Last Friday in May

 

Happy Friday and weekend to everyone!

I've had a challenging week, but I'm incredibly grateful for this new day.

Enjoy! 🙂🙏🏾💕

Back to Work 2021

 

Well, the holidays are officially over...(sigh)...oh well 😉 It is what it is. 

I'll count our blessings that my husband and I are still employed. During these times, that's definitely a reason to be grateful. 

Onward we all go into a new chapter. 

Let's do this y'all...

Stay well and safe.

Happy Monday!

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving! 🦃 🍽

This is the holiday that I love most because it reminds me of home and it holds great memories for me.  I remember the delicious smells coming from the kitchen as my mother cooked a wonderful feast. She would be humming or listening to music as she cooked. Further back when I was little and my father was alive, I remember him saying grace before we ate. I remember my sisters and brothers being joyful that it was finally time to eat 😁 Through the years as everyone grew up, the traditions shifted from one house to another, but we were together and the love was there.

So as I have Thanksgiving dinner with my husband here in England, 4,200 miles away from home, I'll carry on the traditions that I learned from my parents and keep their memories alive as I do everyday. And through the wonders of technology I'll check in with my siblings today and have some laughs and it'll be like old times in a way 🙂

Gratitude, family, friends and sharing food...the joys of life 🙂💖

Happy Thanksgiving! 🦃🙂

The Moment

Lunchtime thoughts...

This was my view of the sunrise next to my desk at work this morning. It was glorious to behold!

I'm doing my best to relish this view while I have it. This is the temporary spot for my desk until we move the office again. We moved right before Christmas and we'll have to do it all over again in a few weeks.  I love sitting at that spot, so I'm relishing the view while I can. In February, I'll move to a position cramped between two other desks and I'll be far away from the view.

I'm taking this as a much-needed learning opportunity to practice being in the moment. I'm reminding myself to not think about the lack of a view in a few weeks and to concentrate on the beautiful view that I get to enjoy currently. I've struggled a lot in recent years with being in the moment, so perhaps the lesson will stick this time.

Breathe in...breathe out...and enjoy (my mantra to myself) 🙂

I hope that you have a great day wherever you are! Happy New Year!

Happy Thanksgiving

❤

Thanksgiving 2016

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone back home and to all who celebrate the holiday! :)

I hope that you have a wonderful day with your family and friends.

I am thankful for everyone who comes here to read my blog...you are appreciated :)

By the way, this is my 800th post! Wow! That's a lot of posts. Here's to the next hundred and even the next 800! I hope that you'll come back and visit me again.

Have a wonderful day!

Happy Birthday To My Blog

Today is an important day in my life and it all has to do with this blog. Today is the 5th anniversary or birthday of my little blog here and I can't quite believe that it has already been five years! Where does the time go?

First of all, starting this blog was one of the best things that I ever did. Writing this blog has been very cathartic especially in the early days and it has brought me such healing. When I started on this journey, I had no idea how much a seemingly simple act of writing a blog could do so much in my life. I can remember myself very vividly on the day that I wrote that first post. And in reading it back today it is like going into a time machine. I remember being in a state of mind where I was still grieving the loss of my mother even though I thought that I was doing okay. Also, I was recovering from an injury that I had suffered in a car accident. And I was trying to work through major culture shock. I didn't write it all out in that first post, but I alluded to it a little. If you'd like to read my first post you can do so here.

Even though I didn't scream it all out in so many words back then, I remember that time very well as I look back and I see some growth. No, I don't have it all figured out and I don't think anyone does, but as an ad used to say back in the day... You've come a long way baby!  :) I haven't really thought about all of this a lot because I've just been living my life, but I guess that's how it is, isn't it? We go forward and take stock from time to time, so I guess that this is me taking stock. Just like everyone else, I'm a work in progress and this blog has helped me immensely!

I had thought about starting a blog for a long while before I actually started. And then one day I just decided that this was the day and even though I couldn't have known what it would bring me, deep down inside I knew that putting my words out there would start my healing. I know it may seem like I'm making a big deal out of starting a blog, but I can't overstate how much of a lifeline it was to me as I started out.

