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Moving On

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I’m moving on to the next thing.  I am going to try to write more.  I have missed it.  I have tried a couple of times.  I have thought a lot about it.  I had some circumstances in my life that made me hesitant.  I won’t go into those but I will tell you that writing is the way I work through things.  But I felt like I couldn’t do that.  However, I have decided that I need to move on and move forward, doing what I love again, to just be me.

I have so much to be thankful for and so much good has happened in the 6 months since I have written anything on this blog.  I am in such a great place and grateful every day.  So I want to share a few things.  Allow me to brag a little.

Wedding Bells!!!  Both my kids are engaged to amazing people.  I love both of my future sons-in-law.  They have both become a crucial part of our family and hold a special place in my heart.  Both couples are deep into wedding planning and I plan to write more about that as we move toward the dates.  They have very unique and different styles so I am excited to watch all of this as it unfolds.

This spring, I had the opportunity to visit family and spend time with some of my siblings.  My younger brother – tall guy on the right – lives in Eastern Washington.  While traveling for work, I was able to stay over a weekend with him.  He has 6 kids and 5 grandchildren.  Only 4 of his kids are pictured here but I did get to see 1 of his older two sons on the trip.  It’s weird to say that I don’t really know his kids, but I don’t because we’ve always lived across the country from each other, only seeing each other every few years.  I had never met his youngest two but now I have.  He is an amazing dad and I love his kids.  They have interesting and diverse personalities and are all pretty independent and funny.  Just like my brother.

On the left is a picture of my sister and me from this spring. This was an impromptu visit as we took a trip down memory lane with her family and our nephew who was visiting from California.  Behind us you can see the buildings on my grandparent’s farm in Hopkinsville, Kentucky.  My grandfather build the little white house on the right, just over my head.  It’s where my mom grew up.  It was my home off and on when I was very, very young and was always my favorite place to visit growing up as we travelled from one duty station to the next.  We all have that place where we feel comforted, cared for and loved.  This was my place.  Memories of iron skillets, barns, quilts, biscuits, crickets, hay, pigs, electric fences, cows, the corncrib, the dinner bell, chickens and eggs, church on Sunday, strawberries, tractors, tobacco, fireflies, swinging electric fans, fried chicken, coke floats, breezes through the window, creaking rocking chairs.  My cousin lives in the little white house now.  So many memories and lessons learned on that farm.

Trying new things is fun, whether it’s a new recipe or a new dish.  I just love to cook.  I love Southern comfort foods but I also like to venture out and learn new ways of doing things.  On the left, my creation that was inspired by watching one too many cooking shows.  It’s pappardelle pasta with pancetta, shallots, white wine, cream, romano cheese, basil, and a bit of truffle oil.  Yummy.  Just yummy.  I hope to start sharing some recipes soon – some family favorites as well as some new ones I might run across.

On the right – it looks like creme brûlée but is is sooooooo NOT creme brûlée!  This is whiskey boudino and you must be 21 or older to order it.  They had me at whiskey.  You can have this at Bamboo Sushi, in Portland, Oregon and there are no regrets.  They have a truffled avocado nigiri that is melt in your mouth and many other interesting rolls and dishes, but this dessert . . . just wow!  It is a whiskey pudding with sea salt caramel on top.  If you are ever there, order it and don’t even hesitate!

My nephew Trent Taylor, a senior, plays college football at Louisiana Tech.  He’s kind of a big deal.  Now, I know I may be just a2016-09-24-18-36-13 little biased.  Okay, I am a LOT biased.  But the NCAA does some national rankings on player stats and they are not biased at all.  As of today, Trent is #1 in the country (yes, all of college football!) in receiving yards, #2 in receiving yards per game, #2 in receptions per game, and tied for 6th in receiving touchdowns.  He and his teammate Carlos Henderson at the top receiving pair in the country.  Trent is also on the Biletnikoff Award Watch List for the Top Receiver in College Football.  If you can watch a Louisiana Tech Bulldogs game on TV – he is #5 and is a slot receiver.

Yes, I am quite the proud aunt.  And Trent is just so much fun to watch because of how he plays the game.  But I am most proud of the  way this young man leads on the field.  He works so hard – he has to work twice as hard because he is only 5’8″ and weighs like 170 pounds.  He is little for a football player so he has to work very hard to stay ahead of those that are more genetically gifted.  To hear his coaches and others talk about how he “shows up” and gives 150% at every practice and gives his all on every play, it makes my heart swell.  A few games ago, he was tackled and his helmet came off.  When that happens they are required to leave the field to be checked out.  You could tell he didn’t want to go off but knew he had to do so.  He started getting the crowd riled up, moving his arms up and down, jumping around, getting them to cheer.  He is such a leader and what you hope every athlete will grow up to be.

