Things Are Happening Around Here!!!

Wow! We’ve had quite the busy time around here, and it’s been very cold. Yesterday, it finally warmed up, and today it’s supposed to be above 70*. My whole outlook has changed. I’m going to buy some pansies and fill planters today, for the patio and front porch. I’m not fixing chili today, as I have the last few weeks, but thinking something more spring like. Actually…I’m thinking my hubby will take me out to eat! LOL

This past month, I’ve done some more organizing. There are SO many things that need to be done. So I’m doing a little here, and a little there. One of my major projects was cleaning out my pantry. That was no small thing! I did a lot of purging and bought new containers for things. My grandson, who’s 2 1/2, looked at the finished result, and said, “No more big mess!”

OK…my photos aren’t rotating or lining up, as much as I change them and save them. Weird day for my blog. Sorry. You’ll have to turn sideways to see the after picture…..Oops, it did it!

A small project was taking down the shower curtain and putting up a new one. I had washed and dried the old one, last fall, and it had shrunk. Looked crazy. I bought a new one last week, and my hubby put it up. It looks so much better! (of course, if you look closely, he put it up backwards.)

before
after

I am a piano teacher. The mess of music that was in the corner of my music room was driving me crazy. We bought a four drawer chest at Walmart, and my hubby put it together. I spent some time sorting through music,and now it’s all put away in the chest. I love the new look!

The messy piles
Looking better!

Obviously, my pictures are not lining up with things. I’m so sorry.

We’ve had our black lab, Bill, for a year. He’s three years old. We adore him. He’s such a good dog. But he’s had such allergies, that he scratches and bites at his body so much that the hair on his haunches has almost disappeared. He’s been on steroids for several weeks, and the itching has completely disappeared. But he can’t be on steroids the rest of his life. The vet talked us into getting an allergy test for him. That was $500!!! Well, it came back with several pages of what he’s allergic to. My word. He’s allergic to our grass, to oak trees, to maple trees, to corn, beans, peas and beets, etc., etc., etc.. I’ve had to put him on a different diet…did you know most dog foods have corn in them? We will soon need to start giving him injections. This is becoming an expensive dog!!!

The weather was so nice, yesterday, that I was able to take my grandson to the park. It was so nice that he played and played. I enjoyed just feeling the fresh air, and having time with my little guy. AND…he took a two hour nap! Yeah!

A little windy for the hair, but oh, so much fun!

Life is good. The only blight, at the moment, and it’s a big one, is my church. I’m a member of a United Methodist Church. There’s been a big controversy in the church (the whole church, not just mine), about whether or not to allow LGBTQ ministers, or whether or not our ministers can perform wedding ceremonies for LGBTQ people. It’s still a big mess. It saddens me.

Enjoy your warm spell. If you liked this post, please press LIKE, and leave me a comment. Please add your name to the subscriptions!

Grandma Ruddell

PURGING AND ORGANIZING!

I tend to get all excited and gung-ho in January. The magazines and vlogs and blogs are full of organizing ideas. This year, Marie Kondo has brought the country into a frenzy of purging, organizing, and folding clothes into tiny little squares. Some of the vlogs I follow, on YouTube, have had 30 Day Challenges for organizing. Yep, I’m on the bandwagon! I’m gradually purging and organizing. I have a long way to go. I thought I’d share with you, some of my before and after photos.

We started with our coat closet. I took four garbage bags of coats and hats to Goodwill. It’s hard to believe all of these things fit in that closet!

before
finished closet….so much more space!

Next, I cleaned out the junk drawer. It is SO much nicer! Easy to find what we want.

After

My husband got a new, humongous coffee maker for Christmas. It took up a lot of counter space. So I made a new coffee center, in the hallway. I have since removed the toaster from the coffee bar.

Underneath the kitchen counter, on one side, were two shelves that needed cleaning out. I purged a lot of things, and took them to Goodwill. It looks so much nicer now.

before
Yep..all of this was under that counter!


So much better!

Currently, I’m working on my pantry. Oh what a mess! Found a lot of expired food. Actually, (and I hate to admit this), I found a graham cracker pie crust, with an expiration date of 2008. Glory! I’ll be sharing these results with my next post.

I hope you are perhaps a little bit inspired to work on your house. I still need to work on my closet. And…most everything else! Marie Kondo is young, cute and perky. On my best days, I might be a little perky. Some of her ideas, I like. But, yes, I still roll my socks up in a ball. What are your thoughts on Marie Kondo? Have you been purging and organizing this month? Or do you even need to?

