One Year Of Blogging - And A Give Away to Celebrate!

I published my first post on March 9, 2008. My friend CeeKay, Thinkin' of Home, had been blogging for about a month and she begged me to start my own blog. She said she knew I would just love it. Frankly, I was happy C had found something she loved doing so much, but I couldn't imagine I would like it that much. I couldn't picture myself "talking" to strangers online regularly, actually making friendships. My husband and I visited CeeKay and her husband in mid February last year. Several times during our visit she sat me down in front of her computer to see her blog and interactions with other bloggers. I could see that C really enjoyed it and that all of the people she communicated with and the blogs she visited actually seemed quite normal - even nice! So when Hubby and I came home after our visit to Arizona I created my own blog. The rest is history!

How did I choose the name for my blog? First of all, my granddaughters call me Mimi. I knew I wanted to be Mimi as a grandmother from the time our son was a toddler. Our daughter and all the children on both sides of the family called their grandmothers Grammy - except Jacob. He called my mother and my mother-in-law Mimi as a toddler. I thought it was cute and loved that he had chosen a unique name - at least unique in our families. The Garden attachment to Mimi happened because I adore flowers and I've always loved gardening. I work at creating several gardens each Spring, adding new plants and accessories. Whenever our four year old granddaughter visited as a toddler she always asked to go out to see Mimi's garden. So it just felt natural when naming my blog to choose Mimi's Garden.

I am still quite stunned at my involvement in Blogland! I, Kathy, check my blog several times a day. I take pictures of my house and dishes and crafts and projects to post for perfect strangers to see - and comment on! Ok, CeeKay, I admit it...I LOVE it! Thank you for relentlessly encouraging me to create my own blog :) !

I have gotten to know some perfectly wonderful ladies during this year of blogging. You are all so incredibly creative, talented, generous, and kind. You encourage and inspire me, you pray for me, you provide incentive to accomplish more and reason to believe that the world is mostly made up of good and kind people! I am truly thankful for all of you!

To celebrate my one year blogging anniversary I would like to host a give away. To enter, leave a comment on any post between today, February 20 and midnight March 8, leaving your e-mail address and expressing a desire to enter the give away. The winner will receive an original watercolor, painted by Yours Truly. I'm not going to advertise the give away on other blogs because I would like the winner to be someone who already visits my blog rather than someone who just enters give aways. I'll post the winner's name on my one year blogging anniversary, March 9.

Finally, if you do not already have a "Mimi's Friendship" graphic pictured below, please take it now and link to Mimi's Garden. I would be honored to see it on your blog!

Most Of All...

Thankful Day 30...

Most of all I'm thankful for.....

"For God so loved the world He gave his only Son so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life."

John 3:16

At The End Of The Day...

Thankful Day 29...

I'm thankful for the beauty of a sunset.

Nature, In Full Glory

Thankful Day 28...

I'm thankful for the beauty in nature - God's creations.

Thanksgiving - Love Is All There Is!

Thankful Day 27...

I am thankful this Thanksgiving Day that I have spent my life with the LOVE of my life!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

May each of you enjoy a wonderful and blessed day with the loves of your lives!

Here are mine...

Generations of Girls

I'm thankful for time spent with family. Here you see a final moment at the beach - bottom right, Mimi; bottom left, Mommy (my daughter Julie); top left, granddaughter Sydney (4yrs.); top right, granddaughter Isabelle (1 yr.).

Thankful Day 25 - Friendly In-Law's!

I'm thankful for my sister-in-law. Here Jeri and I are on our trip to Florida together in 2007. I'm on the left in front in the brown shirt. We are planning another beach trip this April. It's a joy to have a best friend in my sister-in-law!

If You want An Extra Special Thanksgiving Blessing, Go Here!

