Author: Rene

My vehicle has become a recycling-and-returning center on wheels.

I haven’t had a day in weeks where there wasn’t clothing to be redeposited to one of three appropriate centers, or odds and ends that needed to be given back to people. I thought I was free yesterday afternoon, and that I might vacuum my transport. Nope. My friend forgot the bridge ”equipment” and I have to get it to her now. That’s okay. My sister-in-law left her shoes here, too. They’re going back today.

What would I do if I had to ride my bike everywhere? I suppose I’d need a little trailer or bigger basket. I could even haul a kid in this one. Something to consider?

School supply shopping is fun for those who can afford to do it. Every year our church, like many others, promises to supply kids with the necessities for beginning school. Of course, with no school-age child in the near vicinity, our family adopts a backpack or two and fills it with the items on the list. Here are the comments made while procuring said items:

• “There is no way this kid will use those binder dividers!” – dividers have been on supply lists since the turn of the century. My children returned them unused. Correction: one child returned them unused, the other had them colorfully delineated in a binder.
• ”How many composition notebooks? They’ll be lucky to fill five pages in one!” – another purchase which resulted in a few pages inked, but never a quarter of a book used.
• ”Graph paper. I think one sheaf would do for the class.” – there must be two assignments a year which require graph paper. Although, returned-to-my-home graph paper always got used by me. I thought it was fun for making notes.
• ”Pocket folders? Why?” If it goes in a pocket, it’s bound for the trash.
• “Colored pencils.” Sigh. These also were returned every year with most still unused and pointy. However, ”If you didn’t have them for the two assignments, you were screwed. No one shared theirs.” (Direct quote from my son.)

My biggest problem in shopping is ”the fun stuff.” Sniff. I never had the Crayola crayons with built-in-sharpener and hundreds of colors. I had the 16-pack. The ”Trapper Keeper” binder! Wow. That would have made all the difference in my education! And a fun pencil case that I could zip and unzip daily was never in my supply chain. Now they have ”flexible” rulers that wobble back and forth, which I gleefully purchased, imagining the kids whacking each other with them.

Thus, the Bic crystal pens came into play years ago when I first found them, all because of that serious school supply deprivation I experienced. (I think we really only had to start school with a pencil and paper back then, didn’t we?) Thus, today’s comic strip gave me a chuckle and memories to share. Thank goodness we can help someone else prepare for an education.

There is a lot of transitioning going on around here, so moving boxes have been in demand for the younger family members. My daughter sent me this photo – which cracked me up! A sense of humor is always in order when moving the contents of your abode.

Not everyone can exhibit 95 years of age as gracefully as my mother-in-law. She was dancing to her grandson’s music, partnering with her granddaughter and husband, and managing to stay out of the path of the great-grandchild who is, ”a very busy little girl.”

It is such a joy to have another generation of memories and encouragement in our home. She continues her adventures to the cabin of her children’s summers, the one she and her husband built. She is supported by her three children who flew through two time zones to retrieve her, helped her acclimate, and will relive memories in their cabin home. She is the living example of Pope Francis’s catechesis on aging. They both live in wonder of the world, and acceptance that they need the assistance of others. It is truly humbling to be in her presence.

Thankfully she is staying with us two nights and enjoying three generations. Her son and I are proud of the love showered on her by our children during her stay at this altitude. She has to feel some of the fruits of her life.

It was a fun experiment – taking a recipe and making it work with different ingredients. The first challenge came when my daughter queried, ”Do you even know how to peel a mango?”

Obviously, the answer was, ”No.” Thus, my dear girl procured mango slices for my use. Next, the grocery store did not have the juice concentrate I needed. Substitute. One diner didn’t eat pork. Substitute. No Allspice to toss in. Forget. No hot sauce. Borrow from daughter. The only ingredient I actually had on hand was honey.

The kebabs turned out great, and the dipping sauce amazing! High marks from all and thanks to my daughter, who obviously learned how to cook from the best.

August. There are only two days with NOTHING written on them on this home calendar. Oops – one day. I forgot to ink in one day.

Luckily, I have the Bic Crystal pens. They are multi-colored, thus quite cheerful. During the pandemic I had to order them from Amazon, whereas normally I could acquire them from the grocery store for $.99 a six-pack during school supply stocks. My favorite colors are the teal, hot pink, lime green, and aqua blue. They actually make my hand-written wall calendar quite attractive.

My dream is for technology to allow me to raise my phone to my mouth, speak the words, ”Hot pink pen, August 9th, bridge at 1:00.” Automatically, that note is on my wall calendar in the appropriate color.

Oh, it’s probably already achievable, I’m just old-school. There is something quite satisfying in using a colored pen to delineate time.

Bronze age treasures were discovered at a burial site in Hungary. It was in my news feed. I’ve been unearthing artifacts, too.

Last night my son and I worked on the greenhouse decor, adding a cupola to the top. Traipsing back and forth to retrieve tools took me through the burial ground of past airsoft bbs. They bubble up after the rains and snow. That plastic will never disintegrate! There are probably 100 visible ones, slightly faded, but all jammed in one area. They evoked fond memories of young men blasting bbs at each other and me yelling at them.

Who’s to say you can’t travel through time in your own yard?

Well, it is August, and retail has us thinking Thanksgiving already. In that light, I share one of the most unattractive appetizers? desserts? that I found in my Pinterest perusing. Miniature chocolate-covered turkeys with a strawberry base.

Someone had too much time on their hands.

When my husband left on his motorcycle adventure two weekends ago, I spent the first evening binge-watching some show and polishing my silver tea service. I know how to have a good time.

Thus, with dear friends visiting us this past week, we ramped up the excitement and checked out the new Trader Joe’s and local Costco. (Although we also threw in a complimentary e-bike tour of the state park.)

Entertainment at a certain age.

Even my spellcheck is confused. It’s another term for the pound sign key. (#)

“Word Genius,” is the daily email I receive, often with strange new words. I have no idea how I got on this list but for the past two years I could have committed all of those oddities to memory. Sigh. I could have learned a foreign language, too. This one was too fun to forget.

# Octothorpe. # Use sparingly!