Throwback Thursday

 

April 2018

I looked back on my blog and I have never shared this picture before. It is at Devil's Backbone. The Devil's Backbone is a rock formation know as a hogback. I am in back in the picture. My Dad is in tan Fodor. So much boy power in this photo. This was during our Spring Break.

I love this picture of my dad. We had a great hike to come up here.  

Wordy Wednesday

 

Weekly Roll

Linky Love

Automated Starter Maker - this sounds very interesting. Why is it so hard to remember to feed your starter?

Gold and Greed on Netflix and the re-hiding of Fenn's Treasure.  I haven't watched but I definitely want to. Guess there are clues in the documentary.

California Jane Doe identity solved 60 years later with DNA

Inappropriate Thoughts

I really had a random week.  Started with a blood draw for my son and ended up with a blood draw for my dog.  One of our dogs is diabetic.  I visited a state vocational office and a neurologist. None of these appointments for me. I paid taxes the most we have ever owed. OUCH! The cherry on the top was no electricity on Saturday so our electrical box could be upgraded.

Trash Talk

Well the most interesting thing found was a decapitated barbie and my husband found 11 cents.  This was the last weekend of Spring Break, so the amount of trash was minimal. 

Wordy Wednesday

 

Weekly Roll - Basketball Adjacent

 

Former Blazers player and now retired from the NBA, Meyers Leonard has a country song - Good in Goodbye.

***This post was supposed to be for last week but never posted. However, it ties better into March Madness, right

Linky Love

Running Point - Watch this on Netflix.  I thoroughly enjoyed this series. 

There was a request for M&M cookies - Robbi's M&M cookies fit the bill

Inappropriate Thoughts

Well my son was contacted by the Pharmacy Experience Team. It made me laugh. The one medication is hard to obtain due to lack of supply. Insurance has been extremely unhelpful and challenging to obtain the proper medication. The thought that the insurance cares one wit about his customer experience is laughable.

Trash Talk

I won at the trash game last Sunday. I found panties. Thank the lord for tongs. My friend said my band name is "Park Panties".  Don't think about it too much.

Recycled Art Show - My Bird Era

 

Artesia Clean and Beautiful hosted an art show at the library. I of course contributed the bird art above called Priority Mail. I swear I have reached the end of my security envelope birds. Below are some of the art entries.

Throwback Thursday

 

My mom gave me this picture a couple years back. Yep, I was a Brownie.  I was in Girl Scouts until High School, and I earned the Gold Award similar to the Eagle for Boy Scouts. Scouting was a huge part of my elementary through high school years. I carried this picture in my purse for a good long while. Ever had anything get lost in your purse?

I talk about an adventure I had with the Girl Scouts on a long-ago throwback Thusday. I had to sell a ton of cookies and candy bars for that trip and probably calendars too.

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Wordy Wednesday

 

This is the title of Ina Garten's Memoir and also makes a great letterboard quote.

Booking it March

 I am linking up with Modern Mrs. Darcy's quick lit. Check out what everyone else has been reading.

 I have been working on a challenging read for me for book club, so I have been reading something completely different than that to balance out.  That book has been Vanderbilt by Anderson Cooper and Katherine Howe

I thought it was well written, and I enjoyed the overview of all the famous Vanderbilts. I have read other books about them, but this one stands out. I especially liked reading about Alva Vanderbilt as it has tied into other things I have been reading. All the excess of the gilded age is discussed and the rise of the Vanderbilt's in society and the downfall of having too much money. Who better to tell these tales than Anderson Cooper who is related to the Vanderbilt's.

In the past I have Read - American Duchess about Consuelo Vanderbilt and her autobiography The Glitter and the Gold

52 Ancestors - Roots Tech Wrap Up

 Last weekend I spent a lot of time taking classes at Root Tech.  Roots Tech is a in person and online genealogy conference held in Salt Lake City, Utah. I think I took 12 classes online. This year they offered a BYU beginner track. I found those interesting and a good way to get back to good fundamentals of genealogy. BYU has an in-person Family History Degree.  There was a lot of discussion of the use of AI in genealogy research. It is interesting to see where all that is leading too.

My favorite class had two parts of Mining the Census.  There is so much, and so little information contained in them.  I also attended a few German Genealogy courses.  One of the ancestors I have come from Germany, and it is my brick wall aka dead end.   Above all I got a lot of good information and some new methods for breaking down my brick walls.  Things didn't consider doing or records I didn't know about. Have you ever heard of a German Gazetteer?

Based on these classes. I will be revisiting two brick walls/ancestors I have hit a dead end on.

