• Longing for Spring…

    February 20, 2013 / 20 Comments

    I long for Spring.  I long for warm sunshine and a thermometer that proudly proclaims 72 degrees.  Granted, I’m not a fan of hot, humid Summers.  I would be happy if there were just two seasons – Spring and Fall!

    Native Iowans sagely comment that “it’s been a mild Winter”.  Two snowstorms and a few other snows here and there were enough for me, thank you.  Evidently, it isn’t over.  This morning, it is cold and windy and the thermometer appears stuck at 10 degrees!  We’ve been warned that “a ‘blizzard’ is coming tomorrow about noon (they can now predict the time?!) and will last until the following day with heavy accumulation”!

    So, yesterday I reconciled myself to the fact I’d better prepare just in case.  I headed out in yesterday’s 18 degrees accompanied by a brisk wind and the bright sunshine that fooled me into thinking that it was warmer.  I went first to the wonderful library about 3 miles away and stocked up on a stack of knitting books and the new book by Earlene Fowler.  I have 8 new skeins of wonderful yarn for my next project after I finish this one.

    The large, wonderful West Des Moines library.  Designed in a Craftsman style…

    Next, it was to Walgreen’s to refill a prescription and stock up on a few toiletries.  The last stop was the grocery store.  Milk in a glass bottle, bread, a whole roasted chicken, a dozen eggs, organic mixed lettuce and a few other things.  Last night was roast chicken with my meal…today I will make chicken salad with it.  I also baked the Ozark Mountain Apple Cake last night.  If I’m going to be “snowbound”, I may as well have dessert, huh?!

    I hope wherever you are, you’re staying warm and enjoying these days before Spring eventually comes…

  • Sweet Journey Home…

    August 19, 2012 / 2 Comments

    While I shall always be a true Southern Heart, there is a part of me that also loves the Prairie.  I love the gentle rolling hills and the tall prairie grasses that stretch as far as the eye can see and look like gold when the sun strikes them just so.  I love the abundant prairie flowers that grow everywhere.  It is to the Prairie that my sweet journey home has taken me…

    Over the past four years, so many of you read my previous blog, My Southern Heart, and I thank you for that.  I do hope you will stay with me as this sweet journey of mine unfolds.

    I am a mother of three:  two wonderful sons and an amazing, beautiful daughter.  I am most happily a grandmother of eight:  two grandsons and six granddaughters.

    I have been a Registered Nurse since 1978 (though now retired).  I worked in several different fields throughout those years, including Neuro-Trauma, ICU, Cardiac, Medical-Surgical, Child-Psych and Oncology.  Needless to say, Child Psych was both the most rewarding and the most heart wrenching.

    If you were to ask my grandchildren what my greatest role in this life is…they could answer that one in a heartbeat!

    Likes?  Hobbies?  I love the old classic movies, 50?s and 60?s music (well, okay, almost all music!), hymns, knitting, sewing, painting, cooking (especially Southern style!), baking, dancing, writing, decorating and spending time with my family.

    I’ve taken a journey back home to be close to family, close to those I love.  From here, I can travel South in a matter of a very long day.  Who could ask for anything more?