Sandi Chats

  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 ...

  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...