Do you follow Confessions of A CF Husband? The blog is written by a young man, a minister of music at a church in Nags Head South Carolina, who's wife has Cystic Fibrosis. While Tricia was waiting for a double lung transplant they discovered she was pregnant. Their baby was born 15+ weeks prematurely. Tricia finally had her transplants. After that welcome but terrible ordeal, just as things were looking up, Tricia was diagnosed with a specific form of lymphoma, apparently not too unusual for lung transplant patients. To make a long story short, Tricia has undergone months of chemotherapy, seemingly without success. They've had one report of bad news after another. This week they received the results of a recent biopsy. If you would like to have an extra special Thanksgiving blessing, head on over there to read their story and the newest report. You'll feel encouraged by this young couples efforts to raise their child together and live their faith!

Thankful Day 24 - Art

I'm thankful for the joy I receive from painting.

Thankful Day 23 - Example

I'm thankful that I grew up with parents who love each other.

Thankful Day 22 - Promise

I'm thankful for the promise of Spring!

Thankful Day 21 - A Traveling Fool!

Today I am thankful for travel. We spent our 1970 honeymoon in Nassau and the following summer we guided a group of students on a fabulous 10 day trip to Russia with a brief stop in Helsinki Finland. We spent spent the summer of 1973 in France as chaperone's to American students attending a summer language coarse. A highlight of my life was seeing the Eiffel Tower and the Mona Lisa. It was fun working for as travel guides for a few years and it provided us the opportunity to go to a couple of places we would never have been able to go otherwise. We spent many weeks in Florida at the beach and Disney World as our children were growing up - and we still do those trips every summer. Everyone wants to know why we always go back there instead of someplace else - it's because we can have a week or two of uninterrupted family time. Worth every penny! We have cruised to the Bahamas with our kids and on a Southern Caribbean cruise for our 25th anniversary to Puerto Rico, Antigua, St. Maartin, Barbados, St. Thomas, and Martinique. We took a wonderful trip to Hawaii with my husband's family - a gift from my in-law's. We have enjoyed seeing the Red Rocks of Sedona Arizona and we have been to Las Vegas a couple of times. After our daughters wedding in 2001 Hubby and I took a romantic trip to Niagara Falls. I had never been before and we had a wonderful few days there. We live close to the Canadian boarder so we have been able to explore a little bit there over the years as well. Since we live in Michigan and own acreage in northern Michigan, we have been able to visit Mackinac Island and other northern Michigan spots over the years as well. Hubby used to guide trips for students in their trips to Washington D.C. and so he guided our family once there too! It was wonderful. Colonial Williamsburg was fun and the Carolina's gorgeous. Since I am originally from Tennessee I have to mention the magnificent Smokey Mountains. My heart is still there in the mountains were I was born.

Travel isn't as inexpensive or as easy or as safe as it used to be. We feel so blessed that we were able to see so many wonderful places and have those memories to share now and in the future. Even though it is doubtful we will travel a lot more internationally, we are planning a 40th wedding anniversary trip to Italy and Greece in 2010.

What have I learned from travel?

1. To be GRATEFUL, GRATEFUL, GRATEFUL to God for blessing us with the joys of travel.

2. All of the places we have seen are fabulous and beautiful and charming in their own unique and special ways. Everyone loves their own country and normal is what we grow up with. But traveling has made me extremely GRATEFUL to be an American, where we are so very blessed to live in comparative peace and luxury.

3. When you travel, whether it be domestic or international, you are exposed to different cultures and people. People everywhere are wonderful. God made them all! The human race in general is good and kind, most all are in love with their families and we all celebrate and struggle with the same family dynamics. I am GRATEFUL for the opportunity to have learned through travel that people are good and equal everywhere.

Thankful Day 20 - Oh, Fur Boy, I Love You & A Thanksgiving Recipe For Kelli

Kelli, There Is No Place Like Home, is hosting a thanksgiving week. Go to her beautiful blog to see a list of many thankful posts!

All in a Word
T for time to be together, turkey, talk, and tangy weather.

H for harvest stored away, home, and hearth, and holiday.

A for autumn's frosty art, and abundance in the heart.

N for neighbors, and November, nice things, new things to remember.

K for kitchen, kettles' croon, kith and kin expected soon.

S for sizzles, sights, and sounds, and something special that abounds.

