JustaKrusen/ Mrsjustakrusen

“God promises a safe landing, but not a calm passage” ( a Bulgarian Proverb) Hmm, that is a cool thought, and how true it is through life’s journey. Personally the passage has been anything but calm,anything but predictable , anything but fun at times.

Hurt and betrayal have reared their ugly faces more then once, death and loss of friendships, loved one who have turned away. Life is not easy. But it is worth it. TO feel the love from someone who really cares, to have a person look forward to seeing you again, to smell the fresh cut lawn, to watch a patch of dirt grow to a plentiful garden, to see you child grow into an adult, to witness the miracle of life, to share in the blessings of love, there is so much life has to offer, that I am like the drop of dew, I hang on and work to be the strongest I can be, the best I can be.

I am not wealthy, I have not exorbitant things, I do not require a lot, and do not ask for much. I am me, I think I am an okay person, I am me. I am strong , I am shy, I.. am me… and the thought of the safe landing is so comforting to me. May you find strength, peace and the blessings that life can bring. Love, CIndy

“There is none so blind,

as he who can not see. We must not close our minds;we must let our thoughts be free.”Courtesy of “edithosb.blogspot.com”

It is hard to keep my mind op

en to different opportunities and ways. I am the kinda person, that if I lived alone, I would go to work, come home and probably live the life of a hermit.

Even though MR Justa does not see it all the time,

he does make me whole. His existence drives my existence. I am because of him. He cherishes me for who and what I am, without demands, without stipulations. He is wise and has a sense of knowing that he does not share, but it will flow out in his words and actions at times. If I was alone, I would be a more intense creature of habit then I am right now. I would get up at the same time every day, pack the same 2 choices for lunch, drive the same path to work, return home and here I would be. He encourages me to be a variety of things.

When I was raising my son,

he kept me grounded, kept my sights on success, he encouraged my staying put and not running from the heartache of divorce. He made me become something more. He has not idea he did that, but he did. I can not imagine life without him. And even now, he has become an incredible friend, at times a strong shoulder to lean, and a listener, and someone I can never do enough for, and would not know how to live without.

My job also forces me to be more open minded

then I would be if I was not in management. I really long, at times, for the days where I would go to work, know what my job was, try to do it well, stay out of the way of the boss, help co-workers, and go home when through. Now I know people avoid telling me things, avoid really getting close , cuz I am the boss. I know that it is supposed to be that way, but it is not always a nice place to be.

My life seems to be full of surprises,

never really can plan anything, because things never come out as I thought they would. Life has been good to me and not so good too. It is hard to keep an open mind, but it is so important. Looking at this picture, the branches are speaking to me, they are reaching out. The hanging branches in the center look like the tree is making a swing . And to the right about mid way, a ledge on which one could rest.

The tree is saying to stretch beyond the mundane and reach for the clouds, for the potentials that we do not know we have. So my wish for you is to do just that, don’t get caught in the doldrums of every day routine. Look beyond, reach farther then you thought you could, and never close your mind. Love to all, Mrs Justa

Now tell me he does not look comfy! This is Brandon, our new grandson. We have not yet been formally introduced, cuz the lil guy came into the world 6 wks early. But here he is. He may get out of the intensive care area next week, but we are not sure. Jeff and Amanda are going up to see him as much as they can. He was born this past Tuesday.

So now we are Mr and Mrs Granjusta I guess. Life is so precious, babies are such a blessing, and life is so very unpredictable. I am working on some cloth books that I am trying to bring back to life right now, Jeff had washed them and they got a little misshapen, So I am off to be grandma repairing the babies books.

But I wanted to do a quick blog- to show you our new member to our family 🙂

Mom and dad are good, and Brandon.. he will be just fine. Love always, Mrs Justa

Day one of my journey and Satan did not win! Yesterday I got up with the intention of biking, but made it only to about 5 feet next to the bike, and I turned around. It is easy to find other things to do.  But I took the challenge,  I hopped on this bike, in my jammies this morning and rode for 15 minutes. It was about 5:20, so I did not have a really long time, but it did feel good. I will shoot for tomorrow and the tread mill:) It was a good feeling, tough, but good. Work is chaotic right now , to say the least, so I think the extra working out will help the stress level.

I am probably going to try to alternate every day for now. And I am thinking about trying to walk the whole road we live this weekend. That has gotta be about a 2 – mile adventure.

