Sophie's Story

        In 1979 Erma Bombeck, a popular columnist, wrote an column called 'If I had My Life To Live Over'. It was a list of things that she would have done or not done if she had the chance to do it over. One of the lines from the column is, "I would have burnt the pink candle that was sculptured like a rose before it melted while being stored."    I was thinking of this as I looked over a of box dishes that my Dad had brought from the his house in southern Minnesota. The boxes held three stacks of plates, a sugar bowl, a cream pitcher and several stacks of coffee cups.     This is part of the china that my mother bought before she got married. Dad said that she made payments on the set while they were dating. The pattern is very simple, white with a platinum trim.     The practical thing for me to do would be to give it away or sell it. The metallic trim on the edge of the dishes meant that I would not be able to use them in the microwave. The fact that they are chin

        We are in the midst of a snow storm. People have have been asked to stay home if possible as the roads are snow covered and slippery. Plows and sand trucks have been out to make the roads a little safer for those who must drive. In some parts of Minnesota the wind is blowing the snow around making it hard to see.    As seasoned residents of the Midwest we are prepared for such situations. We took stock of our groceries and bought a few things that we needed. We have gas for our snowblower. We are prepared to hibernate as long as needed.    I got up and attended my Toastmasters meeting which has been virtual since Covid. C got up when the meeting was over and together we have made some beef barley soup which is cooking in the crockpot. Scamp is curled up on a wool blanket after enjoying his breakfast and a dehydrated chicken treat. I have a nice cup of tea and am sitting in front of the computer writing.    Days like this are heaven for me as long as I don't have to work. I

     Yes, I know that Valentine's Day was four days ago. It's in the rearview mirror and it's time to look at the next holiday which is either St. Patrick's Day or Mardi Gras depending on who you are.    When I was a kid, I remember not liking Valentine's Day much. I remember choosing a box of Valentine's cards that I had to give to my classmates at school. It was nerve wracking because I didn't want to be the kid that gave out the cards that no one wanted. I have memories of choosing what card to give each classmate. It was hard because several of them picked on me on a regular basis. I really didn't want to give them a card, but I wasn't allowed to exclude them. (They also weren't allowed to exclude me either now that I think about it.)    As a young single woman Valentine's Day was nothing I cared about. I wasn't dating anyone so it was not special to me. I did take the opportunity to buy myself a heart shaped box of chocolate each yea

     I got a text from Lissa a few weeks ago. She was going to make an important announcement soon. I was not to tell her mother what is was about. She wanted to surprise her Mom.    I smiled when I saw the text. I knew what it was about. Micki, her mother, was definitely going to be surprised.    The announcement was that Lissa was publishing her first book. I knew it was coming because she had asked me to be one of her beta readers last summer. It was a very enjoyable read. So much so that I had trouble putting it down and had to read it a second time more carefully to look for plot holes and other things that did not make sense. She was self publishing it so she wasn't sure when it would actually be released. There were all kinds of things that she needed to do. She needed to find someone to design the cover. She needed to find someone to read for an audiobook version. Most importantly she needed to find an editor.    Now she's ready to announce the release of the book. I am

     Yesterday when I got up, the temperature was -15. I was grateful because it was my day off. I had nowhere to go. I was going to be able to stay inside all day.    Unlike a lot of people, winter does not bother me. In fact as an introvert, winter is a gift from God. It is a time when I can hibernate and no one will think anything of it. Yesterday was especially nice as C and I are in various stages of recovery from some kind of viral thing that is going around. (Yes, there are other illness causing viruses besides Covid.) There were no errands that had to be run that needed to be done immediately. We both could stay home.    C slept for most of the morning. I fed and groomed Scamp, did my Scripture study and had a little breakfast. After that I got onto the computer to do some things for church. Once that was done I started some laundry and went into the kitchen. There were some things that needed to be hand washed. The rest I put into the dishwasher. It was almost full, I decided

      Recently I discovered that yarn stores are dangerous places for me to be. I went into the store with a hank of yarn that I wanted to use in my 10 stitch blanket. I needed to find a yarn that I could use with my hank as the yarn in the hank is to thin to use alone. My plan was to just buy the yarn that I needed to use with the hank and nothing else.    Then I got to the yarn section. My mother went with me to help find the matching yarn. We looked at several colours and nothing really looked right. in the process, I picked up a skein of yarn in a pretty blue colour another in lavender. I also picked up a skein of white and found another skein of grey that I liked.   We walked around looking at all kinds of yarn and many different. We started walking out and walked past another display of yarn. Mom paused to look at it and informed me that this was the correct colour to use because it had a blue tone to it. I pulled out two skeins to purchase before Mom pointed out that the yarns d