Up-Cycled and Uplifting

I'm guilty of disliking movie-makers who just recycle old movies instead of putting decent screnewriters to work to produce something new and exciting. But tonight I realized, what's old can be new again – when up-cycled the right way.

Case in point: The Best Christmas Pageant Ever movie.

Some Robyn-pedia background for you: The Best Christmas Pageant Ever (titled The Worst Kids in the World in Australia, New Zealand and the UK) is actually a children's novel written by Barbara Robinson way back in 1972. That's why the title sounds familiar. 

The book (and many movie and stage versions) all tell the story of six misfit children who volunteer to star in their town's Sunday school Christmas pageant, and end up teaching the town the true meaning of Christmas.

The 2024 movie version of it is both entertaining and inspiring. I was glad I could enjoy it tonight with some 70 people who signed up through my church to attend for free. Great crowd and great movie. Lots of laughter and even some tears. So well-made!

As a bonus I got popcorn for supper. I'm still eating from the Bland Foods Group. Lunch was a small order of french fries. And dinner was a small popcorn. Just right. 

If you get a chance to see this one this holiday season, do it! Also on my list is the Red One Christmas movie and, of course, WICKED! Popcorn might become more popular than turkey for dinner this month!

Recovering in Dark Mode

I felt much better today. Pretty weak from lack of food and hydration, but I could work from home so that helped me take it easy.

What didn't help was just when I was feeling a bit energized, I swear it was getting dark out already. Looked at the clock and it 2:17 p.m. WHAT?

It wasn't my imagination. The rain started and stayed – and those dark clouds won't break up for days, I don't think. Uff da. 

Good thing I don't always count on the weather to lift my spirits. That's pretty much off the table from November to May. But if tomorrow goes even better and I survive all day at the "real" office, I'm hoping to join some church folks at the Best Christmas Pageant Ever movie after work.

Even if there's rain, my friend Kermit the Frog above knows it's often followed by rainbows. In whatever form you want! 🌈 Let's find our Rainbow Connection this week – for lovers and dreamers and Christmas-movie-junkie ME.

The Cookie Toss

Friday night's full moon reminded me of a cookie for some reason. Maybe because I was tossing them all weekend.

Not the "it's a fun bean bag toss" kind of game. But tossing my cookies (a.k.a. upchucking, puking, vomiting, dying). Only I didn't die. Just felt like it.

Could not keep anything all Saturday and even into the night. Finally about 2 a.m. I could keep a few sips of water intact. Big victory!

And today, I've managed some saltines and more water and 7-Up in moderation.

While yesterday I couldn't even sit up for more than a few minutes. Today I was able to bond with Mr. Recliner and enjoy a Vikings victory. They're on TV here a bit more often now that they're 8-2. But I honestly hadn't PLANNED to be home to watch it.

I was bummed all my weekend plans were shot to heck. No book club or shopping yesterday and no church, BINGO, or movie time for me today. I was too weak to even watch Hallmark. Now you know it was bad.

Not sure what kind of bug it was but another few friends have had it this weekend too so something evil is going around.

At least I was able to upgrade from Saltines to Ritz for supper. Guess I'll be all back to normal (my version of it) come morning. 

Let's have a good week!

Girls' Getaway

There were many times this spring when we wondered if we'd have our 26th annual sister weekend this fall with all 7 of us sisters. By the grace of God, we could.

Since we had to wait some time to know if our sister Rachel was OK first, then OK to walk in some fashion second, we waited to find a place for a getaway. What ended up working was a few days in the middle of the week rather than a weekend. 

In November.

So I found (via VRBO) a huge house in the Twin Cities area that had a first-floor bedroom for Rachel, plus plenty of dining and relaxing space also on the first floor. As a bonus, we all got our own bedrooms and queen beds – except my twin and I sharing the master suite.

And here's one view of that master suite. A king-size bed plus a couch and two chairs for relaxing or visiting, then a huge bathroom with a jacuzzi tub and shower and walk-in closet as big as my home office. Wow. We were willing to share.

This was one of the nice living room/gathering spaces.

It was very nice and perfect since we didn't need to go anywhere and sight-seeing. We've all been to the Cities a bajillion times! The sad part was that this was our first down-time where we could talk through Rachel's tragic accident and miraculous recovery – and grieve Mom. What a year!

Somehow a bunch of childhood pictures came out of the woodwork...

Yes, me being a clown. Not far from my personality 50 years later!

Me around kindergarten age loving on one of our barn cat kitties that we never seemed to keep.

My sister Rachel helping me walk. And then decades later me having to help her walk after her accident. A sad but victorious twist!

Just hamming it up before there were selfies.

I had never seen this picture of my twin Lene and I riding tricycles. 

And this one with us (I'm on the left) and Dad. Never saw that. We both cried over that one!!

Current day at Sister Weekend (aka Sister mid-week getaway)!