I came home tonight and my blood work results were back from my MD appointment last week, all within normal limits. So I am going to forge forward, while I am still healthy enough to, to make myself more healthy. And heck, I am going to be a grandma in about 6 weeks! I do not want to be the fat grandma with the big chest! God has blessed me with many things, and one thing is the ability to control certain parts of my life. And for now at least, exercise is in my hands, another blessing I have been given.

We did have a membership to the gym, but with this move, and our tightening of our budget, and the extra 16 miles round trip to the gym, we did cancel it. But heck, I have those hand weight, a floor for sit ups, a thigh master ( that is a little weird to use !) a bike and treadmill and a road to walk on, an acre to mow, I think there is plenty of opportunity to work out.

I will bring my camera and see what there is to shoot photos of on my journey up the road. I am also going to update some photos of the landscaping outside, I think it looks pretty good for folks on a very tight budget. There is so many things we drive by that we see but do not absorb, walking makes me appreciate things that go unnoticed as I drive the car.

I do love it here, it is quiet, it is spacious, it is home. I can’t wait till Mr Justakrusen can enjoy it too 🙂

May you each find a place that brings you comfort, whether it be a house, an apartment, a room, it makes no difference, it is a place that is for relaxing, it can be a park bench, or a lounge chair, a tub, just somewhere to take time for you, each of us deserve that. Love, Cindy— Mrs justa.

This is a recipe that was pretty good, it kinda looks weird in this photo, but it was good. It is using a prepared bread dough- the frozen kind, you thaw it in the frigdge over night, then roll it out to a rectangle. You make a meatloaf and use cheezewhiz in the meat mixture, and form the meatloaf, place in the center of the bread dough, , slit the end of the bread dough so that when you wrap it around the meatloaf you weave the slits together, then paint with 1 egg and 3 T water mixture and bake it. The juices from the meat mixture and the dough, it really came out pretty good.

My meatloaf mix is made with bread crumbs, a diced small onion, about 1/4 cup milk and ketchup mixed together with 1 egg, blend all together with the meat. I like to use ground turkey with lean hamburg , it is not real greasy then.

Serve this with a next salad some Iced tea or water. Umm Umm good.

I thought I would share this with you tonight, it really is a great way to make meatloaf an interesting meal

Enjoy, Until tomorrow, Love Mrs Justa

When night is about to fall I find it intriguing, for all the color of buildings and scenery goes to be one color, shades of gray.(courtesy of www.pbase.com) It opens my mind to imagine the world in my own mind, what ever colors I want it to be. It makes our older car look new, for all we see is the shine in the areas the paint has not oxidized. It makes houses that are in need of painting look newer. It opens my mind to reflect on the day, to be awed by the colors of the sky as it fights to stay lit.

Evening is a time to sit on a park bench and watch the color show in the sky, to feel the air change its thickness, to reflect on the day gone by, to plan for the new day that is hours away. It is as if God is covering this part of the world for a nights sleep.

There is a lake north of us , it is neat to go to the water and watch the sun set, the water stills, like a piece of glass, every once in a while a slap of the hands of the water on the shore.

We have a fire pit that we sometimes grab some wood from a store and sit around it as the dusk turns to darkness, we sit around the fire pit and watch the flames as they tease one another, as they find paths to take to make the logs burn in various patterns, it is not the same to watch the fire in the day- I need the dusk. The crackle of the wood, the different colors, the smell of a wood burning fire, oh yes, I am lost and intrigued by days end.

I feel I live a hard day, every day, and after the darkness settles, and night is embracing me, my favorite time come, when I crawl under the covers, kiss my honey good night, and nestle my head in my pillow, drift off to sleep.

Good night to all, Love Mrs Justa—-

Okay , so now I will sound like my grand parents or my parents. Back in 1971, ( yes there were cars back then) I borrowed $500.00 from my older brother and his wife and bought my first car. It was a 1965 checker limousine, I kid you not. This was an old airport limousine taxi that was sold to me from Magari’s Sunoco station –  I painted ( with spray paint) over the “airport” and changed it to the Smiling Limousine. I had yellow on the doors and then I painted big smiley faces, one in the trunk and one on the hood.

