Wednesday, February 5, 2014

Nana's Whimsies Moved!




This will be my final post on this site. Please visit nanaswhimsies at www.nanaswhimsies.com.



I wrote my first blog in 2008.

I had just retired and Bill and I were preparing to leave on a long-planned adventure where we would spend three-and-a-half months traveling around Europe. I was considering ways in which I could stay in contact with my family. I knew telephoning was difficult. Email was a possibility. Someone mentioned I should write a blog.

I had no idea what that meant. A bit of research opened me up to the then-relatively new world of blogging. I developed my first blog – The Reluctant Traveler. Each day for three plus months I shared our delightful, sometimes frightening, often funny experiences as we explored a world where we didn’t know how to ask for directions to the bathroom. Der badezimmer. Los Servicios. Cabinet de toilette. Il Bagno. The loo.

When we returned from our travels, many people asked if I was going to continue blogging since they had enjoyed reading what I wrote. I always said I would love to, but my everyday life was pretty quiet and uneventful. What would I say?

But I missed writing. I dabbled, but never dove right in.

Late last summer, my sister Jen suggested I start a blog. She convinced me that I didn’t need to be living the life of a movie star to blog, but only needed to be willing to share my family, my life, my feelings, and my time with others. I could write a blog about nothing. More specifically, I could write a blog about anything that was tickling my fancy. My whimsies.

I initially thought I would do a blog largely dedicated to cooking. I love to cook. I had sort of a vague notion that I would like to show others who fear cooking that there was really nothing to it. It didn’t take me long to realize that a cooking blog – at least a blog dedicated specifically to cooking – wasn’t really what I wanted to do. For one thing, I’m not a terribly good cook. I follow recipes. My siblings are much better cooks.

I went back to my notion of writing about whatever interested me, and decided I would gear my words to an audience of Baby Boomers -- people like me (though anyone is welcome!). That’s what I have been trying to do. It’s not always easy. Don’t get me wrong. For me, the writing is always easy. But as I said earlier, I live a simple, unspectacular life. Who cares about me? Many days the most exciting thing I do is sort laundry.

I mostly am excited about developing my blog and expanding my audience. But I have terrible moments of great anxiety and self-doubt. It didn’t help yesterday when I asked 3-year-old Austin, who at the moment was running in circles around his house, his thoughts. “Do you like my blog?” I asked him as he ran by in a blur. “No,” he said over his shoulder as he ran away from me. Maybe he’s just a tough audience since he can’t read.

“Do you like my blog?” I asked my sister Jen a little later.

She assured me she did. She said her favorite posts are the ones in which I share my soul. I’m never one to be reluctant about sharing my thoughts and fears and joys with others. It’s just that for me, like everyone else, most days just pass without my even thinking about my soul. I’m too busy worrying about the guacamole stain on my jeans.

I mentioned a couple of days ago that I am going all-in with nanaswhimsies.com, and I’m excited about it. Kind of scared, but mostly not. I want to entertain people. I want to share my soul. I want to teach. I want to let my family and friends know what we’re up to. I want to write.

So I will keep plugging along. Tell me how I’m doing. Give me suggestions. Share recipes and family stories. Send pictures. Stay in touch.

Tuesday, February 4, 2014

Hail Mary, Full of Grace

As I said at the beginning of the year, instead of making vague and mostly unrealistic “New Year’s Resolutions” I was going to set a goal at the beginning of each month, and see if I can meet my goal. For January, I vowed to increase the level of water I consume. I was very specific, as I vowed I would be. I said my goal was that I would drink eight glasses of water a day.

So, how did I do? So-so, really. I definitely increased the amount of liquids I consumed. I seldom actually drank eight glasses of water a day. I did, however, almost always drink at least six glasses of liquid a day (and that didn’t count wine or martinis, Smarty Pantses). I had a rather lively conversation this month about what can count as liquid, and I refer you to this article on WebMD. See? Coffee DOES count. Neener, neener, neener. (This, by the way, is probably what Eli Manning is saying to his brother Peyton these days when talk turns to Super Bowl rings. But, I digress.)

