention I had a migraine?  Oh, and, did I mention it was pouring rain?)  The back yard was flooded - about an inch deep or so.  Fortunately, I'd had the foresight to put my good shoes in the Jeep, and wear work shoes for the "transfer process".  One box of stuff was too big for me to fit in the Jeep by myself, so I went to get Moshe...  Good plan, huh?
     Uh-oh.  He was sitting at his computer, calmly reading blogs.  I told him it was time to go... (Ummm, did I mention that I had a migraine?)  He went to the closet, fetched out some MUDDY shoes, and started washing them off - in my kitchen sink!  (Did I mention that when the timer went off was when we were supposed to LEAVE?)  Okay, after my meltdown, Moshe got the last big box of stuff into the Jeep.  We were a bit damp, but we were ready to roll... Oh, except for the fact that Moxie got into the Jeep and Moshe had to physically haul her out...  By the time he got her out and scolded her pretty good, his clothes were fairly wet.

   We drove down the driveway, only to discover that Moxie was chasing us.  She is very adamant about wanting to join us on any and all car trips. Moshe backed up, got out of the Jeep, scolded Moxie, told her to "Stay".  She sat down.  We drove.  She followed.  This persisted  six or seven times.  (Did I mention it was pouring rain?)    I kept saying, "Oh, just let her run after us; she'll give up eventually."  But, Moshe said, "No, she's got to learn who the Alpha Dog is."  By the sixth or seventh time, Moshe was soaking wet, not to mention furious with Moxie.  He got in, drove a bit, and said, "Well, at least she isn't following any more."  Just then, we spotted her happily running alongside the Jeep... ("Daddy, Daddy!  Can we play that game some more???)  We kept driving.   Ah, teamwork.  Even the dog is helping the team...

     So, we went to the party... had a wonderful time.  My headache lessened enough that I could enjoy the get-together,  even sing a couple solos...  We came home that same night...still pouring rain.  The next day was regroup and recoup;  we were both fairly worn out, but got alot of necessary work done.  The rain stopped and some very frigid weather arrived in its place.  Temps down in the teens.
    Yesterday, I got up at 3:30AM... drove down the mountain AGAIN!  My little Mommy had surgery yesterday, and, of course, I went to be there...  The surgery was supposed to start at 8:15, but got delayed until 9:45.  I stayed until about 2 PM to make sure eveything was okay, then headed back up the mountain... That's alot of road-time for a homebody like me!   Got home around 5 PM, and could barely hold my head up during supper.
     Today I, the compulsive member of the household, am tired.  Dirty dishes? Too bad.  Floor needs sweeping?  Oh, well.  Laundry piling up?  It'll keep.  Even Felix Unger gets tired some time.
             Shalom Y'all - Twyla

Let it Snow... or not!

Farm scene as remembered from my childhood

     Oh, the weather outside is frightful..... but the fire is so delightful... Yep, it is.  A cold drizzly rain up here in the mountains.  The sort that makes your bones ache.  Nevertheless, we are going "down the mountain" this afternoon.  Leaving home around noon so as to arrive at our friends' house at two-ish.  It's probably going to turn to snow some time tomorrow... at least that's what "they" say... Suits me.  We should be home long before then, Lord willing.  Meanwhile, keeping the wood stove  going is a fulltime job. Ahhh, but well worth it!


One Wintry Night

       We haven't yet had a pretty snow this year.  I do love looking at everything with that beautiful blanket of clean snow on it.  Have you ever noticed that snow really isn't white?  When I began seriously painting,  I experimented with painting a zebra - with no black and no white.  It came out pretty cool.  So, having done that experiment,  I painted snow scenes that way.  Hope you will enjoy.  Will try to post some of my larger snow scenes some time soon.
          Shalom Y'all - Twyla

Chanukkah - Shabbat



Chanukkah and Shabbat all in one night!  Oooh! The pretty candles!

  
 
Tonight we lit three Chanukkah candles; then, the Shabbat candles.  We are going to a party tomorrow evening, so we made little dreidels out of marshmallows, pretzel sticks for handles, dipped in melted chocolate, and lettered with melted white chocolate... To see this idea, go to The Shiksa on Facebook.    Mine aren't perfect, but they are VERY cute... can't wait to take them to the party.  I'm going to put them on a blue tray, along with the macaroons I made yesterday, and scatter gelt on the tray.  It will be very festive.
     Of course, I have the "usual" social anxiety... what to wear.  Aargh.  When one gets to be "a certain age" AND "a certain weight". dressing for a party becomes a challenge.  Am I the only one who feels this way?  (I seriously doubt it).
     So, it is the close of another week.  Tomorrow is a day of rest.  We are ready for it;  it's been a busy and unusual week at the Ben-David farm.  Hope this post finds all of you healthy and joyful.
                          Shalom Y'all - Twyla