I had so much fun yesterday. Our friend, Bear and Marsha and Mark, two of Bear’s rider buddies, took a great trip from Mabank to Chandler and back. While in Chandler, we went to a place called Wade’s. They specialize in seafood. I had the fish tacos, and they were delicious.

I got to ride on the back of Bear’s Can-Am and even managed to get some pretty awesome pics of the beautiful East Texas countryside.

Since I was hanging on as we zipped around curves and up and down hillsides, I missed getting a picture of the beautiful field of Indian Paintbrush and the big patch of primroses, but I did a pretty good job of capturing some of the amazing fields of lantana we passed by.

I missed the dogwood trees that were in bloom, too, but here’s what I did manage to capture.

Thank you, Bear. How many 70ish girls get to ride on a Can-Am through East Texas? I would guess not many. It was a great day!

Except for some landscaping work that we’re trying to get lined up, we are pretty well settled in our sweet little home. We’re very happy here.

I thought you might like to see some pics I took this morning. Except for the outside area, the garage, and the master bath, which is identical to the 2nd bath, it’s all here.

We’re very happy with our decision to buy a house so that we have a home base to come back to between RV trips. Our next trip will be sometime this summer. We’re still in the planning stages. I swore I would never experience another Texas summer. The last two years have been brutal.

Anyway, our experiment of 100% RV living lasted a year, almost to the day. It wasn’t bad while we were on the road, but it was hard to be stationary for long periods of time. Not many can afford to travel nonstop.

We also have 2 young dogs that factored into everything. They love their yard to run around in. The downside is that Kip and I don’t get the walking exercise we did. My plan was to start walking the neighborhood today. So far, I haven’t done it. The day is young.

I hope everyone is having a great Monday. Until next time…

Saving newspaper clippings has probably, for the most part, become a thing of the past. The other day, I got some in the mail. My cousin, Lav sent me some old clippings her mother, Ella Sanderson Leckey had saved. They were tucked into an old Sanderson’s Store envelope.

The first clipping I saw was a picture of Grandpa Sanderson and his friend, Slim Leitze proudly holding a stringer of fish. This brought back so many stories of Grandpa’s fishing outings. I believe it was Slim who was with Grandpa the time the little aluminum boat got high centered at a dam where they were fishing. Grandpa had tall waders and hopped out to push the boat off the high spot. He slipped and fell and came home full of mud. I was pretty little and at his house that day. I saw him full of mud from head to toe and it scared me. I must have heard him say he thought he was going to drown because I became terrified of those waders. He had them in the front porch and I wouldn’t go into the house that way. I had to run around and go in the back door.

I wish I had a dollar for every fish Grandpa caught. I would be filthy rich. He filled up all the relatives freezers and when we couldn’t eat them fast enough, he started stocking other dams with his almost daily catch. I went on several of those outings with him. This was after Cousins Terry and Jeff H, and my brother Billy went off to college. They were his favorite fishing buddies. The Haverberg cousins got treated to outings when they were visiting from Michigan.

There were other clippings in the little envelope. One is a picture of the tear down of Sanderson’s Store in 1970. That one made me sad. There’s a clipping of Grandpa and two others when the South Dakota Parks Association was organized.

Aunt Ella also included a clipping of the football team when cousin, Terry Sanderson was in high school.

Who would have thought that I would be writing a blog about these jewels my Aunt saved all those years ago.

When I was growing up in the small town of Murdo, SD, I walked home from school each day for noon dinner. It was the biggest meal of the day. We had things like pork chops with corn, mashed potatoes, and gravy. Mom made pot roast and sometimes things like goulash or tuna and noodle casserole. It was all good, but my favorite thing was chicken pot pies with a baked potato. We smashed the potato and dumped the pot pie on top, smooshing it all together. Yum.

Kip and I had pot pies for our evening dinner last night, and though there was no baked potato with it, the taste of the pot pie took me immediately back to the days when Mom made my favorite.

Every school day after eating my huge noon dinner, I would usually get a quarter from Mom so I could stop at the Super Value Store and buy a few pieces of candy for dessert. I wolfed that down on my remaining walk to school. I still marvel at the fact that after eating all that, I could stay awake during Mr Applebee’s 1:00 o’clock history class. I’m not sure I always succeeded.

Food often makes for comforting nostalgic memories. I still make Mom’s lemon bars and my daughter Heidi often serves up cream o cheese o cherry pie that tastes just like the pie Mom made for her bridge club. I sometimes make chipped beef on toast, which is made with dried beef and cream gravy. Mom made that as a “jump up” as she called quick and easy meals.

What foods from your childhood do you still make? Isn’t it fun to let your tastebuds take you back?

I had a New Year’s Eve birthday, and I’m now 72ish. Although that’s a big number, I can handle it. My life has gotten pretty exciting lately. Let me tell you why.

After all of our big talk about being just fine with living in an RV full-time, we chickened out. It was just fine until the idea caught up with the reality. As referenced above, we’re not getting any younger. There will come a time when RV travel gets too difficult to undertak, and then what? What if one of us has a health emergency? What if the RV maintenance is too much for my currently very capable Kip? We need a home base. BTW, I’ll also confess that giving up our previous home base has proven to be a costly decision. Oh, well.

We put an offer in on a little house, and it’s been accepted. Barring any unforseen circumstances, we should close by the end of the month.

We don’t have one stick of furniture or duplicates of anything. We are keeping the RV as we’re not ready to give up the ship yet.

So why is the title of this post harmony? Well, a friend of mine asked a group of us to come up with one word for 2024. Harmony was the word I chose.

Harmony in human beings refers to a state of balance, peace, and coherence within individuals. It involves the integration of various aspects of a person’s being, including their thoughts, emotions, values, and actions. (That’s what the dictionary says.)

Good word don’t you think?

I read a remark from someone on Facebook regarding stuff. It said we shouldn’t be focused on accumulating things that, in the end, won’t matter. Why should we leave a bunch of “stuff” behind for our family to sort through and get rid of. “You can’t take it with you” was the point.

Though I am the queen of disposing of stuff, I do see the other side of it.

I remember going to my mother-in-law’s house after she passed. Though she had a massive amount of stuff to be gone through, some of the things she left behind brought back beautiful memories to those she left behind. Her children spent days listening to albums she had collected through the years. Many were family favorites that, to this day, mean something. She left behind photo albums and beautiful needlepoint pictures that she had painstakingly completed. There were other things, including pieces of jewelry, both expensive and costume that were keepers for the kids who remembered their mother wearing them. They were a part of their memories of her.

When Kip and I downsized this last time, I didn’t keep much, but even I have special memories attached to a few things. I kept a small wooden chest that has been in my family since before I was born. My brother and I remember the space it occupied in our old house. In those days, it held all of the family photos. That little chest survived a few moves and a flood. It is relatively unscathed. I really appreciate that Gus sent it to me after my mother passed away and he ran acrossed it in storage.

I also kept some of my Aunt Irma’s costume jewelry. I just wore a pair of her earrings to church on Sunday. I have some of Mom’s things, too. Gus gave me a Christmas sweatshirt when I visited him recently. I have several pictures of Mom looking festive in it.

So don’t toss out or give away all of your stuff. Keep a few things that your loved ones might want to look through. Your stuff might be a family member’s treasure, and they might appreciate reliving the memories of you and special times.