THANKS...for joy in living and a jolly good Thanksgiving.

by - Aileen Fisher

Holiday Cranberry-Orange Salad
1 small box cherry flavored gelatin
2 small boxes cranberry flavored gelatin
1 small box orange flavored gelatin
3 ½ cups boiling water
1 can jellied cranberry sauce
1 small can frozen orange juice concentrate
several drops red food color
1 can crushed pineapple with juice
1 bag fresh cranberries, chopped
2 whole chopped oranges, plus the skin of 1
3 cups walnuts, chopped
½ - 1 cup sugar (depending on desired sweetness)
1 container frozen strawberries in sugar

Dissolve the gelatin in boiling water. Dissolve the cranberry sauce in hot gelatin. Add the orange juice concentrate and food coloring to the gelatin mixture. Chop the orange, the cranberries, and walnuts in a food processor individually. Combine with sugar and allow to stand for 10-15 minutes. Stir in the cranberries, pineapple, strawberries, ground orange, and walnuts. Chill in a serving bowl until firmly gelled.

My Thankful Day 20 post for Brookside Cottage's "30 Days of Giving Thanks" is gratitude for my fur boy, Noah, my almost 15 year old kitty! He's a sweet, sweet old boy. Noah follows me around all day and he gives me something to baby now that my children are adults!

Thankful Day 19 - My Sweet Boy & Kelli's Thanksgiving - A Recipe

My Day 19 post for 30 Days of Giving Thanks, hosted by Joyce, Brookside Cottage, is gratitude for my sweet, sweet son! Jacob has been a joyous gift from the moment he was placed in my arms. When our daughter was 8 years old we were so very blessed to adopt our sweet Jacob. He was a funny kid and he's even funnier now. He was a loving child and he's even more so as a grown man. He cries like a little girl (at his own admittance) when someone else is hurt or at a movie. I love the fact that he has always run to hug and kiss his father and I and yells to us from a great distance "I love you" - even when he was in high school and in front of friends. It just tickles me to death that he tells everyone that the only person he has ever been afraid of in his entire life is his mother - I'm 5'2 and he's 6'2", 240lbs! I think it is terribly sweet that he loves babies and wants lots of them. And of great importance, he might be a grown man but he LOVES his mommy! Jacob moved out into his own home in May and he will be married in June to his absolutely precious Jen. I can hardly wait to watch them grow together! I think it will be pretty special. So today I am expressing thankfulness for my precious son!

First Thanksgiving

Venison for stew and roasting,

Oysters in the ashes toasting,

Geese done to a turn,

Berries and wild grapes

Mixed with dough and gently kneaded

What a feast!

Indian corn in strange disguises,

Ash cakes, hoe cakes,

Kernels roasted brown...

After months of frugal living

What a welcome first Thanksgiving

There in Plymouth town.

~By Aileen Fisher

Kelli, There Is No Place Like Home, is organizing Thanksgiving posts this week. I would like to share another recipe, this time on of my mother-in-law's.

Gram's Famous Stuffing Balls
3 loaves white bread (or any mix you like)
1 pound butter
1 teaspoon chicken bullion
4 cups chopped onions
4 cups chopped celery
1 teaspoon dried ground sage
1 teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon pepper
5 eggs

Cut the bread (crust on) into cubes a little less than 1 inch the day before you make these. Allow them to dry a little overnight in a roaster or bowl, stirring occasionally.

The next day, saute the celery and onions in 2 sticks of butter until nearly soft. Pour the cooked vegetables over the bread cubes. Melt the remaining 2 sticks of butter in the skillet and allow it to brown. Add bullion to soften. Pour it over the bread cubes. Beat the eggs and pour those over the bread cube mixture. Add sage, salt, and pepper. Mix it all up gently so bread cubes do not become mushy - you want them to retain their shape. Form the stuffing into 3 or 4 inch balls, just pressing them together loosely. You should still be able to see the cube shapes. Place the balls in baking pans.

Preheat oven at 350 degrees for 15-20 minutes and bake uncovered until golden brown. Serve hot.

You can prepare these early and refrigerate. This recipes makes 3-4 dozen stuffing balls, depending on the size you make them.

