Monday, January 15, 2024

As We Embark On Our Read Along - Some Betsy Tacy Resources

Good morning, friends! I hope your week is off to a good start! We got a light dusting of snow here this morning with a bit more expected this afternoon. Nothing of any significance, but I do love snow and winter so I'm happy with just about anything this time of year that makes it feel more in season.

As we are embarking on a read-along this year of the complete Betsy Tacy series, I thought it might be fun to provide you with some resources I've come across over the years related to the books.  I read these with my youngest daughter when we were homeschooling, and I often looked for such things to enhance the experience. With that, I thought perhaps you might enjoy some of them as well.

Several of these resources I found at The Betsy Tacy Society Website, and they also have a You Tube Channel with some lovely videos you might find interesting. They have a Facebook page, as well.

Maud Hart Lovelace - A bit about the author of this series.

Something fun I found at their website are guides to Deep Valley, whether you are staying for a day, a weekend or a week (a dream of mine!). I thought it might be fun just to look up the sites listed online and go on kind of a virtual visit. Maybe during our reading I'll type up a different post and follow the links to all the places and we'll go on a virtual visit together. But, if you don't want to wait for me, by all means look the places up for yourself and get a feel for the setting of the Betsy Tacy books.

A Betsy Tib Tour of Milwaukee - this is a tour by one of the members of the Betsy Tacy Society that you might enjoy.

Make Your Own Betsy Tacy Bookmarks - just something fun!

Betsy Tacy's Deep Valley - this is an entire blog with ten years worth of posts dedicated to all things Betsy Tacy.  I plan to reference it often as we read the series, but it is definitely worth perusing for yourself!

The Betsy Tacy Encyclopedia - Another blog dedicated to Betsy Tacy. Though there doesn't seem to be as much here, you might find something of interest.

A review of the series from The Literary Ladies Guide.

Article about the real homes featured in the books from The National Trust for Historic Preservation.

That is all that I have for now, though I do hope to re-visit a few of these sites as we read through the series and point out interesting facts and tidbits to enhance our reading. Hopefully you found something here to spark your interest! 

Before I close I did want to let you know that I made a link to all posts related to our read-along that you can find in my right side bar.  Just look directly under the graphic/link for the originial post about how to join the read-along and you'll see it!  That way it keeps everthing nice and neat in one place and hopefully easy to navigate!

Have a wondeful day, my friends! I plan to sit back and enjoy the snow and the chili for tonight's dinner is already made! :)

Wednesday, January 10, 2024

Of Cranberries, Books And The Packing Away of Christmas

One of my goals for the year is to expand my homesteading skill set, and today I checked off the first thing on my list, home canned cranberry juice.  I am making small batches, 4 pints of regular and 2 pints of cran-grape (my favorite!). I decided on pints, which may not seem like much, but when I tell you that we typically pour out at least half of a bottle or more of the store bought stuff, I am not exagerrating! It's not that we don't like it, I think it has more to do with the events taking place in life when we do drink it, virus, uti, etc. It would seem that once the symptoms subside what is left goes to waste. With that, I'm thinking maybe a pint is just about right? I followed the instructions found here, and as soon as the jars finish completely cooling I'll put them in the pantry to steep for a couple of weeks and then I'll test out a jar. Fingers crossed! If it turns out good I may make this part of my Christmas gift giving this year.

Other than that, I did a couple of loads of laundry and managed to get my snowmen packed. I had planned on bringing all the totes down and doing some much needed purging and organization of our Christmas decorations, but with my back still iffy, I've decided to just pack it away and then come some warm Spring day I'll have Bill bring them all down to the porch and I'll sort through them then. Just getting it taken down and put away is a s-l-o-w moving process right now, so I decided now was not the time for such a project.

I've really been enoying the books I'm currently reading, and the need to take it a little easier has allowed for more time for that. Right now I'm reading;

In Search of Guidance: Developing a Conversational Relationship with God by Dallas Willard which I just discovered was re-released under a different title Hearing God. My original plan was to read The Spirit of the Disciplines, until I happened across an article that suggested reading the books in sequential order, and Hearing God is considered to be the first in that order. I am taking my time with these, because I find almost everything Dallas wrote so philosophical and contemplative that I don't want to skim over and miss anything. Thankfully I've been able to locate most of these on Internet Archives and Hoopla, because they prices they are asking for some of these is outlandish! However much I love anything by Dallas Willard, he is out of my budget.

Another book I like equally as well but am finding a little easier to read is Beholding: Deeping Our Experience in God by Strahan Coleman (AFFILIATE LINK). Do you see a theme here?

I started out the year reading Placemaker: Cultivating Places of Comfort, Beauty and Peace by Christie Purifoy (AFFILIATE LINK), but I've put it down for now, not because I wasn't enjoying it, it just feels like the time isn't right. I'm thinking maybe early spring?