I started this blog on March 4th and as I mentioned in my first post, there was power in the date. When I say the date, I take it into my consciousness and "March Forth" and to me it means to march forth into your life. Words definitely have power! I took a deep breath and plunged right in. And even though it was a simple act, it was my act of going forward in life. I could hear my mom saying to go on and go forward. My mom figures very prominently in the earlier days of my blog and I know for sure that having this blog to write definitely helped me to cope with her loss. I still miss her every single day and I'll miss her, my dad, and my brother for the rest of my days. But I know that writing this blog has given me the outlet that I sorely needed in those early days and I am grateful.

And speaking of gratitude, I want to say a HUGE thank you to you, my readers :) I appreciate your support so much and connecting with many of you through email and social media has been a pure pleasure. I know that my posting has been rather sporadic over the last three or so years. It's been nowhere near as frequent as it was in the beginning, but I thank you for sticking with me over these years. As you may know, for the last few years I have been taking up some university study so my posting has been all over the place and nowhere near what I would like it to be. But with all being well, in about three months (fingers crossed), I will be done with that and I can recommit myself here at this blog that I love so much. I want to return to the much more vibrant posts of old and I hope that you will come along with me as I reboot my creativity and share my little corner of England with you :)

So in closing I'll say...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY

FROM A YELLOW HOUSE IN ENGLAND

 

Have a great day everyone and hey, have a piece of cake! :)

Lovely Bath

Today I'm finally sharing my photos that I took during our recent trip to beautiful Bath. It was a bit of an overcast day and near the end it rained, but that city is a gorgeous place to visit in mostly any weather. There are many things that I love about Bath...it's architecturally beautiful, it's just the right size, and I always feel a difference when I visit. I'll explain. I've been living here for a bit over six and a half years now, and even though it is great to live here, after a while I've gotten used to it because I'm living a normal life everyday. I know that it's a treat to get a chance to live outside one's homeland, but for me when I'm let's say, washing dishes, I could be anywhere as I get dishpan hands :-) I guess that what I'm trying to say is that after this while and simply getting on with life, I don't think daily about the fact that I live in another country. But from time to time, when I'm least expecting it, I have this realization that "hey, I'm in a totally different country". And in those moments I'm truly grateful for the opportunity to have this experience. I try to be grateful generally in my life, but I do get those moments when I stop in the middle in my life and take a look around. I guess you could say that momentarily I stop and smell the roses. When I have those moments I tell myself that I have to take notice more...I'm working on it...I'm a work in progress :-) Anyway, back to my story. So when I'm in Bath I have those moments of realization and I feel the difference, like "yeah, I'm somewhere else". Bath is probably my favorite place so far that I've visited in England.

We went to Bath that day to simply have a lovely day out and it was great! Brit Boy and I always enjoy having a stroll around the city and this is where Brit Boy attended university, so it holds a special place in his heart. Since I've been so wordy already, I'll just make the rest of this more of a photo post with very few words ;-)

Left: This is a rather blurry pic that I took from the car as we were waiting to get off at the exit. Bath is beautifully laid out within the rolling hills.

Right: The view as we drove along into town to get to the parking. I love the way the houses hug the curve of the road.

           

                 




        Left: The view driving into town and down the hill

Above: I love the shape of this building

Above: Street Scene...Bath is full of cozy little areas like this

Above: Pretty side street. I don't know the name of the church, but I love how it is nestled just right there

Above: A view of Bath Abbey and to the right are the Roman Baths

Above: Which way do we go???? LOL

Above: My delicious lunch...a spinach & cheese ravioli garnished with cheese and salad and the glorious bread. Yum!!!! Wish I had some now! It was SO good! We ate at a department store restaurant and were floored that the food was so nice and tasty and reasonably priced!

Above: Brit Boy's lasagna

Above: Last but not least, the sweet shop where I got my Nerds candy that I mentioned in my previous post. It was such a cute shop...old fashioned and just perfect!

