Dysfunctional Family Delights

The Camellias are awesome this year.

Is it ever gonna stop raining?

My mom and her niece.

My cousin died Saturday night. She was only 60, so this came as a surprise to many of us. I'll be 54 in May and if I still received a state newspaper, I'd be scanning those obituaries.


This cousin hails from my maternal relatives. Sunday, we got together for a family memorial service and the house was loud and joyful with many stories of said cousin floating around the rooms. 

You have the usual family problems in this room - alcoholism, autism, too conservative for nice words, etc. This side just steamrolls over all that. All are welcome. Good natured teasing is required and these relatives know how to laugh at themselves.

On my paternal side, we suffer from the usual as well; mental illness and depressions that cause family members not to talk to each other for decades, too conservative and too liberal. It's a much smaller clan. They are very sensitive.
No steam rolling here. Arguments fester in silence. Silent treatment is the preferred way of dealing with things.

I am fond of saying, "All you gotta do is be polite," and my kids were raised to "show up." It's a family obligation. You may not have much in common or get easily frustrated but, 'just be polite' handles most situations.

I loved this family get-together. I see these people every year or two, not that often. I can recognize them but my inability to remember names is laughingly put aside as everyone embraces and kisses and hugs and teases. I just love it.

Everyone knows the value of family, but how many know how to encourage it?
How does one embrace the better attitude?

Are you prone to laughing at your foibles or do you take it personally and get affronted when confronted with family?

I've been behind in writing letters - especially to my children who no longer live nearby. Older people, especially, love to receive letters. Have you written one this month?

I go in spurts but my serious overtime gets to me and I get bogged down in minutia. Grab a card from the dollar store and address the envelope. What stops me is thinking I need to write my life's story inside. Just sign your name and throw a stamp on and send.

Steam roll over your "too much thinking, not enough doing" inner voice and just do it.
Time's too short to hang on to festering family troubles. Move on.

Photo credit: Katrina in Sitka

Still no sewing. Busy dodging rain showers and working too much. And writing cards.

Cauliflower Rice

 I am in love with my new Vitamix blender. 2 horsepower of serious business.
While out to dinner with friends last week, we had Cauliflower Rice. So, so, easy to make.
Especially with the Vitamix. Bob - our cook - no - our chef,  served it as a side dish with fresh pineapple.

I'll write my 'recipe' at the bottom of this post if you are interested.

 I had this last week off and my little sis came out from Minnesota to sort out some family interventions. I'd love to write well about depression and aging parents but cannot come up with words that would describe the problems without getting too much into family politics.

My older sister has sunk into a deep depression and our daily visits seemed to help but she would not leave her house. Her son who lives with her is very worried. An unintended success was finding out the nephew needed a business casual suit for interviews he is involved in. So the aunties took him suit shopping.

This sister gets to her doctors appointments and grocery shopping but does nothing non-essential.

My mom and dad are in their 80's and downsized 2 1/2 years ago to a single story home in the same town. With my older sister and brother not available (they live local), I feel this burden on my shoulders. They are about 35 minutes away from me with good traffic. With my long work hours, we feel they are increasingly isolated.

Our third and recent snowstorm brought this home when my little sister and I arrived to find no one had come over to shovel off their driveway or check that they were okay (seven days). They had plenty of food (old school preparedness) but still... one of their new neighbors has boys in their 20's... This wouldn't happen in my neighborhood.

The plow blade came down their street and left ice boulders blocking their driveway. If they had needed to get out, they couldn't.

I cleared their drive and  created a walkway that melted off in the sun. It was a pretty thick layer of ice covered by snow.

My sis and I came up with some suggestions to finalize the week and thoroughly piss off those family members.
At least we can rely on our Oregon weather to be finished with snow for the winter. (knock on wood)

We spent eight days working these family problems.
That's when I discovered the amazing fluffy ice the vitamix makes. OMG - best Margarita's ever.
The vitamix didn't even change sounds fluffing up that ice.

If you look again at the photo of my sis above, she fell while out running in the snow & ice in Minnesota three days before she came. It's a broken ankle. She came out with a knee scooter, an immobilizing boot and we also had crutches.

In our Oregon snow & ice.

You really can't kick her to the curb for trying to get stubborn family members to improve their lot. We played the sympathy card for all  it was worth.

 I did manage one fun morning that week meeting up with Pencil Girl at Fabric Depot. We had tried to meet up a few days previously but Portland was pretty bad with ice compared to where we live. On one day, meeting a nephew for lunch, we turned off the bare interstate onto five lanes of rutted ice. Pencil Girl and I met up later once the ice had melted.

She was looking to improve her niece's prom dress which was already awesome, so we solved the world's problems in the lace and bridal section.

Cuddle airplanes and look at the red chevron cuddle. Very soft.

After dropping my sister off at the airport, I decided to drive to a couple of estate sales south of my town and found some treasures. Garage sale therapy.

My Creative Friend went to one of them before me. It was the estate of one of the Keil's. Their ancestors founded the Aurora Colony.

She bought a large box of old photographs and found some that she will need to donate to the Aurora Museum. Including a child's handwritten history in a composition book from the 20's.

This magazine page fell out and she almost gave it to me - look at the silly airplane. This is just the right-hand corner of the illustration. "Drawn, ever so Roughly by Michelson Hollywood" is inscribed at the bottom corner. Looks like vintage satire magazine advertising from the 40's.  It gave me a huge smile to read all the little captions.