My grandson continues to be my best little buddy and the light of my life.  When I am in town, I pick him up from preschool most every day and keep him until his mom picks him up. We run errands, cook dinner, play outside, or just hang out in the living room like zombies on a phone or iPad.  We talk about important stuff, we build with legos, we throw the football around outside.  It’s so much easier to be a grandparent than it was to be a parent.  Your have more patience, things just don’t bother you, and who cares if the laundry needs to be done, right?

I try to document things he says and does but I wanted to be able to write more about his quirky and fun personality.  Right now he’s into telling jokes.  Four year olds are funny when they tell jokes.  For the first 5 minutes.  Beyond that, not so much.  So be prepared, I’m going to bore you with cute grandson stories.  It’s for me and him, not you. <smile>  Indulge me.

I have so many things for which I am grateful.  2016-07-07-12-00-07I am happy.  My life is good.  And I will begin to write about that again.  Starting today.

A Bit of Progress

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Since I shared my starting points for my home back in January, I have made a little progress.  I thought I would share an update with photos and also share some of the upstairs bedrooms.  Very little is complete but there has been a little bit done to every room that moved it toward the goal.  Some boxes have been put away and some still remain.  I still don’t have a dining room table and don’t expect to for quite some time.  I know what I want but can’t find the right one at the right price.  Isn’t that always the way it is?  AND I just bought a patio set to be able to enjoy this beautiful spring weather so the dining table will have to wait again.

The family room is mostly complete but I change little every now and then.  I love decorating with old books and I have them in several places all over the house.

I finally got a foyer table from World Market and this is the entry way at the front door.  I created sort of a collage wall above it and added some photos, old books and items, and favorite family pieces.  The angel on the right is one from my mom and I have always loved it.  She sits on old family bibles, two from my 3 times great grandmother.  I treasure old family heirlooms and these are very special to me.

The living room is a little more organized and, although I loved all of this in my old house, this is not what my vision looked like here.  I think I am going to have to take it all out and start over!  But that’s another day!  The table between the two chairs holds a lamp from my great grandparents, a box full of old letters and photos, some antique reading glasses, a medical kit from my 3 times great grandfather who was a Dr., some small books of antique maps and a diary from my 4 times great grandfather.  There is also a photo of my great grandparent’s house, later my grandparent’s, in Clarksville, TN before it was renovated.  Many of the old things in my house were in that house.

.The pantry is much more organized now and I have painted one of the barstools for the kitchen, although it is not the color I want and I will have to figure that out before I paint the others.  The upper left photo is my great, great grandmother’s cook books and my grandmother’s and mom’s rolling pins and large crock.

The one room that is finished – the powder room downstairs.

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Let’s go upstairs.  I have not shared any photos yet of the “before” because they were just empty rooms full of boxes.  I have cleared out the boxes and started to put together some “decor” but it is bare minimum.  In fact, one of the mattresses is still on the floor.  One day . . . there will be bed frames and headboards and curtains and dressers.  🙂

Kayson’s room is the only one complete but he is still not used to the house so he doesn’t sleep in it.  When he spends the night, he sleeps with Nana, of course.

The unfinished upstairs – the bonus room, the master bedroom, master bath, master closet, and laundry room.  They are in my plan for the next year and will require new furniture for the bonus room so they are off the radar right now.  And I am the only person that spends any time in the master area and laundry room so I plan on taking my time and really thinking about what I want.  I am VERY lucky that I have a lot of space in these rooms so I can do something fun and creative.

So that’s the progress report.  I would love to hear your creative suggestions for any of the rooms.  Leave a comment with suggestions!

 

Be Still, and Listen

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I have a really hard time being still.   I always seem to need something to do to keep me busy.  On this beautiful spring day, one could hope I could sit out on the patio and just enjoy it.  But no, that was not going to happen.  I tried.  I prepared a drink – brown liquor.  I am, after all, a Southern girl, even on a Sunday.  I brought out my iPad.  Nope.  Not happening.  I squirmed, tired of Facebook surfing and then felt a little guilty that I could not just sit and enjoy this amazing gift that the universe had provided me.

As they do every day, the birds were dipping and soaring around the trees and bushes, having noisy conversations amongst themselves.  I thought about my camera.  I don’t have a lens fast enough or powerful enough to get pictures of moving birds but I decided to bring out the camera and maybe take a few shots, just so I could enjoy nature and my favorite season of spring but have still something to keep me engaged.

