Gravel Road Musings

  istockphoto.com I walked into the kitchen this morning, feeling good about the fact that I had gotten up when my alarm rang the first time. I was going to have an extra amount of time to sit and enjoy the peace and quiet, which tells you I have been hitting the snooze button way too many times lately.  The first thing I noticed was this brown puddle on the floor. What in the world? Did Dave dump his coffee? But he wouldn't just walk away and leave the mess if he did. No, his coffee mug was still in the drainer. So what happened? Ahh, there I see it, the coffee pot is sitting there by itself away from the coffee maker. Hmm, it did a very bad job of catching the coffee this morning and our coffee maker is smart enough to tell me it won't run if I didn't empty the grounds out of the basket, but it's not smart enough to figure out the coffee pot isn't where it belongs? That's a problem and it created a very big problem this morning.  So instead of sitting in my ch...

 I don't like to think of myself as a procrastinator, but the truth is coming hard at me that that label fits me a lot more than I like to think.  I'm supposed to be reading something inspirational or doing my devotions by 5:30 AM Monday through Friday, but more often than not I hit the Instagram button about 5:27 and you know what happens then. Maybe that is just a lack of self-control. By 7:00 AM, I'm supposed to be pulling myself out of my comfy chair and getting dressed and ready for the day. But....I can find I need to read another chapter or browse a little more online or or or. And soon, Logan comes upstairs and then I need to talk to him and read him a story and soon it is 7:20 or later. This puts the whole morning back a bit and I am soon running later than I like to be. While this doesn't matter now, it will matter come fall when I have a scholar to get off to school.  And then, the ultimate test came this week when I was sitting at the table supposed to be pl...

I was just looking back through my blog posts and realized that May was the last time I wrote a blog post that wasn't a book review. That makes me sad because I do like writing blog posts. I write book reviews because I get free books for doing it, but I write blog posts because I enjoy the writing process. I don't count myself a professional by any means, but good grief, I won't improve if I don't practice.  In fact, I just got a book off of NetGalley that I am super excited about. It's called "My Unedited Writing Life..." You can read more of my thoughts about it  here . The reason I'm excited about it is that I want to use it to generate more blog posts that aren't book reviews and aren't just stuffy me-trying-to-fill-space posts either. I don't know yet what it will look like, but I certainly want to write more than once every 6 months. A lot has happened since I last posted. Baking season has come and gone and it was a real...

The ringing phone interrupted me as I stood by my car on a sunny Tuesday afternoon four years ago. Stopped in the middle of a conversation about my dad's looming heart surgery, I was jolted, stunned and changed by the news that a very good friend had died in childbirth. So out of our control. Nearly three years later, another ringing phone jolted us from our normal Monday evening activities. I was cleaning up the kitchen from supper when the call came telling us that D's mom and dad were in an accident and it didn't look good for Mom. Another phone call later and our worst fears were confirmed, Mom had passed away, killed instantly. Again, out of our control And now exactly four years later, on a Friday evening, we sat at the kitchen table eating a snack when the phone rang again. Again, it was a phone call we were not expecting, but a phone call that irrevocably changed our lives. No nobody had died, as D kept repeating throughout the weekend, but our lives will ...

Okay, it's official. I've never been a person to just gush over a season. I can't tell you that I just love Fall or Winter or Summer or Spring. I think I just like the changing seasons and have no real preference for anyone. However, I have concluded, I don't really like Spring. Yes, I just said that. Oh, I know, spring is a time of new growth, greening grass, and tender shoots of whatever bulbs were buried in the ground. But, let's face it, here in northern Wisconsin, spring is yucky. It's mud. This year it is lots of water as warm weather and rain combine to melt the snow faster than it can soak into a frozen earth. It is lots of lovely slippery ice on driveways making it treacherous walking. And it is dirty, oh so dirty. The snowbanks lose their whiteness and become grey and brown and rocky, depending on your winter snow plow.  But then again, I suppose it isn't technically spring yet, but let's face another fact about living in northern Wisco...

  Last year I had a goal of sewing many, many quilts. That got derailed a bit because of running a home bakery last summer, but I still managed to sew quite a few. But this year, I recognized from the beginning that quantity wasn't going to be a focus this year: there's just the plan to have too much going on this year.  Mom makes a quilt for each of her grandchildren when they turn ten and she really wants to get those finished this year, just to have them done. There are four left to do and the above picture is an example of the one I sewed on already this year. It's not a true example because I couldn't get my sample block to send via email so I could post it. So that one is about half-sewed and the next one is started. Today, we hope to finish cutting the last one and I hope to have them all sewed up by the middle of February, my part at least. Mom often sews them together and always puts the borders on. Let's say that laying out a quilt at my house with a...

