I got a phone call last Wednesday that rocked my world a bit. It was my mom, who happened to be visiting her mom, who is without a doubt one of my favorite people in the whole wide world, and they had just heard that my grandmother needed to have surgery.
A pacemaker.
With my hubby out of town for work and my kids on fall break from school it was an easy decision for me to choose to come up to Montana to be with my family. While a pacemaker is an incredibly routine procedure and there is more than likely nothing to fret over, I knew that I wanted to be here to hold her hand and tell her face to face how much I love her.
To tell her how much she has inspired me and shaped me into the person that I am. How she taught me an invaluable lesson on strength when she fought breast cancer not once, but twice. Two different kinds of breast cancer. One in each breast. But she kicked cancer’s ass. She is unstoppable and at 78 years young she is the epitome of who I want to be.
I absolutely cannot wait to see how much more energy and spunk she has when her heart is functioning properly!
But I totally and completely digressed from what I had originally meant to write about today.
So off track, in fact, that it will be challenging to find a segue, so I’ll just switch gears entirely.
Being in Montana and seeing the incredible fall colors has put me even more in a fall frame of mind. I basically just want to sit and watch the leaves fall, the big blue sky full of fluffy clouds in the background. But since that is next to impossible with my kiddos running me ragged, I decided to at least make a fall simmering pot so that when we are stuck inside on the 25 degree mornings the whole house can still smell deliciously of fall.
This is such a simple task, but the house will seriously smell so fantastic for days. This is something that you will do and then kick yourself in the butt for not having done it sooner.
- one apple, sliced into about 2 inch chunks
- the peel of one orange or a couple of clementines
- 2 fresh cinnamon sticks
- 1 Tbsp almond extract
- 1 Tbsp whole cloves
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1½ cups of water
- Combine all ingredients into a large pot and allow to simmer throughout the day. You can add more water as needed.
- Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator overnight.
- If stored in the fridge, you can keep the same ingredients simmering for three to four days.
When my grandma gets home from the hospital tomorrow she can walk in and be whisked away by the scent of fall.
Love you, Gram! 😉
[…] I have been hanging out in Montana with my family, I decided that it would be fun to “Boo” my grandparent’s neighbors as well. […]