About gDonna
The photo is my son and myself. Now days you can get a photo made to look old like this one. This photo was taken when this was the new look.

Harry S Truman was president when I was born and world war II had ended. I grew up in a time when lunch was put in a brown paper bag and a sandwich was wrapped with wax paper. There was no such thing as pantyhose, we wore stockings that attached to the rubbery clippy things that attached to the girdle. Convenience stores were not common and when we took a trip we packed a picnic basket because many places did not have fast food. Highways had places to pull over and stop, some with picnic tables. Read more ....
 

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Wherever home is be You

August 9, 2021

I did not show you the inside of the pie from the last weeks post.  The Pie was delicious and I wish I could have shared it with you. 

I found myself overwhelmed this past week with learning new things with the internal upgrade to my website, two computers crashed after that, it had nothing to do with the upgrade, some issues I had before the upgrade.  Now I am making this post and a video on a completely new computer so I am still learning my way through all of this but I continue to make progress and I feel good about that. 

I would like to mention that we have some tropical storms (potential Hurricanes)  brewing in the Atlantic and looks like one will enter the Gulf of Mexico and at this time the track is aiming at us as soon as this Sunday which is always worrisome. These tracks can change back and forth until it gets closer. I am going to get this post and video up now, because we are also having summer thunderstorms with strong lightening so I shut down and unplug the computer each storm which has been three times so far today.  Charles and I are prepared for hurricane season as usual so don't worry but we would be grateful for prayers.   So on with this post.

Charles and I enjoyed the pear pie and now Charles is looking forward to the next dessert.  We do not make a lot of desserts just for us but recently we have been craving a light dessert of some kind such as queens cake or hot milk cake with fruit over it.

Here on gdonna, (G stands for Grandma) , I try to share my memories of the past, our history projects and how we started reversing our life to live more like the past.  

We found happiness by changing from the path to debt by frequently eating out and paying for convenience and modern gadgets and jumping on to the road to get out of debt and rid ourselves of that burden.  That meant removing many things that cost money to run, operate or renew.  Many of these things we had lived perfectly fine without long ago. 

We have done many history projects in our desire to know more about the homefront during world war 2, the Great Depression, the 1918 flu pandemic in which my Grandfather died and world war 1 which we have not made it back that far at this time. We have learned many useful lessons to help us live more like the past. 

Many people are under a lot of stress today and my hopes is this post will hopefully encourage those that need it to find that happy peaceful you.  You may already be in that place but many people are not.  This life that we have been given goes by fast and we should not waste our time on things that gain only temporary happiness or lose ourselves in bad news.

We can find happiness when we are actually doing something that makes sense but many things today make no sense.  Our way to combat this is to do it our way until it  feels right and then embrace whatever that is.  It normally is not something big or materialistic, it normally is something simple. and our intuition within us will let us know.

A cucumber bloom..

Find what is important to you.  

Water is important to me, my whole life I have not wanted to waste water.  I do not know why but I listen within me and I know that this is the right thing to not waste water or take part in any kind of pollution. I think I posted once about an artisan well.  When I was a child there was an artisan well that continuously flowed near my Grandparents home.  I loved the taste of that cold water and I knew this water was pure and special. It was naturally flowing from deep in the earth.  I would carry a bucket and tote this water back to the house.  Also there was a hand pump at the cemetery where our family members were buried.  When we needed water we would prime the pump with water from a jar that sat at the base of the pump. The first thing we did was to put more water in the jar and put the lid on for the next use. I felt that water was very special for as long as I can remember. Wind is relaxing to me and brings happiness, If I am feeling a bit off and the wind is blowing I will go out and let the breeze blow over me.  This is important to me and I find peace.

Charles is very sensitive to nature, trees and creatures.  He notices things that I do not see and he gets very emotional when he sees an Eagle.  It is not common to see an eagle where we live but for some reason Charles gets more opportunities to see them.  I have rarely seen an eagle.  One day an Eagle came to visit us here at our house and sat on a pole in our yard!  Quite an emotional reaction from Charles as he ran inside to get me to come out and look.   We respect each other for these things that we feel strongly about and each of us have had these feelings with us since childhood. We embrace these things that matter to us.


The hem came out of the pillowcase. 

Each of us are so wonderfully unique.

My Great Aunt Ruth was very different than Great Aunt Madge.  Great Aunt Lessie was very different than Great Aunt Nina.  My Grandmother was calm and steady and someone you could easily talk to. I would say that her talent was to make others comfortable just to be around her.  She was quiet and did not talk a lot and when she did it was in a gentle way.  She brought a peaceful feeling around her, she had calmness and wisdom about her.   Sometimes this is all we need to do is be who we are suppose to be. 

They each had things that they did that was different from the others.  I loved how they sewed their own dresses and Aunt Nina was very skilled at sewing so she could sew more complicated or intricate  items.

Each one cooked different even if was the same food.  It is just like the pie crust I shared last week that was passed down to me, it is different from the simple pie crust, it had something special, lemon juice and then I added the technique.

My Grandmother could cook fresh or canned green beans and they would taste  better than anybody's green beans because she had her own secret ingredient and technique. 

Just like my mothers friend Fanny Bell and her egg custard pie that I have mentioned before.  She was known for that pie, whenever there was a gathering she would take her pie or if a visitor called she would most likely offer a slice of egg custard pie.  That pie was her skill and enjoyment.

I spent a lot of time in my life always being busy and now I wish that I knew then what I know now.  Have you made the time to figure out what is important to you?  Something that is not connected to material items, something that has followed you your entire life.  A feeling, an emotion, something you have felt strongly about but never gave it the time to recognize what it is?

Have you ignored all the feelings that you are living beyond your means and now burdened in debt?  Is it because you want to fit in some kind of lifestyle that you know is not really you?  You can change this today, all you have to do is stop what you are doing and start making changes.

 Many people look to someone else to make them happy or think that it is suppose to be something big they are suppose to do and all the while the smallest things that can make you say, "now, that feels right" or "that feels real".  I feel that we are born with something in us that makes us who we are, and we should make a connection to that part of us or else why are we here?  We should never try to be like someone else because of their looks verses ours but we can resemble the goodness we see in others.

Charles snagged his shirt the other day and I asked him to put it on the sewing machine table when he took it off so I could mend it.  We intentionally are being frugal, using up and trying to not waste.  At least we are working on putting ourselves in a better position to doing this.  If this shirt could not be mended, the fabric can be used as well as the buttons.

One problem we had and never realized is that as we traveled through this life we were creating a lifestyle that was continuously costly. A life of bills coming in that were attached to items that we were using at a monthly or yearly fee.  We did not have these long ago.

We were using items in our home that created a higher electric bill.  We were trapping ourselves to a life of a money flow out bigger than a money flow in. If you plan to retire one day then do all you can now to save for that time that you do retire.  It does not matter how young or old you are, save your money now.

I am saying this because I do not want you to wait as long as we did to reverse course.  It has taken us doing a history study into the past to find out that there is a better way to do this life.

I hope you can find peace and happiness wherever you are.  We should all be doing what it is that we were intended to do and being our unique self. 

As I get older I have found that I am moving away from things that I once thought important.  I now realize that Shelter, food and water have priorities over everything and require our attention, caring for others is being human. We all live different and that is good but we need to live to where we are not abusing and taking more than we truly need.

I have made a video to go with this blog post.  I hope you enjoy the video.

Click Here to View The Videohttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qy8R3zxeRtg

Grandma Donna







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