Sandi Chats

Good Sunday afternoon! Hope you are all enjoying a wonderful and relaxing weekend. A week from today we will have celebrated our Savior's birth in the form of Christmas Eve, Christmas Day or whatever day you celebrate. Or many may still be awaiting the celebration as the holidays have gotten so hectic that many of the family get-togethers are put off until a later time when everyone is less stressed about the holidays. We had our first family gathering on Friday night, our last Christmas party last night, and this morning was the wrap up on the church Christmas program. Basically, that leaves only two family gatherings left.  This year is bittersweet as it marks one year since my mother left this earth to meet her Savior. This year I have had two friends who lost one of their parents in the past week or so. While I would have naturally reflected on my mother's death this week, knowing friends are facing this same loss this year brings back the memories of that time afresh. I

Well, we messed up! We hung around in Nebraska too long and now it has snowed!!! Honestly, when you stick around after early November you just have to know you are courting danger because it can snow on short notice any time after Halloween. I can recall a couple of memorable early snowstorms from our past that we still talk about today. The first one was in early November 1972...I don't remember the exact date, but I know that we were within days of expecting the birth of our first child, Heather. It began snowing one evening and snowed heavily through the night and all the next day, in the end dropping 24 inches of snow. Since there was no wind, it laid 24 inches deep everywhere. This being our first child, we had no idea how labor and delivery would go and whether we would have lots of time or not. Mike was a nervous wreck worrying about this baby coming with no way to get to the hospital. As it turned out she hung in there for another 10 days or so and we made it to the hospita

Christmas came early for me with a new laptop! I may have mentioned a similar event in a previous blog a few years, but once again...a new laptop! I learned a thing or two about getting what you pay for with the old laptop, so I spent a bit more "green" for this one and got a Dell.  When I worked at the courthouse, I got really used to a great computer system...two screens, top-notch programs, great speed. It all came at a great cost, much more than I am willing to spend on a computer system for home. And now I work at Hespe Auto a couple days a week and enjoy the use of a great computer system there also.  I like the portability of a laptop. We travel a lot these days so it can always tag along. And honestly, it might only go to the couch where I can get comfy, but I love that it can ride along wherever I go! Mike is now the proud owner of his own laptop! I think he was tired of me yelling at the old computer and threatening to pitch it down the steps or set it afire. It wil

  And just like that, it's December! Another year almost finished. I was hoping 2021 would be a better year than 2020, and maybe it was just a bit better but there is still lots of room for improvement. Maybe 2022 will be that turn-around year our world needs! The end of every year is a time I really need to work at improving in my life. It always begins about November 10th, which is my birthday. People feel the need to celebrate with me.  I appreciate the thought but in these past few years I find myself wishing everyone would just celebrate without me. This was the last birthday I get to be sixty-something, next year begins a new decade! Joy!! From there life morphs into Thanksgiving. And the ham and turkey leftovers aren't even finished when Christmas begins to take over our lives. We have quit giving material gifts for Christmas as everyone has way too much stuff anyway. And, honestly, our family has gotten so large with in-laws and a couple generations of grandkids that it

 Good Monday morning...a new week with all new possibilities! Hope everyone is on tap for a glorious first week of October! This past weekend was a big one for our household...the family painting crew showed up to paint the living room/dining room/ kitchen. The "crew" consisted of daughter-in-law Sarah, granddaughter Rachael, daughter Heather and great grandsons Hayden and Riley (who were really no help but a blessed diversion for Grandma!).  These rooms hadn't been painted since 2008/2009 when I was a lot younger and more energetic. Plus we painted them before we moved the furniture and appliances in following a renovation. So it was quite a bit more of a challenge than I thought right from the get go. Our first challenge was the color of the paint. I had purchased the paint at Menard's in Mitchell, SD since I like their brand of paint and it is a more reasonably price than some. I spent months pouring over paint samples and holding them up to the furniture and walls