I sat on the covered patio with my elbows propped on the table and the camera resting in my hands.  Of course the stubborn birds were nowhere to be seen.  A large yellow butterfly floated by.  Butterflies always remind me of my mom.  I became very still and watched the butterfly as it travelled on it’s winding path, pausing only briefly on the edge of a bush, then moving on.

Birds-4483I became aware of the gentle breeze.  I began to smell the trees.  That fresh, earthy but sweet smell I remembered from childhood.  I sometimes wonder if I have lost my sense of smell but it was there today and it smelled like a memory.

I listened.  The variety of chirps and tweets from the different types of birds felt like a lullaby.  I could hear what sounded like a cricket every now and then.  And then they came.  Birds of all colors – red, blue, yellow, brown, and black.  They landed in the trees around me.  They paused on small bushes that were just beginning to bloom after what I hope was the last gasp of winter’s breath.  Birds-4447

I have never been that interested in the types of birds outside my windows, only that they were there.  I caught a few shots of playful birds that dared to come close, close enough that I could capture a few shots as they danced on the closest, low hanging branches.

I was still.  And quiet.  I listened.  And it calmed my soul.

Welcome Home

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I closed on the 17th of December, 2015.  I moved from the apartment on the 18th.  I moved the majority of my “stuff” from the old house in the storage units on the 21st.  I have been “moving in” for the last 3 – 4 weeks.

 

I wanted to document the before.  When I get finished with the unpacking, the throwing away, the rearranging, the hanging, and the furnishing, I want to have those memories of where I started.  The pictures are dark and not done well since I did them quickly on my cell phone.  As things progress, I promise I will use my camera and do a better job of presenting things.

 

Frankly, it’s a mess and it’s constantly changing.  But’s it’s an exciting mess as it starts to come together.  My sister Mickey was a big help this past weekend.  She came and unpacked boxes, broke down and hauled away tons of empty boxes, helped rearrange and hang things and we just might have done a little shopping too.  It really helped me to feel like we accomplished a lot but there is still so much to do.

 

So come on in and I will give you a tour.  This is the entry which includes the living room and dining.  Every room downstairs is open to the other rooms.  I love the open feel.  The model had the dining room and living room closed in with a wall between.  But the plans had the wall open between the two.  We could not find an example in Knoxville that did not have that wall but I liked the idea of the open concept so I went with it.  I love it!  So happy.   I want to add a narrow console table to the wall in the entry area but have not purchased it yet.  There is one from World Market that I have my eye on.

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The living room is at the front of the house and the dining room is next, with the stairs dividing the front of the house from the back.  The living and dining rooms have pretty much become my staging areas for now.  I am hoping that, by the end of the week, I will have the living room set up and everything moved to the dining room so all the “stuff” is in one area.  I don’t have a dining table yet.  I am looking for a farmhouse style table that will seat 10 – 12 people.  I have lots of space so why not fill it up, right?  I have not found one I like yet at a price I can afford so it will be a journey for that room to come together.

Behind the stairs is the kitchen, dining area, and family room with fireplace.  This area spans the back of the house with a covered patio off the kitchen/eating area.  This space is the only one in which I feel like I have made progress.  I ordered two IKEA gray slipcovered sofas and found 2 patterned chairs on sale at a local furniture store.  I found a TV console cabinet at another local store.  I pulled out my antique trunk, my chippy farmhouse end table and coffee tables, crocks, and other paraphernalia and ordered a rug to pull it all together.  I still have some tweaking and need to hang things on the wall but I feel like the foundation is there now and I just love being in this room.

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I keep saying that the kitchen and pantry were my reasons for buying the house.  I love the open layout, the island, the amount of counter space, the tons of white cabinets, the blue subway tile, the granite and the huge pantry (which is a disorganized disaster right now).  It is my dream kitchen.  The eating area is feeling a little neglected with my 18 year old tile topped farmhouse table with chairs from another kitchen table I used to have.  The area is large and I need a larger table, a round one I think.  Again, that will have to happen down the road so this will have to do for now.

I have actually done some wall decorating and set up a coffee bar in the kitchen/eating area.  I found a coffee maker that does regular brewed coffee and Kuerig pods also.  I still need to get some hooks to hang the coffee mugs and I really want some large white coffee mugs.  More shopping.  Not sure if this will stay this way but for now, it’s up!

