Ghoulish Fun on Friday Morning

It takes so little to make me happy. This morning

I was actually having fun playing around with a photo I made last January in Gatlinburg, Tennessee.

This scene greeted us after we left a hotel, it was right beside the hotel ... the hotel we plan on staying in during Christmas this year. It has always been a fantasy of mine to spend Christmas in Gatlinburg, Tennessee. Clint is excited about it, too. Last year we spent most of a day walking the streets and inquiring about rooms. We found a perfect room for us, in town and over a rushing stream. The sounds of a rushing stream were important, we are both Cancers. :-) I even have plans on having a Christmas tree in our room.

Back to today's reality. Lots to do around here. I did get the mural finished and need to work on a blog draft about it. We are very busy planning our BIG family party coming up next month. Sunday we are planning on attending church and in the afternoon attending an orientation class for prospective new members. 

Hope everyone else is having a ghoulishly fun Friday! 

Key Lime Pie

A short and sweet post today.  Sunday I made the Key Lime Pie that had

been on my mind.  It was delicious!  I think the only change I 

would make the next time is a meringue topping.

The Key Lime Pie recipe. 

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Serenity on Saturday



The Georgia sky one summer day in 2012.



Clint is now in the living room working on his diary.  I just told him I needed some serenity today.  He agreed I was in dire need of serenity.  I know I bring a lot of things on myself and am my own worst enemy like many of us.

We both worked so hard yesterday at the gym.  As I had planned, I worked out and then went shopping at Walmart.  Got the ingredients for Lucinda's birthday dessert which was to be Key Lime Pie.  As expected, my energy level did not remain as high as I would have liked.  Her pie turned into mini chocolate cup cakes and ice cream.  We had several kinds of ice creams with different toppings and it was all good.  The King Ranch Casserole turned out perfectly and we were all looking forward to it.  She liked her little gifts and it was so good for all of us to be together.

The dining room table was a mess from all the painting paraphernalia on it, I had to clean it all up so we could all be seated at this larger table.  I am glad it is cleaned up, another job behind me. There was some house cleaning to do yesterday and whole lot more that needs to be done around here.  Clint does his share, he is a good helper. :)

Yesterday I talked on the phone with a possible client about a large painting commission.  He is to come by the house tomorrow afternoon. I have to remember sometimes I have to say no if I feel I possibly can't do a job that I feel is not right..  From past experience, some of the times I have said "yes"  going into a job has not been worth it.  I have to use some good discernment tomorrow afternoon.

This morning I did say "no" to a meeting regarding a legal matter, my sister was in agreement and she said "no", too.  Ahhh ... it felt so good.  Sometimes there is nothing like saying "no". The meeting was to have taken place this morning.  Clint has said the past year has probably shortened my life.  A "sigh" is in order on this one. It was a case this morning of turning it over to God.  Clint answered "yes" to me when I said I suppose that God handled legal matters, too. :-)  Painful matters I might add.

On a brighter note, I am looking forward to church tomorrow.  We are going on a tour to view and learn about the church's beautiful stained glass windows.  The windows were designed by Charles Connick.  There was a nice article featuring the windows in today's local news paper, The Knoxville News Sentinel. One quote from the article about Connick::  ...the work of the man once called by The New York Times as "the world's greatest artisan on stained glass windows."

May everyone have a serene Saturday.

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A Day in The Life

Baked eggplant that we had Tuesday evening.  This recipe
came from an old cookbook from the 1970s.

No fancy "food styling" going on in this picture!



It is rather comforting to see a red spot
in the thicket behind our house.

A spot of red means it is Chirpee,
"our" little cardinal who lives out back.
 in the fence line thicket behind our house.

Last night I was reading one of those little
devotional books called  Our Daily Bread.
The devotional was about childrens' prayers.

One entry was "I didn't think orange went with purple until
I saw the sunset You made on Tuesday.  That was cool. "

I told Clint I was using that child's prayer in my caption for
the sunset photo from our sky this past Tuesday.


(Please beware, there is strange spacing below...
could not help it ... blame blogger)

It is now 6:48 am and still dark outside.  In a few minutes I am going to get ready to head off for Walmart and then to work out at the gym. This evening my daughter, son-in-law and grandson are coming over for King Ranch Casserole.  Clint and my daughter

both love this dish.  Last week in North Myrtle Beach I had a piece of Key Lime Pie. 