Happy Valentine’s Day! It’s our anniversary…43 years today.

Grandma Ruddell

Where In The World Have I Been?

Wow! It’s been awhile since I’ve written anything on here! I’m so sorry. I’ve been very busy with Christmas and Grandkids. Life has begun again, and we are on a normal routine. Let me fill you in on a few things we’ve been doing.

Christmas was wonderful, even though things were delayed because of sick grandkids. Doesn’t someone ALWAYS get sick during the holidays??? They sure do in our family.

Earlier in December, my brother, wife and my sister came down to visit us for the weekend. It’s hard for us to get together any more, because of jobs and living far apart. So this was really a fun time. I made candy and cookies and fixed goody boxes…my mom used to do that for all of us, every year. Of course, she also put a $50 bill in each one. I didn’t do that, but I did include my sister’s favorite candy…we call them Peanut Butter Crunchies. Some people call them Haystacks.

My sister, Toni, and I

We had the kids here for Christmas, but because of sickness, we barely had any time for all three grandkids to play together. We kept the two Oklahoma kids for a few days, so their parents could have a much-needed time together without children. A funny thing happened to me. I had entered a contest, and I won a matching sweater set for me and my dog! LOL Pretty ugly.

Now, we’re into January. Our highlights include getting my hair cut and colored….oh, the joy!…and taking Isaac to the new Happy Lark. He used to go to the old place, but they just moved and updated everything. He loves going there. We started out with nice weather, and now it’s really cold. Dick and I went to Main Event, and had some junk food and played pool. That was a fun way to spend the evening.

So…what do you do in January???? I am trying to eat healthily and lose weight. Tomorrow, I’m going to go to the gym to get some exercise. So far, I’ve lost three lbs…..count ’em..3!!!! We’ll see how long I can do this. I’m famous for starting and not following through. But I need to get my A1C down to a better number.

Also, I’ve been influenced by all of the January magazines and Netflix’ show, with Marie Kondo. My goal this year, is to create clean, clutter-free spaces. So far, I’ve moved the huge coffee maker, that Dick got for Christmas, into the Butler’s Pantry. I made a coffee bar, and freed up some of my kitchen counter space. (Of course, I have some crowded corners of the counter that you can’t see.) Yes, yes, yes….the new set-up sparks joy. LOL I’ll be giving you an update soon, on all of my projects. I think I’m a little too ADD…I have too many projects to do, and I keep flitting back and forth.

I’ve resumed giving piano lessons, and am delighted to see all of my students . They are so fun! I have two new students starting soon. Dick is about to start a new job, and Jessica, our daughter, is also about to start a new job. Life is good!

What’s happening in your life? Are you in the Snowpocalypse? Leave me a comment below, and press “like” on here, if you liked this article. Be sure and subscribe, if you haven’t before.

Grandma Ruddell

Feeling Fancy and Pampered!!

We’re back home!!!   I have returned home from a 10 day vacation, and am just now getting back into the swing of things.  We went to Florida, to spend a few days in our time share.  We didn’t drive past the places that had houses demolished, but along Highway 10, there was so much devastation of trees.  It was amazing.  You wonder how much force can pull trees up by the roots!

We decided to drive from Texas to Florida, and see things along the way.  Ha, ha, ha.  We spent so much time driving, that we didn’t stop to see a lot.  We did stop at  Fort Parker, in Texas.  That was quite interesting.

Another fun thing to see was the US Alabama.   There were a lot of planes there also.  My husband was in Vietnam, and he pointed out some of the things he remembered.

We stopped in Cocoa, Florida to see my friend, Cindy Griswold and husband.  They just recently moved to Florida.  They have a great house and look so refreshed and good.  Retirement and a new grandchild seems to agree with them.

Ft. Lauderdale was our final destination, and it was beautiful weather while we were there.  The thing about time shares is that while you’re there, they’ll try to get you to upgrade.  We spent about 2 1/2 hrs. listening and repeatedly saying no thanks.  But we also did some sight-seeing.  While on a famous street, by the river, we sat down for ice cream.  Up above us, were two helicopters in stationary position.  Someone mentioned that wasn’t a very good sign.  As we sat, eating our ice cream, a bomb squad, three police cars, and a fire truck went speeding by.  It turned out that there was a suspicious package not far from us.  Wow!  Another day we went to a nice Italian restaurant in Weston, and our waiter was so cool.  He was Italian, but had lived in the US for a number of years.  Think charming and lots of talking with his hands.