In its place I've decided to re-read an old favorite, The Cloister Walk by Kathleen Norris (AFFILIATE LINK).  I've been blessed with the opportunity to spend the weekend in a monestary coming up at the end of the month, a dream I've held ever since I read this book the first time, so now seems like a good time to revisit it.

And then of course, I have plans to re-read the entire Betsy Tacy series this year, so I'm going to sit down with the first book in that series this coming weekend.

And with that, I think I'll try to take in a chapter or two before dinner duties beckon! What are you reading, friends? Drop a few titles in the comments. :)

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Monday, January 8, 2024

My Favorite Songs: What A Wonderful World


If you've followed me here in the past, one of the things you probably know about me is that I love music, particularly oldies! It is rare that you would find me listening to anything that is popular today, unless it's a song my daughter introduced me to, or occassionally a newer country song. I do love me some Tim McGraw! But 99.9% of the time if I am listening to music it's oldies from the 40's - 70's, the only exception being anything from the disco era or The Beach Boys, #notafan.

I love sharing my love of oldies music with my readers and introducing them to the sentimental songs of days gone by.  I even have a playlist of my favorites in my side bar, The Ordinary Days of Small Things Favorite's Playlist, which you can click on any time you want to peruse a few of my favorites!

But I thought it might be fun to pick a few songs here and there and share a little about their history and why they are my favorites, and I'll begin with my absolute favorite song of all time, What A Wonderful World, sung by Louis Armstrong.

Written by George Thiele, writing under the psyeudonym "George Douglas" and George David Weiss, What A Wonderful World was first recorded in 1967 and released as a single in 1968 by Louis Armstrong, topping the charts in the UK but originally performing poorly in the US. George Weiss stated that he wrote the song specifically for Armstrong, who inspired him by his ability to bring people of all races together. Armstrong had recently signed with ABC Records, and president Larry Newton was hoping for a hit like Hello Dolly which Armstrong recorded with Kapp records a few years earlier. So when he heard the slower pace of A Wonderful World, he tried to stop the recording session and was thrown out of the building. They finished the session that night, and the song was released, but because Newton refused to promote it, it intially sold fewer than 1,000 copies in the US, but was a major success in the United Kingdom, reaching number 1 on the UK Singles Chart. 

The song gradually became something of a standard and reached a new level of popularity. An episode of The Muppet Show produced in 1977 and broadcast early in 1978 featured Rowlf the Dog singing the song to a puppy. In 1978, it was featured in the closing scenes of BBC radio's The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, and was repeated for BBC's 1981 TV adaptation of the series. In 1988, Armstrong's recording was used in the film Good Morning, Vietnam, and was re-released as a single, reaching number 32 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in February 1988. It is also the closing song for the 1995 movie 12 Monkeys and the 1998 film adaptation of Madeline. Armstrongs recording was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1999.

After it was released digitally, Armstrong's 1967 recording had sold over 2,173,000 downloads in the United States as of April, 2004. 

In 2021, it was ranked at No. 171 on Rolling Stone's "Top 500 Best Songs of All Time"

For me personally, I love this song for its emphasis on the simple ordinary things that make up an extraordinary life. I believe that when we take the time to notice the abundance which is ours every-single-day, we don't focus as much on what we feel is lacking. I don't ever want to take the beauty of life for granted! Taking the time to notice these simple every day graces, forces us to slow down, to simplify our expectations, and to be content, and those are all good things! I love this song so much, in fact, that I have it set as my ringer on my cell phone and every time I hear those first few notes, I smile!

If you've never listened to it, just click play below! To be honest, a lot of people are not Louis Armstrong fans, and in today's world he probably would not have made it far. But even his style speaks to a simplicity of life that is becoming harder to capture in this day and time. It's one of the reasons I think I am drawn to songs like these. In the midst of all the hurt and hate that exists in the world, music takes me back. I can't control what is happening in the world, but I do have some say about the atmosphere that exists within my house, and music often sets the stage.

 

Lyrics:
I see trees of green
Red roses too
I see them bloom 
For me and you
And I think to myself 
What a wonderful world

I see skies of blue 
And clouds of white
The bright blessed day
The dark sacred night
And I think to myself 
What a wonderful world

The colors of the rainbow 
So pretty in the sky
Are also on the faces 
Of people going by
I see friends shaking hands
Saying how do you do
They're really saying
I love you

I hear babies cry
I watch them grow
They'll learn much more 
Than I'll ever know
And I think to myself 
What a wonderful world
Yes, I think to myself 
What a wonderful world
Ooh, yes

If you enjoyed this post, and if you like oldies music, I'll be writing about more of my favorite songs in upcoming posts, and sharing other playlists with you as I develop them! I love movies and sit-coms from the same era, and I'll be sharing about them as well!  I hope you'll join me!

