Sandi Chats

Recently I had two Facebook posts on my timeline that pointed my thoughts to my parenting skills. One of them was posted by my daughter, April, which said "Tag a mother and let her know that she's the best!!!" Another, which I can't find now that I am looking for it, said something about letting mothers everywhere know that they are doing a great job.  My child rearing years, 32 of them to be exact, are now a memory...a great memory in fact. In retrospect, we tend to remember the good stuff, the places we went, the quiet times at home, and the most precious memories of all, the times when I held them as babies. It takes a little more digging around in my memory banks to recall the tough times of parenting, the times we had to practice tough love, the spankings (I hear a gasp from modern parents), and all the blasted work that went with raising kids. Raising kids isn't easy, and I believe it's getting tougher every year! Kids have a way of worming themselve

Christmas 2017 is in the books. Actually it was done before Christmas even officially arrived as we had all our celebrations a bit early which left us home alone yesterday.  On a day that didn't even register out of the single digits, that is exactly where I was happy to be! Grandkids Taylor and Merrick are staying for a week's visit. Now that they are in school these visits have to be relegated to summer and school vacations, so I am home being Grandma this week! It's reminding me of those days when we had small children and how much chaos they can create in such a short time! I am truly beginning to feel old. The two daughters who were here for Christmas argued who got some of my dishes when I die! I haven't really felt the grim reaper breathing down my neck but maybe I need to check closer. The way things go around here I will probably break them before I die anyway. One train of thought always comes to mind after having a house full of company...we need a bi

It is now December 4th (or 5th or 6th, depending on how long it takes me to organize my thoughts), and it's always about this time of year that I pause to think, "What in the world happened to this past year?!?!?" It seems that the pages of the calendar have flown off at record speed, and the past January seems only a few weeks ago. But here we are, once again, with another year of our lives gone. Completely GONE!!! This is time we will never get back to relive or make better use of. What's gone is gone and there are no do-overs. I've heard a lot of people mention that time seems to go faster as you get older. In reality, an hour is still and hour and a day is still a day, so time is not truly going faster, it's all in the perception. In my case, I believe that time is the same, I am just moving so much slower. I'm like the rancher who told me one day "I'm so far behind I'm about to catch up." Yes, life is lapping me! So what di

I have been 65 for about two weeks now. Birthdays don't really bother me much, and this one has been no exception to that, but it has brought about a few changes for us. Mike and I turned 65 within three days of one another, with me being the elder of us---by three days! So it's always kind of a joint celebration, one we would both rather just skip over. This year, even though we tried to fly under the radar, word seemed to get out that this was the Big 6-5! Our Fast Draw family staged a bit of a celebration the night before my birthday, making us feel very special. We spent the weekend at a shoot in Mitchell, and Facebook helped to spread the word so there were many birthday greetings and a vase of flowers from a good friend...thanks, Susan! There were invites to lunch which I enjoyed but sure didn't need the calories! Facebook was filled with birthday greetings and we got the usual shower of old-age joke cards. Even got a phone call from my favorite son and

I am totally aware of my age, especially since I just had a birthday last week...the big one, 65! There was just no denial of my age since I had to get signed up for Medicare and all the extras that go along with it. And then, for some reason, everyone picked up on the fact that it was a big birthday for us (Mike's birthday is just three days after mine and he is the same age!) and made a big deal out of it.  So, signing up for Medicare...that was an experience! The Part A wasn't too terribly difficult, and I managed to negotiate the online sign up without too much trouble. A representative paid a visit to the courthouse, and we signed up for Part B through him with his advisement. But then there was the Part D! The rep made it sound like it was a piece of cake, but I beg to differ!  First of all I put in my meds and location, and it offered me choices...23 of them to be exact! 23 different companies which had all kinds of options, prices and a whole bunch of stuff I didn&#

This past weekend we attended a couple of social events known as a "potluck dinner". They can also be called "fellowship dinners" or "carry-in dinners". One was a carry-in dinner to honor a couple of friends' recent marriage. The second was a potluck dinner at church to give the congregation a chance to visit with a visiting missionary family.  I am not really sure how wide-spread a potluck dinner is in our culture, but in our community you can probably find one to go to at least once a week. Everyone arrives bearing at least one, if not three or four, dishes to share, meat items, casseroles, salads, desserts, dinner rolls, appetizers, relish items...the list of possibilities is only limited by your imagination! Young women in our community are taught to cook. They learn from their mothers who learned from their mothers. Consequently, many of the dishes are made from recipes that have been handed down from generation to generation. For a potluck

We've all heard the superstitions: "Step on a crack, break your mother's back". It's bad luck for a black cat to walk in front of you. It's bad luck to walk under a ladder. Breaking a mirror will bring seven years of bad luck. And I'm sure you can add many more, but you get the idea. We have our superstitions. Well today is Friday, the 13th. That is considered, in our culture, to be the ultimate day of bad luck. Supposedly we should all stay home in bed to avoid becoming victims of any unfortunate events. And since most of us can't shirk our duties and stay in bed we just have to get out and take our chances. Where did this superstition originate? I wondered that myself so I Googled the question. (How did we ever find out anything before Google?) According to Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia of knowledge, this superstition has only existed for the past 150 years or so, which in the whole scheme of time is only a short time. It was based on an

