Today’s post is a monthly writing challenge. If you’re new here, this is how it works: participating bloggers picked 4 – 6 words or short phrases for someone else to craft into a post. All words must be used at least once. All of the posts will be unique as each writer has received their own set of words. That’s the challenge, here’s a fun twist; no one who’s participating knows who got their words and in what direction the recipient will take them. Until now.
At the end of this post you’ll find links to the other blogs featuring this challenge. Check them all out, see what words they got and how they used them.
I'm using: afghan ~ clock ~ forest ~ glassware ~ ring
They were submitted by Michele of Follow Me Home.
The next step is looming large, making this such a bittersweet time. I sit and look around my home, the one where I mostly raised my boys (we moved here when they were in 2nd and 3rd grade), the one that I furnished completely on my own. I lived and loved in this home, but it has outgrown its use.
The boys are grown now, taking responsibility for themselves. There is no need for 5 bedrooms, 4 bathrooms, a 3 car garage. And other than this now scattered family, there has never been anything for me in this state.
I sit here, wrapped in my afghan, looking out the window at the forest. I have to laugh at that word, forest, because it's not. Yes, we back up to woods, I've always loved the peace of that and the privacy, but on the other side of the woods is the elementary school my boys attended, and more homes. The boys called it a forest, but it's not even close to that big an area.
I look at my kitchen and smile at the walk in pantry. What a luxury that has been. I'll have to give that up, I know and I'll miss it. I cooked and baked in that kitchen for my family, for my friends, for the boys' friends. So many memories. Kids piling in the door after school or, as the boys got older, at night and grabbing freshly baked sweets on their way down to the basement to play pool or video games or just to hang out.
Hawaiian Rice
But the clock says it's now time. Time to let another young family laugh and smile and grow and thrive in this beautiful home. Not the clock on the wall, of course, a measurement not of hours in the day, but of the timeline of life.
I'll have to pare down. Way down. I want to live smaller, simpler. As much as I love my stuff, I have no need for it all. There will be a lot of culling through, donating, selling and throwing away in my future. I'm so stressed at the anticipation of it all that just thinking about it is overwhelming I know that some of it will make me cry and some will make me smile, but I fully believe that I will be relieved when it's done.
Part of that very first step has already been taken. When PurDude moved out, he took some of my furniture with him. He also took towels, rugs, one set of my dishes, a set of glassware, and a set of silverware. I'm already back to using the tableware that had been on my registry when I got married.
I am planning to trade the forest for the beach, or at least that's my hope. I do know that I want to move to a warmer climate, someplace where I can be more comfortable year round, where I won't need my winter coat and snow boots. And I do hope to be close enough to walk a beach. Preferably daily.
I'll be sad being so far from my boys, but I don't see them daily anymore anyway. And the truth is, my phone rings (text option works too), wherever I end up.
Here are links to all the other Use Your Words posts:
Wandering Web Designer
Spatulas on Parade
On the Border
Follow Me Home
Sarah Nolan
Part-time Working Hockey Mom
Climaxed
Hawaiian Rice
©www.BakingInATornado.com
Printable Recipe
Ingredients:
3 TBSP butter
1/4 cup pignolis (can use chopped macadamia nuts)
1/4 cup dry vermicelli noodles, chopped
2 cups chicken broth
1/4 tsp salt
1/8 tsp pepper
1/4 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp dried parsley
2 cups instant rice, uncooked
1/2 cup chopped cooked ham steak
1/4 cup chopped dried apricots (can use dried pineapple)
Directions:
*In a medium sized pot over medium heat, melt the butter. Add the pignolis (or macadamias) and vermicelli noodles. Cook and stir until the noodles and nuts start to brown.
*Add the chicken broth, salt, pepper, ginger and parsley to the pot. Bring to a boil.
*Mix in the rice, ham and apricots (or pineapple). Cover, remove from heat and allow to sit for 10 minutes. Mix and serve.
#Life #SideDish #Family #Recipe #Dinner