This year, since we were in the Twin Cities and our brother Ron lives there, we met up for dinner at a place called Junction 70 – literally 5 minutes from our VRBO rental.

Took pictures around the table... Ron and Rayna...

RoAnn and Renell...

Rachel and Raylene...

And Romey and me...

Then our cooperative R-sister waitress Rowan took a picture of all 8 R's. We just can't take that for granted! The sad part is that we can't show this picture to Mom.

And yes, I'm crying as I type this because dang, that really, really sucks.

We did, however, manage to have plenty of fun catching up, playing games (me losing at cards but winning $$$ off my sisters at dice). Everything will just sit a bit different now going forward.

I'm sure I've said it a hundred times, but hug your parents, your siblings, your kids, and any loved ones! You just don't know! 

P.S. Love ya, R sisters!

It's About More Than Us

It seems weird to say "happy" Veterans Day. So I'll just say hey, today is Veterans Day and I thank all of you who served – whether in war time or peace time. Your commitment matters.

For us non-government employees, today was a normal work day. I had to have a GSD day (Get Sh-tuff Done) day before a few days off. I worked my butt off and I think I can be removed from the office Tuesday–Thursday without worrying about work. 

But then after work I was on mission to get "a few things" wrapped up for our sister "non-weekend" getaway. No one requires anything from any of us. Yet we all seem to do something. 

If my sisters are looking for clues, you won't find anything. Here are my after-work stops: Lighthouse Books and Gifts, Walgreens, Marshall's, and Goodwill. Ha!

All you need to know is that I'm excited to bring some fun and entertainment (hopefully) for our Great Minnesota Get-Together.

Hope you all have something to look forward to Tuesday through Thursday!

Skate-By Sunday

Naturally, I'd love to brag about a Vikings win during a Packers' bye week. But since we barely won, I made sure I adjusted the graphic above to reflect our just skating-by victory. 

I'm disappointed but at least honest.

Since the Pack was on bye, though, we got to watch the game in central Wisconsin. After our duties in church (my choir does have 2 other Vikings fans!).

While we were watching our friend Christine came over. She was in town for the weekend and was willing to visit while her Packers were not playing. We definitely did not force her to cheer for the purple. It was just great to see her, that's all!

I was supposed to have my final final senior photo shoot after the game, but that got postponed until Friday. So it was really a low-key day. I may or may not be planning a few things for my "sister getaway" this week. Since it's Tuesday-Thursday this year, we can't really call it our usual Wild Women's Weekend. But we can pretend.

Hidden message: I only have to work tomorrow (and Friday if I'm up to it) this week. Yay, me! Yay, sisterhood!

Hope you all have something to look forward to this week! 

Going Octo-Bananas

Who sets an alarm on a Saturday morning to get up and make a trifle? This girl! And yes, as shown by the photo, I've gone bananas!

At the request of my father-in-law, whose 87th birthday we celebrated today, he wanted something like the banana cream pie-type dessert his wife used to make. Thank goodness he was amenable to a dessert in the trifle format so I wouldn't have to compete with that memory. It was tasty. I'll share the recipe in a bit.

We went to lunch at Anchor Bay and he was surprised with a cupcake for dessert. We had a nice group – Baird and Sherry (you can see in the background), plus Colin, Amy and their kids, and Jim and I plus Clay and Becca – and Mr. Carter who arrived late last night!

We all came to our house after lunch to settle our full bellies and the have dessert. Dad looks pretty good for an octogenarian, doesn't he?

Tried to get a picture of the grandkids. You can see Carter and Colin cooperating in the back row but Eli, Dad, and Mya were looking elsewhere. Still, it's sweet. My favorite peoples.

By mid-afternoon the crowd had dispersed and Carter hit the road as well. It was so nice to see him for a short visit but it's also Mamie's birthday weekend so we understand why he wanted to head back.

Since we're laying low with an empty house, I figured I share what I threw together to make my first ever Go Bananas Trifle.

First of all, I could've baked a banana cake from scratch. But when we saw this I figured I can't compete with Dolly Parton on any level. So let's go with that. I baked that yesterday afternoon and today I sliced up cubes to make the bottom layer of the trifle.

Next layer was Banana Cream Pie pudding. I ran across the Snack Pack version before finding the instant version, so that's what I went with. Please know that if you try this at home you'll need to by 3 of these – 6 packs per layer. I sliced up some REAL banana and lay those pieces on top of the pudding layer.

The crunchy layer – as I call it – was Vanilla Wafers x 2. I used a rolling pin to crush up some of vanilla wafers pictured above and used a knife to slice up bits of the wafer cookies with vanilla creme.

That went onto the top of the pudding layer before I started again with banana cake cubes and repeated layers. The tip-top layer was whipped cream and some banana slices.

As a side option, I had both chocolate and strawberry syrup in case anyone wanted more of a "banana split" type taste. Overall, positive reviews. So go bananas! 

P.S. If anyone like banana cake, I've got about half of one left I could gift you with whipped cream or whatever!