http://www.pleonast.com/user/nontradish recent pleonast.com entries by user nontradish en-us http://www.pleonast.com/user/nontradish?l=5&entryID=616776 The word "treacle" must be in the name. Treacle Hut? ***** In other news...it is snowing. Will I have a snow day tomorrow? It would be nice to have a random day to do things around this house. I may never eat Hershey's kisses again; a friend gave me some super truffles for Christmas. Eating them is not really eating. It is savoring. You just let one delectable mound slowly melt in your mouth, oozing velvety goodness throughout your senses. My oh my!! 2009-01-07 http://www.pleonast.com/user/nontradish?l=5&entryID=615794 The shack is materializing in the woods. The walls are made of poplar boards made from our own trees and milled at an Amish sawmill. We did have to purchase pine 2x4's. The only injuries so far were Jon-David gouging himself with a sharp object and one of the walls falling on Dan...luckily, both men are OK. One 2x4 did snap in the falling wall episode. The shack looks like a very small church...it is narrow and has a very steep roof. It will pull double duty this summer; there is plenty of room for several sleeping bags in there, so we won't have to pitch tents for our camp-outs with the grandkids. A friend of ours gave us a very classy solid oak door for the shack. It is incongruous, but hey, incongruous is our middle name...Providence Incongruous Farm. The door was just lying around in John's workshop, so he offered it to us. It's probably worth more than all of the rest of the shack. So that brings me to the question of the day: what shall be the name of said shack... 2009-01-05 http://www.pleonast.com/user/nontradish?l=5&entryID=614914 OK, sometimes the Reeves family is accused of always having bizarre things going on around their home. This is just NOT true. I write this as I sit on the second floor of Club Escuela, typing on the new Mac, bought on Ebay. Faith is sleeping in one of the twin beds, her dog Brutus sleeping beside her. As I glance out the window I see one of the men (Jon-David, David, or Dan) walking to and fro in the yard behind the barn. They are building a sugar shack. Someone got the great idea of tapping our maple trees and making maple syrup this year. This is a huge undertaking, I'm told, but they will give it a noble effort. Earlier today there was some activity involving a large metal vat and a roaring fire in it. Hmmmm. A couple of hours ago I returned from the airport where Hannah and Cash boarded a plane for Indy. Chad left earlier this morning, driving, so they should be reunited shortly. Someone in my family is writing a book. I am not allowed to say more...but I've been readi... 2009-01-01 http://www.pleonast.com/user/nontradish?l=5&entryID=613938 Great Christmas with the family! I started off 2008 with sprained toes (that still ache, by the way), and I am ending the year with sore buttocks. I took a goofy-looking fall yesterday, smack on my hind quarters...maybe slightly to the left...that sent a shock up my spine. It actually gave my head quite a jar; today I'm limping a bit. I'm so sure it looked so goofy...wish I could have seen it. I just took a step backward, while saying goodbye to Olivia's fam, and, unfortunately, tripped on some decorative rocks...and there was nothing to grab onto, and I just went down...boom! I landed on slightly wet mulch, so there was a bit of padding. Oh well... My favorite gift is a purple iPod nano; Chad is helping to download music to it for me. Also got nice things like foot scrubby things and a pedicure, coffee pods, running magazine subscription, candles, calendar, ornaments, and other treats. The gals saw Twilight last Friday, and it was such a disappointment...very cheesy. I'm ha... 2008-12-29 http://www.pleonast.com/user/nontradish?l=5&entryID=612651 Aaahhh! The cold was so severe, but it has suddenly turned to tepid slush. Poor Chad wanted a white Christmas so badly. I'm loving my grandbabies. I can't wait til tomorrow morning to watch some gift-opening!! The Reeves extravaganza opening will be sometime on Friday...as will be our mega-meal. Tonight we will enjoy a Christmas Eve service, and I'll be set. This morning I woke up at 4:30 in a panic...I had totally spaced preparing the church e-newsletter this week. I quickly got it written (read cut and pasted) and got it out at 8:00 a.m. I had gone to sleep at 9:30 last night, completely whooped. You gotta love Christmastime. So...Happy Christmas Eve!! ***** Yikes! Hannah is sick. Luckily for us Chad made it in last night, but he's still sleeping after that long drive. Cash is happy watching the Backyardigans at the moment. That's a great way for Gram and Poppy to keep him happy! Whew! OK, must go make breakfast. 