Life has so many days that just go by and are forgotten. Usually they are just the mundane days that seem like the one before, nothing special happening.  Then there are the days that are remembered for the wrong reasons. Most of us can remember September 11, 2001 and the terrorist attacks that has forever changed our day to day world. A few less of us can remember November 22, 1963 when President John F. Kennedy was assassinated. And quite a few less can remember December 7, 1941, the "day that will live in infamy", when the Japanese attacked our base in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. (I wasn't around for that one but have heard accounts from those who do remember!) And then there are days that are remembered for all the right reasons, weddings, births, happy events. It's fun to recall those days and remember the happiness that came with the event. One of the happy days in my life is October 10, 2010. Do you remember what you were doing that day? This one is kind of a r

Recently the news has been full of stories and pictures of the disasters created by the various hurricanes that have hit the United States as well as some of the islands in the Caribbean. In some cases, the levels of destruction have been devastating...and in others the inhabitants and their surroundings have fared much better. When it comes to hurricanes, I am always thankful that a hurricane is an impossibility for us in the central United States. The most we reap from a hurricane is an occasional rainy spell that was fed by the storms on the coasts...and in Nebraska a rainy day is a good day! However, even though hurricanes are unlikely, we are susceptible to other types of storms.  Following is a story from one of those times: Our little town has a great fire and rescue team. If you need an ambulance, a team of trained EMT's will show up, medical bags in hand, to be sure you get taken safely to the hospital. If your house is on fire, they are there to dampen down the flames

Welcome back! Things got a bit crazy in my world for a few weeks, plus I lost my inspiration in all the busyness of things, but I am glad that things are settling down and to be back with my readers. Since I've been here, we had our annual McCoy Labor Day Family Reunion. It was a bit quieter this year as two families had other commitments and couldn't make it. But those of us who showed up had a good time.  This year we planned another water-park trip, this time to Watiki in Rapid City. At the last minute, several of us changed our minds and instead went shopping. So no repeat of last year's near drowning debacle! We also took a wine-tasting tour of a couple of the wineries in the area. I discovered that I'm not much of a wine drinker! And I'm pretty sure that in 4 days I consumed 20,000 calories, but I enjoyed each one of them! Then we arrived home to jump right into preparations for our Cowboy Fast Draw state and territorial shoot held September 15th through

This past week I read a Facebook meme that says: "I spent the first 2/3 of my life acquiring stuff that doesn't matter only so that I can spend the last 1/3 getting rid of it. What a stupid game of consumerism we Americans play." I could have written this (had I been clever enough to think of it) as I have more than my fair share of clutter and accumulated possessions. I have often criticized other family members for keeping so much stuff, but it's one of those times of "the pot calling the kettle black".  In recent years there has been a trend toward "minimalist" living. It's actually kind of cool, but I'm not sure I'm ready to pare down quite that much yet. The philosophy behind minimalist living is that you only keep enough stuff to meet the current need....two plates, two sets of tableware, one week's worth of clothing, and so on. In some ways that would be very liberating. And in others it would seem rather austere. We s

Last Saturday morning found us hurriedly packing food and clothing and other supplies into the camper for a trip to Lakeside, Nebraska. This was our postponed 4th of July trip that didn't pan out this year due to the holiday landing in the middle of the week and work schedules, etc. We always look forward to our summer trip to Lakeside where we do NOTHING.  And I mean NOTHING. We don't even go get our snacks and drinks, we ask the kids to bring them to us. Well this year didn't disappoint! We arrived to find that the pop-up tent was already "popped up" and all I needed to do was set up my own lawn chair and find a cold drink! So for the remainder of Saturday and all day Sunday we enjoyed sitting in the warm breeze, visiting and watching kids play and trying to keep the dogs from fighting. We had grilled burgers and summer salads and brownies and all sorts of good stuff to eat and drink. It was a very relaxing couple days. However, there was an undercurrent of

 I pledge my head to clearer thinking,   My heart to greater loyalty,   My hands to larger service,   And my health to better living,   For my club, my community, my country, and my world. If you were ever a member of a 4-H Club, you can probably recite the 4-H Pledge from heart. In fact, even to this day, nearly 50 years after being a 4-H member, it still makes it way to the forefront of my mind directly following the Pledge of Allegiance. One evening at Fast Draw, I launched into the 4-H Pledge at the end of the Pledge of Allegiance...and a fair number joined me! If you were a child in the 60's, you were probably a member of a 4-H Club. Locally we had probably about 6-8 4-H Clubs with a combined membership nearing 100 members! 4-H was in vogue! I joined 4-H as soon as I was old enough and stayed in it until later in my high school years. I belonged to the Busy Bees 4-H Club, which was an all-girls club. Consequently, we didn't show cattle, sheep, hogs or hors

I've mentioned in previous blog posts that I love to travel, which is kind of an oxymoron since I'm also a homebody. Curiosity about this great land we live in trumps being a hermit most days. I see on Facebook that many of you are traveling to far away and exotic places. I have looked at pictures from Europe, Alaska and Hawaii, all popular vacation destinations. Alaska isn't totally out of the question as it can be accessed via motor vehicle. But Hawaii and Europe are separated from the continental United States by very large and very deep bodies of water. And, yes, I know you all made it safely there and back, and for that I am very thankful, but no thanks!  This continent we call home, more commonly known as North America, which is also connected to Central America and South America, will likely provide all the travel opportunities I can afford. I have seen only a small percentage of the awesome destinations in the United States, and it's obvious I will never liv