And that's all folks! I have about a thousand more photos of Bath because every time we go I just can't help myself. It is that beautiful! I always feel at home there. And I LOVE getting the chance to share it with all of you. I will share some more photos in the future because I want everyone to get the chance to experience this interesting place. So I hope that you'll indulge any future photo posts that I do ;-)  These photos don't even scratch the surface. More to come...

If you'd like to know more about Bath, just let me know in the comments. I could talk about it forever and I'm not being paid by the city, I just love this beautiful place. LOL.

Until next time...

Thankful Days

And so Thanksgiving weekend has come to an end! It was great indeed. Brit Boy and I had a lovely dinner and were grateful to spend some quality time together. As you can see, this is a snapshot of the after dinner table. Empty glasses...crumpled napkins...a last bit of candlelight...it was a lovely day! So much to be grateful for.

Hope everyone who celebrates had a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend too! And for everyone who doesn't celebrate, I hope you had a great weekend also! :-)

Happy Thanksgiving

This year Brit Boy is taking the actual day off so we won't have to celebrate it before or after the day. That makes me very happy! I am grateful everyday, but it's just really nice to celebrate collectively along with others back home :-)

I'm looking forward to Skyping with my family and having some good laughs together! That's always fun!

I wish a wonderful holiday to all who are celebrating!!!

Happy Thanksgiving

All the best and...

On the Eve of Thanksgiving

Today is a good day at the Yellow House. As many of you know, tomorrow is Thanksgiving in the USA and even though I’ve been living here for five and a half years, the tradition is still very much celebrated in this little house. Brit Boy loves the holiday too, and has always been a very willing participant in the celebration. So it is nice to share this holiday with him and embrace the gratitude and connection of the day together.

We’re actually going to celebrate on Friday because Brit Boy won’t have the day off on the actual Thanksgiving Day tomorrow, since the day isn’t celebrated here of course. He is having the day off on Friday so we can have a long weekend together though. So that will be nice. It’s going to be great no matter what day!

My thoughts are all over the place today, but in a good way. I’m having a hybrid of memory and new traditions going through my mind. Today I’m remembering the last Thanksgiving that my siblings and I had with my mom six years ago. And in the spirit of gratitude, I’m so grateful that we were able to be together like that, with her sitting at the head of the table at my sister’s house and giving us that beautiful smile of hers. I remember a lot of Thanksgivings fondly, but that one stands out to me more than any of them and it will stay with me forever. She was happy and that is the way I remember her. She loved the holiday season, so Thanksgiving and Christmas were her times. Right after Thanksgiving she would pull out her Christmas music and sing her way around the kitchen all the way up until Christmas. It’s interesting when you look back at a person in all of their glory and you really ‘see’ them. I realize now that besides all that she taught me in being my mother, she also taught me a lot about being a human being. My mother didn’t have the easiest life by any stretch of the imagination, but she had the greatest joy for life and she lived in the moment. I loved that about her...

Later this evening, Brit Boy and I are heading to the supermarket to pick up some ingredients for our Thanksgiving dinner on Friday. I’m making some of the standard traditional dishes that I grew up with, but I’m going to attempt to make a new dessert. I know that lots of people make pumpkin pies, but in our house it was always sweet potato pies. That's what I love though...there are traditional foods that we all share in common on that day and then there are regional variations. Variety and tradition living side by side is a beautiful thing. I’m still going to make regular sweet potato pie, but I’m going to try this recipe that I found for these mini pies with a cream cheese type topping. They looked good when I saw them on the Food Network last year, so I’m gonna give it a whirl. Wish me luck! ;-) If I go ahead with trying it, I’ll share how they turned out...for better or worse. Also, it’s usually a customary challenge to find substitutions for some ingredients here. But after these past few years, it’s become a standard part of my life, so it’s kind of like a game now. Lol. It should be fun! I embrace the challenge!

