C-ats

These are a few of my favorite things:

C is for Cats.

I can always remember having a cat when I was growing up. I can remember Snowflake. I don't have a picture of Snowflake, but I'm pretty sure she started having her kittens on my bed in the middle of the night. My parents had a heck of a time getting her to move them into a box. She was determined to stay in the bed.
Maybe my siblings can clarify. Our basement flooding once and I seem to remember that our cat had her kittens all huddled up together to keep their heads above water. Luckily the flooding was caught early enough that tragedy could be averted. Was this Snowflake and did this really happen? The memory is so vivid that it must have happened, right?

I also remember Puffy who looked much like Snowflake.

The cat I most remember though is Honey. He was (obviously) a honey-colored cat and we also had his brother, whom we called Bit-O-Honey (I think), a calico cat with bits of honey coloring (hence the name). I don't know what happened to Bit-O-Honey, but I know he wasn't around as long as Honey. We moved twice with Honey. And then, one day, he disappeared. Oh, and I know that my dad called him Tom. I'm sure he couldn't bring himself to calling the cat "Honey".

I didn't have a cat for many years after that. After Jim and I married, we ended up with a cat named Bootsie. He was my daughter's cat. When we moved to this house, unknown to us, he sneaked into one of the trucks and when it was opened to unpack, he bolted. I believe he found his way back to our old house (only a couple of miles away), but didn't stick around long.

We had a couple of cats after that. However, we live on a busy road and cats do not fair well on busy roads. As a matter of fact, many years ago when our daughter was in junior high and our son was in preschool...We had a cat named Tasha, again Jamie's cat. Tasha usually went out in the evening and in the morning would show up at Jamie's bedroom window and Jamie would let her in.
One evening, Jim came home after finishing up a job in the evening and pulled me aside to tell me that he had found Tasha on the side of our road. It wasn't good news.
Jim took on the sad task of retrieving the cat and burying her. We were all sad and Jamie cried. A lot.
The next morning, we sadly started our day. Jamie was still quite upset so I decided to take Jon to preschool and come back and take her to school late so that she had extra time to compose herself. I talked to her for a minute, left her in her bedroom to start getting ready, and proceeded to get ready to take Jon to his school.
Weren't we all surprised (or perhaps in shock) a minute later when Jamie came out of her bedroom with a very alive Tasha in her arms?!
Just like any other morning, Tasha showed up at Jamie's bedroom window to be let in.
Yes. Jim did go out and look at the grave. There is someone, somewhere in our neighborhood who must have been missing their gray-striped cat. We never found out who you are...but we gave your cat a proper burial.
I'd like to say that Tasha lived a long happy life after that. But she didn't. She met the same fate as her lookalike.

While all this was going on we had Ozzie. Ozzie was the shop cat. She didn't want to come in the house. She was very happy and comfy in the heated shop. She never ventured out by the road either. She did manage to get into a couple of scrapes, but she lived a long, happy life here.

After that we decided that we just couldn't have a cat that was allowed outside. And we got Boo. Boo was an inside only cat. She did not appreciate that title and took every available opportunity to sneak outside. I, for one, never once enjoyed chasing her around to catch her. Have you very tried to catch a cat? Not easy.
Boo had her quirks and she got to be a cranky old cat, but we all loved her. Even though she really only loved the men of the house. Boo lived a long and happy life of leisure.

After Boo died, I decided that I would take a little break from having cats.

Then my daughter moved back in...with two cats. And that's a whole 'nother story!

B-ooks

These are a few of my favorite things:

B is for Books.

I love books. Always have and always will. I'll show you:

First and most importantly are my Little House books by Laura Ingalls Wilder. My very first set, which I collected one or two at a time for gifts or as I saved my allowance. Little House in the Big Woods is a Scholastic book and I had always wished that I had a matching set. I cannot say how many times I have read these books. I ♥ Laura Ingalls Wilder.

I now own several sets of the Little House books. These are a few. Yes, I finally got my matching set. ☺

This bookcase holds my books that are Laura Ingalls Wilder related, by and about her or her daughter, Rose Wilder Lane. Except for the top shelf. That has my books by Louisa May Alcott, Lucy Maud Montgomery, Maud Hart Lovelace and Rebecca LeeAnne Brammer.

I also collect books that are talked about in the Little House books. Pa's Big Green Book, Millbank, Tennyson's Poems.

More Laura-related antique books.

And just so you don't think that I'm totally obsessed with Laura Ingalls Wilder. Here are the rest of my books. A little messy, I know, and I'm constantly rearranging them. I have history, historical fiction, biographies and autobiographies, Michigan books and James Herriott books. And a few others.

I just bought this not long ago. Never really needed one before. Then I got old and forgetful. Yes, that is another set of Little House books behind the dictionary. That's my desk set. ☺

Last and most importantly. I have been reading this more through Lent. As I should be. It sits on my desk.

I admit there are more books packed away here and there. I love to read and have only recently had the time to actually do it again. Books...one of my favorite things!

A-ntiques

These are a few of my favorite things:

A is for Antiques.

Last summer, my husband went to a Laura Ingalls Wilder conference with me. Yes, as a matter of fact, he is quite a guy.

