Full Circle

You know you've fulfilled your life's ambition when your kids start putting YOUR art on THEIR refrigerator! 

I Think Husband is Getting Bored.....

Yeah, I think he's getting a little bored with this lock down.

No more Home Depot 'runs'.....nothing really needs to be fixed around the house. The trees and plants are trimmed to within an inch of their lives.......you get the picture.

So, he decided to try and 'capture' some live yeast to make sourdough bread. He makes all of our bread but he uses commercial yeast. And luckily we still have some. But for the day we don't MR. Always Prepared decided to experiment.

Apparently it's a successful experiment. So much so it's starting to take over the kitchen counter!

AND.....he's named it! 

'Foamy'

Seems appropriate to me. 

Maybe this will take his mind off getting that puppy he's been talking about lately......(he talks to Foamy all the time so maybe, we'll see.)

Sometimes I Miss Being A ‘Mommy’

Ah, but you still are I hear you say. No, I’m not…..I’m a ‘mom’ not a ‘mommy’.

There’s a difference.

Don’t get me wrong, I love my adult kids! I love being able to talk to them on an equal level. To make inappropriate jokes and talk about deep, albeit sometimes, ridiculous ideas.

But I miss some of the things that came with being a ‘mommy’. Even when it was a pain in the ass. 

Juggling all the things that had to be done. Feeling frazzled with a full time job, doing chores and errands, keeping up with the housework, making sure the husband didn’t feel neglected, caring for parents with medical issues.

Sometimes, just when I thought I couldn’t do it for another minute, one of the boys would take a running leap into my arms from across the room and strangle me with a bear hug that would literally knock me off my feet.

My heart would swell to three times its size! (just like the Grinch!)

And THAT was when I knew it was worth all of it. The exhaustion, the missed dates with Husband, the dust on the furniture, the toys scattered from the front door to the back…..ALL of it.

And sometimes I miss it.

(Trying out different styles of illustration....don't think I like this style....)

We Also Put Up The Christmas Tree

While the boys were here we put up the Christmas tree. 

We don't usually put it up this early but they were here and I wanted the help.......lol.

 Over the years we've added things. 

Last year Husband indicated he thought the tree should have some tinsel. 

(Icicles to normal people, {we argue about the name every year!})

He said it should have ONE piece and we'd call it 'tinse'. 

I went overboard and added seven!

Of course it has to have the star I made out of cardboard and aluminum foil for our first Christmas together. 

And this year we added LIGHTS! 

Now it's even more perfect!

And a Good Time Was Had by All

....especially ME!
I would have taken a picture of the table but.....we served buffet style plus I plain forgot! LOL

And of course I forgot to take a picture of the 'aftermath'. 

But, you all know what it looks like......

The BIG  news is THIS!

(I apologize for the quality of the video but I was excited to show off, lol.)

The boys got me a new computer. Son1 BUILT it! With a HUGE monitor and kick ass speakers! (I get the new mouse and keyboard later.) 

But LOOK at the fancy lights in the case!!!!! They change colors! 

And the speakers ROCK! 

I didn't know I missed listening to music so much. 

Plus now I can actually hear the classes I sign up for without having to hunch over the desk and cup my hand to my ear like an old lady (no comments from the peanut gallery, BigBro!)

♪♫♪♫♪♫ Heaven.....I'm in heaven.......♪♫♪♫♪♫

BEST SONS EVER! 

I’m 66 Years Old and……

My mother is still helping me with my spelling!

It’s no secret I am a world class failure when it comes to spelling. I always have been. (Thank goodness for spell check!)

When I was in elementary school and had to learn weekly spelling words my mother used to help me. She’d use anything she could to help me remember how to spell each word. Visualization, associations, repetition, but mostly a form of mnemonics.

She would come up with a way to pronounce the words I was having trouble with. And it would cement it into my memory forever.

Apparently it worked!

I have trouble with repeating letters for some reason. Does ‘tomorrow’ have two M’s or two R’s? I could never remember. To this day whenever I have to spell tomorrow I hear her in my head saying, “Spell tomo-RRRR-ow” as she would repeat the R sound several times so I would know it was a double R not a double M!

I might have spell check now but I also have a fond memory that makes me smile every single time I spell tomorrrrrrrow!

Thanks mom!

Frank is Home

(banana for scale)

(Sorry for the blurry pics, they didn't enlarge well.)

Looks like Staples did a pretty good job.

The boys are satisfied.

Whew!

Always Being Helpful

Husband is always being helpful.

I’ve been asking him to bring home a piece of driftwood for the front garden when he goes fishing. He says he sees them all over the little beaches and islands as he fishes.

I think it would make a nice statement in the garden and be a ‘no maintenance’ garden with some air plants.

