Interesting...

Two weeks ago I had the great privilege of hearing the author, Jeannette Walls speak. She wrote the book The Glass Castle which is a riveting book. In her memoir she writes of her radical and unorthodox childhood; growing up with three sibling and irresponsible parents who manged to not only neglect them, but love them and teach them to face their fears.

I read this book two years ago and it has been a New York Times best-seller for more than three years now. It is currently being made into a movie by Paramount. This was a book that I could not put down. I was so excited when I learned she would be speaking at the convention I was attending.

Ms. Wall's message was about confronting your past and facing your fears. We all have more in common than we think and our flaws are our greatest assets. She spoke that memoirs are very personal and other members of the family don't always view things the same. Much of it has to do with how you choose to view it. It took her years to find the positives from her upbringing and now she embraces it as it has made her the success she is today.

When all was said and done I was finally standing in front of her with my book to be signed. I had noticed that she had written the theme from her talk; "Push and pray," in the books of the people ahead of me in line. As she wrote in my book I told her how much I had enjoyed her memoir and have been sharing with others. She was sincerely touched and thanked me as she handed my book back.

I didn't even think of looking inside my cover until I got to the elevator, and what she had written sent chills down my spine. She had not written in mine what I had seen her put in others; instead she wrote, Peggy, Life is an adventure!

When I told my daughter about it she suggested that I must have mentioned to Ms. Walls that I view life that way, but I absolutely had not said a thing about it--never even occurred to me!

Some people just call it a coincidence, but I believe that it was one of those moments when the spirit of one person senses the spirit in the other and it just plays itself out. God does that often if you just take the time to notice:)

Hope you are having a wonderful day!

Snow and More Snow!

It is snowing out right now and I love it when it snows; especially during the day so I can watch and enjoy the soft, white fluff falling from the heavens.

There are two things that immediately run through my mind when it snows. One is the song from White Christmas when they are on the train singing, "Snow, Snow, Snow, Snow, Snow..." love that song:) The other is the poem called the "First Snowfall" by James R. Lowell; "The snow had begun in the gloaming, and busily all the night, had been heaping field and highway with a silence deep and white..."

There is something rather miraculous seeing snow fall and cover the earth. They say no snowflake is exactly alike--that is amazing too, although I wonder whoever took the opportunity to really check this out!

We were out in Los Angeles last weekend, and being it was only 2 weeks before Christmas, it was hard for me to get into the holiday spirit while there. Being from the mid west puts snow and Christmas in the same visual picture for me. Even though the stores were playing Christmas music, and had wreaths and poinsettias sitting around, it just wasn't the same for me.

We left there during record high temperatures and came back to minus 20 below wind chills and record amounts of snow here! Quite a change, that's for sure!

However, that was ok with me. I was happy to greet the white covered ground and heavily laden trees. It was beautiful!

Tonight as I walked to the car with my son and his family from my granddaughter's Christmas program, I was reminded of the time when he was young and he and I took a walk in the falling snowfall. It was a stroll in the winter wonderland--a chance to enjoy the beauty of our amazing earth. Those kind of moments are special and ones to be treasured...

Wishing all of you a wonderful blessed Christmas!

Sweet Addie

All the kids were home for Thanksgiving this week and we had a wonderful time visiting, shopping, watching movies, eating and just hanging out. Today when they all started leaving one family at a time the atmosphere in the house changed very gradually ending with complete silence except for the sound of the Packer game on the TV. It's amazing how a person adjusts from one extreme to the other in a minutes time.

As I was thinking about it, I had to smile recalling what our 2 year old granddaughter Addie said right before she left.

I had given her a little sucker for her trip home and as she unwrapped it and started to lick it very slowly and carefully I teasingly asked her if I could have a taste? She replied very sweetly, "No." So I asked her again if I could please have a taste, to which she responded in her tiny, soft voice, " No, grandma, it tastes yucky," and then she smiled.:)

Now how smart is that? What a polite way of saying she didn't want to share--they learn so quickly don't they?

