Welcome to JaNEWary 2014

welcome to January friends! as a new year begins now is the time to embark on the changes you've long wanted to make in your life. jump in! embrace the change! today is the first day of the rest of your life.

we're good here at the House of Fruit & Nuts. truly this last year has been wonderful and exciting and blessed in ways i can not express. (i'm sorry. is everyone tired of hearing me say that?) all i can tell you is that God loves the sinners too and be patient because you just can't know what He has in store for you.

now, i'm not going to lie. 4 grown adults sharing one house never stops being a test of the nerves. throw in the daily care of Grannie who is entirely dependent on us and just as entirely unhappy about being so dependent and you have our daily lives. sweet, huh?

special shout out to my friend Viv!! she was showing me photos of her late beloved husband Eddie and i noticed the gravestone read "At the end of the day, it's just you and me." it was a kind of litany for them especially as he struggled with cancer toward the end. that really wowed me. Russ & i have adopted it for ourselves.

think about it: people, jobs, places come and go in our lives. we love them and take care of them as best we can. but "at the end of the day" when we are tired and depleted, what makes marriage so special is that there is just the two of you - there for each other.

so, take a moment. commit to love and take care of the people, jobs, and places in your lives. at the end of the day, treasure those who are there for you. and never, never feel alone. know that God is there holding your hand until you are ready to hold the hand of another. believe it because i said it. (and i am just hardly ever wrong.)

i've commited to writing to you every week. i hope you'll support me by reading and responding.

The Greatest Lesson I've Never Learned

one Christmas when i was little -- i guess about eight or nine years old -- my great-grandmother gave me a toy xylophone. it was white with multi-color keys and little wheels. it came with a little wooden mallet or you could pull it along and hidden mallets would strike the keys as it rolled.  i was DISGUSTED! to my oh-so-grown-up eight year old self, this was a baby's toy.

of course i did not say that! by eight i was fully aware that saying anything ungrateful at Christmas, much less to my great-grandmother, would result in something other than those keys getting hit. i just muttered "Thank You" and set it aside to be ignored. dutifully my mother packed it up and brought it home.

but, the thing is -- i played with that little xylophone for yeeeeeaaars. i loved the colors of the metal keys even as they wore away over the years. i loved the sound it made when i drug the mallet (or a rock or a key or whatever was nearby) across the tiny keys or pulled it along. even today, should i stumble across one i can't resist the simple joy of tapping out little tunes on it.

the lesson here is that i thought i knew what i wanted and nothing about that little toy fit my expectations. it was simple, colorful, required creativity and imagination, and could hold my attention without the very first electronic blip or blink. but, of course, it took years for me to learn to appreciate all those things. i still don't know that i've completely learned the lesson.

we all think we know what we want. we have long lists of wants and needs stored in our heads lying in wait just to be asked. we look at things.. at places.. at people.. and make quick judgments about their worth. in Our Infinite Arrogance, we think we know what we want.

if we're very lucky, we're afforded the chance to learn how wrong we are.

years later my mother intended to sell my xylophone in a garage sale. horrified i pulled it from the To Be Sold box. she gave me that look of tired disdain (do they teach that look?) and said, "you never even wanted that thing." it was then i realized  that she was right! (i didn't say that of course.) while it now seemed in-con-ceivable to me to lose it, i clearly remembered wanting nothing to do with it just a few Christmas Eve's ago.

look, i could quote example after example, but think about it: how many times have you received something that was nothing like what you "wanted" only to discover how wrong you had been all along? Life's greatest surprises are the ones we experience at our own expense.

you know i still have to learn this everyday. i still think i want the white chocolate mocha latte until i get the salted caramel espresso by mistake. but i've learned to smile whenever Life gives me the nudge and the wink. *sigh* i'll probably never learn. i kinda hope not! i've learned to really love the learning process.

Happy Memorial Day Weekend!

hey blog readers! sorry i haven't been around more lately. i have a bad case of computus iteruptus also know as Stupid A#@ F#@%& Piece of S#@%. (hopefully i will get it resolved soon.) 

BUT! as i like to say, "What-Evah!". let's get happy. it's Memorial Day Weekend and Pensacola is knee deep in partying gays and lesbians. the weather is perfect. the beach is Gorgeous. everyone is having a fan-tastic time. Russ and i are celebrating in our traditional way: LOTS of food and liquor.

because i am a magnanimous queen, i want to share the love with everyone who could not be down here with us on this most festive of weekends. and so, i give you this:

Our Beautiful Beach minus all those annoying hot guys and girls in swimsuits

and this:

the Beach Weekend

aka the PERFECT Memorial Day Wkend Shot Recipe

• 1 oz Whipped vodka
• .5 oz Pineapple Rum
• .5 oz Orange Juice

shake with ice and strain into shot glasses. garnish with a squirt of whipped cream if you like (and you KNOW you do!).

Klink! Kiss! Kill! <repeat>

just remember, keep it safe and don't forget the thank you notes!

we'll be here all summer. come see us!