Tomorrow I will get my dessert making done so that I won’t have that to on Friday. And hopefully if I get it all planned out right, I’ll be able to check in by Skype with my niece and have some laughs. We did this last year and it was fun to have virtual back home Thanksgiving. I got the chance to check out their food and it was a good time. My niece is twenty-one, but you would think that we grew up together because we laugh at the same stuff and have a good time on Skype. So I’m looking forward to that with my sisters in the background :-)

It’s getting very thankful around here and I’m looking forward to it all! I want to wish a Happy Thanksgiving to everybody out there who celebrates the holiday and a great Thursday tomorrow to one and all!

Saturday Treats

Brit Boy and I had a good time yesterday. It was like our Saturdays of old when we went into town more often. We've been affected by the recession and its aftermath just like everyone else, so those trips into town have been strictly for the bare essentials. We're not big shoppers anyway, but it was fun to do something different :-) So yesterday we went into town to do some Christmas shopping and managed to get all of our gifts. We figured that it would be good to spread our shopping out so we bought a few things last week and then this week we finished. We didn't have to get too many gifts. It will be a frugal Christmas, but that's not a bad thing at all. It's the thought that counts, isn't it? :-)

The fun of yesterday though was just the chance to hang out together. We had the most fun when we went into this store that had lots of little gifty things and I turned ten years old. LOL. I had the best time playing with the little games and things they had on display.

We came home with a couple of trinkets for ourselves and mine were fun stuff that made me remember being a kid. I'll share the other two things tomorrow, but for today, I want to share this...traditional slab toffee. I love that it came with its very own little hammer to break it up. It reminds me of the little rock hammer that the main character used to escape out of prison in the movie Shawshank Redemption. I love it.



This is so wrong but so right, but everything in moderation is cool. LOL. I was salivating when I saw it and I will force myself to eat it over a while and not in two days. So far I've done pretty good and only had a little bit. It's really rich so that's the only way for me to survive and not pass out in a sugar coma ;-) It's called toffee over here, but for my readers from back home in the USA it is very reminiscent of caramel candy to me actually if you're wondering what it tastes like. It reminds me of a Sugar Daddy and I don't mean that other kind of sugar daddy ;-) But anyway, the toffee is so good!!! And it has brazil nuts in it so I'm extra excited. They had the plain kind, but I like my crunchiness!

But I know some of you may be saying...hey don't rush Christmas on us and you're right. We've got to have Thanksgiving first and my mind is certainly on Thanksgiving today. I was sitting here thinking about my menu. I was on Skype with my niece the other day and we were discussing Thanksgiving and I started salivating. I salivate a lot I guess. LOL. The food is fun to think about and eat, but my favorite part is the love and gratefulness behind the day. I'm planning on getting on Skype again with my niece and whoever is around that day. It will be fun to have virtual Thanksgiving. Brit Boy won't be off on that day, but we will still celebrate as we always have together. He has the day off on the next day, so we'll just roll all that fun into an extra day :-) Yay us!

Therefore, I'm in menu planning mode. I'll have my recipes in one hand and a tiny piece of toffee in the other ;-) Just kidding. For real though, I'm planning out my menu and you know me...I love to photograph food, so I'll show the good, the bad, and the ugly. So watch this space.

Tomorrow I'm gonna share my other two little things that I picked up yesterday. Simple pleasures....Have a great Sunday and I'll be back tomorrow with my other two favorite things!

A Glorious Day

(Photo courtesy of NASA)

I wanted to wish a HAPPY EARTH DAY to everyone! My heart sings with love for this beautiful planet that we call home :-)

And I can certainly not forget Good Friday and all that it conjures up for me. This Easter season immediately reminds me of my days growing up back in Georgia. Easter was always one of my very favorite times of the year and it always brings feelings of renewal to my mind. When I was a child, we would prepare an Easter program at church and it was a glorious tradition. All of us kids would participate by singing and/or reciting what we called Easter speeches. The Easter speeches were poetic pieces that we learned by heart and recited to the congregation and our proud parents. I look back now and realize how lucky we all were to be able to have that sense of community. Those times live now only in my memories, but I'm glad that they're mine forever :-)