Hope your holiday was a fun one.

The Trivia Question is...

I wake up each morning to my clock radio playing music and the morning trivia question of the day. It just amazes me where they get the stats for some of these questions!!!

For example; What food does your husband most remind you of?

I'm thinking, must be something manly like a hamburger...? Oh no, 45% of the response was....(you'll love this one) a potato!! Excuse me, what in the heck does that mean--he's maybe a couch potato?? I don't get it...

Today the question was, The more education you receive the bigger this becomes.
Ok, maybe your income, Wrong---then it must be your brain!! Oh heavens No, that would make too much sense. Ready for this one? Your signature!

Oh ya, how did I not get that right? Your signature--are you kidding?

For one, your signature is suppose to represent more your personality isn't it? Fun, relaxed people usually have a loose larger script, while uptight people have a tighter smaller script. Or something like that anyhow...I'm not really trained to know that but seems as though I have read that somewhere...

Well, that is part of how my morning gets started; with real mind boggling questions and even more boggling answers. How fun it that:)

A Bit of This & That- Oh well...

Crazy month filled with a bit of everything, the latest being too much rain and water in our basement! Have been spending the past week moving things out of the bedrooms and office, pulling up carpet, wet vacuuming water, and trying to dry the rooms out. Tonight we are actually putting some things back, but have a ways to go. In the 32 years we have lived here, it is the 2nd time we have had an over abundance of rain in a days time and ended up with water seeping in the foundation. Oh well...

Lately I have been seeing so many talk shows about plastic surgery and all it entails. One of the show was actually pretty informative telling you how you can identify the persons who have had work done. I can't say I know of any one personally, but you can sure tell which movie stars have done overkill on their faces. One thing I did find interesting was the way you can tell if the person has had botox on their lips. Evidently, by nature your top lip is half the size of your bottom lip, so it you see someone who has a top lip equal size to their bottom one, or bigger--they have had botox! Now I find myself watching TV shows and staring at stars lips!! Crazy, I know, but I keep thinking why would you want a fat upper lip? I had a few of those as a kid playing rough and tough with my brothers and not only does it look terrible, it feels just as bad. Amazing that a person would pay to get a fat lip on purpose isn't it?

Oh well...

Apple Pickin' Time!

It is about that time again when the apples are ripe and ready to be picked. A couple of years ago my in law's apple tree had it's first abundance of apples. We were thrilled and began the process of taking the apples and making pies, crisps and bars. My mother in law said that she had been making applesauce and freezing it. I thought this was much easier than canning it so decided to give it a try. Unfortunately I didn't have the equipment to do this, so asked one of my church friends if they had anything I could borrow. She happily lent me this wonderful grinder that separated the peels and seeds while pushing out the juicy applesauce! What fun we had with this gadget...we made applesauce 'till the cows came home.' It was the great!

These past two years we have been disappointed when the tree barely produced a few apples. However, I have decided to go to the orchard and buy a bushel so we can once again make our own applesauce. It is so worth it!

Our kids are all coming home next weekend so I am hoping that we can go out and have an apple 'pickin' adventure:)

(Top photo-My daughter Kyr with grandson Connor, picking apples.)

(Bottom photo- Grand kids Caitlyn and Billy using the fun gadget.)

Missing In Blogging!

I am sorry it has been almost 2 weeks since my last post. These past 2 weeks have been a bit overwhelming. Not only has there been 2 reunions to travel to, and a family fun day we have also been in the midst of great sadness.
This past weekend my nephew died as a result of taking his own life. Tomorrow we will be traveling to his funeral to reunite with many family members and share in the loss of this young man who had always added an extra "spark" to our family. Please keep my sister and her family in your prayers along with his wife and their three small children.
I hope to be back next week.
In the meantime, hug your children.