I Wish I Had Time....

I wish I had time to do all the things I want to do. If I had the time, what would I do? In no particular order: can fruits and vegetables during the week, travel to Detroit, Phoenix, and Harrogate, England to see my children and grandchildren, organize my house and my office, volunteer in organizations I have an interest in (like I used to do before I went back to work in the mid 90s), take some on-line courses in my professional field to expand my knowledge base, vacation in the Outer Banks, focus more on my personal life than on my professional life, learn to knit and crochet, make another quilt (or sewing projects I'm interested in). I see a common denominator in much of what I want to do - work gets in the way. Oh well, I guess I won't have a lot of time for the next few years until I stop working. I guess I'll try to focus on one thing at a time, and eventually I might find the time to do the things I want to do, and not focus so much of the things I don't want to do.

Independence Day

Perfect weather - in the low 80s, no humidity, a cool breeze - I don't remember such a nice July 4th as today has been. Morning began with the annual flag raising and breakfast at church, and then the annual Kelley cookout. I was going to can some more strawberry jam today, but after being in the kitchen all day yesterday doing the same thing, I decided to take a break. I'll get back to canning tomorrow before church.

Today is a day to extend our gratitude for all those men and women in the Armed Forces who have/are/or continue to protect our country. The sacrifices they make for all of us so we can live in this free country are too numerous to count. I'm glad to know I live in a place where these people are willing to put their lives on the line to defend our freedoms.

While we all enjoy ourselves today, let us remember those good and decent people and say a prayer for their safe return from harm's way.

This is the Beginning.

It's been almost 3 months since my dear daughter set this blog up for me. July 3rd is the day I'm beginning this blog. I hope this will keep family and friends up-to-date on what is happening in our lives, particularly since our three daughters, their husbands, and our grandchildren are not currently living near us anymore. As I write this, I'm in the middle of canning strawberry jam, and once that is finished, I'm going to attempt blueberry jam. By the way, I canned strawberry jam last week, but it is too runny, so I'm going to try to reprocess that jam as well. I'm waiting to hear from dear daughter #2, who was driving across the country to AZ by herself, and hopefully she will have arrived there safely after my last phone conversation with her at 1:00 a.m. this morning.

I don't know where this blog will go, or what I will feel an urge to discuss, but I'm going to try to keep up with the new technology of communication via blogging that is so prevalent nowadays. Hopefully those who read this will get something out of it, and I hope I will take away something from this as well.