It’s been over a year since I asked and just yesterday (grinning from ear to ear) he said, “I finally got you that driftwood you’ve been asking me for!” and handed me this:

He is always being so helpful! 

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA……..

Gratitude.....

....good food, good company, perfect weather! 

 

One of my favorite places with my favorite people! Fins @ Venice Beach with my 'boys'! 

Paradise! :D

♪♫♪♫♪♫ Memories ♪♫♪♫♪♫

I was mindlessly playing with the multi colored colored pencils. Just laying down swatches of color to see what they'd look like. Seeing how they blended. Wondering how I could use them. As the page began to fill up it reminded me of a story my mother used to tell......

When I was two years old I was in the hospital. Family lore has it my lungs collapsed. Although I doubt that, I do know it was some sort of breathing problem. They put me in a crib with an oxygen tent over it. My mother told me how lucky I was, I was the only little girl with my own 'house' in the whole hospital! Yeah, right.....snort. I did like the bucket of ice chips at the foot of the crib though. I liked to eat them.
I have very shady memories of what happened. But I do remember Dr. Newhart giving me a coloring book and a brand new box of crayons. I was disappointed it wasn't the 64 sized box, but it was still a brand new box of fresh, pointy Crayolas.
And I remember thinking how babyish the coloring book was.
So instead, I decided to color the crib sheet. It was a pristine white sheet just perfect for my masterpiece!
My mother says by the time she got back from the cafeteria with her cup of coffee I had scribbled over the entire crib sheet. Not one single speck of white was left showing. And I had quite a bit of crayon all over me too.
I remember feeling very proud of myself and of my masterpiece. I couldn't understand why no one else was impressed. Or why the nurse came in and changed the sheet on my crib.
Or why, after that, my mother never left my side........day or night..........

I wonder if it looked anything like this.....

On This Date In History......

HAPPY BIRTHDAY FIRST BORN!

Enjoy your special day! 

Another Year, Another Celebration!

(Each and every one of those pixels is YOU through the years!)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BABY BOY!

Enjoy your special day! 

Husband’s Little Outboard

Husband has had this little outboard motor since he was a kid. It originally had a boat it went on and he used to play with it in the local lake. The plastic boat is long gone but the motor is metal and well made. It still works after all these years! He finally got ‘around to’ building a little stand for it so we can display it.

I’ve always thought it was adorable, so of course I had to draw it!

Once Upon a Time......

Once upon a time…..

There was a little boy in second grade who didn’t like his teacher. The teacher was a young man who really didn’t want to be teaching second graders. What he really wanted to do was coach high school football. But in order to do that he had to agree to teach the second grade.

This teacher didn’t really have the temperament for second graders…..especially the exasperating ones, which is what this particular second grader was.  

It was a recipe for disaster.

One day, at story time, as the teacher was reading a book to the class he turned the page and the exasperating boy asked him to show the illustration again because he didn’t see it. The teacher said the little boy didn’t see it because he wasn’t paying attention. So the little boy did the only thing a second grader could under the circumstances…..he called him STINKYHEAD! (out loud in front of the whole class!)

The parents were called to the principal’s office, words were exchanged, the little boy was indignant, the parents apologized.

At home the parents tried to explain to the boy that he must learn to show respect to the teacher even if he didn’t mean it. (They MIGHT have had a harder time trying to explain why the teacher didn’t have to show respect for the boy, but I digress…..)

The boy apologized to the teacher in front of the class the very next day but it was too late….the teacher now treated the boy with even less respect and heaped more work on him than the others in the class.

It was a long year…….

But finally it was over and the last day of school came, along with the field day the school held each year to celebrate.

There were rides and games and food and fun and at THIS particular field day they added something new…..a dunking tank. And who do you think was chosen to be the dunkee????? That’s right boys and girls…..STINKYHEAD! (to this day I’m not sure if it was providence or the principles directive.......)

Now, field day was always a popular event at the school but the turnout for THIS particular one was phenomenal! And the MOST popular booth was the dunking tank. The line was so long it wrapped around the building.

It might have had something to do with the fact that I was at the end of that line (grinning from ear to ear) handing out free tickets!!

Re-Run

A good story is worth repeating.........

Ghosts of Christmas Past

I learned a lot about interpersonal relationships from watching my parents interact with their parents. 

It was a far better learning experience than any college psychology course I ever took.

My father called his parents Mother and Dad. It was all very formal and polite. As were all dealings with his side of the family.

On the other hand, my father called my mother’s parents Mom and Pop. Things were much less formal in my mother’s parent’s home. They were always laughing and joking and had a twinkle in their eyes. (And Grandma always looked suspiciously like Mrs. Santa Claus to me!)

But I digress….

My father was always respectful to his parents but I got the feeling he didn’t exactly believe in the things they taught him. (They were quite the bigots, among other things.)

I only saw my father show anger towards either of them once.

