SPELLING BEE Time

By Bea Westerberg

“Not what we say about our blessings but how we use them, is the true measure of Thanksgiving.”

– Unknown

I might have been living in a small part of fairy land by thinking I could keep waiting to get my orange Mustang tucked away for the winter months. It was parked on the lawn when the snows came and I had a very interesting time getting it on the blacktop so that it would be ready to go get waxed before storage. After a bit of panic, I did get the wax appointment and formed 4 plans to get it over the snowy lawn to the old barn to spend its winter time. Yes, it was stressful, but when the drive across the lawn in first gear with a full tank of treated gasoline resulted in getting the Mustang to park on the boards I had placed in the shed, I was one very happy person! Lesson learned for next year. The month of November, which is my birthday month, mostly has a record of not so good weather. As a kid I was always told that I could not have a birthday party because it was “bad weather time”. I did ask how Santa was able to make it a month later. The answer to that was it’s “different”. I think it was for my 60th birthday, Margaret Flower had a huge surprise birthday party for me. I was in total shock for the first half hour on how she did that and invited so many people. I can still close my eyes and replay parts of that wonderful time.

I have been a super busy beaver going through things and doing the trash, donate, or auction boxes. A few years ago I would not have been able to part with just about anything, but time and events sure makes a difference. There still is plenty to deal with but I do feel very good about what I was able to part with and still feel my life will be okay. As a reward for this, I had a miracle happen. Perhaps you may recall that I lost one part of a stitched project when I thought it got kicked out of the pickup when I took the dog to the Vet. I even put up a $50.00 reward if anyone found it. It took several years but most of the pain passed. Then wow time. I cleaned out everything in back of the sewing machine, and there tucked away was the missing piece! And yes, I still had the other 2 pieces rolled up in a ball in a box in the closet so I can continue on with a piece that got me through the first winter of COVID. It’s special in so many ways and will continue to have added memories.

The celebration of thanksgiving is ready to open the doors for us. We all have different ways of doing and saying how it affects us. Hopefully you are all set to either have the event at your house, been invited to be a guest, or made reservations to eat out. This will be my second Thanksgiving without Husband Larry. I truly do have a very big amount of things to be thankful for and so many people in my life that have gone above and beyond to help me carry on with life. Little things also help in a big way so don’t feel you have to spend hours helping someone out. You will most likely find that sharing even a little bit has a very big pay back.

Last week at about 8 o’clock at night, I found an Internet recipe for Pumpkin Cinnamon rolls and the body said “MUST HAVE”. Really, at this time of night to make a yeast bread product? It did not go away, only got to be sounding better and better. I must admit that the original recipe said you could use canned pizza dough but that has not been a family member at my house. They gave there own pizza dough recipe to make so I used that. I soon found out NO PUMPKIN PIE SPICE. Back to the computer and I find ways to make it at home if you do happen to have everything needed. After looking in several places, I found that I did have everything to make my own spice mix. After some quick microwave bread raising, I was able to have a pumpkin cinnamon roll just before bed time! It was very good but I don’t think a pizza dough was the best thing for a cinnamon roll. I also tried baking them in muffin pans. I would rather have the soft sides. Do your thing and have a wonderful holiday. Thankful Hugs to All.