Have a wonderful weekend!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Hello everybody! :-) I just wanted to check in and wish everyone who celebrates, a Happy Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday! I love the food of course, but most of all, I love that is a day set aside to be grateful. Gratitude is the key. And yes, I try my best to be grateful everyday, but I just love that on this day, many of us share our gratitude and I think that is so powerful. Because when you break it all down...it's all about love and that can't be a bad thing :-)

So I send a big Happy Thanksgiving to all of my family and friends back home and to those that I've never met :-)

P.S. ~ I know that I was supposed to tell you about the big foot today, but I will definitely do that next time. Sorry I've not posted in several days. I've been having some health issues, but things are going to be okay :-) Take care and have a great day and I'll be back with my big foot story next time!

Rainbows & New Beginnings

Well hello there! :-) Dori here…signing back on at the Yellow House! I really enjoyed my blogging hiatus and I’ve come back just wanting to enjoy blogging again. When I went on my break, I must admit, I was a bit burnt out and had run out of stuff to say. In my time away, I reminded myself that blogging should be fun, not a chore. I will say though, that I will inevitably run out of things to write about still sometimes, but I won’t sweat it ;-) I guess what I’m saying is that I’m happy to be back blogging, but now I come back after having taken a humongous chill pill…lol.

On the day that I started my blogging break, I saw something beautiful that always gives me a good vibe when I’m given the chance to see it. I saw this…



Right after I wrote my post about taking my break, I looked outside and saw this beauty. And this time it wasn’t a fragment like I’ve seen in times past, it was a full rainbow and it was so big that I couldn’t get it all in the photo. I took this photo out in the backyard and then I went out front and it was like the rainbow was RIGHT THERE with me. It was SO beautiful!!! It looked like it was pulsating and grew right before my eyes. I felt such peace :-)

So as the rainbow evaporated, I knew that any apprehension that I had felt about stepping away from my little corner of the internet, was melting away too. My blog would be fine without me while I took some time for some renewal and to sort some other things out.

Now I’m ready to write here again. I love words and getting to string them together here in this space is a blessing. Life is the biggest blessing. So onward I go and I hope that you’ll come along with me again… :-)

P.S. ~ As you may have noticed, I did a little bit of freshing up around here with my blog design. It's still a work in progress...kind of like life ;-) But I thought that it was about time to shake things up a bit, so I hope you like it. Have a great day! :-)

It's All About the Journey

Just wanted to share a sunny picture. Hope you enjoy it!

I had a pretty great weekend :-) Brit Boy and I didn’t go anywhere special or doing anything out of the ordinary, but it was a good quiet weekend and I had a chance to reflect on something I just accomplished. So all weekend, I was basking in the glow :-)

For those of you who are new readers or those who may have forgotten since I didn’t bring it up much ;-) , I was taking a freelance and features writing course over the past several months, well it was actually a year and a half. I didn’t bring it up a lot because there wasn’t much to tell from day to day and also I’ll admit, it was a bit of a struggle sometimes :-) But here’s the absolutely beautiful thing that is bursting out of me right now as I write these words…it was difficult, but I did it! And I don’t say that to say “hey look at me”, I say that because I am just so darned proud of what it means for me as a person…something that I needed to prove to myself…that I can see a difficult task through until the end.

I don’t know if I would have been so candid with you all when I began my course eighteen months ago, but it is SO SO TRUE…the truth does indeed set you free! :-)

See, I know me and I don’t have a great track record with things like this. Oh yeah, I’ve gotten through life fine, but I’ve never really made it through the tape at the finish line in this way for a long, long time. So this milestone lets me know that I still have drive within…something that I thought that I’d left in my wake too long ago. But the beauty is that “she” is still in there…the authentic me that I forgot in the flurry of moving across the water and becoming a wife. Don’t get me wrong. I don’t regret my journey over here at all, but some days it has seemed like my determination dropped off somewhere over the Atlantic. Well, with the completion of my course, I feel that I went diving deep and found my drive again. Hallelujah! :-)

