Nora sends a weekend post card from her favorite place — Home. ~Laura
This was a busy one around here. We’re repurposing two areas–shifting them, and since one is my sub-office where we’ve stored all my books, and the other is my closet, this entails much tubbing, boxing, purging, hauling. Both areas are up a set of stairs, so it involves a lot of climbing.
We’d earmarked this weekend for the major work here, but we took a pause on that Saturday as my oldest grandson had a basketball game.
Watching a bunch of 10 and 11-year old boys race around a court, dribbling, passing, shooting is enormous fun–and when one is yours, exhausting. And really exhilarating when your boy scores a basket and makes a key steal. Our guys won, which is great, but the very best was the big, beaming grin on Logan’s face when we saw him after the game.
At least we came home cheerful to face a solid three hours of work. I believe my Fitbit registered 50 sets of stairs by the end of it. Though my new closet space still needs some tweaking–ordered more shoe and boot boxes–it’s in pretty good shape. And the new storage area won’t be my problem!
Purging the closet will net my pals plenty. I’ve already sent out an SOS for us to get together soon and tear through the small mountain of bags we hauled out.
I did a little of that tweaking on Sunday, and will do more yet, but had set that cold winter day aside mostly for the kitchen. I finally got the Thanksgiving turkey carcass out of the freezer to make turkey noodle soup. BW’s particularly fond of pretzel bread, so I added that to the menu. When he came in from manly outdoor chores, I got another big, beaming grin when he saw the rolls cooling on the rack. Good deal all around.
Somewhere between chopping vegetables for the soup and punching down dough, my granddaughter popped in. She’s still afraid to change her own earrings (we’ll work on this) and has decided I’m the only one who can do it. So we did that–and I bought a load of Girl Scout cookies from her. That netted me one more happy face for my weekend.
The closet shift has delayed my full-house purge, but I hit the utility closet while I was chained to the kitchen, so can now check my kitchen off the purge and organize list.
With BW mired in football, I had myself a nice bowl of soup, some quiet and a book to end the weekend.
Today, after all that hauling and climbing, I’m looking forward to sitting on my butt and writing. I hope you all had a weekend with some happy faces, and can do what makes you smile through the week.
Nora
It must be a New Year thing…this cleaning, boxing, giving away, throwing the unusable stuff in the recycle bin, if possible.
Many of us will be starting the New Year with orderly closets and junk drawers.
Yeaaa for your Grandson’s team. Those pretzel buns look yummy. Happy butt sitting day.
Decluttered Christmas decorations as I put them away this year, otherwise house is clutter free, but did manage to part with some shoes when I straightened up the bedroom closets, nice to donate and let someone else get some use out of them. Made spicy chicken chili yesterday, delicious, recipe from FB, served over rice, leftovers finished it up tonight. made cornbread to go with, good comfort food. Ice storms hit us yesterday out of the blue here in southeast PA. Keep writing Nora, love all your books.
I really need to start a purge weekend myself. I like to “New Year’s” clean instead of waiting till Spring. Just haven’t gotten myself motivated. Happy faces on the weekend are such a joy. One of our granddaughters spent the night Sunday night so that brought a happy face from both of us. Here’s wishing happy faces all during the week.
Oh yum!! That soup and pretzel bread looks soooo good!!!! I’m licking my lips! I remember the days when my sons played basketball. I loved going to watch them. Now I’m front and center watching grandsons play soccer. Doesn’t get any better than that!
Looks delicious! Do we get recipes too?!
Yes, please, will you share your recipes? I love to make bread, and soup of almost any kind is good to me. This is definitely the weather for soup and bread making.
scrapbooked and bought girl scout cookies. Also visited with some old friends who are missionaries on furlough from the far ends of the earth. Heard some amazing stories, and caught up with each others families.
You amaze me Nora!!!!!!!! I LOVE these posts! You made my Monday a little brighter.
THANK YOU!
congratulations to your grandson. being a grandma is the greatest role – we see our 2 grandson’s every weekend and nothing warms the heart than hearing : “Grandma, I’ve been waiting for you – will you play with me?” I also start purging at the beginning of year – my shredder gets quite a workout.
How lovely – from beginning to end. Thanks so much for sharing your weekend with us. Pretzel bread? Is a recipe to follow?
