Sunday, September 12, 2010

Ist Anniversary Blogging


Today, September 12th is the date that I composed and posted my first blog in 2009. It was Hello World and I did not even know enough to give the post a title.
So many moments have entered this thing I call my life these past 12 months. All have been important, even the painful ones. The painful ones teach you so much about yourself. I never thought I would experience such pain when my SMother died. I try to be very strong, efficient, helpful, and this has just been unbearable at times. I have been given so much support from family and friends, but really, I am not ready to give up the pain I guess because I have been unable to go one day without seeing or thinking about something that reminds me of her and the painful tears and tightness in your throat begins. When the gasping breathing begins, I have to just force myself to stop. People have suffered more than me when they lost a loved one, imagine losing a child or a parent who was young or a loved one at the hands of another person. How do they survive, how do they get out of bed?


OK, I am back now. I just needed to take a break, get back on track, but I will not delete what I just entered. It is too much a part of me.


The happy pieces are so wonderful-Imagine how blessed I am to have a SHusband whom I truly love and guess what? He loves me too and tells me multiple times each day. I am blessed to have a smart, kind SDaughter who realized her dream of getting her teaching degree this year. I am blessed that she also is in a loving relationship, just what parents want for their beloved children. I am oh so blessed to have SSon who makes me laugh, helps us out, and brings so much into our lives. Please Buffalo Sabres Hockey Team, would you win the Stanley Cup this year as a personal thank you to SS for being such a loyal fan? Please, Please. OK, thanks.

I am blessed to have a wonderful SFamily-my birth family and my family though marriage (both marriages!!). How do people survive without the help of those that love them?

And my SFriends? Well, you try making it through life without the give and take of support that only true friends can offer.

And, we have the luxury of no bills, no car payments, no mortgage, retired, so no job insecurity, and enough funds to share modestly with others.

So, yes I am blessed. And everyday I do not take this lightly, but focus on what I have.

As a gift to celebrate with my readers, first we have:




This is a plum or Italian plum or prune, whatever you know it as. SH and I are always on the lookout for heart-shaped things, and this one caught my eye, so I am giving it to you, well, actually I already presented it to him, so you just get to see it and not enjoy eating it. I tried to crop it in closer, but it changed from being heart-shaped to resembling a big coolou. Do you remember? That is a term we use in my SFamily to mean fanny? It is pronounced just as it looks, and is actually a fun word to say-try it a few times. Coolou, coolou, coolou.

Your next gift is a favorite recipe-including my little notes. It is easy, and when you defrost the tomatoes to put in sauce, soup, chili, goulosh, whateva the smell of the vinegar is really wonderful.




This is the Red Wine Vinegar that I use. It is low acid (7.5%), and the label calls it "Robust Flavor". I think those are important things to look for when you pick a red wine vinegar for this recipe. I use freezer containers and wrap in foil for extra frost protection.




I have been thinking of making them all week, not motivated, but today it hit me, so I went to a local farm store, bought the beautiful tomatoes, and when washing them in a better light than the farm store, they looked way too yellow. Yellow does not work well with this recipe. You need red, ripe, but not soft-mushy for them to break down well. So, after washing, I decided to put them out for a few more days of ripening. Not all of them fit onto my kitchen windowsill, but I thought they looked nice. I took a picture..............








then the incremental avalanche started. Now, I only have what will stay up there without jumping into the sink-the first to fall actually broke a few leaves off of my African violet plant-how dare they!



So, your next gift is my gratitude for being faithful, supportive and kind in your comments to me, written and verbal. I was afraid I was going to be blasted as I have seen on other blogs-with a harsh comment some faceless entity choose to make.


But you just keep coming back, as my counter shows, and I appreciate your faithful presence. May God Bless you, and continue to give me no more

than I can handle.




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