It was Christmas Eve. I was five or six. I was excited beyond measure.

It was CHRISTMAS EVE and MY GRANDPARENTS WERE VISITING.

I was having a really hard time getting to sleep. I kept coming downstairs to tell my parents I couldn’t sleep (probably every five minutes.) My mother would gently scoot me back into bed and try and calm me down.

On my last trip downstairs to say I couldn’t sleep my Grandmother lost her patience and yelled at me, “Santa is NEVER going to come! You’re a BAD little girl! You’ll never get ANY presents EVER! Now go to sleep! (She never pulled any punches!)

I was so stunned I actually backed up against the wall. I couldn’t have been more surprised if she had slapped me!

My father was across the living room when she yelled at me and in the blink of an eye he was at his mother’s side.

He grabbed her upper arm, spun her around and with daggers in his eyes said; ‘Don’t EVER talk that way to MY children. EVER AGAIN!

I was agog.

I had never seen my father do anything remotely like that before.

Have I mentioned that my father was the MOST non-violent person I have ever known in my life? He didn’t even believe in spanking us, so for him to actually grab Grandma in anger was beyond anything I’d ever known him to do.

In later years I think I came to know why he was the way he was.

Growing up all I ever knew of my father’s parents was what a milquetoast Grandpa was. How Grandma emasculated him. How she was always picking on him and belittling him in front of people.

Then my father told me a story that happened when he was sixteen. His parents were having a fight and Grandpa hit Grandma.

Yup, Grandpa used to beat Grandma up on a regular basis. My father decided he’d had enough. So on this particular occasion, as Grandpa raised his hand to hit Grandma my father stepped between the two of them and said, “Don’t you hit my mother!”

To his great surprise and amazement it was his MOTHER who turned on him and said, “Don’t you ever come between your father and me again!”

He was shocked that he was being berated for trying to help her. And he said he never tried to intervene again.

I think that was a very formative point in his life.

And I could understand why he was such a pacifist.

And Then We.....

After we had stuffed ourselves with turkey and all the fixins' and it was just the four of us I announced we were going to set up and decorate the Christmas tree! You should have seen the look of horror on their faces! LOL Son1 asked, "The BIG tree?" Eyes wide as saucers (and not in the good, childlike, Santa's coming way.....)
I pulled out a plastic bag, handed it to him and said, "Here, you have the honor!"

The star, ball and tinsel were even still on it from last year! 

We are now officially decorated for Christmas! 

And a Good Time Was Had by All

It was a little nerve wracking. First time using the new oven....with the automatic probe.....which claimed to cook your turkey to the perfect temperature and then turn off the oven.

So.....bright and early we got up, stuffed the bird, inserted the probe and put him in the oven. The instructions said to set the desired temperature of the probe and then the temp for the oven.

 So far, so good. 

Then we went about our business but kept an eye on the oven. The probe temperature went up quite quickly. Too quickly we thought....and we began to worry. At that rate the turkey would be done by ten AM! Oh no! We told everyone dinner would be served at 1:30-ish.......

But in the end it all worked out and dinner was on the table at the prescribed time. Whew.....

And it was the BEST turkey ever! 

(Just for clarification.....we say that every year! LOL)

Husband Makes Art

Abstract sculptures! 

I have competition. LOL

Back To School

It’s back to school season in my corner of the world.

Which makes me think of this day…......and how I still feel guilty for telling him school was going to be FUN!

So happy and excited.......

Reality has set in......

(if I recall correctly, we had a hell of a time getting him to go back the next day....)

I’m Not Lost, YOU’RE Lost

When Son2 was little he had the annoying (and frustrating, and SCARY) habit of wandering away from us when we were in public. To the point where both Husband and I would hold onto his wrist with a death grip. 

We initiated this practice the MINUTE after he dashed out of the limousine and into the crowd to see the Christmas tree in Rockefeller Plaza……giving his mother a heart attack!

We would try and give him a little freedom where we thought it would be safe.

One such place/occasion was when we went to Barnes & Noble bookstore. How much trouble could he get into in a bookstore I reasoned? I would deposit him in the kids section and tell him I would be in arts and crafts if he needed me. A short time later I went to look for him but he wasn’t in the kids section anymore.

Being used to his meandering I wasn’t worried. I started to look for him. I looked in the café, no Son2….I looked in the magazine section…..no Son2…..this particular store had a magic section so I looked there….nope….no kid……

I went back to the arts and crafts section thinking he went there to find me and that’s when I heard over the loudspeaker: “Will Son2’s mother please come to the information desk. He says you’re lost.”

LOL

I had to laugh because of course HE wasn’t lost, I was!

When I got to him he was upset and mad at ME for not being where I said I would be!

I think he finally got the point though because after that he didn’t seem to wander quite so far or so often……