Nothing better than giving away stuff you no longer wish to keep. My niece and cousins love to “shop” my closets. Since I’m planning on selling my old house this year, I will need to downsize soon. Oh how we can accumulate stuff! Oy.
By the way, that soup looks scrumptious, and I’m sure tasted even better. Happy writing. With thanks.
I just can’t write out recipes–it would take too much time. I actually found the pretzel bread one at allrecipes.com–and just play with it a little to make it my own. The soup is, again, something I make a bit different every time, depending on the mood and what I have on hand. I don’t actually have a formal recipe for that–or for most of my cooking.
Let me add to this before I start signing six–yes SIX–tubs of books. When my younger son was getting married, his amazing Kat asked me to put together a kind of recipe book for her, as her equally amazing mother had done.
I did my best here. And loved her reaction. Take my deviled eggs, a crowd pleaser she really wanted to duplicate. She said, after reading the recipe. But, but, but, it doesn’t give amounts. It says by taste and by eye. I said yeah, that’s how I roll. Boil the eggs (white vinegar and salt in the water makes peeling a breeze), slice in half, rice the egg yolks, add mayo and mustard to taste (I’m heavier on the mustard), add some garlic power, onion salt, basil, pepper, oregano, rosemary to taste. That’s a lot of herbs, but it works. Sometimes I add dill and thyme. And I do it by eye and scent, then have BW taste as I don’t like deviled eggs!
There are never any eggs left, no matter how many I make.
She looked baffled, but eventually figured it out as nearly every recipe I put in the book for her was the same. And she learned more by helping me in the kitchen, and experimenting on her own.
BTW, both she and Jason are excellent cooks.
I add chopped black olives to mine. Everyone loves them.
Kathy
Hi Nora,
Congratulations for your grandson team. I too purge this week after two big black bag I finally can see my closet floor. I have a lot of space in the house I need to fill it up with clothes. well this is a new year thing that I’m going to start doing cleaning out my closets and then out with the old in with the new. My daughter didn’t like it very much because she saw me coming with the bags and she said ” you’re not taking any of my stuff ” I said “You have stuff in there that you haven’t used in a year you need to get rid of them, you got all new stuff for Christmas. ” little by little she gave me a couple of things and I took a couple of things. She is not very happy about that. but she can finally see her closet too. we both went shopping on Sunday and got some new stuff for closet. We’re happy again.
A grandchild’s smile makes any day so much brighter, and you got to enjoy a lot on your weekend. Every time I’m reading my husband asks “New book” and then “Nora Roberts?”. He knows who I prefer to read. Thank you for adding many smiles to my days.
Congrats too your grandson and his team mates! I got too see my two youngest grandsons this weekend the oldest was at work, between him being a senior and working to make payments in his car I don’t see him that much! But the bear hug I received from my youngest grandson made me very happy and they call me Grammy not grandma, but I love my grand babies!! Happy sitting on your butt and writing another wonderful novel, love your novels because once I start reading one I can’t seem to put it down until I’ve read the whole novel!! So thanks again for your talent of telling a good story!!!
There are only 2/3 authors I will buy hardcover books of and Nora is one of them. Catherine Coulter is the other (It’s either 2 or 3 depending on whether or not you count JD Robb as a separate author).
We did some of the same things this weekend. Purging, built a new bed for our bedroom and fresh made pretzel rolls. I look forward to the opportunity to park my tailfeathers and read! LOL Wish I was close enough for my nieces and nephews to pop in, that always brightens the day.
Thanks, Nora for this wonderful post and it brought a smile to my face. But aren’t the best smiles the ones that are on the faces of our grandkids! Being with my grandkids, whether it be one on one, or beaming as they sing or play an instrument, or cheering them on at whatever sport they involved in, is such a blessing. There’s no life like it!! Cooking for me has always been therapeutic. I used to spend all day in the kitchen, but now have to do it as I have energy. But there is nothing like the smells of fresh baked rolls, soup or stew simmering on the stove, brownies or cookies baking in the oven to make one feel good! And, as I always tend to make too much, I am happy there are always willing children and grandchildren to take some of it off my hands. I am so grateful my mother and grandmother taught me the joy of cooking, and wanting to learn since I was old enough to read a recipe. I must try that pretzel bread…looks delicious.
Smiles of appreciation are the best. Thanks, Nora!