I can't describe how delicious this pie was, the store employee told us a local woman

made these pies for the store.  Today this woman, me, is going to make one for dessert for the dinner. I thought it would be rather cool and refreshing after King Ranch Casserole.

Note I said I am going to work out after shopping at Walmart, I am surely going to need to work out and walk today.  It is so tough trying to lose weight. It is tough when one wants (DESIRES) such things such as Key Lime Pie. 

Yesterday I made some major progress on painting our wall.  I hope to get another major portion painted before tonight.  I want my grandson to be impressed with the idea of doing a painting on a wall.  Also, I may have an upcoming portrait commission, I hope it works out.

A little more coffee and then rechecking my grocery list.  I think I am going to enjoy getting these chores behind me as the sun is rising.  It is rare for me to go to the gym at

such an early hour, one plus is you get to see new people who are on an earlier schedule.  Clint will probably go later.  Good gracious, we have been up since 4 am!  Hope I can keep up this level of energy through out the day and evening.

Well, dear diary ... that's it until tomorrow.

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A Little Paragraph or Two

Only a paragraph or two to write today.  Just a few things to jot down on this post.  Yesterday I worked on the mural again.  Whew!  For such a simple design, it is taking a while.

Yesterday we literally had to force ourselves to go to the gym.  We had missed twelve days and that is an eternity for missing working outs.  Our old tired bodies knew they had been away from it for several days. We sure felt better walking out than we did walking into the gym.  Things could have been worse as they were last year after our vacation.  We went back a time or two in October and did not return until about 4 or 5 months later!  We vowed to never do that again, it was extremely hard to regain what we had lost.  We both have accepted this has to be a permanent part of our lives.

Just a little notation for today in my diary of a blog post.

Back to Reality



Fun and games at the beach!





We stopped in Florence, SC,  the morning we
left, for a cup of coffee.  We did this last
year, looks like we are starting a tradition.



Think I could use a little organization in my life?  :-D

I am going to surprise myself and hopefully
in  few days I will have my pens, pencils,
brushes, markers organized.

Our beach vacation is over and now it is back to reality, whatever that is. I am making an effort to have a good "reality" since we have returned home. I don't like the word "dieting" so I am going to say we both are working on life style changes regarding what we eat.

There's so much that needs to be done around here. As I wrote about not long ago, there are many house projects I need to complete.

Lately I have been feeling poorly because I have neglected commenting on my dear friends' blogs. I think I will make this post a "no comment" blog. My email address is right under my blog profile picture.

Thank you, readers! Now it is time to get some paint on my brush and get to work!

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Oysters and Memories

“As I ate the oysters with their strong taste of the sea and their faint metallic taste that the cold white wine washed away, leaving only the sea taste and the succulent texture, and as I drank their cold liquid from each shell and washed it down with the crisp taste of the wine, I lost the empty feeling and began to be happy and to make plans.”

Hemingway

~ from "A Moveable Feast"

Hemingway says it best! I would have loved to have had fresh oysters from the half shell yesterday.  One has to be quite picky, I think, to find the freshest and best oysters such as Hemingway has described above from "A Moveable Feast". Second best was us finding some fresh oysters yesterday at a supermarket, some for frying. We had hash browns, salad and an order of hush puppies from the nearby Cracker Barrel.

The guy in the seafood department was telling us that "the guys from the boats tell us they use "House Autry" for breading their seafood.  If the breading is the favorite of "the guys on the boats" then it is good enough for us!  I loved that expression about the guys on the boats but it made me think sometimes I watch too many reality TV shows about the "guys on the boats"

The fried oysters were absolutely delicious!  We loved the House Autry and Clint looked them up on their website this morning.  They have a great website and the coating was light with the perfect amount of seasoning..

We really loved this seafood breader!

Yesterday morning as we headed out very early
to walk on the beach.

Clint walking on the beach. yesterday.

 



Looking back at the condo yesterday
before dawn on our walk.



A sturdy sand castle lit by
the golden light of the rising sun.

No caption needed.

Love these impressive Northern Plantation condos next door.
Beautiful building.

 

Heading to the beach yesterday in the early dawn.

Talking about brisk walkers, their little
toothpick legs are a blur!

Odd footprints in the sand yesteray morning.  There was
such a long stride, Clint could barely match
it when he tried. 

Our final day at the beach.  Another year of beach memories

will soon draw to a close.  Here on our "digital scrapbook", called

my blog, we can look back and relive some

of the memories with these photos and remembrances.

Thanks again to my readers.

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