Have a happy day!
Kathy

Thankful Day 18 and Kelli's Thanksgiving - A Recipe

A Turkey Speaks

I have never understood why anyone would ROAST A TURKEY,

and shuck the clams,

and crisp the croutons,

and shell the peas,

and candy the sweets,

and compote the cranberries,

and bake the pies,

and clear the table,

and wash the dishes,

and fall into bed,

when they could sit back and enjoy a hamburger!

-author, an unknown turkey

Kelli, There Is No Place Like Home, is hosting Thanksgiving posts this week. I have a recipe to share along with our plans for the day.

This year will be a different kind of Thanksgiving for me and for my family. I have cooked Thanksgiving dinner for many years. My husband's family always comes and my parents have come from Tennessee off and on over the years. This year, since my fathers health is so precarious, my husband and I and our daughters family will be going to Tennessee to have Thanksgiving with my parents. I will be cooking again, only in a different kitchen! I would like to share an old family sweet potato recipe with you. It was my maternal grandmothers recipe. Mother can remember being the "marshmallow inserter" from early childhood! I wrote and published a cookbook about 8 years ago and this is one of the most commented upon recipes in the book.

Sweet Potato Coconut Balls (from my mothers own words)

Wash and peel 5 or 6 fresh sweet potatoes. Cut them into big chunks and cover with water. Add a bit of salt. When water comes to a boil turn the temperature down to low and just let them simmer until tender. Boiling too hard will make them mushy. When they are fork tender drain them very well in a colander.

Mash the potatoes with a mixer until fluffy, then beat in a little hunk of butter, a dash of both cinnamon and nutmeg, and a tablespoon or so of sugar. Cover and refrigerate. You can do all this the day before you serve them.

Butter or spray a glass 9x13 inch baking dish. Pour out a big bag of miniature marshmallows and a big bag of coconut on separate plates. Spoon out about 2 tablespoons of the cold sweet potato mixture into the palm of your left hand and a marshmallow in your right hand. Push the marshmallow into the potatoes and mold the potatoes into a ball around the marshmallow. Roll the sweet potato ball in the coconut and place each ball in the prepared pan. Do not bake until just before serving.

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees and bake the sweet potato balls for 5-10 minutes uncovered. Watch them very carefully. They should be lightly browned and the marshmallows should be getting puffy and gooey, but not totally melted. You can check them by poking one with the point of a knife. If you bake them too long they will have a hole in the middle with no marshmallow!

Now for my day 18 item for 30 Days of Giving Thanks, which has been organized by Joyce, Brookside Cottage.

Have you ever hated something and been grateful for it all at the same time? I never totally understood this concept until I began having IV infusions to fight a blood disease (diagnosed three years ago this week). I despise the day of treatment every three weeks and resent its intrusion into my life with all my heart, but I am at the same time overwhelmingly grateful for these life giving infusions! So today, I am thankful for those hateful 9 hour days chained to the torture chair - really...I am!

Have a fabulous, perfectly joyous week!

Kathy

Thankful Day 17 - Hormone Hostages?

Ok, laugh if you want, but my day 17 thankful item is Estrogen! I should say, my FAMILY is thankful! I was 29 when I started taking it after a hysterectomy. My family was so grateful that every time we went on vacations my kids and husband individually would carefully ask, "Do you have enough Estrogen?" Now that is just sad! You've heard the saying "when Mama ain't happy, nobody ain't happy? No explanation necessary - too bad, so sad for them! A hysterectomy at 29 can be ugly!! That little blue football shaped pill is a miracle in a bottle and one I - and my victims are thankful for!

I found this "Hormone Hostage Guide" courtesy of jokething.com and I thought it was a pretty funny. Even though this is a "thankful" post I thought you might enjoy it too.

Hormone Hostage Guide:
Every "Hormone Hostage" knows that all a man has to do is open his mouth and he takes his life in his hands. This is a handy guide that should be as common as a driver's license in the wallet of every husband, boyfriend or significant other.

DANGEROUS: What's for dinner?

SAFER: Can I help you with dinner?