I turned in my final lesson on Friday and I immediately began to smile on the outside, the inside, and everywhere possible :-) I know that this may seem a modest milestone to the wide world, but in essence it is EVERYTHING, because today I join countless people all over this planet who are celebrating something amazing in their lives…whether it is large or small. We all wake up every day and are bombarded with terrible news and so I think that this makes it even more important to celebrate those joyous moments in our lives that make our hearts sing! :-)

I haven’t found out my final grade and of course I’m intrigued to find out the result. However, I mean this with the truest honest heart…I have already made the grade. I took the journey…so the destination is just the icing on the cake. I’m truly grateful in this moment and I just wanted to share my joy with you all.

Have a great day everybody!

Happy Birthday Sesame Street

I want to say Happy Birthday to Sesame Street today!!!! :-) Today marks the 40th anniversary of Sesame Street premiering on our television screens.


Photo credit: Richard Termine/Sesame Workshop


I, like many others who grew up in the 70s, have fond memories of Big Bird, Oscar the Grouch, Cookie Monster, Ernie & Bert, Grover, The Count, and all of the other great characters who live on that wonderful street. I used to want to live there so much when I was in elementary school :-) But getting to visit them each day in TV land was great too. That show opened up a great deal of my imagination and taught me so much. I remember songs from that show to this day, and when I hear them and hum along, I get the same happiness that I had as a kid. What would I and so many others have done without Sesame Street? :)

The beauty of this show is that I enjoyed it when I was a kid and then my nieces and nephews enjoyed it and then it just goes on and on over the years. It has stood the test of time for my family and countless other families and I’m so glad that it’s still around. It is a part of the cultural DNA now :-)

So here’s to Sesame Street and what it has brought to all of us kids and kids-at-heart! May it go on and on :-)

A Holiday Awards Day

I have another collection of awards to highlight today. I’m a couple of weeks late with these, so to all of those who awarded me, I’m sorry for the delay. I’m finally getting caught up. Better late than never though…right ;-) To all of you, thank you very much for thinking of me and awarding me with these. These were all awarded to me right before or around Thanksgiving, so they came at a wonderful time. It’s always good to know that there are others out there who support you in what you love to do :-) All of these ladies have great blogs, so I urge you to go by and check them out. I find in reading their blogs, and so many others, that there is a universal commonality that we all share with each other. And those ways in which we are different simply keep life interesting.

The first award, The Rock Star Award, comes from April at My Life as a Mother and Single Parent



The next four were awarded to me by Anne at Small Town Mommy





Here's some linky love to Maternal Spark who created the Sparky Blogger Award.

And the next three were awarded to me by Queenmadison at Queenmadison’s World





And the final two were awarded to me by Jodi at Jodi’s Journey




All of these awards are wonderful and varied and I love them all individually. It is so hard to decide who to pass them all on to, because I read and love so many blogs. So in an effort to be inclusive and to share the fun with all of those who support me, I will be passing all of these cool awards on to my followers, readers, and commenters. I hope that none of the givers will mind. Why not…after all, this is the season of giving :-)

Enjoy!

Thanksgiving Wrap Up

I mentioned yesterday that Brit Boy and I had a nice laid back weekend. Thanksgiving was great and the food turned out great. The menu included: turkey and dressing (or stuffing depending I guess upon where you grew up) :-) , macaroni & cheese, braised brussel sprouts, and mashed potatoes with cream cheese and chives. For dessert, we finished it off with sweet potato pie. Our robot mascot Trevor was most interested in the pie. Here’s a photo of him getting ready to dive in.




I would have posted a photo of Trevor after he dived in, but take it from me, it wasn’t pretty. LOL. But all in all, it was a nice Thanksgiving. The food was great, but we also paused to think of what we are grateful for. That is what I love about Thanksgiving…it’s being with the ones you love and being thankful for all of your blessings. Brit Boy and I don’t have a lot of money, but not many people do these days. However, as far as we’re concerned, we have everything :) We have a roof over our head and we have enough and that indeed is a blessing.