So how many make New Year's Resolutions? How many keep them? I don't make resolutions, at least that's not what I call them. I make goals, generally a long, long list of lofty goals that I'm fully prepared to keep, but then kind of forget about them except for the occasional glimpse I get now and then at the list. But this year, this year will be different. Of course, it will be. That's what everyone says every year. I do actually have a bit of a better plan in place this year. For one, I tried not to go all out like I have some years. I tried to keep the goals a bit smaller because I know this year could be really busy, but I'm also trying to keep much closer tabs on my goals and setting smaller ones that will add up to the big ones, if that makes sense. For instance, in my reading life, I want to read 8 classics or otherwise scary titles that seem lofty and above me, I want to read 12 books I already own or have borrowed, 12 Newberry Award or honor boo...

January February: the morning of Dave's Mom's funeral: the worst week of the year. Death is hard, sudden death is really hard and what seemed to us to be human negligence in proper care of the deceased and the death becomes brutal and even more of an emotional roller coaster than it already was. But God is faithful. We saw that so much through that week and even after we returned home in the care that was given to us. To all who cared, thank you. And to the one who contributed to our house rent, thank you from the bottom of our hearts!! My little bobble head. It's hard to believe now that he was once a bit scrawny. I was so worried about his lack of growth. Now? He eats as much or more than his sister most days.  Amber's "melting" snowman. It kept leaning precariously the longer it was standing. Her birthday party was in March, a month late. We were all in New Jersey the month before.  April May: get a load of those baby blues ...

I don't know if I have harped about this on here lately, I can't remember, but this is something that can almost smother me with its intensity.  Am I living intentionally? Am I being an intentional mom? An intentional wife? An intentional friend? I mean, really should I have prioritized those or just listed them randomly.  I feel like to really be an intentional mom, I have to remember intentionally all.the.time.  Okay, is everyone sick of intentional yet? But seriously, it is something that haunts my days, that I think about in the still of the house when both children are napping, when I read books that talk about intentional parenting, when I stop and consider how quickly my three year old is becoming more preschool than toddler and how my baby is not so infant anymore. And it does haunt me. I like to see production, I like to see visible results that my day accomplished something. I thought about that yesterday when my three-year-old was exhibiting characteristics...

And the little man is 5 months old already. And yes, he is almost always ready with a smile. You'll get a laugh the quickest if you are his sister.  He is appearing to be the skinny one in the family, growing by miniscule amounts each week.  He is loving food for the most part: squash, apples, bananas, avocados. Peas? No thank you. After trying them three different times, I still couldn't get him to eat them.  Really mom, you're pulling my shirt down why? Sibling love Even if today, she starts crying and saying, "Logan pinched me." I can see how the next few years will go. LOL.  And so another month rolls around in the Glick household. How are we through the first month of 2018 already? I don't have as a good of a handle on my goals as I wanted. I don't have my life down pat like it was going to be by this time.  But I console myself with the fact that it's February, a whole brand new month to try again, to work on for...

So way back in 2011, Dave and I had this conversation about pie. And the challenge went forth to make 50 pies, all different, no repeats. Well, I made it to the teens somewhere and I don't know what happened, but something did because that is where it stopped. I made pie since then just not in an intentional manner to create 50 different kinds of pie. But the other week I tried a new pie crust. Believe it or not, it actually didn't really shrink much. That is amazing for me. It involved odd steps that I was not used to like freezing my shortening and grating frozen butter into the mixture, then refrigerating, then rolling out the crust and then refrigerating again. Line the pie with tinfoil and fill it with beans and back at a normal temperature for 45 minutes. All things I hadn't been doing, but you know what? I ended up with a very delicious pie crust that pleased me greatly. There was a small shrinkage, but not much. That simple act reminded me once again of the Pie ...

Okay, I just had a post done in which I had pictures posted and everything. I went to publish it and it said there was a conflict and I needed to hit the back button the browser. I did and ended up with a blank screen. I had my Pie No. 6 & 7 and pics of the quilt I had made, the azalea D bought me and our naughty puppies. So please feel free to imagine any or all of the above. They were lovely, even though the pics didn't do justice anyway. Pie No. 6 was a Coconut Cream Meringue Pie that was wonderful. Pie No. 7 was an Old-Fashioned Custard Pie that was exactly the opposite. While having a nice texture, it had an odd taste. I don't know if it was the nutmeg flavor or if it took on a flavor in the fridge. It will be food for the pigs, I believe. Anyway, that is all. I struggled to get these pics uploaded in the first place and I have no intentions of trying again. I am off to make stuffed animals. Hopefully, my sewing machine will not talk about editing conflicts...