There are two kinds of people in the world...those who gain satisfaction just living day to day with whatever they get done and those, like me, whose satisfaction comes from productivity. My mother was the first type of person who didn't feel she had to conquer the entire world to consider herself worthy. My dad considered it a wasted day if he couldn't point to a pile of completed projects to make his day feel worthwhile. When he became too frail to go to the woodshop and create some wooden masterpiece, this was the beginning of the end for him. We came home from Arizona this year with a list of things I wanted to accomplish this summer...clean up that cluttered corner of the backyard, fix the clothesline so I could use it, get new trim on the house, paint the woodshop, paint the living/dining room in the house. I got virtually none of those things done, although family is arriving tomorrow to help me with the painting in the house. The rest of the list will probably just sit

  We've lived in town for nearly 30 years, moving from the ranch in January 1992. It was a big change for Mike, but for me I was just moving back to where I came from.  I was raised in town and had zero, as in ZERO, idea of what ranching was all about. My dad was a mechanic who did lots of work for area farmers and ranchers, so we owed our financial existence to agriculture, but as for getting any hands on experience, I had none. In fact, I was so ignorant of cattle and ranching that Mike had to explain the differences between cows, heifers, bulls and steers. I had been under the assumption that heifers and Herefords were different pronunciations of the same thing...whatever that was! So it took me a bit to straighten out genders and breeds and get used to whatever went on in ranching. So when we got married and I moved to the ranch, it was interesting, to say the least. We had little kids and I didn't work outside a lot in those earlier years, but as every farm wife knows, it&

  Good Monday morning! I usually pop out of bed on Monday morning eager to face a new week. This morning I would rather have stayed in bed but it is trash morning, and I wanted to be sure to get my trash to the alley so it would disappear.  My goal in making sure that the trash goes today is that I have plans to fill up the trash tote with some cleaning this week. After the last couple weeks when we cleaned out Mom and Dad's house and I brought stuff home to reside in my house, I realize I am becoming my mother in yet another way...accumulating  way too much stuff. If you've been reading my blogs, you know that the clutter is the bane of my existence. On one hand, I would love to be a minimalist owning just enough stuff to get by on. I love the nice clean, uncluttered look of the minimalist household. Not a lot of trinkets and knick-knacks sitting around, maybe just one piece of decor on a table, no doilies to dust around or wash and iron. Not a lot of furniture or other things

  Good morning! As I sit here pondering the day before me, I am concerned. I don't think I've got a lot to do today! This is probably a sure sign that senility is setting in, and I have just forgotten something important and time-consuming that I need to do. As I ponder the short list of things I should do today, I am amazed and so thankful that I live in the day and age that I do. I have a load of laundry that I need to do which consists of stripping the bed, throwing the sheets in my washing machine, transferring them to the dryer, then putting them back on the bed. Probably doesn't burn 50 calories in the whole process. There are a few dishes in the sink that need to be added to the dishwasher. Until last fall, I had been out of a dishwasher for several  years when my old one quit working. I found one on Facebook for $100 and figured I could surely get that much use out of it, so dishes are no longer the process they were before. In a few short minutes I can have the she

Good Monday morning. It's a new week full of potential and great possibilities. Hope everyone has a wonderful week planned. For me this week has been planned for several months now. This is the week we are cleaning out Mom and Dad's house. I've both looked forward to and dreaded this week since it was planned. It is a time to experience memories, which in our case are overwhelmingly good memories, and also can be a bit emotional at times. But I was braced for that part of it so I'm good. They spent 60+ years living in the same house, moving there when I was only 6 years old. It was a house built to raise a family in, plenty of room for their growing family, which eventually became a shrinking family as we all left home to lead our adult lives. But it was always like coming home to go there. Even late last year during Mom's last months, after not living there for nearly 50 years, it was still so familiar and comforting and just felt like home. So wandering through th

We chatted last week about time, mostly not having enough of it. This week we are also going to chat about time, specifically the passage of time. Each of us is getting older one day at a time. It's been said that getting older is better than the alternative, which I have always taken to mean that the only way you don't get older is to die. So I have to agree, getting older is a good thing. So why doesn't it really feel like a good thing? The reminders of aging are all around us, in the way we snap, crackle and pop as we move. In the fact that bedtime seems to be getting earlier each year. And a glance in the mirror confirms that it's happening...gray hair, wrinkles, flabby muscles!  This past weekend we had the occasion to see all of our great grandsons. Our Maverick, who is five, made sure I had a reality check. We hadn't seen him since Christmas and I asked him if he remembered playing the piano with me at Christmas. He nodded and said, "But you're older

