Monday, July 08, 2019

Where She Created Her Own Fun




So Tom's assignment at work was to be mostly-in-charge of their special 3rd of July lunch last Wednesday. This required days of list-making, shopping, errands, setting-up and --

Whew. Late Wednesday afternoon, I had to almost pull him up our 3 little steps. (Already he's worded his reply of decline should he be asked again. Er hem.)

So good ol' Debra spent four days of a 4th of July weekend at home with Tom. 

Or did I?

Actually, I not only traveled to New Orleans, but I did so via 1955. In fact, I'm not even officially home yet(!)

See, over at Open Library I'm reading this fun travel book by a favorite author, Emily Kimbrough--




-- and she may believe 5 friends surround her, but it's actually 6. I'm the quiet one in the corner of their hotel rooms and in the station wagon's backseat. And I'm the lady giggling at their exchanges, sometimes nagging ones, ("Emily, why on earth didn't you say so in the first place?"), but more often comical.

So when they walked to Court of The Two Sisters, so did I. You know, by way of 'images' online--





Oh, the food! And because we had a group photo taken, we lingered over coffee while they developed (Emily paid for these).

Soon after, a New Orleans' friend loaned us her chauffeur who knew all about this city and proceeded to drive us slowly down the wide Esplanade. Oh, all the photos we snapped!





Two days later we drove away from the city then, arriving just before they closed, took the Oak Alley Plantation tour due to their kindness:

Be sure to enlarge this!


And then we--- Well, you get it. 

These days at home but-not-at-home? They reminded me of what I posted at Facebook:





I believe (firmly) we make our own good times and need only a creative spirit and gumption. And my goal? To make these my Good Old Days. To gaze backward only long enough for vintage ideas to incorporate into my current days, my own way.

Like, did you know Aldi now delivers?! At least some of them do and oh, what a blast from the past to have young folks deliver fresh food right to my front porch within an hour (or so) just like in my old-fashioned books and those black-and-white movies.

Each time I wave to the Aldi guys as they near their car and shout, "Thank-you!" and they smile and wave back (looking a tad relieved that I'm not complaining).  シ

Tom and I had a milkman out at the farm, our shelf-stable food gets delivered via online orders and now Aldi brings me milk, eggs, nectarines and oh, anything else like that. 

Don't you love that God shows us how to customize this life He's gifted us?  How He's incredibly creative and gives us wonderful ideas when we ask? 

And wow, all He asks in return is that we share our gratitude with Him and others. We can all do that, right?









"Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever."  ...Psalm 136:1

"Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change." ... James 1:17

If we ran out of lovely ideas perhaps it's because we stopped searching far too soon.


Oh! And when our weather finally cooled, I spent hours and hours on our front porch reading, waving to neighbors and gazing at the river and its boats while enjoying the cool breeze. 


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Forgot to mention last month that Tom and I watched Mary Poppins Returns and really enjoyed the rampant creativity!

Update: This movie is now at Netflix! So there you go.  ツ





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"For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses." ... Matthew 6:14,15

6 comments:

Betsy said...

I'm glad you've had such a great time with your book...the photos are lovely, especially the plantation. Those trees! I haven't tried the home delivery option yet, although somedays it's very tempting. Grocery shopping is my least favorite homekeeping task. It just seems like a huge waste of mone that I would rather use for books or yarn! :-) However, I know that the exercise is good for me, so off I go to walk the aisles of the grocery with my cart in front of me gathering sustenance.
Wishing you a lovely Monday my friend.
Blessings,
Betsy

Pam said...

How wonderful it is to find contentment in your very own home! The older I get, the more I appreciate the peace, security, and familiarity found there. If I could get groceries delivered to our place, I sure would...such convenience. Debra, thanks for sharing your life with us. I can picture you sitting on your front porch,drinking something cool, reading your book with a smile on your face. Life is good!!!!!

Dewena said...

I do this too with vintage books I read! And in July I'm mind visiting the Cape Cod of the 1950s, a favorite place I've never been. But I've often visited your New Orleans through Frances Parkinson Keyes's novels. I never feel sorry for myself that I don't travel because I zip all over the world just by walking to my bookshelves. I caught your genuine excitement in this post because I experience it all the time. I feel like we're fellow travelers! Now to write down this author's name for a future trip. You're a great travel guide!

Terra said...

I have an Emily Kimbrough book on my to buy list, this one looks charming. Like you I appreciate traveling in time and place via reading books. This week I am in rural England of the 1820s in a book "Wives and Daughters" written by Elizabeth Gaskell in 1864. Yes, God is good.

Debi from Titusville, PA said...

Debra, you are so creative in your thinking and I absolutely love it! I read A LOT but had never thought of searching for pics and such of places that would go with the book and I think that's such an awesome idea!

You're so right, we do need to create our own fun and as with so many of your posts over the years, I'm saving this one as well and when I get the time, I'm going to pull it out and read it over once again (maybe this coming fall) and try to think of ideas and ways for me to create my own fun.

I mean, I'm always busy doing something and most are thing I don't "have" to do so they should be FUN but I guess I don't always see them as such. Possibly because they're things I do nearly every day.
I think maybe what I could (and should) do it to get myself a new notebook out and start thinking of things that I can change up around here or new ideas of things to do that would be fun.

Love this post because it really somehow seems to have lit a fire under me to change things up. It's gonna be a long winter coming and I can't wait to see how different this one is gonna be than so many others have in the past. I'm not necessarily talking about just traveling through books (though I do read a lot) but still, now that my brain is kicking in a bit - I see potential for a lot of different things or ways to be creative. Thank you for that!

P.S. When I was talking about the long cold winters, I know that YOU know what I'm talking about for sure. You're in the Buffalo area (right?) and so you're not all that far from Erie (PA) and as for myself, I'm about 40 to 45 miles south of Erie ... yeah, just bordering the snow belts. Ack! lol Oh and also I used to live in Dunkirk, NY (loved it there, the lake is BEAUTIFUL!)

Sorry for writing a mini book here but as you can see, once I get going, I'm very seldom short on words. Ha! Ha!

Debra said...

Betsy--glad you liked the photos! The book was marvelous, in fact, when I finished it at Open Library I went and ordered an inexpensive copy from abebooks. Just had to have it for my own. :)

Pam--your comment makes me doubly glad I can get my groceries delivered. Are you sure there's not some way to get them to your house? Walmart? Target? It's been such a sanity saver for me--that's why I ask. heh. I wish I could sit out on our porch with you, surely!

Dewena--oh! I'm nearly certain you would enjoy Emily Kimbrough's books. As I told Betsy, I ordered this last one because I had to have my own copy to reread. I think that will make 7-ish of hers I own. Hope you can read Emily's books soon!

Terra--so glad you're enjoying your own faraway vacation via books! Isn't it a fun and adventurous thing to do? :)

Oh Debi! You left my favorite kind of comment, one which stated my post made you think of things in a different way. Thank-you! That's what I love for my blog posts to do.

Thanks so much, Everyone! Blessings, Debra