Laura Bruno Lilly

The road ends, but the journey continues...

Month: October 2014

Here's to the Nines!

October 30, 2014 /

Here’s to the Nines:
Entering
and
Exiting


2014: my year for exiting the Nines.
Of course, by interpolation, 2013 was my year for entering into the Nines.

Joe and Michelle with GranPa (9/14)

Joe and Michelle with Dad/GranPa (9/14)


Dad turned 90 in April 2013 and I turned X9 last October 2013.  We got to share life in the Nines for an entire year.  As well, I’m blessed to have visited Dadland for a goodly portion of these past 12 months.
My times in the Nines have tended to be fraught with trepidation.  Starting with the one where I joined Jack Benny in declaring to be eternally 39, my journey through the Nines can be a bit rocky.
Okay so it’s not like Dad where he’ll be in his version of the Nines till he reaches his 100th b-day.  But still…
My Decade Cake

Count the layers on my decade cake*!


Once flipped over to the other side and into a new decade, I usually find it’s not such a bad age progression.  Ah, but those Nines…both entering and exiting…are a perilous roller coaster of highs and lows; ohs and nos.
Ironically, the number 9 itself has been loads of fun for me.  Perhaps I should focus on that…number 9, number 9, number 9…anything’s easier to tolerate when George, John, Paul and Ringo (my personal order of preference) sing about it.
That said; I am an October baby. Continue reading

Pink Flamingos, Giardiniera and Dinner Guests

October 10, 2014 /

pink flamingo on our lawn

A ‘good morning’ surprise


Here’s what greeted hubby and I when we stepped out through the front door to go to work this morning.
Well actually, what first caught my eye was this potted mum placed strategically next to my planter of waning herbs.GEDSC DIGITAL CAMERA
Notice the concealed grocery bag filled with jugs of water?  That’s the kind of day we had yesterday…
Let me explain.
Getting ready for company is fun for me.  It’s part of my heritage.  Not that I don’t get stressed, but I truly enjoy prepping for ‘parties.’  Yesterday morning began the final leg into that realm.  Already having fielded a week of impromptu clearing out of the laundry closet space that we’d been using as extra storage in our little rental house in readiness for its intended use,  I was ready to focus on the task at hand.  That being:  the routine of last minute fixes and major cooking for a greatly anticipated time of dining and gabbing with our guests for that evening.
Things went along like clockwork:

  • Get dough ready for rising-check
  • Wash salad greens and place in crisper-check
  • Put leaf in table-check
  • Tidy up living room and hide extra storage stuff from emptied laundry closet-check
  • Take shower before lunch-check
  • Start sauce to simmer-check

It wasn’t until close to the end of the prep that I noticed something strange. Continue reading

Dawning of a New Day

October 8, 2014 /

Each day is new; we all know this.

The feeling of promise kisses each of us upon first awakening; however fleeting.

Before the Realities of Life sift back into our consciousness, this is how it all begins.

Dawning of a New Day

Dawning of a new day in central Florida

Thou dost make the dawn and the sunset shout for joy.
Psalms 65: 86

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