It appears as though this post never was posted. Not sure what happened there. If this truly is a repeat, just ignore it and then ignore me. Pie No. 6 was a yummy Coconut Cream Meringe Pie. It looked quite pretty when I took it out of the oven. I really have no food taking abilities, but I try anyway. I want to blame at least some of it on the camera. Pie No. 7 was an Old-Fashioned Custard Pie. Not even worth a picture. It is awaiting a trip to the pig pen. It had a lovely texture, but a very odd taste. I think it was the nutmeg I put in; either that or it took on the taste of something else that was in the fridge. Not very good. Wanted to try a Pink Lemonade Pie this weekend, but D turned up his nose, so I guess we will wait on that. I think it sounds pretty good.... Well, next up was going to be a pic of us on our 2 nd anniversary, or a day before, I guess. However, it appears that I accidentally erased it and I have already tried 3 times to get all the pics and the right ones uploa...

So life or babies have a way of turning your plans upside down. I had been struggling to get enthused about making food for our church fellowship meal tomorrow. Finally, thought I had it narrowed down to a hotdish concoction of meat on the bottom, then some sliced potatoes, cheese sauce, then veggies and then cheese across the top. You know it's a requirement for all good church hotdishes to have cheese on them. Anyway, this was my own made up thought because everything I wanted to make needed the oven and our group at church has a tendency to do oven dishes and then we run out of oven room. So that was going to be the main dish and then I was going to make a Coconut Cream Meringue Pie and a Old-Fashioned Custard Pie in keeping with my pie tradition. But instead, I am here at work. The roasts that I put in the crock pot this morning are at home merrily cooking away and I am just hoping they are not burning to a crisp or drying out to some chewy leather. The Pies? Well, I don...

So, it's been awhile since I've posted. I'm at work right now, but have a little down time, so thought I would say hi to everyone. Tonight, we are going to attempt our 3rd camping trip of the year. Rain has occurred at every other camping trip so far, and this one doesn't look so favorable. We got a good dump this morning and now I am hoping that will be it. But the beautiful thing is, the rain has decreased the thermometer's rising levels. Wow!!! It was warm the last few days. Warm enough to make me almost crabby. Most of it was pretend, but I wouldn't have done well with a child. Warm flesh against my warm flesh would have about done me in. But of course, I am sure when you have a child, all such selfish inclinations flee and I would have been content and happy rocking my baby to sleep while the sweat slithered gracelessly down my back, my forehead, my neck..... Is that how it works? Yesterday, was a bad day at work; the main computer crashed first t...

So here's a small recap of my week. I'm not sure why I'm doing this, except I think to emphasize what I did with a lot of my spare time this week. Okay, maybe not a lot of my spare time, but some of it. Sunday: stayed home from church due to cough and bad nose. This caused everyone to assume I was PG. It's ridiculous the way people jump to conclusions. Okay, maybe not everyone assumed this, but.....it sounds so much better to say everyone. Oh and my dad came to spend a couple days helping D on the barn. Monday: I worked, then in the evening I browsed the great world wide web for canning recipes. More like I browsed http://tastykitchen.com/ for some of their recipes. Tuesday: I worked all day from 8:30 to about 9:45 helping a mother labor her child into the world. Let's say, she had a lusty voice and made the comment that she often has a sore throat after delivery. I understand why. Wednesday: I weeded the garden for a little in the morning until I decided that ankl...

Now that is a dramatic Title. I bet no one knows what is going to come under this post. Well, that is true, because even I am not sure what all I am going to post. It's going to be more random here and I will try not to take half the post to tell you how random this will be. So the secretary and I at work are coming up with a new business--selling T-shirts. Somehow, I think we will have to branch out beyond our normal customer base and get out of our comfort zone. But these will be medical specific shirts. The main color will be blue and pink, I guess and then in white or black words across the front, it will say, "GOT LYME?" and below that will be a picture of a little tiny tick or a bulls eye rash. Seriously, that is the rage right now. Even if your tests come back negative, I am sure you still have Lyme. And it is always Lyme or Lyme disease, never Lymes. Even, when the most liberal lab out there says your test is negative; if the ever-present chiropractor s...

It's Tuesday. Tuesdays are wonderful days because I get the whole morning at home to catch up on stuff there. And I did get some stuff accomplished this morning: - Bran muffins made and they turned out very yummy - Granola made and nearly done - Last load of laundry is in the washer - After the granol is done, I am off to fold laundry and then to sew. I enjoy sewing, but not just any kind of sewing. I'm not a big fan of sewing clothes, though I don't mind it if everything goes well. I like to sew quilts; they may be more challenging in some respects, but much easier in others. I've been pondering this thing of stillness and quietness. I read a part of a verse in Psalms that has stuck out to me. "I have stilled and quieted my soul..." Do I do that? Not on a real regular basis, I don't. I get too busy doing other things that are not near so important as resting and being still before God. How do I change my habits? It's not going to be easy, but I want t...