That was also on election day….what Florida THOUGHT was their election day.  We thought maybe it was an unhappy voter.  Florida’s election was so close that they are still counting votes.

We have come back home and are back in the swing of things.  Our church has a big Veteran’s Day celebration every year.  Dick participated in that , wearing his Vietnam army uniform that he still fits into.  Now…we’re preparing for Thanksgiving.  We’ll go to Tulsa for the weekend following T-Day, to see all of the Ruddell nieces, nephews and greats.  I’m hoping to get all of my Christmas shopping for them done by then, so I can take the gifts with me.  We won’t be seeing them for Christmas.    Any occasion with them involves lots of wild card playing, and eating lots of food.

Today, I’m feeling pampered and spoiled.  Linda is here, cleaning my house.  Oooh la la!!!  She’s doing such a good job, and it looks and smells so much better.  I haven’t had anyone clean my house in 30 years…and then it was just a time or two.  What luxury! Of course, I had to go around and pick up a lot of stuff before she came.  She’s going to come once a month.

What are you doing for Thanksgiving?  Are you joining your family for a big dinner?   Is a turkey in the works?  Or are you missing a loved one and having a hard time this year?  I hope you have a nice holiday.

If you enjoyed this, hit the like button below.  And remember to subscribe to my site.  Leave a comment!

Grandma Ruddell

Odds and Ends

I’m sorry, it’s been awhile since I’ve posted.  We have had cold weather , rain, rain, and more rain, and now it’s finally feeling like fall.  Crazy weather!!!

I thought I’d just put some odds and ends here, of things we’ve been doing.   We have a vacation to Florida coming up next week.  I’m a little iffy about going through Florida.  Wasn’t the devastation awful???   And now we may be in for lots of rain, from the next Hurricane coming in through Mexico.

We are getting ready for Pledge Sunday,  at our church.  That will be next week.  It will be the culmination of a month long campaign.  Dick and I have been co-chairs, along with another couple, in manning the “Freely We Give, Freely We Receive” campaign.  (Notice we’ve never said the actual word, PLEDGE.)

Our job, as co-chairs, was to stand up in the service, and talk about the different things, and rev up the people.  The first Sunday, Dick talked about the Devotional Booklet.  I was “Vanna White” and showed the booklet around.  The next Sunday, Dick did the talking, and I was “The Opera Lady”, with my mink stole…Isn’t it GORGEOUS!!!…and I had a few quality items that I put in individual packages to hand out to the congregation for “Freely I Give”.   This past Sunday, I talked about the Giving Card that they would be getting in the mail, and we also did a Stair step of giving units.  Dick came out as “Ross Perot”, and brought out a huge chart to fill in.  It was the first time he’d ever had hair gel in his hair, and we tried to make his ears stand out a bit.   We haven’t figured out what we’ll do next week, but I’m sure it’ll be more serious, since it’s the culmination week.

It’s been fun having my two-year old grandson discovering Halloween.  He’s kind of scared of some of the things, but he was really getting into getting some candy.  We’ll go to a pumpkin place tomorrow.   Yesterday, I joined him and his mother to go to Grapevine. We met my nephew and his girlfriend, and had lunch and wandered around.  If you’ve never been to Grapevine, TX, you need to go!!!  It’s a very happening place.  They have the cutest little shops.

The weather was nice for a day.  I found a beautiful butterfly in my garden.  Then it was cold enough for a fire.  Seemed like a good time to make chili.

What do you do, when it’s cooler and you’re feeling like it’s FALL??  I like to cook.  Today I made a pumpkin pie.  Nice to have the house smelling like fall, with pumpkin things, baked breads and cookies.  Yummo.  Because, truthfully, Texas doesn’t have a lot of cold weather.

I’m considering having a lady come and clean my house, once a month.  She’s coming tomorrow to give me a price, or tell me it’s too gross and she won’t do it.  I have lots of recommendations for her.

 

Bill, our 75 lb. black lab, has suddenly decided he’s a lap dog.  It’s pretty funny.  He barely fits, but he needs some lovin’ and scratchin’.

And finally, I want to show you my corn maze.  Do you think you could make it through?   LOL

How is your fall going?   Do you celebrate Halloween?   Will you dress up?  Do you have a child or grandchild, or neighbor child to enjoy the holiday through their eyes?   I firmly believe it’s a fun celebration to have fun dressing up and getting candy.

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Grandma Sherry