thanksgiving 2020

 i walked in the door last night to a meat locker atmosphere in my home.  suddenly having my windows wide open like they've been since april made absolutely no sense.  it's like that every year.  the change is sudden.  i shut the windows, i wore pjs to bed, and i slept under my duvet instead of my summer sheet.  and today i'm lounging in my heavy mustard sweater and fuzzy socks.  just a few days ago i was still sleeping in just my unmentionables, and took only a corner of the duvet at different parts of the night.  i was wearing shorts and sandals.

meanwhile i'm basking in the sunspot on the couch and feeling the coziest feelings.  my nose, toes and finger tips still have the chilly feeling.  fall i fully accept you today.

green chubbies continue to thrive.  i've got 3 little chublets going from leaves that came off of the mother plant and i just picked that baby off of the undercarriage.  there's another baby growing.  succulent gardening is fun and easy and so rewarding at this point.  meanwhile the dahlia's are hanging on.  the yellow one has birthed all new leaves.  maybe she'll have some kind of come back.  i hacked all the dead growth off of pinky/ant-condo.  we'll see how she does.  fuchsia although considerably thinner, with much less blossoms, is still going as well.  hummingbird still visits her afterall.  we had a short face to beak this morning when i was out on the porch doing my morning study.

i have another week off.  it started last friday.  my plan was to have a nice visit with andrea but i cancelled.  i don 't have the money just for the gas of a trip.  i have no pants and need new shoes and a bra and to do an oil change and it looks like a vet visit is in my near future.  summer living is over.  one needs pants and shoes.  it was a bit of a bummer though.

i went to katie's on saturday afternoon.  she was set up at her table, walking boot jutting out to the side, doing some house hunting.  i sat down with my cook book and looked over options of stuff to make for my part of thanksgiving dinner.  part of me wanted to make something new and exciting but another part of me wanted it to be easy, so i put away ideas of roasted onions with a goat cheese and walnut salsa and i decided to make my roasted roots.  katie was making tomato goat cheese tart for dinner and needed me to go get puff pastry and goat cheese and natalie needed to get her ingredients for the salted caramel pumpkin cheese cake that she was making for dessert and i needed to get my roots and some honey and butter, so we all went to the store.  martha and malachi came too.  brent showed up when we were almost done on the hunt for liquid smoke.  "uh oh, haagen daaz are on sale and he's got a problem." said natalie as she was taking the yams out of the individual small bulk bags she had put them in and into the produce bag. i saw a bag of hawkins cheezies on it that was calling my name.

back at the house i was downstairs giving elizabeth and malachi 'missions' while martha and i were going through some clothes she was getting rid of to see if i liked any of them.  malachi and elizabeth were hyped up and full of energy.  i don't need to state it again, but i will--hypping kids up into veritable mouth frothing frenzies is my absolute gift.  i don't even try, ok it just happens.  i'm just being myself and i shouldn't be blamed for what i am.  at first i was sending them outside to do things like hop on one foot with your eyes closed saying "i'm dora the explorer"  ten times, while the other did frog leaps while saying "swiper! no swiping!".  then they had to switch.  another one was they had to run around the culdesac in opposite directions and when they met in the middle to do multiple high fives... i just make it up as the words are leaving my mouth.  then i got them to lay face down on the matress on the floor (my bed for the night) and to inch themselves forward without using their arms.  then i started getting them to do various challenges that i've found on instagram.  elizabeth really got into those.  malachi started to cry when he failed the water cup challenge on his first attempt.  that was the point when i knew it was getting to the point when it was time turn the calm dial up a notch.  all this time, i forgot to say i had the frozen puff pastry up my shirt thawing.  katie wanted me to put it in my pits but that was too cold for me.  instead i nestled it under my boobs.  i do what i can to help.  i handed it off to martha when it was mostly thawed and she took it up to katie in the kitchen.  at some point i heard a "laura can you please come up here?" martha needed help rolling out the pastry.  it's hard to roll out when it's partially frozen but i've been in the situation on a number of occassions so i knew how to handle it.  i got it rolled out and we topped it with a goat cheese garlicy herby concoction and then the roasted tomatoes and into the oven.  

while the tart was cooking we ate the yummiest greek salad and roasted potatoes, almost all from katie's wonder-garden.  her paradise-found garden.  her garden of the jurassic era.  her gorgeous, abundant, little bit of earth.  it's the most glorious veggie garden i've ever seen.  so anyways, it was a super yummy meal all from her garden-glory.  and i would just like to say that the fruits of her labours are spilling out all over her house.  everywhere i go i stumble over boxes of potatoes, logs of zucchini, bags of garlic, tucked here, spilling out there.  katie has garden game.  

