Reflections of 2015

As 2015 comes to an end, I can't help but reflect back. It's been a good year, nothing exceptional. It started out with a bitterly cold winter. The snow turned to ice on our drive and even though my nephew plowed, it remained ice.

 We have a gravel drive, and I swear the ice was several inches thick. I could hardly walk on it. Needless to say, we stayed inside for the most part, only going out when necessary. I even missed church several Sundays because of the ice. If I couldn't walk on it, I surely wasn't going to drive on it.
My nephew even slid off the drive with his truck and got stuck. I'm sure he wasn't anxious to plow our driveway, but he did it every time it snowed. I don't usually mind the cold or the snow, but this winter was brutally cold. The poor dogs ran out and didn't take long to do their business. I felt bad about having to let them out.





I became a great grandmother for the third time in May. My granddaughter had a beautiful baby girl, Michaela. Precious little beauty, but of course I'm prejudiced. Pictured here with her proud mama, (Allison) great grandpa, and a proud auntie (Alexandra). God has blessed us abundantly.


Spring took forever to get here. At least it seemed to and summer - well I'm still waiting for it to arrive. Not that I'm complaining about that. I dislike the hot, humid summer days as much as I disliked the cold. Only difference is, I was able to stay inside and keep warm in the winter. I hate staying inside in the summer. I like my doors and windows open. I'm not crazy about air conditioning and keeping the house closed up. It's closed up enough in the winter. This past summer was much more to my liking. We only had to run the air a couple of days.

 In fact, we only put one of our window air conditioners in. No, we don't have central air.
We did, however, buy a motor-home - an old one was all we could afford. 1989. But in fairly good condition. Doesn't look like much, all faded and such, but I love it. So we did quite a bit of camping this year. Our state parks offer half price during the week to seniors and we took full advantage of it. Although we still camped with the kids on weekends when they went. It's always fun

to camp with the kids and I even went tubing with them. Loved every minute of it. Granted it took a bit to get me in and out of the tube, but once in, we floated down the river and it was so relaxing. Something about being on the water is calming.

Fall was beautiful and lasted well into December. It was 60 Christmas Day. However, the temperatures have now dropped and returned to normal. I guess winter has finally arrived. We've seen a few snow flakes but so far no accumulation. It's supposed to be a milder than normal winter with less than normal snow. Doesn't bother me a bit.
Two of my grandchildren got engaged recently so weddings will be forthcoming, probably in 2017. We are also expecting a great grandson in June so it looks like 2016 is going to be a good year.


Funny, I hadn't meant to talk about the weather, but I guess it gives you a general idea of how uneventful my life has been this year.
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But I did publish a new book, All's Well that Ends Well, book 2 in the Family Affair Series. You can find it at Amazon.


Wishing everyone a healthy, Happy New Year.

Christmas by Roseanne Dowell

 Our Christmas celebration begins tonight. Every year my siblings and I get together to celebrate. A lot has changed over the years, what started out at my parents soon got taken over by us kids. As my parents aged, and our families grew, it got to be too much for them. Between us six kids, there were 23 grandchildren. Quite a crowd. What started out

as a traditional Christmas Eve dinner soon turned into snacks like potato chips and pretzels.

Each of my siblings and I took turns hosting, which wasn't too bad actually. We only had it once every five years - one of my siblings wives opted out. I guess the idea of 14 adults and 23 kids was too much for her to handle, but the rest of us participated.

Of course our families grew, the grandchildren married and one by one dropped out, having in-laws to visit. Soon there were just me and my siblings and a few grandchildren whose in-laws lived out of town. Alas, now it's just my two brothers and one sister. My parents have  passed on as well as one brother and sister. This year we're down to just the eight of us.

What started out as a joke many years ago soon became a tradition in our family. Joke gifts. We decided early on since there were so many of us not to give the traditional gift, other than for my parents who we bestowed a real gift. Not that my mom was excluded from the joke gifts. Far be it from us not to include her. I think we all get our sense of humor from our mother. She loved to play tricks and jokes on people.  

