It’s been a busy week here at Sonnystone Acres with a lot of dr. appointments and that Birthday on Tuesday. Slowly but surely we brought down the Christmas decorations and spread them out around the house. The weather was perfect for hanging lights on Thursday and Friday and we added a new Star… Sorry, I haven’t gotten a picture yet, but it looks good.
Yesterday we held The Official Decorating-of-the-Tree with the Jr. girls
After the tree was finished, we headed Downtown to their Christmas celebration. Nothing going on there appealed to Olivia, so we dropped her off back at her house and it was just the three of us. We had free hot chocolate, a visit with Santa’s assistant, and met the Eville version of Anna and Elsa…Lots of Fun!
I have not bought a single present and currently have no idea what I should buy…As the kids get older I feel more and more like just giving them money. The little one definitely wants toys still, and even the older ones want to open some gifts, so I may do a mix-up of presents/cash. We’ll all be happy no matter what, I’m sure…
You know how it is — every year as soon as Thanksgiving leftovers have been eaten, we all say: I can’t believe it’s Christmastime already! Thus begins the buying and the baking, decking the halls and the fa-la-la-ing. We make our lists and check them twice, and I’d better get busy!
He’s still younger than me, so we don’t dwell on how Old he is, but this is the 67th Anniversary of his Birth. We’re not doing much to celebrate this year, just hanging out here at the Acres, putting up Christmas decorations.
Advent is upon us, the season of getting ready. Last year we weren’t able to be with our New Yorkers, so we’re Super Excited to return to our custom of watching the Rockettes at Radio City Music Hall with the Jose’ girls. We’re planning to watch a few Christmas Parades in the Eville area with the Jr. girls, too. My children and grandchildren all still Believe in Santa Claus, so the Wonder never ends…
Here’s to my husband, my companion, my partner-in-crime; Be Happy! Be Healthy! Long Life!
It seems like forever since I bid you adieu. It felt like a good time to step away from the entire internet thing, go outside and clear my mind of the slime. I hoped to bring myself back to earth, focus on the Now. So I did, sort of.
It was late August when I changed my ways and I threw myself into the garden harvest, as well as pruning and moving shrubs around. By mid-September we were able to pull away from it and take a trip.
Casey has been steadily improving our campervan, Goldie, so we were anxious to take her on the road and try out our new canopies and storage. The Smokies is one of our go-to places, particularly Townsend, TN, “the peaceful side of The Smokies”; it’s only a 6-hour drive and it sits at the Cades Cove Entrance to the National Park. I managed to snag a riverside campsite for a couple of nights and we tooled on down, even though we knew that it was going to rain. Rain it did, damn near the entire time we were there. Because we were able to set up during a dry spell, it was a great test of our new awnings. It rained and rained and rained some more. We spent most of our time sitting watching the Little River flowing around the rocks, changing with every downpour. We watched squirrels and birds and walked around the campground watching people when we could. The last evening the skies began to clear, revealing a full moon rising above the mountains. The next morning the sun slowly rose in the same spot.
It’s always nice to come back home even if the trip is short and we got busy with the garden again. We’ve put a rock path from our Edible Garden to the firepit. The view is still weird since our neighbor dug a pond last summer and it’s only half full. By mid-October we were done, so we traveled down to Disney for bit. It was an impulsive trip, trying out something I’d been mulling for a while. We spent two nights camping in Goldie at Fort Wilderness and then moved over to our “home” motel, Pop Century; doubtful we’ll do that again as you lose a day making the move, even though they are only 15 minutes apart. From Fort Wilderness you can take a quick boat ride to Magic Kingdom; we wanted to see the new Castle Wrap and Fireworks. We had some inside information that Disney allows 100 people to watch the show from the top of the train station and we managed to be the first people up there! The next day we moved over to Pop; from there it’s a 15 minute skyliner ride to Epcot where we rode the new Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure (very cool). We’d never been over to the Boardwalk, which is just a nice boat ride from Epcot’s exit. It was lovely. As we returned, the full moon rose over Epcot.
All this time, I missed the blog. I did publish some genealogy stuff and have done a lot of research (so much for staying off the internet). I started planning a comeback a couple of weeks ago, hoping to give the site a whole new life, but was feeling a little shy. This is it, though. I’ll just upgrade my media space and slowly work on deleting any unnecessary photos and Sonnystone.com ought to be good for another ten years… We’re back!
Last week I spent some time staring at the campfire and contemplating. Something inside me kept saying “I’m done” in a loop. I’d been feeling my age lately and this year’s Camp Sonnystone really brought it home as I cope with my grandies growing up in what seems the blink of an eye. But there’s no reason to think that I’m done, not at all; with so many good times to look forward to and our health still strong, I couldn’t justify that sort of morbid thinking. So I examined it more closely, listened more intently.
