Whole berry cranberry sauce in little jars

Thanksgiving is next week! Seven days from now! 

Yes, I am a bit excited about roasting a turkey and sitting down to a traditional dinner. The two of us will be on our own again, and you know what? We really rather prefer it that way. We've had the big dinners with the clan gatherings, which are stressful. There is no stress when it's us in our cozy little house in the woods.

We aim to eat close to one o'clock. No one shows up at noon to try to "help." The turkey is done when it gets done. I always liked to make some sort of baked veggie casserole to make my mother happy and forget that. I'll open a can or a jar (or two) of veggies and nuke 'em. The Lord of the Manor makes the candied sweet potatoes the day before - just heat and serve. He'll also make biscuits. He does have a few culinary talents so I make use of them on Thanksgiving. But I digress...

Cranberry sauce is a traditional part of our dinner. While at the grocery, I noticed they had fresh cranberries on sale. There's a recipe for cranberry sauce in the Ball book, so I got a bag and preserved eight half-pint jars of whole-berry cranberry sauce. There's also half a jar in the fridge and it is good! 

There are two upsides to this. This sauce contains cranberries, orange zest, and sugar. That's it. No additives with strange names. Get over the fact it has sugar in it. We believe the chemicals are worse.  The other thing is that these portions work better for two people. We won't be discarding the last third of the can because it sat in the fridge and went to water. 

Maybe the third thing is cost. On the surface, four dollars worth of cranberries made enough for at least eight meals. An industry can cost at least a dollar and a half for one. Even figuring in the cost of the sugar and one orange, it's cheaper to make at home. 

My next trip to the grocery, I'm going to get another bag of cranberries and put them in the freezer. It's not that I don't trust our supply chain...Oh, yes. It's definitely that. 

The Lady of Holly Tree Manor (The Hideaway)

Holly Tree Manor, The Hideaway, cranberry sauce, home food preservation, Thanksgiving, rural lifestyle, country living, family stress, simple country pleasures, supply chain

My blessings are not "First-world problems"

It's the day after Thanksgiving and I have an abundance of things to be thankful for. My blessings are now called "first-world problems." I object to this label. There are many things in life none of us control, but getting up and going to mind a job, to work under the authority of another, has definitely been under my control. 

I didn't have to do it. 

But I do it every day, and I have since the age of sixteen. 

It's not that difficult. 

I understand the difference between the blessings bestowed by family and the "blessings" my own hard work have brought to my life. And I know where they all came from.

Yesterday, we had a traditional Thanksgiving dinner. Today, my refrigerator is full of leftovers. I do know what a blessing this is. Abundance, even when you work for it, is a gift from God. God provides [EQUAL] opportunities to all. 

Our current culture, our "correct" thinkers, tell us we should be sorry, that we should apologize, for our opportunities and our gifts from God. I don't espouse to that way of thinking. I'm grateful for the work ethic my parents and grandparents taught me. That work ethic has allowed me to provide for myself and to appreciate the gifts from family. I would not have received those gifts if I had not been working hard. They would have gone to others while I sat and watched. 

Too many people today talk about white privilege. It's a load of bunk. If you are not hired for a job, it doesn't matter the color of the skin of the person who told you that you didn't get the position. That was God keeping that door closed so a better one could open. God may have kept that door closed for your protection! Go find that better door! Go find that better apartment! Go find that better car! God WILL open the right door at the right time. I've lived it. I know. 

My too-full refrigerator isn't about the color of my skin or the money I've earned. It's about walking through the doors God opened for me. It's about not sitting back and crying when something didn't go my way. It's about, sadly enough, leaving certain individuals behind. When God removes someone from your life, you need to let them go. 

Giving back isn't about the grand gestures. It isn't about financing an addict's lifestyle. It's not about enabling their enabler to continue. Giving back is about quietly supporting another person so that they can find that open door. Giving back may be explaining what better choices are available to them. Empowerment is not enabling. Learn the difference because it's crucial. 

I'm not missing the point of it all. I'm standing up and declaring there is nothing about my life that is even remotely responsible for someone else's bad choices. I'm simply refusing to bow to societal demands that I apologize for every aspect of my life when I know it was ultimately God who provided equally for me and everyone else. God does not play favorites. Choose your doors wisely. 

The Lady of Holly Tree Manor (The Hideaway)

Standing Guard

I'm not sure when, or why, I decided to apply my writing skills to the occasional poem, but I'm glad I did. 

Thanksgiving 2017 was the first holiday I spent without my mother. I knew then that my days of big family celebrations had come to an end. It felt rather strange but I knew I'd been set free in an unexpected way. Some of the shackles I lived with fell away upon the realization that as you get older even the family you love isn't always good for you in every situation. 

It wasn’t until it was gone that I realized the amount of stress I suffered at these family gatherings where, without my grandfather to buffer other individuals, my every imperfection was on vivid display. With the passage of time, the sharp edges of memory are blunted and I can once again recall those times with childlike fondness.  

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Standing Guard

(Thanksgiving Day, November 23, 2017)

Long ago I tread a path
A misty woodland way
I had no company along the trek
So the trees could have their say

They spoke to me in silence
With movement seen not heard
And I replied in quiet kind
Walking without a word

The day ahead held demands
Devoid of mist and air
I could not whine or complain
Or do what trees don't dare

Beneath the ground unseen by all
Their roots do intertwine
Reminding me the path ahead
Leads home to all that's mine

Happy Thanksgiving!

The Lady of Holly Tree Manor