Every year my sisters and I would get together a week or two before

Christmas to come up with ideas to give my brothers. Often our gifts would include letters composed by our three minds put together. Often our gifts consisted of something to wear. 

Once the group shrunk to just my siblings, we began giving serious gifts also. Many times my gifts were homemade, quilts, embroidery, photos my husband took. After all, finding something for people who virtually had everything was quite a feat. Eventually, that became too difficult and we stopped, but the joke gifts continued. 

At least they did until this year. One of my sister in laws and my sister ran out of ideas. So this year, there won't be any joke gifts. 

In fact, this year will be the last with my oldest brother. They've purchased a house in Florida and next year will spend Christmas there. It saddens me to think we won't all be together, but at least my younger sister and brother will still participate. We'll be down to six.

No matter how many of us there are, it'll still be a fun evening. 

I hope everyone has a Merry Christmas. 

Merry Christmas

 Our Christmas celebration begins tonight. Every year my siblings and I get together to celebrate. A lot has changed over the years, what started out at my parents soon got taken over by us kids. As my parents aged, and our families grew, it got to be too much for them. Between us six kids, there were 23 grandchildren. Quite a crowd. What started out

as a traditional Christmas Eve dinner soon turned into snacks like potato chips and pretzels.

Each of my siblings and I took turns hosting, which wasn't too bad actually. We only had it once every five years - one of my siblings wives opted out. I guess the idea of 14 adults and 23 kids was too much for her to handle, but the rest of us participated.

Of course our families grew, the grandchildren married and one by one dropped out, having their own in-laws to visit. Soon there was just me and my siblings and a few grandchildren whose in-laws lived out of town. Alas, now it's just my two brothers and one sister. My parents have  passed on as well as my oldest brother and older sister. This year we're down to just the eight of us.

What started out as a joke many years ago soon became a tradition in our family. Gag gifts. We decided early on since there were so many of us not to give the traditional gift, other than for my parents who we gave a real gift. Not that my mom was excluded from the joke gifts. Far be it from us not to include her. I think we all get our sense of humor from our mother. She loved to play tricks and jokes on people.  

Every year my sisters and I would get together a week or two before

Christmas to come up with ideas to give our brothers. Often the gifts included letters composed by our three minds. Often our gifts consisted of something to wear an funny outfit. Last year we gave my older brother a suit decorated with glitter glue and poinsettias. 

Once the group shrunk to just my siblings, we began giving serious gifts also. Many times my gifts were homemade, quilts, embroidery, photos my husband took. After all, finding something for people who virtually had everything was quite a feat. Eventually, that became too difficult and we stopped, but the gag gifts continued. 

At least they did until this year. One of my sister in laws and my sister ran out of ideas. So this year, there won't be any joke gifts. 

In fact, this year will be the last with my oldest brother. They've purchased a house in Florida and next year will spend Christmas there. It saddens me to think we won't all be together, but at least my younger sister and brother will still participate. We'll be down to six.

No matter how many of us there are, it'll still be a fun evening. 

I wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a Blessed New Year. 