SAFEST: Where would you like to go for dinner?

DANGEROUS: Are you wearing THAT?

SAFER: Gee, you look good in brown.

SAFEST: Wow! Look at you!

DANGEROUS: What are you so worked up about?

SAFER: Could we be overreacting?

SAFEST: Here's fifty dollars.

DANGEROUS: Should you be eating that?

SAFER: You know, there are a lot of apples left.

SAFEST: Can I get you a glass of wine with that?

DANGEROUS: What did you DO all day?

SAFER: I hope you didn't over do it today.

SAFEST: I've always loved you in that robe.

30 Days of Giving Thanks is hosted by Joyce, Brookside Cottage.

Also, Kelli, There Is No Place Like Home, is hosting thankful posts this week, Monday through Thursday. I had already prepared this silly post so I just went with it! I'll try to be a little more geared to Thanksgiving the rest of the week!

Thankful Day 16 - A Beautiful Daughter Inside and Out

Today, I am thankful for my precious daughter Julie! We waited several years to have her, a miracle baby. She was a dream come true from the first moment I knew she was on the way. I had lost several pregnancies and we really thought we would never have children. I can still remember how thrilled and excited we were when we found out I was pregnant with her and how careful we were to keep it that way! Her father really would have been happiest if I sat in a chair 24 hours a day until her birth! I spent most of the last trimester in the hospital to ensure success but I was back home when I went into labor. We were so anxious and excited as we waited for her delivery. Julie was born in 1974 so we did not know if we were having a boy or a girl. Even though I would probably choose to find out today, there was an element of excitement in not knowing until the moment of birth if it would be pink or blue! After 33 hours of labor (yikes - not fun!) the most precious bundle of wonderful was placed in my arms! Julie always was a joy, never a problem. But as she grew into womanhood and became a wife and mother herself, she became a dear friend to her mom as well as a wonderful daughter. Julie is an exceptional mother, wife, and human being. Her own precious daughters are incredibly fortunate to have her in their lives to teach them all the important lessons. She continually puts others before herself, she sings like an angel, and she can and works like a farm animal - even though she is gorgeous and feminine! My daughter is a devoted wife and daughter and follower of God's Word. What more could a mother want?

So, for Day 16 of 30 Days of Giving Thanks, I am incredibly thankful for my precious Julie!

Thankful Day 15 - Home Sweet Home

Joyce, Brookside Cottage, is host of 30 Days of Giving Thanks.

My house - I adore it. It's not very large by modern standards, it's 36 years old, and it is jam packed - but it represents US. We had our home built when we were married a year and a half - we were just kids. We moved in on December 22 and we did not have a stick of furniture - just a Christmas tree and a mattress on the floor. But we thought we had a castle. We've brought two babies home to our little house and now two little granddaughters have brought more joy and laughter to us and to it than we ever dreamed possible. During these days of difficult times in our country ANY home is a gift, but our home is a blessing which brings us much joy, because it is filled with love and joyous memories. I am so thankful for it!

Thankful Day 14 - Divine Love

Joyce, Brookside Cottage, is host of 30 Days of Giving Thanks.

My God - even though He is the most important thing in my life, I have curiously not listed Him first. I think, because none of the aforementioned posts of thankfulness would be even remotely possible without faith in God and His unending love for me. I cannot adequately express my thankfulness for the Savior!

Thankful Day 13 - Ahhh!

Joyce, Brookside Cottage, is host of 30 Days of Giving Thanks.

Don't laugh. Today I am thankful for sugar. And you know you are too! I just this minute finished eating the most deliciously delightful French Chocolate Mint. It was truly divine!

Now, I do not need sugar - or chocolate, or mint for that matter. But isn't that what makes such a decedent treat so extra wonderful to indulge in? It's the already had dinner, already had snack, all ready for bed, teeny hint of naughty that creates that ahhh moment. I've decided that if I am going to eat it, I'm going to enjoy it! So here I am, sitting in my soft chair, wrapped in my favorite blankie, cup of tea at hand, and empty (licked clean) wrapper on my desk.

Ahhh!