Sandi Chats

Happy New Year! Wow, 2026 already—how did that happen? I hope 2025 treated everyone well and that New Year’s Eve was calm and safe. Ours was definitely low-key; we actually slept right through it. Those big parties are a thing of the past for us. Instead, we spent the evening in our recliners finishing the 1923 series—great show, though it could have done without quite so many "F words".   Our 2025 was a whirlwind! We kicked it off in Arizona, woken at midnight by someone’s fireworks, and spent the next four months soaking up the sun, relaxing, crocheting and knitting, and enjoying time with our Arizona friends. In mid-April, we took a leisurely two-week trip home, visiting family and friends along the way, and pulled into Springview on April 27th after being gone five and a half months.   Every spring seems to sneak up on us, and even though there’s no way to start earlier, we always feel behind. We planted our garden, set up the lawn chairs on the porch, and settle...

I think I can safely say that I have entered "old age". This conclusion is based on the fact that at least once a week I am ranting about the way the world is changing and my inability to keep up with the changes! Recently I have noticed a tendency for all measurements to be made in metrics. There are grams and liters and meters. I'm sure this comes easily to those who have always used the metric measurements, but for me it's confusing, to say the least. Turns out that grams measures weight, liters measures volume and meters measures length, kind of like pounds and cups and feet. This might have been easier to grasp in elementary school than as a senior citizen, but here we are trying to catch on. The allure of the metric system is that everything is in multiples of 10. 10 millimeters equals 1 centimeter. I kilogram is 1000 grams. And so on and so on! When we were kids we seemed able to grasp that 4 cups was a quart and 12 inches was a foot. These are just facts of li...

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 ...

  Good Monday morning...a new week with new possibilities! I have a ton of stuff I want to get done this week, but I am going to take a few minutes to sit down and type out some thoughts and hopefully get a few chuckles out of you, spread some cheer and inspiration, and probably get a whole bunch of eye rolls! As many of you probably saw, I had a BIG birthday last week. It wasn't a big celebration, just a big new number. Yep, turned 70! I don't know why but for some reason that really seems old to me. And yet, I don't feel any older than I ever have.  In fact, I have had the unique privilege of "un-aging". The oldest I've ever been is 66, four years ago. I was so sick and stressed and in so much pain that each day was just an exercise in exhaustion. I received the "gift" of shingles for my birthday that year, worst gift ever! I always thought of shingles as a rash, and I wasn't wrong, but it's the rash from hell plus fever and pain and nausea...

  Poof! Just like that I've turned around and it is October! The summer, and now the fall, have flown by so fast that it's making my head swim. Just today I switched the kitchen calendar from August to October! Running a bit behind, I know! The red maple in the front yard is now in brilliant fall color, which means about next week it will probably be bare. Seems those leaves don't stay on long after they turn red. But for today we are enjoying it. So what have we been up to? Well, after the Yellowstone Anniversary Trip we had planned to just settle down for the rest of the summer and enjoy an easy and laid-back lifestyle. Like that ever happens! At the end of July, we hosted Mike's sibling reunion at our house. After Mike's mother passed away, the kids seemed to sense that it was going to be harder to stay in touch, so they have made a concerted effort to get together once a year. We don't necessarily invite all the nieces and nephews, but we sure don't turn...

In my last blog I talked about our trip to Yellowstone to celebrate our 50th anniversary. I had meant to get home and get right to downloading my pictures and sharing our trip with you...and now we've been home for nearly a month! In my defense, when we arrived home the kids all came for a day or two so that we could take family pictures. When the last kids left for home on Sunday morning, we headed back to bed feeling nasty! Turns out there was a lady on our ill-fated Yellowstone Park tour who had a nasty cough. I asked her if she had a cold, but she assured me that it was "just allergies". Turns out that allergies are apparently contagious because we came down with a doozy of a cough and cold. In retrospect we figure it was most likely covid since neither of us has been able to enjoy the taste of anything we've eaten since then! So we've been trying to recover and keep up with life. Today I finally downloaded the pictures on my camera, and my memories came flood...

1972...50 years ago! Funny, it doesn't seem all that long ago, but my how the time does fly! This past weekend we celebrated a 50-year milestone, Mike's high school class reunion. It brought back lots of memories, and as we visited with his fellow classmates, a lot more memories came back. We enjoyed reconnecting with old friends and catching up on everyone's lives. We've all added to our family trees and our waistlines, and most of the guys have a lot less hair than in 1972! But by and large, the changes are positive. Another big event, you might even call it a "life-changing" event, was our marriage. June 16, 1972, a day that signifies a big turning point in our lives. Looking back, I'm pretty sure people were doubting how long this marriage could last. Two young kids who didn't have a clue how the world or life worked. We didn't really have a plan for our future, no financial security, and were unbelievable immature and self-centered. People wer...

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...