By and large, I am more aware of my body’s need for fluid. In fact, I bought the water bottle pictured above at Target. It holds 24 oz. of liquid. I try, and am almost always successful, to drink one bottle each day. Big improvement.

On to my February goal……

This month I am dedicated to work on my prayer life. I want to pray more and better. I don’t think I’m a great pray-er. Each time I pray, in the back of my mind I am thinking, “Why would God listen to me when so many people are praying right now, right this very minute?” I know the answer is Because He’s God, but I can’t seem to shake that thought.

Since I am committed to making my goals specific, I plan on adding a specific prayer to my day – a daily rosary. My non-Catholic readers are saying, “Oh, bah!” My Catholic readers are smiling.
In my way of thinking, the rosary is nearly perfect prayer. Keep in mind, I’m not saying IT’S THE PERFECT PRAYER. I am saying that the rosary is nearly perfect, at least for me.

People who don’t understand the Catholic faith often misconstrue Catholics’ devotion to Mary. Catholics do not pray to Mary, we pray with Mary. We ask Mary to pray for us. In the same way that we might ask a friend or sister or priest to pray for us or for a special devotion, we ask Mary to pray for us. That’s it. It’s not complicated. I have always had a special devotion to Mary because she is a woman – like me – and a mother – like me. When I had issues with my son as he grew up, I loved being able to ask Mary to pray for me because she knows what it is like to worry about your children and want to prevent them from making mistakes. God answers prayers, not Mary. But Mary is a good person to have in your camp, no?

The rosary is simple: In its most basic form, it consists of four prayers – the Lord’s Prayer, the Hail Mary, the Glory Be, and the Apostles Creed.

The Apostles Creed is simply a declaration of our beliefs as Christians. The Lord’s Prayer is Jesus’ own words of prayer, how he taught us to pray. The Glory Be is a simple prayer to God in the Blessed Trinity. Hail Mary is a prayer encompassing the Biblical words of Elizabeth to Mary when she came to call on her: Hail Mary, full of grace; the Lord is with you. Blessed are you amongst women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. It ends with us asking Mary to pray for us.

With each rosary, you go through a period of time in Jesus’ life on earth. Each rosary looks at a different part of Jesus’ life and work. As you pray, you ponder. The prayer is repetitive and therefore meditative, at least to me. Yesterday morning, out of curiosity, I did a test. I took my blood pressure before I said my rosary, and then again just after. My blood pressure decreased by 20 points. I kid you not. I’m not implying that this was any kind of miracle; I’m only saying that the rosary provides 15 minutes of peace in my life. It calms me.
As I say my rosary each day this month, I will be saying it for a specific intention. And Mary will be at my side.

As an aside, my mother was a big fan of the rosary. She said it often. Her rosary, at least the rosary she had in the final years of her life, was silver, with the tiniest little beads you can imagine. It made sense because my mother was a tiny woman with small fingers. The rosary was perfect for her. Square beads, as I recall. She died with it in her hands. It is remarkable and sad to me to recall that we all neglected to ask for that rosary after she died. I’m sure it got lost somewhere in the hospital laundry. I hope someone found it and uses it with the same devotion as Mom.

How do you pray? Do you pray? Does it come easy for you?

For dinner last night, given the chilly 50-something degree weather in the evening, I made a pot of chili. To go with it, I made Toasted Cheesy Bread.

Toasted Cheesy Bread

Ingredients
Texas Toast
Butter
Seasoned Salt
Mozerella cheese, shredded
Parmesan cheese, grated

Process
Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
Take out the number of slices of toast you wish to make. Spread generously with butter. Sprinkle seasoned salt onto the bread. Cover with both cheeses.

Bake for 5 – 7 minutes, until cheese is melted and browned.

Nana’s Notes: I put the bread on a pizza stone to crisp up.