My Favorite Time of Year

Christmas is my favorite holiday. If you follow my blog, you probably know that by now. I can't help it, I love it. I love the season. The Lights. The Tree. The Hustle and Bustle. Shopping. Yep, I love everything about it.
This year is special to me. I'm hosting Christmas dinner here in my house. It's been years since I've had Christmas. The kids took it over many years ago when we moved. An apartment is hardly large enough to hold my big family and it's growing by leaps and bounds as grandkids get married or have girl friends or boy friends. This year my adult shopping list went from ten couples to fourteen couples, leaving only  six younger ones to buy gifts for.
So, not only do I get to host Christmas this year, I'm also hosting our annual traditional Christmas Eve dinner, which I host every year. I no longer do it on Christmas Eve for a variety of reasons - 1. Everyone can't come Christmas Eve 2. Some people work Christmas Eve. 3. I celebrate Christmas with my siblings on Christmas Eve, leaving no time to have the dinner.
So, we do it a week before, which gives us another day to celebrate. It's also fun because there's no hustle and bustle of opening gifts. We have a leisurely dinner and fellowship.
The past couple of years, my sons and sons in law made the pyrohy (perogi) for this dinner. If you've ever made p, you know it's a lot of work. Not difficult to do, but time consuming. However, my sons and sons in law think it's fun and a big joke to make the pyrohy darn near the size of footballs. One pyrohy would suffice for three normal size ones.
Not that they weren't good because they were excellent. But I much prefer the smaller, traditional ones. That being said, isn't the reason I decided to make them myself this year. The real reason is I've turned into a couch potato and I needed something to do. One batch of pyrohy takes a good part of the day to make if you're doing them alone. So needless to say, I've spent many days making them. I actually had them done, but someone turned off my freezer and 4 dozen potato pyrohy had to be tossed.
Praise God, other than a couple packages of fish (that my hubby didn't like anyway) nothing else had to be tossed. I probably could have used the fish because they were still cold as if they were in a refrigerator. But I tossed them just to be on the safe side. The only reason I had to toss the potato pryohy  was they were all stuck together like a big pile of mush. So I had to remake those 4 dozen. All total I've made 14 dozen potato pyrohy and 6 dozen sauerkraut ones, but only reaping the benefit of 10 dozen potato ones. I'm debating if I need to make another batch of potato ones, but I really think I have enough. It's not the only thing we're eating. We're also having our traditional mushroom soup and balbaki (little dough balls with either poppy seed or sauerkraut).  A very filling meal. Some of us will fill up on soup.
I just chopped 10 packages of mushrooms and froze them for the soup. One of the things I love about this meal is everything can be made ahead and frozen. Of course, there's a lot of last minute preparation also. The pyrohy have to be boiled and fried with onions, the soup has to be made with potatoes and zaprashka  (a thickening made with butter and flour and browned to the color and consistency of peanut butter some people call it a rue).  The balbaki have to be steamed and then mixed with butter, poppy seed, honey & sugar, or butter and sauerkraut. If you over steam them they turn to mush. You bring a big pot of water to a boil and throw the dough balls in. Pretty much you push them down to make sure they're all in the water and then you drain them immediately.
I still have to make the balbaki. Usually I'd make them by now, but my freezer doesn't have room for them, so I'll wait until next week to make them. I think I'll have to make 3 batches of 6 cups of flour  each or maybe 2 and half - one batch being 9 cups of flour.
Needless to say all this prepartion and cooking has kept me extremely busy, but it's also brought back memories also. Memories of my early years and my mom baking and preparing for this special meal. Memories of my the years when I first started preparing it for my own family.
It was always a family affair. I remember so well helping my mom make the balls. She made the dough and after it rose, she'd take a section and roll it between her hands like a long skinny snake. Then she'd cut them into bite-size pieces and we'd roll them into balls and put them in the pan. After they baked, she turned them out onto a clean sheet on the dining room table. We'd take turns taking the pan and emptying it. Of course, we always grabbed a couple to eat. Nothing better than warm bread straight from the oven. We listened to Christmas music and sang as we baked. It was a fun time. However, if you dropped three of the balls while you were shaping them, you were out. I think my brothers always dropped three on purpose.
Back then my uncle, aunt, and cousins came to Christmas Eve dinner and then we went to visit my grandparents. Christmas Day we always spent with my uncle, aunt and cousins. Yes, the same ones from the night before. We followed the same tradition for years. Until two of my brothers and sisters married. Then we didn't have dinner with my uncle any more. For several years we had dinner with my parents, but it got to be too much for them. My sisters and I started preparing it for our own families and my parents usually had one of my brothers' families for dinner. After dinner, we gathered at either my house or one of my siblings to celebrate Christmas. Christmas day, we always went to my in-laws.
Now our parents are gone and we celebrate with our own families. My brothers, sister and I have carried on the tradition of getting together Christmas Eve. One brother and sister are gone now and we miss them dearly. Next year another of my brothers is bowing out as he has a place in Florida and will be celebrating Christmas there. It'll only be my younger sister and youngest brother (he's older than I am, but he's the youngest of the three boys). It won't quite be the same, but we'll continue the tradition for as long as we can.
It'll still be my favorite time of year.
To all of you, I wish you a blessed and Merry Christmas.

