Sausage vs Ground Beef

Just a thought. I love ground beef, I love sausage rolls. Why is it that ground beef in those little white/saran wrap packages doesn't bother me at all, while I find sausage meat in that white plastic tube thingy absolutely GROSS.

I am SAD

All day I have been wanting to write a post and had all sorts of different titles and thoughts going through my head about what it would be about and I have settled on the above title because it is the most honest feeling I have expressed.



I am SAD

I love holidays and every holiday I am like a "manic depressive" unbelievably happy and despondently sad. My memories of past holidays with lots of people around, small children who were so happy to be together, lots of noise, lots of food and lots of mess and oh so TIRED. But they were always so worth it. Now we are in the transition stage, family has gone (Nana, Granpa, Uncle John, Grandad and Granma - I miss you), my children have grown up and as young adults I love them so much. But now they are pulled in different directions. Andrew wants to spend it with Jen and her family, David is off to Las Vegas and Rachel is off to Jays. So we compromise, we will have Thanksgiving on Friday so we can all be together. And that's fine, the day isn't the important part it is the being together and the wanting to be together that is important. Compromising is fine, but being taken advantage of is not. Be warned Christmas dinner will be here at my home on Christmas Day and my family will be there and as a family we will work out a schedule and a compromise that will suit all parties for future holidays. The family will transition again, but we'll talk about it as a family and make decisions as a family and it will work out and mom will relax. I love you all

The End of Summer

There is something about the coziness of fall and winter that I look forward to after a hectic summer of swimming, golfing, entertaining, gardening, etc. Fall/winter is the season of curling (yes a little active), reading (my favourite pastime), new TV shows (brain dead time). It is a time of quiet more intimate meals in the dining room with candles glowing and twinkling (hard to do in the summer with the brightness of the sun providing all the light you need). Wood crackling (ok no wood we have propane at home), flames flickering, rubbing your hands by the fire, lights down low and just enjoying the wonderful atmosphere from the fire. The flowers start to die off and the trees burst into their final goodbye to summer.

Driving through Ontario with the leaves showing off their yellows, reds and oranges is truly majestic. Giant oaks and maples reaching to the sky in their last hurrah before the snow comes and covers their branches and sets them twinkling in the morning sunlight. As summer draws to an end, I am truly looking forward to the fall and the winter. And yes by January 10 or thereabouts I'll be counting the days until the summer comes again.

Thank you Summer 2010 for lots of high temperatures, humidity, storms, sun, warmest I can remember the lake being. Good memories with family and friends sitting on the dock. A truly great finish to the summer of 2010 would be a long, warm and dry Indian Summer. OK I am being greedy. And yes I can't wait for the summer of 2011.

Keeping in Touch

Why is it so hard to keep in touch with people?
Phones, cells, email, msn, facebook, heaven to betsy - mail. There are so many ways to keep in touch with everyone now compared to our parents and grandparents. Yet at times it seems like all we do is share jokes back and forward.

It seems like we know more about our friends and family but on a very shallow level compared to pre computer days. I use the computer so much to keep in touch with everyone that I feel like I have forgot how to talk to people. But at the same time I know exactly what they are doing on their holidays as soon as they put their pictures up on facebook. I also know what my children, friends, nephews and nieces look like when they have had too much too drink. Not always a pretty site. As Rachel would say DON'T CREEP MOM!! Good advice.....

So I am going to do my best to phone more people, go down and visit family and friends and write much newsier emails. And if all that fails I'll update my profile on facebook. lol

A Grand Young Lady - miss you

Mom Carlson inspired me. When she broke her leg at 87 and was told she may never walk again, she ignored them and within 5 months was up walking around her room holding onto furniture. Over the next 7 years we had the pleasure of her company at our home on numerous occasions and she taught me that as a mother, you always need something to do. I would say, Mom – relax, let us take care of you. Well I received a large Pish, Posh to that. And up she went to peel potatoes, dust, iron, set the table, fold clothes, etc, etc.

The most vivid memories of Mom Carlson revolved around her kitchen and her kitchen table. And needless to say those memories centred around desert. Raspberry pie, chocolate marble cake, banana cream pie, pumpkin pie, pineapple upside down cake to name a few. Mom and dad’s love of raspberry pie made them put in a raspberry patch in their backyard that was as tenderly cared for as their children. Every July they would start picking their raspberries and freeze them individually on trays so they could have raspberry pies the whole year. Sometimes they even shared these pies with the rest of the family. Everyone was so polite until Mom brought out the deserts, this is when her inner strength started to show. I was never sure if the pie lifter was actually for dishing the pies or was a weapon to protect them. Don’t get me wrong mom wasn’t being stingy, there was always a chocolate marble cake to go with her pies. I could never figure out how after a huge roast beef dinner with her famous roast potatoes the family could still eat desert, never mind a piece of cake and 2 pieces of pie.

Mom sitting at the top of the dining room table with her family surrounding her is an image that will always be with me. As a 17 year old girl she plopped me in the seat beside her and welcomed me into her family and when I sit at my dining room table with all my Carlson’s around me her love will continue to surround us. Love you mom.