As David’s mother-in-law is having their family get-together on Thanksgiving Day, we agreed we’d have ours the Sunday before. The weather was nice, unlike many former Thanksgiving family days. I remember, back in 2016, we had nearly two feet of snow on the ground, and everyone got together and built a substantial snow fort. The snow was just right, nicely packing and not too cold. This year, it was cold but there wasn’t a flake of snow on the ground.
Sons, David and Bill, and their families came, and we all sat down to a big, fat turkey dinner with all the trimmings, of course. We all had a good time and ate more than we probably should have. But, hey, it’s no time to diet. Right?
Yesterday, I had to go to Duluth, to Aspirus St. Luke’s Hospital for a CT scan at 11 A.M. It’s part of a testing process I have to do before I have a heart valve replaced. We woke up at 7 this morning to nearly five inches of snow and it was still snowing. Luckily, we’d watched the system coming and got up early, fearing the roads would be horrible. They were snow-covered and a little icy, but Will drove the whole 100 miles in just 2½ hours, including potty stops along the way. And he drove safely, too. I won’t hear the results of the CT scan until the end of the week, so I’ll put it out of my mind until then. Too much other stuff to do. Like canning up the leftover turkey plus the on-sale celery I got at Aldi’s. It’s supposed to be cold all week with highs only in the teens and low twenties. It’s good to have indoor jobs!
— Jackie
A little late but I hope you drank lots of water post scan – that dye is hard on kidneys.
Your Thanksgiving looks like a huge success. Having family to cook for is the best thing ever! We begin our Thanksgivings on Friday and will have a second on Saturday. It’s a lot of cooking, but such a blessing to have family to feed. I sure hope your test results are all good. CT scans are not fun having to drink that contrast. Yuk! Sending prayers for a blessed week.
I was “lucky” my contrast was injected IV. I hate the junk you drink for a colonoscopy! If they can put people in space, why can’t they make that liquid palatable???
I love all the cooking for holidays. And it’s wonderful to have family here to enjoy it with us. Thank you for your prayers!!
That photo of your Thanksgiving dinner has a Norman Rockwell quality to it. What a great shot! Glad you had a safe trip to Duluth and prayers are going up for a successful result on the valve replacement. It’s good you can have this done in the “off season”. As fast as time flies the spring seed rush will be here before you know it!
I loved that photo. David used the timer on a cell phone to get everyone in. What a great idea!!
Our off season isn’t really too “off”, as our catalogs come out in December and we’re usually busy after that, filling seed packets and orders. (Not a bad thing!!) But it’s not physically hard. That’s why I tried to schedule it for then.
All too soon, we’ll all be planting seeds again. : )
Good luck with the tests, and whatever they show you need.
katherine jordahl
Those tests are to determine the blood flow rate and thickness of the calcification on my heart valve, all necessary for my cardiologist to determine if, in fact, I should have the procedure soon or wait a bit.
Meanwhile, I’m just going on with day to day stuff. Today I’m canning celery!
Dear Jackie,
I’ll have you on my prayer list for sure. At our age, parts break down and need replacing! And as our family became larger and widespread, I decided to have my Thanksgiving dinner on the Sunday before Thanksgiving. It gave a lot of relief to the kids trying to please all the in-laws (some are not flexible) and thanked me for being so flexible. BUT I “eventually” told them I was not necessarily being nice. I thought all of this through, and I decided that the first Turkey Dinner you eat is the best one and not the 2nd, 3rd, or 4th. By then you are sick of turkey. So, I continue to have mine the Sunday before Thanksgiving Day and everyone swears that mine is always the best tasting!
Hope you, Will, and all yours stay warm in the oncoming winter cold.
I got a kick out of your reasoning for having the “first” Thanksgiving dinner! What a great idea and reason. : )
I’d rather get a few parts replaced as needed than suffer along (or die) because I refused to do so. Not fun, for sure. But necessary. Thank you for your prayers!!
Keeping you and Will in prayers
Always appreciate your updates
Thank you for your prayers!! I’m sure they help. Happy Thanksgiving!
praying for good test results. canning turkey, but i didn’t know about canning celery. have to check this out! glad Will had a safe drive with you in the new snow. yummy looking dinner and the happy smiles of family.