In the inside there was a seat in the way back, a folding seat in the middle that folded forward , a middle seat that folded up and a hug bouncy bench seat in the front. It’s back door swung open the length of 2 doors, and you could fold the middle seat up so that one could sit in the way back seat and stretch your legs way out. The floor space was actually big enough that I used to say I would put a water bed in it.

Oh I loved that car, on the ceiling I had posters, and I would have sticks of incense cranked in the windows. I would sometimes pick up 10 to 12 friends, and we would go to a place called the Scene East in Syracuse and dance till the lights went out. I was the designated driver- so to speak, so I would dance but stay sober.

Oh what fun we have in our days of first cars. This car had a personality, it had a sense of affection, it was filled with memories and senses of wonder. I was a good girl, had platonic relationships, that made life fun. Getting intimately involved with guys was just not the thing to do, because once it went to intimacy than it became a commitment . It was so much fun to have fun, and just enjoy each other. No strings except the ties of friendships.

It was a good time, back in the 70’s. I earned $1.35 per hr as a waitress, and paid my brother back $25.00 a week.

But ya know what, I loved that car, loved that my brother trusted me to borrow the money, and loved my life.

I hope this brings out some happy memories to you too. Love, Mrs Justa

     (courtesy of www.abundance-and-happiness.co)  Have you ever looked elsewhere to find happiness? Have you ever changed where you live to find peace? Have you ever changed jobs because you felt you were being treated poorly? Have you ever made any change only to find the problem surfaces again?

Sometimes before we are too quick to change the scenery we are in, maybe we need to look into our own selves to see if that is not what needs changing.

I have run from things only to find where I ended up the problem was still there. People have a variety of addictions , to comfort, to take them away from what is troubling them, but on the other side of the addictive behavior the problem will show its ugly face again.

Back when I was in 1st  grade, I remember I told a lie. My dads birthday was here, and at 7 years old I had no money to buy him much. We used to get pennies and we could walk down to the 5 & dime store and buy penny candy or packages of “hot toothpicks”. But I wanted to get my dad a nice card. So I stole it from the 5 and dime. I wrote something in my 7 yr old handwriting and at his birthday party, I gave him the card. Immediately all adult eyes were staring at me, asking me where I got the card from, I looked at my dad and cried saying I just wanted to give him a special card. Well he had me go to that store with him the next day and he called the owner over and told me I had to tell him what I had done. I remember crying and shaking as I confessed to this man that I stole a card for my dad from him. My dad made me give the man back the money for the card.
The owner pretended to be angry with me at first, but then he praised me for confessing to him what I did wrong.

Later that night I remember my mom saying that if I continued to steal and tell lies that we would have to move from where we lived, because no one ever believes a liar again. At the young age of 7

, I had to soul search and think about moving, which I did not want to do. I also did not want people to not trust me.

As I look back now, if we had moved, I still would have been a liar and a thief. Who knows how that could have continued to grow and spin me into some direction in my life far from where I have ended up. It would have been wrong to move away, and try to start over, for I never would have dealt with the wrong.

Is there anything that you have not faced, that you are running away from? It is time to face it. For by doing that you will feel a freshness of a new place, while you are still at the place you are at right now. Peace to all, Mrs Justa

“The impersonal hand of the government can never replace the helping hand of a neighbor.” (Hubert Humphrey)(courtesy of www.sw.org) How true this is. There is nothing warm , compassionate or caring about the hand of the government. It is sharp and so uncaring.

When we were trying to dot all the “i”s and cross all the “t”s to get this place inspected and approved, there was no compassion. No understanding that we have jobs during the day and can not spend time chasing our tails trying to please the government rules and regulations.

If one is disabled- the amount of flips and jumps one has to go through to be acknowledged as such is insane!

If someone screws around with your credit- try to clear that up. There is no helping hand in government. But the true compassion is in our neighbors. I do not know anyone here yet, it feels like I am an outsider. When we moved into the park, the woman across the street brought us water to drink while we were moving in. That is a true neighbor. We gave to each other and never counted who did what. When she moved out, well life was not the same there .

Here it is like we are on an island, which is probably good right now, as Mark battles the depression. It is weird though,

what happened to the welcome wagon of yesteryear, where you got a basket with hints of places in the area, services available and neighbors names . I liked times then much better then now. People need people- but no one seems to know that anymore.

Be good to your neighbors, and your family and friends, for people do need each other. Love, Mrs Justa.