I told him that he could choose whatever he wanted to do all the way home from Minnesota to Michigan. He decided that one of the things he wanted to do was to stop at antique stores as we happened by them. That was never something that interested me much, which is odd for someone like me who sometimes wishes she lived in the 19th century.

I very quickly discovered that I do LOVE antique stores! I love to pick things up and wonder where they've been and who used them and what life was like at that time.

I decided that I needed to make a decision about exactly what I wanted to collect. I had already collected some of the items that were used or talked about in the Little House books by Laura Ingalls Wilder and Jim had already bought me a pair of sheep shears at an antique store that he found in Mankato on one of the days of the conference where he went off wandering on his own. Remember Farmer Boy and Chapter 14: Sheep-shearing? Jim pays attention, plus he's followed me around enough Laura Ingalls Wilder museums and homesites that he had no choice but to absorb some of the information. That's one of the many things I love about him.

So, besides Laura Ingalls Wilder memorabilia, I fancied handkerchiefs and old photographs of children and babies. Both usually inexpensive and small enough not to have to take up much room. Mostly though, I love to wander and wonder.

I would love to collect more of these long white baby gowns. I ♥ them. Usually they're out of my price range so I only own two of them...so far. ☺

A little late...I'm doing the A to Z Challenge

What is the A to Z Challenge? It’s blogging a letter of the alphabet every day the month of April (with Sundays off for good behavior.)  To learn more about this challenge or to join it yourself, click on the A to Z picture above. It begins April First with the letter A and ends April 30 with the letter Z. Many bloggers use a theme. 
My theme will be: My favorite things.

Excuse that I'm a little behind and now have to catch up! ☺

Simple Sunday

Jamie and I are in charge of collecting sap these last couple of days while the boys are out of town. I'm not going to bore you with another maple syrup post...but Jamie posted about it on her blog. So, if you're interested ☺ check it out. She has a way of making it cuter and funnier than I do!

I do have one sappy photo to share from our adventure yesterday...

We call this "The Giving Tree". The bucket has been full for the last few sap running days.

Blame it on my brother...

The other day as I started writing about music and memories, what else could happen?
It brought back a few memories.

Here I share, not only a particular memory, but also my strange ability to know who sings what song that happened to be popular back in the '70's. This, by the way, is taking up much needed memory space in my brain. I can't remember something that someone told me yesterday, but darn it, I can remember when a Tom Petty song comes on right in the first few notes.



When we were in our teens and started hanging out together more, my brother and I discovered that we both liked the same music. This was back in the '70's when what we consider now to be classic rock was not classic...yet. And my brother and I would quiz each other on who could guess the artist/band/song that was playing on the radio. I think we were both pretty good at it, but I may have to admit that he was a little better than I. After all, he is older than me. ☺

Anyhow, this strange habit of mine never seems to have gone away. I've tried playing this guessing game with my husband. A song starts playing and I say, "Quick! Who is this?!" And he says (always), "I don't know." And quite often he doesn't. He doesn't really care. If he likes a song, he enjoys it and he doesn't concern himself with who is singing it.

But then my kids got old enough to torture quiz. I would often bribe them, "A buck to whoever can guess who this is!"
Then, my son reached an age where he actually started listening to classic rock and he knew the answers and the game started costing me money. So, I quit offering the monetary reward, but I still ask. Jon usually knows and sometimes he'll play along, but other times it annoys him and he won't play. Sometimes he is quite the stick in the mud. Jamie, on the other hand, will usually venture a guess. It's rarely right, but she tries. She's just never been a listener of classic rock. I won't embarrass her with some of the guesses she's made, but seriously, everyone should know The Beatles!

I blame this strange habit on my brother. After all...he started it!

And the winner is...

I absolutely loved doing this giveaway! It was so much fun sharing the story of our maple syrup and giving others the chance to let us share the actual maple syrup! At the same time, I hated doing this giveaway...I wanted everyone to win. :-( And that just isn't possible...

Okay, while I didn't actually throw the names into a hat, I did have this beautiful jar that my daughter made for me a few years ago as part of my Christmas present. Perfect for throwing names into!

And here are the names all waiting to be drawn. I recycled paper from my "printer mistake" pile. I very carefully kept track of who commented and whether they were a follower and if they shared news of the giveaway.

I interrupted Jim's breakfast so that he could draw the winners. See? There's his glass of orange juice there on the very left.

Sarah! Congratulations Sarah! I was actually able to meet Sarah at LauraPalooza last summer.

She's a very nice gal and I'm happy to share our maple syrup with her. Sarah, contact me with your info and I'll get this sent right out to you. :-)

 Hold on there a minute! 

Why is Jim drawing another name out of the jar?

As it turns out, I had this cute little half-pint ☺ jug that just needed to travel to another winner! You guys just don't know how badly I wish I had one for everyone!

But the little half-pint travels to Kansas! Congratulations, Susan, contact me with your info and I'll get your little taste of syrup out to you.

I had so much fun that I think I will do other giveaways on occasion. Not always maple syrup, mind you, but I'll come up with something. And, who knows, stick around and next year I'll probably do this again!