A Visit from J.Q. Rose and Lauren Staab

Hi Roseanne. Hello Readers.

I’m sorry I can’t be with you at the blog today because I need to run out to buy Halloween candy for about the fourth time this year. Somehow, no matter where I hide the candy, it disappears before

Halloween.

I’ll be in a mess of pumpkin guts and seeds today as I carve those jack-o-lanterns for Saturday night. Fortunately Lauren Staab, the main character in my new mystery/romance, Deadly Undertaking, volunteered to take my place.  Books We Love just released the e-book this month. I’m so excited to have Lauren introduce the story to you on Roseanne’s blog and kick-off the book launch. Thanks so much, Roseanne.

No trick here, but certainly a treat for me to have Roseanne visiting my blog today. Because Roseanne is working on her Halloween costume, her character, Beatrice Lulu, from her new e-book. All’s Well That Ends Well, jumped at the opportunity to get her nose into my blog. You’re invited to come on over to the J.Q. Rose blog after visiting here. Thank you.

Link to J.Q. Rose blog http://www.jqrose.com/2015/10/meet-roseanne-dowells-character.html

Now, here’s Lauren’s story:

No waaaay. No way did I ever imagine I would be suspected of killing a man. And in my own home

town of Mayfield, Michigan! Everybody knows me in my small town where I grew up. Everybody knows my family too because my dad’s the funeral director in town. Well, yes there’s Swartz Funeral Home, but they don’t do good work. My dad’s reputation is flawless, known for his integrity, caring, and putting out bodies that look better dead than they did alive.

Oh, excuse me, I should introduce myself. My name is Lauren Staab. My dad is Jensen Staab, owner of the Staab and Blood Funeral Home. He’s the one who found the dead man in our garage. He was lying sprawled out between the funeral coach and our black SUV we use for delivering flowers to the cemetery. Dad yelled at me to call 9-1-1. I wish I’d just called the number and never raced out to the garage to see the crime scene. I can’t erase the grisly view from my brain.

When I called 9-1-1 and told the operator the emergency was at Staab and Blood Funeral Home, she accused me of making a prank call after I said, “There’s a dead body in our garage.”

That was only the beginning of the most horrific time in my life, but also the most wonderful time in my life. At the same time my father, brother, and I were suspects in the murder, I re-connected with Gary Applegate. Gary was always there for me when I was in high school helping me with my trigonometry homework. He had just returned to Mayfield, too and joined the police department. I thought we could team up to find the killer, but he’d have none of that. We did get together for other reasons though, and that led to another kind of partnership, for life.

Henry, the shadow man, who regularly visited me, whether I wanted him to or not, knew all along that Gary and I were meant for each other. I hate to admit he was right. I mean, really, would you take love advice from a ghost?

# # #

Back of the Book: Deadly Undertaking by J.Q. Rose

Lauren Staab knew there would be dead bodies around when she returned home. After all, her family is in the funeral business, Staab and Blood Funeral Home. Still, finding an extra body on the floor of the garage between the hearse and the flower car shocked her. Lauren’s plan to return to her hometown to help care for her mother and keep the books for the funeral home suddenly turns upside down in a struggle to prove she and her family are not guilty of murdering the man. But will the real killer return for her, her dad, her brother? Her mother’s secrets, a killer, a handsome policeman, and a shadow man muddle up her intention to have a simple life. Welcome home, Lauren!

