Oh-oh... I've been tagged!

My friend on http://www.whitespraypaint.blogspot.com/ tagged me wanting to know 6 uninteresting facts about myself. ONLY six? Well, let's see...

1. Fall is my favorite time of the year and I am promising myself that this year I will decorate thoroughly and ease into Christmas decorating with huge success. Okay... so I am dreaming... but that's okay. I'm at least going to try.

2. I love, love, love genealogy and recording family history. Wish I was a scrapbooker but there has never been that sort of time to do it. My passion is collecting stories from the past. So glad my father's family were all such good letter writers.

3. Our deer lease "casa" is my favorite get-away. It is a duplex. It's not so rustic. We have cable tv and before too long we should have an internet connection. We have great friends who are out there nearly every weekend, so there is always great visiting.

4. I enjoy fixing up my home. The going has been extremely slow this year due to the loss of both of my parents last year. I'm trying to incorporate many of their beautiful things into my home, thus, in some cases changing some of the color themes. It's so nice to pick up an item that was displayed in their home and enjoy the memories.

5. I want to work on a schedule where I can stay home every day of the week except for two days. One day would be to get hair or nails done or do some grocery shopping. The other day would be for errands for my home and wardrobe. Another dream, I suppose...

6. I love to entertain but it makes me terribly nervous. I want to have a dinner party on my patio and use my Mexico memorabilia and recipes. I bought lots of Mexican table decor in Tlaquepaque. Ceviche would be high on the menu list. We have some coconut candies for sure. I'm flying down there this week so may want to pick up some fresh items. Wonder when I'll get around to hosting this party I keep dreaming about??

So that is me for now....

Memorial Day

Calvin C. Boykin, Jr. served in the Army in WW II fighting bravely in the Battle of the Bulge. My hero, my father.

I see you...

I see you. I am enjoying your blogs so much. I find that there are many people out there who share the same interests that I have. It's fun to see everyone's decorating ideas, what they like to cook, and just see how their day to day lives are going.
This picture was taken at our deer lease by my nephew. He's a great photographer, isn't he?

Marie Callender and me

Slowly I believe I am becoming a "consumers reporter". It's just that when I find a product I really like, I want everyone to know about it. I just can't help it. Do you like sweet, cake-like corn bread? Well, if you do, try Marie Callender's Original Corn Bread Mix. I will never... and let me repeat never make corn bread from "scratch" again. This is the most superb corn bread I have ever tasted. Today I made it for friends, adding corn to it for the first time. Excellent. Huge hit. Can't wait for the day when I serve it with red beans and iced tea.

Gotta have my Zote soap

Do you know about Zote soap? I have a bad case of "restless leg syndrome". Supposedly this helps. Yes. You just put the bar between your sheets. (Please, stop laughing. ;-)) I am sleeping better than ever. No more Tylenol PM. Nada... Look for Zote soap where you buy detergent. A physical therapist friend says that any bar of soap will work, but for me... Zote. Who cares if it's only in my mind? I'm sleeping better than ever.

Ramblings and magic

Opportunity! It's all about opportunity. "It 'tis", as my mother-in-law used to say. Today we might quickly want to say it's about making lemonade out of lemons. Well, however, you want to look at it... God has placed a challenge in front of us and we can choose to do with it as we wish. I think it's a game with Him. "Will she or won't she seize the day?" Soon after my parents both passed away (June and October, 2008) I kept seeing opportunities and "magic"... I guess I was on a "high", wanting to be positive about things. I must have worked very, very hard at not feeling sad. It did get me through what could have been devastating times. Both parents gone within a very short period of time. Anchors gone, feeling adrift, being in a dark hole... all feelings that I had experienced before and NEVER wanted to experience again. So I looked for the magic in the day. It was always there. Even dividing my parents' prized possessions (antiques, special purchases from all of the countries they had lived in, books, memoirs...) between allof us kids was like magic. My brothers and I reminisced about our parents. I am the eldest so it was fun recalling old stories to a brother seven years younger and another brother fifteen years younger. So many stories they had never heard. My sister had her own way of dealing with things... she went to work or stayed in her bedroom. (She lived with my parents.) It was fun in a way. My parents were such romantics. Occasionally we would find a note that they had written to each other. Lovers until the end. What a glorious gift they had given us. The magic of sharing, the magic of giving, the magic of love was all around. (How sad my sister missed out on a great deal of this.) I need to get back to unpacking my boxes from my parents' home. Inside is the magic. It's the opportunity to enjoy the magic. Okay... no fussing... here goes....