that night we watched enola holmes, recommended by me.  i was eating my cheezies (i shared too)and the super crunch drowned out the words.  we put on the subtitles.  martha got restless leg syndrome just before the ending part so we all wiggled our legs wildly.

had a bit of toss and turn night. elizabeth said i slept with a beetle.  at any rate she found it in the bed the next morning.  shrug.  knowing it after the fact is much more comfortable than learning of it in real time.  had yummy homemade blueberry bran muffins for breakfast.

we had home sacrament.  it was really nice.  billy and norm come and give me the sacrament about every 2 weeks and i really appreciate it but it's not the same kind of experience.  we had opening prayer, and sang hymns and i really felt the spirit like you do when you take it at church.  we connected with michealah and cordel on zoom and they did a primary lesson with malachi and then malachi was excused and we did come follow me together.  it was really nice with everyone sharing and building on one another's ideas. often it made us think of a song and then we would sing it or listen to it.  it didn't hurt that we were talking about what i think must be the holiest most sacred chapters of 3nephi, when jesus heals the people, blesses the children and prays for the people.  

after church i got my roots ready.  malachi and martha helped me.  i got elizabeth and  malachi to do headstands against the wall.  malachi and katie went for a little nap and when it was 3:30 martha and i left to go get mom and dad.  i left my car there and drove theirs to katie's. mom gave me a huge jug of popcorn. she can't eat popcorn anymore and i think that's the saddest thing i've ever heard.  mom loves popcorn more than anyone i've ever known.  popcorn, nylons and duct tape--those are her things.  but i mean i took the life time supply of popcorn off her hands. it was raining by this point.  i found their driver's seat really high the ceiling low.  my head pressed against it.  we forgot dad's walker was sitting behind the car and i almost backed over it.  only dad was paying attention to this.  thanks to his yelps of horror i only knocked it over.  

we got back to katie's by 5.  i didn't think of how dad would get upstairs until i walked in the door.  but katie and brent had thought of it.  there was a table set up for down stairs eaters and a table set for upstairs eaters. i quickly got my roots in the oven.  while i was gone natalie had transformed into a super happy energetic helpful bundle of energy and was bustling around the kitchen doing mudsy like things like put, things in the dishwasher before people were done using them.  douglas and tatiana arrived with their tanned little dingle berry.  katie and brent had another couple over but i hardly saw them since i ate downstairs with mom dad, katie, natalie, and martha.  the table was set up against the couch which is quite a low sinker couch.  i could barely reach the table haha.  i knew i was going to spill and sure enough i found bits of turkey on my leg once just when i happened to put my hand there. katie has these cute orange cloth napkins with cute embroidery on it.  the food was so yummy.  especially the gravy.  you know how the gravy ties it all together? it really does.  everything was just right.  dad thought the brussel sprouts were raw because they weren't mushy.  haha.  mom ate his.  i wanted more after i was done but i fought the temptation except a tiny bun and some gravy.  this forbearance was only because i wanted room for natalie's amazing cheesecake. 

and it was divine.  after we were done, i went out to look at katie's green house and to ooh and aww in person at the jurassic garden.  i took pics of natalie being dwarfed by the giant kale plant.  i called it kale dress.  i thought the cabbages looked the most beautiful.

we left around 8 thirty i think.  before leaving chiliwack we drove by some apartments mom is thinking about and then i got us a little lost and we ended up driving up over promontory and down to katie and brent's old exit prest.  i drove mom and dad home, and then i drove myself home.

i was thinking the other day.  i do that sometimes.  at first i caught myself doing some negative self talk about how my car and computer and camera were all given to me, and i can't afford the basics of life on my own and how can i ever survive etc etc.  then i stopped myself and thought about it more.  i decided to reframe.  i thought about how blessed i am.  and then i realized MOST of my stuff has been given to me.  my tv, bed, dresser, hope chest, book shelves, couch, plates, bowls, cutlery, pots, pans, art, lamps, towels, bath mat, desk, credenza, table, chairs, and more!  and then i felt like such a blind little child who sees nothing of how her creator provides for her every day because then i realized that everything i have is a gift.  even in this year, this brute of a 2020, there is so much for me to be thankful for not the least of which is my family, my friends, my job, my freedom, my safety, my health and my faculties.  of the most important things in life i'm abundantly rich like katie's jurassic garden. because he really does pour blessings down upon us that there isn't room enough to receive.