Saturday, January 6, 2024

Small Things - First Saturday of The New Year


"Life is not, for most of us, a pageant of splendor, but is made up of many small things, rather like an old fashioned piecework quilt. No two people have the same, but we all have our own, whether it be listening to Beethoven's fifth with a beloved friend, or seeing a neighbor at the back door with a basket of white dahlias. Or after a long, hard day, having the family say, "That was a good supper."

GLADYS TABER

In no particular order, here are six small things that inpspired me this week;

1. Tending The Embers: Four Ways To Support Winter Wellness

2. How Ginger, Cinnamon and Nutmeg Became Winter Spices

3. No Spend Activities in January - I love these ideas!

4. The Self Care Year

5. A Festive Winter Walk with Hideaway Cottage

6. The First Snow of Winter - a lovely film to watch with the littles in your life.

Have a lovely weekend, friends!

Wednesday, January 3, 2024

Those First Few Notes

"And what does January hold? Clean account books, bare diaries. Three hundred and sixty five new days neatly parcled into weeks, months, seasons. A chunk of time, of life. . . those first few notes like an orchestra tuning up before the play begins."

~ Phyllis Nicholson, Country Bouquet

Happy New Year, my friends! I pray that these first few days have been blessed and bright!

My end of the year, new year is not starting out exactly as I had planned. You may recall that back in April and May of last year I pinched my sciactic nerve and it laid me out for about six weeks, three of those on the couch unable to do much of anything.  It had taken months of physical therapy and a few visits to the chiropractor to get me to a better place and it had only been in recent weeks that I was able to get around without pain.

Perhaps because of that I was overly confident, but honestly, all I did was bend down to get a load of laundry out of the dryer when I felt that familiar pull and immediately and hobbled straight to the couch. Of course this was on Friday, the last day before the holiday weekend! But thankfully I was able to get a call into my primary care doctor who sent in a prescription for pain meds to get me through the weekend. With those and my husband generously giving up his recliner as it is the only place I can sit comfortably, I made it through.  Yesterday I actually got to see the doctor, who gave me a steroid shot and a refill on the pain meds.  I can already feel some improvement, but likely will be continue to take it easy for the rest of the week.

My word for the year is T R U S T (if you see that familiar blanket in the background of my pictures in the near future, you'll know I haven't left my reclining post.)

I prayed about my word back in October, and after coming across several verses that spoke of the wonder of God and seeing that same word in a few other random places, I felt certain that wonder was my word and I was excited for it!

Then my daughter sent me a link to Dayspring, where through answering a series of questions they generate a word of the year for you. So just for giggles I decided to play along and the word I received was T R U S T.

As soon as I read it I knew immediately that my greater need for 2024 was trust, and if I'm being honest, I wasn't all that happy about it. T R U S T was my word once before, back in 2016, and boy was that a year I had to learn to trust.  But apprently there is a deeper work the Lord wants to do and my spirit resonantes with this, even though my flesh is still mourning that year of wonder I was so looking forward to!

I had so many plans for celebrating the New Year and for this week, but I'm learning to be content with the process. I bought these cute little head bands at Hobby Lobby right before Christmas and had hoped to take a cute family picture in front of the tree on New Years Eve. I had white balloons I had planned to fill with red, green and silver confetti and red and green streamers tied to the ends. I did manage to feel well enough to sport the green head band and my daughter chose the silver. We wore them New Year's Eve, had some chips and dip (a far cry from the menu I had planned) and watched the ball drop.  My daughter blessed us on New Year's Day by making black eyed peas from scratch. She used my recipe, and they turned out so good! So thankfully we got a serving of good luck for the New Year,  but the pork roast and cabbage are still waiting. In all of this, I am T R U S T I N G that things will improve, and on the bright side, as far as the head bands, balloons, and confetti, lets just say I'm way ahead of the game and already set for New Year's Eve 2025! 

As I've had a lot of time on my hands I've been doing a lot of reading. My first two books for 2024 are Placemaker by Christie Purifoy (AFFILIATE LINK), which I am enjoying so much! And I'm also reading In Search fo Guidance by Dallas Willard, but thankfully I was able to find it on the Interner Archives, because the prices they are asking are outrageous! I think I'll start keeping an eye out at the thrift stores!

So that's the update on my life! How about you? Is your new year off to a good start, are you reading or have you read any good books lately? I've got a longing to read the complete Betsy Tacy series again this year. Have you ever read them, and if you haven't (or even if you have), would you be interested in a read along here at the blog?  Leave a comment and let me know!

And now I'm, well not off, just on the next thing I am able to do from the comfort of this chair!

Have a blessed day, my friends!

- Kim

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Monday, January 1, 2024