This blog means so much to me; it is the Chronicle of my Life. Including the defunct blog, for the last 16 years it has witnessed the birth of all my grandchildren and my evolution as a JoJo. Through two organist jobs, two nursing jobs, Christmases, Birthdays, Camps, and plenty of Disney Trips we’ve watched the grandies grow. But there were also lots of topics; I did interviews, reviewed every “Best Motion Picture” Oscar winner, went through my CD collection with comments, occasionally talked politics, often talked about Peace. There were some deaths, as well: Aunts Thelma, Almeda, and Shirley; Uncle Jr; my friends, NuNu, Lois, Chuck, and Beaver. I’ve taken you on lots of trips with us, kept you apprised of what’s growing in the garden, what birds are at the feeder, and sometimes just blathered.
Even though I upgraded my WP account, I have now very nearly filled up all the allotted media space for Sonnystone and for the garden blog, Growing Every Season, which I started around the same time. At first I thought I would do a whole lot of work to download and delete old posts, but I kept putting it off. The next upgrade costs quite a bit more money and is more for a monetized blog. I believe the voice that was saying “I’m done” meant that I’m done with this particular blog and the obligation that I feel to keep it going.
To give The News a proper send-off, I compiled a video of photos. In order to not make it an hour long, I concentrated on just the people, then had to pare it down more to mostly grandies growing up. The music that I chose is poignant; Over the Rainbow and Wonderful World by Iz, the wonderful Hawaiian artist. He speaks in one part, almost unintelligible, but he’s using two Hawaiian words: “kuleana” has multiple meanings, including “land divisions”, but represents your space or spirit; “pono” which means “to make correct” or “to make good”. So what he means is that kuleana pono is an “automatic plan”, that if you make your space, your spirit good, “stuff” is just waiting to come to you, waiting until you are ready.
It makes me kind of anxious to think of not blogging every week, so I remind myself that I’ll still be keeping up the ancestry blog, and our trips will still be recorded over at the travel blog. The fact is I need to let go and open my mind up to new things, especially regarding my writing. By letting go, I will open up my spirit for some of that “stuff” that has just been waiting until I’m ready.
Thank-you for following along with me. I have truly enjoyed your company. Now I’m taking one long look back, then turning out the light, closing the door behind me.
My babies are growing up. Each Camp has been precious, though every year included a new version of the children who I call my Grandies. Now ages 15, 13, 10, and 6, there’s still the Magic that being together brings, as we bask in the genuine Love that gets passed around amongst us.
(The original of this video was set to The Beatles “I Will”, but youtube put a big block on it. Verry interesting, since Disney has always let me use their stuff. Anyway, I had to change the music and I chose from their free audio.)
There is nowhere else I’d rather be than with my grandkids, so the last two weeks have been heaven. As usual, Camp Sonnystone 2021 was a rousing success. Our Word was Believe, and our Theme was Rainbows. We ate well, swam a lot, painted, made suncatchers, sang, danced, laughed and had a few tears just to keep it real. My daughter has been making regular posts to FB, but for my WP followers, here’s a few pictures.
I’m just beginning to work on a video and hope to share that with you next week.
We’ve been having a blast, you can be sure. The New Yorkers will be here one more week, so if you are a friend of mine or of Melissa, living near, give us a yell and come on by.
I’ll catch you up with a full report next week! For now, here’s us, sweaty but smiley, at Ellis Park last Friday…
They’re almost here! As I write this they are 1 hour and 20 minutes away!!! We’ve spent the day finishing prep and I seriously Forgot to blog this morning…
The Jose’s are just in time for fresh green beans, an abundance of squash and zucchini, tomatoes of all kinds, bell peppers, cucumbers–all the crops seem to have turned for their visit!
They probably will be gone by the time this canteloupe ripens, but isn’t the sling charming?
The Garden is waiting expectantly for little hands helping harvest…
The New Yorkers will be in town for two weeks and we have a lot of time after August 1 for anyone who wants to visit. Just send one of us a message and we’ll add another plate to the table.
This is your intrepid girl reporter with the Latest News from Sonnystone Acres…
Melissa was in a fender-bender, nobody hurt, Eliza slept through the scary part. Her car was totaled by the insurance company. Her visit with us was planned for around the 26th and she thinks she can buy a new car and stay on that same timeline, but I want her to just breathe. Of course, I want them here Now, but I want them here safely. That’s all I know for now, but that’s just a week away…
Meet Hopper, our resident bunny…
Hopper was a wee fella* when he presented in the veggie garden and destroyed a few green beans. We covered up all the holes he was using to get in, and he learned to be quite content around and in the Peace/Bird Garden, munching on leaves, clover. He’s rather tame and will often stay eating a couple of feet away from where we’re working or sitting as if he were invisible. We’ve seen neither hide nor hair of a mama or siblings, so I believe he was pretty smart to set up camp here near our house and away from the coyotes and hawks. I probably shouldn’t name him, but name or no name, I’ll be sad if something happens to him. *He may be a gal and that’s okay, too.
We’ve added on (again) to our veggie garden, moving the fence back about four feet and adding a gate. I’m full of ideas for a shade garden that lines a gravel path leading down to the firepit. I also potted up the parsley, sage, and rosemary to make room for the tentacles of the watermelons and cantaloupe.
We’ve got a windowsill full of tomatoes, a colander of green beans, and several bell peppers from The Edible Garden…
Blather & Balderdash 