Sandi Chats

I always envy people who can talk to anyone at any time about anything . I am married to an extrovert who could strike up a conversation with a fence post. I like to attach myself to his side in a group of people so that I can join the conversation that he started...it works well for me. I am always better with the written word than the oral conversation because it gives me a chance to rethink what I just "said" and I can edit it to say exactly what I meant to say. (Sometimes there is a serious disconnect between my brain and my mouth!) However, there are times when it is hard to figure out what to write also. I come up short of interesting topics to share. So I went on Pinterest (my go-to site for ideas) to investigate blogging topics. There are all kinds of topics that make interesting blogs, trouble is you need to be fairly knowledgeable about a topic to blog on it. I am discovering that I know a little bit about a lot of things, but not a great lot about anything. Jack ...

My theme song this time of year is always "Bring back those lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer!" In my mind I see myself sitting in my lawn chair underneath a shade tree, sipping lemonade and reading a good book. There is a nice warm breeze keeping me cool with my bare feet feeling the soft grass beneath them. Time means nothing so I can sit there until I desire to get up and do something else. Snacks and refills of lemonade magically appear, and there are no flies or insects to intrude upon my Utopia.  The reality of summer looks a lot different at our house! The only resemblance to the song is the "crazy" part.  When you live in northern Nebraska where the four seasons are referred to as "almost winter", "winter", "still winter", and "summer", you learn to make the best of those few months of summer weather. That's the time you have to grow a garden and can, freeze and preserve it. The lawn and flowers need to be w...

I always admire people who are always collected and poised no matter what the situation. They always have the right words to say at the right time, and they can carry a conversation with the best. They are graceful and coordinated and in top form in all situations. Mostly I admire them because I am not one of them and can't figure out how to get to be one of them. I find myself tongue-tied, or worse yet saying the wrong things at the wrong time. I have never been coordinated, and time isn't improving that quality. So very many times I find myself in embarrassing situations and wishing I could just drop through the floor. Some of us just have the knack! However, the most embarrassing moment I have ever had occurred without an audience. Yes, it is possible to be embarrassed when no one else sees what you just did! This particular incident took place many years ago while we were still living on the ranch and milking about 80 head of Holsteins. It was hard work and many n...

I am not channeling Mary Poppins, but that song came to mind yesterday as I was pondering some of my least favorite things in the world. The first thing that brought this subject to mind happened as I arrived home from work at 5:00.  I was walking up the driveway, enjoying the beautiful weather and thinking about the things I needed to do at home. I looked down as I went to step up on the porch and saw something moving................a SNAKE!!!  This is the #1 least favorite thing on my list. When God punished Eve for eating the forbidden fruit, he put enmity between the serpent (snake) and women...and somehow I got a double dose of that enmity! I hate mice and I really don't like spiders, but snakes are my #1 worst enemy.  I screamed and made a pretty impressive jump over the slithery little creature, making record time into the house. Mike was already home and came to the back door chuckling because he recognizes what he calls my "snake scream". It is apparently ...

Wow! Time goes fast whether you are having fun or not! I had committed to blogging twice a week and I see it's been nearly two weeks again. Life must slow down!!! But that isn't going to happen for at least two weeks yet. This week we are busy getting ready to head to Deadwood for the CFDA National Championship. That entails getting the camper cleaned, stocked and ready to travel. It means I need to brush up on the scoring program and have all the necessary supplies packed and ready to go. It means I need to plan meals since we are going to cook most of our meals on the grill. And it always seems to mean that we have to make the necessary repairs to the camper. And then there are the clothes and the costumes--which I finished this past weekend! Whew, not quite last minute but close enough to make me stress. But that's not really what I wanted to chat about today, I have something with more meat than my crazy schedule.   My ongoing health issues plus a recent flare...