As you can see, I love Farmhouse Style.  My favorite show is Fixer Upper.  Joanna Gaines is my Spirit Animal.  🙂  I have many antiques and treasures that belonged to family members like my grandparents and great grandparents.  I love these things and want to keep them out where I can see them and remember the memories associated with them but I also want to add some modern touches too.  I have a lot to do to the upstairs so that will have to be a separate post soon.

 

So I have been in the house almost 4 weeks and this is where I’m starting.  It’s a process and a journey and it will take some time.  The other night, as I sat on my couch in the family room, wrapped in my cozy blanket and the fireplace going, I just kept saying “I love this house, I am so happy”.  I truly am.

On This Day

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I used to write at my first blog, Living The Life of Tere from 2007 until I didn’t anymore.  I was happy there and learned a lot about writing.  My life changed and I was absent from writing about my life, and life in general, for some time. Eventually, I missed it and I started over here.

Every day on Facebook, my feed brings up On This Day.  For those not familiar, it displays your status, photos, and links that you posted on the same date for each of the past years.  It’s interesting to be reminded of the truly random things we share on Facebook, some significant and some that make you wonder why.  And it’s a little weird how we tend to do the same things on the same day in different years.

A few weeks ago, my feed started bringing up my blog posts that were feeding in as Notes.  I remember setting this up but don’t remember when I did it.  It’s been kind of fun because I am seeing the short and the long versions of what was going on in my life over the years.  Thursday’s feed had my blog post about my Dad’s visit to my brother and his family back in 2008.  At the time it was funny and it still is today.  It was about my dad getting food impacted in his esophagus.  Yes, I am aware that does not sound funny but you probably don’t know my family either.  Just read it.  As I look back at it now, Dad having passed away, that event eventually led me to a better understanding of Parkinson’s Disease, the disease that led to my dad’s death in late 2013.

Today’s “note” made me think about my writing and this new blog.  The post was from 2010.  I was attempting to explain my “guardrails” when I started blogging and when choosing what to write about.  Here is an excerpt:

At the time, I made a decision that I would not write about work.  That would just be stupid.  I would also not give details of my children’s lives that might embarrass them at some point.  I only wrote things they would be ok with reading or that their children might read about them later.  I also decided that I would only share personal feelings and thoughts about others that I was okay with that person reading.  Beyond that, everything else was on the table and open for discussion.  I wanted to tell funny stories.  I wanted to be thoughtful.   I wanted to inspire.

It’s a great reminder to me that nothing has really changed.  Those are my rules here also.  It was also the reason I stopped writing that blog.  I could not share without putting my heart into it and my heart was broken.  People I loved had done hurtful things to my family because they were hurt.  At the time, I needed to write about it but I did not want to be hurtful to others.  I wrote on paper to work through it.  I thought about putting it on the blog but decided against it.

I am glad now that I held back and did not cross that line.  Four years later, things are different and getting better.  I am still a little hurt but I’m not angry anymore.  To have had those words out there would not have helped things get better.  And the words would have been there forever.

I first activated On This Day because I thought it was interesting and fun to reminisce a bit about those minor things that happened one year ago, two years ago, six years ago today.  Who knew I would learn lessons?

Temporary

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Everything in my life feels like it’s on hold until . . . whatever.   Waiting for something to be finished. Waiting for someone to respond. Waiting to hear. Waiting until there is permanence. Waiting for life to move on.  I know it’s only temporary like the beautiful tulips on my coffee table.

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On Saturday, they were fresh and colorful with only a few open blooms. On Sunday, they were opening and the black and yellow centers were showing through. Today they are fully open with petals bent back, not even looking like the same flower.

Everything changes. Change keeps things interesting. It also creates opportunities. It disrupts. It ends. And then you start over. And a new normal begins.

It’s Time To Start Again

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I used to have a blog.  From October of 2007 to Oct of 2012, I wrote at “Living The Life of Tere” on Blogger.  Then stuff happened and I stopped.  I had always been very honest in my writing and to write honestly at that time, I would have hurt people with my anger.  And later regretted it.  So I stopped.  I tried to start again but it was just not the same.

Today, I realized I really missed blogging but I wanted to write about different things and share more of my photography.  Things are different now in my life.  I have a grandson and I adore him.  Back then, I was a mom of teenagers.  Now I’m a Nana.  Back then, my mom had just passed away.  Now my dad has passed too.  Back then, my siblings and I were geographically spread out but close and now we are somewhat fractured and working on things.

I could not just go back and pick up where I left off.  So I started over.  I changed platforms and started a whole new blog.  Obviously it will be a work in progress as I learn a new platform and try to figure how to share my life and loves and opinions, and craziness and creativity.

Bear with me.