Jane Marie Devault  (Maternal Line) I have some avenues I am going to research.   I am also going to revisit some of my research. I am going to make a good research plan. Part of my plan involves looking for a Best Known Match and I think I have found one, so I am going to try to use that to connect to my tree.

John Lendman - (Paternal Line) I took a number of German Genealogy classes, and I plan to use a German Gazetteer to help me identify where in German he may have come from.  I have a place name.

Sourdough Saga - Something went horribly wrong

 I have been making discard sourdough bread about once a month.  I make two batches that is a total of 4 loaves. Well, I thought to myself since I am starting my liquid diet day for my colonoscopy procedure. I would make bread to keep myself busy.  

Things went horribly wrong.  I want to blame the prep, but I honestly think it was my scale. I use the scale for weights instead of measurements.  I had trouble getting it to go to grams.  I ended up with a colossal ball of dry dough and the other batch I ran out of flour.  I couldn't use my kitchen aid mixer without dividing it. This was not how it usually turned out.  I tried to save it, but I ended up throwing out the whole thing. I had flour and starter everywhere.  My kitchen was a mess.  Sometimes you have disaster. I now have a new scale so hopefully I will attempt again. Stay tuned for redemption loaves and a new scale.

Throwback Thursday

 

March 10, 2013

This is of my oldest son. We found a geocache on this sculpture. The sculpture is located in Burlington/Mount Vernon, Washington area. I checked geocaching.com and this cache has been archived.

Wordy Wednesday

 

Weekly Roll- Spring Forward

Did You SPRING forward?

 Linky Love

Walking Yoga - this is intriguing

The Beautiful Pursuit - Floret 3-part documentary on Flower Farmers - I haven't watched yet, but it is on my to do list

Inappropriate Thoughts

I have been a little MIA this week.  I got to have a colonoscopy so that took up the beginning of this week.  Yes, I drank all the prep and did all the things. By the way, March is Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month

Deep Thoughts

We had a number of dust storms. Evidently this is March in New Mexico.  I had to drive in one this past Monday. It wasn't fun and above all it wasn't all that smart. I don't like driving in a brown out any more than a white out. 

Surprise I made REAL Sourdough Bread

I rarely make real sourdough bread. I find it really time consuming to make.  I do make a lot of discard sourdough bread.  However, I thought what the heck and last week I made Venison for Dinner's Sourdough Sandwich Bread. Kate's straightforward approach and easily followed directions make this less complicated.

Venison for Dinner Sourdough Sandwich Bread- I made two loaves, so I made two separate batches. I had to scale up my sourdough starter a few days before. The bread is delicious. I am not a fan of a super dark crust. I think I would have baked for less time. I like to bake in loaves and the crumb was nice and tight perfect for sandwich making.

Throwback Thursday

Snow Writing says, "Didn't expect this did you".

I am not sure who wrote this message March 6, 2019. I expect it was my youngest son. This was on our back patio at our home in Ferndale Washington.

 I am in the process of digitizing my photos and cleaning up my camera roll. I thought I would start sharing a photo from the archives so to speak. It will be from the same date but in the past.

Weekly Roll

 

Nonna's Cat Annie Oakley

Linky Love

The Superbowl of Genealogy Conferences is happening next weekend - Rootstech. It is possible to attend online for many of the courses and free. Thursday through Saturday you will find me online here.

6 things to buy at JoAnn's before they close- Sad to see this place close but I no longer near one.

Rabbit Hole TV Viewing

    Curious Case - Doomsday Cat Cult started in Bellingham, WA. This use to be my old stomping grounds

    Big Family, Big City - Oh very Duggars and very Willis family

Deep Thoughts

Lately I have been having a lot of anticipatory anxiety. It is unreasonable but yet I do even when I know the outcome will be alright. 

Resurrected Starter and Ugly Buns

I neglected my starter for all of December and a few days into January. There was a lot of hooch on the top. I am pleased to say after a couple of feedings, "The Beast" (what I am calling my starter unofficially) came right back to her perky bubbly self. I have been making discard bread but yet no sourdough bread. Maybe the time is soon.

I tried my hand at Swedish Rolls, and I am officially calling them Ugly Buns.  They are very delicious though. I have to say this dough is sticky. The recipe is from Farmhouse on Boone - Sourdough Cinnamon Swedish Buns.

Throwback Thursday

Feb 27, 2017

 I am in the process of digitizing my photos and cleaning up my camera roll. I thought I would start sharing a photo from the archives so to speak. It will be from the same date but in the past.