Monday, February 3, 2014

The Times, They Are A Changin'

Come gather 'round people
Wherever you roam
And admit that the waters
Around you have grown
And accept it that soon
You'll be drenched to the bone
If your time to you
Is worth savin'
Then you better start swimmin'
Or you'll sink like a stone
For the times they are a-changin'.

-Bob Dylan

Well, those lyrics are a much too dramatic for the change I’m telling you about in this post, but those lyrics just give me goosebumps. Things really did change in the 60s and 70s, no question about it. Baby boomers were growing up and changing the world.

Anyhoo, I want to tell you about an exciting change in my blog.

Nana’s Whimsies is moving to a new platform, with a slightly different address. I gave Blogger everything I could, but I couldn’t get it to do what I wanted it to do for me. Perhaps it was user error on my part, but in the end it doesn’t matter. It had problems. The most significant issue was that some of you could comment, but many, many of you were unable to do so. I don’t know why. My friend and new web designer Will tells me it might have something to do with third-party cookies. Friends, the only cookies I care a hoot about are those that have sugar and flour and butter and chocolate chips or peanut butter or cinnamon sugar. Those I understand. The kind of cookies that keep you from communicating with me – no clue, no desire to get a clue.

I love blogging. Truly I do. I love to write, and I love to share my quirky life with friends, old and new. I have been taking baby steps because I needed to know if I really had the commitment it takes to blog. I wasn’t sure if 1) I was disciplined enough to sit down and write every day, and 2) If enough happened to me to write about.

I have found that I LOVE to sit down and write. It makes me happy and stretches my brain. And while not a lot of exciting things happen in my quiet and simple life, I always have something to say. Being the owner and publisher of a blog has helped me to look at life in a different way, and that’s a good thing.

So I’m going all in. My old blog – nanaswhimsies.blogspot.com – will be going away. I have obtained my own domain name – nanaswhimsies.com – and I will be operating from that platform. I’m serious about blogging, and I’m serious about being able to communicate with the people who read my blog. I’m also serious – very serious – about building my readership. You all can help me with this process. Tell your friends. Share me on Facebook. Help me get the word out about my blog. And communicate with me. Respond to what I say and give me ideas about what to blog.

This will be a work in progress. For a period of time, I will likely run both platforms until I’m fully satisfied that my new domain is working just fine. Please, please try to comment on the new site. I want to hear from you. I want to know who is reading my blog. I continue to fear my two sisters are my only readers and they only read it because otherwise I will glare at them at our next family function. Or tell Mom.

New address:

www.nanaswhimsies.com

That’s it. Simple, huh?

See you at nanaswhimsies!

One word about the Broncos….

I am happy we made it to the Super Bowl. Only two teams do that each year, and we were one of the two. Yay for us. However, I’m sad for Peyton Manning because I know he wanted to put this one in the win file and bring home a ring. Many of us understand sibling rivalry, and you KNOW Eli sits around the dinner table with a ring on two of his fingers and allows the light to reflect off them into Peyton’s eyes and says, “Oh Peyton, is the light off my ringSSSSS bothering you?”

It would have been fun if the Broncos had made it a good game, but que sera sera. And there’s always next year. And I love my Denver Broncos!

Every year I'm sad when football season is over. It’s a long time until preseason. But at least we have something to look forward to this year. On to the Olympics!

Saturday, February 1, 2014

Saturday Smile: Where is Mo Mo?

Beginning today, my Saturday blog post will be called Saturday Smile. I am going to devote a couple of sentences to something that made me smile during the past week. It may be something I blogged about; it may be something I witnessed or heard about; it may be something one of my grandkids or great nieces or great nephews or friends said or did. It’s whatever made me smile.

So:

My granddaughter Mylee has had a stuffed monkey since she was a baby. The monkey’s name is Mo Mo. When you see photos of Mylee, it’s like reading one of those “Where’s Waldo” books. Where’s Mo Mo? Because you know he’s there somewhere. And if he doesn’t happen to make it in that photo, he is somewhere just out of the lens’ reach.

For example:





So, the smile this week was a photo of a picture that Mylee drew this week:


Yes, Friends. It’s a portrait of Mo Mo.