Cauliflower Rice

1 head of Cauliflower
Small can of Coconut Milk (1/2 cup)
Seasoning
Walnut Oil or Olive oil
Fresh Pineapple, diced fine.
Sausages

Chop cauliflower up roughly, discarding the leaves and stem areas. 

Toss into vitamix and Pulse until like grains of rice.

Heat a tablespoon of oil in skillet. Transfer 'rice' to pan and cook on Medium high for 5 - 8 minutes with lid over rice to help steam it.

Add seasonings (I used a cajun seasoning and a seasoned salt shaker)

Add Coconut milk and heat through.

I added chopped sausages and topped it with the pineapple for a main dish.

I will have leftovers for a few days too. Yum.

Random Makings

I made over 20 biplanes Saturday while watching the new Gilmore Girls special on Netflix. I need to make about ten more. Most will go to my co-workers so they remember Santa delivers in an airplane, as we all know.

 I also finished Miss Peregrine's Home For Peculiar Children.  I feel I am ready for the movie now. My DD told me the second book was so-so. I am giving myself a pass at slogging through this next book and returning to my winter reading. I am particularly into Peter James right now. He writes police detective books out of the UK. I've read two so far as it's been difficult to find at my local libraries.

Those two - Looking Good Dead & Love You Dead were good enough for me to have an ebay moment and I bought both for my mom as a Christmas gift. Powell's Book Store (might be the largest book store in the world - right here in Portland) did not have a single Peter James book.
 
 Because I also bought books through Powell's because their cyber/black friday special was free shipping plus 20% off. Deal!

 The dentist office had a few magazines - this one with two whole joke pages.
And the roses above. Blooming madly in our 50-60 degree November weather.

"Why is Cinderella so bad at Soccer? She's always running away from the ball"
I need more jokes for the kids at work. My co-workers too.

 DD with her inch of snow up in Alaska.

 In September with her cousins in Minnesota.

And the great-nieces in Singapore. They made that awesome turkey!

Lots  more randomness, but I am back working 12 hr days with a one hour lunch and I am tired. Co-worker has a dental emergency involving an IV drip, a hospital, and the eventual resolution of said crisis. Wouldn't wanna be her.

The last Christmas Bazaar in our area is the Red Mitten Bazaar. Opening tonight for a preview ($3/donation). Running two weekends -- Thursday through Sunday. All handmade wonders. No imported stuff.

Pacific City and Cape Meares

 Pacific City beach by Pelican Brewery.

One of the few beaches where cars are allowed.
Lots of people in the water on paddleboards wearing neoprene. It's cold in the ocean. This is not the beach where you might see bikini's in Oregon (Short Sands).

In the valley it was almost 100 degrees. Here, it edged past 80. Much nicer.

 The big vertical hill. If you make it to the top, you can windmill down.

 My sis and mom & dad.

 Looking south at Cape Meares.

 You can easily see the Cape Meares lighthouse. It's less than a quarter-mile walk from the parking area. Too much for my dad and slightly steep coming back.

 Nephews looking at. . . . .being patient.

 Rocks north of Cape Meares lighthouse.

 South again. Slight mist burning off. Gorgeous day at the beach.

 And look what I found.  Do you recall me finding the watercolor below at a garage sale earlier this summer?  Look at that headland above and tell me it's not the same one.
Just painted from the northside,  instead of south - where I was walking.

Looks like the artist (unknown) threw a lighthouse on top for interest. Not quite the Cape Meares lighthouse though.

  I tried to edit the photo to make it easier for you to see.
Very similar.

We finished off our day with lunch at the Tillamook Cheese factory.

The Cheddar Baby Loaf Van.






***just a few more days...SALE continues in my friend's Etsy Shop;
CraftyTokyoMama on etsy. Use Coupon code AUGUST20 throughout the month of August to get 20% off your purchase.

Don't forget about Etsy Love - even if you don't buy anything - just hover over the heart on each listing and tap on it. (thanks!)

Crown Point and Multnomah Falls

Vista House -- Crown Point

Multnomah Falls

 Sis from Minnesota is here for her annual visit home. Today we took her boys and grandma & grandpa up the Old Highway.

Our first stop was Bridal Veil Falls. I stayed with my dad who can't walk far and the others hiked down to see these beautiful waterfalls.

Second stop was Crown Point where you can see up and down the mighty Columbia river.

Gorgeous day. Not too hot. Lots of tourists. I picked up some postcards for my friend in Japan who not only collects them but sometimes uses them when she does Postcrossing.

 Looking upriver - eastwards.

Looking downriver - towards Portland

Squirrely nephews

 It's been a very dry year and there are sandbars in the river we've never seen.
Multnomah Falls is running light too.
 If you want to see some spectacular photos of these two landmarks,  my blog friend, Teresa Kasner,  volunteers up here and takes delicious photos of both of these beautiful Oregon places.
She has a much better camera.

 We hiked nearly to the upper falls but the narrow trail, the fact we were wearing flip flops and the throngs of tourists -- we turned back before reaching the upper viewpoint.

Lots of selfie sticks in evidence.
Japanese, Taiwanese, Malaysian, Korean, Aussies, Europeans.  Many different accents.

 

 Our last stop was Horseshoe Falls. Very cold water; the boys enjoyed every minute of it.