I did childcare before school started.  This little boy loved Godzilla. I mean he loved Godzilla.  We spent a lot of time drawing on kraft paper big cityscapes for Godzilla. I know it was a snowy day from the other photos in my camera roll. I drank a lot of coffee, and the mug is from my best friend's trip to Hawaii. I called it my hot Kool-Aid.  This kid often arrived between 530 am and 6 am and was always ready to play.  It was early. I found the project life spread in my archives.  

Weekly Roll

Linky Love

Ina Garten 4 Ingredient No Bake Cookies I think I need to try these

Dime Test for Kitchen Aid Mixer - I think I need to do this to my mixer.

Inappropriate Thoughts

I don't understand how my son's brain works. He showed me this review he had left. I have known for a while he has called a Jesus statue at a local church "Sad Jesus."  When I first heard him say it, I was like "What are you talking about."  Since moving here, I have been by this church and statue many times and the name Sad Jesus has stuck.

Deep Thoughts

Our Author meet was on Tuesday with Ina Garten, "Be Ready When the Luck Happens". Below were some of my favorite takeaways.

Recipe for Friendship - Surround yourself with people you feel love for and show them "You Matter to Me."

Women use to feel like they had to act like a man now they just need to act like themselves.

My favorite day is an ordinary day

Book Club Sidequest

My project this year was to write about all the little side quests I take. These are adventures I do that aren't really part of my everyday routine. I thought I would share this one.  We read in Governerds Book Club, "Be Ready When the Luck Happens" by Ina Garten. There was a recipe in there for Coconut Cupcakes. I decided for our Author zoom I would make these for Nonna and my family.  I realize this is very extra. This was my first time making any of Ina's recipes. My youngest helped me as he was off of work.  

The naked cupcake was mine as I can't do the cream cheese frosting. I thought these were delicious. Ina likes her butter and eggs though. I am not much of a cupcake fan, and this was a bit labor intensive but worthy of its 5-star rating.

My review of Ina's book 

Ina's Coconut Cupcake Recipe

Throwback Thursday

I am in the process of digitizing my photos and cleaning up my camera roll. I thought I would start sharing a photo from the archives so to speak. It will be from the same date but in the past. Does that make sense. 

Feb 20,2022

This is from a visit to Carlsbad, New Mexico. It was up by the Living Desert Zoo which is on a hill. This was February 20,2022

Wordy Wednesday

 

What I Read February

 I am linking up with Modern Mrs Darcy's Quick Lit. Check out what everyone else is reading.

Be Ready When the Luck Happens - Ina Garten

This was our Book Club book. I am looking forward to our Author meet. I was not very familiar with Ina before reading her memoir. Ina is a risk taker. She went from writing policy papers on Nuclear Energy to owning the Barefoot Contessa which launched her culinary career. This book is more about her career than a deep dive into her personal life.  Many people in our book club said it was a love letter to her husband, Jeffery. I hope that everyone has a Jeffrey in their lives. Someone who will support your dreams whatever they are.  

I haven't tried any of her recipes but hope to bake something for our author meet to eat while we watch our meeting.

Weekly Roll

 I just realized I have only read one book this year. I obviously haven't been well.  I need to work on that. A lot of my reading is for the book club I belong to so I thought I would share what I am reading next and what other clubs are reading. That is where I get a lot of book recommendations. I read a lot of non-fiction but I like fiction too.  I just have really high standards for my fiction.  That really came out as a book snob.  I think it is more like know yourself.

Our Book Club book for Governerds is Challenger. I won't lie it's definitely not a book I would of chose on my own. It is also a lot of pages.

Jen Hatmaker Book Club - April read is The Berry Pickers. I am putting this one on my TBR (to be read)

Celebrity Book Recommends for February

A Book Readers Best Kept Secret

Everyday Reading Book Club List for 2025 - good follow on Instagram - Everyday Reading

Inappropriate Thoughts

I really like to put my head through these types of stand-up photo things. This week I had another chance.  I just can't help myself. Below is a very small sample of other photo ops

Valentine Card 2025

 

Well making this Valentine was a journey. This is a hand cut bird out of envelopes and specifically the security envelopes. I started by making full size birds.  

Then I shrunk the design.  I wasn't happy with the envelope in the bird mouth.  I had made a lot of them before I realized. I should change it.

This project has evolved since about June.  Yes, I have been working on these for quite a bit.  These birds are really addicting for me to make. I will probably make some more.  I have amassed quite the collection of envelopes. 

Each of these are unique.  Dear friends if you sent me a letter in an envelope, I probably recycled it into art. 

Wordy Wednesday