Buy Links

Books We Love Bookstore http://store.payloadz.com/go/?id=2395820

Books We Love has a BOGO special going on right now for a a limited time. Buy one book, and get another one of the same price or less for FREE.

Amazon http://amzn.to/1Lu6GxI

About J.Q.

After writing feature articles in magazines, newspapers, and online magazines for over fifteen years, J.Q. Rose entered the world of fiction. Her published mysteries are Sunshine Boulevard, Coda to Murder, and Deadly Undertaking. Blogging, photography, Pegs and Jokers board games, and travel are the things that keep her out of trouble. She and her husband, Gardener Ted spend winters in Florida and summers up north camping and hunting toads, frogs, and salamanders with her four grandsons and granddaughter.

Connect with J.Q. Rose online at:

J.Q. Rose blog http://www.jqrose.com/

Facebook http://facebook.com/jqroseauthor

Google+ google.com/+JQRose

J. Q.  Rose Amazon Author Page http://tinyurl.com/aeuv4m4

Pinterest http://pinterest.com/janetglaser/

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Inside Books We Love: HAVE YOU CHECKED OUT THE LATEST BOOKS WE LOVE NEW ...: HAVE YOU CHECKED OUT THE LATEST BOOKS WE LOVE NEW RELEASES.  VISIT HTTP://BOOKSWELOVE.NET  AND CLICK THE NEW RELEASES LINK.  EACH OF THESE N...

Available Now - Book 2 in the Family Affair Series

I’m Beatrice Lulu Eberhardt. Some of you know me from my niece Callie Johnson. Callie’s the new Chief of Police of our little town and I first appeared in her book, All in the Family.

Callie doesn’t know it, but she’s my favorite. I annoyed her  sometimes because I tried to fix her up with a nice young man, well several nice young men. I didn’t want her ending up an old maid like I almost was. If Ed hadn’t come along – well I shudder to think what my life would have been like. Callie didn’t much care for any of the men I introduced her to. Praise God, she finally met a nice young man on her own.

But that’s neither here nor there. This story isn’t about Callie. It’s about me. That’s

right, me and pretty much no one else. I’m a bit of a sleuth. Some call me nosy or a busy body, but honestly, I’m only trying to help. I don’t mean to interfere.

It all started when Ed and I bought a cabin. It’s a beautiful place with its own lake. Ed loves to fish. We thought it would be fun to have a place just for us, away from everyone. You may not remember I’m from a large, crazy family. Crazy in a fun-loving way, of course. So Ed and I wanted a place to relax, not that it’s turned out that way. We’re seldom alone. Guess it’s because we genuinely like people. So now days when we go up there, someone always comes along. Usually Ethel and her husband, Greg. Ethel’s my sister, by the way. I have two other sisters, also – Charlotte, we call her Lottie,  and Lillian. Lillian is Callie’s mother, and we have a brother, Clyde, but we don’t see him as often.

Anyway, we bought the cabin and Ed and I went up there to clean it up. No one had been in it for years. Cobwebs filled more than the corners I’ll tell you that. It was going to take days, if not weeks, to clean it. But Ed promised we could fix it up and Ed never breaks a promise. That’s one of the things I love about him.

So there we were looking around, deciding what to do, and Ed decided to build a fire to take the chill and damp out of the air. The place smelled musty, the way empty houses smell after being locked up for a long time.

Well there I was, thinking about where to start when I heard a strange clattering noise. I thought Ed fell or something. I turned around and lying on the fireplace hearth was an arm – well what was left of the arm, bones and tattered flannel from a shirt, I assume. Although I’ve been told never to assume anything.

If you want to know what happens next you’ll have to read about it in All’s Well That Ends Well soon to be released from Books We Love.

If you haven’t read All in the Family – Book 1 of the Family Affair series, you can find it and all my books at Books We Love. Just click on the book and it’ll take you to the buy page. They're also available from Amazon and other markets.