  Good Monday morning! It's a new week and a new day full of opportunities and possibilities! What will you do with your week? I have been pondering this same question this morning. There will be the usual chores, laundry (every Monday!), dishes, floors and general pick up and either put away or pitch. And I will go to my part-time job a couple of days. But I also have a list of to-do's that is apart from the regular daily/weekly chores. This week it includes hauling out the cardboard accumulated in the garage, cleaning off the bed in the guest bedroom, cleaning up the pile of brush laying in the backyard so we can quit mowing around it, plus a bunch of household once-in-a-while chores. All I lack for the projects is time! Time is a precious commodity. Each of us has 24 hours in any given day, and seven days in any given week. However, there is a big difference in time and available time. Available time is the time we haven't allocated to other chores, or in my case, waste!

We have been back from our winter travels to Arizona for 3 weeks now...and what a whirlwind of activity that has been! In these three weeks I have gone back to work, we have traveled to northwestern South Dakota for a graduation, went camping over Memorial Day, and I celebrated my 50th class reunion. That doesn't sound so busy except that all of mundane life had to happen around those activities. I always say our Arizona friends wouldn't know us in Nebraska, and our Nebraska friends wouldn't recognize us in Arizona. Our lives in each place are polar opposites. In Nebraska we are constantly busy and on the go. In Arizona we spend a lot of time just relaxing, soaking up sun and doing nothing. It might be more fun to mix a little of both in a week, but we have to do it in blocks of time. So for 3-4 months we sit in the sun, reading, knitting, crocheting, visiting. And the remainder of the year is a bunch of crazy running and work. Which life is better? I think they both have t

  Sunday was "sibling day" on Facebook, and I have to say that I thoroughly enjoyed looking at pictures of people's families. In some pictures I knew all the siblings, in others I only knew one or two. But it was great to see everyone's families. And this year I even had one to share...and then I see that two of my sisters shared the same picture! At my insistence, with only minor push back, I got everyone to line up for a picture after Mom's funeral.  I will be forever glad that we took that picture. For one thing, we found a couple of pictures that were good of everyone, which is amazing. Seems someone in each picture usually has a weird smile or closed eyes, or was distracted by something to the side. But mostly I am just glad that we got that picture so that I can look at it and be happy that these four other people in the picture are my family. The reluctance of those who resisted is understandable. Pictures, especially those where everyone lines up and has t

  I posted about our Keto journey in November...and almost immediately it all went to pot! There were a few holiday celebrations where I couldn't pass up the season treats like pumpkin pie and potatoes and gravy, to name a few. Then Mom was sick, and I was lucky just to find anything to eat on the run, none of it on plan! Then Mom passed away, and I ate all the delicious food that people brought to us. By that time we were running wild by eating anything and everything that sounded good! So we've basically been off the plan for two months, eating like there is no tomorrow...and just like I used to eat. Well now we are in Arizona. We agreed that we needed to get back with the program so we boxed ourselves in and have refused to pack along anything that was not Keto friendly. And with all the lockdowns in this area and the mask mandate in place, we don't plan to venture into any place for shopping until we are desperate. So we are stuck on Keto whether we want to or not. And

Best wishes from the McCoy's for a great 2021! It's tempting to get negative about the new year...and even more negative about the past year...but that doesn't seem like the best attitude to go into a fresh year with. So let's be positive. Of course, being positive will require that I don't watch the news or enter into political discussions or Covid 19 debates, but that is doable.  Traditionally I make New Year's resolutions at this time. You know, lose weight, get organized, get rich! And by mid-January I have lost sight of my plan and am now eating everything in sight, living in chaos and spending money like a drunk sailor. I am getting smarter about these things. Weight comes and goes with me all the time so, of course, I will lose weight, but will also gain weight so my net loss at the end of the year will likely be 0 lbs. Getting organized just simply is not in my genes. And apparently neither is money sense! However, I'm thinking I could do a bit bette