Sandi Chats

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...