I had my 2yr old grandson and fixed a homemade chicken casserole. needless to say I had to put book three of the O’Dwyer trilogy down for about 12 hrs while Jasper was there. I finally finished it last night!!! Wow my chest was tight ,heart was pounding. and my stomach was in knots.!!! love this trilogy. Thank you Nora!
What a great weekend! Fun, family, food and finishing some projects. Thanks for sharing these glimpses of your everyday life with us ~ your grands light up your life just as my grands do mine. BW doing “manly outdoor chores”, huh? How many of your heroes does he inspire, by chance?
I’ll say changing earrings is much better than having to help your brother dig out his contacts, as I had to do way back in the day. Somewhat unsettling to have your fingers poking around someone’s eyes 😀
It sure is soup and homemade bread season. The house smells so homey! I must try the pretzel bread. Meanwhile, I’m being entertained by Dallas and Roarke. I have major catching up to do but I’m more than half way through.
Let it snow!!!!!!
Love these posts Nora……thank you again for endless hours of enjoyment….just finished reading Bridal Quartet (again) and always sad when I finish the final book in a series…..
Happy New Year & happy writing!
Thank you for sharing your family and weekends. It’s so much fun to hear about all your goings on!! Apparently, however, I am a slacker in the house purging area!! Happy new year to all of you.
A very dear friend of mine does the turkey carcass soup…and that is what she calls it…carcass soup! If yours is as good as hers, it is delightful. Soup is one of my most favorite foods any time of year and I am lucky to have a handy man who like to cook. 🙂 BTW-halfway thru The Collector and love it. Thanks for sharing your gift of writing with us.
Spent part of the weekend helping a driver friends work through electrical issues with his bus. So glad I’ve a new bus. Then the rest of the weekend hauling hay for the horses. As for the week to come. Next leg of the tour doesn’t start for some time so I’m just hanging at the house enjoying some rare down time. Looking forward to doing some reading.
I keep a bag in my closet and as I find clothes I not longer enjoy wearing I add them to the bag. When it’s full…I take it to the local battered women’s shelter.
Also….when I travel…I collect on a daily basis…all the bathroom gratuities I don’t use. I’ll bag them up and when I get home they too….go to the local battered women’s shelter. Sometimes these women flee with just the clothes on their backs…so these toiletries are really needed at the shelters.
Okay that’s it from me…happy purging everyone…
The purple one…!
It must be purging and organizing time of year! I did the dreaded closets, under bathroom sink, kitchen cabinets the last 2 weekends. Had chicken in crock pot cooking too. Tomorrow we do the pantry, purging stuff and best of all giving it new paint and organization, soup holders and all! It is very gratifying isn’t it?!
I would love to be even half as organized, dedicated and self-disciplined as you are. That’s a talent in itself. Alas, I have no talent. Lol
Okay. So I read the newest post about cleaning the laundry room & office before I read this one (I’m behind because I suck & rarely check FB). I’m so impressed! Holy moly, that’s a lot of cleaning! I thought the laundry room & office was pretty efficient! This is amazing!
Maybe one day, my husband will decide clutter bothers him as much as it bother me 😉 A girl can dream!
Hi,for once I had an enjoyable weekend with some much needed sister time just the two of us chatting and making plans for house.really love having time off to breathe.xx
We had a very snowy winter, more snow than ever. EVERYONE was complaining. I stayed home, sat in my sunroom with my dogs, a furry lap robe & one of my many books. It was fine, Sometimes I added wine in the evening. One night, I was reading a book by Catherine Spangler & I felt something crawling on my hand! It was a bug. I shook my hand to get it off. Unfortunately I had a glass of wine in that hand. By the time I cleaned up the carpet, I had the creepie crawlies but the book was so exciting–I was near the end. I looked all over to get that bug but I couldn’t find it. I went back to my book, picking up what was left of the wine. I was all ready to take a sip and there was that bug on the lip of the wine glass. I almost screamed!!! It is now swimming(?) in the sewers. I got a new glass & a refill & enjoyed the book so much, I’m looking for another of her books.
I ABSOLUTELY LOVED THE WITNESS & THE COLLECTER. The IN DEATH series is my fav–LOVE Eve & Roarke. I have all but the last 3 audiobooks so I can listen to the series whenever I want.