2008-12-24 http://www.pleonast.com/user/nontradish?l=5&entryID=611835 When I went to bed last night our thermometer read -1. That, I believe, is our coldest of 2008. I knew it must be pretty bad, when I was loading my groceries into my car at Giant Eagle, and my face felt like it had been hit with a face-shaped sledge hammer. I so wanted to cry, but I knew those tears would freeze onto my aching face. Note to self...get out my wool scarf. While watching "Fox & Friends" this morning I heard the hosts refer to their audience as being in TV Land. I am NOT in TV Land; they are in TV Land, and I am in what's known as the real world, OK? I looked at my husband and asked him if we were on a hidden camera. It was pretty funny...we looked pretty funny at that moment...me in my pink pjs and pink robe and black knee socks, spiky bed-head hair...and him in bed with a red Chardon Hilltopers hoodie on, with the actual hood on his head as he sat in bed...yeah, pretty funny. Yesterday I wrote a story. I like it very much. I believe it is a child... 2008-12-22 http://www.pleonast.com/user/nontradish?l=5&entryID=611338 ...and yet, I woke up at 6:15, but that is OK if it is done without necessity. OK, I love Christmas music, and it's been nice listening to my radio station playing non-stop Christmas music for several weeks...but I so do NOT like getting my 5:00 a.m. wake-up call for work to the strains of Dean Martin's "Rudolph" or Christina Aguillera's "All I Want for Christmas is You." Please...something more soothing for our wake-up music! So my to-do list must be created "toot sweet". Things that might be on it are: 1. Bake something. 2. Clean something. 3. Buy something. 4. Read something. 5. Watch some movie. 6. Iron/mend something. 7. Listen to some music/make some music. 8. Hug someone. 9. Talk to someone on the phone. 10. Sleep. I'm happy that many important things are done, including all gifts purchased and wrapped and all Christmas cards written, addressed, and stamped. I wrote a Christmas letter on Thursday and am pretty pleased with i... 2008-12-20 http://www.pleonast.com/user/nontradish?l=5&entryID=607322 There are so many songs that I love! I decided that I needed to make part 2 about artists. My absolute three favorite Christmas artists. This is really hard. I've been thinking about them since I wrote my last entry on Saturday. So here they are: 1st - gotta be Mannheim Steamroller...yeah, yeah, they are johnny-come-latelies, in the scheme of my lifetime, but oh well. We as a family discovered MH's 1st Christmas album when we lived in Colorado, probably around 1987 or so (??)...heard the music playing in a Target store over the PA and bought their first album on the spot, an LP. MH Christmas albums invigorate me and make me smile and want to dance. I have all of their CDs to date...at least one of each. 2nd - Selah...another newish discovery. Their "Rose of Bethlehem" CD is amazing! Seeing them perform many of the songs in person a few Christmases ago was sublime pleasure. Their rendition of "Oh Come, Oh Come Emmanuel" is the best I've ever heard. When... 2008-12-08 http://www.pleonast.com/user/nontradish?l=5&entryID=606614 The Christmas music has started in earnest, and I get more opinionated as I grow older. Two of my favorite secular songs (not really carols) are "Please Come Home for Christmas" by Charles Brown and "Merry Christmas, Darling" by the Carpenters. I have not heard either of them on the radio yet, so I visited YouTube and enjoyed them immensely. I've been thinking about what makes a song meaningful to me. It's of course completely subjective...a combination of the sentiments, the actual orchestration and voices, the memories the songs elicit...simply how I feel when I let myself get lost in the song. Both of these songs were released at some time in my teens. Both of them are completely and totally secular, which was my Christmas focus as a child...for various reasons. Both of them lend themselves to easily singing along...a bonus for me...when I'm in the mood. What is interesting to me is the melancholy of both songs...why I am OK with that...even enjoying that... 2008-12-06 http://www.pleonast.com/user/nontradish?l=5&entryID=604647 Thanksgiving break was refreshing...just a little too brief. We had a very relaxing time in PA with Olivia and family. She and Barry whipped up an unusual feast, including lobster tails hot off the grill! Yum!! Isaac and Scarlett are so delightful; it was such a pleasure to spend some time with all of them. One of my personal delights was that I did NOT GAIN ANY WEIGHT during the holiday, actually losing one pound. I was happy to do a bit of running...not my usual 3 miles, but at least 1 1/2 miles on a couple of days there. Pansy made the trip very handily and was fairly well-behaved. She is such a perfect little companion. I've been trying to make progress on my Christmas shopping online. I've been able to take care of a few of the family, but I still need to talk to some of them and get a couple of more ideas. David and I went out this afternoon and had a hard time not buying a tree/wreath, etc. I'm just not ready to decorate the big items yet...but it was so tempting. I... 2008-11-30