Thanks Mary. I appreciate your prayers a lot. Today I’m canning the celery and, hopefully, tomorrow, the turkey and broth.
We all enjoyed being together and eating all that tasty food. Especially the four pies!
Howdy, Jackie, from far north (conservative) California,
I’m really looking forward to canning-up leftover turkey. Our daughter and family have just moved to our mountaintop. Her husband will attend aviation school here. They may be around a couple years for that. She’s bought this year’s turkey, BUT I have a frozen turkey, from a year ago. I think I’ll can that up as well. You mentioned canning celery. You know I tried that a year or so ago, but have yet to open a jar and see how it did. I’ve never heard anyone else say they canned celery, but I want to try everything. It’s a challenge. It’s fun. We just went through the bomb cyclone that hit the west coast. We happened to be driving our RV, in a lot of snow, but everything went well, especially after prayers.
I definitely agree that prayers do work! Canning celery is easy and so tasty. I use the canned celery for everything from cream of celery soup to ingredients for stews, soups and casseroles. It turns out very nicely when canned.
Happy Thanksgiving!!!
Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. Everyone can sit at the table and enjoy a wonderful meal and catch up on each other’s lives. Your family looks so happy together. That alone is a wonderful blessing. I’ll keep you in my prayers for your medical issue. You are a tough lady and whatever it takes, you’ll make it through. I’m glad you have a wonderful family to love and support you.
I’m not really worried about the heart valve replacement. Mine has calcium build up that will eventually get serious. The replacement procedure is a TAVR, where they go in through an artery and insert an artificial valve. Only one night in the hospital and minimal restrictions following the procedure. It’s not like the old version where you were laid up for months. Thank God!!
I love having a lot of my family at holidays. You can’t beat that.
Happy Thanksgiving! Busy knocking off projects on my list. Hope to have time for a little sewing, too.
Happy Thanksgiving to you! Oh, that list of projects! I don’t have a physical list but mental one that drives me nuts sometimes. Then I remind myself One Day at a Time!!
What a whirlwind life you lead!
That fort is truly amazing! How fun that would be.
You have such a lovely family.
I will be praying all goes well with your valve replacement . My Mom had the first Edward sutureless valve in Texas. She was even in the paper like a famous girl LOL.
Happy Thanksgiving
Happy Thanksgiving to you as well! We love doing fun things together, even if it’s harvesting crops or building forts.
I’m having a TAVR procedure, where they go up an artery and place a new valve. Quick and done. Amazing what they can do today! I’m so glad. I love the good old days but am also glad modern medicine has made such great strides.
Prayers for good Ct scan results, Jackie
I’ll hear the results about Friday. I’m sure glad the CT is done. They couldn’t hit a big vein in my arm and tried and tried. Finally, they called in a specialist nurse. She finally got it but I was sure shaking by then. Whew!!
Happy Thanksgiving!
Five inches! Here in Ely we only got just under 2″. What a great photo of you all :^)
Best wishes for a good surgery and recovery.
There is a farm property just down the road from you for sale. I told my husband it would be great to be your neighbors. Bless You-
Nancy
That snow sure varied. When we got to Duluth, at lakeside, there was no snow, just wet ground! Fortunately, the roads were clear when we went home.
Yep, that’s Jerry Yourcezk’s old farm. Our son, David, worked for Jerry for several years, helping hay. Both he and his wife have passed, sadly. Would love to have you as neighbors!!
Jackie, So glad you had a wonderful get together with family. Such good memories. Sorry you have to have a valve replaced but glad that knowledge is available. My husband has has the aorta replaced twice. The first time was good for about 11 years. He did really good with both. No pain, felt better afterward. I’m praying all goes as well with you as it did him. Thank you for all you do to get these blogs to us. I look forward to them every week. God bless.
And I enjoy reading all of your comments! I’m looking forward to that valve replacement, hoping it will perk me up some, as I do get more tired more easily. And it’s such a quick, relatively easy (for me; I’ll be sleeping!) procedure.
We all love getting together for those family meals and I also love cooking for a bunch. What’s great is that most all of the food has come from our homestead. Can’t beat that!! Especially when you hear of all the food recalls, from carrots to ground beef. I know our food is clean and chemical free as well.