Sandi Chats

So, it's been a minute or two since I've been here. My life is hopefully slowing down a bit, so I am hoping to get back to regular blogging. Bear with me, it remains to be seen how this goes! I am constantly bombarded by the need to stretch my technical skills, which I just proved by having to locate my blogsite so I could keep blogging on the same platform. And just a few minutes ago by having to set up a group text and then add someone. And a couple hours ago by having to access information online and the suggestion of downloading a QR code!   After all this, I ranted to Mike about having to stretch the limits of my technical skills, and ended by asking, "And do I really even want to?" Well, the answer to that question is a resounding NO, but then I think of the future and realize that it's not even a reasonable option to just ignore technology. It wouldn't be long before I couldn't even access anything online, let alone interact online. It wouldn't ...

 As many of you know, we recently celebrated the marriage of our granddaughter to her beau of 4 years. It was a happy occasion and a beautiful day. All went according to plan...and we all know that a wedding takes a lot of planning. As the grandmother of the bride, the planning was pretty much out of my hands. I heard about some of the plans from the bride and mother of the bride, but all I really had to do was get myself there...and be dressed appropriately! And since my wardrobe consists almost exclusively of jeans, I felt the need to purchase something dressy for the occasion. I could have probably gotten by with a pantsuit, but since I'm not Hillary Clinton, a dress seemed more appropriate. This turned out to be a bigger undertaking than I had anticipated.  Number one problem...I hate to shop for clothes. In recent years, I have resorted to making multiple purchases on Amazon and returning the items I don't want to keep. And since Amazon has almost everything, this was doa...

That first flash of fall, at least for me, is bittersweet. On one hand, I am sad that, for the most part, summer is over and that winter will soon be upon us. On the other hand, after the heat of summer and all that pollen that floated around this year, it's a bit of a relief. The flip-flops and shorts are no longer part of my wardrobe, now it's sweatshirts and layers, not to mention shoes...still no socks though! This morning's temps hinted really hard at frost, and according to the forecast, tomorrow's temps will no long be hinting, it's going to be the real thing! Good-bye, garden!  This year's garden was one for the books! I raised enough green beans to provide for three families, ours, my sister's and my nephew's! Plus I gave away beans here and there to people who just wanted a meal or two for eating. I have frozen enough hot peppers to make a lifetime's supply of salsa! And the rest of the garden was just plentiful and beautiful...in spite of ...

Long time...no see! I have a rare night at home alone and thought I would just check in with y'all. I've missed being here! We arrived home from our winter trip to Arizona in mid-April and hit the ground running. Summer has come and, for all practical purposes, it is over. There are actually two kinds of seasons, calendar seasons and emotional seasons. Technically fall begins somewhere around the 23rd of September, but in my mind, even though we haven't had kids in school for nearly 20 years, fall begins the first day of school, this year on August 10th! So we are about 3 weeks into fall in my mind. What did we do with the summer? I have asked myself this same question several times lately, and always have to think about it. It has gone by in a blur! The thing I have probably done the most of is taking care of my garden. I ventured out and asked my brother to till up some ground to add to my garden, so in addition to the raised garden beds, I had a pretty good size chunk o...

I just saw something on Facebook which triggered a trip down memory lane for me, so I am going to share it for all you who will also remember this relic from the past: It was always a big day at our house when I was a kid and the mail-order catalogs arrived in the mail. We used to get the Sears, Roebuck catalog, Montgomery Ward, J.C. Penney and a small catalog called Alden's. These catalogs were full of wonderful items that could potentially be owed by me. Pages and pages of colored pictures with descriptions of the item. I seem to remember that we got about 3 catalogs each year from each of these companies, the Fall/Winter catalog, the Christmas catalog, and the Spring/Summer catalog. Late each summer we scoured the fall/winter catalogs for our school clothes, dresses of course, plus sock, slips, underwear and shoes! We made our choices, Mom monitored the choices and made out the order. Viola, in about a week our purchases arrived in the post office and we were dressed for school....

 Hey, coming to you from sunny Arizona! To say we are glad we escaped the frozen tundra known as Nebraska when we did is a serious understatement. It was way more luck than wisdom that we left when we did, but the results are the same! We have been looking at Facebook and texting and talking with family and friends who are enduring this miserable weather and hearing all the stories of people stranded and unable to get to where they would like to be. Looks to me like if you are stuck at home, that's a good place to be! This series of crazy winter storms has brought back some memories that we wish we didn't have. I've seen several Facebook recollections of December 1983, and we remember that year way too well! Rather than retelling the story, I am reposting a previous blog where I recalled that miserable December.  From March 2018: You may recognize the title of this blog as also being the title of a Laura Ingalls Wilder book where Laura describes a winter from her childhood ...